I remember when I was a little girl, I always wanted to be just like my Daddy. My Dad was an artist and to me, he was the greatest. I would sit for hours watching him work, wishing so very hard that one day I too would be able to paint and draw just like Daddy.
I could barely color in my coloring books when I first asked my Daddy if he would teach me how to paint like he did. At the time, he had no idea if I had any talent, but I guess he figured that if I wanted to do it bad enough, it wouldn’t matter. And so he told me if I wanted to be an artist, the first thing I would have to learn to do, was to clean the brushes. Cleaning Daddy’s paint brushes became my job and I loved it. It meant that I could sit and watch as he painted and created because, you see, I had a purpose for being there, I wasn’t just in the way.
We were a team, like a surgeon and his nurse; I was there making sure his instruments were clean and on hand at all times. At the same time I watched as he painted a life-sized oil painting of Jesus walking on the water. It looked like a real miracle to me. Jesus floated there in front of me on the canvas and if he had actually moved, I wouldn’t have been very surprised, he seemed so real. I watched him paint a mountain creek so real that even though he insisted he had made the scene up, I knew that I had been there wading and playing in the water and climbing on the huge moss covered rocks.
Often I would find myself lost in the fantasy of an enchanted forest or in the warm memories of the cottage my Grandparents owned in the Adirondack Mountains where I spent most of my summers. Or perhaps I would find my mind opened to new places, like to green rolling fields and thatched rooftops of Ireland or a snow white lighthouse facing a boiling white capped ocean dashing itself on a reef filled with angry looking rocks.
Along the way, I learned how to fill a tree with leaves and how to apply the shadows just right so that the whole thing made sense. I learned how to choose colors that complimented each other and how to arrange things in the painting so they not only made sense but were pleasing to the eye as well.
As I sat watching my Daddy, I was filled with wonder as old and new places were brought to my attention. He brought it all to life for me and there was beauty in everything from an old worn out shoe to a wrinkled and torn paper bag. It seemed to me that he must have been some kind of wizard because the things he painted had a magical quality to them.
And now, when I’m painting eyes or some intricate design on a ceramic piece while onlookers stare in amazement and ask “how do you do that?’, I just smile and say my brushes are magic brushes. My Daddy introduced me to the world and all its beauty through his eyes. In his own special way he opened up my eyes and my mind and gave me a sense of adventure and a desire to learn all that I can about this world we live in.

I wrote that piece back in Feb. 1987 for an English Composition class I was taking in college. Things have changed a lot since then. I had a second son, Shawn in 1988. I lost my first son, Aaron in September of 2000. I don’t paint as much as I used to, my eyes aren’t as good as they used to be. My Dad passed away in November of 2001. I really miss him. He was like Superman to me. Its not been easy without him in my life, showing me the way and giving me his view of things. I love you, Daddy.

Time for another update from the road. We’ve had a great time so far. The weather has been very mild, not too hot, not too cold. It rained a bit tonight and I got soaking wet but it was worth it. They put off a bunch of fireworks and I love to watch fireworks. I ducked in under a vendor’s booth to get out of the rain while the fireworks were happening and they were kind enough to give me a rain poncho and then I went out and found the perfect place to watch the rest of the fireworks show. It was really cool, they set them off across the lake from where we all were, so you could see them reflecting off of the water.
Soon after I woke up today, the wind got up real bad. It took our easy-up and the thing took flight. I watched it as it rolled over and over and into the fence and the trees that are right behind our bus. Unfortunately, it did not survive. The top ripped and some of the frame broke too. Freaked me out and Brian too, he jumped up and ran outside to see what was going on. It was just one big gust of wind, took out our easy-up, part of our neighbor’s screen house and I heard it also took out one of the lifeguard towers at the little beach on the lake too.
At least it hasn’t rained all the time. Only a couple of scattered showers and it never lasts for very long. Mostly it just keeps things a little cooler and that’s way cool for me.
I must say that the vendors here are really good. Their booths are very nicely done with lots of nice things to buy and they are set up really nice too. I was pleasantly surprised and of course we have bought lots of cool hippie shit too.
