Astra Heights Redux

Timothy has left the building.

LEILANI HERE.

As a non-member of the band I  have no business writing about this, maybe.  Maybe one of the guys should write about it.  But none have so I'm going to.

Some of you already know that we have come to see the passing of an era in the life of Astra Heights.  Little brother Timothy has officially decided to remain in the Houston area and pursue a solo career.  He is now an ex-Astra Heights boy.

I have not spoken to him since I heard the news because I am so sad.  I think I better wait a little bit or I'll just end up conveying how much I wish it weren't the case.  When he was first planning his "leave of absence" to Houston, I told him I was mad at him: "You're leaving me!" I said, half kidding, because I have an abandonment complex and because of course what everyone does is all about me. 

"No, Leilani, it's like a month and I'm coming back," he said. 

"You better," I told him.  Now he's not.

But I'm not mad.  The man's gotta do what the man's gotta do.  I get that.  Still, I'm sad. 

In September 2006, my husband and I separated.  In February of 2007, while everything was still fresh, Mark and Timmy needed a place to stay and came to live with me for a little bit at Westgate.  (Westgate is what we call the palatial manor of which I was once the Lady).  I met him once one fine summer day when he was off to play soccer with his brothers, and then he was suddenly my roommate. It was with Timmy and Mark that I had the First Fun: hanging out, laughing, talking, and generally having such a good time that I first realized, "Hey!  I can have fun again.  Right on!"  I have an especially vivid image of sitting back on the couch next to Mark while Timmy regaled us with his perfect blow-by-blow re-enactment of Michael Jackson's video for "Rock with You."  I also remember struggling with a tough bag of potato chips for about 25 minutes, crinkle crankle crinkle crankle, wondering when this noise was ever going to cases, when Timmy aburptly grabbed the bag.  "You need some help with that, Leilani?" he said.  Smarty pants.  He then proceeded to struggle with it for ten minutes of his own.

He'd only been living there for about three days--hardly knew me--when I got a terrible email that just broke me up.  I was crying.  Timmy was the only person in the house.  Timmy plopped right down next to me like he'd known me forever and held me.  I think of that impulse as very typically Timmy.

My daughters call Timmy the Tickle Monster.

Oh the things we're gonna miss.

No more of his cute twisty-shuffling-feet dance, the one that makes him look sometimes very sexy and sometimes like a chicken imitating James Brown.

No more of those death-defying sunglasses at night, on stage.

No more interactive guitar playing.

No more of the things he says to his brothers about Babes on tour that I'm not supposed to hear because I'm a lady.  Old Eagle Eyes.  I go, "Timmy, what did you just tell your brother about that girl?" and he goes, "Oh never you mind, young lady."

Timmy always rallied us for Apples to Apples (or "Apples and Oranges," as, to his mirth, I always used to mis-call it).  Notice we haven't played Apples to Apples in a very long time?

Timmy, if you're happy, then I'm happy for you.  But I'm going to miss you.

It is the Morales Matriarch's Birthday today.

Happy Birthday Theresa!

Unaware that her birthday was coming up, last week I asked Theresa to complete this survey.  Now it seems like a good way to celebrate the incredible woman who mothered 4/5 of Astra Heights as well as 7 other children.  (Bernard--send me your mama's number; we gotta get some of this info on you, too.) 

Per the usual rules, boys, your mother had only twenty minutes to complete this survey, so go easy on her!

1.  Who threw the most wicked tantrums? 

I don't remember wicked, but Joshua threw the funniest.

And please describe said tantrum in one sentence or less.

When Josh would get really angry, he would tear off his pamper, and if he could get the door open, would run outside and tear it off.  I guess to make his point! And it was well taken!

2.  Who was the quietest baby?

Mark

3.  Who was the loudest--as in crying as an infant? 

James

And loudest, as in--talking and yelling all the time?

Several share this honor- Kathy, Phillip, Liz, Tim.

