I should start by explaining that I have a very strange relationship with car travel. Prior to getting my drivers license almost 9 years ago now (wow... has it really been THAT long?), I had no issue with riding in a car. I spent the first 8 years of my life in California, so I was use to traffic and road chaos. I became a little more sensitive after I started driving, but things took a definite turn for the worse two years later. I was in a horrible car accident (some elderly dumbass ran a stop sign), and have not been the same since. I must be a bad luck charm, because I have been in 3 other accidents since (not the driver for any of those). Each time, my anxiety when traveling by car has gotten worse and worse. It is not the actual driving that scares me; it's the other drivers. I love driving and being a passenger when no one else is around... but when traffic is hectic, and people and riding on each other's asses and being uncourteous... I get as scared as shit. I've had multiple panic attacks, and often end up extremely car sick.
I knew we were going to be on the road a lot this past weekend; we had a 12 hour round-trip over the course of 3 days, 6 of those hours being on the first day. Add the fact that we brought another passenger (Vuni's bestie, Lee) and a ton of gear... AND the majority of the drive was thru the mountains. I was excited about the mountain views... but nervous as heck about the actual drive. Needless to say, Vuni bought me some motion-sickness meds before we left.
The good weekend actually started early in the morning: breakfast at Village Inn with my darling friend AJ. He's a MaCom nerd like myself. Six years my junior, I absolutely adore this guy like a little brother. Seriously, I want to adopt him. It was great getting to catch up and chat; I feel like he is one of the rare people who "gets" me ;)
After that, Vuni and I said goodbye to our kitty girls, packed up the car, and headed over to my parents'. They hooked us up with a cooler for our foods and the Garmin to help us navigate; I gave them the keys to our house so they could babysit their grandkitties ;) We picked up Lee, and headed on our way.
Right before we entered the mountains, I popped some of those motion sickness pills. I love, love driving through mountains and the stunning views... but it can also be pretty scary. So, I take precautions. To my immense shock, after about half an hour, I could NOT stay awake. I dozed off, and when I woke up, we were on the summit of some mountain, stopping at a restaurant/store to stretch our legs and use the toilets ;) When we got back into the car, I zonked out again immediately! When I finally woke up, we only had about an hour and a half of our trip left... kinda sad I missed out on the scenery, but happy that my cat nap passed a good chunk of time and saved me some serious anxiety.
After a slight mishap with the GPS (note to self- ask Vuni for destination address before we are within a 3- mile radius of destination, GPS needs time to adjust) we arrived at our splendid hotel right as the sun began to set. Thanks to Vuni's parents! However... we also happened to discover that they were in the room right next to us... and there was a connecting door. Err... hmm, no Vuni and Em Party in the Hotel Room ;)
While Vuni and Lee headed off to the venue to take of band necessities, I stayed at the hotel, showered, and prettied myself up for the evening.
View from our room, taken the following morning. Rain was a pleasant surprise!
Vuni came back a little while later, and he and I headed out, walking to the venue which was only about 5 or 6 blocks from our hotel. We met up with Lee, and decided it was time to get a bite to eat. I was looking forward to veggies and maybe soup at the sushi place that was right across from the venue... but it had a line out the door, and we only had an hour :(
This is where things start to get tricky for me. Vuni and Lee decided they wanted to eat at this brewery. I do not like brewers; for several reasons:
- they remind me of The Ex
- most are not vegetarian friendly, and have a highly meat-concentrated menu
- the beer
In all honesty, I don't exactly like going out to eat (can you say weirdo?). I'm skeptical. I've had several bad experiences with meat in my food, and in general... I don't like the idea of other people handling my food. I almost always just order a salad wherever I go, because I like that it's uncooked, fresh, and I can see everything.
Also, Mike and Lee decided to order a pitcher of beer. I wasn't expecting them to not drink, just because of me, but it was still difficult; I use to love unique brewery beers, and the anticipation of facing a bar at the venue? It made me unsettled. But I've learned that, despite my discomfort, I cannot be selfish. I cannot rain on others' parades, just because alcohol and I have a bad relationship. It's my problem, nobody else's; so that is what I kept telling myself.
However, I was a little annoyed and slightly hurt when, shortly after, we got to the venue and Vuni cashed in his two band drink tickets, getting another beer and a coke and rum. It just bums me out a little bit that he, like myself, "needs" the alcohol to loosen him up and "give a better stage presence." Despite being a musician, Vuni's pretty shy and quiet, and actually gets a decent amount of stage fright. I can understand why he drinks before shows, but I don't like it.
Ugh! But then... everyone was drinking. I'm not positive, but I'm assuming even Vuni's parents had rum in their Cokes. The only people who weren't, obviously, were those under age... but as the majority of the crowd was of age... it seemed like the whole audience had a drink in their hand. For the first couple of songs, I sat a distance back, with Vuni's parents. I was sad, and anxious; but then it dawned on me- I needed my love bubble. So I picked up bag, and iPod in hand, I headed down to the floor, and positioned myself at the edge of the stage, right in front of Vuni.
He noticed me there, almost immediately, and flashed me his adorable smile. I felt the butterflies erupt in my stomach. A rush of adrenaline. Giddy like a school girl. I feel faint. It stirred memories of the first time I ever set eyes on him, the first time he flashed me that smile. The love bubble surrounded me in full force. I was going to be okay.