Last night I went off by myself and went down to the stage and danced on my scooter with my bare feet in the warm sand. I had such a good time. I met a lady named Abigail and her son. They were partying and dancing and having a great time. I found Brian a perfect chain for his steal your face pendant he got in Nashville a couple of weeks ago. The pendant is so awesome, it has different crystals and it’s wrapped in silver wire. Maybe later I can get a camera and get some pictures to post on here.
Before we left home, I told Shawn I wanted my camera to take with me but the little shit took it in his room and didn’t get up before we left, so I didn’t get to take my camera on this trip and if I’m gonna get any pictures, I’m gonna have to get another camera or something.
I didn’t get down to the stage today any but I could still hear the music once I got out of the bus for a while. All in all it’s been a pretty good show and we’ve had a pretty good time. Charlie and Lois and their group all seemed a little tired tonight and they all went to bed kinda early. We’ve been kinda tired today too. I think I’m gonna get some sleep early tonight too.

Hey everybody, what’s up? I am actually writing this on Friday afternoon but unless I can get an internet hookup, I won’t be posting it until like next week when we get to a hotel room. My computer has detected a wireless connection but you have to have a key to use it and so far I don’t have it but I’m working on it. Got a friend who is out there right now trying to get that key. Mean while, I’m keeping my fingers crossed and continuing to write my post. Damn it’s hard to write with my fingers crossed. Oh well. Any how, just thought I’d fill you all in on my summer of ‘06 Festival Tour on the Buckwheat Express. Well, this weekend we are in Ohio, somewhere near Akron and Cleveland. We are here at Nelson Ledges Quarry State Park for a big festival called Gratefulfest. There will be several bands playing all weekend long. Skeleton Key, The Recipe and Dark Star Orchestra to name a few. When I find out who else is playing I will let you all know. There are plenty of very fine vendors selling some wonderful crafts, crystals, clothing, handbags and soaps, and incense and some very good food too. Last night I had a Cajun shrimp fahjta and some hot cheesy fries. It was all good and those hot fries really hit the spot as it really started to get pretty chilly out there. I’m drinking a fresh strawberry/banana smoothie right now, mmmmm tasty.
Went out and did some shopping last night too. Got me a nice little hippie skirt, 5 of the new set of little dead bears, they are so cute, all dressed up in lions suits and bunny suits, a book to read this summer, and a nice new oriental fan which I ran over with my scooter and got all muddy and wet. I gotta go back over to my friend’s booth and get that today, hope I don’t forget. We got our friend’s new twins tie-dyed onesies and a little hippie skirt for their oldest little girl and then we got Sherry’s new little baby girl a little tie-dyed onesies too. Brian got himself a pendant with Ganesh in side of it. It’s really cool looking. It’s like a little glass box with silver framing it and there’s a very tiny statue of Ganesh sitting inside of it.
We both went to bed kinda early last night. It was very cool, a great night to crawl up under some blankets and snooze the night away. Then I woke up with the start of a migraine. Dr. Kim gave me a prescription for something for it, so I took it. It’s been a few hours and now I can say my head isn’t hurting but I do feel a wee bit woozy. I can deal with it, no problem. It’s way better than dealing with the pain.
Brian went out and got me that wonderful smoothie and then he brought me something else he found, two of the cutest little lunch boxes. They are round and look like drums on the outside edges and on the side of one is the red, white and blue Steal Your Face and on the side of the other is the skeleton and roses with Grateful Dead written on it. I am a collecting freak I really need a bigger house to put all this stuff in. Shawn is gonna hate it, lol.
I think I’m gonna take a nap until it cools down a little bit, it’s not too bad but I just need to relax a bit. Be cool, everyone and I will have more from the road.

