Oklahoma City, OK, june 18th 2003 (VOL I)

The pass of time has started to affect most of the hard drive of my memory. I barely have any memories about people that I've loved madly, or memory of the situations that made me feel life was worthy, love was worthy, and even the pain was worth it. But that, for one, more than a biological defect, has been a conscious decision derived from my unconscious self defense mechanisms and that now allow me to be a self with no feelings of despise, hate, or rancor.
And that, for other, in my heart I only keep the warmest feeling that I have loved fully and hopefully been loved too, and that I have always been surrounded by good people, good friends and good beings all given kindly to me by my good guardian Angel.

But what happened today, the way I felt today, the significance in terms of my own human spirit of what happened today will forever remain in me as one of the sweetest and most intense tiny moments that I had the joy to experience in my walk through life.

So we had been through West Palm Beach, Orlando, Raleigh, Charlotte, Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas, and here we are, in Oklahoma City, it wasn't scheduled because we didn't have the tickets but now we just don't need tickets anymore, the tour almost over and not a sign of an approach to Anthony. The most frustrating part was the burning closeness of Anthony's continuous presence backstage. I just don't have the balls to go up to him, just like that.

The band did their thing as usual. I had to leave the stage several times to drain a couple of beers I had, something I had never done before:

But they didn't play search and destroy, instead Me and my friends

At the end, we got off stage and hung around backstage. I told Geli I wouldn't move from there until I knew what was going on, and also because this time I had brought all the little things I had carried along to give them to the band. So we sat in the catering area, and Chad suddenly popped in there. He had a Pepsi and we approached him to give him a traditional Mexican shirt. It was a navy blue hand made ethnic t shirt with white patterns.

We started talking to him, and he's just so sweet and tender and caring and the coolest guy ever. He says he likes the shirt, and ties it up around his waist. We tell him that we have been following the whole tour and he seems surprised and asked us which show we liked best. I tell him it's really hard to tell. Then we started talking about Guadalajara, and told me he was going to Vallarta (Mexico) on vacation with his family. We were talking for a while, and I asked him if we could have a picture together, and he so happily said yes, he hugged me in the sweetest way.

Geli was just standing there checking the semi naked ladies out, and the coolness of this man was so beyond belief, that he even asked her if she wanted a picture taken with him. Geli went "ok", her not being the most enthusiastic Pepper fan you could run into. I just couldn't stop laughing. Then I asked Chad if he could call Flea for me and tell him the girl from Guadalajara was looking for him. No need to.

Flea had just come out from the dressing room, but also went into the catering zone to grab something. I don't remember what it was, but he went up to talk to this couple of girls dressed in latex bikinis, long stripes stockings and...nothing else. Oh, and long boots.

Then he spotted me and came straight to talk to me. "Where's my present?" he asked me. "I have it right here in my bag", and as I was taking it out for some reason which I can only blame to the remaining effects of the beer I asked him " But what do I get in return?", and amazing as he is, he replied "a 3 hour foot massage". I busted out laughing and I think I blushed. He opened the present and he said he liked it. It was a handcrafted mask made by native Mexican indians called Huicholes . And he really seemed to mean it and he said he had a mask collection actually. I started explaining the origin of the mask when I spotted this tattoo which read: PAPAYA! in his fore arm. I smiled and asked him why he had "papaya" tattooed in his arm. And he said that because he loves papayas and every time he goes to Costa Rica eats lots and lots of papayas, and that he can go forever eating papayas. I asked him if he has ever tried them with salt and lemon and he says yes, but he much rather prefers plain papayas. And that was probably the longest and deepest papaya conversation I have ever had in my life (next day he'd write a Fleamail talking about his PAPAYA! tattoo) He just made me feel so comfortable and easy around him, but he said he was quite hungry and that he was going back to eat. He signed some autographs for some people and replied to this big boobed girl who came up to him and told him "I'm a great fan of yours". He said "thank you". Geli pointed out how pointless these kind of comments are, and how many people come up to them on a daily basis saying the exact same line. I guess she's right.
If I only had one chance to say something it would probably be "can I have a picture with you". But that's because, as I said in the very beginning of this diary page, my memory gets washed away, now more and more frequently and hopelessly.

Anyways, I was feeling so happy, I had never talked to two Peppers for so long in the same night, and I thought the night couldn't get any better, and suddenly... Anthony came out. Of course, the few people back there went straight up to him. At that moment, I thought I had never ever seen someone so beautiful. I had never encountered such intense eyes. His hair was all wet and he had a purple t shirt on. He had a dish with some food on his hand. All the people started trying to talk to him, and all he said was "Where are the girls from Guatemala who are making the documentary? I almost had a heart stroke. I almost fainted too. There were other bitches from Guatemala making a documentary as well?! Thank God Geli reacted a bit faster than me and corrected him "No, Guadalajara" she said. "Ohhh GUADALAJARA" Anthony replied with his mouth wide open in the most melodic and amazing Spanish accent ever pronounced by human lips in the History of human existence.

And since this episode is a bit too long, I'll continue some other time.