A Bard's Real World Blog
Journal, Blog, News, and Diary

Everything's up-to-date at Christmas in Kansas City
Well, I am back and had a marvelous time in KC visiting many dear friends. The adventure all began on Monday with my party. I had a friend stay an extra day and after a meeting on Tuesday, I vegged. Consequently, I didn't get to finish wrapping presents or packing so Christmas eve, I went up to visit my family and saw Return of the King again, this time with my sister and her friends. Then home I went to get ready for my trip.

Early Christmas morn, I drove up and had Christmas dinner, while introducing the TnT to the rest of the family. Tiziano did really well with Foxy, but none of the other pups were quite as friendly. Torre got along with no one. So they spent most of their time in the laundry room while we ate. Then I dashed out of there to try and visit my Grandma before she went to bed.

I left the cage door open so the kits could wander around the car if they wished. But they didn't wish it. They hid in the cage the whole trip up there. We arrived around 11pm, and kitties quickly hid under the bed in the guestroom. The next morning we got up and spent a wee bit o'time before I had to leave.

How to get there? I decided to take 59 all the way up to Lawrence. It was a nice drive...but long. Twelve hours up there, and of course, every little town up there had a 20 mile per hour speed limit. That was annoying as can be! But there was one point, among the hills in Oklahoma, the sun was setting, and I had to pull over and write. I had tears in my eyes. The stridations of color were just amazing... reds, blues, violets, and yellows! It was breath-taking.

I finally arrived late that night. And the kitties once again had to adapt to a new environment. I was starting to feel bad for them. While they travelled really well, I was starting to feel bad dragging the kitties all around the nation.

Next day, I had lunch in downtown Lawrence then headed to KC. Stopped off with Christene to perform at the retirement home where she works. Played a few songs then we went on to Val's.

Val is such a sweet person to offer up her home to a bunch of strangers. But that's what she did. The house concert began shortly after 7:30 pm. I didn't count, but I think there were about 25 folks who showed. Not as many as I hoped, but a very intimate setting, sitting by the fire place with Val's kids running up staring spellbound to "Frog Kissin'".

I was a wee bit nervous. I'm really not used to performing alone, and doing a sorta last-minute organized benefit was a bit unnerving. I'm sure it didn't help that the Slicers brought a video camera to record the show. But more than that, there were many people who I didn't know to well. So it was a different environment. Fortunately, I had the love and support from those who I did know well.

Time flew by with not too many major flubs. I played two sets. The first was largely from my new CD, Soul of a Harper. The second, I had Michelle jam with me a wee bit. Michelle is the bardic drummer we've been planning on adding to the group one day. This is also when I started getting requests for songs that I don't usually perform solo... like "Ducats". Whoa! That was intresting.

Course, for me, one of the highlights, was a rough rap version of "Lanigan's Ball". I'd be throwing that around for a while, and Michelle and I goofed around with it earlier that day. Hopefully, it came out halfway decent in everyone elses mind. But I thought it worked well. And you can understand the lyrics better too.

After the show, we had a wee bardic circle with John of Commedia Sans Arte, Val's husband, and another lass on the fiddle. We jammed a wee bit, played some blues with Val singing along and just had a grand ol'time till the wee hours of the morning.

The only concern was that earlier in the evening, Tiziano had disappeared. The kids were playing upstairs in the guest bedroom and left a door open. But when I finally went up to look, I found Tiziano's secret hiding place. It was in the computer cabinet. Those kitties!

Next morn, Michelle, Marissa, Greg and I chatted for a fee hours over breakfast before I figured I didn't want to outwarm our welcome and headed on. I hooked up with another friend, Christina, and headed to her place. She and her fiancee made a delicious steak dinner while we watched the the special edition, Two Towers and caught up on what's happening in our respective worlds.

After dinner, I went to visit a couple other friends, Jessica and Christi. We went out for some drinks and dessert, flirting and having a delicious time together. Then back at Jess', we sat around chatting for a couple hours.

The house was fairly cold, so the kitties were buried under the covers sleeping, which made them pretty easy to herd into the kitty carriers. By this time, they were absolutely sick of that carrier. But we were nearing the finishing line.

The 29th, I had lunch with Cynthia at K.C. pub and then headed over to Seymoure's and caught up on things. Seymoure and Mother Pockets and family are just that family to me. I love them dearly, not to mention Seymoure is a constant inspiration to me. The man is full of inspiring ideas. He's a comedian, but doesn't stop there. His philosophy is to not leave them laughing, but rather, leave them thinking. And that's what happens.

Together, we watch a couple episodes of the Green Hornet. That was too cool. Aside from seeing Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, I'd never seen the show. So that was too cool to see Bruce Lee do some arse-kicking on TV.

Afterwards, Mother Pockets arrived and we headed to some Buffalo Wings restaurant to celebrate Courtney's b-day. Got to do some catch up with folks before I headed back to Michelle's in prep to drive home. Michelle and I jammed a wee bit afore bed, and the next morning I headed out.

I'd tell ye what day it was, but I'm really not sure. I think the 30th.

Around noonish, the kitties and I hopped in the car and headed home. Tip: I-35 is much faster than 59. Drove down to Oklahoma in no time and stopped to visit my friend Bryan and other Noble Cause folks. Then finished the journey.

The kitties were much more relaxed on the way back. They barely slept in their cage at all. Instead, roamed the car and sneering at odd smells coming from the motor I guess. Finally arrived around 3:30am, checked email and passed out. We were all happy to be home.

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Well if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer those as well.