Seether Geezer

  F riday, we set off for our day at Aftershock.  Between hotel reservations, tickets for Ace of Spades on my phone, parking and upgrades, Aftershock tickets which are wristbands, health checks (paper wristbands), locker payment (printed sheet) and locker wristband, old enough to drink wristband, I was having a bit of trouble keeping track of where everything was.  Paper?  Physical wristband?  Tickets on Ticketmaster? Downloaded somewhere on my phone? My wristbands on my wrist, my phone in my "brocket" (stuck in my bra, a friend came up with that one.)  My phone goes on the left, over my heart, to stop any stray bullets.  Physically inaccurate, but literarily poetic.  We part the truck and are immediately hit up by a man selling Aftershock t-shirts out of his car.  This will be a trend throughout the day. No, we don't want potentially fake Aftershock t-shirts, we really want to know if we are in the right parking lot or we are going to get to...

  N ow here's the real thing.  D id I ever tell you I'm known in my family for not being able to find my way out of a paper bag.  Now here's a great example.  We are driving down the freeway with the bossy Google Maps lady telling me (and showing me) where to go.  I got my husband helping the Google Lady tell me where to go.  I'm supposed to get off on the exit for Q street.  And I miss it.  Now, remember, I did a practice drive just yesterday.  Shit!  I missed the exit.  Google Maps Lady recalculates and tries to get me back to where I need to be.  Well, I should have made my destination the parking garage because she got me on R street, but it's one way and I can't turn that way. Shut up Google Maps Lady!  Now I got my husband.  "Where are you going?!"  "Don't go that way, it's one way the other way."  "Go!  You are holding up traffic."  "There's no one behind me!"  "There is now." Flipping ...

I keep getting emails to remind me I'm seeing Seether tonight.  How well they don't know me.  I've been anticipating this ever since I bought the tickets August 12th.  Like there is any way I'd forget to go.  We have tickets, fast lane and parking.  So, I was looking at tickets for The Hue and saw they were GA, General Admission standing only, and I though, hmm, weren't the Ace of Spades tickets GA?  Well, yes they are.  I emailed the venue essentially saying we are somewhat old and somewhat chubby and needed seats.  A very nice man named Michael set us up and now we can rest our older bones, sore knees and fat buts on the chairs.  All this is new to me, since before this year the last concert I went to was Sting in 1996. We were late, because I mistook the start time, and the venue was down a winding mountain highway that took forever to get to because everyone else was driving there too.  Heard the last song and were trapped for four h...

I  think I must have been a little melancholy yesterday or full of myself.  40,000 people at a festival.  That makes me 0.0025% of the day's population.  I will be caring about : 1. My husband.  Will his bad knee hold out walking around the festival. 2. Where is the closest bathroom. 3. Seeing Seether.   4. Listening to music that is Not Seether.  5. The 39,998 other people, where they are from, what tattoos, if any, they have so we can admire each other's artwork, what bands they like.  As Seether sings, "Cause nobody gives a fuck."  In this case, that's a good thing. When I'm coming home from the festival, that will be my fourth Seether concert in the last 6 weeks and my fourth Seether concert ever.  I've been following everyone's comments over the summer as you all comment on the shows,  " On my way to the Myrtle Beach Show last Thursday. THEY KICKED ASS!!" " Had a great time in Tampa. Seether was heavy." " I love them liv...

  Sacramento News & Review A small black speck, a cinder, floated down to my truck window as I sat waiting for the one lane only traffic to move driving off the mountain from Lake Tahoe.  I caught it and rubbed it between my fingers and it broke apart and smeared like ashes from a fireplace. We were shifted left and right across lanes all the way down to Placerville, about 60 miles,  and it was very clear why.  Back in Tahoe, the hotel lot was filled with emergency vehicles that were too tall to fit under the 6' 9" clearance for the underground garage.  All the firefighters that had come to fight the fires were sleeping in the hotel we were, and probably many others in the area.  I had rolled down my window to smell the pine trees and caught the fragrance of what smelled like incense until it intensified into smoke.  As we slowly moved in the line of traffic down the mountain, we could see workers shoring up the side of the hill with netting to kee...

Take It  * (to the tune of Fake It)                Good God, you're packing even more stuff                Good God, you're taking it all                   Good God, there's stores in  Sacramento                    The truck's all packed, so get in the truck don't you                    Take it, you don't really need that                    Take it, you can buy later on                    Take it, you're bringing too much crap                     Whoa, you're packing like an idiot.       I've been looking forward to thi...