Sadness and Celebrations

My sister Donna insisted that I stay in Raleigh and follow through with all the plans for this week in spite of Doug's passing. She said that Doug would have insisted on it. Hell, he'd be the first guy putting a drink in my hand. She's right, of course, but I'm having strange and surreal thoughts all day yesterday and today. It's just weird to be celebrating my birthday all week with friends when my sister is having the worst week of her life. I don't know what to make of my conflicted feelings.

Evidently, Mom had a couple more strokes yesterday. Her health is failing rapidly…

******* A bit more about last night *******

I went to dinner last night with my good road friends Blaine Brinton and Marcel Matthews. Blaine is the Live Nation rep on the Linkin Park tour and Marcel is head of security for the band. We met up with Foy & Terry Beal at the Ale House for dinner, and then I took Blaine and Marcel downtown for a short bit of barhopping. First to Deep South, and then we stuck our heads in at Slim's, Raleigh's best roadie bar. The poster promoting one of my birthday parties (the one at the Pour House on Friday night) was up on the wall there. You can see it between Blaine and Marcel in this shot. I'm not sure if they're saying I’m 5-0 or they're throwing some kind of gang signs…Blaine Brinton (left), Marcel Matthews (right)

Had those guys back to their hotel around 11 and I headed home.

******* Back to today's crud *******

Today, I went out to Walnut Creek to have lunch with Blaine, Marcel, and Mike Amato (the tour manager), and to see some other roadie buddies, of which there were plenty. When I first arrived, Marcel provided me with a tour laminate that proclaimed me the King of Raleigh. I love him, he's such a hoot.

I spent a couple of hours hanging out, then headed home for the rest of the afternoon. Went back out around 7:30 to see Chris Cornell's set, then had to leave before Linkin Park came on. Had to get to tonight's birthday party, which was at the Pour House in downtown Raleighwood. Foy & Terry Beal, along with Jeff McIntyre, were waiting at the bar when I arrived. Carina arrived a bit later.

My good friends Terry Anderson & The Olympic Ass-Kicking Team had taken a break from recording their new album to play their only show of the summer for my birthday. The poster promoting the show:

I really like the poster. The artist is Paul Friedrich, whose name you might recognize if you're a fan of the comic strip "Onion Head Monster."

Foy and Carina holding one of the posters:

They were even kind enough to play an early show, so the old folks attending could get home early for once. Not being one of those old folks, after they finished around midnight or shortly after, I took off to Volume Eleven, the metal club, to see King's X, one of my favorite bands. Only got there in time to see the last two songs, but I did get to see some of my roadie buddies who work for them, and had a beer on the bus with the band after the show. Finally got home around 3am…