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10/6/00 - 10/8/00 - Weekend in Wells
Friday - 10/6/00 True to his word, Bruce Brown had me on a campground on Friday afternoon, recommending Outdoor World a few driveways down from the garage. First stopped at the Wine and Cheese store where I finally met the owner's son. "It's those eyes. Those big blue eyes," the owner insisted. And he was right. Chip off the old block, adorable and not too embarassed to learn that his father was once again trying to fix him up with any young woman who walked into the store.
To pay for the RV, I had to have the balance owed wired to me from New York City, borrowing it, of course, because my savings was wiped out from the deposit. And Bruce took me to the "Micro Mall" down the road, a tiny convenience store next to a gas station, that had Western Union. The money left my hands and the RV was returned to me, running. We settled into our site and were feeling pretty darn good about everything. The engine was purring, the RV was comfortable, the Pelonis ceramic heater I bought at Amazon.com was doing the trick, the Berts didn't seem too irritated. Had a cup of wine with dinner (didn't bring glasses so drank from a mug). Ah, this is the good life! Saturday - 10/7/00 Determined to be productive, I unhooked the RV the following morning and drove it to the laundromat to do some more laundry. Grabbed a pizza, then went back to the campsite and turned on the vaccuum cleaner. Spent the day cleaning, organizing, then on the computer. I'm trying to tap into a long dormant organizational gene that I know must be in there somewhere. Right next to the domesticity gene that is only now getting exercise with all the cooking I'm trying to do in the RV. Haven't cracked open "Joy of Cooking" yet, but it sure looks nice on the kitchen counter, just in case I need it. Sunday - 10/8/00 Decided to go to Ames, the big store next to the Shop N Save which I've seen up the East Coast. Couldn't find anything that I needed in it, but was overcome by an impulse buy. Cross-stitching kit! What? I think I accessed the wrong gene. I somehow got the wise idea that I was going to cross-stitch a bookmark with my RV on it and gathered up rust, brown, tan and creme colored threads to match the Apache's design. Went back to the Shop N Save for a few last minute, must-have items including food for the Berts. Then went to a movie at the theatre in the shopping plaza - "Almost Famous." My sister recommended it because it harkened back to my music business days when I was working with Metallica and Def Leppard and going to shows such as the Black Crowes.
Music has a weird place in my life. I have always loved playing music, took piano lessons as a child until I was eleven, played guitar and wrote songs, sang in musicals throughout high school, even tried playing keyboards and then bass guitar in several wanna-be bands.
My first music business job was working for a regional booking agency in North Carolina that specialized in bar mitvah, wedding, prom and frat party bands (not to mention those spiffy Holiday Inn lounge bands). Through my boss, I met an agent in NYC at ICM (International Creative Management), and through a series of lucky moments, he offered me a job. Move to New York City? No way!! No way because I actually had no desire to go there. But my sister was already living there, trying her hand at acting, or at least acting classes, and she urged me to move up there so we could live together. This was the same sister that used to exchange intense sibling hate threats, yes it was. Anyway, long story not so long, I took the job at ICM where I worked with the managers of Def Leppard, Metallica as well as other managers with acts including Neil Young, Tracy Chapman, Elvis Costello and The Cult. A few years later, I was leaving ICM and in my mind "getting away from all this" with the thought of buying a car and driving it across the country to the West where it was bigger with more space and less haste. Then I was offered a job at Q Prime, the management company for Def Leppard, Metallica, Queensryche, Tesla, among others. I still to this day get the uncanny feeling of realizing that one afternoon, I was driving my Toyota Celica (the only car I ever owned) in North Carolina, listening to Tesla on the radio. And then one day, I was backstage at a Tesla concert, listening to the same song from the wings. It was this tiny moment when I knew that I was THERE. Where was there? I wasn't quite sure, but at least it was somewhere a lot of people my age would have really wanted to be. And it was my JOB. I have way too many memories of being in the music business to put into this diary, but I wanted to explain why I tend to mention the music I play in the RV as I'm driving. After the music business, I stopped listening to music altogether, dust collecting on my 500+ CDs. Then I eased back into listening to music one day when I heard this awesome voice wailing in the HMV music store and found out it was Alanis Morrissette. Then Lilith Fair happened and it reminded me of a favorite band of mine, Clannad, so I listened to music from Lilith Fair artists, especially Sarah McLachlan, while driving rent-a-cars on business. Music has such intense power - to stir up old memories, to imprint itself on new ones, to be the invisible, undeniable backdrop to so much of life. There are a million things I'm "getting in touch with" as I travel. One of them is my love of music. And the movie "Almost Famous?" It was cute, enjoyable. It reminded me of a lot of things I had seen first hand. I did laugh out loud and got teary-eyed a little, because it did get a lot of things right. And girls, can we talk? Billy Crudup or Jason Lee? WooHoo!
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