The house of Bluex was quite an experience. Aside from all the quirky things that I have written about I have failed to mention LIVING in this house with 2 very young kids and 3 guys.
Since Pat and I had the two kids and we made up for 4 of the occupants of this house, it was only natural that we would take on the majority of the bills and cleaning. Well, the bills weren't a problem. I grew weary of cleaning up all the time and doing everyone's dishes.
Life moved at a very quick pace in France. It seemed as though Pat and the guys were always doing radio interviews or meeting with the manager or other various things for their album and tour. So the girls and I were left at the house quite frequently. Not that it really bothered me but it was quite boring on a lot of days. Of course the electrical current was much different and for about the first month, we didn't have any music or television or anything unless it was battery operated. We needed transformers in order to plug anything in. Once things started to arrive though I had brought along a bunch of Disney movies for the girls to watch. All I can say is thank heaven for little girls. Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid played endlessly in the VCR! I have those two movies so ingrained in my head even to this day. Of course we did play outside and color and stuff but our options were very limited.
Anyway, living with this group of guys. Um, lets just say that things were pretty tense on a lot of days. Much more so towards the end of our journey, in fact almost unliveable. I am proud to say that I never ever spoke my mind about the band situation though, that was not my place. I spoke with Pat here and there but it was rather difficult because there was always another around when Pat was around.
There was a day that I was left at the house with the singer. Our younger daughter had proven to be quite a handful during this period of time. I'm sure the adjustment for her was overwhelming and that my frustrations and stress didn't help. Anyway, she screamed and cried A LOT! Living with all these guys who didn't have their kids or simply didn't have kids at all, well, one can imagine how stressful it was to keep her from upsetting the entire house. Bedtime was horrific with her, she would pitch a fit every single night and that girl had some serious lungs, whew! Ear piercing screams to say it best.
But on this particular day while at home, it was nap time for the younger one. I had to go upstairs and sit with her in order for her to go to sleep. Not a big deal. I left the older one downstairs watching Beauty and the Beast and had asked the singer if he could just keep an eye on her. It wasn't like we had EVER asked much of these guys to begin with but in this case, the younger one was being unruly and I just wanted her to take a nap.
While I'm upstairs hoping for daughter 2 to be good and fall asleep almost instantly, it was like watching a pot of water start to boil. I had to have been up there for about 20 minutes when my older girl gently opened the bedroom door with her pants down to her ankles and crying. This poor 4 year old little girl had gone to the bathroom and needed help wiping herself. She had asked the singer to help her and he told her to go find her mom. She had walked through the garage and up the stairs with her pants down just to come and get me. The guy couldn't help her wipe and couldn't even get off his butt to come and yell up the stairs that she needed help. Needless to say, I was absolutely livid and astonished that someone could be so cruel! How humiliating for my little girl.
I picked her up, brought the younger one with me and went downstairs immediately to help her and after asked him why he couldn't do the simple thing of at least calling me downstairs so she didn't have to walk around with her pants like that. He said, 'She's not my kid!' My blood was boiling by this time but I had to refrain from what was on my mind because after all, this guy held the future in his hands, his girlfriend held the future, and I was simply another bandmates wife. I hadn't really established a place in all of this at that point. But Pat did hear about it immediately upon his return and he laid into this guy and well, the guy was flippant and cocky with Pat and threatened to send him home.
You can imagine what this relationship was like thereafter. You see, Ronny's girlfriend had funded this entire tour for the band, every expense that was accrued that related to the band. Ronny was soaking her for all the money that he could and in the end, not to mention a couple of crotch rockets, tattoos, sushi, all told this fiasco wound up costing her in the 10's of thousands of dollars. She was pregnant to boot and he already had a child with his ex that he was trying to escape his fatherly duties from. And, he was bringing some groupies home while his girlfriend was preparing to come to France.
Not a situation that I agreed with, Pat or the other members of the band for that matter. All were quite angry with this guy and his antics. But that is band life and what him and his girlfriend had to endure, well, that was really none of our business. But it was having an effect on the entire band. Not a good one either.
Although this guy was one talented man, his ego was way overboard and he was most definately very aware of his talents and his power, even though it wasn't his money. When his girlfriend arrived, him and her went out and purchased a washing machine and a refrigerator but none of us were allowed to use it. I think I was able to wash a single load of clothes in it and that was it and he made sure that I didn't do any more than that. His girlfriend was more than happy to allow me to use it so I could at least wash the girls' clothes but he said no way!
The appliances in France are triple the cost they are in the U.S. and they are the most compact things I have ever seen. Their fridge would barely house 2 gallons of milk and yogurt and tomatoes and their washing machine took about a 1/4 of the load of an extra large capacity machine here. I was so shocked by the way this guy was acting. If not for Pat securing the down payment for the house, that guy wouldn't have had a pot to piss in period and he wouldn't even allow me to use a washing machine for my kids?
Things ran like this for much of the time that I was there with the kids. In fact, it was like this even before we arrived and Pat, the bass player and the keyboard player spent much of their time with the people at L'Ermitage. Which reminds of one final thing.
Again, this will involve the singer. In France, violence at that time anyway, was very rare where we were located. It was very peaceful and the people just had an aura around them that caught you like a butterfly to a flower. Ronny had invited some friends over to view an American movie. We, Pat, myself, and Magic Fingers, thought that he would put in something like 'Defending your Life' which we had watched endlessly. Didn't realize we had other movies to watch.
Once all the guests arrived, Ronny came out of his bedroom with a movie and popped it in. His choice? 'Boyz in the Hood'. Pat and I looked at him and asked why he would choose that movie and he said because he wanted them to see what life was like in L.A. Let's just say that about 1/2 of the 15 or so people had to leave the house. 2 of the girls left crying and others completely left. They were shocked by the violent nature of the movie and very saddened to see what Ronny said was life in L.A. . I just didn't know what to think of this and left to go sit outside with some of those that had left to see if I could help. They were very shocked by the violent nature of this movie, very sad to see that America was this way and vowed to never go to California.
This whole entry will come to a close once I wrap up this France tale. I have more positive things to mention before I spill the ending. But in a nutshell, this is just a taste of why those in France called our home La Maison Du Stress. Can one blame them?
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