And then there was Cleveland…. HELLO, CLEVELAND!!! (a la Spinal Tap) I always love saying that in Cleveland. Anyway, my beautiful friend from the area Mallory (singer/light beam)  had hooked us up with all kinds of goodness while we were there; two different Unity Churches, one for a Thursday night concert and the other a Sunday morning service, and a house concert at her friend Paul’s house. We had not yet met Paul, whose house we were currently driving to and who was also graciously providing crash space for us for the few days we were in the area. Mallory had all kinds of awesome things to say about him. It was late evening of July 9th when we got to the street where he lived and we couldn’t see the addresses. It was an older part of the city near downtown. We squinted in the dark to figure out which house was his. Then we saw some red front doors with a peace sign and a taitjitu (yin/yang) symbol etched in the glass. This is the place I thought, and I was right.

Paul was not there yet. He texted us where to find the key and told us to let ourselves in. We promptly found it and worked at opening the door. There was no front porch light on and I had a slight but lingering fear that we might have the wrong house. I mean, other people might leave their key in the same place right? And what if it was the wrong house and we freaked out the sleeping homeowners, Fred and Bertie McGunblasters? And what if they just happened to have been burglarized last week and bought a new shiny shotgun that they keep loaded by the bed? (These are the things that go through my mind so I thought I would share.) And BTW, who tells a bunch of wayward hippie strangers where the key to their house is and to let themselves in when they are not there? Well Paul does apparently. He was already living up to all the great things Mallory had told us about him and we hadn’t even met him yet. More insight into the awesome nature of Paul; He was not there because he was on his way home from the Bhakti Fest in Madison, which is held at the same time as National Women’s Music Fest in early July. I had experiencened Bhakti Fest the year before. Mallory and I went out there on the Sunday after NWMF for a few hours. It was yogi heaven, with music, yoga, meditation and so much more. If I had not been so exhausted after NWMF I would camped out there that night but I needed a cold dark room and a real bed real quick.

Fortunately, we were in the right place after all and Paul’s dogs (three big sweethearts and one little one) greeted us as if we were long lost friends. We walked back through the beautiful old house, which had been recently remodeled. The living room was a large wide-open space with natural hardwood floors that had everything needed for yoga class, which they in fact had there on a regular basis. This was the area that was going to be our house concert space. The entire back wall was made up of uniquely designed folding glass doors, which opened to a large deck and salt-water hot tub. It was not long before we were soaking in it, under a sprinkling sky. The roommate, who had introduced herself not long after we let ourselves in, told us to hop in. AAAAAhhhhhhh ~ we were in heaven. We slept very well that night.
 
The next day was our House Concert and we wanted to track down any friends we might have in the area to invite them out. Lynda had one friend she could think of in Cleveland, Steven, who was an early Velvet Hammer fan. She got ahold of him and he was excited to come out. She gave him the address to which he responded: “I worked on that house!” Turns out, Steven was instrumental in the remodel of that very house. Not the one next door, not the one down the street ~ THAT ONE. This was a very weird coincidence seeing as Lynda knew only one guy in all of Cleveland. Do the math on this people. Are you astounded yet? Good, cause we were, and so was Paul.