So on Tuesday, I was wearing my hair swords because 1) they make Mikaela happy when I wear them (she also has a pair, but her love of swords and knives is my fault) 2) at Iowa Irishfest last year, I mentioned how excited Mikaela was to see Macbeth and Hamlet even though her mom wasn't and I said, "Because Mikaela loves her stabby stabby plays best, and that's my fault, but also I'm okay with that" at which point Aoife got excited I call blades stabby stabbies because that's how she has always referred to her own knife collection and I started talking blades and 3) house concerts don't have rules about weapons or metal detectors on entry for concert goers. Anyway, so also on Tuesday, Crissy, Amy, and I stayed til near midnight at the house after the show catching up chatting with Aoife, Andy, and Katie who was playing the Milwaukee and Chicago shows with them. (Chicago based fiddle player and teacher, she played with Garlic Storm for a bit after Kiana quit, but the fit was never great and now she's back to more trad Celtic and teaching lessons.)  Aoife asked Amy to message her when she got home because it was a longer drive back to Chicago and then I said, "true. Also she's by herself for the late drive." at which point Aoife winked at me said, "Eh, I ain't worried about you love, even by yourself" at the exact same time as Crissy says, "Also if there were a situation, you could take them Dani." Simultaneous to me adding on, "Also, Amy doesn't carry a knife with her just in case like I do." At which point drunk Aoife goes, "Stabby Stabby!" we all three started laughing (Aoife, Andy, and Amy are all chosen family -- so we all talk at once like siblings or cousins.) After the laughing ended Amy goes, "You mean like in your car?" And I say, "O yes. I always have my favorite stabby stabby where I can grab it quickly when in the car. But I mean, like, even right now." And I pull out one of the hair swords as Amy starts losing it goes, "I did not realize those were anything but hair sticks. Those are so cool!" And she took that one over to go look at under the table lamp and I pulled out the other to hand Aoife to look at as she knew about them but hadn't seen them yet. Andy, who had only recently rejoined us come back downstairs carrying the last slice of pizza from earlier walked in during Aoife's stabby stabby comment and after I pulled the swords out of my half ponytail to hand one to Amy and the other to Aoife, Andy just says, "That is the most superhero thing I have ever seen in real life." 

Which highly entertained me because while I've been compared to Gal Gadot due to phenotype, and to Wonder Woman since I developed boobs, I had never really put myself into real life superhero main character energy before.  But, I suppose Andy was absolutely right and pulling swords out of your hair then sticking them back in afterward counts as badass superhero vibes. 😆 

Then last night, at the Chicago show, she dedicated Gypsy Warrior to "my dear friends in the front row who came all the way up nort to see us last night. Well not up nort Wisconsin, but nort of Milwaukee." And then when she started the bodhran intro to Gypsy Warrior and Andy started the guitar part I got excited giddy bright and she winked at me said, "I know how youse loves this one!" She also dedicated Tangled specifically to Amy (who loves the song deeply and is going through a very tough patch because her mom just died in the last month, and Amy is only child with no dad in the picture and no cousins near her in age or who live close by.) Aoife doesn't often played Tangled, because it's a song written in the dark times she's struggled with and it's about not listening to the mean cruel voices in your head but to love yourself no matter what awful things your head says to make you lose sight of yourself. We'd been talking the night before about getting lost in thought forgetting where she is in a song and we all said we'd prompt her repeat back her own lines to her if ever needed and then I derailed it into joking about needing a pint of something though to disguise it as drunk cheering for something in the verse and so now we have inside joke raising fake pint glasses shouting, "Shipwreck!" or "skinny dipping!" or "Cycling!" Well, tonight, she was nervous from not having sung Tangled for over a year and she starts the opening line, "I have always been--" and then she pauses longer than the melodic phrasing goes, "I forgot me own line! Sorry Amy! Help?" and looks at all of us panicky and I just shout out to her, "so awkwardly honest" with a big smile of comfort to try to tell her "it's your awkwardly honest we love about you" and she grins all sunshine bright, "Tanks a million! Right. Let's start that again Andy." This is actually really common with songwriters, and the theory I came up with to explain it when one of my ex-boyfriends who is a touring singer-songwriter complained that I can remember his own lyrics better than him was that for him, the words are changeable and like clay to tweak and mold and alter until he has the art how he wants it whereas to me they're something set specific to the melody once I've heard it repeated thrice. As I've told everyone, set any words to music and if i hear the song three times i will remember the words forever. I may not know what you were trying to say with them, but the words you set to melody will stay with me indelibly forever. It's a great memory hack for me to set things to melodies, even as parodies of the real words, because it makes it so I can never forget it. It's how I learned my French verb tenses and how I memorized the Krebs cycle steps, set both of them to music. 

I also gifted Aoife a dozen mini Cadbury caramel eggs tonight because a couple weeks ago when reminding people in a story about her tour dates, she'd been teasing her family to buy her Easter candy because they would be home by Easter and last year they didn't and all the stores in Ireland were sold out of Easter chocolate. So I had decided to bring her early Easter candy when I saw her and though I had it with me at the Milwaukee area show, it was a house show with plenty of sweets out and I decided the caramel eggs would be better for her to have for the long car ride of their drive to New York. She squeed and started jumping up and down when Andy went to go pack up gear and I told her, "Wait, I have something for you!" and pulled the caramel eggs out from my purse. It was priceless and perfect and the best and apparently caramel eggs are her favorite favorite Easter candy ever. And she was so excited that they were minis because the big ones are too rich all in one season and I nodded said, "Right. I didn't want to sugar coma you for any shows or drives. The minis I figure you could eat as much or little as you want on your own timeline. Also the packaging and size protects them better from getting smashed by accident while you're touring." She was so giddy about it and had it all planned out she could eat one an hour for the drive and then Amy laughed said, "Maybe give Andy one?" And she said, "No! These are mine!!" And then when Katie saw them asked where she got them and wanted one, Aoife just point at me goes, "She gifted me early Easter candy for the road tomorrow!!" And Katie (who is a teacher) starts in teasing about opening them now to share and Aoife just goes, "No they're mine! I'm not even sharing with Andy and he's me fellow these last 10 years" and then she puts the plastic container of caramel eggs in the garter band of her Spanx because it's the only pocket she had and nobody would steal them from her there. 😆 We all got a good laugh over that before she took them back out to hold them so she wouldn't melt the candy.

 Anyway. It was really good to see Aoife and Andy and spend some time with them, they're just darlings. Of all the musicians/songwriters I've ever known, and between friends and boyfriends and family and acquaintances and venues I've known a LOT of musicians/songwriters in my life, they are two of my absolute favorites!!!