Sioux Falls, SD
Well, it's the final day of the first leg of the Spring tour and I know that the three of us are ready to have a week off to re-energize and get excited for the second run of shows through Canada and the East Coast.
The shows every night have been excellent and seeing the northwestern part of the country has been pretty stunning, but after tonight's show the average time driving to each show goes down drastically, and we're all excited to have some more time each day to hang out, exercise and get some cool video footage other than the inside of our Dodge Durango!
The running joke between Matt, David and I at the Blood:Water booth recently has been 'What is going to prevent us from completing our responsibilities and arriving to the shows on time?'—we've showed up at the wrong venue, gotten lost, misread the schedule, accidentally put the wrong setting on our laundry, woken up late (before a long day of driving), and experienced daylight savings. While we've mastered the art of setting up our booth in 15 minutes, it was nice today to have a stress free afternoon of chilling out in Starbucks, reading, journaling and even watching last week's episode of LOST online. We're one third of the way through the tour, and finally we got our stuff set up on time—I hesitate to write it, because its possible that a rogue tornado has just destroyed our booth in the lobby (now would seem to be the opportune moment, since its about 30 minutes before the doors open . . . J)
Despite our difficulties in being punctual, the tour has been amazing and the people we've met and interacted with at the shows have really been encouraging—even though Blood:Water Mission has only been around for a few years, there are a lot of people who not only know about us but have already organized their own fundraisers or donated money—some friends from show in Salt Lake City, Utah gave money instead of wedding favors at their reception, a guy in New Jersey is apparently growing a moustache without trimming until he reaches a certain goal, and we just met some people in South Dakota who donated all of the proceeds from a theatrical production to Blood:Water Mission. It is very cool to see people synergizing their passions with the grassroots movement all over the country to raise awareness of the difference a dollar makes in the foreign communities which are oppressed by AIDS and poverty.
Well, its time to get to work—more news and thoughts after the break! Enjoy the added hour of daylight.
-Joe-
