I am DOPED up on Benadryl these days. The Prednisone doesn't seem to be affecting me, thank God. I am scared of steroids. Water weight gain and other nasty things. I was hoping to get the side effect of "inappropriate happiness" but that doesn't seem to be happening. Anyway, I haven't taken any Benadryl today b/c so far it seems I don't need it. Hopefully I can make it the rest of the day w/out any b/c today is a looooong day indeed. We were supposed to rehearse last night but I was too drugged up and mellow to do it. I offered to still rehearse but Leo said he needs me on my game so we postponed 'til tonight.
Monday night I couldn't even go out to eat w/everyone after the sheriff's meeting. So now Mudflap is my new Lt. and boss! I received a 3-year Perfect Attendance certificate, which I couldn't believe. I was listening to my iPod while they were handing out the 1-yr, 2-yr, and thank God I heard the Chief call my name for the very few 3-yr awards. Cool!!! Anyway, I was slouched in my chair the whole meeting and snuck out at 8pm. I went home and ate leftover dumplings and some of the cake that Stefano had brought me. Mudflap called me to make sure I was ok and I just told him I needed to go home and rest.
Tomorrow night Stefano is going to come over to my house and stay w/me... ahhh, what a man, he makes me so happy. Friday is my monthly work from home day and all I can say about that is Hallelujah. DA texted me about getting together this week but b/c I didn't hear back from him in a timely manner I told him I am already busy every night this week, his loss. But I did offer to meet him for lunch on Fri. at the awesome pizza place that Stefano took me to down there, so hopefully we can work that out.
God, I just feel weak and tired and also down, mostly about the IRS bill. But as Stefano told me, This too shall pass, Ultimately it's just money, I have my health, his love, etc. Which is so true.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Ugh. 2nd ER Visit of the Year
Ok, what is the damn deal. I had to shlep myself to the ER on Saturday. I broke out into hives right after getting out of the shower and was getting dressed and ready for the day. It was very strange b/c I had broken out into hives last week while at Stefano's, but that outbreak was only on the back of my thigh and I popped a Benadryl and they were gone within minutes. I do get hives maybe once per year so for this to happen again so soon after a recent outbreak, well yes, that was very curious indeed. This outbreak was also bothersome b/c it started on my forehead, of all places. I looked like a Chernobyl victim! I popped a Benadryl and continued getting dressed.
I had a 10:30 am appt. at Discount Tires to get my tires rotated in preparation for the Austin drive that afternoon. When I got there they told me I had a bald tire, and indeed I did! Oops! Unfortunately, thanks to my upcoming tax bill of well into the 4 figures, I was now extremely concerned of how in the world I was going to pay for a new fucking tire. And of course, they recommended I buy 2 tires, like they always do! I said no, please just put 1 tire on there, the other tire is fine and that is a waste of tires. Meanwhile my hives were getting worse, not better. I was itching all over, esp. down on my legs. I was scratching like a motherfucker. I decided to wait outside in the cool air, hoping that would help. My legs were scary looking. I looked at my arms and they were completely covered. I looked down at my chest and it was completely covered. My chin was itching and now I had hives on my ear!!! I tried to sit and calm down but now my whole body was tingling.
I called my mom to ask her advice and she said I should get to Urgent Care and get a shot of adrenaline, since I couldn't have Epinephrine as I'd be needing to drive to Austin later. I told her there were no goddamn urgent care centers in inner loop Houston, as I'd discovered when I had to go to the ER in January so she suggested I call my insurance co. and ask them where an urgent care center was. But of course when I called those assholes I got 2 recordings saying their business hours were Mon-Fri! I called my brother and asked his opinion on what to do and he also said I may want to get to the ER.
Unfortunately I was trapped at Discount Tires, miserable and itching all over. But when they finally got my new tire on and I was able to pay and get out of there, I did decide to go find an ER. I was desperate now. Fortunately there are lots of these nice little stand-alone ER's popping up all over town, which is convenient so you don't have to go to a hospital and wait 4 hours to see someone. I went to a new one that just opened up a few months ago and was seen immediately. But I started crying b/c I was so freaked out and miserable!!! It was embarrassing, but I knew the hives were b/c I am sooooo overworked and stressed out and what with this fucking tax bill I have to pay, having to buy a new $95 tire, my PERIOD (the Process) starting that morning, 5 days early, the headache I'd had since the night before, Leo texting me some new songs he was wanting to do THAT NIGHT at the gig, having to get to Stefano's gig by noon and meet my aunt and uncle there, having to drive to Austin and back in one night, and then having to work a patrol shift on Sunday, YES GODDAMMIT, I was feeling stretched to the breaking point and now I was itching and covered in hives from my forehead to my ankles and I was freaking out!!!
The Dr. sympathized, he said he also stresses himself out to the point of hives. My blood pressure was high--156/96 but that's b/c I was working myself up over all this. He gave me a shot of the corticosteroid Methylprednisolone and made me take a Pepcid too since that has been shown to help w/this kind of internal stress I so obviously had that was manifesting itself into hives. Then he said, "It's obvious you are determined to drive to Austin today" and I said miserably, "I HAVE to! My bandmates already left!" and he sent me home w/a prescip for Benadryl, Pepcid and the steroid Prednisone.
My brother said that I really needed to go home and lie down for an hour before driving to Austin, but I told him I couldn't spare the time. There was just no way. When I got home I had to immediately get ready for the gig, get dressed in a cute outfit, do my makeup/hair, and load up my car w/my amp and bass. However, before heading home I did swing by the dept. store to buy my new luggage set since the coupon Stefano gave me expired that day and I thought that would be a fun activity to calm me down and get my mind of things. And it was, I found a cute 5-piece luggage set in dark teal color (the better to see it at baggage claim) that was just perfect, and with it being 1/2 off already, plus my $50 gift card from the High-spanic Health Coalition and the coupon on top of that, I paid a grand total of $23!!! Oh yeah, that receipt was a big turn on!
