Stuttgart, day 2

We woke up early to get in on the breakfast action downstairs, which was a bit of a mistake cause it kinda sucked. Oh well, you can't win 'em all. 

And then the rain came. My prediction was that it burn off by the afternoon, so we all decided to go back upstairs, get into bed and read- what a thought. To just sit around and read together. It was perfect. 

I am reading "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult, Q's on Harry Potters "The Deathly Hallows" and E is reading "The Corner" by David Simon and Edward Burns- creator of the Wire. At some point I decided to put the book down and take a nap, then Q and Eddie followed suit. All jammed in the same bed, one by one waking up to get the blood flowin'.

I hear Eddie out on the balcony changing his strings, which he broke two of during the show in Zurich (and he didn't stop the show, how does he do it??). He looks nice out there, my meterolgy skills proving to be correct, the sun is shining and it's looking perfect outside. 

Quattro joins him, to watch and learn. He is really into the guitar lately, having spent the last few months on the drums at home, he switches back and forth every few. He's got the bug and the gift, a dream combo for him and a Mother's fear. He too will most likely be in a band.

It's not that I think it isn't a good life. It is, I mean, I chose it too in a way- or did it choose me? Well, it chose Eddie for sure, he couldn't avoid it if he tried (which he didn't, not even for a second). But it's hard. I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly and if you haven't lived on the road- you really have no idea. It can take a great/talented person and change them. It will chew you up and spit you out, several times over. It will steal the best of you, whether you are famous for what you do or not. It's a lifestlye that doesn't fit too many. It's not always glamorous if you are touring arenas to 15,000 people or when you are hitting the dive curcut to 300. It's good livin' sure but it's hard. I guess that's why I like to bring the family out, I want to show him, if you're going to do it, "do it this way". Not that I think we are perfect but Eddie and I- we have done nothing if not perfect the family tour. We have discovered there's more to it if you are willing to move outside the box. If you can fly your middle finger to all the nay-sayers, there's really a good way to live this life, it comes with it's challenges but what doesn't? Figuring out who's going to pick up the kids after baseball when you are both working late has got to be a struggle but if you want to, you find a way to make it all work out. We waded through all the shit too. The getting kicked off tour (during the Baggins and Fisher "no wives on tour!!") tour, which I had traveled all the way to Paris for, 7 1/2 months pregnant with Q. We had a harder road than we would have if I would have stayed home, the way all the chicks did back then but then again, I wouldn't be writing you this blog either. If I didn't come out for the last 10 years, if we didn't stick our necks out and blaze a new trail for ourselves, we wouldn't have made it and that is a fact.

Wow, where did that come from? Damn hormones. 

So that is where they are. On the balcony, learning songs now. Q wonders when it is going to stop hurting his fingers, if you have never seen Eddie's fingers, they are round little pods, callusted over from what we figure to be 28 years of playing.

And now we roam. Hopefully "Geeps" will get his act together. Last night, leaving the restaurant at 11 p.m. we get in to the car to a "no signal" sign. We were just singing his praises on the way to dinner too. Saying the extra 15 Euro's a day was worth it (22 days, you do the math, yikes!) but then he just crapped out on us. We were thinking he'd get it together but he didn't, we had to navigate ourselves with no real map (just a very german tourist map from the front desk, I'm glad I picked that up on our way out, I was actually thinking about going to the zoo and then I remember how depressing they are to me- like birds in a cage). We made it though. With Eddie's guessing and my instinct to follow the tracks, we ended up right where we were supposed to be. Go figure. See I told you we're really good at this.