Thu, Apr 17, '03 10:29 am TOUR DIARY: DAY 1

well, it started out as a nice day,..the sky was sort of cloudy, nothing we couldn't handle,. we started off from my parent's house in DE after a good night's sleep, passed through MD, and getting more and more excited as Richmond approached,.. We decided to stop off the highway and grab a bite,..note to all in the Richmond area, "Dixie Bones" has some pretty serious BBQ,..very good stuff, we enjoyed our meal thoroughly! talk about finger-lickin' good! sheesh!

So after the wonderful meal, off again we were heading south on 95,.. then,..it started raining,..Rich turned on the windshield wipers and they were moving very slow,..hmm,..we thought,..then the radio started acting weird,.. hmm,..we thought,..(my stomach started to turn and lunch wasn't sitting so well) then the spedometer needle started to act strangely,..Rich decided, we should get off at the next exit and pull over,... so that's what we did,..we pulled into a motel figuring, well maybe the car is just overheating from carrying extra weight,.. perhaps we'll just walk around the parking lot, let the car cool down and then be on our merry way,...so,..even though my heart was palpitating knowing full well we needed to be in Wilminton, NC within 8 hours, and we still had a 5 hour drive, we walked a bit, then came back to the car,..argh! it wouldn't start,..Rich concluded the alternator had died,...bad news,. So, enter in a measure of human kindness! Turns out, the owner of the motel, Dennis and his wife Cookie were our life savers. Not only did Dennis call all the auto parts service stores in the area, he got us the lowest priced part AND drove us to the store to pick it up.He also got in touch with his maintainance guy, Kenny, who happens to be a master mechanic, and he arrived within an hour to fix the car.we were very lucky,..Cookie was very helpful in consoling me,.she was very nice indeed! lol So, 3.5 hours later, off we went towards Wilmington, NC. I had been keeping the Booking Manager at IBIZA informed throughout our ordeal,.again, lucky for me, my friend in Wilmington, Laura McClean agreed to fill in for me until I arrived. Phew! We eventually made the gig, I played 4 or 5 songs,..we all had a good laugh a few drinks and had a good night's sleep! So, thank you Dennis and Cookie! Thanks to Kenny (the guy who fixed the car) thanks to Laura McClean and Christine at Ibiza for being so understanding and helpful! I can't express my gratitude in any other way,.. All I can say is I'm amazed at the amount of true kindness people can give,. amazing!

Thu, Apr 17, '03 11:05 am Tour Diary: day 3

So,.this day was a looooong day! We got up extra early because we had to pick up Steele, from the Raleigh Airport at 11:30AM. Rich and I needed some coffee,..and some breakfast,..While Rich packed up the car I found a diner down the street,..I decided to try some grits, as I've never eaten that kind of stuff before,..Don't think I'll be needing to try them again anytime soon,..(Sorry grits lovers, i'll put it in the same category as scrapple for now) Off we went,..still in dire need of some coffee,..**Steele has an expression for really weak coffee,..he calls it "sock juice" basically coffee that tastes like you ran water through dirty socks,..that's the gist of it,..** (yeah we're snobby New Yorkers,...)

Anyway, We made it to the airport, picked Steele up and everything was dandy,..off to Carrboro to meet with our hosts Tom Arnell and Mellisa Light. All 3 of us were dead tired and in need of some caffinated beverages, so we decided to make a pit stop,..we knew there was a corner where there were 2 strip malls,..so we pulledn in to one and crawled in the car looking for a coffee spot, when all of the sudden a car drove up next to us. Being New Yorkers, we thought we were about to be scolded for crawling around in cirlces in the parking lot, but to our surprise, this wonderfully nice woman asked us if we needed help in finding something! imagine that? We told her we needed some java so she directed us towards the mall and off we went.

We got our coffee, we got some lunch and headed over to Tom's house. Both Tom and Mellisa were extremely personable,.we had a great time talking and getting to know each other throughout the afternoon. But soon it was time to get to the soundcheck at the Temple Ball gallery. Once we arrived at the Soundcheck we were greeted by Kenray and Lisa Ray, the organizers of the RAINN Benefit/Tori Tribute event. They had done such an amazing job in organizing the event,..everything went smoothly and we were out of soundcheck pretty quickly,..everything ready to go. Rich and I were adamant about wanting to get some good home cooking, so Tom suggested we go to a place down the street called Mama Dips. Lord in heaven was that some good food! A group of us went down there and totally gorged ourselves! I got to try fried green tomatoes for the first time,..and hush puppies! mmmm-mmm good!

Rich couldn't leave without getting a slice of pecan pie and somehow we managed to roll ourselves out of there and got back to the Temple Ball. Let me tell you! the entire night was amazing. There wasn't a performer in the house who didn't kick some serious butt!!!! I was getting to the point where I was thinking, "why am I here?" "Please don't forget the words" bla bla,.very nervous,..I think my favorite performance was by Shannon Campbell,.a NC native,..she blew me away,..and Amber deLaurentis, too,..she did some honky tonk versions, and my lord,..she was great! We finally got to the stage around 11pm or so,..I haven't been that nervous since my first open mic,..it's pretty intimidating to do Tori covers in a room full of Tori fans,.lol but we survived,..Rich and Steele were awesome! what an amazing evening,..it was so well put together! I met some fantastic artists, who I hope remain friends, and I was just amazed at how well the night flowed,..There are some pics up on the Website,..or no, a link to the pics from the website,.go to: toritibute.com,..there's a picture of everyone who performed that night. As well as pics from the night after with Vienna Teng (coming up). Kudos go out to Lisa Ray who booked and carried out the RAINN benefit/Tori Tribute. She was just amazing and I still can't figure out how she remained so poised! KenRay was a wonderful MC and was also extremely helpful in the detail planning,..I'm looking forward to participating next year! I'll be there, dont' you worry!

Thu, Apr 17, '03 11:23 am Tour Diary: day 4

I woke up tired but happy. Tom had already planned our day for us,..lol

So off we went to a cafe for some coffee (he knew at this point that we were addicts and couldn't survive without it) we spent a good part of the morning in a small park eating and listening to some jazz music. We all got some yummy food and talked and laughed (and got some sunburn). We then went to the UNC campus, got to see the Chapel Hill well and the campus grounds and walked down Franklin street, checking out the various stores.

We all decided to catch a snack and wound up at a conveyor belt sushi type of restaurant. Now IÕve never been to one of these places, (yum yum,. ) We went for a snack and after about 4 plates of sushi each we left,..rolling out one by one. Back to Tom and Mellissa's houses for a quick nap and some rest before soundcheck at Temple Ball.

So again, off we went to Temple Ball. Lisa Ray opened up the evening with a short set of her original music. She was fantastic, and she has an amazing beautiful voice! Then Steele, Rich and I went on. We played an hour long set and had a blast,.and Vienna Teng finished off the evening. Up till now, I had heard of her through the grapevine, we have some mutual friends, as I found out later, I was very excited to hear her music,...She did a beautiful set and ending off with a song in Chinese which was absolutely beautiful.

After the show we all piled out in our cars and went out for mexican food. yum yum lots of laughs lots of hugs and "see ya next years" my NYC friend, Judy, who recently tranplanted herself in NC, came to the show and along for the ride,..it's great to see old friends and have the chance to catch up. too bad we didn't have more time,..once again,.. next year,..