Everyone at the ER had asked me of course if I'd eaten anything different or changed laundry detergent. The only new thing I'd eaten was on Fri. night when I got to Stefano's after rehearsal, he'd made seared tuna steak w/green onions and had hummus/veggies. The new thing I ate though was the turnips, I don't think I'd ever had turnips before...? But I knew that wasn't it since the hives didn't come 'til the next morning, over 12 hours later.
Anyway, I finally packed up my car along w/road trip provisions such as snacks, ice, pain pills for my headache and cramps, Benadryl, and what the hell, filled up my flask w/coco rum. The hives were already mostly gone except for a few welts here and there but they were no longer red. I raced to Stefano's gig and was there shortly after 2. I was hungry and really wanted the crawfish plate that was being sold there. I found my aunt/uncle but I only got to see Stefano's band play like 1 1/2 songs b/c they stopped playing around 2:30. His harmonica player and my uncle both began giving Stefano a hard time for not accompanying me to Austin, esp. when they found out what I'd been through that morning w/the ER visit. But Stefano hadn't offered to come when I 1st told him about the gig, which made me realize he just didn't want to come, and he was also supposed to meet his friend about his CD artwork that night.
I got my HUGE plate of crawfish and potatoes and corn and Diet Coke--$5!!!--and began to chow down, telling Stefano he had to help me eat all that. He said, "I'm coming with you to Austin." I said, "No, you don't have to." He said he wanted to, he just had to load his stuff in his car, drop off his car at home, and he'd be ready to go. I had mixed feelings. I was thinking that he didn't want to go, he was just bullied into doing so by his bandmate and my uncle. And while it would've been nice to have him along to make sure I was ok, I was also looking forward to catching up w/all the stuff on my iPod. In the end I said fine, I'd meet him at his house and we'd go, fully intending to NOT meet him there which is what I did. After he left I finished most of the crawfish, said goodbye to my aunt/uncle, and hit the road but not going the way past mine and Stefano's neighborhood. I called him and said I was going to Austin and he said, "You're coming to get me, right?" and I said no, he was off the hook. He said "Are you SURE?!?!!" I said yes, and he said ok but he was going to call me continuously to make sure I was ok and that if I thought he was being a pest about it, too bad.
I hit the road and it was a beautiful, sunny day for a drive. I had a great time listening to all the good stuff on my iPod, and finally finished listening to the Paul Shaffer book. I stopped midway at one of my fave places on the way to Austin, a place that sells kolaches, cookies, has a gift shop, nice bathrooms, etc. I got 2 sausage/cheese kolaches and these wonderful cookies that have raspberry in the middle. I ate both kolaches and a cookie and felt much better.
I had a little bit of a hard time finding the gig but I called Leo and the host of the party led me on in. I shoulda known we'd be playing outside! I got there 20 min. before we were to start playing at 7pm--perfect. The host and I found out that we have the EXACT same taste in music, as I'd walked into his house Ry Cooder was playing on the stereo! And the host, Mark, also was trying to tell ME about the Rising Sons! My ASS!!! It was fun looking at his CD collection, many of which I had in my car and on my iPod at that very moment!
So we played our "regular set" and everything was fine. The party was in honor of Mark's wife's bday and I met her 20-yr old son, who is also a bass player. They had tons of wonderful food there--fruit, cheese, brie, crackers, chips, salsa, chopped beef, sliced beef, beans, all kinds of desserts... man, oh man! Also vanilla rum, which I never had before! I only drank sporadically all night, mindful of the long drive home alone. At our break I loaded up on food and the 20-yr old kid showed me his band on YouTube. We had a good time talking bass playing, bass players (I showed him Rozzy on YouTube), songwriting, and later that night he sat in w/Leo and George. The kid also Friended me on Facebook later that night too!
We stopped playing at 10pm as Leo'd promised, and I said goodbye to everyone, packed up and hit the road, driving nonstop to Houston and making it home shortly after 1am. I went straight home although Stefano was waiting up for me, but I'd taken 2 Benadryl in Katy (West Houston) so that it'd hit me when I got home and I honestly wanted nothing more than to pass out in my own bed and sleep, sleep, sleep until I couldn't sleep anymore. I slept 'til noon on Sunday and called Stefano immediately upon waking. He was on his way to the final studio day for them to finish mixing and mastering his band's CD. I said I was in no shape to go on patrol, and I absolutely wasn't. So I am not going to get in a patrol shift at all in March--oh fucking well.
Besides, I had a 10-item "To Do List" for yesterday anyway: laundry, tidy up around the house, put away my amp and new luggage, hang up clothes, go get some groceries, pick up my prescrips since I'd left town w/out doing so, run by Blockbuster, etc. etc. etc. I rented Julie and Julia and invited Stefano over to watch it that night, which he did. He showed up with some beautiful sunflowers for me! We ordered Chinese and had a wonderful, cuddly time together all night. Today I'm at Job #1 only, and just feel worn out although I did sleep a lot last night too. Tonight is the monthly sheriff meeting; tomorrow night is rehearsal. I am truly scared I'm going to run myself down and ragged, but we've got our CD release party this Saturday and we MUST be prepared. I am not sure what has got to give. I need the $ from Job #2. Well, maybe next week I'll tell Leo I need a week off.
I had a 10:30 am appt. at Discount Tires to get my tires rotated in preparation for the Austin drive that afternoon. When I got there they told me I had a bald tire, and indeed I did! Oops! Unfortunately, thanks to my upcoming tax bill of well into the 4 figures, I was now extremely concerned of how in the world I was going to pay for a new fucking tire. And of course, they recommended I buy 2 tires, like they always do! I said no, please just put 1 tire on there, the other tire is fine and that is a waste of tires. Meanwhile my hives were getting worse, not better. I was itching all over, esp. down on my legs. I was scratching like a motherfucker. I decided to wait outside in the cool air, hoping that would help. My legs were scary looking. I looked at my arms and they were completely covered. I looked down at my chest and it was completely covered. My chin was itching and now I had hives on my ear!!! I tried to sit and calm down but now my whole body was tingling.
