for the love of the weekend

oh the gloriousness of the beingness

last night we went to the pavilion for charlottesville's fridays after five. a grateful dead cover band called alligator was playing. at first i was grossed out by my own middle aged predicament. the band started and at the same time i saw three menopausal women in their office clothes dance a grateful dead dance complete with wavy hand gestures. it just kinda made me not want to go there. but really i have no choice in the matter do i?

so i played chase with tashi on the grassy embankment between the pavilion and belmont and about four songs before the concert ended i realized that really, this was a damn good jam band. i'd had enough red hook to make up for the lack of anything else and tashi was willing to dance with me and so we spun and grooved and then a kick ass thunder storm moved in and the whole audience crowded together and kids were laying down in torrents of water stained with red virginia earth and lightening was making a strobe and the south cooled off by about twenty degrees and the band was doing a good job imitating a job well done and the audience for a moment became one writhing entity. really it was a fine climax.

on the way home we saw the vulgar bulgars, a local klezmer band, performing in a doorway and so we stopped and boogied for a moment. and then we saw some african drummers and tribal dancers performing in another doorway and my heart yearned to do one or the other: play my djimbay or do an ancient dance. instead i said, "wow, what a mad little town we live in," and felt incredibly inspired.

today i went to an end of the year party at the home of one of tashi's classmates. there was a pool and a lake and horses and a hot tub. but what really made things come full circle is that the song playing when we walked into the party was saint stephen by the grateful dead.

i drank a good amount of white wine and talked with some very interesting people. i got to know some awesome parents who like to live a little on the wild side and this to me was a big relief. then i tried to commune with a horse. he was such a stud. he looked my way, walked my way a bit, ate some grass, and then sauntered off to drink some water. he looked back my way and then did quite a fast trot in the opposite direction. later i saw him down pretty close to the fence where i'd been standing. he was flirting with me, but really, he wasn't going to give me the time of day. never the less, it deepend my determination to become friends with a horse.

becoming friends with a horse. that's got to be part of the charlotteville experience.

and then we came home and there was a huge fireworks display. i saw the grand finale from my deck. june 3? fireworks? the connection is not apparent. but it was a good end to a good saturday. even better is that there is a sunday yet to come.