*2000-06-05 - 19:33:11*

Well, I have just had the most fantastic weekend of my life. So, let's begin at the begining, Saturday afternoon.

My stuff is all packed up and I'm ready to spend a weekend at my friend Lori's. I have only met her once, but we talk a lot on the internet. So, my Mom, brother, sister, and I load up the car and drive to pick up my friend Lis. We pick Lis up and proceed on to the Appel Farm Music Festival. We get there around 1:45 pm. Fruvous is due to go on at 3:15. We have time. We park and walk the mile to the festival. We meet up with friends Leah, Lauren, Allison, Aaron, Lori, Steve, and Mike. So we situate ourselves, eat some lunch, and then go up front to join Lori and her camp. There we met up with Gella, Jen, and Angie. Fruvous goes on at 3:30. And they are fantastic. They play a great set. Fun was had by all. So, Fruvous finishes up, and leaves to do signings. I leave Lauren and Lis at the mercy of Jian to go gather my things to bring to Lori's car. Now, my family and friends Lis, Aaron, Lauren, and Allison have left. I'm still there with Lori and Co. and Leah. We stay until the festival finishes. We drive back to Lori's house. We pull over on the exit to watch the fireworks, while listening to a Robin Williams tape I brought. Life is good.

We make it back to Lori's house after 10 o'clock. Someone orders pizza. We all sit and talk on the rug. Jen gets a tarot card reading on the events the next day. We read the horoscopes. We have fun. The pizza arives. We eat. We talk more. We go to bed. Gella, Leah and I are all downstairs and we continue talking till 2am. Life is good. I'm still anxious about the House Party. Our favorite band will be coming to the house, to play, for us and 30 others, and that's it. We will be in close proximity to them for many hours. It's enough to make anyone anxious. So we finnally get to sleep.

I wake up at 6:30 in the morning. After realizing where I was and what was happening, I go back to sleep. I wake again at 7, realizing what's happening in a matter of hours, panic, and wake up. I pack up all my stuff and get dressed. Then I wake Leah. Leah has allegies and asthma. She was sleeping on a wool rug with dander. Bad move. She starts having problems breathing. Taking her inhaler every 5 minutes, until it doesn't help. She then resorts to tea (which she winds up drinking 12.5 cups of [against my opinions]). Gella finally wakes up at 8:30, and we start hussling to clean up and prepare for Fruvous and FruHeads. Jen panics more then the rest of us. I understand why. Gella, Steve, Angie, and I set up the stage. Angie leaves and the 3 of us set up the canopy. I make the chicken. Jen lays out the food and the stuff for the scavanger hunt. Very funny. Fun is had by all except Leah.

By the time Fruvous arrives at 2:00, Leah is in very very bad shape, and FruHeads have come and are relaxing. Everything is ready. Fruvous comes. I see them walk by the window. I'm with Leah as is many others. We see Dave. He asks if he can listen to the You Will Go To The Moon album. I set up for him. So now, Leah, Dave, and I are all sitting in the living room. Leah and I can't believe it. Dave finishes and puts in Simon and Garfunkle. He goes outside. Jian and Murray come down the stairs. I say "Hi!" Jian comes over to where Leah, Jen, and I are sitting and asks me my name. He then notices my nametag and says "hi". He then inquires as to Leah. I explain that she's having an asthma attack. He asks if she wants his inhaler/medicine (not sure which). She declines. He says "Ok, get better." and leaves. Tobey comes over. He's carrying a painted suitcase. I ask if those are aliens on his suitcase. He says "Nope, just a painting. This is my Play Station. I see you already have one." Lori did indeed have a Play Station. I say "I use to have a Nintendo, but someone stepped on it, and it never got replaced." Tobey looks at me and says "But then, what's that there? Ohhhhhh, you don't live here!" We laugh. He says "We've got to play Play Station." then he leaves his suitcase and goes off. Tobey is very nice.