I called my mom to ask her advice and she said I should get to Urgent Care and get a shot of adrenaline, since I couldn't have Epinephrine as I'd be needing to drive to Austin later. I told her there were no goddamn urgent care centers in inner loop Houston, as I'd discovered when I had to go to the ER in January so she suggested I call my insurance co. and ask them where an urgent care center was. But of course when I called those assholes I got 2 recordings saying their business hours were Mon-Fri! I called my brother and asked his opinion on what to do and he also said I may want to get to the ER.
Unfortunately I was trapped at Discount Tires, miserable and itching all over. But when they finally got my new tire on and I was able to pay and get out of there, I did decide to go find an ER. I was desperate now. Fortunately there are lots of these nice little stand-alone ER's popping up all over town, which is convenient so you don't have to go to a hospital and wait 4 hours to see someone. I went to a new one that just opened up a few months ago and was seen immediately. But I started crying b/c I was so freaked out and miserable!!! It was embarrassing, but I knew the hives were b/c I am sooooo overworked and stressed out and what with this fucking tax bill I have to pay, having to buy a new $95 tire, my PERIOD (the Process) starting that morning, 5 days early, the headache I'd had since the night before, Leo texting me some new songs he was wanting to do THAT NIGHT at the gig, having to get to Stefano's gig by noon and meet my aunt and uncle there, having to drive to Austin and back in one night, and then having to work a patrol shift on Sunday, YES GODDAMMIT, I was feeling stretched to the breaking point and now I was itching and covered in hives from my forehead to my ankles and I was freaking out!!!
The Dr. sympathized, he said he also stresses himself out to the point of hives. My blood pressure was high--156/96 but that's b/c I was working myself up over all this. He gave me a shot of the corticosteroid Methylprednisolone and made me take a Pepcid too since that has been shown to help w/this kind of internal stress I so obviously had that was manifesting itself into hives. Then he said, "It's obvious you are determined to drive to Austin today" and I said miserably, "I HAVE to! My bandmates already left!" and he sent me home w/a prescip for Benadryl, Pepcid and the steroid Prednisone.
My brother said that I really needed to go home and lie down for an hour before driving to Austin, but I told him I couldn't spare the time. There was just no way. When I got home I had to immediately get ready for the gig, get dressed in a cute outfit, do my makeup/hair, and load up my car w/my amp and bass. However, before heading home I did swing by the dept. store to buy my new luggage set since the coupon Stefano gave me expired that day and I thought that would be a fun activity to calm me down and get my mind of things. And it was, I found a cute 5-piece luggage set in dark teal color (the better to see it at baggage claim) that was just perfect, and with it being 1/2 off already, plus my $50 gift card from the High-spanic Health Coalition and the coupon on top of that, I paid a grand total of $23!!! Oh yeah, that receipt was a big turn on!
Everyone at the ER had asked me of course if I'd eaten anything different or changed laundry detergent. The only new thing I'd eaten was on Fri. night when I got to Stefano's after rehearsal, he'd made seared tuna steak w/green onions and had hummus/veggies. The new thing I ate though was the turnips, I don't think I'd ever had turnips before...? But I knew that wasn't it since the hives didn't come 'til the next morning, over 12 hours later.
Anyway, I finally packed up my car along w/road trip provisions such as snacks, ice, pain pills for my headache and cramps, Benadryl, and what the hell, filled up my flask w/coco rum. The hives were already mostly gone except for a few welts here and there but they were no longer red. I raced to Stefano's gig and was there shortly after 2. I was hungry and really wanted the crawfish plate that was being sold there. I found my aunt/uncle but I only got to see Stefano's band play like 1 1/2 songs b/c they stopped playing around 2:30. His harmonica player and my uncle both began giving Stefano a hard time for not accompanying me to Austin, esp. when they found out what I'd been through that morning w/the ER visit. But Stefano hadn't offered to come when I 1st told him about the gig, which made me realize he just didn't want to come, and he was also supposed to meet his friend about his CD artwork that night.
I got my HUGE plate of crawfish and potatoes and corn and Diet Coke--$5!!!--and began to chow down, telling Stefano he had to help me eat all that. He said, "I'm coming with you to Austin." I said, "No, you don't have to." He said he wanted to, he just had to load his stuff in his car, drop off his car at home, and he'd be ready to go. I had mixed feelings. I was thinking that he didn't want to go, he was just bullied into doing so by his bandmate and my uncle. And while it would've been nice to have him along to make sure I was ok, I was also looking forward to catching up w/all the stuff on my iPod. In the end I said fine, I'd meet him at his house and we'd go, fully intending to NOT meet him there which is what I did. After he left I finished most of the crawfish, said goodbye to my aunt/uncle, and hit the road but not going the way past mine and Stefano's neighborhood. I called him and said I was going to Austin and he said, "You're coming to get me, right?" and I said no, he was off the hook. He said "Are you SURE?!?!!" I said yes, and he said ok but he was going to call me continuously to make sure I was ok and that if I thought he was being a pest about it, too bad.
I hit the road and it was a beautiful, sunny day for a drive. I had a great time listening to all the good stuff on my iPod, and finally finished listening to the Paul Shaffer book. I stopped midway at one of my fave places on the way to Austin, a place that sells kolaches, cookies, has a gift shop, nice bathrooms, etc. I got 2 sausage/cheese kolaches and these wonderful cookies that have raspberry in the middle. I ate both kolaches and a cookie and felt much better.
I had a little bit of a hard time finding the gig but I called Leo and the host of the party led me on in. I shoulda known we'd be playing outside! I got there 20 min. before we were to start playing at 7pm--perfect. The host and I found out that we have the EXACT same taste in music, as I'd walked into his house Ry Cooder was playing on the stereo! And the host, Mark, also was trying to tell ME about the Rising Sons! My ASS!!! It was fun looking at his CD collection, many of which I had in my car and on my iPod at that very moment!
So we played our "regular set" and everything was fine. The party was in honor of Mark's wife's bday and I met her 20-yr old son, who is also a bass player. They had tons of wonderful food there--fruit, cheese, brie, crackers, chips, salsa, chopped beef, sliced beef, beans, all kinds of desserts... man, oh man! Also vanilla rum, which I never had before! I only drank sporadically all night, mindful of the long drive home alone. At our break I loaded up on food and the 20-yr old kid showed me his band on YouTube. We had a good time talking bass playing, bass players (I showed him Rozzy on YouTube), songwriting, and later that night he sat in w/Leo and George. The kid also Friended me on Facebook later that night too!
