Monday, October 30, 2006
"10.30.06 Journal; Flying through October / October in Review "

Howdy folks!

Lots of people on myspace haven't heard from me in a while and I've been gettin' of emails sayin, "WTF?"

So, here it is in a BLOG. That way I don't have to explain it over & over to everyone....

I think I'm a pretty busy guy, but the past couple of months have proved even busier than usual. I've been having alot of fun, but it's been exhausting at the same time.

Starting at the beginning: Of course the first weekend in October was spent as usual in Oklahoma City. Matthew had shows at Partners with Sonja Martinez and at The Boom with Ginger Lamar. It was a great weekend and some of the best shows I've seen in a while. I even got to watch Ginger Lamar & Kitty Bob Aimes doing a "Boots" contest- each coming out in their boots and performing their own versions of "These Boots Are Made For Walking"... Ginger won and it was a great show.

Well, we got home from OKC on Sunday October 8th and started packing for the Get-Along-Gang's Fall Ball Campout. On Monday October 9th, we headed out to Lake Eufaula with Sherri, Harold, Josh & Kelly to set up our campsite!

We spent the next full week at the campout & it was great! Of course, lots of things happened throughout the campout, but no time to talk about them all here. On Thursday a good friend of mine from my teenage-days came by our campsite to hang out with us for awhile- Tonye, so that was special. I got to see lots of folks that I haven't seen since the Spring Fling campout. I got to drink ALOT and watch Butch Pickler get even drunker than me... even got some photos of her in a cowboy hat...

she was also haunted by pickles every day she was at the campout! Imagine that! Pickles everywhere! In her tent, around her tent, ice chest & hanging from the trees. I still don't know who would do such a thing!

On saturday of campout, I helped out with the Roman style Triathlon that Sherri & Harold worked at- it was great and the campers really seemed to enjoy themselves! After the Triathlon, Sherri challenged Josh to a Sumo Wrestling contest! That was fun to watch!

Then Saturday night, it was time to put on our togas for the Toga Party! Harold and Vernon pulled our home-made Chariot to the meeting-area for the show... As King & Queen of the McPride Prom, Sherri & I road in it & threw coins to the masses. Matthew sang in the show & afterwards the results of the Empress & Emperor of Campout were announced! I was soooo excited because Sherri was announced as having winning votes for Empress! I was so happy about that, it took me a moment to realize that they called my name as Emperor!

So, the rest of the evening Sherri and I made our rounds to all of the campsites visiting as the Emperor & Empress of Campout... quite exciting to be Prom King & Queen and Campout Emperor & Empress in the same year... so, now that we've done that, what are we going to conquer next?? Well, just wait and see... we're cooking something up...

Rain set in early Sunday morning and Matthew and I rode it out till Monday and packed up Robinhood (our RV) and headed home.

We had one day at home, then we were leaving for New Orleans! Yee-Haw!

We drove all night through amazing rainstorms that I thought would never let up and then the next sunshine filled morning found ourselves in the swampy area outside of New Orleans.

We hadn't been to New Orleans in a while, so we were shocked at how different it seemed since the hurricane, but we didn't let it ruin our fun. Thursday evening we pulled out our tickets and headed over to the House of Blues for the Scissor Sisters concert. Wow. I was excited about seeing the Scissor Sisters, 'cause I just love their music, but I don't think I was expecting such a great concert. It was amazing. I suggest to anyone: if the Scissor Sisters come to your town, GO SEE THEM!

So, the concert was over and that meant that Josh, Paul, Matthew & I had the rest of the weekend with no plans but to hang out in the French Quarter!

We left the concert, walking Toulouse Street to Bourbon- I told a guy that was trying to heckle me into a strip joint that I was gay and he didn't believe me... we had fun with that for the rest of the trip. Headed back to our rooms at The Bon Maison to freshen up for a sec, then went next door to The Bourbon Pub to get the rest of our night underway! It was packed and Josh, Paul & I carried our drinks over to the side of the bar- lots of folks squeezing by us and some guy standing next to me telling me that I was HOT and that he loved cowboys... UGH, then Paul pokes me and says "Did you see who that was??!" I looked up to realize that the last 3 guys who had squeezed past us were three members of Scissor Sisters...

Well, the rest of our time spent in New Orleans was lots of fun, but some of it I just can't talk about to protect the innocent.

So, we came back from New Orleans on Sunday, getting home late Sunday night. Monday it was time to get up and start getting ready for The Krebs Queens & Sherold's 12th Annual Halloween Party!

After 12 years, we have this down to a science, however, that doesn't make it any easier! We worked all week to get the house ready for the crowd... Harold worked harder than any of us! He built a terrific frame around our back patio to make our Halloween party entrance tunnel.

Through the week Matthew, Sherri and myself helped my folks move to their new house, which as of Friday night, they were finally staying at...

Then came Saturday, the day of the party. Sherri & Harold came over and we started finishing up... the wind that had plagued us all week had finally died down, so Harold and Matthew quickly got the last of the black plastic into place over the wooden frames.

Sherri, Paul and myself did take a little break in the day to attend a Quilt show that Sherri's mom had a quilt in at St. John's in McAlester... it was fun and Sherri's Mom's quilt was just beautiful! It ended up winning the viewer's favorite award.

Back home Bill and Eric showed up from Oklahoma City- bringing along with them some home-made punch and LOTS & LOTS of Bill's infamous cherries for the party! Woo-hoo! He got me to sample the punch and cherries as soon as he got to our house.... the samples kicked new energy into my day!

The party started that evening and lasted the entire night. Attendance this year was smaller than usual, but I think it's fair to say that a good time was had by all. No visits from the cops this year, no fights, so things were very pleasant! My folks even got talked into trying some of Bill's cherries...

So, there it is... that's what I've been up to and things aren't finished for us yet. This weekend Matthew & I will be heading to Oklahoma City for Matthew to perform in Ginger Lamar's Saturday night show at The Boom! So, if you're in the OKC area this weekend, stop by and shout "hey" at us!

Thanks for readin & always remember- always drink upstream from the herd.

Love to you all.
Jason Heath-Fitzgerald

For Photos of Get Along Gang's Fall Ball 2006 visit:
http://jasonwebdesigns.com/fallball2006.html

For Photos of Krebs Queens in New Orleans visit:
http://jasonwebdesigns.com/krebsqueens/neworleans2006.html

For Photos of 12th Annual Halloween Party:
http://jasonwebdesigns.com/krebsqueens/halloween2006.html