My woman is the best!

Thanksgiving was a blast! The night before we had practice and what turned out to be a little get together which included my brother and his wife, Lisa, Carrie, Heather and eventually her girlfriend, and Brea and me. There was a little drama involved, but nothing to do with Brea and me. Tommy and Jenny were getting a kick out of it all and were setting back watching and laughing like they were watching a movie! They love coming over here to witness first hand all the things we try to tell them. I had them laughing their butts off all night long by telling them different stories that’s happened, like the puppy I just rescued and Brea’s wiener commercial. The night didn’t end until 3am Thanksgiving morning when we were so pooped we were about to pass out. I’m sure the beer and liquor had nothing to do with it either!

We woke up on Thanksgiving and finished cooking our dishes that we were to carry to our parents’ house. Then we spent some time at Brea’s parent’s eating and talking to her brothers and sisters. Brea’s sister Debbie, the one that used to be in our band, makes me laugh so hard when I’m around her, she’s a mess. After that we met my family at my mom’s house and ate some more. I got the chance to visit with my cousin Diane from Florida and reminisced about the old days, when my mom and dad were married and we lived in North Carolina and she and my other cousin Dawn used to come and spend every summer with us. We had a pool and everything else kids and teenagers could get into.

Our show at Mitty’s went really well! The place was packed and the crowd seemed to really love us. We were getting compliments left and right and people were up dancing and drinking! Everything you can ask for while playing in a band at a new place. We’ll be going back soon. We had a room at the hotel that’s connected to the club but everyone decided to come on home after the show, plus Jizz had to be at work the next morning.

As for the rest of the weekend, we just laid around the house, ate, played video games and watched movies. We did go our a few times though. Once for Brea’s mom’s little birthday party Brea’s dad was giving her. We’re also taking her on Friday to get her hair done and to treat her to lunch. One of Brea’s sister’s is selling her 4-bedroom trailer for a really good price so we went and looked at it too. It’s just too small for us. We have a pretty big place now as it is and we already feel a little cramped, so we couldn’t imagine trying to buy something smaller. We always said if we could see ourselves retiring there we would probably buy it, whatever it may be.

Yesterday was a busy day for me. It was more like my Mondays’ usually are, laundry, cleaning and such. The funniest thing happened to me. I don’t know what’s going on with me and my housekeeping skills but I’ve been slipping. Lisa was here with me visiting and I decided to boil some eggs to keep in the fridge for lunch and snacks, as I normally do because I work out a lot, and I’m getting older, and need the protein. Anyway, we got to talking and I totally forgot about the water boiling and before you knew it my favorite noodle pot, the one I eat out of that’s different from our nice set, was almost on fire! Lisa and I were running around trying to figure out what the smell was and then we figured it out! I was so upset! It’s not the first time something like this has happened to me! But this was my favorite pot, like my bowl cause I eat out of it! I set it outside and waited for Brea to get home so we could give it a proper disposel. I had laughed about it over the phone with her before she got off from work and my sweetie pants stopped by two different thrift stores on her way home to get me a new one. That was one of the sweetest and most thoughtful things anyone has ever done for me! It was like Christmas to me. It’s a new pot but old like my old one! The new pot is perfect and looks almost like my old one and I should be able to cook and twirl my noodles and hot sauce in it just fine. I’ll find out soon enough. Been trying to get everything ready for the holidays. I even filled out my Christmas cards last night so Brea could mail them out today.

Lots to do today for the band, including practice. I also have a few things I need to get straightened out with our beach house too. They’re trying to over charge me… I’m not having it.

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble...

I was feeling a bit under the weather yesterday, feeling drowsy most of the day. I managed to go to the grocery store to pick up a few more things for Thanksgiving. I talked and chatted with the old folks as I usually do and heard some pretty funny stories.
I also tried to put up my outside Christmas lights but half of them were blown out so I ended up throwing them away, it kind-a p*ssed me off. Oh well, I’ll have to get some more.