We stopped playing at 10pm as Leo'd promised, and I said goodbye to everyone, packed up and hit the road, driving nonstop to Houston and making it home shortly after 1am. I went straight home although Stefano was waiting up for me, but I'd taken 2 Benadryl in Katy (West Houston) so that it'd hit me when I got home and I honestly wanted nothing more than to pass out in my own bed and sleep, sleep, sleep until I couldn't sleep anymore. I slept 'til noon on Sunday and called Stefano immediately upon waking. He was on his way to the final studio day for them to finish mixing and mastering his band's CD. I said I was in no shape to go on patrol, and I absolutely wasn't. So I am not going to get in a patrol shift at all in March--oh fucking well.
Besides, I had a 10-item "To Do List" for yesterday anyway: laundry, tidy up around the house, put away my amp and new luggage, hang up clothes, go get some groceries, pick up my prescrips since I'd left town w/out doing so, run by Blockbuster, etc. etc. etc. I rented Julie and Julia and invited Stefano over to watch it that night, which he did. He showed up with some beautiful sunflowers for me! We ordered Chinese and had a wonderful, cuddly time together all night. Today I'm at Job #1 only, and just feel worn out although I did sleep a lot last night too. Tonight is the monthly sheriff meeting; tomorrow night is rehearsal. I am truly scared I'm going to run myself down and ragged, but we've got our CD release party this Saturday and we MUST be prepared. I am not sure what has got to give. I need the $ from Job #2. Well, maybe next week I'll tell Leo I need a week off.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Friday: Hell YEAH!
'Course, this upcoming weekend is full of work, work, work! Seriously--I am at my 2 jobs today of course, then I have to go to rehearsal as we've got our Austin gig tomorrow night and we have to play 2 solid sets and we NEED the practice on all these new songs. Sunday is patrol so I can get at least 1 measly patrol shift in this month. And Monday it starts all over again and I even have the monthly sheriff meeting on Mon. night. Jesus, no rest for the fuckin' weary, dude!!!
There'll be a little fun thrown in, at least. Tonight after rehearsal I will get my buns to Stefano's as he's promised to make me a late evening snack of tuna steak, hummus, and veggies which I will enjoy with some nice cold Riesling! Tomorrow I'll have to wake up earlier than I'd like in order to 1. Get my tires rotated in preparation for driving to Austin that evening, 2. Go buy a luggage set on sale and w/a coupon I have that expires tomorrow, and 3. Get my ass ready for my gig and load my car w/my amp and bass, and finally 4. Get to Stefano's gig at a local Harley-Davidson by noon!!! (OK, let's face it, I'll be lucky to get there by 12:30pm, but they're playing 'til 3pm so that'll just have to be good enough.) My fave aunt and uncle have promised to meet me at Stefano's gig--NOT twisting my uncle's arm very much since he is, in fact, a biker and even a member of an MC.
At 3pm sharp, I will hit the road from Stefano's gig to Austin by myself. The gig is at 7pm so 4 hours will give me time to not speed on the 3-hour drive, go at a leisurely pace, find the gig, and relax a little before we have to play. When we are done at 10pm, God willing, I will head back to Houston immediately which means I will not be able to do very much drinking at the gig, dammit. But I want to make it to Stefano's safe and sound by hopefully around 1am so I can get a good night's sleep w/him before patrol on Sunday. I have invited Greggy to my gig and he says he'll come from his home in nearby Marble Falls but I'll only believe it when I see it. If he does show it'll be hard to not do much drinking, but I'll have to be disciplined for sure.
This week has been crazily busy so while I definitely need a break and it seems I won't really get one this weekend, I'm actually looking forward to the Austin round-trip drive b/c I'll be able to spend some sedate quality time w/myself and my iPod which is CHOCK-FULL of podcasts and e-books that I have NOT had time to listen to!!! Ahhh, that'll be nice... Every Monday when I get to work and plug in my iPod it immediately fills up w/the latest podcasts of the previous weekend and I just get further and further behind! I can put a dent in that shit in 6 hours!
So to recap this week's happenings: on Monday night I bought a wooden stereo cabinet, found on Craigslist, natch. My neighbor helped me get it from my car to my house. On Tuesday I had a hard time waking up b/c my allergies have been so bad lately I popped 2 Benadryl on Monday night and decided I needed a sick day from Job #1 b/c of it. So Tuesday was spent sleeping late and then adjusting the shelves in my new stereo cabinet so it will fit my new stereo. Tuesday night after Job #2 Stefano and I and my li'l bro went to see the LEGENDARY ARLO GUTHRIE and Family Band for free!!! Holy crap, was that a legendary night!!! All the cool people in town were there, even crazy Leo showed up on his roller skates and wearing a skirt and drunk as shit! I'd brought my flask and a travel mug full o' coco rum so I was feeling pretty all right myself.
Stefano spent the night at my house since he now has his own key and the extra gate clicker which means he can let himself out in the a.m. while I am still in bed, but unfortunately I was driving him crazy b/c I was tipsy and singing Sam and Dave's "Hold On" and eating popcorn and he was definitely a little cranky b/c he quit smoking cold turkey on St. Patrick's Day and the Arlo Guthrie concert was a wonderful, solid 2 hours long which means Stefano was up waaaay past his usual school-night bedtime, and he actually showed me his "grumpy old man" side for the first time ever. He got exasperated and told me to "tone it down" a little. I accused him of being grumpy which he denied, but the next morning he apologized. He also said he wanted to make amends for being grumpy by coming over on Thursday night and making it up to me, which I said I'd think about, but while he'd kind of upset me I understood and empathized with him WHY he'd been cranky, so I didn't let it bother me too much. But it better not happen very often again in the future. I have put up with enough of the grumpy shit these past few years.
