My brush with greatness

I was just talking with Chris about our rockstar friends in Tokyo. They've got this band Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her, and they totally rock. Nao, the girl on the left used to live in my neighborhood, and she and her husband are really nice. I was introduced to them just after I got to Tokyo when Chris came to visit. Nao was really friendly, and totally floored me when she told me about touring with the John Spencer Blues Explosion. I felt so effin cool!!! Here I was one degree away from John Spencer! I imagined me hanging out in the limelight, having beer and sake with other rockstars in Japan. It was like a dream come true, until I ruined it.
I went to Taiwan that spring for Spring Scream. Right in the middle of the SARS scare. I don't remember big chunks of that Spring Scream, but I do know that I slept on a sidewalk. Damn! When I got back I suddenly got really really sick. I felt kinda tired, and then as I went to sleep, I started shaking uncontrollably and all my muscles hurt. T. called up our massuese friend, who told him to spray me down with cold water. I felt like an elephant at the circus. I got to sleep, but couldn't go to work the next day, my birthday, because I still felt a lot of pain in my muscles. Kris and Aaron called me to wish me a happy birthday that morning. I was so excited I started to feel a lot better. So T. went shopping to get ready for a birthday party we had planned, and was gone all day. Then the sickness came back, and I knew I had to go see a doctor. I didn't know anyone in Tokyo, and all of T.'s bandmates weren't answering their phones. So I did what I had to do, I called up my new friend Nao, and embarrassingly asked her to help me go to the doctor. She was not too happy. It was a Saturday, the first day of the year it wasn't freezing outside, and she had to translate for some foreign chick who probably had a cold. I remember putting on clothes was so hard. Fuck wearing a bra. I walked about 10 minutes to the doctor's office where Nao met me and got really worried because I looked really bad. We went in there and I had a temperature of 39 or so (think about 104) and they rushed me into the doctor. I tried my best in shitty Japanese to talk with the doctor, but poor Nao had to do a lot of translating. Then I head her say something like "...well, they don't really do that in America," and I got really nervous. Nao told me they would give me some medicine I wouldn't like, but it would make me feel better. Then the nurse came over, flashed a big grin, and said "We're going to give you asshole medicine!" And I got a pocketful of anal suppositories.
Even in the delirium of a 104 fever, I knew my days with the rockstars were over. Nao walked me home and even bought me some Pocari Sweat for the rest of the day. I told her I would like to thank her, when I got better I wanted to take her out for some tea or beer. But I never heard from her again for two years. Just before I left Japan, I saw her at one of the +/- shows. She was real drunk and we laughed our asses off over the asshole medicine. I made plans with Aiha, the other gal in SSKHKH to get hamburgers in Shimokitazawa, but never heard from her. I guess it just isn't meant to be for me and the rockstar elite...