We had practice last night, without Henry. Carrie walked in the house with a box of beer and I almost died laughing. That girl gets me some times. It was just us girls going over our music. It was mainly Carrie showing Heather the guitar parts she will soon be playing with us. She left here with the tabs to seven new songs and says she’ll be ready to play them. I think she will, she is a quick learner and actually listens to us when we say or suggest something. She doesn’t seem to mind criticism or trying to learn new things, and that’s a good thing. We have practice again tonight, hopefully to get Heather ready to play with us Friday night at Mitty’s. It’s going to be a short and sweet show. We will play from 9-10pm and then again from 11-12am. I love these kinds of shows.

Brea went to work today in a great mood. This was her last day until Tuesday! I am so excited to have her around the house all to myself, and the kids too. We are going to have a wonderful and relaxing weekend together and I am so looking forward to it. I am happy for her, she works so hard and this little vacation will do her justice, she deserves it. I want to hug her right now, but she’s not home from work yet.

Today I made two pasta salads and boiled a dozen eggs for Brea so she can make deviled eggs to carry to her mother’s house tomorrow. I still have to make a broccoli and cheese rice casserole but I’m going to do that in the morning. I spoke to my cousin Diane today who is in town from Florida for the holiday. It was nice talking to her, I was worried about her a couple of months ago, she was having some medical problems. We’ll be meeting up with her and her family and my brother, Tommy, and his family at my mother’s house tomorrow evening after we visit with Brea’s parents and eat a little something over there first. Tommy and Jenny said something about maybe coming over here to hang out with Brea and me this evening after our practice. Tomorrow is going to be fun, I hope!

I have a lot to be thankful for… My health, my home, my lifestyle, my friends, my mom and dad, my brother and his family and all my other relatives. I also look at my package (my family, my three girls) and I’m proud to say they’re all mine, and for that, I’m thankful.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Good, good, good, good.

We all got through the weekend just fine, as I knew we would. On my way to get the U-Haul van on Friday I took an extra long route just to make sure that I got my exercise in, which I normally do anyway. As I’m get closer to the main road to get to the building I see this cute little terrier strolling along side me in people’s yards, sniffing around and marking his territory. I’m thinking he’s probably a lot like my kid, lives close by and is just using the bathroom, until he prances over towards me in the street and no one comes out of their house to correct him. I looked at his little collar and notice that the street address on his collar was not the same street we were on. I couldn’t just leave him; my conscience wouldn’t allow that to happen. So I pick him up and ask a neighbor if they had seen him before or if they knew where he lived. They had no clue so I walked back towards the house with him in my arms to place him somewhere until I could get the van and get back to him to take him home safely. It almost killed me, the little thing weighed about 15 pounds and I walked about 10 blocks with him. He was really well behaved though and just a little cutie pie. So that’s what I did, I got the van, went back to pick him up, looked up his address on the internet and took him home. His parents weren’t there so I tied him up really good on the front porch. He knew he was at home; his little kitty sister came out from behind the bushes to greet him. I slept well all weekend knowing he was back home with his family.

Friday night’s show went really well. We had a pretty decent crowd there, people were laughing and dancing and having a great time. The new songs we learned sounded good too, except we messed up at the end of one of the songs. Heather did really well too. You could tell she was a little nervous but once she warmed up she started to really get into it with us. We have some tweaking to do with the guitar sounds but that comes with practice. Heather’s girlfriend even got up on stage with us to sing a song. I think it could work out between all of us. They seem to be nice girls and seem to be genuinely good people. I told them the other night that I was still waiting for one of them to say or do something crazy, and they laughed at me. Heather will warm up to the stage the more she’s up there with us too. That also comes with practice and playing out a lot. I also told her that that’s what the crowd wants, for you to make those crazy faces and expressions and to give them not only something to listen to but something to look at as well.

