Thursday, July 13, 2006

Julia and Jill (and Stan)

Last night we saw Julia Sweeney and Jill Sobule at the Largo. Oh man, it was a great show! Jill played guitar and sang and Julia told stories that sort of related to Jill's songs. Jill is a kickass guitarist with a dynamite voice. There was another guitarist there, don't remember his name (sorry, dude, you were really good). She's a pretty amazing songwriter.

Julia is, well, Julia Sweeney. Her performance was similar to the way she is in God Said Ha!, but more animated and high energy and totally spontaneous. Her stories were fun. She dished some SNL dirt. Cool! Both she and Jill are just as cute as can be. We laughed our asses off. Maybe Jim, Lindsay and Kyle will post some comments describing the show.

They're doing another show in August. I hope we can go.

Today I took Dad to the VA. His elbow is acting up again. It was a typical VA hospital ordeal and it took hours. Dr. Griffin drained his elbow and sent us home with Vicodin, anti-inflammatories, antibiotics and a lot of bandages. Jim will have to deal with it this weekend. I'll be at Yamato band camp.

When I took his evening dose to him we had a bit of a fight about the meds. He wants to keep everything at his house but I know how that would go. He'd either OD on something or he'd lose everything. I left his late night dose in a little plastic bag taped to his mirror with a note explaining what it was. He called me twice asking what he needed to take tonight. It doesn't matter how simple you think you're making things for him, he'll still find a way to fret over it.

He keeps getting foggier and foggier. Today he was fretting aobut the trees getting enough water and I reminded him that Hector was taking care of it. He said, "Oh yeah, Hector's on Bud Lyon's payroll now." I said, "Yeah, but Bud isn't going to pay for Hector to fix your plumbing." The other day Dad had Hector here for HOURS ripping up his bathroom trying to find a leak. Turns out the leak was coming from the outside faucet and seeping inside.

Jim, Lindsay and I saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie today. It has some pretty good moments. Great special effects!

Yamato this weekend. I'm looking forward to it.

4 comments:

Donita Curioso said...

AAARRGH!!! Dad was a total SOB this morning. He didn't take the pills I had left taped to his bathroom mirror because he said he didn't need them (!). I didn't want to call him last night to remind him because I didn't want to disturb him if he was already asleep. Well, screw that. From now on, he's getting the damn phone call.

He still wants the pills at his house and he wants me to write down all the instructions. We've done that before and he loses it right away. These new pills have to be taken at different times of the day. He'd never be able to get it right. I left all the bandages for his elbow in the bathroom but this morning they weren't there. He insisted he hadn't touched them but of course he had. They were in the kitchen. I gathered them up and brought them home. His glucose tester was in the kitchen buried under a bunch of crap.

The whole time Jim and I were there this morning he acted like a jerk. After I came home he called and demanded I take him to the grocery store today. I told him yes, we'll go later and he said, "That's what you said two weeks ago and you didn't do it!" which is, of course, total bullshit. I told Jim if he's been without food for two weeks he should have starved to death by now. Actually, I stocked him up on all kinds of stuff like pre-cooked chicken and lunch meat but he doesn't look past the first 3 inches of his fridge and he never checks his freezer. He does, however, have a gallon of ice cream in his VEGETABLE DRAWER. Of course if any of us tried to clean out his fridge he'd throw a fit.

So, I'm taking him shopping later. I'll have to remind him again that he owes me a hundred bucks for all that food I didn't buy for him.

Jim said...

The JS show (Julia Sweeney, Jill Sobule, Jim Smith ( okay, maybe just the first two)) was just excellent. Julia has a way of making you feel like you're just old pals hanging out, and Jill's songs are top-notch (her singing and songwriting reminds me a lot of another JS, Jane Siberry, in her earlier years.). And while Jill has a somewhat-reserved personality, Julia is quite the opposite, with a let's-make-a-mess-of-things-toghether-and-then-laugh-about-it demeanor. JS's perfect yang to JS's ying.
I hope we can go to the August 22 show. Since it's really just an improvisation (at least for Julia), I'm sure it won't be very repetitive.

In the next month or so, there are several great shows: Paige's show with Yamato next weekend, The Phenomenauts and the Aquabats in a single show in San Diego next week, Tally Hall's first time in southern california (I have to see that!), and the next JS show. We'll have to choose wisely.

On the way to Yamato (east Moreno Valley) yesterday, Doni called me to rescue them because the truck was making a funny noise in the 102+ heat. I drove the van out, we loaded it up from the truck, spent a lot of time in stop-and-slow traffic, turning the air conditioning off and on to keep the van from boiling over. Made it there and home in a little over an hour and a half, and then had Lindsay take me back to the truck and follow as I drove it home. I didn't hear any funny noises then, but it had cooled some. Yeesh.

Stan has been nice to me so far (noon Saturday), but in spite of my calling him after ten PM last night, he still didn't take that dose of elbow meds (anti-inflammatory, and, more critically, antibiotic). So, tonight, I'm going to call him, and then call him ten minutes later to double-check.
Stan also didn't want to wear his elbow pad today. I didn't fight him, but after replacing his dressing, I explained once more how important it is not to even bang it in the slightest because it will anger his elbow, and he said "well, maybe we had better put the elbow pad back on after all." Kudos to him for that.

Lindsay is off to Kyle's in her newly-air-conditioned car. I expect her back Monday.

I'm going to wash the dogs (to keep them cool, clean them, and because they'll dry in an hour or so) and visit Stan with his lunchtime antibiotic and anti-inflammatory, and then John Duke the bassist/guitarist in Casual Sunday / The Riverbottom Rockers will be coming by at two.

It's so hot today! I hope Doni and the band are keeping cool!

vivage said...

I hope everyone keeps their cool this hot weekend.

Jim said...

John's visit was nice. We talked, played, listened to music, all very pleasant. Good luck with the J-Station, John! The AC in the studio was just enough.