Yesterday...and the day before

On Friday, I was to look after the Goodyear kids from when Pernell and Margie left, till the real sitter arrived. Who is this real sitter, you ask? None other than Meliss Burleigh. If you've never seen her in action while chillin' with childrens, I must offer up my recommendations to do so. Seeing her interact with kids is like watching a surgeon slice open a patient: Exciting, inspiring, and a hell of a lot of fun to watch. Seriously, she's good at it, much better than I. At around 1pm, a buddy of mine, Allen, stops by cuz he happened to be in town that day. We chill, chat, and have some sweet laughs. It was really great seeing him again. I don't get to see him all that often, but whenever I do, it's always such a treat. After he leaves, it's just me and the 3 kids. During the 3 hour time period between the love birds leaving and when Nanny McPhee arrived, I manage to get all 3 kids crying, a couple cuddles, and a cannonball in the face. Anyone wanna top that for the worst sitter award? Yea, didn't think so. Fortunately, my testicles are still in tact, so that's a plus. After Melissa arrives, I decide to stick around and get some work done while she's hanging with the kids. I don't know what it is, but the kids seem to be so much more chill around her than I. I think it's because she gives them "special brownies". Dinner times rolls around, and we tear into the roast Margie made for us before she left. Two words: Holy Crap!! It was a roast put into a slow cooker with potatoes, carrots, onions and seasoning. The meat was moist and tender, the vegetables were soft and succulent, and the broth left over was so sweet and flavorful it could've doubled as a desert wine.

Then on Saturday, it was packed full of interesting encounters and full on wicked excitement. The day began with a good night's sleep, which, by the way, has been recaptured and used to its fullest extent the last 3 days. Booyah for good sleep!! At around 2pm, I mosey on over to the Tiger Cat's stadium to help Jo Jo with a canned food drive. That was pretty interesting on several levels. First, yesterday was my first time EVER wearing paraphernalia of any kind having a denominational logo on it. While standing around next to the donation bin, I found myself sporting a black hooded jacket with the Salvation Army shield on the left chest, as well as one on the back the size of Texas. I've never had that much responsibility before to not sully the name of an organization who's put their trust in a punk kid like me to wear their goods. Fortunately, I didn't do anything illegal. Well, I don't THINK I did anything illegal. Anyways, it was cool standing around next to a bin and having someone from time to time look in and wonder if it was a trash can.

Afterwards, I go home for a quick shower and head over to the cafe to barista for Ungamana. Although it was a slow start, it quickly picked up and turned into a crazy party. I really had no idea what to expect, but what unfolded was simply one of the best nights of baristaing I've ever had the pleasure of being part of. Not only were Erin, Kaelyn and I constantly on the move, but we had some great people and great music to keep us going. As a fundraiser, this evening was by far one of the funnest (is that a word? Well, it is now.) ways to do it. The headlining group, whose name escapes me, was fronted by a dude who killed every single instrument he played, whether it was drums, bass, guitar, voice, and mouth. Yes, mouth!! This dude started laying down some sick ass beats with what I assume was his teeth and tongue. I have never seen anything like it before in my life!! That takes the phrase 'party in your mouth' to a whole other level. To top it all off, Adrian sat in on drums with the band and played with 'em the whole entire night!! I knew this dude had mad skills on the drums, but for him to play as phenominally as he did on the fly without any practice, was seriously mind numbingly impressive. Good on ya, Adrian!! Also, mad props go out to Kaelyn for organizing this event. It's been absolutely fabulous getting to know her and being able to work with her last night.

To Kaelyn: You did an absolutely AMAZING job last night!! Everything was such a HUGE sucess, and you pulled everything off fabulously and what seemed like effortless work. Congratulations on a spectacular evening!! What a way to end things with a bang!!

I had a whole lot of fun hanging out with some really great people these last couple days, and I'm looking forward to doing s'more of that tonight at the FRWY.