Jean's Rockin' Blog

September 20, 2004

Jay is famous!

Jay is one of quite a few of my awesome friends that helped inspire me to quit a job that I had no interest in and go for my dreams. He was interviewed as a UCSB Alumni recently, this is a really good article about him.
http://www.career.ucsb.edu/alumprof.htm

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September 17, 2004

Lost!

Have you ever wandered into a park with your headphones on without a map? So there I am, Jean Holmes – who has pretty much zero sense of direction – on a trail that looked like every other trail, surrounded by cornfields, with some weird Radiohead song playing in my headphones. Creepy. I thought I was going to get abducted by aliens. So a few hours go by, I’m a little dehydrated, and I’m too proud to ask anyone where the hell I am, but I finally found my way out. That’s the last time I head into park trails without a map, lol.

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September 10, 2004

Sounds corny but...

I can fly in my dreams. I have a recurring theme in many dreams, where I’m getting away from someone/something by taking off and basically flying above the trees and buildings. It’s really strange. Last night, I was getting away from some really evil army (I think they were nazi’s) that was slaughtering people left and right. (I know, pretty weird.) And all of a sudden I just took off. It was at night with a full moon, and soldiers were trying to shoot me down, but I escaped. And then I came to a cliff where there was a valley below, and I was really scared I was going to crash, but somehow landed and wound up in the basement of someone’s house. It goes on and on, one of those rare mornings where I remembered a lot of my dream, but I won’t bore you with the rest of it. I just think it’s kinda cool that in my dreams, I can fly!

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Posted by jeanholmes at 11:24 am | Comments (1) | Permalink

September 09, 2004

Music Lovers, Listen Up!

If I haven’t already forced you to go see him (for which I’m sure you’ve already thanked me), you WILL go see Willy Porter when he comes to a town near you. Heck, you may even need to go to a town not so near you. Trust me, he’s worth it.

Continue reading...

Posted by jeanholmes at 08:13 am | Comments (2) | Permalink

September 05, 2004

A Lovely Holiday Weekend

So what did I do this weekend other than treat Jezzie for a yellowjacket sting, you might ask? Well, along with the rest of the week I’ve been down here, my guitar has stayed pretty much here:

In it’s case. For some reason, I just haven’t had much desire to play since I’ve been down here. I have a LOT of catching up to do. It might have something to do with the fact that the keg is empty, and I’ve been forced in the meantime to buy bottles…

No No, I don’t just drink beer all day every day. Yesterday (Saturday), I went back to Wolf Trap to get some “culturefication”, and saw The King and I.

It was a fun show. One good side effect of buying a single ticket to a show is that you can get really good seats, I was in the second row about center. Isn’t Sandy Duncan just adorable? HAHA! I forgot to take my camera into the venue, so I took an artsy picture in the car holding the program, heehee. Question is, am I admiring Sandy Duncan, or the Heineken??? HMMMMMM.

I have also been frequenting Burke Lake, just a couple miles away, to do some hiking. I went all the way around the lake today, just getting back in time before it started to pour. It’s about 5 miles around the lake, with a well maintained main trail that bikes can use as well,

and a smaller trail closer to the water that isn’t maintained so well…

And, as always, I came upon trash. What is it with people??? Is it laziness, or apathy, or disrespect, or all 3???? I swear, if I ever witness someone littering in a park, I’m going to beat them to a pulp.

Some other pics to ponder…

Where did the trail go??

Spiders both gross me out and amaze me…

So anyway, hope you all had a fun, safe Labor Day Weekend!

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Posted by jeanholmes at 6:02 pm | Comments (1) | Permalink

Sunday Morning Music, Interrupted

I really love Sundays. Wake up late, get some coffee, and read with some nice “Sunday Morning Music” playing in the backround. This morning it was the Jayhawks, Pat Metheny and Jim Hall, and the Beatles.

I was getting a third cup of coffee when I hear Jezzie’s

very long toenails scrambling frantically on the deck. Going to the door I can see her pawing at a yellowjacket.

I caught her doing the same thing last night. Not good. So I yell at her to stop and she immediately comes inside, limping. Oye. The damn thing got her in her right front paw. I gave her a couple aspirin and, after leaving a message for Shel and Matt, watched her for a while to see if she had an allergic reaction, which she didn’t thank God. She’s fine now, but I’m really paranoid that she’s going to disturb another, and the whole hive is going to come after her. I looked around outside, under the deck, around the pool, but couldn’t find a hive, but I’m sure there’s one somewhere nearby. =(

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Posted by jeanholmes at 11:11 am | Comments (1) | Permalink

September 02, 2004

Bob is gonna make it!

