Sat March 13...North Carolina
Erick, Paul, our friend Seb (riding with us down to Texas) and I left DC around 12.45. We were already running pretty late. I was thinking that NC was only a 5 hour drive but hadn’t really considered that Charlotte was 8 hours away. We stopped at Erick’s mother’s house for our 5-pound bags of dried fruit and nuts. I was hoping that the dried fruit would give me some good 'ol diarrhea and end my months of dealing with impacted feces and constipation. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t happen for several weeks more. Also, Erick needed to pick up clean underwear from his mom. I don’t think we left Jeff’s house and got on the road till 2.30.
We got to North Carolina around 10 something. The Strokes were playing in town that night, of course, so the club was VERY VERY quiet. I refused to eat dinner when we got there because it was too close to show time. Modey Lemon showed up shortly after us. We had met Phil and Paul a few years ago when we played Pittsburgh with Les Savy Fav. I remember thinking then that those guys were going to do really well because they were really talented and put on a great show. They had since added Jason as a third member and we also met Anders St Anders, their turban-sporting, stand-up comic/road manager.
The show was awkward and it was the only time on the whole tour that I actually used my stupid heating pad to warm up my hands and arms. I think Paul’s new mic was already not working that night. We hadn’t figured out what the problem was though so I think the soundman was blamed. I’m sure something was his fault.
That night began all of my horrible eating, sleeping, and sleep-eating habits of tour.
We stayed with Paul’s friend from college. His house was beautiful and the bed I slept in was far superior to my bed at home. I woke up at 9 am and ate 2 pieces of low carb bread and peanut butter. I woke up again at noon, found our host’s old coffee from the day before, made ice coffee, and hid in the bathroom with it. After showering, I went outside. It was warm and beautiful. There was a little 3-year old boy playing on a bike across the street. He called out to me. "Come over here!"
I walked over and then he said "What’s your name?"
Before I could answer, he shouted "Come in my house!" Boys are really to the point at that age! Sure saves a girl a lot of time!
We drove to a Greek Diner since everything else in the south is closed on Sundays. I got fried okra, mustard greens, and cottage cheese. The waitress gave me a funny look when I requested a dish of mustard on the side. Then we stopped at a used book store. Jeff needed to begin storing dragon books in the van. I bought a book about an Iranian girl who gets tortured. I also stopped at a grocery store and bought film, canned sauerkraut, and a product called "Veg-All". Variety truly is the spice of life!!!
I started getting nervous when we left for TN because I didn’t think I could pee in the van with Seb sitting between the seats. On the drive, I called my gramma and shouted for a while much to everyone’s pleasure.
[Jeff: This is a good time to do a little catalogue of Amanda's annoying van habits. First is the eating; obviously, everyone eats in the van, but she seemingly goes out of her way to only eat foods that make you want to puke from the smell. Cans of tuna (warm), hard-boiled eggs (luckily, largely phased out of her diet by this time), cups of spinach, sauerkraut, V-8, and of course, as the perfect complement to every single "meal", mustard. Moving on from the smelly foods, we come to the creepy "workouts" with these stupid red rubber bands. Then there are the frequent calls to grandparents, all involving both a sickeningly cheerful phone manner and maximum volume speaking/shouting. Next, the need to stop every forty minutes to pee -- brought about, perhaps, by the gallons of coffee consumed each day (which one would think might also explain the poor sleep). And, of course, as the counterpoint to the pee stops, there is the pee cup (which is not immune to accidents catapulting it from "annoying" deep into "monstrous" territory.)
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