Who's the Party Girl?!?!?

Ah yes...just returning from yet another fantastic weekend filled with Hookah memories.......

Friday I headed up to Grand Rapids, MI for a show I had been planning on going to for quite awhile now. My friend Kelly Jo let me and my friend Julie stay at her house for the night. She lives just outside of Grand Rapids.

We had an awesome time Friday night. Kelly Jo and some of her friends are vendors at a lot of the festivals we go to. They all make their own clothes, and make all kinds of fun stuff to sell. Kelly's friend Jenny, is making tails now..yes tails, so I sported a tail all night along with my little green pom poms on my head. At one point when I was talking to Eric ( My MAN!!!) he told me I had a nice tail...hehehe it made me laugh...but then again, I think the guy walks on water, so what else was I gonna do???

Anyway, the tails made for a lot of interesting conversation, and made it really easy to find eachother if we got separated.

Julie and I made it up there in just enough time for Kelly Jo to round up the rest of the gang, and off we went. The show was absolutely rockin'!!! I was so happy all night. It seemed like the songs would never end. They played one song right after another that I wanted to hear. When we saw Eric at the set break, he asked what the tails and the pom poms were all about. I told him we were the "party girls"...there were about ten of us with pom poms and tails. They have a song called "Party Girl," and I always like to think they are playing it for me, or at least with me in mind at the shows where we see eachother.. ( do I sound like I'm in Highschool....sorry if I do...) So, when we were talking to Eric about being the party girls, I told him we needed to hear that song...that I needed to hear that song. He gave us a hug, and was on his way.....in fact, he was a little late getting to the stage because of us....sorry Eric!!! They already had the lights off when he made his way to the back of the drumset. Oops!!!!!!

So, into the second set we go.....dancing our tails off!!! Sweating like a bunch of farmers, but smiling like little kids at Christmas....I couldn't have been much happpier!!!

We had aquired several sets of green beads (not the way some of you might be thinking...) and glitter for St. Patty's Day (Even though it was the next day) so we threw some beads up to Cliffy. First, he put them on and we were happy, then he took them off and started playing his bass with them during some real trippy part of one of their songs....it was crazy. It sounded like some psychedlic rock right out of the 70's....I loved it!!!

One of the things I love best about seeing Ekoostik Hookah is that you will rarely hear the same song in a few nights time. No two sets or shows will ever be exactly the same, and sometimes, you'll even catch the guys arguing over which song they want to play next. Just when I thought the second set was about to end, Eric stood up and pointed to me. He said "This is for you Alli!!" And next thing I know, they're playing "Party Girl" WOOOO HOOOOOOO.....Eric told me at the end of the night that they played it just for all us party girls!!!

Then......OMG they closed the show with "Comfortably Numb." I just about freaked out!!! I've been watching this David Gilmour DVD at home fore the last few weeks, and that is the song I keep watching over and over again...it puts me in a trance or something...and my favorite band covered it....Wow.....I'm a happy little girl right now!!!!

After the show, we hung out at the venue for awhile trying to get a peek at the boys. When I was about to give up and walk out, Eric came flying out from behind stage with a broken drum stick in his hand saying..."WAIT.....Alli, I have something for you!!!!" So, I now have a couple of Eric's drumsticks....he only gives them to me when he breaks them....apparently, they're pretty expensive. I only know that because I tried to get one Saturday night too, and he explained it then. OK, I guess I'll have to be happy with just the couple I already have.

When we got back to Kelly Jo's house, I finally cracked my bottle of wine that had been waiting all night. I was the designated driver, as usual, so I had to wait to get someplace safe before MY drinking began. We hung out and listened to her friend Johnny play the guitar. All of us girls were up nearly all night dancing and shaking our tails in Kelly Jo's living room......we're all so silly!!! It was a blast!!
This is Kelly Jo and I wrapped up in eachothers tails.........

On the way home Saturday, I was wishing that my Hookah trip wasn't over for the weekend already. There was another show coming up....their St. Patty's Day show....in Covington, KY Saturday night. I kept thinkging to myself there was no way in hell I was going to be able to go. I was supposed to be on call for work. I told Julie that if, by some miracle, someone felt really sorry for me, maybe I could go, but that was a long shot. I decided that wasn't going to happen, but at almost the same time, I decided I WAS GOING to this show.....they're only three hours away...how could I pass this up.

Knowing that I looked like total crap, I walked into ER only to hear a Dr. say, "Allison, you look terrible, are you sick?" Oh yes....I was so sick that I just couldn't work Saturday night...there was no way. So, within a few minutes, I left the ER with a dr's note saying I couldn't work until Monday. You know what that meant....Covington....here we come!!!

