Would You Like Holmefries With That? - 4/8

The weather was horrendous.  Torrential rains.  I had a 75th birthday party to go to for my (deceased) boyfriend’s mother in Toms River before going to see Holme.  My friends had hemmed & hawed over going to Bar-A.  Originally there were plans to celebrate my 50th birthday there but they were nixed.  My sister had thrown a surprise party for me but you know the girl thing - you still go out with your friends to celebrate.  In the end it was me, my sister Kathy & Sharon.  My friend Charlotte went too with 2 of her friends from her neighborhood in Pennsylvania & her sister Jane.  Jane looked marvelous.  I wore a business suit to the party I had to attend.  It seemed like a wise choice.  I only have 1 top, 1 pr of socks, 1 pr of shoes & 1 purse to go with it.  By wearing it I saved a lot of time getting ready to go out.  My friend Marian stole a birthday cupcake balloon from the party.  I wanted it to take with me to the bar.  I left the party early hoping to get to Bar-A by 4:00.

The parking lot was full when I got there.  I parked in the lot on the adjourning property not knowing or caring who owned it & tied the balloon to my purse.  When I opened the door to get out of the car the balloon took off into the sky.  I got drenched for the umpteenth time that day walking from the parking lot to the bar.  At that point I thought I had made a mistake going out.  To my surprise I was the 1st one of my group there.  The band was on break when I arrived.  Holme was playing that day to benefit the Sons of the Shillelagh & their bagpipers were playing when I walked in. 

The 1st person I spoke to was Sementa.  He told me he was working 24/7 @ D’Jais.  Then I went out to the back bar where Pete from D’Jais & Harry Filkin were sitting.  The back bar floor was flooding.  The tarp covering the bar was leaking.  Pete & I were rolling our eyes watching the floor be swept of the water.  We were Sementa thinking.  The topic of the day was Joel. 

The day wasn’t going well for me.  I was melancholy because my boyfriend wasn’t alive to see his mom turn 75, I was in a pants suit, I was soaked, hot, concerned for Joel & sad for Sharon.

So break’s over & the band is playing.  Peter Schulle takes a photo of me & Kathy with his cell phone.  At least I think it was of me & Kathy.  I have no idea why.  A guitarist named Stanley has replaced Joel in the Holme line-up.  I don’t think he’s a permanent replacement, however, he may be playing with them for quite sometime to come.  The whole time we were there we couldn’t figure out whether his name was Stanley or Sammy so I had to ask Kipp.  He told me Stanley does a lot of session work, has been around a long time & is well known locally.  Stanley looks like Puggy.  I thought so right away.  While the band was playing I motioned to Kipp, looked at Stanley & said only one word: “Puggy”.  Kipp cracked up.  Then I motioned that Stanley’s glasses were like Puggy’s rose colored ones & Kipp laughed more.  Before the next song began Kipp said to Frank (over the microphone) “Michele is still the smartest person in the world. She said Stanley looks like Puggy.”  I loved hearing him say it.  I’m going to use that sentence every chance I get.  In fact, Kathy gave me a hard time about my suit.  She thought I looked frumpy & should have changed into jeans in my car.  Right away I told her smart people wear suits!  Anyway Stanley seemed very friendly.

Some new songs!  One of Kathy’s favorites “No Matter What” by Badfinger, The Temptation’s “My Girl” which was sung by Kipp, Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop” & Rod Stewart’s “Have I Told You Lately.” 

Peter Schulle’s son Sean played a couple of songs with the band.  He’s HOT and a great guitarist too.  He’s Peter’s younger son.  The older one is 39!

Steve Meyers the saxophone player a/k/a Steverino found my Blog & wrote to me to tell me he was terribly upset he wasn’t mentioned on it.  I wrote him back that there’s basically 2 ways to get me to mention you in the Blog:  1)  You sleep with someone (preferably some I know) 2) You do something outrageous.  He wrote back that it was a good deal and his new goal was to sleep with everyone @ Clancy’s!  From the stage at Bar-A he told us he had slept with 3 maybe 4 women from Clancy’s.  He’s really very funny.

The band went on break again.  Sharon was hanging out with AJ a bartender from Clancy’s.  He’s a 29 yr old cutie.   Sharon & I admired Kathy’s pendant.  It was a rhinestone letter K.  She told us she had found it on a bus.  How lucky is that finding you’re a necklace with your own initial?  I wasn’t dancing.  I wasn’t in the mood.  A woman named Marianne came up to me & told me she reads my Blog and loves me!  The band returned to the stage & Kipp announced it was my birthday and someone else’s whose name I can’t remember (sorry).  The band sang the traditional Happy Birthday song and then went right into the Beatle’s Birthday song.  I was pretty blown away that Kipp had remembered it was my birthday 30 days after Kathy spoke to him about it.  However, did Kipp not notice that the rest of my posse was missing?  Would I be out celebrating my birthday without Susan, Marian, Camille & Donna?  By now you realize Kipp can do no wrong by me.  He’s always saying nice things about me from stage & he really catapulted me out from under my black cloud.  Kip has evolved into my John Lennon.  What I mean is at first you fall for Paul McCartney then later you find that John Lennon is way cooler.  During Birthday Marianne came over & told me I was a star.  She wished me a happy birthday and kissed me about 15 times.  At that point Kathy went to her car to get some of the birthday tee shirts she had made up for me & handed out a few.  It was then I wished I had changed into my jeans in my car and had danced a little.  A short time later Marianne twisted her ankle & sat out the rest of her time there.

I tried really hard to leave without criticizing one of the band’s song choices but failed to do so.  The last thing I did before leaving was to go up to Kipp.  I apologized for what I was going to say to him & then said “Drop the Fleetwood Mac song from your song list!"

A few quick notes….. I just found out that for 30 years I’ve been spelling Kipp’s name wrong.  I think I’ve always spelled it with one P.   I apologize to him & to everyone else.   Be sure to read Pattie Holmefries’ comment posted on March’s Blog Entry.  Also, dig out your old Frank/Kip birthday tee shirts and wear them to this year’s birthday bash – May 15th @ D’Jais.  Thanks for reading.

Love, M.