Brea, Jizz and I got absolutely no sleep. We had to once again return the van at 9am and Brea had a remote in Franklin and Jizz had to be at work at 7am. We had to come back here to the house when we were done to unload the van and by the time we were finished with everything we had just enough time to just lay down to take a load off our feet. Thank God the day went by pretty fast. Before you knew it we were getting ready for our show with Jimmie’s Chicken Shack. I was so relieved that we were only going to be playing for an hour and that’s what got me through the night. It was a fun show. Everyone seemed to really dig us, even the other bands. They complimented us and gave us props when we got off stage and it really made me feel good. I impressed them with my playing skills and they acknowledged that, on stage, that’s pretty cool and it gives me the big head! We would have stuck around to listen some more but the cops were outside giving me a fit about moving our van out of the trolley lane. We were able to take our own van because we only had to take our instruments with us, and all that stuff fits in the van.

We put up our Christmas tree yesterday. It looks so beautiful! We had to put it up early because we normally put it up on Thanksgiving day but we won’t be here, going back and forth to our family’s houses. It took us all day to do but we look at it like it’s an art or something. We put everything we have into our Christmas tree. It was fun and relaxing all at the same time. Stitch, our infant, wants to climb the thing and get all into the decorations. I’m still trying to figure out how I’m going to do playtime. I’ll probably start having it upstairs or in our bedroom. It’s only temporary anyway.

Today has been my normal Monday… housecleaning, laundry and all that jazz. My brother finally sent me pictures of Maddy and the twins on Halloween. I spoke to him this morning on the phone for quite some time. His family will be here this week. I found out a few moments ago that my woman has a remote at Mattress Discounters today from 5-7pm. That cuts right into our dinnertime. They also wanted her to do it tomorrow but then we wouldn’t be able to have practice and we need to practice.

I also have to get on the ball again pertaining to our long awaited project. I’ve put it off the past two weeks so I have to get a move on. I need to email my producer right now as I’m typing in this, so that’s what I’m going to do.

We may have a new band member.

The show this past weekend went alright. The band sounded and performed really well. I just don’t particularly care for the place, personally. I don’t think we’ll be going back there, especially after they tried to charge us for sodas and water!

Oh, I’ve been busy around the house and doing things for the band. On Monday night Brea and I went to the grocery store and acted like we were on a rampage! We bought nearly everything in sight and had a fun time doing it. She never really gets to go shopping with me and wanted to go so we went! I love grocery shopping!

Yesterday I went to the hardware store and basically did the same thing. I even almost bought a blower for the yard! After I walked through the entire store gathering the items I originally went there for, I walked back through to make sure I didn’t forget anything because I didn’t want to leave! It’s amazing what you can find in the hardware store. I told Brea I wanted and needed a tool belt. She laughed, especially when I told her I wanted one big enough to make me walk sideways through doors.

Last night we had band practice, as scheduled, and had a new girl join in. Her name is Heather, and she plays the guitar and is also a part of another local band here in the area. She and her girlfriend come out to our shows quite a bit and have been for a long time. Brea’s always wanted to add another guitar to get herself off of it. We know she’s a great player, we’ve seen her play a couple of times. I just hope she doesn’t plan on bringing drama to the group, she’s a fast learner, and she’s motivated. It’s important for the entire band to mesh really well together and I think we do. I think she can pull it off; we’ll just have to see.

This morning has been a busy morning. I had a dentist appointment at 9am to finish up my root canals. I wasn’t expecting what happened to happen. I got in the chair, and he began numbing my mouth and I was like, Oh my God! What is going on…? So what he did was, drilled out the temporary fillings he put in on my last visit, cleaned out the teeth some more, and then filled them with permanent fillings. Before it looked like I had putty thrown on the back of my teeth, now it looks like I’ve had nothing done to them. Whatever he used this go around to numb my mouth worked really good and it was really strong. I’ve been to the dentist a few times and this was the first time I walked out pronouncing my p’s like f’s, it was different. I made an appointment again for next month to have a cavity filled, d*mn it! But like I’ve said before, I will never neglect my teeth again!

