It's been a very interesting weekend.
We blew into Devils Lake Friday afternoon and ate with my family, as usual. Later on we headed over to the Paddlewheel Lounge to see how Tab and her family were holding up. At this point, I have to say I like the Paddlewheel Lounge. It's dark, it wasn't too crowded. I can understand if Tab gets sick of it, but I think it's cool.
Anyway, everyone seemed to be doing alright. They had come back from the visitation not too long before, so I imagine they could have used a night out.
Jess arrived before too long, then had to leave again to go get a gift she's been keeping for me. Everyone apparently already knew about it, but they were pretty good at not spilling the beans. Imagine my surprise when I opened my eyes to see a big ol' banjo sitting in front of me! Her dad had given it to her a while back. Then she got a newer one from him, and wondered if he'd mind if she gave me the old one, since she knew I loved my string isntruments and could give it a loving home. If I haven't already said so a billion times, Thank you Jess! I appreciate it very much, and I plan on evolving a little death-bluegrass out of it just as soon as I get more familiar with it.
Later on that night, Derek started trying to convince me & Kevin to go to the Big John Bates concert with him. I kept telling him I couldn't on this short of notice, I'm here to see my family, can't afford it, blah blah blah. He told me not to worry about that stuff, it was taken care of, blah blah blah. Finally Karissa told me I had to go, and Tab told me I had to go, and Kevin, and so forth.
On Saturday morning we went to Tab's brother's funeral. Funerals don't bother me, but I hate to see the looks of grief on my friends' faces. Comes with the territory, I suppose. And someone's cell phone really did ring during the service, and that person really did answer it and whisper, "Can I call you back?". Whoever that was, we all heard you.
It was a nice service, though, and I took the opportunity after the cemetery part finished to go visit Dane Garcia's grave. He killed himself almost 2 years ago now, and I feel bad that I never got around to it. We were never really close in high school, but he was a friend, nonetheless.
That afternoon, Derek, Kevin and I took off for Fargo. We had plenty of time (too much, in fact), so we tried out HuHot, which was really good except I don't like feeling like cattle with buffet-style lines. But we got to watch our noodles & meat & sauces get fried up on that huge frying surface (what the hell is that called, anyway?) and speculated on what they did with the excess food/grease/water that fell into the middle receptacle (I thought whoever lost some sort of bet would have to eat it).
We checked into the motel and took a cab to the Aquarium, where we found out the show didn't actually start for another 2 hours. So naturally we hoofed it over to the Northern and saw some pretty ladies before coming back to see the last couple songs playd by the opening band The Hot Button, which was pretty cool. I'd wanted to see them, too, so i was happy to find out they opened for BJB that night.
The Big John Bates concert was awesome! We got to talk quite a bit with their drummer, J.T. before the show--this guy couldn't have been nicer. He wasn't in a real hurry anywhere, and was happy to mingle us. He even had an old short-brim fedora on, explaining that his previous hat was stolen by a girl, but this one was given to him the next night by another girl. I told him that I'd bring him a back up next time they were in Fargo--now I've written it, so hold me to it!
The show itself was great. We stood in the exact same place as last time, and toward the end, Derek got a bit of bravery, and when they invited people up on stage, he hopped up and danced his little heart out. After a little coercion, he managed to pull Kevin up, too. I wanted to be in on this, so I hopped up too, and we three had a shindig on stage with the band.
After the show, we were hanging around trying to see if there was an after-party. I was personally invited by Big John himself to go to the Hot Rod Shop (yeah yeah, it's because I was standing there trying to congratulate him for a good show when the guy throwing the party told him about it and he was being nice, but it was still cool). I tried asking the after-party guy, a big dude in a cowboy hat, where the Hot Rod Shop is, and couldn't have been more ignored. After that we decided the hell with it! We don't need to make asses of ourselves trying to crash an afterparty we're not really invited to!
While Derek and Kevin were getting ready to leave, I asked J.T. (paying attention? he's the drummer) if they needed help loading their gear, and I totally got to help the band pack up! You might be asking why that's so special? Since they're not a stadium band or anything, they have to load up their own shit. That means the band and the dancers had to do it all. Since they put on a great show, I thought it'd be awesome to help them afterward. Big John didn't really do much, he mingled a bit with the ladies afterward. But I got to hang out with J.T., sCare-oline, and the Voodoo Dollz (dancers) Little Miss Risk and Lola. A couple seemed to be having a long night at that point, but they were all very nice to me and very appreciative of the help. I even got to carry the guitars to the trailer!
Afterward, I made my way back to Derek & Kevin, who were waiting in the cold for me. As we waited for our cab, we were visited by a drunk guy on a bike who asked me for hash. He was nice enough, so I let him down politely. Back at the motel, we ordered pizza that we had to cancel after waiting over an hour and a half, and Derek got pretty sick. Oh yeah, and he got the Jagermeister bottle the band was drinking from! One of the bar employees gave it to him because he said he was in the band, and right away he ran over to Big John and somehow got the whole band to sign it.
Sunday morning found me surprisingly awake and doing well. We made it to Grand Forks before Derek finally let me drive his pickup, and we made it back by about noon.
I felt really bad on Saturday because Isabella didn't want me to leave. She even cried a little, but was better when April brought Aiden over. When I came back Sunday, we hung out for a bit watching cartoons before she was spirited away by my mom & niece to Walmart.
It was maybe one of the strangest weekends I've ever encountered so far.