4.  Who as a youngster required the most spanking?

I take the fifth.

5.  Who charmed her/himself out of trouble the most frequently and successfully, and how would s/he do it?

Phillip, he was a natural flirt and would talk with this sly grin on his face and make you laugh. Kathy was a smooth talker and try to talk her way out of things.

6.  Who as a baby had the strongest will and/or was the most stubborn?

Marie. Once she made up her mind, that was it! But it served her well, she used it for good purposes.

7.  Who as a baby had the wickedest trigger temper?

Sean, (but he was very ill as a child).

8.  Who as a baby shared the best?

Several of my children share this honor- Marie, Liz, Kathy and Tim.

9.  Who believed in magic (Santa, the tooth fairy, monsters, fairies, Easter bunny, etc.) the longest?

Gee, that's tough. I don't know. i think Kathy

10.  What were each of the Astra boys like when you took them to their first day of school?

Mark, James, and Josh were very quiet, sad, and cried. Tim, on the other hand, went to his kindergarten teacher, stuck out his hand and shook hers, saying" Hi, I'm Timothy Morales, glad to meet you!" She and I were pleasantly surprized by his attitude.

11.  Who as a toddler was the pickiest eater?

Kathy and Joseph

12.  Who was the most mischievous?

Really, it's hard to say, they all got into trouble at one point or another.

13.  Who was the bossiest?

Well, just from sheer necessity, Marie had to hold her own. She also had to keep her brothers in line! Then Phillip, Kathy

14. Finally, please share with us a memory of all the little Astra boys at once . . . something they did together, for example. 

Well, they were always very creative! They were always drawing, making up plays, little skits or acts, making up games. Their dad and I had bought them little stuffed animals at Hershey Park in Pennsylvania, and they made up a little skit with their animals. They had us come up into one of their bedrooms and put it on for us. They held the stuffed animals on the bed (they made it the stage) as they sat behind the bed. It was hilarious- their dialogue, their acting, the voices they made up for their animals, the little songs they had them sing, just everything about it was funny and creative!! They ranged in age from about 10 to 4 years old. I could go on and on! There are a whole lot of these collaborations!

SXSW Survey

Leilani in an email to Astra Heights: "To recap SXSW. You have fifteen minutes to answer.  Look at the clock.  Go!"

1.  When you reflect upon your state of mind during SXSW, what word first comes to mind?

• James -  “Blurred yet focused”
•  Mark – “party.  duh.”
•  Bernard – “Blurry. Mostly from the meds I was using to keep my back pain at bay.
•  Joshua – “Yikes...”
•  Timothy – “insanity”

2.  What were your favorite 5 minutes of all of SXSW?

• James – “Dancing with family and friends at Project Jenny Project Jan”
• Mark  – “standing on bench watching everyone dance to Project Jenny Project Jan”
• Bernard – “Crossing a small bridge near the lake and seeing turtles and fish sunning themselves between shopping carts and old tires.”
• Joshua – “Dancing during the Project Jenny, Project Jan show on our last night in Austin.”
• Timothy – “eating with my family”

3.  What were your least favorite 5 minutes of all of SXSW?

• James – “At the end loading gear on Sunday morning after being completely spent physically and mentally”
• Mark – “walking to hotel room and being stopped at 5am by two lame dudes in lobby.”
• Bernard – “Driving around looking for a place to eat and returning to almost the exact place we started from.”
• Joshua – “Trying to work out having to pick up one of my cymbals that was left at one of the bars we played at.”
• Timothy – “loading and unloading gear”

4.  What was the funniest moment of/made you laugh the hardest at SXSW?

• James – “Way too many to recall”
• Mark – left it blank
• Bernard – “Seeing Gionne roll her eyes.”
• Joshua – “Probably seeing our friends from L.A. who were there wearing cowboy hats and actin' a fool!”
• Timothy – “hanging out with some of my friends from highschool”

