The Middle Of It All
A month or so ago, I visited some friends for dinner— it turned out to not be vegetarian & I did not eat anything; I did, however, drink a lot of wine. The next morning, I woke up to a bunch of emails: I had a new viagogi account, a single concert ticket to see Murder By Death (a band I listened to over a decade ago) in St. Augustine, and an AirB+B reservation in the Oldest City in Florida for that night. I had also blocked off time in my planner. Apparently, Drunk Julie likes to plan vacations.
So, the date rolled around, in the middle of it all*, and I headed solo to St. Augustine, drove directly to the Lighthouse, bought a neck buff and a couple pencils, paid my admission to climb the tower and tour the grounds, and spent a couple hours absorbing some maritime history. After a while, I went to the historic district to meet Luney, a fellow Crossing for a Cure paddler and also my mentee to give her a couple flyers and check out the oldest plaza in America before she was summoned back to yacht-life. I went to my AirB+B; a cute, clean space a couple miles from downtown to clean up for the show. I’d forgotten socks and my cell phone charger, so I walked to CVS to get the necessities and then called a Lyft to take me to the St. Augustine Amphitheatre.
I arrived close to seven and I made it in time to catch the end of the opening act: a solo guy in a teal suit with a lot of really fun songs broken up by even funnier monologues. Following was J. Roddy Walston and the Business. They're sexy and I immediately fell in love with J. Roddy as he strut back and forth across the stage and gyrated against his Yamaha CP-60 in a white suit with a polka-dotted shirt underneath. I wanted to get lost in his hair as he thrashed around and belted out a wild flavor of rock n' roll. I stayed front and center for the whole set, mesmerized by the incredible output of J. Roddy's stage presence.
Like all good things, J. Roddy and the Business's set had to end and after a brief intermission (quite possibly my third bathroom break), I made my way back to the stage area just in time to watch the full moon rise over the tree line as Murder by Death opened up their set. I was startled by the depth and maturity of Adam's voice. Ten years prior he was a bit more tenor and I melted into the two hour set trying to keep a clear view of Sarah as she whipped the cello. To be honest, Murder by Death wasn't on heavy rotation -- actually, it wasn't on any rotation -- I didn't know the words to any off the songs, I didn't run into any old friends at the show, I didn't know what kind of vibe to expect, I was just here to soak it in and let me tell you, I marinated in it like sangria fruit. The show was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. The crowd was active, but respectful and median age seemed to be in the 30s. Everyone was corralled into the pit area of the amphitheater with the merch booth and bar on opposite ends keeping us all front and center.
Murder by Death's lead singer, Adam, and the bassist, Matt, did a post show meet and greet and after a snack and lingering off to the side, I eventually got in line. I wanted to tell someone my story about drinking too much wine and so I waited, trying not to seem too bored, until my turn finally came. I hugged Adam, told him the show was great, outlined my funny wine story and he said, "thanks for making the trip, I hope it was worth it," his unexpected, words of authentic grace rang for a minute or so after I walked away: yeah it was. Oh yes, it most definitely was worth the trip.
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Sometime toward the beginning of the show, I'd helped a girl name Jackie locate her lost jacket and continued to run into her for the rest of the night, eventually becoming besties over an arepa as I cameoed in her lover-boy snapchats at a bar in historic downtown called Odd Birds. Our bartender was an older Irish guy named Kelly, who might have been more magician than mixologist, taking good care of us for the rest of the night. We were actually stalking the band, but they never showed (we found out later that they were at a bar just down the street) and we rounded out the early morning by splitting an Uber back to the venue. I was in bed close to 2 or 3am and was up, out, and back in Jupiter with minimal traffic delays in time for my evening class at Jupiter Point Paddling.
My spontaneous vacation was exciting and perfect; it felt like a little dose of medicine in the midst of what might be the busiest time of the year reminding me what its like to be anonymous, frivolous and incidental-- a novelty to my introverted adventurousness.
*If you don't know what its in the middle of, watch this and lets chat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw4fx_B6lcw&list=PL6MOPQjVKP2XCmORSUANyXZGOh8n5Oxg6&index=2