greeted like heroes.  The doors were opened for the tattooed luggers of ice bags and half of them didn’t even reach the freezers, grabbed from the truck, scanned at the counter, and carried straight out again.  There was no pizza, hardly any Slurpees, cold water was scarce, no already-made foods… suddenly Living in a strange kind of scarcity. 

We were invited to perform at the July 4th festivities in Takoma Park. The paycheck we were destined to receive for this looked smaller and smaller and smaller as the date loomed near and temperatures climbed. A friend passed out while building the stage, I nearly threw up after dragging Sharif's amplifier over a baseball field after playing our typically high-energy set. By the time we got home (skipping the fireworks, possibly an error since Heather since it was one of the best displays she's ever seen) I was just about ready to DIE.

July 2nd, 2012.
I’m so exhausted I can barely focus.  We got home at around 2 this morning, then it’s been a long day at HMT setting up banjos and mandolins and a charango.  I feel it in my wrists and in my fingers and the temperatures have sapped my will to Live.  We’re playing the 4th of July celebration in Takoma Park tomorrow (IF it doesn’t rain) and I’m dreading the temperatures, but excited to play, but worried that it’ll rain, but slightly wishing it’d rain… financially I’ve taken too much of a hit from gig cancelations

recently so REALLY I need this gig to go forth and conquer, but it should be about 94 degrees when we take the stage and a covered stage will trap the heat, and an uncovered stage will fry us.  It may be the most static ilyAIMY set since that infamous Faerie Festival.

Despite horrible advertisement and the perhaps BECAUSE the rest of Montgomery County had had to cancel their fireworks displays (all the needed emergency personel that would've been on call for the shows were still deployed dealing with derecho aftermath) - we had a great turn out for the Takoma Park Independence Day celebration!

Last night was a fun show.  We played the 98 Rock Noise in the Basement local rock series at Baltimore SoundStage and had a good time.  I like watching people go from slightly curious as we lug our instruments on stage to incredulous to finally being transported by the rockin’.  We probably had one of the smallest turnouts but one of the biggest crowds of any of the bands as people crowded around to see what the HELL was going on.  It didn’t translate into much from the door, and it didn’t generate a lot of CD sales, but it WAS a lot of fun.  Shows like that probably won’t ever be huge for us, but I enjoy getting up on a loud stage and rocking out – though I’ve learned I probably