Today Brea and I are going to buy new a new Christmas tree and decorations. I am so excited and can’t wait for her to get home today. We’ve been talking about this for a few days now. We wanted to get new stuff last year but we decided to wait for this year. We’re going to squeeze in some exercises today as well. I wanted to do them this morning but my woman asked me to wait to do them with her. Of course I will! We have fun doing it together! Haha Practice tonight and that includes Heather. It’s going to be a busy few days coming up.

Another night at the beach...

We’ve had practice this week and have begun to learn some new and different songs. We are also going to learn some Christmas songs too, for all the Christmas parties we’ll be playing at. It’s going pretty well.

Yesterday I had to get up and out of the house early to take care of a few things, which included going to my mom’s house. I wish I could have stayed and visited longer but traffic was horrible and I had to work my way back to downtown Norfolk. Brea had her remote last night, which I normally go to, but last night I opted to stay home because Carrie and I had planned to put up the new survalience camera system so we can finally move the traler that we use for the band to the side of the house. Now I have eyes watching and recording our home and surroundings from every angle. I can also record up to like a month as well, which is really cool. It’s like we have this industrial like VCR that even has a battery enclosed if power goes out! Yeah, we like it. I felt bad not being able to go with Brea and she felt bad because she wanted to stay here with us. Angie, Carrie’s girlfriend, and Jizz were here with us. We all had a fun time putting it up and drinking a few beers and laughing! It got real cold out there too! We all stared at the monitor like we were in a trance after we hooked it up. We couldn’t believe how good it looked and how well we installed it. It didn’t take much time at all, we probably would have had it up sooner than we did if we didn’t stop to fart around, but what fun would that be?

Today I will be walking my *ss up to the U-Haul store to pick up our lovely truck! I have to have it back by 9am on Saturday. It sucks because I’m usually so tired from the show the night before, but I can do it! We unload from our traler, load into the U-Haul, unload it at the bar, set it all up, play all night, tear it back down, load it back into the U-Haul, drive home, transfer it all back to our trailer, then we’re done… I think. It’s quite exhausting even before we get a chance to get on stage. We’ll be laying our heads on our pillows around 5am or 6am. Our show tonight is at the beach and I’m not particularly looking forward to it. We didn’t have that much of a good experience the last time we played, hopefully this time will be different.

Tomorrow night Brea has a remote at a resturant which she and I will be dining at. Now that one I’m looking forward to. I love to eat! I think it’s called Keagan’s, in Norfolk. We’ve never eaten there before so I’m looking forward to what they have on the menu.

Sunday we’ll set around the house and I plan on frying up some oysters and baking some shrimp. Hopefully there will be some good stuff on the tube, if not we’re going to go and buy some movies!

Alright, I’ve written in this and had playtime and talked to my mom this morning, so let me get started with my day…

What a beautiful weekend!

Thursday was a good day. I felt so much better with my mouth and I felt like my old self again. My mom came over around dinnertime to go to the remote with Brea and me. She brought her little doggy, Fancy, to play here and keep Stevie company since they’re friends. We had just as good of a time as we did last week when we went, except this time we did a little more dancing. Mom wanted to drive back home but we insisted that she stay here with us, plus it’s nice having her here when I wake up. It reminds me of when I was a teenager. Fancy slept in the bed with us and you couldn’t even tell she was in the bed, she’s so little. She’s a good little sleeping buddy, but I already knew that.

Mom stayed pretty much all day with me on Friday. I even got her to do a few exercises with me after breakfast. Brea came home that evening and we chilled here at the house watching TV and cuddling together. Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day. Brea and I went to the store, watched our UFC championships marathon, baked a cake for a friend she works with, played with the kids and enjoyed the weather. She had a remote Sunday at the crab house and when it was over with we walked over to a friend’s condo and peeked at everyone from his balcony with binoculars. It was funny to watch people and the things they do when they think no one is around. We didn’t stay too long because we wanted to get back here at the house so we could have play time with the girls, plus Brea needed to get her things in order for work the following day.