Well, I wish it wasn’t the Dixie Chicks that nominated him, and I wish it wasn’t for his newest cd, ““I’m Good Now”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001NBMTY/qid=1094163928/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/104-8575112-3919120?v=glance&s=music&n=507846” which is my least favorite, but Bob Schneider is getting some recognition on the Short List of Music.
The list, which will be whittled down to 10 finalists in late September, was selected by a panel of 20 “Listmakers” that features several prominent recording artists. You can check out the entire list, along with who nominated them, on the site. Pretty interesting.

If you want to check out some of Bob’s (in my humble opinion) much better cd’s, a great one to start with is:
Lonelyland

A really jazzy one:
Galaxy Kings (You have to click on the cd, lower left hand corner, to check it out.)

And in case you’re just REALLY interested, Bob has been in / is kinda still in the Austin based bands Ugly Americans, as well as The Scabs

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Hurricanes suck

I just got a message from my guitar instructor who happens to be in Miami right now. Hurricane Francis, a giant category 4 storm bigger than Andrew was in 92, is closing in and he’s not sure when he’ll be able to get home. Keep the folks in Florida and the southeast coast in your thoughts and prayers. It’s sucks enough knowing a hurricane this size can make so many people homeless for so long. It’s even scarier knowing how deadly it can be. =(

Posted by jeanholmes at 09:16 am | Make Comment | Permalink

What a week!

So, I came back down to Shel and Matt’s last Friday. I’m excited cuz I love their house and I love their doggie Jezebel

On the way to taking them to the airport at 4:30 am the next morning, I get a flat tire. I should have known then it was an omen. Luckily, Matt got the spare on very quickly and they didn’t miss their flight. However, I found out a couple hours later at the tire place that I needed TWO tires. $350 bucks later (man these 17 inch wheels are killing me), I got a call from my buddy Jay that he’s coming over and when should he leave for train station.
So I hop in the shower (after 2 hours of sleep), and go down to pick him up. World Traveler Jay Bartletti

took the wrong train. What a dork. So, I go have some lunch. Finally get Jay back to Shel’s and start showing him around. He trips me – well, maybe he did, maybe he didn’t, lol – and I fall on my bad friggin’ knee and turn white in pain. We go upstairs so I can get some water to clean up my bleeding knee, and there’s no water. NO WATER! No water in the kitchen, no water upstairs, no water anywhere.
I go to the neighbors house – he’s having a cookout with about 20 people, and has obviously already had a few beers – and he nonchalantly tells me that everyone around here has their own well, and that the well probably is dry and just wait it out. Huh? Ok, so I’m thinking wait a few hours. Nope, still no water. Call Shel and Matt, they said they’ve never had the well go dry. Long story short, we do without running water till Monday afternoon when someone finally came to repair the water pump – it had nothing to do with the well. You REALLY don’t want to run out of water. It sucks.
So, Sunday night, Jay and I pack a cute little picnic basket with a couple bottles of vino, and head down to Wolf Trap, an outdoor venue just about 20 minutes away, to see BB King. Great show. Much fun was had hanging out on the lawn eating cheese, gettin tipsy, shakin da booty.

Jay and I left our blanket to go to the restroom, and jumping down from the lawn to the walkway (about 2 freakin feet), I did something to my OTHER knee because I was favoring the knee I screwed up the day before. At this point I really don’t care because I’m a little tipsy and having a good time. But ask Jay how much I whined the next day about being hung over and having 2 screwed up knees and no water.
After we got water on Monday, we took showers and then I took Jay home. Thinking that Jay was bad luck (sorry dude, you don’t deserve this, I just think it’s funny), I go to bed early thinking my troubles are over. So the next night I’m making myself dinner, and hear this really loud buzzing. Now, I REALLY don’t like bugs, especially really big ones, especially really big ones that fly, especially really big ones that fly that have stingers. So there’s this giant yellow-jacket buzzing my head in the kitchen. Jay, you should have seen MY bee dance. I got some RAID and prepared for battle. After about 20 minutes, I finally got the bastard. But I still heard buzzing. Oh shit, is their a hive somewhere???? There’s a second giant yellow-jacket, and a third much smaller that I manage to swat pretty easily on the floor. The other big one is on top of the kitchen cabinets, and although the buzzing eventually stopped, I have no idea whether he’s dead or not. SO, if you hear of a crazy woman running out of a house in Fairfax Station, VA all the way to her house in Newtown, PA, it was probably me, running from a hive full of yellow-jackets.
Shel and Matt, I love you guys. I love your house. I love your doggie. But I won’t be house sitting again, LOL.

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