Wednesday night was rehearsal and we worked on our additional 10-11 songs. I suggested we do Dylan's "Meet Me in the Morning", which I'd been listening to on the drive over. I mean seriously--Leo has us doing Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog", Hendrix's "Killing Floor", and a couple other songs you can hear at almost any blues jam. But NOBODY ever does Dylan's "Meet Me in the Morning", which is, after all, a blues song!!! I'm so damn clever and original, and Leo agreed that yes, we'd do it! Leo says our CD will arrive around April 2 or 3, just in time for our CD release party on April 4. BTW, for my credits in the liner notes, I have thanked my mom, pater familias (using his stage name), li'l bro, my maternal grandparents, my fave aunt and uncle, Stefano, and finally, "Malibu Coconut Rum". Heh heh.
And last night was a doozy of a fancy dinner/fundraiser for a local clinic that I'm affiliated w/through Job #1! Tix were $100/plate but work sprung for 5 tix so that I could go, along w/my supervisor, her supervisor, and 2 other coworkers. Nice!!! Oh my heavenly Father, the food was sooooooooooooo good. It was at a Chinese restaurant and there were like, 8 courses, like they do! An appetizer course w/3 different appetizers, then lobster w/green onion, then beef w/broccoli, then bean curd w/veggies, then Peking duck, then sole fillet on crispy bone shell, then stir fried noodles w/bean sprouts and peapods, and finally dessert of mango pudding w/sesame balls!!! (I ate 3 balls. Yum!) And in between we had 3 tea presentations and so we got to sample 3 different kinds of tea! Mmmmm... everyone also got a gift of beautiful chopsticks engraved w/the clinic's name in a lovely little oriental cloth holder, and I snagged an extra pair as a gift for Stefano b/c he doesn't own any chopsticks!
The best part was coming home to my house and Stefano waiting for me in bed. I'd told him to go ahead and get to my house so I could meet him there since the dinner ran so late. He'd bought me some lilies and put them in a vase on my coffee table, and I was so touched! He also liked his chopsticks and I told him I'd leave my pair at his house so they could always be there for when we order Chinese the next time.
There'll be a little fun thrown in, at least. Tonight after rehearsal I will get my buns to Stefano's as he's promised to make me a late evening snack of tuna steak, hummus, and veggies which I will enjoy with some nice cold Riesling! Tomorrow I'll have to wake up earlier than I'd like in order to 1. Get my tires rotated in preparation for driving to Austin that evening, 2. Go buy a luggage set on sale and w/a coupon I have that expires tomorrow, and 3. Get my ass ready for my gig and load my car w/my amp and bass, and finally 4. Get to Stefano's gig at a local Harley-Davidson by noon!!! (OK, let's face it, I'll be lucky to get there by 12:30pm, but they're playing 'til 3pm so that'll just have to be good enough.) My fave aunt and uncle have promised to meet me at Stefano's gig--NOT twisting my uncle's arm very much since he is, in fact, a biker and even a member of an MC.
At 3pm sharp, I will hit the road from Stefano's gig to Austin by myself. The gig is at 7pm so 4 hours will give me time to not speed on the 3-hour drive, go at a leisurely pace, find the gig, and relax a little before we have to play. When we are done at 10pm, God willing, I will head back to Houston immediately which means I will not be able to do very much drinking at the gig, dammit. But I want to make it to Stefano's safe and sound by hopefully around 1am so I can get a good night's sleep w/him before patrol on Sunday. I have invited Greggy to my gig and he says he'll come from his home in nearby Marble Falls but I'll only believe it when I see it. If he does show it'll be hard to not do much drinking, but I'll have to be disciplined for sure.
This week has been crazily busy so while I definitely need a break and it seems I won't really get one this weekend, I'm actually looking forward to the Austin round-trip drive b/c I'll be able to spend some sedate quality time w/myself and my iPod which is CHOCK-FULL of podcasts and e-books that I have NOT had time to listen to!!! Ahhh, that'll be nice... Every Monday when I get to work and plug in my iPod it immediately fills up w/the latest podcasts of the previous weekend and I just get further and further behind! I can put a dent in that shit in 6 hours!
So to recap this week's happenings: on Monday night I bought a wooden stereo cabinet, found on Craigslist, natch. My neighbor helped me get it from my car to my house. On Tuesday I had a hard time waking up b/c my allergies have been so bad lately I popped 2 Benadryl on Monday night and decided I needed a sick day from Job #1 b/c of it. So Tuesday was spent sleeping late and then adjusting the shelves in my new stereo cabinet so it will fit my new stereo. Tuesday night after Job #2 Stefano and I and my li'l bro went to see the LEGENDARY ARLO GUTHRIE and Family Band for free!!! Holy crap, was that a legendary night!!! All the cool people in town were there, even crazy Leo showed up on his roller skates and wearing a skirt and drunk as shit! I'd brought my flask and a travel mug full o' coco rum so I was feeling pretty all right myself.
Stefano spent the night at my house since he now has his own key and the extra gate clicker which means he can let himself out in the a.m. while I am still in bed, but unfortunately I was driving him crazy b/c I was tipsy and singing Sam and Dave's "Hold On" and eating popcorn and he was definitely a little cranky b/c he quit smoking cold turkey on St. Patrick's Day and the Arlo Guthrie concert was a wonderful, solid 2 hours long which means Stefano was up waaaay past his usual school-night bedtime, and he actually showed me his "grumpy old man" side for the first time ever. He got exasperated and told me to "tone it down" a little. I accused him of being grumpy which he denied, but the next morning he apologized. He also said he wanted to make amends for being grumpy by coming over on Thursday night and making it up to me, which I said I'd think about, but while he'd kind of upset me I understood and empathized with him WHY he'd been cranky, so I didn't let it bother me too much. But it better not happen very often again in the future. I have put up with enough of the grumpy shit these past few years.
Wednesday night was rehearsal and we worked on our additional 10-11 songs. I suggested we do Dylan's "Meet Me in the Morning", which I'd been listening to on the drive over. I mean seriously--Leo has us doing Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog", Hendrix's "Killing Floor", and a couple other songs you can hear at almost any blues jam. But NOBODY ever does Dylan's "Meet Me in the Morning", which is, after all, a blues song!!! I'm so damn clever and original, and Leo agreed that yes, we'd do it! Leo says our CD will arrive around April 2 or 3, just in time for our CD release party on April 4. BTW, for my credits in the liner notes, I have thanked my mom, pater familias (using his stage name), li'l bro, my maternal grandparents, my fave aunt and uncle, Stefano, and finally, "Malibu Coconut Rum". Heh heh.
