2005-03-09 - 11:58 pm

no time for sick, just happy

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Went to see my band last night. Of course, that did involve two days off from work (thank you new boss, you're groovy), two planes yesterday and two more today, total amount of time in state where show occurred less than 21 hours. But so worth it. I can't believe how many times during the show last night I just stopped singing and took a deep breath followed by a slow exhale. Every one of those exhales carried so much stress and tension away with it. It's sometimes amazing at shows how I can literally feel the muscles in my back relaxing. Sometimes, like last night, I didn't even really realize they were tense until they started to relax. It's like being so sick that you're kind of surprised when you get better and suddenly remember that it didn't used to be the norm to feel so crappy all the time.

The rental car experience was a bit different this time. When I got there to check in and get my car, the agent was all apologetic that they were somewhat backed up, and don't worry, we have plenty of cars, they're just all in the cleanup lot, but we're going to get you out of here as soon as possible, please go sit over there with all the other people who are waiting. So I did, and there were a lot of people, and they didn't look happy, so I didn't think I'd be going anywhere any time soon.

Much to my pleasant surprise, they called my name in about 10 minutes. Before some of the other people who had been waiting longer, I might add. I felt bad, but I guess they got the car that matched my reservation ready first. Bad planning on their part. Anyway though, worked for me because I got a free tank of gas as their apology for "having to wait." Cool.

After the show last night I checked my voicemail and there was a message from the rental car company - hi, calling to make sure everything is okay with your car and we have a couple questions, please call, bla bla. By then it was almost 1am so I didn't call back. But now I'm paranoid and wondering... do they have some kind of tracking device in the car? What did I do wrong that they're going to charge me $5000 for? I went out of state, but I told them I was going out of state and they said that was fine, in writing. Do they think I was speeding? (Which of course I was not, officer.) Omg do they know I went through that red light? That was not on purpose! The yellow was blinking, I didn't know it was going to actually turn red. Oh wait, that happened later than the time they left the message, so it couldn't be that. Have they just discovered there was a bomb attached to the engine and they're calling to see if I blew up? Have they just realized that they gave me the car with the dead body in the trunk and they're casually trying to find out if I've noticed it yet? There's no dead body in the trunk though, I checked. (I always do. I'm always worried about dead bodies in the trunks of rental cars. Long story.) Hmm, where else could there be a dead body hidden? What else could be wrong with the car that they're being so coy about?

Like I said. I'm paranoid.

Turns out that when the guy took me out to my car yesterday, he had paperwork for my rental and two others in his hand at the same time, and he accidentally wrote down the same car ID on my rental contract and someone else's. So when they did their tally in the afternoon, it looked like one car was being rented twice, and on the other hand, a car was missing that they couldn't immediately account for. Luckily they were sharp enough to figure out what that meant. They were calling me to see which one I had. So the guy said to me this morning, "You had a blue Elantra, right?" I wish I had thought quickly enough to say no, just to see what his face would have looked like until I said, "Psych!"

It's strange how much fun we were having chatting while the paperwork was getting wrapped up. Maybe they were as tired and punchy as I was. It was 7am and there were no other customers at the counter, so I was talking to both agents, a guy and a girl, kind of conversationally. The girl asked me what I was in town for that I had spent so little time, and I told her I went to see my band last night. Upon hearing the name of the band, the girl almost literally flew out of her chair in excitement and started throwing song titles at me. It was cute. She had wanted to go to the show but couldn't make it. She found out how far I'd come for just that one night, and she said, "Wow, you're fun!" I told her most people usually go right for "crazy," and thanked her for the more positive spin.

But the entire trip was fun, except for the delay in getting there in the first place, but I had some hours to spare so never got really upset about it. And the show was awesome. RSP was talking to me briefly from on stage at the end of the show - someone please tell me he's as bad at lip reading as I am and didn't catch me calling him "sweetie." Oy. I am pretty sure that would have drawn his trademark smirk (which has been directed at me before, full force) had he heard it, and he didn't react to it, so I think it went by him. Either that or he was in a particularly merciful mood and decided not to give me grief over it. Either way - oy. But you know, the other guitarist has called me sweetie before, so I think that falls under the category of acceptable. Okay yes I know, not really the same. Be quiet while I rationalize.

Mmmmmmm. So yesterday I was up at 4am to catch a 6:30 plane, then finally squelched the after-show adrenaline enough to be able to get to sleep at 3:30am this morning, then up again at 6 to get to the airport. It's now 2 minutes to midnight and I'm a bit drowsy. Wonder why that is?

Sometime this week hopefully I'll have time to write and fill in details about doctors and work and all the mundane stuff. In the meantime - I'm down to only 3 states left that I've never visited! Wyoming and Nebraska, your time is running out!

my mood -

the mood of the whole world wide bleepin' web -