That one time I dated Stevie Nicks bestie

Dateline: 2010. So I met Victoria via some dating app & we hit it off. First date was on 'eat street' on Nicollet Ave in Mpls, aka restaurant row. Very friendly, smiley, easy to chat with. Not just a music fan but she worked in the biz. At that time she worked at mid-size concerts backstage as part of the team cooking for the touring band & crew. She would show me the 'riders' she was working on, i.e., doing the shopping a priori. Riders are what a band's management provides to the promotor, basically their list of demands for various treats & sundries. The ones I saw made me say 'sweet jebus that's a lot of booze for one night.' But hey: fringe benefit. She gave me backstage passes for several shows, meaning I could go find an empty seat and take in the gig. I saw The Chieftains, Mark Knopfler, a Jimi Hendrix tribute with several guitarists. I would meet her at a precise time at the unmarked stage door and she would let me in and give me a pass. Quite groovy. She also brought me leftover food after gigs; big pans of fish, chicken, spuds, whatnot. 

So a few items of note that inspired this blurb. The first was that she toured with Fleetwood Mac for a full year, around the world. During that time she became besties with Stevie Nicks. I'm not sharing details there (sorry) other than Stevie sounds like a groovy person. Vic showed me a homemade vid of their last tour stop, with the Mac jamming onstage and Vic was right there 20 ft away dancing with the crew. Pretty cool, if you're a Mac fan I reckon.

2nd item of note. Vic was a serious drinker, like me. Considering how long I've been a swinging bachelor and that I was drunk for most of it, it's odd to me that I dated so few fellow proper drunks. Only 2 actually, and the other one (Melissa the flight attendant) will be written about in the next month or two (spectacular shitshow). Anyhoots. During the 5 or so months I saw Vic like clockwork she would write me an apology email for some recent drunken outburst. They were all nearly the same. Maybe she had them prepared? Maybe recycled? 

3rd & final item of note. Every winter I would go visit my pops in Scottsdale where he wintered. If I was seeing someone they would join me. So Vic did that trip. I found a bottle of booze (hers) under the bed that trip, now that's hardcore. But not the nugget. I was flying often back then for work. During a flight I was bored and started handwriting a chronological list of my prior ladyfriends. Not sure why, maybe to test my memory. I was bored. Anyhoots, on that trip I came out of the shower into the room and she was standing there staring at me. She said she needed a piece of paper and went to my notepad to get one and why are there pages of women's names in my notepad? 

Oh...hell. 

I told her the truth, no choice there. Can't wriggle out of that one. But, it really got to her. The quantity of names didn't seem to be the problem (I think) but rather the fact I had written them down. She couldn't compute why I would do that. I recall saying hey most people keep that list in their head, I happened to write it down. But, the damage was done. 

By that point though I knew I couldn't continue dating another drunk, regardless of her discovery. Why? 

The old saying rings true in this case: two wrongs do not make a right.