Look out of my hedgerow, see the world passing by….. John Lodge
Tales of delight from Nashville, Greenville, and Hersheyland, USA
If you can't climb the mountain, fly over it
March 30, 2008: It’s been snowing here (interesting watching my hummingbirds dodge snowflakes!) My son’s car blew up, and his future Mother in law is a nag.. My family all worries me. I left my lab coat in Chemistry last week, wonder if I’ll ever get it back again. The baby quilts need more backing. My luggage is all worn out, pitiful. I may not last to April Fool’s Day, much less the Nashville date. I have a job fair next Wednesday. AARRHGHGHGHGGH I NEED A VACATION.
Everyone gets ready for Moody adventures in different ways. I’ve been on a diet kick lately, so I fell into "costumer mode" and started sorting every piece of clothing I own. Some went to the Good will, some is hanging on the sewing machine. Lots went in the washer. Etc. Combined Spring Cleaning along with Moody preparations. Ditched the dresses and the heels. (Egad not on the road!). Me mum wandered by and says succinctly "It’s hotter than f*ck where you’re going!" (Nashville). The good news is, as I tried on all the "possibles" I was delighted to find that losing 10 pounds put me right back into some cool levis, very nicely. It’s good to have a skinny butt again. Sadly, I can’t figure out how to get rid of the saggy tire at the middle, short of having a tuck or (gag) succumbing to a girdle. Being poor, I’ll just have to live with it in ignoble grace.
I’ve also had lots of time to get my jewelry in shape again. I found my old Moody Blue Watch (they actually sold these through the fan club in the 90's, and they are very quality work too, a pretty thing). I pulled it apart and get a new battery, it works again, hurrah! "Hippy chic" works again for jewelry, so I’ve been beading lately, and have some nice pieces put together, and I broke out the embroidery and sequins for the levis too. I might not look too bad once I hit Nashville! I’m TRYING to pack light, I really am. I once heard a story about an old lady who was traveling across Europe with nothing but some undergarments and a jersey dress she rinsed out at night, and put on again in the morning. ONE small purse-like bag. THAT is packing light.
Nashville! Ah that musical Mecca. I am really getting excited about this. So many things I want to see in the South, I could go on forever. This has been a long time coming. On line, the "monkeys are performing". I know that’s mean. It turns out that Justin’s daughter, Doremi has had her first baby, which is a wonderful thing. Naturally Justin is either busy, or has that thing where he successfully separates private and personal life, and unlike John Lodge (who a few weeks ago announced his Grand-daddy hood from stage) Justin has made no mention of said Blessed Event. I’ve never heard of Graeme or Ray doing so either, and further no fans giving a hoot on line.
But Justin, well he’s special to us all, and it turns out Doremi had the little spud a few months ago anyway. I do relate sorta: obviously there is a leak either at Coombe Hill (where Marie hangs about smartly and plays golf) or one of Justin’s family has blabbed to a fan, and that has leaked out to a few anal retentive types over on TER. My poor niece (worth a fortune) had her twins preemie, and while the Big Guy was off whacking homers, much emotionalism was going on behind the scenes. (Doremi couldn’t have had it any worse). Anyway my whole family closed ranks, and no mention of it went to the gabby Seattle press. But sometimes you just GOTTA tell someone, and I suspect that went on with Doremi’s baby event. (It’s the fans who think they are "special" because they were "in the know" that always give me a pain in the ass). Ah well leave it to the fan club to make mammoths out of mice. Normal life events, life goes on.
April 11, 2008: the vacation date grows nigh. You spell stress I-N-S-A-N-E…. The Moody boards are absolutely nuts. I hop between four of them (still trying to nail down the Justin solo event you KNOW is going to happen), sometimes lurking sometimes not. It’s Spring and the bitches are in heat. I keep flashing to the Sixth Sense and wondering if I should wear a bullet proof vest. No……. because that way the Terrorists win! With that dysfunctional thought firmly in place, now it’s time to pack for this Moody Sojourn!
Rumors of Justin playing the Bluebird abound…….. He might go to Tootsie’s instead, and sing "Cigareets and whuskey"……. who knows.
April 16: My nerves are through the roof, I hate flying, and I’m plotting how to get booze into my backpack. I’ve taken on GODZILLA again. But he DOES have wheels. He won’t split in the belly of the plane, like my lighter bag will. I will have a car, after all. I cut back and cut back…. Cameras, tee shirts, glow sticks, shoes, it all accumulates. I hate flying. I also hate running out of underwear. I just can’t pack light, no matter how hard I try.
April 17, 2008: The trip started with family dropping me at the air porter, the trip to SEATAC was uneventful. I hate flying. I always get there too soon (worry about delays), and have to stand around. SEATAC is very modern, they have a glass dome that is held together with metallic devices (cables) a bit like the old dirigibles. I watched the planes take off and land, and wished for the old days when I was young and sassy, running around a flight line, being free and playing with dangerous machines. Ah those were some times, hard work but alive and thrilling too.
I have a horrific fear of flying, but like Paul Atredies with his hand in the "box of pain" I overcame my instinct to RUN and bravely walked into the cattle chute, to the plane. The sweet beloved smell of jet fuel wafted over me, my stomach was sick with fear. Shoulda had an extra beer……. Bring on the wine coolers! We taxied out, the take off was smooth, as I put new indentations in the armrests. Turbulence over the mid west, hi anvils, thunderheads, bumpy rides. Flew over all sorts of geology, in places you could see the topsoil was rubbed away and the red soil beneath shown through (Colorado), Sometimes fault lines and old meteor impact craters suggested themselves. Snow over the Rockies, the Grand Canyon. Hey flying isn’t so bad once you get up there!
On the plane I read a great article in Ebony, (April 2008) actually about some of my family, included a photo of one of my cousins, Eli Grayson. Had to do with Black Indians, a current cultural movement. I know from the inside that a lot of registered Creeks and Cherokee ARE bigots about this, which is sad. And like White people, a lot of Blacks want to claim "Indians heritage", but don‘t have the legal right. The whole bottom line is, if you can’t establish relationship to someone registered as an INDIAN (not a Freedman) on the Dawes Roll of 1880, you can’t claim tribal membership to our nations. As the article put it too (very intelligently) "It’s not a cash cow to be a tribal member" it’s a matter of heritage. My family made the decision in 1880 to register with Dawes, because they were looking further down the road to their children’s children’s children. No complaints here, and sometimes it helps out. Anyway it makes interesting reading if you are into Indian stuff. (In the same vein, if you run across a book by Claudio Sant, the guy is a doit-bag, and we Graysons had to stop talking to him at some point, he really garbles things).
Four hours later I white knuckled onto the ground in Nashville, very happy to have that part of the trip over (it was train on the way back, much safer). Southwest flies on into Fort Lauderdale after Nashville, cut rate all the way, no food but peanuts. And I brought my own chicken sandwich in my knitting bag.