Tocheise Fest 2009- Chapter 2

Tocheise Festival 2009

Friday night was a lot of fun, as I said in the first chapter....and frankly it's all become a huge blurr at this point, but we all ended up back at my house. Honkey Suckle (Eric and Dave) came back to play for us around the fire pit (yeah i know right... total Arkansas site right there) My friend Matt from Shell Knob and Hilary showed up to join the rest of the crew. We sat around the fire outside, listened to good music and chatted in our jammies. Here are a few pictures, as the night raced on, I served chips with salsa and cheese dip (and made an ass load of quesadillas) enjoy the story in pictures.
Here is mostly everyone camped out in the gravel front yard, listening to music having a great time. Notice... Jenni is the ONLY person who could pull off leopard heels with cherry PJ pants... but just wait for the closer pictures.........


Merrie, Eric, Dave and Amanda

Merrie and Eric Groovin

It wasn't long after the above picture was taken, that the bowl of freshly heated cheese dip slid off the cooler (ok Bambi, who's genius idea was it to set the bowl on the cooler with a drunk lil Merrie?) and slid nicely into Erics shoe, covering his toes... hence the Tocheise Festival term being coined here. We of course, being the classy group we are, eating cheese dip, salsa and chips in a gravel front yard around a fire pit in Arkansas would never spell it Toe Cheese- We have to spice it up a bit and make it seem ... foreign... ok maybe not but it's cuter than TOE CHEESE. Here you see Merrie's clean feet (for now) next to Erics, not so tasty looking feet covered in cheese:

And so as if that was not enough, here i'll give you an up close look at the actual toe.. with said cheese.

What a waste of good cheese................ man......................... i dont love cheese as much when i look at this picture............ but i digress: On with the story!

It wasn't long after the CHEESE that i decided to make all my hungry and very drunk friends some Quesadillas, which by the way, got eaten as fast as I made them. While in the house though, like any little get together people are in and out of the house, mixing drinks, using the facilities and conversing in various areas of the house. It just so happened, I was in the one room of the house that the girls from the Motley Crue videos' showed up. I mean i love Nikki Sixx- but I think I love the following pictures even more:

except, this particular video was shot in the floor of my kitchen....... and, the music was live, and....... the band was outside........... i'm not sure what happened here but it became a pretty funny floor sitting experience. THESE two cracked me up- This is Merrie and Brianne in their debut of "Motley Floor Girls"
And from here turned into this:

and soon after this.............. we all just ended up on the floor, making faces, doing poses and well... heading for ONE hell of a hang over the next morning:

(Yes, i have my shoe above my head and my glasses on- My eyes were cashed and i looked horrible so be thankful you CANT see my eyes)

(Damn, it's good to be a gangsta! tee hee)

But the night didn't end with JUST cheese on feet... or drunk girls who haven't hung out together in ages, rolling around on the floor in the woods of Arkansas, pretending we were all 10 years younger again. It didn't go un noticed that we were missing a few of our 'crew', nor did it seem as if the 'new members' had become NEW to the group, or had been there all along.

Even when you traipse around in the hills with no shoes on: (no these are NOT my feet- this person shall remain nameless to keep from hillbily status) listening to live folk music played by your friends around a fire pit... you can't help but look at them all in a group and be thankful that after all of these years, they are still the people who held you up when you felt like you couldn't stand anymore... (even if you were just drunk in HS) They talked you through break ups you thought would never heal. They sent you birthday, mothers day and Christmas cards, even though you can't seem to remember to send them to anyone - you got one... from them. They are the ones that you call when you need to cry, and you just really have no idea why. They are the ones you drive hours to see for 30 minutes because just that thirty minutes alone can make an entire difference in the next year of your life. No matter what you do in life, mistakes you make, tears you shed, people you lose or smiles you share... these are the people that will stand beside you no matter what. They love you, for who you are, what you were and where you have traveled to become the person you are today.

This friendship- between this group of girls is not something you find around every corner. This 'institution' (because that word seems so fitting, especially after the pictures) of friends, seem to fit together like a bunch of puzzle pieces that never fit anywhere else. Our edges compliment one another, and each piece more different than the next, yet the same in some way that you can't quite put your finger on.

Up next- Saturday's events in Eureka Springs with the Tocheise Girls:

To Be Continued...............

Whimsical Wednesday

I love Wednesday. It's that one day of the week that feels like 'it's all down hill from here', and it is... but when it is 70 degrees outside, the sun is beaming and calling my name, it is hard as hell to keep my eyes on the computer and not spaced out in the trees with the birds.

My family has decided to do a 'Family Reunion' the first week of August, truth be told, I couldn't be more excited about it. The last time I went to a reunion it was in BFD Kansas. It was fun, but I was 13, goofy looking, quiet and shy.... ok, it wasn't really that fun. This one will be in Yellowstone, or somewhere up NORTH, and i've never been. Wyoming, yes... to get illegal fireworks to bring back to Colorado, but that was about it. This will be Jaida's first trip on a plane (unless i decide to hop a flight for her bday surprise, it's in the air) and i couldn't be happier. I made sure to book the window seats on all flights, JUST for her. I remember flying when I was little. I dont think my face left that window, I was glued from take off to landing.

There has always been a certain magic about flying so high. Once you reach that certain point you can see where the earth starts to round, and the dark of the universe is above you. It is to me, like the closest to Heaven you can get, while still in your earthly body. Every time I have ever flown since my childhood, if i have a choice, i get the window. It is her turn and I look forward to seeing the excitement in her sweet brown eyes.

This will be the first time I see my Aunt, Uncle (his family), Cousins and their family that are immediate blood lines since after my mom died. I'm excited that this, will be under happy circumstances!

I have the windows open today, a statement you will likley hear every day from this point forward, but I can't help but cherish it. I can hear the wood bees buzzing around my house, planning their attack to drill into the siding. I filled up my hummingbird feeders, hanging just outside my window, to prepare for the migration of the cute little winged friends in the coming weeks. The breeze keeps whisking in the smell of cut grass from the distance and the sweet smell of lilac or something of the sort growing out in the woods. It is not a full scent, but a faint and scattered one, a scent I could follow around my house, truth be told.

It is a most beautiful of days today... I couldn't ask for a better one. I'm looking forward to spending time with an old friend tonight, getting to know him again after 12-13 years of absence. I think i'll start off at the Cat House, introduce him to my favorite pub and my favorite place to get a good Bloody Mary... Then off to Beavertown... he doesn't believe me that we have a place called Beavertown. I love proving i'm right!

I hope your day is beautiful, the breeze is ever calming and the fresh cut grass doesn't make you sneeze. Peace and Cheers to you my wonderful friends!

PS- Thank you all for voting, the ones that have.... I'm so Glad you like the new 'digs'.