christ666's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Haunt free A friend of Heather’s asked me to be the photographer for her wedding at the beginning of October. It came from Heather’s recommendation after seeing pictures I took of Steve’s wedding in Coupeville, which was very flattering, but I was pretty apprehensive since I’m not particularly experienced with it beyond a casual hobby. I wanted to say no, but Heather was the wedding planner and I know she was trying to come up with a cost effective solution for her friend, so I said yes on the condition that it be for free and to not expect anything too fancy. It was kind of fun. I got to dress up and be introduced as Heather’s boyfriend to more of her friends and acquaintances, though she was pretty busy for a good portion of the evening setting up the decorations and coordinating between the wedding party and the guests. It was held at the Boise Zoo, and after the ceremony, Heather and I were able to walk the grounds on our own and see the animals, which was very romantic. She came over to the house to celebrate her birthday with me and the kids. The kids all rushed to the door when she arrived, hugging her and telling her happy birthday, which warmed my heart. I baked her a cake that I had left up on the fridge so that I could clear my kitchen counters while I made her dinner, but Sophie opened the fridge door accidentally causing the cake to fall and essentially disintegrate on the floor. Sophie felt really bad, but I assured her I was an idiot for leaving it in a very impractical spot. That Friday, I took Heather to the haunted house attraction in downtown Caldwell, something I haven’t done since I was a teenager, and we actually had a pretty great time. You could see so much effort put into the displays and costumes, and it was fun being amidst the youthful energy from all the teens looking to be scared by other teens dressed in masks and fake blood. Before we left, we watched The Reanimator, and I had her blow out candles atop a small piece of cake I bought at the store as recompense for the fridge tragedy. The next day was the charity show, and I’m happy to say the performance was not only pretty great, the whole day ended up being a blast. Since the show was also a Halloween gig with a costume contest, the band decided to dress somewhat in White Zombie character, and as there is no bald amalgam in WZ originally, I decided to wear a generic metal head costume, and opted to make my first denim metal vest. I had ordered a black denim vest of Amazon, took all the patches from my personal collection, and handed them off to my mom as she volunteered to sew them on for me. As my friend and studio owner, Andy A, would say, “it’s not a proper metal vest if your mommy didn’t help you make it.” Heather agreed to play cello for us on a song, so I donned my vest and black jeans, loaded up the guitars, and swung by her house to pick her up. She teased me that I was going to enjoy her “kinda slutty” outfit, and the ensemble definitely did not disappoint as she wore very short denim shorts, nylons, and a leather jacket. We made it to the bomb shelter to practice the song and a couple others, then packed up the gear into Red 5 and headed off to the Neurolux for soundcheck. The soundguy scheduled for the gig ended up being a no show, and the replacement didn’t arrive until an hour later, which made us apprehensive about how the rest of the night was going to go, but thankfully other than a couple of small setbacks, everything went relatively smooth. People started trickling in a little bit before doors, and by the time the first band started there was a decent crowd. The first two bands were great, but the third really changed how I would remember the night. I was already having a pretty good time seeing familiar faces and getting excited to not only perform with the band, but to share the stage with Heather for the first time. I was outside smoking my pipe talking with friends of Eric’s when I heard Zombie by The Cranberries being performed by the third band, which instantly grabbed my attention and coaxed me inside. I excused myself, emptied out my pipe, and went back in to watch. I found Heather and we approached the stage, watching them competently performing the song, which very much delighted me. But then they started playing Stone Temple Pilots, which impressed me. After that, Zero by Smashing Pumpkins. Then, I heard the first four notes to Heart Shaped Box, and my mind was kinda blown. Not so much from the performance (as great as it was), but more so from hearing the songs that aired on the radio during my formative years, and bringing my younger self back to the surface, if only for a moment. The fact that I was holding Heather’s hand made it all the better. Another one of those mental snapshot moments. We got on stage around 10:30, and I’m happy to say there will be no ghosts of my mistakes haunting me like the previous Rage shows. For the most part, I was pretty on point, and for all the worry I had about Eric’s performance, he ended up getting by with pretty minimal mistakes. We had a huge turnout by the time we played, and everybody was just as into set as they were for the previous charity shows. And playing with Heather was pretty magical. Her and I shared lots of parts, and both of us close out the song gradually slowing the tempo, so we would lock eyes and both nod in rhythm, keeping with each others’ time. It was a first for both of us, so we kept smiling as we played, it was pretty cute. After the song, I walked across the stage to her and kissed her. We ended up raising a lot of money for the Boise Trans Collective, and after some joints and some beers, Heather and I opted to skip out on the after party in lieu of some pretty graphic sex and passing out in her bed. Let me tell you, peeling off those denim shorts and nylons…. my god….. There’s a lot more to update, but I’ll have to return later… 4:11 a.m. - 2023-11-07 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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