Indianapolis / Non-Aneurysm

Despite my initial disdain for Indianapolis, we had a very good show there. Some people even stood up at the end. Perhaps they were long-lost relatives who failed to introduce themselves. My friend Nancy flew in for the show on her way home from South Dakota to Cleveland to see us play. Reed had a few friends come too, and for the first time, we actually hung out in the dressing room and had drinks with people like bands are supposed to do. Of course you can’t do that when the dressing room is a closet with two folding chairs. Fortunately, this dressing room had some nice mid century modern furnishings (and actual couch and armchair!) plus posters of The Marx Brothers on the wall, so it was basically perfect.

Before our set, I started to notice that I had a weird throbbing pain behind my left ear that had been slowly building all day. I thought that I should tell Reed and Bobby in case I had a seizure mid-set, so they’d know to tell the doctors which side to operate on (because it was clearly an aneurysm). But then I didn’t say anything, because I didn’t want Reed to go through the whole set worried that I was about to pass out. Thankfully, we played our set without incident. As I was walking back to the lobby to meet Nancy after our set, one woman high fived me and said "Great set. I'm a scientist." I guess scientists aren’t accustomed to having pop songs written about their area of specialty. After the show, we drove about 90 miles to slightly sketchy Days Inn tucked behind truck stop in Casey, Illinois. After we checked in, Reed texted me that he was wearing shoes in the hotel room to avoid rashes. Just before I got into bed, Bobby called me from his room to tell me that Andy Bell was sick, so the Kansas City Show was cancelled. After that, I tried to fall asleep but the throbbing pain behind my ear kept me up until about 2. Since I’m an official Web Md (self-certified), I did a search and diagnosed myself with some sort of non-fatal nerve condition, which made me feel relieved. After taking four Advil, I finally managed to fall asleep. Since the Kansas City Show was cancelled, we had two full days to make our way from the sketchy Days Inn in Casey, Illinois, to Dallas. The town of Casey, Illinois is known for having the worlds largest pencil, mailbox, birdcage and other random objects. The mailbox is so large, that you can actually climb up and go inside it. We were going to go take a look, but then decided the time would be better spent at a walk-in clinic for my weird throbbing pain. We drove about a half hour to a walk-in clinic, where the doctor gave me a giant shot of some sort of non-steroidal whatever in my hip, and a prescription for muscle relaxers. Then we got back in the car and drove about 7 or so hours to Little Rock. The shot was supposed to relieve the pain for 24 hours but by the time we got to the hotel in Little Rock, it was starting to wear off. I was worried that I’d be up all night, but luckily Bobby very kindly offered to pick up the muscle relaxer RX from a nearby all-night pharmacy. I was very appreciative (THANK YOU BOBBY). I took it and basically slept on and off for the next 36 hours.

Yesterday, as I continued to sleep, we drove another 5 or 6 hours to Dallas. We arrived at our super trendy hotel with eyeballs on all the walls (see below). On our way to dinner, our Lyft driver pointed out the rooming house that lee Harvey Oswald lived in when he shot Kennedy. Okay. Kind of interesting. Then we got back to the hotel, where there was no MSNBC available...so I went to bed.

The coffee situation this morning was not to my liking. It was the kind of machine that you put a quarter into to get a "cappuccino." I'm pretty sure we had the same machine at the art building at Oberlin. I want to tell the manager that if is trying to brand his establishment as super trendy, he needs real coffee.

By the way- woke up this morning and throbbing pain is gone :)