5.  How many hours did you sleep while at SXSW?

• James – “Total around 20”
• Mark – “more like how many minutes”
• Bernard – “Enough actually.”
• Joshua – “Not enough”
• Timothy – “i don't know of this sleep you speak of”

6.  Which show was your favorite to play and why?

• James – “Definitely the Scoot Inn, it was a little after noon, everybody was tired, there weren't many people except for the people working the bar, but the energy within the band felt so awesome and we sounded exceptionally good.”
• Mark – “VIMBY, no pressure, no big crowd, just us like we are in rehearsal.”
• Bernard – “Our proper showcase at Lambert's was solid.”
• Joshua – “Our official SXSW showcase at Lambert's BBQ. It was crowded and I was amazingly relaxed and ready to go.”
• Timothy – “my favorite show was our showcase at Lambert's BBQ, because they had these amazing blues musicians rocking out upstairs”

7.  What did you miss the most while you were on the road?

• James – “I'm going to be sweet here and say I missed my significant other.  It was truly a memorable experience and it would have been great for her to have been a part of it.”
• Mark – “my kid-robot, Remy.”
• Bernard – ““Sanity”
• Joshua – “My girlfriend and family”
• Timothy – “i missed that beautiful california weather, but i found ways to compensate”

8.  How much did you drink?

• James – “More than 10 times my body weight”
• Mark – “a ton o' beer.”
• Bernard – “Not much.”
• Joshua – “More than I should have, though it wasn't much”
• Timothy – “enough to make Dionysus look like a light weight”

9.  What did you drink?

• James – “Lots of Shiners, Lone Stars, and Red Bull/vodkas”
• Mark - Mark – “just beer man, ton of cheap beer.”
• Bernard – “At one party we attended, the drinks did flow and I had a gina nd tonic, mojito and bloody mary. All were excellent not to mention free”
• Joshua – “Mixed drinks and a maybe one or two beers”
• Timothy – “anything and everything that was handed to me...but i do recall having a vodka that was infused with chocolate and cherries. Needless to say....it was the bomb diggity”

10.  Describe the moment when you were drunkest (that you can remember).

• James – “At some party at SXSW, and the outside patio floor was covered in wood chips which made it really hard for me to walk without looking like a new born baby deer.”
• Mark – “was never that irresponsible..too many people and places to meet.”
• Bernard – “Never got drunk. Who do you take is for Motley Crue?”
• Joshua – “I didn't really get drunk while I was there. I kept it very moderate.”
• Timothy – “walking with my friend Derek to our other friend's apartment, but not before stopping at 711 to buy a 1/4lb. hot dog and a dozen of donuts. Tasty”

11.  What piece of clothing did you wear the most at SXSW?

• James – “My jeans, I will hopefully be wearing them everyday until the next SXSW.”
• Mark – “I pretty much wore the same outfit every minute, hour and day of the festival.”
• Bernard – “Sunglasses”
• Joshua – “Pieces: Black jeans, black hoodie, black jacket, black boots”
• Timothy – “some black jeans that were beyond the point of return”

12.    Name the 2 best bands that you saw.

• James – “Scissors for Lefty, Project Jenny Project Jan”
• Mark – “Scissors for Lefty, Project Jenny Project Jan”
• Bernard – “Shane Alexander and Jenni Alpert”
• Joshua – “Mieko from L.A. (I think that's how you spell her name), and Project Jenny, Project Jan.”
• Timothy – “project jenny/project jane and von iva”

13.  Share something that either Phil, your mother, your father, or a sibling said to you during SXSW.

• James – “I can't remember exact statements, I was just happy to have them all there.”
• Mark - “Mark, Eagle Eyes 12 O'clock.”
• Bernard – “Phil said "Just give them the hits!"
• Joshua – “My brother Phil (At Lambert's BBQ): "You guys should really thank the soundguy, man, he mixed you guys PERFECT." ... I did find him and thanked him”
• Timothy – “my mom asked me if i wanted to move back to Texas”

14.  What did you like best about the city of Austin?

• James – “The laid back casual feel, yet people are very active cause there are so many things to do outdoors.”
• Mark – “everything.  I miss that city”
• Bernard – “Cool people and good food.”
• Joshua – “The use of limestone in the old buildings.”
• Timothy – “seeing everyone being themselves....and BBQ!!”