And last night was a doozy of a fancy dinner/fundraiser for a local clinic that I'm affiliated w/through Job #1! Tix were $100/plate but work sprung for 5 tix so that I could go, along w/my supervisor, her supervisor, and 2 other coworkers. Nice!!! Oh my heavenly Father, the food was sooooooooooooo good. It was at a Chinese restaurant and there were like, 8 courses, like they do! An appetizer course w/3 different appetizers, then lobster w/green onion, then beef w/broccoli, then bean curd w/veggies, then Peking duck, then sole fillet on crispy bone shell, then stir fried noodles w/bean sprouts and peapods, and finally dessert of mango pudding w/sesame balls!!! (I ate 3 balls. Yum!) And in between we had 3 tea presentations and so we got to sample 3 different kinds of tea! Mmmmm... everyone also got a gift of beautiful chopsticks engraved w/the clinic's name in a lovely little oriental cloth holder, and I snagged an extra pair as a gift for Stefano b/c he doesn't own any chopsticks!
The best part was coming home to my house and Stefano waiting for me in bed. I'd told him to go ahead and get to my house so I could meet him there since the dinner ran so late. He'd bought me some lilies and put them in a vase on my coffee table, and I was so touched! He also liked his chopsticks and I told him I'd leave my pair at his house so they could always be there for when we order Chinese the next time.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Hell of a Fun Weekend!
Another jolly good weekend is in the books! Dinner at Grimaldi's on Fri. was So. Fucking. Goooooood!!! Mr. Wonderful Stefano and I sat outside on the patio--it was a little chilly but once we got our wine and pizza we were fine. We shared a small (which is PLENTY) salad, and a small mushroom w/Italian sausage pizza. Oh my God. I ate 2 slices and Stefano ate the rest. Then we went home and had a romantic evening together!
Before I met Stefano for dinner I'd run over to a house in my neighborhood where they were selling a Kenwood stereo system. I NEED a good stereo system, it's embarrassing having only a boombox to listen to music to at my house and being a professional musician, shameful! So I've been looking on Craigslist for a few months now and budgeted some $ for such a purchase. I liked what they had but we didn't have an LP to test the turntable so I said I'd be back this weekend w/a record of my own. I was going to go back on Sat. afternoon but I was too lazy and didn't want to rush around so I said I'd go on Sunday instead.
After sleeping innnnnnnnn on Sat.... ahhhh... I went to my house and relaxed before having to head to the rodeo to work at the recruiting booth in the Reliant Center. I had a bad banana so I decided to make banana bread and had to run back to Stefano's to borrow an egg! It came out ok. I think I need to start pulling out my baking stuff before it's done as it continues to bake in its hot dish!!! That's why my baking (cookies, banana bread) is never moist and is always too brown and dry. I need more practice, obviously.
Poor Stefano's evening gig was cancelled due to the day's nasty rain and cold and wind so he was all bummed out. I still had to head to the rodeo though and got stuck in mad rodeo traffic; however I did get to park on the grounds which was awesome! I had 2 coworkers, 2 regular deputies who work desk jobs (ID and Background). They were cool, especially the guy who was older and old school and totally fun! We yukked it up all day. The chick kept leaving the booth to go shop and schmooze and God knows what. I had a good time though, giving out trinkets to kids and I even discussed the Reserve program w/a couple of people. This drunk guy and his friends kept coming by and bugging us and he told me that I'm a "good-looking cop" and later on he asked for a hug, which I gave him. I was a little excited about the rodeo food and decided to eat a baked potato covered w/chopped beef and it was sooooooo yummy!!! I was just disappointed it didn't come on a stick, but oh well. Later on another deputy came by and he had a fried Snicker's bar!
At least w/Stefano not doing his gig he was at home by the time I was done w/my rodeo shift and so I just raced home to change clothes and then got to his house with plenty of time to begin drinking my beloved coconut rum. On the rocks! Sunday I slept waaaaayyy in, and b/c it was a sunny day (though still cold and windy out) and it was my li'l bro's birthday and we had a big family meal and dessert planned for later on, I decided I needed to go on a run. Instead of driving down the street to the park though I figured I'd just run around my block/neighborhood, which was ok. I'll probably start doing that more when I run in the daytime. I listened to this INCREDIBLE podcast (Act one) of This American Life while running--usually I listen to my music so I have rhythm for running but this podcast was so fascinating I even continued to listen to it when I got home.
After that I went back to the stereo-selling house armed w/an LP which played just fine. I gave them an offer, they countered, and I accepted. We loaded up the turntable, receiver, subwoofer, dual cassette player, 5-CD changer, and 5 speakers into my car and I called Stefano who'd offered to help me hook it all up. He came over but it turns out I really need to buy a stereo cabinet for the whole operation, so we put off the hookup until I can find one. We hung out at my place 'til it was time to go pick up li'l bro for his b-day meal w/my mom and stepdad.
We met at a family fave, the Bibas where I'd had that Mardi Gras party a couple years ago. This was Stefano's 1st time to meet my mom and stepdad, although he and my mom are already Facebook friends, chuckle! It was a good, relaxed time and we grubbed seriously. My bro got the tastiest calamari I have EVER had--you have to be careful w/calamari b/c sometimes it is too rubbery but this was absolutely perfect! Light and crispy on the outside, just chewy enough on the inside! I STILL can't believe I am bothering to blog about food, yet another testament to how happy Stefano makes me! Anyway... soon my li'l bro's li'l gal pal/family friend of all of ours showed up too. After the meal we headed to the House of Guys for dessert as planned. I had the Banana Cream Pie! Banana chunks in the filling! Oh hell yeah!!! Stefano picked up the tab there for our dessert, as he is the sweetest most wonderful man!