I talked my Julie into going with me. But I would have gone alone if she couldn't have gone. I knew Kellyanne and her Hubby, Dave would be there, and even if there wasn't anyone Iknew personally, there's always familiar faces, and a happy crowd. I would've gone either way.

So, after a couple hours of getting cleaned up and running some errands, I was off to pick up Julie and hit the road again. We left town at about 7:00 Saturday night. The show started at 10:00...we missed the first song, but we still did pretty good on time. I ran to the front to make myself known right away. It wasn't hard to get anyone's attention, because I was wearing a bright green fuzzy hat....which was a re-gift from Christmas...and now Cliffy has it. I tossed it to him during second set. I knew he'd put it on...he's always a lot of fun like that. He also asked us for some green beads to play his bass with again...that was just as fun as seeing it the night before!!









Here's Cliffy playing with our green beads..........








We found Kellyanne and Dave pretty soon after we got there. They were right up front, just like I thought :-) I got a few pictures, but not very many that turned out well...we'll have to see what I can dig up. I did get a good one of me and her, and her green bear :-)

When we got to set break, we were all just hanging around our spots up front and watching the guys mingling with the crowd, when all of a sudden, we hear this loud announcement over head saying "Everyone must exit the building immediately!!!" The fire alarm was going off!! CRAP!!!! I grabbed my camera, my coat, and my purse, and decided now was a good time to use those EXIT signs that are by the back of the stage.....good choice...it got us right out back in the alley with the band. There weren't a whole lot of people back there, so that gave Kellyanne the chance to play paparazzi!!! That's what we kept calling her all night :-) She got pictures of herself with every single band member. I kinda forgot about my camera, because I was just hanging out with them like they were my buddies.....after seeing Kellyanne's pictures, I wish I would've thought about it!!

At one point, Kellyanne grabbed me and pulled me down to the other side of the building. Cliffy had pulled out his banjo, which we don't get to hear much, and started playing a little for us in the alley. It was awesome!!! I got a picture of Kellyanne with him holding his banjo, but you couldn't see it. She's got some great pictures from the show on her blog...you'll have to check them out!!! I did steel a couple....Hope you don't care Kelly!!!!

The set break ended up lasting about twenty minutes longer than we had hoped, so we actually lost a couple songs out of the deal. However, you don't often get the chance to sit with Cliff playing the banjo in that close of a setting...it was worth sacrificing a couple songs. It seemed like the second set was very short, but looking back at the setlist, it wasn't bad....we just got spoiled the night before.....that setlist was enormous!!!!

I was very excited to hear "Party Girl" again....they hardly ever play a song two nights in a row...I was extatic!! Also, during the second set, I tossed my green St. Patty's Day hat up to Cliff...I knew he'd put it on...he's a good sport that way. I couldn't have chosen a better time to throw it either, because they were just beginning to play "The Irish Ballad," so the hat went very well with the song. He wore it the rest of the show....I thought I might get it back, but I didn't...it's OK though....I could never be mad at Cliffy!!!

We shook our tails off again, and before we knew it, it was time to head back to good ol' Indiana. Julie and I did get a chance to talk to most of the guys after the show was over. I talked to Steve Sweney and finally got to ask him if he for sure got that copy of the picture I had him sign a couple weeks ago. I told him I just wanted to make sure because it went through several different hands before it got to his. I just wanted to make sure, and I was very happy to see his face light up when he figured out what picture I was talking about. He wanted to know again who had taken it. (Ryan, of course) And just gave me a huge smile after he realized what picture it was....a huge smile coming from Sweney says a lot!!!

It was a long ride home, but it only seemed like a couple hours. Julie stayed awake with me the whole way. We stopped and ate at one of those little greasy Waffle Houses...I love those little dives off the highway!!! We stuffed ourselves with some breakfast, and hit the road again. It was probably about 2:30 am by this time. We made it home by 4:30 or 5:00 AM....so we were only gone for about ten hours.....that's less than one shift at work for me.

When I got home, the last thing I could think about was sleep. I sat down and wrote a letter to Clint telling him all about my weekend. It ended up being five pages long...front and back :-) Then, I wrote down as many songs from the setlists as I could remember, and wrote the little things that happened, like getting Eric's drumstick, and cliffy wearing my hat. It makes it much easier to differenciate between shows when you have little details like that to fall back on.

After about 14 hours sleep Sunday, I was all set to go and feed my baby who was returning home from St. Louis. He had a kickball game on Sunday...yes, we're on a kickball league in St.Louis...but that's a whole different blog!!!