15.    What word best retrospectively summarizes your experience of SXSW?

• James – “Insanity”
• Mark – “fun busyness or funny business...but that's like more than one word.”
• Bernard – “Wish I brought my fishing rod.”
• mind?
• Joshua – “Nice...”
• Timothy – “is it possible to describe such a spectrum of glory and excitement in one word? i think not.”

In Briefs: a survey

Leilani in an email to Astra Heights: “You have ten minutes from the moment you open this email.  Look at the clock.  Now answer the following questions.  When time's up, please send it to me.  I’ll compile for the blog.”

1.  A song that changed your life.

• Mark – “'Babe, I'm gonna leave you' by Led Zeppelin . . . I was 19 going on 20 living by myself in Austin, discovering music without any one suggesting it and I happened upon Led Zeppelin....When I heard that song...it blew my mind...so then i went out and bought all their albums except 'physical graffiti'
• James - "’There Goes the Fear’ - Doves  . . . .I think it was 2002 the year leading up to our move from Houston.  I was sitting at my office cubicle for my computer job and I saw the video online and the imagery and music just struck me, like what the hell am I doing here?  I need to go pursue music wherever it takes me.”
• Tim – “Because - The Beatles”
• Joshua – “On Eagle's Wings"
• Bernard – “So many to think of. Perhaps something random like Raindrops Keep Falling On My head”

2.  A warm memory of your mother from before you were 12. 

• Mark – “Caring for me after my hospital visit in Pennsylvania . . . I was in there for a severe Asthma attack.
• James – “Taking me to class on the first day of school for first grade.  I was crying my eyes I out, I was such a girly momma's boy.”
• Tim – “Sweet Theresa rubbed Vix on my chest after having an asthma attack.”
• Joshua – “Her getting ready and always wanting to look pretty for my dad when he'd come home from work.”
• Bernard – “Getting me from the middle of the deep end when I jumped in not knowing how to swim.”

3.  Something your father said more than once that you never forgot. 

• Mark – “All a man has is his word and his work ethic.”
• James – “I'm proud of you”
• Tim – “There's a time to be a child, and a time to be a man.”
• Joshua – “To respect women. Mainly to regard women as God's creations and to keep a pure heart and mind.”
• Bernard - "Daddy Fix (whenever something was broken)"

4.  Your most embarrassing moment as a teenager. 

• Mark – “mmmm, swinging from a rope on a tree, rope breaks, I fall into deep mud puddle, I go to shower, I slip and tumble out of the shower onto the floor.  it was a bad day.”
• James – “Not having a license and driving my senior prom date around in my parents' van.  Which now that I think about it, is kind of cool.......well, maybe not.”
• Tim – “my six grade teacher called me out in front of the class for not wearing deodorant....bitch.lol. Thus, setting the mood for bad hygiene up until now”
• Joshua – “Getting in trouble with my parents after looking up nasties on the internet. What man?! I was young once...”
• Bernard – “Lots of those. Maybe being caught ... uh do you really want to know? I don;t think it would reflect well on the band. Let's just say that I "had" a dark side.”

5.  The first movie you saw in a theatre. 

• Mark – “don't remember, but I remember Return of the Jedi.  Thanks Princess Leia for the memories ;)”
• James – “Die Hard is the first theatre experience I remember”
• Tim – “the first one I remember was Jurassic Park”
• Joshua – “I think it was ‘Predator’”
• Bernard – “The Yellow Submarine I think.”

