The season has officially ended; which, naturally, means we still have more things going on than we care to count.
The attempted First Annual Niland First Responders Day BBQ was a rousing success. Though no one showed up, we were out there with burgers, dogs, and smiles of varying sincerity. So, as I say, we had a very successful attempt. But not even a lukewarm response from the first responders (The one time we want the cops to show up?), another crazy EJ windstorm (Seriously?! This is why we can’t have nice things!), or the slowly increasing temperatures could dampen our spirits (Thank fuck the rain stopped months ago) as we put our efforts toward one of the longest overdue projects in East Jesus: rebuilding the roof of the living room.
Over the course of a couple weeks we completely tore apart the living room and, following the carefully designed plans of Tray (*snicker*), we finally built a roof that should keep us from getting so soggy come the next strange bout of rainy weather; with the added benefit that the living room is about 10 degrees cooler as well. As with any East Jesus project one thing lead to us finding another thing that needed doing and another thing until we completely stripped the living room and replaced the ceiling as well. For those of you who had an affinity for the old ceiling, not to worry, we put the records back up and actually found ourselves with more space than records so we decided to also incorporate a collection of porn laser discs donated by Bailey. We also made sure to keep the ceiling at the right height for head bumps; because what’s East Jesus without a few concussions. Luckily, our awesome work ethic and expert skills (*silent fits of giggles*) enabled us to finish just in time for the arrival of the Morton Salt Childrens’ Religious Revival.
Celebrating their 10th year those crazy Morton Salt kids pulled out all the stops. We’re suckers for a 10 year anniversary so we tried to make them feel as welcome as can be and as comfortable as our mastery over the weather would permit. Brother Luv came out to give us a hand and experience the art and in proper fashion brought us a couple hams. Sue as is her M.O. brought out a new piecaken. This time she had moved up another level…by adding another level. You heard right, DOUBLE LEVEL PIECAKEN (Pineapple pie in lemon cake under blueberry pie in blue vanilla cake-keeping with the color theme of blue and yellow.) There were performances of various types of art going on all day and by the time the sun went down and the dulcet tones of The Range started wafting over our way we were ready for our own rockin’ concert. With a total of seven bands, the music room was rolling like never before (or, at least, a long time). Add to that, seeing some good old friends like Myriad, Annie, Anna, Alex, and Kay and I’d call this another wonderful, if not tiring, weekend in East Jesus. Just business as usual, of course.
Amazingly, unlike so many parties before, everyone left on Sunday and we had the whole evening to ourselves. Mathilde returned with some stories and a bottle of Mezcal (two of our favorite things) and we rested up for the onslaught that was on it’s way…
Due to our usual habit of engaging in masochistic tendencies we double-booked the next weekend. Bill came down with his cadre of kids and their parents for a weekend of art and various lessons of the kind that can only crop up in this particular environment. In addition to that, our favorite guitar-playing, bourbon-swilling, tall guy, Chris, came down with Mary, Ofer, and several models in tow for a crazy weekend desert photo shoot. Aside from the over-abundance of people and a few other nasty surprises the weekend was a fairly smooth one and everyone had a good time and probably learned a little something.
As spring is wrapping up and summer will soon be upon us Tray and Liz will be heading up to the northern part of the state to get away from the heat that the rest of us don’t have the good sense to get out of. But, as I have become a big fan of saying,
–If we weren’t here in the summer, East Jesus wouldn’t be here in the fall.–
So, we’ll indulge in our little bout of insanity and keep the lights on, the batteries running, and the crazies (the other crazies) out so you’ll all have your favorite artist enclave to come back to when the weather goes back down to temperatures that are more reasonable and acceptable.
Until then…
Make Good Thing – Do Big Fun – Get More Laid – Rise and Infect