Well, it’s been awhile since I last checked in and a lot has happened. Bonneroo was hot and big, so many people having so much fun. We partied non-stop for 4 days I am so exhausted. Well, I didn’t really party non-stop but the party was going on 24 hours that’s for sure. I went down and saw Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. His special guest star was Stevie Nicks. She is so awesome. I just love her, she really made the show. There was a seafood vendor down close to the main stage. Brian and I had fried shrimp and fried oysters while we watched Tom and Stevie. That was fucking cool, so cool. That was Friday night.
Saturday the Sun beat me down. It was so freaking hot, I think it really got to me. I just couldn’t seem to wake up and get myself together until after the sun went down. As a result, I missed all the music. I missed Beck, Cypress Hill, and Les Claypool. Brian was able to catch all of Beck, a couple of songs by Cypress Hill and the last song by Les Claypool. I love Les Claypool, damn it. I did want to see Beck and Cypress Hill too, I’ve never seen them before and was looking forward to checking them out. I just couldn’t seem to stay awake. When I woke up it was like 9 pm. Brian and one of our friends got my big old chair out of the bus and set me up near our vendor friend’s booth so I could hang out with everyone and cool off some too. Brian got me some cheesy frys and chicken tenders. It wasn’t very long afterward when I got so sleepy and I just couldn’t keep my eyes open any more. The night air was nice and cool and put me out like a light. I slept until 4 am while the party went on around me. I was so wiped out, no one bothered me at all.
So I get up at 4 am ready to finally get to some partying and Brian is ready to crash. That figures, oh well, I still had fun. I got on my scooter and rode around with some friends, went shopping in the early morning hours, after the sun came up, before it got so hot. I saw my friend who sells the little Dead Bears that I like to collect. She says there is a new set out and she is almost sold out of them. Damn, I don’t know where I’m gonna find the space for any more bears. My living room is so full of them now, if I get even one more, there won’t be any room in there for me and Shawn would want to kick my butt.
Yes, that was such an adventure. On the way to the next street, I met this lady. She walked by me and my little group. I didn’t stop and talk to her but I said hello in passing and then drove on. I didn’t want to hold the group up, they were on a mission and I was just along for something to do. The next thing I know, they are stopping, saying someone wanted to talk to me. So I stopped and turned and it was her. She told me she was told to bring a gift to Bonneroo and to give it to a certain person. She said she would know who when she saw them and she felt that I was the one. She gave me a clip she had made. It’s got two emerald beads and copper wire wrapped in a spiral and attaching it to the clip. It’s very pretty, I just love the green emerald beads. She makes wands and clips and wraps crystals and such. Her name is Crystal. She says she wants to call me Emerald. I’m thinking about getting some of her wands and clips to sell at some of the shows we go to. It would be fun to have a cool product to sell on the lots.
Crystal must be physic or something. I mean I didn’t meet her near my camp or even with any of the people who were camped near me and yet she somehow managed to find me and my friends and my campsite This lady, named Peggy who was working with Charlie and Lois for the show was telling me how she met this lady who was telling her about how she was led to give a gift to someone special there at the show, she even described it to her. Peggy was like, wow, that’s so weird cause she knew about the gift that I had gotten and it was the same lady. Somehow, she made it to my campsite and earlier Brian took me right to her campsite without knowing that she was the one who gave me the clip. It was her birthday on Sunday and she was ready to get down to some serious partying. She said the people she came with were giving her some shit and she was fed up with it and had left and gone out on her own for a while. We had a drink with her and then I said I needed to get out of the sun and rest my ass in my chair for a while. So we went back to our campsite.
Brian went down and saw Sonic Youth. When he came back, I got myself ready to go down to catch Phil Lesh and Friends. I got on my scooter and then this girl comes over and announces that there is a big storm heading our way. That means I gotta get my chair put back in the bus and my fan has to go back in and then me. The rain and my scooter don’t go too well together, so all I could do was get up in the bus and stay there. Oh well, ten minutes after I got in my chair in the back of the bus, I was sound asleep. Brian came in sometime later soaking sopping wet. I didn’t even know if it had rained at all. Brian said it was a real down pour and it was a good thing I had stayed in the bus. But it meant that I missed seeing Phil Lesh.