6.  The last movie you saw in a theatre (as of Feb 15). 

• Mark – “Does a seedy XXX theatre count?  I kid, I kid...The Water Horse
• James – “Cloverfield”
• Tim – “don't remember”
• Joshua – “Juno”
• Bernard – “I don't remember but I am aiming to see Juno. Anyone want to take me (even if you;ve seen it before)?”

7.  Boxers or tighty-whiteys?

• Mark – “Briefs”
• James – “Not a big fan of boxers, I have colored briefs.”
• Tim – “Briefs”
• Joshua – “It varies (back off man!)”
• Bernard – “Boxers”

8.  Do you have a tattoo?  If so, of what?  If not, what would you get? 

• Mark – “Maybe a tattoo of my son, maybe a tattoo of Astra Heights”
• James - “No, I'm not sure what I would get that's why I don't have one.”
• Tim – “I have my last name on my right shoulder, and the band's initials on the back of either arm”
• Joshua – “Two religious symbols”
• Bernard – “Yes, an original Leo Zuluetta Malaysian/Borneo influenced Pisces symbol”

9.  What was your high school GPA?

• Mark – “I made B's all the way thru....so maybe like a 2.9, 3.0?”
• James – “Oh jeez, I don't remember but I was an A & B student for the most part."
• Tim – “don’t know”
• Joshua – “A 3.0 or something like that”
• Bernard – “3.75”

10.  Did you ever cheat on a test?  Were you ever caught?

• Mark – “Nope, see question number 3”
• James – “I was never caught, but yes I have cheated on tests.”
• Tim – “I cheated once when i broke my hand, I hid the answers in my cast...never got caught”
• Joshua – “Cheat, yes. Caught, no.”
• Bernard – “A few times but rarely. Never caught.”

Day after the Showcase

Leilani here.

So in keeping with tradition, let's begin this blog with Timothy's lady friend Kristen again, who so kindly let so many of us stinky touring people sleep on her floor so many nights:

She is hot, isn't she?  But don't get any ideas.  She has a boyfriend.  Even Rock-star Timmy knew he couldn't charm her away from her one true love. . . . Thanks Kristen for everything!  I said it before and I'll say it again: You are one bad-ass woman.

So the day after the showcase began with a mellow show at the Scoot:

Everyone was feeling good from the triumph of the night before.  There were also many felines roaming the premises:

Cool Cat #1:

Cool Cat #2:

Cool Cat #3:

Because the gig was at midday after a late night for basically every person in Austin, things got off to a slow start.  So there was some waiting to be done.  Some of us used the time keep abreast of our correspondence.  Here are some text-crazy maniacs:

Once the show got started, the band was nice and loose:

Being at the same level as the audience was a nice change, and Mark and Timothy responded by breaking down the fourth wall and coming out into the room to dance, play, and sing.  Mark wore himself out and ended up spawled on the floor, a dance move which, infortunately, was not photographed.

The next stop was the Cedar Door.  This was an outdoor venue under a tent.  Once again, the place filled up just before Astra Heights began to play and the show was rip-roaring fun.  It was also a great photo-op.

Loyal friends Sarah, Gionne, and Bree.

Girls on FIRE!

Second oldest brother and original Astra Heights member, Philip, with his wife Alyssa and the baby girl they'll meet soon.  As I understand it, this is the guy who wrote the guitar riff in "The Whole World Changes" which Bernard later customized for the new line-up.

The ever hospitable Andrew and Lorraine.  Thanks again, you two.

The band onstage for their penultimate SXSW show, the one all of these fine people are spectating.

Phil, band manager.

These are two of my favorite buddies.  There's Marcus, who I hope to marry someday, and James's best friend ever since high school, Bobby.  Does Bobby look a little crazy?  That's because he is.  But a handsome kind of crazy, dontcha think?

The whole gang: Tyler (LA), Kristen (Austin), Timmy (AH), Bree (San Antonio), Mark (AH), Sarah (LA), Bobby (Houston), and Dave (LA).  Marcus (Austin) peers over the top.

