I Love Me Some Cracker Barrel

We had the strangest experience at Cracker Barrel tonight.

We walked in and the hostess asked, "How many?"
I said, "4"
She said, "3?"
I said, "4".

Then, we get to our table and it's too close to the table behind it... I felt bad because as I tried to squeeze in... but I kept hitting the lady behind me. She didn't like it very much. But there was nowhere to go!

Then our waitress is taking our order and as Tim asks for his corn the she just runs away. It was funny at the time because it really seemed like she was offended that Tim had asked for corn. We kept trying to figure out what had just happened. Even when she took the drink orders it was a bit odd, so we didn't really know what was going on.

Another waitress came up a few minutes later and asked if she could take our order. We told her we were in the middle of giving another waitress our orders, and she said, "Oh. She's not feeling well. I'm taking over."

Somehow our dinner conversation lead to coming up with a meatloaf turkey sandwich... like... meatloaf slices instead of a bun... with turkey in the middle... or a meatloaf Monte Cristo. I don't like these ideas at all. They almost make me sick to think about. Which is EXACTLY why the guys enjoy talking about it so much. :)

Then as we were finishing up dinner. Our waitress runs up to us, slams her hands down on the table, and says "Well, folks, I've got some bad news." And then she starts laughing and says "No, no. You guys already have it!!!" And then trails off muttering about something as she bounces away.

This is what? The 4th time we've all looked at each other like "what just happened?" and started laughing.

As we get up to leave, we see a fire truck and ambulance. They are taking our first waitress (that originally ran away) out on a stretcher. She had high blood pressure. We're not exactly sure what happened, but we were told they had a bus come in during their normal dinner rush and she had over worked herself.

Now we all felt really bad. We never thought something bad actually happened to her. It was just so humorous and seemed like she forgot something...

Our thoughts and prayers are with our Cracker Barrel waitress tonight.

As for the rest of the experience? I laughed. A lot...

I love Cracker Barrel.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Bloody Band House

Last night, I wrote my blog well after midnight, not knowing the evening had just begun :)

The guys went to hang out at Spinnaker after our show, and I didn't go because I was trying to save what little voice I have left. I have had a rough past few weeks vocally for a number of reasons... and I've just not ever had quite enough time to heal. After a weekend of solid singing, I'm mute. But that's all part of the job. I sure am thankful I don't have this problem as much as I used to!

I went and picked the guys up later in the evening, brought them back to the band house, and they were all fired up and having a good time. :) They were kicking the soccer ball around (thanks to Miguel) and all of a sudden Tim notices there is blood all up and down the hallway of the band house. "Oh good Lord" I think to myself.

Now this band house is well... eh em... not the cleanest of places. I can only imagine what goes on in there normally... ESPECIALLY when it is not MY band. But regardless of how clean or dirty it is, I am always going to treat it like my own house.

Tim shouts, "Who's bleeding?" Miguel emphatically says about 6 times "It's not me, It's not me" And then we all see the huge pool of blood soaking into the couch under his foot. Miguel, in very Chilean soccer-player mode, did not even realize he had stepped on a shard of glass in the band house (Yeah, I know... why was the shard there? Who knows) and cut his foot pretty deeply.

I grab my keys and head straight to Walmart to get to hydrogen peroxide, and heavy duty cleaners, towels and scrub brushes. I must say that I was enormously impressed. By the time I got back, the guys... even though they may have been falling over a bit to do so... had almost all of it cleaned up! I'm not sure what they used??? But everything I got at the store took care of the rest.

You would have never known it... except for the fact that NOW there are about 16 beautifully sparkling clean spots throughout the house that show up worse than the blood did... ;)

After cleaning Miguel's foot with the hydrogen peroxide, I put liquid bandage on it. I felt SOOOO bad because that REALLY REALLY hurt him. He spent about 20 minutes solid screaming and punching his heel over and over again. He even asked me to punch it for him for a while... But I do think we made sure it wasn't going to get infected, which was my biggest concern.

Between Miguel limping everywhere, and me mouthing my orders in the restaurants to James for him to interpret to the cashier... I bet we were quite the sight, today.

The party don't stop when you're in my band!

Peace. Love. Fiddle. And Clean Spots.
~natalie

I <3 This Summer Tour

Tim fits in really well :) This was posted on facebook after our show Saturday, and it made me so happy!!! I love how into it we all are. This one really captures what an awesome show it was!



Made more progress in the studio on our days back in town...

Got new tires for the trailer...

Road cases for new sound equipment came....

I made some solid progress on the new fiddle search (oh yes... new fiddles SOON!)...

Adding new songs to the set...

And even squeezed in a little hang time with my best friend of 17 years...

All in all, GREAT couple of days off.

Tomorrow - BACK to Panama City Beach!!! :) I like this summer Tour.