Green Dragon (I)

July 1977 to July 1978... Another lost journal. This one was lost at the Willie Nelson/Grateful Dead 4th of July concert at the Kansas City Royals stadium. There were tarps covering the astroturf and when it began to pour, concert goers grabbed the tarps to cover their heads, jumbling everyone's stuff. Fortunately I had the car keys pinned to my overalls!

This diary covered my move from Madison to Dodge City, KS, where I worked as a media specialist for Dodge City Community College. It was quite a change -- Madison to Dodge! I started to write a novel about my time on the rez in this journal and copied those pages to send to Michael. I never sent the copies and they remain my only record of this journal.

Green Dragon (II)

Heavy Statement

Colored pencil and india ink

July 4, 1978 to Thanksgiving, 1978... Dark days in Dodge City occasionally shot through with light. Mostly romantic (sort of) trials and tribulations, working with Quentin Hope and others to get a public radio station (KNZA) in western Kansas, and my putative singing career. On my way to a family reunion in DeKalb, IL, I met Joe Ely on a train and stayed up all night in the club car trading songs and passing a bottle of Crown. He suggests I move to Austin...

Assholes

December 9th, 1978 to August 14th, 1979 My first attempt at binding a real book. Except I didn't know anything about it... Like how to sew the signatures together, much less make a cover! I've already decided to leave Kansas and move to Austin, Texas to pursue music. More trials and tribulations plus a trip back to Phoenicia and Carbondale and another family reunion.

Texas

October 2nd, 1979 to July 22nd, 1981... I've moved to Austin, ensconced myself in a housing coop -- V -- near UT, joined my first band and met my boyfriend for the next six years, Mo. I'm learning to do calligraphy and playing music in bars. Life is definitely more exciting! Heaven.

The Penguin Parade

February 11th, 1982 to May 15th, 1983... I've got my own little freelance business now, although I still have day jobs and a band.

Open for Business

May 15th, 1983 to February 3rd, 1986... Sporadic recollections of various roommates and bands. By the end, Mo moves out to go to air traffic controller school in OKC. I'm ready to have a big birthday party with lots of food and music...

Dreamstyle

February 8th, 1986 to April 21st, 1987... I meet my second husband, jc, start playing with a new band, meet jc's kids (Ali, 13; Erika Dawn, 11; and Sara, 4) and they move in. Thus begins my up and down relationship with my second husband. The book ends with the death of my beloved cat, Willie Nillie Nelson.