So we packed it all up on Monday afternoon. Before we left the site, Crystal had found us and came up on the bus. She showed me some of her wands. They were all so beautiful and before we left she gave me one made from an old candle stick holder and a crystal on one end, the other end has a little old angel wrapped to it with some copper wire. I feel like it calls my Guardian Angel to me. It’s really very pretty. She lives in Georgia and will ship them to me. I think they will sell well too.
We left the festival site and got a room at a nearby Holiday Inn for the night. I got on-line and found out Phil was playing in Nashville on Tuesday, so I got us tickets to the show. It was at the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville. We had a hard time getting handicapped seating together. Lois is also on a scooter somewhat like mine. We ended up with me and Brian sitting in the balcony and Charlie and Lois sat on the main floor. I got fed up with trying to get them to put us together and said we would sit in the balcony, she seemed to really want to sit on the lower level, so I let them have it. It didn’t really matter to me, I just wanted to get to a seat and start enjoying the show, we had already missed the first half of it and I was pretty pissed about it.
After the show, we tried to see if we could get Phil’s autograph by his buses but nope, we must have missed him. We went down the street to Broadway to look for a place to eat. There were bars all over but most of them had already quit serving any food. We did manage to find one place, it was called “Bailey’s”. It was a bar and grill. They have some really nice pool tables and nice tables, all in all a very nice place. The food was pretty good too. I got a turkey melt on sour dough bread, and some garlic mashed potatoes, yummy. Brian got something called the Godfather platter or something. It was like chicken parmesan with both the marnara sauce and an alfredo sauce with a garlic pesto on it too, anyway Brian really liked it.
Charlie, Peggy and Jamey all got slammed basted. They were all so funny. Peggy hadn’t gotten blazed in a few good years, so she was really funny. Jamey kept saying it ain’t Nashville until you puke and then he puked. They all got up earlier today to head on out to the next show or festival. Tomorrow we will head back to Virginia and home. I miss my little Cesar and my Jerry.
So right now Brian is going to the nearby Waffle House to get us something to eat. I know I got a lot of emails to read but I’m just too exhausted to do very much now. I think I’ll eat and go to sleep so I can get up and go home tomorrow.

Hey, Hey, Hey, I’m coming to you from Bonnaroo in Manchester, TN What a kick ass show so far. There are a lot of folks already here and it’s just Thursday. The newspapers in the area say it’s a sold out show, they are saying they have already sold 80,000+ tickets Man, that’s a lot of tickets.
Well, we got up really early,( actually we never went to bed on Wed. Night), on Thursday morning, took showers and loaded up the bus for the show. We get to the gate and wouldn’t you know it, the fucking cops pulled Lois and Charlie and us over to the side for a random search. That’s the first time that has ever happened to us going into a show. They really didn’t search too hard, no harder than the event staff people ever do, it was just that it was the real cops that were doing it. Kinda makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, you know what I mean? But after that we get in and they put us together in one of the outer most handicap lots. Shit, it was so far out, I’d never have been able to get any where from there without losing all the charge on my scooter, that’s for sure. Lois went out and scouted us out a better place to camp. They went first to see if they could make it over there without getting a bunch of shit over it. Then they sent Brian back for me and the bus. That’s when it started to get hot. Man, did it get hot, it was a scorcher out here. For a long time, everyone had so much to do and we didn’t have any electricity, so no fan only hot heat from the afternoon sun. But after all the hard work and the sweat, they all managed to get everything set up and running smoothly. By then, I was so hungry and so exhausted. I ate two turkey and cheese sandwiches and two organic oatmeal ganja cookies and then I kicked it back and proceeded to take me a nice little nap.
So, now we are set up on 5th ave. in the largest party city in all of the USA Our friends are set up and vending their glass and it’s so nice and cool out now. Tomorrow is going to be another scorcher, I’m afraid. Let’s just hope it doesn’t rain too much. A little rain might cool things down but too much can turn this place into a real mess.
Well, it’s after 3 am and I’m getting sleepy, so I’m going to call it a night. Party on party people!