I will be putting up our new surveillance camera system this week. It’s a really nice system with four cameras, I can’t wait to hook it up. It’s something my dad bought a long time ago and never used, it’s brand new. He saw the system we had so and knew we liked stuff like that so he gave it to us a few weeks ago. It also came with a 72-hour recorder.

I will also be doing some other things pertaining to project I’ve been working on. I’ve given some things a lot of thought and I think I might have a new way to approach things, I need to talk it over with my boys in N.Y. Either way I’m still going to do what I feel I need to do. I’ve kind-a slacked off of it some, but I haven’t given up nor will I ever.

I have to learn some new bass lines and do a few other things. Be back soon.

Wasn't as bad as I thought.

We had practice on Tuesday night and it went pretty well. No one had too much to say, and I was drugged up on all my pain medication. So we got practice done and over with and retired early for the evening.

Woke up early yesterday morning and went to the dentist. The experience wasn’t as bad as I thought and it took about an hour and a half to complete, and I still have to go back in two weeks to have him clean up the teeth and finish up the process. The doctor spoke to me a lot and that helped make me feel comfortable. I was in lots of pain when left the dentist so I stopped by the pharmacy to have my pain prescription filled and came home and went right into the bedroom to lay down for a while. It was a different kind of pain, but pain nonetheless. Brea came home and took good care of me and we ordered out for dinner, which was nice and gentle on my teeth. The doctor even called to check on me and to see if I was feeling alright. While I as being worked on at the dentist my mom’s husband, Roy, was also having surgery on his hand and arm, because of an injury he incurred at work a couple of weeks ago. He was in lots of pain when I spoke to them last night.

Had a really good morning today. Did a few exercises and cleaned the house up. Called my dad to bless him and to thank him once more for paying for my small operation. Brea has a remote tonight and I think I’m feeling just fine enough to go and hang out with her and my friends up there. It feels like it’s been so long since I’ve been able to smile and talk without being in pain. Now I think I can get back into the swing of things. If only my lower back would straighten up and stop acting up on me, if it isn’t one thing it’s another! But my back pain has been with me for a couple of weeks now. Might want to learn how to live with it.

O.K. ...

Wednesday night Carrie came over again for practice and the three of us did the same thing we did the night before. After practice we came downstairs and laughed and drank a few more beers. It’s nice when the three of us just get together and bond and stuff, it’s cool.

Thursday night my mom went with Brea and I to her remote at the country bar. We sat and had a few drinks and talked and laughed about all kinds of stuff. I have a bar buddy that I drink with at Brea’s remotes and she’s a real cool girl, a hairdresser named Lisa. We all left pretty lit and Brea was also pissed at one of the bouncers at the place. He ended up getting fired and she ended up getting a few different apologies, which corrected the situation. On the way home we all stopped at a fast food joint to pick up a bite to eat and something to wet our whistle. First Brea drops her whole soda on the floor and then my mother turns around and follows in suit! I would’ve probably been upset about something like that but I thought it was the funniest and most ironic thing, and it also proves that the two main girls in my life are quite a bit alike. Mom crashed here at the house when we got home, which was still early. It made us feel better not having to worry about her trying to drive back home.

Friday morning I got up and drove Brea to work. I stopped at the store on my way home to pick up a biscuit and a soda for my mom when she woke up. We sat in the spare room and talked about the night before while she ate her breakfast. Not too long after that she headed on back home. I made it very clear that she needs to do this more often with us, just going out with the girls to raise some hell, to get out of the house some. I started to get all our stuff together to take to the beach house and doing pretty much everything and anything I could do to take my mind off the awful toothache that I had and wasn’t going to let ruin my weekend. But now my mouth had been aching for a couple of days. I finally told Brea and she was mad that I didn’t tell her sooner, but sometimes I feel I’m more of a bother to her than anything else. But the pain was so bad I didn’t even want to talk to anyone and I knew where it was coming from which made it worse. It was my front bottom tooth, the same tooth the dentist told me almost a year ago that I needed a root canal on, so that really had me worrying.

