FEVER, DOCTORS, LOST PHILS, AND HARRY AND THE POTTERS

Holy friggin' crap, updates!

I'm not sure if it was exhaustion following all our NYC adventures, or just bad luck, but the moment we hit Boston I came down with a 104 degree fever, complete with the shakes, chills, and crazy fever dreams. I just couldn't shake the sucker! Luckily, we were headed up to a cabin in Vermont for the next few days to recover with our dear friend Stevie. Her parents have this cabin that's right on a lake in the middle of the woods, and it was great. Except that it wasn't, not for me, at least. My fever kept getting worse and worse until I couldn't swallow or breath easily, so we decided to go the nearest hospital, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night.

Now, like everyone else my age in this goddamn backwards country, I can't afford health insurance, so, well, I don't have it. Therefore, the plan was to...well, bend the truth when it came to my personal information at the hospital.

I went through the whole check in procedure flawlessly, and they didn't suspect a thing...or did they?

They lead me and Katie to a room to wait for the doctor. Finally, he comes in, and with a MEAN Brooklyn accent (yes, I know, we were in the middle of nowhere Vermont...) tells me:

"I got bad news, kid, you're screwed."

"Huh?"

"There's nothin' I can do. Deal with it. People like you come in here all the time. You've got mono, or strep, or somethin' like that, but there's nothin' I can do. Sure, I could give you some drugs, but what good would that do?"

"Uh...is there anything I can do? I can barely breathe!"

"Jesus, do you listen, I told you, tough it out, and you'll be fine in a couple of months."

MONTHS? Were we gonna have to cancel the tour? WAS I GONNA DIE?!

After checking out and sleeping late the next day, I was better.

Fuck that doctor.

We enjoyed our time at the cabin for the next day, until more bad news came: Phil was gonna have to leave the tour. He was going to have to fly home for a funeral in Portland, and none of us had the cash to fly him back to meet us.

After saying our goodbyes to Phil and Katie (who was also parting ways with us), we weighed our options: Drive back home and cancel the rest of tour, or tough it out and figure out how to play without Phil.

We decided on the latter, and well, it's been interesting. Danielle and Kevin have learned a couple songs on the bass, having never played it before, and there's even one song where Kevin plays bass for half the song, and trumpet for the other. Yeah, I know, right?!

Phil is definitely missed, and we can't wait to be home to see him again. Hopefully we make it back in one piece.

Oh, before I go, one last bit of news: our most recent show was at a BOWLING ALLEY WITH HARRY AND THE POTTERS! Yeah! And they even played "Save Ginny Weasley from the Basilisk"! My favorite!

- Rob