BrockLi Soup

Ed had been telling me for months that I should meet him at Madam’s Organ on Wednesdays for their bluegrass show, but this is the first week I actually took him up on it. It helped that Ricky was in town (despite the fact that he got sick and couldn’t come) and that Andy, Will, and Schmitty were also going - I’m a sucker for peer pressure.

That place is pretty great. Bob Perilla & the Big Hillbilly Bluegrass Band was playing - not half bad - and the crowd was just my type. I spent most of the evening chatting with Alicia, a Native American, and Storm, a half-American, half-Jamaican guy from London, with whom I argued about David Beckham, the ridiculous taxes on tea, and whether or not he was more Irish than I because he spent a few months living in Dublin. There was also a cute little redhead who kept scampering about - Schmitty and I agreed that ’scamper’ was a good word for her - but I forget her name. She stopped to chat at one point, and I told her that she was like a very small tornado. She took it as a compliment.

On the walk back to the Metro, I was telling Schmitty how friendly people around here could be, and in the course of the conversation, asked four different groups of smokers if I could bum a cigarette. How many smokes do you think I got? If you guessed four, you’re off by about four. In Rochester, I would have had a dozen cigs in no time, but down here, where people tend to have a bit more money, they’re stingy with their cancer sticks. Maybe folks aren’t so friendly after all.

(Blessing in disguise, of course. I’ve had less than ten since I quit two months ago, so why spoil it?)

Nickel Creek released a best-of album today. Sitting here, listening to it at my desk, wishing I were at the Marcera Ranch, or at least driving through the hills of PA…makes me just a little bit crazy.

It was about this time last November that I was finishing up finals and wondering what exactly I was going to do after graduation. I had sent out about a dozen resumes and had a couple interviews, but not for anything that sounded very good. I HAD applied for a job that sounded perfect, and even answered a bunch of extra questions for the headhunter, but it had been a couple weeks since I had heard anything substantial.

Then I got the chance to do a phone interview, and the request to come to DC for a real interview. At that point, I was planning to spend the weekend in PA with the Grillbillies (as I’m planning to do again next weekend), so I just kept going south on Sunday instead of heading back to Rochester.

I really want to take a few extra days off next week and take a road trip up to Rochester or Buffalo or something. I know it’s going to be a great weekend - it always is, with the Grillbillies - but last year’s will be impossible to live up to. I had no plans, nowhere in particular to be, and as stressful as that was, it was just as relieving. Things were changing, my life was going in a new direction, everything was exciting.

I feel like I’m in a rut, and living out of a car for a week or so tends to spice things up a bit. If I could afford it - and get the time off - I’d probably do it all the time.

This was the best festival I’ve been to yet. The Grillbillie turnout was lower than usual, and there were definitely folks I missed, but there were also a lot of people that I was really hoping to see. And I got to spend a lot of time with everyone, too - everybody pretty much stuck around Grillbillie Hall.

Adam bought himself a new camper over in Delaware, and literally picked it up on his way to the festival. When he pulled in, we filled the place with people (and a tree) and did some exploring. The guy who sold it to him left everything in it (dishes, bedding, cleaning stuff - everything), and since Adam had bought the thing just two hours before, he never got a chance to clean it out or figure out where things were before we got our hands on it (FN did manage to find himself his own room).

On Saturday afternoon, Amy sent me a text message from the other end of the camper - “I deem you a official grillbillie.”

“Can you even do that?” I yelled back to her.

“Of course I can, I’m an original. Go see what Matt says.”

So I showed Matt the message, and he goes, “I thought you WERE official. You’re not going to fit into an extra large, are you?”

So I don’t have a t-shirt yet, but three years after the festival where I first met them, I’ve become an official Grillbillie. Definitely my best festival yet.

I had a ridiculous and rambunctious weekend at OATS, despite the fact that people kept disappearing to work the festival for a few hours at a time, which wore everyone out. There were a bunch of new folks and a bunch of not-so-new-but-new-to-me folks, so there was always someone to strike up conversation with. I rented a car for the weekend and wound up with a Taurus, and let me tell ya, it was a lot roomier than the Hotel Honda Prelude.

Bluegrass festivals with the Grilbillies are impossible to explain to anyone who hasn’t experienced it. The weekend exceeds the amount of fun you’d think anyone could possibly have in two or three days, but by Sunday afternoon, you’re ready to head home just so that you can get some sleep and a shower. And that night, you experience such overwhelming withdrawal that you wonder if it would be easier to never see them again than to feel that morning-after pain the next time around.

Thanks to the holiday, I had an extra two days to recover from the weekend before going back to work. The Monday after Abbipalooza was the longest of my life, and I’m glad I don’t have to go through that again. The toughest part is knowing that I probably won’t be able to make it to any more festivals this summer - I’m poor, I don’t have a car, and I can’t keep taking Friday’s off, so trouncing off to Pennsylvania every weekend isn’t really an option. It’s unbelievably hard to leave those weekends behind and go back to “real life,” knowing that it may be another six months before I can see them again.

I should just retire and buy an RV.

(More pics)

Abbi’s 20th birthday was this weekend, so I made the trip up into PA for Abbipalooza. I was kind of surprised I made it - Malique has been in rough shape, and I was supposed to get an oil change a couple months ago (I hadn’t hit 3000 miles, so I wasn’t too worried), but she can still do 90 on the highway. Thankfully, we didn’t have any issues, and I got to enjoy a quiet(ish), laid-back weekend with some of my favorite people. It was a smaller, low-key party, which worked out really well because I had a chance to hang out with everyone. I love meeting new people, but it can be pretty draining (I’m more introverted than I seem). I did get to meet some of Abbi’s friends from school, but they fit in so well that it just didn’t matter. As I’ve told countless people before, it always takes a lot of energy to be outgoing and extroverted, so it was nice to just have a relaxing weekend with people I like without trying to forge new friendships at the same time.

…which isn’t to say it wasn’t exhausting, of course. I met the Grillbillies because FN told me I couldn’t keep up with them, and I accepted the challenge. I don’t know how they do what they do for so many weekends during the summer, because I feel like I need a week off after spending two days with them. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Also, pictures are on Flickr.

Fri, April 5: Where the hell is Pennsylvania? (wish I had time for a nap)

Sat, April 6: Abbipalooza! (hope I have time for some work)

Sun, April 7: Where the hell is Virginia? (I better have time for a nap)

Coming up next week!

Mon, April 8: Visit from pest control!

UPDATE: Oh wait, it’s May.

This weekend will almost definitely edge out every other one I’ve ever had.

Sixteen years of education end Friday morning around 10 when I finish my Tech Transfer final. That afternoon, I’m heading to the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania to spend the weekend with the Grillbillies. Unfortunately, I have to miss the Dropkick Murphys show in Syracuse Sunday night, but that’s because I’m going to the capitol! Of America!

I’ve never been to DC, so I’m pretty excited. I’ll be staying with wxs and Michelle Sunday night, then I have an interview Monday morning with a company in Arlington. I’m hoping to catch up with the rest of the crew while I’m down there - maybe for dinner on Monday? - then I’ll probably head back that evening.

Many many many pictures to come.