Portals of Perception

When  Running on Empty took a break, Vinnie came over and joined us.  I wondered how he was going to take direction from Carmine.  Vinnie was older and much more experienced then us.  How was he going to feel about the not being the leader?  Leadership, after all, was the very issue which broke up his former band.”  It didn’t take long to see that Vinnie respected Carmine highly.  It didn’t appear that any power struggles were going to occur with this band.

It was about 11:30 when Jon and Diana arrived.  I saw them come in and waved them over. The club was quite crowded by this point and I lost sight of them trying to make their way through the mass of people.  When Jon finally arrived at the table, he was alone.

He gave me a hug and I asked, “where’s Diana?”

“She had to make a stop at the ladies room.  I don’t think she’s feeling well.  We won’t be staying long.”

Jon knew most everybody at the table. It wasn’t long before he was involved in an animated discussion about the finer points of punk bands.   “Jon, always the wallflower,” I laughed to myself.