Fan Grrls

What a loser! I can't believe I haven't updated the site in over six months! My deepest apologize to all our visitors who've been waiting on pins and needles to hear all about our adventures.

So, where did I leave off? Oh yes, the name changes and flight reservations. . . .

Stupid Airline Woman indeed did not add a note to our reservations regarding our name changes, and we had to explain it all over again at the ticket counter. The woman we were dealing with there wanted to charge us something like $100 to change the names on the tickets!

Luckily a manager came by at that moment and told her that since we had court orders showing the name changes, to let us on the plane. Whew! Of course, with all the added security, we had to show both IDs and court orders about 3 times before we actually boarded.

We finally did get on the plane, and enjoyed our visit with my family in Texas. In fact, it's taken me so long to update the site, that we've actually made two trips to Texas since the last entry!

We spent a few days down there around Memorial day, and attended a roast in honor of my dad, did the big-hoo-hah birthday / Mother's Day / Father's Day gift exchange and, as usual, spent lots of time visiting family and friends and our favorite restaurants.

We're both still at the same jobs, and my free lance web design business is really starting to take off. I'm getting lots of work from area LGBT organizations and has done several websites for my brother's law firm. My highest-profile project so far is FamousLesbianActivist's website, which launched about a week ago.

We've also "been seeing a lot of Melissa," as Shrike put it the other day. In August 2001, we saw Melissa Etheridge in Washington, DC at the opening show of her Live - and Alone tour. We also saw her in TownNoOneOutsideOfBlueStateCanProunounce during the same tour. July 12, we caught up with her again, this time on the Skin tour, at an amusement park in TownEveryBodyLoves.

After the intimate venues and Row 10-15 seats of the Live - and Alone shows, Shrike repeatedly warned me not to be too disappointed with a "stadium show" in TownEveryBodyLoves.

As it turned out, she wasn't playing to the whole stadium, but rather a smaller amphitheater, which is essentially the endzone. When we picked up our tickets, I was beside myself that we had 7th row seats in one of the two center sections.

During the opening act went and got a beer, and ran into a couple of friends. We were standing in the concession area talking to one of them when we realized Melissa was singing. We hurried back into the seating area and saw that she was entering from the back and walking down the center aisle. People were moving into the aisle, especially in front, and we figured we'd see how close we could get before returning to our seats. We were almost to the aisle when she reached the front and went onto the stage.

We were a bit disappointed that we hadn't made it over there in time when we suddenly realized that we were standing about five feet from the stage - no one between us and Melissa but a big burly security guy - and he wasn't trying to make us move.

We spent the whole show there - a few feet from the stage, just a bit stage-right. At the end of the show, when she went along the front of the stage, she actually touched both of our hands.

I felt like a 12 year old at at N'Sync concert - "Oh my God! She touched me!"

Disappointed? I think not.

We've got tickets to see her August 4 in BigCityThreeHoursAway. Perhaps this time we should heed the "don't be disappointed" speech, though, because it will be awfully hard to top the TownEveryBodyLoves show.