We finished the last show of this tour just over a week ago now and since then i've been waiting and waiting, and patiently waiting for the the last tour diary to come to me. Waiting to write my last thoughts on this tour for what may seem a long while... 'The last tour!?' i hearyou say?  We are indeed about to embark on a whole big-giant-yesiree, nothin'-but a high falootin' 365-day-year off. And try as i might, i just haven't had it in me to write. Don't know why. (Could be the smog getting in my eyes, makin' them all watery).
Actually, I promised myself a long time back that i would never do anything i don't really want to do, so when i realised that i wasn't writing, that i wasn't writing naturally, that it wasn't coming to me freely... i let it go.

And so i lived and breathed for a week after our last show at the Triple Door in Seattle. I lived and breathed with no gigs. No soundchecks. No writing. Just me and the seattle snow to keep me occupied...(not to mention our gorgeous friends Mike and Stacy, some great episodes of 'Weeds' (which we all have become addicted to), and some serious kick arse table tennis and awesome dinners and late night conversations)).

So, sitting here for the second time in seattle airport (we missed the flight home last night.. don't even get me started on that!) waiting for our final flight home. I'm sitting here and waiting, and with the thinking and the waiting it got me thinking that us girls (and all other touring muso's for that matter should all have earned PHD's for waiting)...yes, hat' what i will strive for...a PHD in patience.
And so, while i was sitting, I overheard (ahhh, who am i kidding, i 'eavesdropped' in on a conversation that two guys were having about software design?... or cloning?... or something scientific or computery?...(obviously i have to brush up on my eavesdropping skills)...Regardless, i heard one of the men say '...so it took these guys ten years to come up with it... and then they find out... it had already been invented!'...And i though 'man, that's hell of a long time to wait to eventually be disappointed. And that's when it hit me.

11 years.

We have been playing together 11 years.

E.L.E.V.E.N Y.E.A.R.S.

I started when i was 21. Now i am 32 and i have been doing the same thing with these two wonderful women for 11 years.

Us Girls. Together. Standing up. Singing proud. Living long. Braving weather. Missing flights. Catching flights. Missing love. Catching colds. Loving well. Connecting. Breathing. Disconnecting. Re-connecting. Laughing. Laughing. Laughing. Learning. Unlearning. Learning... Waiting....
Plugging in. Lugging out.

11 years...

And even though a year may seem like a long time...it's not (Especially if your giving birth to an elephant)...it's like the blink of an eye... really.
Actually, as Mel's Dad always said 'What will be, will be'.

And it sure don't feel like the end to me.

It feels more like the beginning.

...and at the risk of sounding mushy and uncool.

i tell ya.

between just you and me.
no kiddin' here.
no holds barred.

i wouldn't change a thing.

and i for one sure 'aint disappointed.

x
sam. mel. suse.

the three amigos.

the three sisters.

the three

of us.

x

Last night we played to a packed house at the Sierra Nevada Brewery to the collective conscience of the people's of Chico and man did we have a ball. It was a perfect night in my mind, finished off even perfecter (yes this is a word) with us staying at our wonderful and gorgeously generous friend Weezie. Talk about home away from home. weezies joint, where we had homemade vegie soup and some serious lovin' which is just what us weary travellers needed.

Tonight we play in Berkley and then head up to Nevada City. We have only 5 shows left here before we head on to our separate homes for the longest break we've even had. A whole year off. I'm looking forward to it but am quite happy being right here, right now, right smack bang in the back of the van, with my sisters up front and Jula showing the way.

sam n' the girls.
x

Moving at the speed of sound saw us jet on over from Philadelphia to Milwaukee where we spent some glorious time with our friends Maggie and Mary. Mel and i were struck pretty hard with a cold, or the flu, or some snotty coughy chesty virus type thing (let's just say it wasn't pleasant)...so we welcomed the warmth of house and home of our beautiful friends and their beautiful dogs. It even snowed a little, the first for the season. It didn't settle but it was glorious nonetheless. Even though i grew up in the snow, witnessing the first of the season will never cease to amaze me. Then we, and our plethera of cold 'n flu goodies, moved onto Rockford and then to Madison where we played a house concert. This is where my lost voice started to show itself again (which was great because i was worried there for a while, wondering where it had actually gone, wondering if it had maybe turned up somewhere else, on some other stage...wouldn't that be weird?...not as weird as that though!
 t i guess?) So i was on the mend but unfortunately on the  morning i started to feel better i rose in bed and turned to cough and pinched a couple of nerves in my neck, rendering me pretty useless for the next couple of shows. But with some serious chiropractic cracking and some squooshy massage lovin' the shows went on. I felt incredibly useless to be honest. (In Cedar Rapids i felt like a thunderbird with pigtails, and my dancing was seriously compromised leaving me feeling more like a thunderbird crossed with a morris dancer)

We cruised on from there driving down the freeway doped up on pain killers (woe was me) to Kansas City where we found our friends Steph and Beth and played two amazing house concerts in their home. The energy brought by the enthusiastic Kansas City'ens was out of this world. And man did we have fun staying downstairs in the basement and playing upstairs for two nights in a row.

Often, pre-show we will take Mpeg movies for something to do. We have hours and hours of stupidity...Often i am the cinematographer and Susie and Mel, the willing moviestars...it's a wonderful way to kill some time. So before the first show downstairs in Kansas City we did just that, and somehow something magical was captured. A perfect funniest home video moment of Susie and mel on Beth's gym equipment. (We are aiming to have the footage up on our myspace site asap. I could try and describe it to you but it really wouldn't do it justice. Let's just say it's a miracle Susie wasn't seriously injured...You're intrigued now aren't you? Really, you just gotta see it. It's a fine moment in sport. A fine moment indeed).

From Kansas city we took the long flight down to the warmth of Tampa Florida, playing at Skippers Smokehouse. The buy-line of this venue is 'Skippers Smokehouse - We smoke everything!'. And lemme tell you viewers, they 'aint kiddin'.
For this little vegetarian it was slim pickin's for food, but as you do, i got hungry and tried my hand at asking whether there was indeed anything vegetarian on offer. I was answered with a "well honey, pretty much everything is meat, though we do have fried green tomatoes??... but to be honest, everything is pretty much double deep fried and everything is fried in with everything if you know what i mean?". I thanked her and turned to walk away when she said "Oh, but we do have a vegan burger, would you want that?' So there i sat with the smell of fried food frying eating my vegan burger.

Skippers' has great music and when the crowd gets going they get going. Even though it is smokey and fried and you feel a little like you're on Gilligan's island, you can't deny the energy.

A late night and early morning saw us boarding the big metal bird again making our way to Chico California. None of us even looked at the flight details for some strange reason, and i'm kinda glad we didn't. For we had thought that we would be in Chico in a couple of hours...? but 2 flights, a 3 hour drive, a 2 hour layover and some seriously dodgy airplane snacks later, we arrived in chico some 14hrs on. Sometimes it really pays to have no idea what you're in for.

truly, take it from me.

Oblivious Sam and the Oblivi-twins

x