The Third Weekend of July
                      The Best Of What's Around

Every year... it's what I live for, it is for us... it's a girls weekend and includes this guy....

DJM

And I almost always volunteer for either Reverb or Rock the Earth... I love Rock The Earth.

They rock me....

It's a weekend of staying up late, singing until you lose your voice, and because it's the dead of summer, losing 10 lbs of water weight from sweating.  We shoot for the best seats we can get.

We stay at the hotel where the band stays... because it's part of the whole weekend and because it's fun.  Even though I live 20 minutes away... we still do that.  

Somewhere in my photos is the hotel.  Which in itself is the creme off the top.  I know a lot of people who will travel to see the band numerous times and go to great lengths to see them... cross country.

For me I am content with this ONE weekend. Once a year. With my girlfriends.  It's what we do.  And it's enough to hold me until next year.  It's the all out unspoken permission to be crazy time, that we as adults maybe don't or won't allow ourselves to be or do.  It is for me... that cut loose time..  

It's drinking in the bar at 2 a.m (me-coffee) Dave-beer, with the guys... forgetting to put underwear on because your girlfriends are yelling to hurry up!!!  It's the first impression of how soft his hands really are... how funny he is... It's coffee with Timmy talking about drunks and laughing.  It's a smile, the endless laughter, and eyeballing the girlfriend you love, praying she doesn't barf on your flip flops.  It's getting up early to swim, room service and meeting people from all over, you have only met online through other friends and instantly you know them... because they are part of a larger family..

It is listening to a group of men, sing close enough to almost everyone's life story, at one time or another... and they love the crowd and the crowd loves them back.  It's mesmerizing.  It's a high, no drug or alcohol can induce...

It is that once in a lifetime weekend, we do every year.... 

This is Sugar Man shot in South Africa last month.  It's a first for him even though he was born there, the first time the band toured there.  Sugar Man was written and recorded by Sixto Rodriquez who left the US to live in South Africa...he's a legend in his own right.

Saying something about David, he is a father, a husband, a talented musician songwriter.  He donates his time and money to multiple charities.  He's changed the way many concert venues serve, dispose of and use the ecosystem... His impact on recycling alone is significant.  He worries about what he will leave behind for his children... what kind of world.  And in what shape.  He's a soft, yet wild man... he's not alone in the band.. he isn't even really the backbone.. they function as a unit... they move together in one beautiful flow.. mistakes turn into a new song... that's a good lesson for all of us..

As he said... 

See you and me
Have a better time than most can dream
Have it better than the best

And if nothing can be done

We'll make the best of what's around

Fifty Seven

This is the way it looks to me.  I don't always like what I see.  I look and see how the last year has taken a toll on me... it shows in my face.  My eyes.  No one notices.  I do.

It took me 50 years to like the way I looked. Yes, I was always that pretty blonde... but my sense of discomfort came from my growing up hearing, you're too fat, too short, too.... too everything... and nothing of that "too" was ever good.  You reach a point in your life where it doesn't matter... but, you still don't love yourself.  That for me came at 50.  When surrounded by people of all shapes, sizes, ages, and looking mostly like the circus was in town (not kidding) after spending the a couple months on the beach in St Pete... I looked around one day and said, "Lori, all these people are happy. What's wrong with you?"  
From that moment on I learned to love my tummy.

And the rest of me.  I hear now... you're too thin... too this, too that... "I'll fatten you up"  I'm not a farm animal...  I know I need to put on ten pounds.
I also know how out of shape I am... and you will look at me and think "you have got to be joking??"  No, I'm not.. I need exercise.. like we all do... I need it because it helps my body... not so I can look good... it's healthier for me..  
I am lean... I have never been a large person... I will be always be short.  
Does it really matter?  I look at people when they say these things.. and wonder... through my squinted eyes... "what the hell are you really saying?"
What sort of vision of me do you have, since you really don't know me...
judged by appearance. 

I didn't intend for this to sound like this... it's my temporary fugue state this week....  
I'm going to add a couple more photos... I'm going to preface them by saying I hate having my photo taken... much less take myself.... however... some of them are fun.... for me....

What beach hair really looks like

Oh yes and naked... 

The End...