Unfortunately then I had to bid goodbye to everyone, drop off Stefano, and get my buns down to Leo's for rehearsal. Our CD release is of course coming up and we also have a gig next Sat. in Austin so we've got to pad our setlist for sure. We worked up 10 new songs last night, though some were songs we've jammed around on before. Leo gave us the new final mastered CD and it sounds really good. I even amaze myself on a few tracks!
So now I'm at Job #1 and the boss will be back in the office tomorrow (she's been out the past 2 days--nice!). I'm going to donate blood at the hospital across the street in just a bit, which is another reason I made sure to grub yesterday; also I'll enjoy a huge ice cream sundae that they always have ready for all donors. I took yesterday's meal leftovers home too so I can have that tonight for dinner b/c blood donation instructions state clearly to eat a "hearty" meal after donating. I even grabbed my bro's leftover calamari!
Before I met Stefano for dinner I'd run over to a house in my neighborhood where they were selling a Kenwood stereo system. I NEED a good stereo system, it's embarrassing having only a boombox to listen to music to at my house and being a professional musician, shameful! So I've been looking on Craigslist for a few months now and budgeted some $ for such a purchase. I liked what they had but we didn't have an LP to test the turntable so I said I'd be back this weekend w/a record of my own. I was going to go back on Sat. afternoon but I was too lazy and didn't want to rush around so I said I'd go on Sunday instead.
After sleeping innnnnnnnn on Sat.... ahhhh... I went to my house and relaxed before having to head to the rodeo to work at the recruiting booth in the Reliant Center. I had a bad banana so I decided to make banana bread and had to run back to Stefano's to borrow an egg! It came out ok. I think I need to start pulling out my baking stuff before it's done as it continues to bake in its hot dish!!! That's why my baking (cookies, banana bread) is never moist and is always too brown and dry. I need more practice, obviously.
Poor Stefano's evening gig was cancelled due to the day's nasty rain and cold and wind so he was all bummed out. I still had to head to the rodeo though and got stuck in mad rodeo traffic; however I did get to park on the grounds which was awesome! I had 2 coworkers, 2 regular deputies who work desk jobs (ID and Background). They were cool, especially the guy who was older and old school and totally fun! We yukked it up all day. The chick kept leaving the booth to go shop and schmooze and God knows what. I had a good time though, giving out trinkets to kids and I even discussed the Reserve program w/a couple of people. This drunk guy and his friends kept coming by and bugging us and he told me that I'm a "good-looking cop" and later on he asked for a hug, which I gave him. I was a little excited about the rodeo food and decided to eat a baked potato covered w/chopped beef and it was sooooooo yummy!!! I was just disappointed it didn't come on a stick, but oh well. Later on another deputy came by and he had a fried Snicker's bar!
At least w/Stefano not doing his gig he was at home by the time I was done w/my rodeo shift and so I just raced home to change clothes and then got to his house with plenty of time to begin drinking my beloved coconut rum. On the rocks! Sunday I slept waaaaayyy in, and b/c it was a sunny day (though still cold and windy out) and it was my li'l bro's birthday and we had a big family meal and dessert planned for later on, I decided I needed to go on a run. Instead of driving down the street to the park though I figured I'd just run around my block/neighborhood, which was ok. I'll probably start doing that more when I run in the daytime. I listened to this INCREDIBLE podcast (Act one) of This American Life while running--usually I listen to my music so I have rhythm for running but this podcast was so fascinating I even continued to listen to it when I got home.
After that I went back to the stereo-selling house armed w/an LP which played just fine. I gave them an offer, they countered, and I accepted. We loaded up the turntable, receiver, subwoofer, dual cassette player, 5-CD changer, and 5 speakers into my car and I called Stefano who'd offered to help me hook it all up. He came over but it turns out I really need to buy a stereo cabinet for the whole operation, so we put off the hookup until I can find one. We hung out at my place 'til it was time to go pick up li'l bro for his b-day meal w/my mom and stepdad.
We met at a family fave, the Bibas where I'd had that Mardi Gras party a couple years ago. This was Stefano's 1st time to meet my mom and stepdad, although he and my mom are already Facebook friends, chuckle! It was a good, relaxed time and we grubbed seriously. My bro got the tastiest calamari I have EVER had--you have to be careful w/calamari b/c sometimes it is too rubbery but this was absolutely perfect! Light and crispy on the outside, just chewy enough on the inside! I STILL can't believe I am bothering to blog about food, yet another testament to how happy Stefano makes me! Anyway... soon my li'l bro's li'l gal pal/family friend of all of ours showed up too. After the meal we headed to the House of Guys for dessert as planned. I had the Banana Cream Pie! Banana chunks in the filling! Oh hell yeah!!! Stefano picked up the tab there for our dessert, as he is the sweetest most wonderful man!
Unfortunately then I had to bid goodbye to everyone, drop off Stefano, and get my buns down to Leo's for rehearsal. Our CD release is of course coming up and we also have a gig next Sat. in Austin so we've got to pad our setlist for sure. We worked up 10 new songs last night, though some were songs we've jammed around on before. Leo gave us the new final mastered CD and it sounds really good. I even amaze myself on a few tracks!
So now I'm at Job #1 and the boss will be back in the office tomorrow (she's been out the past 2 days--nice!). I'm going to donate blood at the hospital across the street in just a bit, which is another reason I made sure to grub yesterday; also I'll enjoy a huge ice cream sundae that they always have ready for all donors. I took yesterday's meal leftovers home too so I can have that tonight for dinner b/c blood donation instructions state clearly to eat a "hearty" meal after donating. I even grabbed my bro's leftover calamari!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
What is Hip?!
So to continue, after dinner we repaired to the House of Blues and got in a strategic position to see A. who plays 2nd trumpet and stands at stage right. It was as always a KILLER show and I was so proud of A., and proud to have brought my man and his niece to see my buddy's band! God, they rocked!!! We danced, I snapped some pic's, it was awesome. And before the encore I told Stefano that if they came out and did "You're Still a Young Man" that I would melt into a puddle right here on the floor and he would have to go borrow a mop in order to soak me up and get me outta there. And they came out and did that song!!! I was dying! And it was so incredible to watch my friend up there playing the actual song, one of my fave songs of all time--a surreal but amazing feeling!