I can't tell you how much I love this picture: Liz, Marisa, Rebecca, Rachel and, in the background, my future husband Marcus.

We saw two bands after these pictures were taken that I thought were great: Nico Vega and Scissors for Lefty.  Another great day for the boys at SXSW.

Day of the Showcase

LEILANI HERE

So Wednesday after all the partying, right before we got to Kristen’s to sleep, Melanie is driving the van with James in front and Kristen, Timothy, and me in the back.  We’re getting a bit lost because it’s late and Melanie’s tired and there seems to be some strange skepticism about whether or not Kristen can get us to her own home.  Why do I say this?  Well, she offers some directions and James, with the enthusiasm only a few to three dozen beers can provide, blurts out,

“Kristen, you’re so fucking lucky you’re hot, otherwise I wouldn’t listen to you.”

Hmmmmm. . . . there's a lot that could be said about this particular statement.  I'll leave it to you. In any case, we laughed at James uproariously, Timothy came to Kristen's rescue, Kristen rescued herself, and I promised to blog it and, hopefully, embarrass James a bit.  So there.

As I said, we slept at Kristen’s.  The next morning, Thursday, was blissful.  I woke up among friends, they dropped me off at a coffee shop so I could write that first blog (3/13), little birds were singing, the sky was bleu bleu bleu, a whole day of adventure was just opening up.  I wandered the city alone for a while, soaking it all in and reveling at all the strange mishaps and coincidences that brought me, Dr. Leilani Riehle, ex-married mother of two and professor of Victorian literature, to this juncture in time, roaming a pretty, music-soaked city under a blue morning sky with soft fresh wind tossing everything on the streets all higgledy-piggledy.  God truly does work in mysterious ways.  Thank goodness.

Anyhow, Astra Heights were scheduled to play at the Orchid in the late afternoon.  Here they are sound-checking:

And here they are warming up their voices and soundchecking:

They really do start to function like one mind and body after enough time on the road.  I'm saving the dirtiest examples of this phenomenon for my book, however.  You'll have to wait.

The Astra Heights audience continued to grow.  By the 4.45 pm show, a good pack of listeners had arrived.   Look:

Aside from starting right on time, at 4.45, only to be shut down unceremoniously because the band in the other room was running late, and then starting over minutes later, the show went smoothly.  The guys seemed satisfied:

And then, the next thing you know, it's time to load-out and take off for Lambert's where load-in is just minutes away.

Ah, Lambert's for THE SHOWCASE.  The boys were tired, the day had been pretty exhausting already, and the venue seemed to be quite some distance from the heart of SXSW.  Hmmmmmm. . . . .on top of that, this is the band who showcased before Astra Heights.  Look at the crowd they drew!

They were very tight, they reminded me of the Ramones, and for some reason I imagined that all four of them were life long buddies who now taught at the same high school.  I had an English teacher whose single act of ongoing baby-boomer rebellion was to refuse to ever wear a button-up shirt and tie.  Instead, he would wear an ironed t-shirt neatly tucked into his pants, which were belted with thin black leather and a little brass buckle.  What a wild-and-crazy- anti-establishment guy, right?  Ditto for these guys.

There were two people in the audience during these guys' show and four people after.  It was a little nerve-wracking, waiting for the venue to fill up, but fill up it did indeed.

Notice Josh is carrying around his stool.  He does that before a show, kind of like a baseball player will wear his underwear backwards or tape the same photo to his midsection to ensure the continuance of the winning streak.  Josh carries his stool around so that it looks like a platter for his head.  It's just one of those Joshua things.

And the Morales/Ramirez beauties arrived!  Check out these stunners:

That's cousin Rachel in the hat, then cousin Rebecca, then Liz (a sister), and cousin Marisa who, by the way, is about three inches away from being a licensed medical doctor.  Brains, beauty, and bad-ass attitudes . . . these girls got it all.

