valentines day, 2009. i'm on my way home from a busy early afternoon at hubba hubba and i decided to stop in harvard square because i still didn't have anything to give to stephen as a valentines day gift. after i found my gift for him in newbury comics ("the dark knight" on blu-ray and a collection of "the watchmen" comics) i also looked for a new bag. (i love bags... LOVE them) i didn't find one at newbury comics, so on my way down the ramp in the garage, i stopped at hootenanny. like NC, they also have fabulous bags. while wandering around in the store i heard "hey, i know you!". to my very pleasant surprize it was christine. a blast from my past.
i met her during "The Roadtrip". it will be forever immortalized in my mind because it was a chance and a life changing experience. the last time i wrote about it, was in a journal which i kept all of the show tickets, setlists, and memories from the concerts i went to. since that journal was lost in the allston incident, i'm blogging about it now to try and recapture the amazing memories from The Roadtrip.
i believe it was 2000-2001(i think? this is why i had it written in the journal... i can't remember things), i was in college and just starting to get into the sheila divine. i was listening to their music and playing them on my radio show pretty regularly, and i was also starting to read and communicate with people on their message board. it was announced that there would be 2 shows in new york city and in asbury park. there was some talk about people carpooling down and seeing the shows. feeling slightly adventurous, i offered up my minivan as a form of traveling together. before i knew it.. there were 5 of us set to make the trip. rob, peter, christine, and mike. i had never met any of them. christine and mike were roomates, and i can't remember if rob and peter had known each other or not... the plan was for them to drive from their homes in the boston area out to springfield where they would leave their car in my moms driveway. we would all hop into my van drive to NYC and spend the night then go to NJ, then come home. all without ever having met each other.
i decided to make the plans, then tell my mother. i was a slightly naive and gullible girl from western MA... to say my mother was angry was an understatement. she screamed and carried on for a good week about how i was going to get murdered and pick pocketed in NYC and that these people from the bowels of the internet were going to kill me, steal the minivan and leave me for dead in a new york alley. after much reassurance, and the promise that their car would be left in our driveway along with their full names and addresses... she relaxed enough to commence lecturing me at every chance she got about how to stay safe and identify crazy murderers in NYC.
the day finally came when the 4 of them arrived in my driveway. it was awesome. i felt like i was being set free in some weird way. almost like it was my first adult decision. the drive down seemed to take forever, and maneuvering our way into new york city to find the soho suites with only mapquest directions was terrifying. (at that time, mapquest was near brand new) i remember being worried that my car was going to get either towed or stolen. we found the hotel, and set off on foot to explore NYC and find dinner before the show. i had never been in a big city without a chaperon or adults to tell me where, when, and what to do. it was amazing.
i think we ended up at a pizza place... and i remember walking through some really weird neighborhoods to find the warsaw, which was i think in brooklyn. it was a neat old theater that had been converted into a bar and place for rock music. i don't remember much else from that night, but i remember the next day. we sight-saw in NYC. the picture that i had framed for so long was a shot of rob, peter, mike and christine standing next to each other, their backs to me. they were leaning on a fence looking out at the statue of liberty. they didn't even know i was taking the picture. it will probably always be a photo i will remember... i think along with the journal, it was one of the hardest things to lose in allston.
after sight seeing, we got in the car and headed for asbury park. we talked about the boss and how he was from there... about life in general. that trip also opened my eyes to the world of indie rock music. asbury park wasn't nearly as memorable as NYC, but the drive home seemed to last forever. it was the first time i ever let anyone else drive the minivan. it was nice to be able to sleep in the back on the long ride home.
while talking to christine at hootenanny, she was shocked to find out i still had the minivan. i also told her about how rob mentioned all of us in his wedding toast at his wedding this past summer. it seems that it wasn't just an eye opening trip for me.. if i remember correctly, he mentioned how the trip opened his eyes to NYC where he met his wife and now lives. it's definitely not often i get to see the 4 of them.. but when i do it's ALWAYS good times and get to re-live The Roadtrip in my mind a little. if it weren't for them, i probably wouldn't have ended up in boston.
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