My angel... my shining star.
As the energetic crowd danced wildly around me, I continued to watch and to listen to my boy; I was absorbed in him. Yes, people, he is smiling at me. I thought smugly. Heck yeah, I am that hella awesome bass player's girlfriend. Now, I did not want alcohol. I was drunk on the insanely awesome music coming out of his bass amp; I was high on those smiles. Seeing the drunks around me, I thought, Ha! You may be drinking, but I have something so much better. I didn't need to drink; all I needed was in that gorgeous bass player smiling down at me.
As soon as they finished, I seized my opportunity (somebody broke a glass, and the guy guarding the door to backstage went to help clean it up) and rushed backstage. I had to have him in my arms, ASAP. Being squeezed into a bear hug and covered in his kisses made sobriety so worth it :)
The rest of that night consisted of walking back to the hotel, bringing the car back and loading up gear, chatting with Vuni's parents for a bit, and finally arriving at our hotel for the night, where we cuddled and watched TV before passing out. The next morning, we headed downstairs to a magnificent breakfast buffet. I was a little nervous about breaking my daily routine of a breakfast smoothie for the 2nd day in a row, but I pushed those feelings aside (I was STARVING) and made myself a wonderful parfait out of some yogurt and fresh fruit. Vuni, aka Black Hole Stomach, had a bagel with cream cheese and a plate loaded with sausage and fried potatoes. Vuni found Rambo on TV; while he lounged around for a bit, I went down to the fitness room and hopped on the elliptical for a bit (where I also watched Rambo). Then, we got ready, and headed to Lee's hotel to scoop him up and head off to the next city.
Into the gloom :)
I absolutely love rain, but I was not prepared for a rainy weekend; since it's been so dang hot recently (my very LEAST favorite type of weather), I was expecting dry, hot, and sunny. It rained for the majority of our nearly 4 hour drive. Even worse, we were driving on a major pass through the mountains; it was quite terrifying. We were going the speed limit (in the rain!) and yet huge semi trucks flew past us. Talk about a suicide mission...
shortly before we stopped for lunch
We stopped at a Wendy's in a small mountain town for lunch. Who's had their Apple Pecan salad? OMG... heaven. Apples, cranberries, blue cheese, pecans & spring mix = Em's heaven.
We were thrown off course a bit when Vuni decided to be stubborn and not listen to the Garmin ;) More than twenty miles before the exit that it was telling us to take, we saw a sign telling us it was the exit to our destination. Vuni wasn't trusting the GPS, so he asked Lee to look up directions on his iPhone. After a minute, Lee said, "Dude, I think you needed to take that exit..." So we found an exit, whipped around, and took the exit... though I was puzzled, but did not want to turn the GPS back on, since it was low on battery life. The road we took was clearly a treacherous one; I wouldn't be surprised if part of it is closed in the winter. It was a winding, two-lane pass. The only thing I could do was hang on and trust Vuni's driving, because I was damn scared. When we finally got to our destination, I realized our mistake: had we listened to the GPS, we probably would have been there in half an hour. Instead, it had taken us over an hour. But, we arrived safely, and can't say that it wasn't an adventure ;)
Our hotel was a little old and rundown, but cozy (it smelled really good too, like apples and cinnamon). Oh, and check out the view looking out our room window:
We honestly did not expect it to be so cold! I loved the weather, but again... I had brought clothes for the heat, not 52 degrees.
Vuni and I went to this quaint little Italian restaurant for dinner that night. I'm beating myself up for not taking pictures; it was super cute, decorated like a little garden. After dinner, Vuni bought my freezing self a cup of hot chocolate, before I dropped him off at the saloon (yeah, seriously). I decided to just stay at the hotel for the show; I was freezing, not up for dealing with a saloon environment, not wanting to endure another night of drunks, and desperately wanting to finish reading a book I was absorbed in. Shortly after midnight, Vuni text me to say they were done, so with the hotel being less than a mile away, I was there with a warmed car in no time. Once back at the hotel, we cuddled until we fell asleep.
The next morning, I got up, showered, and went downstairs for some coffee. I couldn't resist taking a picture:
Once Vuni was up, we packed our stuff and checked out, off in search for some breakfast and more coffee. It was still pretty early (about 9:30) when we left, and as we made our way to the car, I stopped in my tracks at the breathtaking views:
Are these views not stunning? The pictures don't do the real thing justice, but at least I have them to supplement my memory :)
We found a neat coffee shop that was an obvious hang-out for wannabe hippies. You know, the wealthy people who wear there Tevas and Keens, tie dyed shirts under a NorthFace windbreaker and loose pants or skirts, long hair, cloth stoner bags, and drive shiny new Subarus covered in "save the earth" and "coexist" bumper stickers? Hehe, yup, them ;)
We found out that Lee had gone home with some of the other band members after the show (yeah, after midnight, with a 3 hour drive) so we headed out. I was in charge of navigation this time, and I did darn well. Although I never minded Lee's company, it was pleasant being just with Vuni. He really is the bestest friend I ever could have asked for. (Why does just "best" not sound right there?)
We arrived home safe in the early afternoon. Well, we were safe. We found the littler of our two kitty girls trapped in a drawer... how she squeezed her pudgy little kitty butt in there is a mystery to us. Other than that, all was well; we had a lovely little getaway, but were happy to be back in our cozy home.
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