What We Did On Our Summer Vacation
or recounting the last good week of the season

(Part one of three)

Okay, so every September Geo and I are lucky enough to spend one last week at the Jersey shore thanks to the enormous generosity of my big sis. Usually we take the week of Labor Day to invade her quiet little beach house, but this year we moved it back one week to accommodate bookend concerts by our two blue-eyed musical loves, Francis Dunnery and Rhett Miller.

"Here. These rolled out of your head." She says while handing a set of glazed-over eyeballs back to the imaginary reader.

Hey, not only did we get to see three great performances, we also missed the God-awful, shitty weather provided by Hurricanes Irene and Katya. So there.

Sometimes timing works out.

We spent the beginning of our vacation in Malvern, Pa having our charts read face-to-face with Francis. It was an enlightening, albeit freaky-ass 90 minutes. He deciphered our individual as well as our collective relationship charts, and boy was he spot on. Weird.

It kinda felt like what I perceive therapy to be, without all the subjective judgyness. There is no analysis, just fact. This is where the planets aligned at your birth, ergo this is how you are. Neither good nor bad--just fact.

It gave both of us fresh insight into how we deal with each other. Very interesting. We taped the session to replay and refresh our memories on how NOT TO TAKE THE SHIT HE SAYS TO ME PERSONALLY, and other such epiphanies. :)

But that's fodder for another blog post.

Anywho, we capped our astrological lesson off with a house concert in perhaps the biggest privately owned home I've ever been in. There were an enormous number of rooms, and yet only two people lived there. It was a beautiful old structure, but it had that creepy feel like you just knew the place was haunted. At one point, Kate (Francis wonderful booker) and I went upstairs to the bathroom. There were five bedroom doors on the floor. Nothing strange about that except for the one door had a slip lock on the OUTSIDE of the door.

What the ef?!?

What the Hell was in there that needed to be locked IN?!? A ghoul with a hump back, razor teeth and long, pointy yellowing talons who could lacerate you to shreds if left to its own devices? A serial killing nephew whose murderous urges are amplified during the current full moon? An eccentric uncle who insists on boring you to death with his mind-numbing travel tales complete with an endless Kodachrome slide show?!?

*Eeeeeeesh* That last one made my hair stand on end.

But I digress...

The concert was terrific. We had seen this particular show a number of times, but most of the guests had never been to a Francis house concert. It was delightful getting caught up in the newbies' enthusiasm as they got swept up in the energy of this charismatic Irishman manically pacing before them.

It's a lovely bunch of people in his inner circle. Kate, Larry, Tony (the merch man), Erica (Francis' better half), every single one is warm, caring, easy to be around. And they're all big huggers. I love that. There's something very comforting about hugging.

the lovely Kate and her hubby Larry

For some reason they like us. I don't know why, but we're thrilled they do. Maybe it's because we supply Francis with olive bruschetta. That shit's like crack to him. Seriously. He can't get enough of it. Or maybe it's because Geo smells so good. Mr. D's always threatening to grope him after a whiff of his cologne. Lovable goofus. Ha Ha!

Francis and Geo: pre-grope

Whatever the case, we're just happy to get our quarterly Francis fix. No matter what troubles are pervading our lives, we always leave feeling lighter and more buoyant than when we arrived.

You can't put a price on that.