The Morales family showed up en masse and joy filled the house.  Spirits were high as Astra Heights took the stage.

They launched right into it.  Literally.  Bernard jumped--I'm not kidding--about 3 and 1/2 feet into the air for his first guitar blast.  It was a spectacular show.  I don't think they could have wished for better.  Even the evening's big mistake was a gem: for the last song, Choices, Mark steps up to the mic and softly sings, "We are filling up the hours. . . " but can't figure out why the band isn't in sync with him.  "Hold on, start over," he says, the band members look at each other, Mark turns to the mic and this time sings . . . . "We are filling up the hours . . . "  Wait, his face says.  Something's not right!  I'm singing the wrong song!  So he returns to the mic with a big sheepish grin, opens his mouth, and . . . can't remember the first words.

"Maybe I should leave," Bernard reminds him.
"How appropriate," Mark laughs  "Maybe I should leave."

The photos of the performance and afterwards are compiled in a photo album in the sidebar.  But, really, if you want to get an idea of how good it felt to watch Astra Heights that night, just take a look at these two:

Mr. and Mrs. Morales, proud parents.

An action shot.

And a mother and her boys afterwards, triumphant:

With the showcase behind them, now Astra Heights' real fun begins. Watch out Austin!

The Morning After

LEILANI HERE

Well ladies and gentlemen, it's first thing in the morning in Houston and I'm writing this while surrounded by sleeping rock stars.  They're on the couch, on the floor, in every bed, in the van and, I think, there's even one in the bathtub.  Melanie, MEredith (the lead singer for Pash, who opened last night at the Mink), and yours truly provide the only MUCH-NEEDED estrogen around here. 

Friends the things these eyes have seen and these ears have heard in the last twelve hours.  But you'll have to wait for the book for that stuff.  This is a blog, and I'm keeping it clean.

Seriously, it was a great show at the Mink and I got to meet the boys' sister, Liz and cousins Rebecca and Rachel, whom I'd felt like I knew through months tracking MySpace.  (I think I must have said that to them three times last night: "I feel like I know you from MySpace!"  They'd smile and nod like they could even hear a word I was saying.  The bands were LOUD.)  After the show we remained at the Mink for what felt like hours, with one guy who worked there (not DUNNICK, but the other guy, in the hat, I didn't catch his name), every hour or so standing on a stool and pleading with us to please leave.  We booed the first time he told us to leave, and he shouted, "Fucking your fucking boos, close your tabs and the get the hell out of here."  Or something like that.  He wore a smile on his face so after an alarmed pause we knew it was okay to laugh. Cool guy.

From the Mink we went to cousin Sean's house, where (it felt like) there were three girls for every guy.  Poor guys, it must get overwhelming.  At one point Melanie, Mark and I watched through a plate glass window as Timmy worked the living room to "Oh Darling!" by the Beatles.  He started at the stereo, swung Ashley around; went to the couch and gave Patty a kiss; serenaded Lily with his finger on her chin; went over to his brother Josh and did his signature gyration move.  At this point I Iooked away and, when I looked back, Ashley and one other girl were on their hands and knees singing, throwing their heads back and rising up in a dance shake to shout out "I"LL NEVER DO YOU NO WRONG!".  Amazing.

The fun never stops.

In a matter of minutes (well, maybe one hour) we hit the road for Tulsa.  What I keep hearing about this roadtrip to Tulsa is, "Darn, it's going to be crowded on that bus."  There are eight seats and eight of us: Melanie, Astra Heights, Sean, and me. Hmmmmmmm.  I like to think of it as cozy.

Sharing tabulation:
17 mints
9 cigarettes
Bobby bought me a drink at the Mink
Someone handed me a beer at Sean's.  I got yelled at for it later by the girls, it turns out, who purchased them.
A dozen warm Shipley's donuts (Mark drove me in the van.)