March 16: We drove to Flagstaff after checking out a used music shop in Tucson. The detour of the day was to Montezuma's Castle. (Go look it up. I was tired that day and I'd had enough culture.) Shi Kai and I looked at it from the visitor center; Becca and Art paid the 3 bucks to go see it up close and personal. But it was a great chance to get caught up on either culture, or phone calls. We got into Flagstaff around dinner time and fell in love. Well anyway I did. Nifty town. There was snow piled on all the streets - we'd missed the snowfall by about 2 days. We had dinner, then later that night did some dancing eighties style at a local club where there were 25 cent drinks for the "ladies". It was like prom night.

March 17 - St. Patrick's Day!: Definitely my favorite show, mostly thanks to the staff at the Monte Vista Cocktail Lounge, the friendly folks of Flagstaff, and of course, St. Patrick and his lovely holiday. One of the bartenders, Erin, had her mom come in and teach Irish jigging to whomever wanted to learn. "Erin's Mom" or Kathleen, I think she was, cornered me the minute I came down to the bar to start setting up for the show, so of course I had to try it out. Becca joined us, and I was so glad we tried it, because Irish jigging is super fun, even if you don't know what the hell you're doing. (I hear Shi Kai got in on it later. Probably while I was at the bar waiting for another hot toddy.) We played three sets, and this is where the crazy drunk people and rawking out came in. The night just got more fun for us every set. Shi Kai and I agreed that by the third set, we didn't even need to think any more. Now I know what they mean by "in the zone". It's a great place to be. (Unfortuneately, we didn't have anyone take pictures of us as a band. Shiek just got the ones of me doing a few solo tunes. So you'll have to trust me.) A final thanks to that staff at Hotel Monte Vista for making us so comfortable, and Flagstaff for letting us "rawk out", and a special 'shout out' to Daniel, Erin, Erin's Mom, Liz, and Saffron.

March 18: We were up at five a.m. for a 12 hour drive to Oakland, CA to play at the Stork Club. We wanted to get there sometime before load in so we could get set up at Bob and Cass's place in San Francisco (our gracious hosts). We started out on three hours of sleep and pretty high spirits from the night before, but somewhere between AZ and CA we all started feeling the fatigue and by the time we were sitting in rush hour traffic on the Bay Bridge, it was an effort just to get a sentence out. Still, we got to Bob and Cass's and caught up, ordered some Chinese takeout, and that helped. We were super tired when we played, but the show turned out really well - we met even more nice people, one of whom offered us another option for a place to crash if we ever should return to the Oakland/ San Francisco area.

Lisa Dewey's voice was powerful and amazing - you should check her out here. You should also check out the other band on that bill, Clevergirl, at their website, because they're one of the best bands the Bay area has to offer. Thanks to the Stork Club, all of Shi Kai's friends who showed up, everyone who bought cds, and Bob for coming down to have a drink and catch our set and take some of the first pictures of us rawking out as a band.

March 19: We slept in late and then started out for Eugene at around noon. (Thanks to the cat at Bob's place for hanging out with me while I slept.) We left too late, really, but the sleep was a necessity. We got to Eugene just as the first band was starting to play. Sam Bond's Garage has drinks and pizza and is also a non-smoking venue and walking in and smelling good food - maybe not hardcore rock n' roll but it was a welcome sensation. It was Dan Jones' birthday. We sang to him and someone brought out a cake. And Dan deserves that, because he's one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. He, his girlfriend, cat, and dog let us crash at his place. They even made us coffee and toast. (Well. Dan and the dog made toast. The cat just watched. His girlfriend was sick, so it was very nice of her to put up with all of us.) Check Dan out at: www.danjonesmusic.com