Time passes, FruHeads and FruLads alike smooze. Leah gets worse. Steve gets ready to take her to the clinic. I have already called the parents. Gordon comes to tell me that he's gonna ask Jian if they can gather the lads together to sing something for her before she heads for the clinic. I see Gordon head toward Jian outside, eating his food. I see Jian listening. I see Jian drop his food and run into the house towards Leah. I see Jian guide Leah up to the cool, dust-less, Green Room. Leah later tells me that Jian tells her how to breathe and explains that he also has had bad astham attacks and has felt it too (which is why he was outside a lot). Leah's mom calls. Leah and Lori pick up. Leah's mom is worried and frantic. Leah is having trouble calming her Mom down. She gives the phone to Jian. Jian calms her Mom down. Wow. Mom is impressed. Jian comes downstairs. I go up to see how Leah is doing. Leah is looking a *hell* of a lot better. We sit and talk (because she can't leave the room). Dave comes in. He shows us the new shirts and digs through his bag a bit. We tell him that he reminds us of our old English teacher. He remembers the post. Wow. He says "see ya" and leaves. We look at one another and laugh. We hear Present Tense Tureen and Mike opens the door. He stops in mid-verse and says "Oops! Sorry! Do I ever knock? No." and leaves. Leah and I look at each other again and laugh. Leah's mom calls again. Leah picks it up and talks. Jian comes in. He sees Leah. He sees me. I say "She's fine. She's talking to her Mom." He says "Ok. We're gonna start playing in 10 minutes." I say "Ok. We'll be down there." He says "ok" and leaves. Leah gets off the phone. We go downstairs.

We go outside. They are on stage, we sit next to Tobey. We are in the back row, which means about 20 feet from the stage. Leah starts wheezing. I take her back upstairs and stay with her a bit 'till she kicks me out because she doesn't want me to miss the show. I leave. I go downstairs, and it appers that they are drawing names out of a hat. Whoever gets picked gets to request any song. Very cool. Many good things were requested. Tobey comes up to draw. He reads the paper, goes to the mike and says "Leah." Everyone looks toward the house. They send up a microphone to hear Leah's request. Microphone doesn't work. They send up Tobey and his walkie talkie. That doesn't work. Eventually, Tobey comes down and says that Leah moves and can hear and that she requested "Horseshoes". Everyone cheers. They do the request. It was great.

A few requests later, Murray draws my name. I am shocked. I request Laika. It was superb. A few requests later, my name is drawn again. I pass it on to Lizzie. She makes a request of "That's Any Good". Wow. Amazing. Leah is able to come down for the last song, "Fell In Love". Wow. What a wonderful show. The show to end all shows.

Leah and I pack up and are about to leave. We see Dave one last time. I introduce him to Not Dave. Leah and I get pictures of the Daves. It was great. Lori is about to drive away when Tobey comes up and asks if we could give Cal a ride. We say sure. Cal rides with us. Cal is awesome. We get on the train. We go home.

Now, I know that wasn't the most eloquent of entries, but it's not over yet. If I wrote down everything memorable that happened, you would be reading this for 3 hours.

The FruHeads and Lads alike were so incredibly nice, that it was overwhelming for me. I go to a cattle school, where you are only known by your ID number and first name. What happened is that I went from an enviroment of 2,000+ teens and teachers, where everyone is a stranger, to a warm enviorment of 40 caring, wonderful, talented people, back to a 2,000+ not so welcoming enviorment, and it almost made me cry. How do I thank these people enough? I can't. They are so remarkable that I have resorted to using a thesaurus to find new words similar to "fantastic", "awesome", and wonderful. It makes me sad that I will never be able to express in any form how much I appreciate all of the people who I've met through the band and the band itself. I'm pretty sure a good time was had by all, even Leah who said that it was the "best/worst day of my life".

Well, it is 8:36 pm now. I've been typing for over an hour. Hopefully more tomorrow.