My Life as a Band Wife

I finally have my husband back. For a little while at least! He leaves next week to go to Europe, but for now, we’ll just enjoy eachothers company.

Notes from my weekend “out with the band:”

• The Worcester show was amazing, even if the staff at the Palladium is insane. They tried to keep Alyssa from joining me on the side of the stage and told Seth that he wasn’t allowed with us. I mean, Seth basically owns Defeater, and you’re going to tell him he can’t be on stage with us but Pat Flynn (Have Heart) has the OK? It was a little bit insane, but all worked out well.
• Joe has been killing it on drums. He’s definitely getting everything down and is fun to watch.
• The Poughkeepsie show was interesting. Defeater played well and got a really great response. I got to be amused by a kid yelling, “Occupy Defeater,” and these three girls, all of which were wearing low-cut black tops, competing with one another to get Derek’s attention. One of them even pulled her shirt down so far at one point that her zebra-print bra was showing. I always forget that girls can be like that. It was really quite the spectacle.
• It was nice to get to see Bane after so many years.
• I love the dudes in Miles Away and wish they lived closer.
• I can’t believe how many people like All Time Low. I can’t believe that they have prettier hair than me. They played the same night as Defeater in Poughkeepsie and the line was out the door crazy.

Now, I call it “my weekend with the band” because Jay and I never ride in the van with everyone else and always find a nice, clean hotel room to stay in. Look, I am not the touring type, and neither is he. We like to stay in a nice place and have independence from the rest of the group.

It was so great. We watched shows about flipping houses and hoarders, and we got to spend so much time catching up — despite him being really sick — on the drive to New York. There is always a period of adjustment when you’ve been separated for an extended period of time, so it was exactly what we needed.

Sunday we went to take a look at the house I found in Stow. We had lunch in Maynard at The Halfway Cafe, which was pretty good, and a short trip from the house. We were lucky to have my step-mom, Sarah, and my aunt and cousin there. They all thought the house was great.

Only trouble? The barn isn’t quite big enough to accommodate the studio. Or at least that’s what we thought the only problem with the house was. After the real estate agent left, the neighbor came over to give us the skinny with the house.

She is a couponer (and informed us that Extreme Couponing doesn’t do real couponers justice) and a gardener. She told us that the house was owned by a flipper and had been re-done after a family of hoarders had been foreclosed upon.

Seriously, I can’t make this stuff up. We spent the whole weekend watching those shows and then we find this out about my dream house. There were a couple of other things we would have to get looked at and expansion to the barn would have to happen.

When we left, Jay said he loved the house but thought we should keep looking. Until we got home and he met our new roommate.

Notes about our new roommate:

• We got home and the entire house (still) smelled like pot.
• Jay confronted roommate about the pot and he came out of his room in teeny-tiny boxer briefs to tell us that while he did smoke, he smoked outside and doesn’t know why the house smells like pot. I told him it didn’t smell like burned pot. He said he doesn’t know why the house smells like pot and then goes back into his room, giving no indication he is going to remedy the problem.
• Started playing bongo while we were upstairs. I looked at Jay and said, “See, I told you.”
• While Jay and Jake were unloading the trailer, Jay picked up a silver sparkly headband that had been left on the hood of his car and said, “I come home and find shit like this.” Roommate comes back from wherever he was, asks Jay if the headband is mine. Jay says no and roommate says, “I think it belongs to my girlfriend,” and takes the headband inside.
• Jay comes inside and roommate says, “Is that truck out front yours?” Jay says no and that it belongs to Corey. Roommate informs Jay that he put his bike in the back of the truck. Jay looks at him, bewildered, and tells him that if he wants to keep his bike he should probably get it out of the truck. Roommate says he didn’t know if he could keep it in the basement. Jay tells him to bring it downstairs and they’ll figure it out. Roommate brings it downstairs and leaves it directly in the middle of the control room.

What? WHAT?! How are these things real and how are they our lives? So Jay went into hyper-drive and started finding ways to make the flipped hoarder house work. It’s very likely we will try to make a few deals with the owner and put in an offer. Enough is enough.

That, my friends, is my update. I took pictures at the shows but they’re really terrible. If any of you were at the shows and took pictures, please leave links in my ask — I’d be happy to share them! Also, what did you guys think of Joe as a drummer? I’d love to hear what you think!

Laura ♥