Our weekend was wonderful at the beach house, except for the excruciating pain I was in constantly! A lot of alcohol and video games and movies took care of that for me. I felt so bad I couldn’t even drive back home, which is one of my favorite things to do. I knew I had to get to the dentist first thing Monday morning cause the pain was not subsiding or going away any time soon and by now it feels like my whole face is infected and it’s itching like crazy, from my ears to my throat. I was also blowing a lot of blood and blood clots out of my nose too. That’s been causing my eyes to be puffy and my ears thumping inside and I can’t breathe at night… just in bad shape all around.

Monday morning I called my dentist and even though they were slammed packed they squeezed me in as soon as I could get there. I walked in knowing I was going to be handed some prescriptions for infection like antibiotics, which I needed desperately, and I would also be making that appointment to have the root canal done on or around the 15th of November, for fund reasons. But after talking to the assistant and my doctor and after looking at the x-rays it was a different story all together. Because I waited, the infection had spread over to the tooth beside the tooth that already needed the root canal, so now I have to have two root canals done, side by side, and it gets worse, I was told that if I did wait until the 15th I would definitely have to have three, and so on. I have to have this done immediately because I was also a second away from having an abscess! So on top of all the tooth and gum pain I have all this bad news to chew up. I cried and I didn’t want to tell Brea the news, especially the total cost. I’ll put it to you like this… it costs $500.00 for one root canal… can you figure it out?! I did it to myself though, I deserve it. I could have avoided all this pain and saved lots of money if I would have taken care of it when I was supposed to. Believe me when I say I’ll never make this same mistake twice. I filled my prescriptions and took the medicine immediately, came home and called my mom to cry on her shoulder, and then I called my dad, my brother and my dad’s girlfriend but could only get through to her, and thank God I did! She’s a big help when you’re not at your best… and then Brea called me… I had to tell her, I knew she was going to be disappointed and worried about me in the same breath. My dad’s girlfriend, Diane, talked to my dad and told him everything, and then they set me up really nice. They called the dentist and have already pre-paid the dentist for my procedure! I spoke to my dad on the phone and he said that’s what daddy’s are supposed to do for their little girl. He said he knows exactly what I’m going through because he’s had to have 8 root canals done. Gives me something to look forward to, huh?! (Same thing I was thinking!) I love my family and they love me, can’t ya tell?! I don’t have to do anything tomorrow but walk in and have it done and leave to come home and get some rest, I’ll have a completely clear head. I promised Brea I would never hide anything like that from her again, and I won’t either!

I finally spoke to my brother yesterday evening. He told me he was getting the kids ready to go out trick or treating. Maddy was a cheerleader, Mallory was a ladybug and little Tommy was a dragon. I told him he better send me some good pictures!

My mom and her husband, Roy, came over for dinner last night. She was mainly coming over to try to help with things around the house, cause she knows I’ve been down and not doing as much as I’d like to, I know how she is. But everything was done, including the laundry so we ate some delicious meatloaf that Brea cooked along with some mashed potatoes and green beans. It was some good eating! Afterwards we hooked up the play station 2 to the TV. in the living room and played a racing game, Need For Speed 2. It’s a fun game and it really gets ya going, mom had us all cracking up trying to drive the racecar. Believe it or not she did better when she had to change gears! Time flew by pretty fast and before you knew it the time was 10pm, and Roy had to be up early for work today. We’re going to do it again soon, maybe next time at their house.

There are so many things I need to be doing, or could be doing but I was told to get some rest, and if I don’t my woman will yell at me and I don’t feel like being yelled at. I’ve really had a rough couple of weeks. I’m going to do a few things and save the rest for another day. I also think Carrie is coming over for practice tonight. I guess I should take advantage of this time while I can. I just wish I didn’t have to be in pain to get it. My appointment is at 9am tomorrow morning. I am anticipating not being in pain anymore, but not looking forward to what I’m going to have to go through to accomplish that. I’m nervous…