Wednesday, March 23

12:45 am
Venue

Just got off the phone with Cate.  She's home, just got in less than an hour ago.

Wish I was home with her.

She's exhausted.  I could hear the weariness in her voice.  She said she hasn't slept much this last week; she was dying to crawl into our bed and just collapse.  She's not going in to the office tomorrow, she's just going to stay home and sleep until she wakes up.  I told her I would give anything to be there to wrap my arms around her and hold her while she sleeps, all night, all day, all damned week if that's what it comes to.

Cate told me I was sweet and made that throaty little hoarse chuckle that warms my heart.  Then she said no offense, but she doesn't want anybody around right now.  She just needs to curl up and lick her wounds and recover from what turned out to be a brutal week.

She actually sang a little parody of my song... Sittin' here wasted and wounded, at our kitchen table.... That made me smile.  Poor Baby's about to drop on the spot and she's cracking wise.

That's one of many reasons I love her dearly.  And I told her so.

Then you know what my wife told me?  She told me she's proud of me, proud to be my wife.  Because I have such a kind heart.

That choked me up a little, I didn't know where the Hell that came from.  I just said "thank you, Baby..." I mean, what else could I say to that?  Then she told me why.

She was surfing on her phone and saw an online article about my backstage visitors.  That Idaho paper posted  the update to Justin's story, with photos of him meeting me.  Cate said in one of the pics where I'm talking to Justin, the smile on my face is so unguardedly humble and sweet it made her cry.  She actually started to cry, because she was so overwhelmed and amazed and thankful that I'm her husband.

Me.  The egotistical control-freak asshole.  She's thankful for me.

Hell, I'm thankful for her.

I didn't want to keep Cate up for long, but she wanted to hear the whole story about meeting Justin and his family so I told her everything.  How great he is, how amazing and loving his family are.  They are such genuinely good people, with amazing grace and strength and humility.  I was honored to meet them all, especially Justin.

It made me proud that my music has spoken to him all these years, helped him through what I'm sure were some unthinkably hard times as well as some amazingly good ones.

And it made me realize how damned lucky I am to have a family who is happy and healthy and loving and loved.

So after telling Cate about the highlight of my night I told her to go crawl in bed so I could sing her to sleep.  She didn't argue at all.  It took her a bit to get from the kitchen to the bedroom -- she's really tired, ha ha.  But I could hear her rustling around in the bed linens, then she sighed and told me she was tucked in.  And that she found my t-shirt right where I left it, under her pillow.  And that the smell of my cologne makes her miss me even more.

I told her the quarter in the jukebox was hers; I'd sing her anything she wanted to hear.  She said she wanted to hear whatever was in my heart, whatever I felt like singing to her.

I sang Every Beat of My Heart.


5:40 pm
Richie's House

Waiting on a woman.  As usual, ha ha.

Got a big date tonight.  A double date, actually.  With Richie.  Haven't done that in quite awhile.

This one will most definitely turn out WAY different than the doubles Richie and I used to do, heh heh.

We're taking Steph and Ava out for dinner and a movie.  A little Daddy-Daughter bonding on our night off.  It's not often the girls get to spend time together anymore, so they're excited.

They've both changed a lot, our daughters.  Growing up on opposite coasts and in different environments they don't have as much in common as they used to.  But they both can shop like champions, ha ha. That's the Universal Girl-Language, I've learned.  Apparently that's what Ava and Steph spent most of the day doing -- shopping.  I can feel my credit card groaning in my wallet as I write this.

Richie was nice enough to extend an invitation to the Bongiovi Clan to bunk at Casa de Sambora tonight and tomorrow.  We'll head up to Vancouver Friday morning for the last couple shows before our month off.  Flew back in this morning and just hung out here at the house today.  Weather was too shitty to go to the beach.

When we got here Jesse disappeared into Richie's man-cave and is now glued to some basketball game.  He emerged a few minutes ago to claim his share of the pizza we ordered for the boys, then disappeared again.  I'd say he's set for the evening, ha ha.

Richie had a lot of fun playing with the Chuckleheads this afternoon.  And with Russell.  Apparently Russell has forgotten all about me; he had no interest in hanging out on my shoulder or playing in my hair.  Romey and Russell were all about Uncle Mookie today.  Romeo said Russell was climbing all over Richie, and of course Richie being the big goof he is was squirming and giggling like he was being tickled to death by an imaginary weasel.  

I could go for the obvious ferret-in-the-pants joke here, but I'll refrain, ha ha.

Richie's so great with Jake and Romeo, mostly because he's just a big kid himself.  Richie loves kids.  He's made it no secret he'd have ten more if he could find a woman who'd do that for him.  Well, I'm sure there are plenty of volunteers, ha ha.

But Richie's an old-fashioned guy despite his playboy rock-and-roll image.  He falls in and out of love pretty easy but deep down he's just Adam and Joan's Good Boy.  When he finds the right woman he'll settle down again.  And hopefully he'll be able to start a second family, maybe have a couple boys of his own to chase around.

Like me and Cate, starting all over again.

I talked to My Wife a couple hours ago.  She still sounded kinda out of it, really tired.  She said after she hung up with me last night she went right to sleep and didn't wake up until after noon today.  And she was still in bed when she called me.  I teased her a little about that, and Cate said she didn't intend to even get out of her pajamas today, she was just going to order some Chinese food and crawl right back in bed and stay there until tomorrow.

I told her not to get lo mein on the sheets, ha ha.  And I told her we'd do that same exact thing when I get home -- stay in bed all day, even for meals.  Sounds pretty damned good to me.

I dropped a couple more pretty heavy hints about her coming out to Vancouver for the weekend, but Cate shut me down fast.  She said she has a ton to catch up on since she had to fly out without warning last week, and the last thing she wants to do is get on another plane.

She said she'll see me on Sunday when I get home, and we'll catch up and talk about the busy week ahead.  Romeo's birthday is next week, the kids are still on Spring Break, and of course we have our little date with the Doc on Friday.

So yeah, we have a lot to talk about.

Well, even though she's on the other coast at least it's nice to think of Cate all snuggled in our bed, waiting for me to come home.  I can't wait to get there.  We have some warming up to do, a little baby-making practice before I get benched for a couple weeks after Doc reconnects the wires.

Just a few days away, Baby.

But first, there's a lovely young woman who just appeared in the doorway, ready for her date with a charming, dapper, Sinatra-esque Rock Star, ha ha.

Okay, so I'm no Brendan, but hey -- she could do worse.