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...............

Eyes Wide Shut

It's always nice to spend time with someone you knew once in your life, only to get to know them again NOW 13 years later. Mr. Tulsa came down again. We looked through pictures on my computer while sitting in our jammies and talked about old times, new times and haunted places. It's funny how much a person can change in 13 years. NOT him, ME. I dont think he's changed, at all........... and unlike most people I know, it's a good thing. He's exactly like he's always been.

The picture probably looks bad, but it wasn't....... it was hilarious really... it only took us 30 minutes to figure out where the timer was on this digital camera.... this is the result.

Keane is getting settled in around here, he and the dogs are not quite what i would call 'friends' yet, but he slept in bed with the dogs purring all night......earlier they were laying on each side of me without drawing blood or growling at one another, so that was a huge step in the right direction. Here he is in all his glory this morning, hes truly an amazing cat.

(Hey, me and the dogs still have both eyes... we are definatly doing well)
You know the eyes are the window to the soul, and of course if you have followed or read much of this blog at all you know how facinated I am with the human soul. Looking at this picture, just shows why I adopted Keane- he says so much with just once glance. Pure Raw Emotion in the kindest possible form. Truly magnificant!

It's a beautiful spring day! I dont know that i've felt this 'at peace' in a while. The world just seems right today and it is relaxing. I took a few shots of the bottle tree today - hope i dont make you dizzy with it.

Since I am too lost in the euphoria of life to write anything worth while today- Here are the pictures from Saturday Night:

Jenni and I had Angelina Jolie Imitations......... great huh?

And of course Jenni not only looks like Bettie...... but Audrey Hepburn too!!! (Lucky Bitch)

This would be my ill attempt at a Madonna look a like- What can i say, she's effin' bad ass!!! (i'm a wanna be... ha ha)

This would be the infamous Papa- in all his glory- I love to just stick the camera in peoples faces and click... fun stuff. as you can see, he enjoys this as well.

and lastly- the blurred version of the evening. It was fun, had by all.... but unlike Friday didn't end in (self proclaimed) Biscuits and Gravy over girl talk.... I'll be back tomorrow with more i'm sure, but for today, i'm on a mental vacay- I'm off to dance around the world and kiss the sun. I hope you all have a beautiful day, no matter what the weather. Go hug an old friend, call your siblings, or mail a card for no reason, you know... it just 'feels' like that kind of day today. Peace out my friends and of course........ Cheers!