[Mb-hair] Dauber goes full-circle (VERY long and mostly OT)

[Robin McNamara]

Hey Sean ,

Keep the faith , never lose the faith.

Love forever
Robin


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sean Courtney" <dauber at banana-and-louie.org>
To: <mb-hair at islandlists.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 26, 2006 7:49 AM
Subject: [Mb-hair] Dauber goes full-circle (VERY long and mostly OT)


> Hi, all...sorry to go off-topic here, but I figured I'd update you on 
> what's
> going on in my life since eight years ago you were all extremely 
> supportive
> of me and helped me get through a very strange and confusing time in my
> life. Another one of those times has come again.
>
> I remember in the summer of 1997 we were discussing the Divine Hair / Mass
> In F album, and Michael Butler replied to me privately and asked if I 
> could
> provide him with a tape of it, as his copy was in storage and not easily
> accessible. Of course, I was happy to do it: 1) all I had to do was put in 
> a
> tape and hit "record," and 2) it gave me a good reason to listen to the
> album! A few days later, Michael thanked me profusely for it and invited 
> me
> to hang with him as thanks for it. So one Saturday afternoon I drove to
> Chicago and had an enjoyable lunch with him. (Those of you who've met me
> know I'm not exactly, well...in healthy shape -- Michael told me he tries 
> to
> avoid meat, and I was thinking "Oh, no...vegetarian food coming!!" And you
> know what? I was right -- but it was pretty damn good!)
>
> On my way to Michael's place I remember getting severely lost (I had been 
> to
> the city a week or two earlier, and I remembered that 55 was undergoing 
> some
> construction and could do some nasty things to the tires, so I tried an
> alternate route -- which made me late for our meeting time because I had 
> to
> pass by the Cog Hill Country Club the day Tiger Woods was in town for the
> Western Open!), and he was very patient and understanding and guided me 
> toward the right streets.
> But boy, was I having a bad time trying to get there.
>
> And after a very enjoyable afternoon and a surprisingly yummy vegetarian
> lunch, I went shopping at some of the record stores I liked to frequent in
> the city...and proceeded to lock my keys in my car, and blew forty bucks 
> on
> a locksmith. And I let the bad drive up and my key-locking idiocy ruin the
> good day I was having...boy, was I pissed...I was cursing Chicago up and
> down.
>
> And when I headed back home, I popped in a tape of the not-yet-released
> stereo mix of The Beach Boys' _Pet Sounds_, which to this day is one of my
> favorite albums ever. As I was heading south on I-55 that sunny day, this
> line from "That's Not Me" echoed out of my car speakers:
>
> "I once had a dream so I packed up and split for the city."
>
> And I could see the Chicago skyline in my rear view mirror. For those of 
> you
> who've never been there, Chicago has one of the most beautiful skylines
> you'd ever want to see. Very colorful, unique architecture, and spread out
> very nicely.
>
> I thought about how the bad things that happened to me that day were my 
> own
> damn fault, and that I really had a great day having a nice lunch with 
> "the
> chief" and then checking out the used record stores I dug. And just 
> overall
> what a great place that is. It was then that I knew I had to live in
> Chicago.
>
> A year later, I met a wonderful woman from New Jersey. We had a
> long-distance romance going for most of 1998, and we decided if we were
> going to make it work, one of us had to move. After visiting her in the
> summer, I realized a few things: 1) if I moved there, I'd probably move in
> with her and live two blocks from the beach; 2) I could finally get out of
> my parents' house (hey, when you're 23 years old, that's the number-one
> priority!); 3) I could start a new life...so I made the move, and in 1999 
> we
> were married, and to this day you'd swear that Lisa and I are
> newly-weds; seriously, we're one of those cute couples that makes 
> everybody
> throw up, know what I mean?
>
> The thing is...it turned out that Lisa fell in love with Chicago the first
> second she set foot in that town. Thanks to that, we've visited Chicago as
> much as we possibly could -- spend a few days with my family, then spend a
> few days in the city. In August 2001 we were walking along the river while
> waiting for our Amtrak back home, and we both realized hey, we gotta come
> here.
>
> A couple of months ago Lisa told me "We need to talk." And we discussed 
> how
> for five years we've been talking about moving there so we could be where 
> we
> want to be, be closer to my family so that when we start having kids 
> they'll
> actually know their relatives (here in Jersey, my mother-in-law is Lisa's
> only living relative), etc. She said, "It's time to shit or get off the
> pot. We gotta do it somehow." I set a goal for myself that I'd get us to
> Chicago by the time 2006 was over. Then she decided to take a year off 
> from
> her work on her master's degree, so then I said "Okay, let's make that
> 2007." And Lisa said still let's try to do it soon, and if need be, she'll
> stay behind to finish her master's, then join me in Chicago.
>
> Welllllll....recently an opportunity came up for me...an e-mail went out 
> at
> work that our Chicago office was looking to fill a promising position. 
> With
> my boss's blessing I went for it. I had a couple of phone interviews, and
> this week I WAS OFFERED THE JOB!!! And I nearly shat myself when I saw 
> what
> they wanted to pay me -- I didn't think it was possible to make that much
> where I work!
>
> So...in late May I start my new job in Chicago! (Woohoo! Big dream #2
> fulfilled!) We told my mother-in-law last night, and she was surprisingly
> supportive! (We did emphasize that we would like her to join us at some
> point so she'd have some family nearby....)
>
> Having said all that, I'm remembering all the cool stuff that happened
> during my eight-year stay here:
>
> - watching Brian Wilson, one of my idols (second only to the Beatles!), 
> not
> only perform a concert -- something I thought he'd never do in his life --
> but perform Pet Sounds in concert....then finishing the Smile album --
> something I nearly bet my life-savings that would never, ever happen! --  
> and
> watching him perform it at Carnegie Hall...
>
> - getting married
>
> - last fall's Hair reunion (well...technically it was still summer...)
>
> - getting to meet Jim Rado on a couple of occasions
>
> - meeting a lot of awesome Hair people -- WMH, Tioga Joe (figure THIS one 
> out -- WMH lives
> in Seattle, Tioga lives two or three blocks away from me -- yet I only get 
> a
> chance to see Tioga as often as I do WMH!), Nina, Corinne, Robin, Bill
> Swiggard, Sherwin...I know I'm forgetting many, but trust me, those of you
> I'm forgetting now I will always remember having a blast with you at the
> reunion!
>
> Anyhoo...I'm thrilled to be starting a new job in my favorite place in the
> world, and of course I'm looking forward to meeting some Chicago-area Hair
> folk. I'll probably be crashing with my brother or even my parents until 
> I'm
> able to get established in Chicago permanently, but when Lisa and I 
> finally
> do get settled, we'll all have to get together and have some fun!
>
> --
> dauber at banana-and-louie.org
> * ICQ: 28677921 * YIM: dau_ber * AIM: ddaauubbeerr
> blog: http://scattered-frog.blogspot.com
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