After the show I knew the afterparty would be in the Foundation Room so we tried to find it and after running into Rozzy who pointed the correct way to us, we finally found it. A. joined us and we began ordering drinks and catching up. Stefano's little niece, who is only 20 years old but looks older b/c of the way she wears her hair and dresses, got bought a drink by her waaaayyyy cool uncle!!! This was only my 4th or 5th time to the House of Blues; actually Stefano and I had been there last Tuesday for our DJ friend's Troubador Tuesday event and that is held in the Bronze Peacock room, another room I'd not been in before. FUN! After a few drinks and much camaraderie we dropped A. off at his hotel, dropped off niece at Stefano's 'rents' gorgeous high-rise condo building, and headed home.
Saturday I had to be up too early in order to get to my FINAL Board meeting of the High-spanic Health Coalition. I would be handing over the checkbook and other financial documents--hallelujah! God, it's SO NICE to have one less thing on my plate, yo. One less thing lobbying for my limited energy and attention. Now I am down to serving on only 1 board, the local Women's Health Board. But frankly they are kinda scatterbrained, so so far there is not too much heavy lifting involved.
Since the HHC board (as well as the women's board) are comprised of women naturally they ran over time due to all the incessant, tedious and excessive chit chat so I excused myself ON TIME and got the hell out of there. I ran home to shower, change and get down to NASA as my peeps from the DFW area had driven down and I was to meet them there for T.'s little kid band concert. (T. is a band director for Dallas I.S.D. and this was his kids' little Houston tour.) My peeps that were visiting was T.'s wife Boof, our friend Catyaq, Hand who is visiting all of us from Tokyo, and our friend SW who had been nice enough to drive the 4 of them down in his car. (T. obviously was traveling w/the kids.) These are all friends of mine from college--my best friends from that era, to be sure!
It was so great to see them all and it was fun to be at NASA. I had just been there last May w/S and his daughter, of course. We took lots of pic's and I enjoyed the bands playing. The kids were adorable and T. sat in with them--a ringer! They even played Tower Of Power's "What is Hip" which I had just heard the previous night w/the REAL TOP doing it! After the bands played we futzed around NASA a little bit and then it was time to head back to Houston proper, drop off their luggage at my place (I had insisted they all stay at my house and J. had gotten the place looking real nice and visitor-ready which was great!), then meet Stefano for dinner at a wonderful nearby Tex-Mex restaurant, per Boof's request. Catyaq, me and Stefano were the only ones drinking :-( but me and Catyaq had humongous delicious margaritas so we made up for the others.
After dinner we ran by the liquor store on our way to Stefano's harmonica player Larry's house, as he'd requested that we bring Mudslide fixings. We headed to Larry's so we could catch the big boxing PPV, which MOST of us were excited about! It would also be my 1st time meeting Larry's wife, who of course had heard a lot about me. She had bought this ridiculously large carrot cake that must've been, no joke, about 10 layers high! Ahhhhh... it went well w/my coco rum! They had a couple other friends over for the fight too and during the undercards we all mostly socialized, though Catyaq fell asleep in her chair, heh heh. Great fight though, lasted all 10 rounds and our guy (Pacquaio) won, especially to Boof's great pleasure since she is also Filipino.
We dropped everyone off at my place and I headed to Stefano's for the night. Catyaq and Boof slept in my bed, SW slept in the 2nd bedroom on the futon, and Hand slept on the couch downstairs. Plenty of room for my pals! The next day we all slept in and I wandered over in the late a.m. to get all dolled up for another big day. We all went to eat lunch at a notable legendary BBQ joint and ended our visit together with a visit to Amy's! Stefano and I pointed them towards the northbound freeway and then we went to pick up li'l bro and get to my gig.
The gig was a benefit/40th Birthday party for KPFT, where we just played that radio spot a week ago. It was an absolutely beautiful day out--sunny and warm enough for short sleeves, FINALLY! I checked in, they gave me my performer lanyard and 3 free drink tickets for me and my boys, and we proceeded to explore and commence drinking. There were lots of folks Stefano and I both knew from the music scene and it was a real friendly, laid back, fun scene! Our band was scheduled to go on LAST, which I felt a little weird about. Earlier performers included big time names, like Ray Wiley Hubbard, Guy Forsyth, and Randy Weeks!!! BTW Stefano knew Randy from his 12-years living in L.A. (Stefano's band had opened up for Randy a time or 2 back in the day) and introduced me to him and took a great pic of us together.
By the time we went on it was dark and I was worried everyone would be gone but there was still a small but mighty crowd left. Unfortunately George fucked up MAJORLY on 4 songs and even Leo turned and gave him a dirty look at one point. But the crowd still danced on and I learned a looooonnnng time ago to keep smiling and rocking on like everything is great and 99.9% of the audience will never even notice any fuck-ups. After we finished people came up to me with lots of compliments so it was all good. None of us wanted to stop the party so we all went over to the bar near my brother's place and had more drinks. Mr. Wonderful Stefano and I ended the night at my house although he was pretty drunk and basically passed out on me, hee hee!
So tonight we've got rehearsal and Leo is making me rehearse twice/week until our CD release party in early April. I told him I would do this for him for RIGHT NOW but one of the days must be Friday or Sunday so I don't get burned out! It is really not fun spending my entire day going to Job #1, then Job #2, then driving over to Leo's neighborhood without any kind of break the entire day and then getting home at 10pm. And I am SOOOO susceptible to burnout and I MUST be careful with myself.
This week has been pretty laid-back, and unbelievably I had Monday-Wednesday nights free! I went home on Monday night and relaxed and tidied up and got some DVR-catching-up-on. Tues. night I went for a run--of course on the one cold and rainy evening of the week!!! And last night I agreed to meet DA (who's on Spring Break this week) at a midpoint Hooters so he could finally give me my house key back, we could watch the Rockets game, and he could buy me drinks/dinner. It was actually kinda nice to see him and he apologized again for being so damn mean to me before. He invited me to his house for a BBQ on Saturday but I'm going to be working the rodeo all day at the sheriff's office recruiting booth. He mentioned that we "could get back together" but that won't be happening. I am falling in love w/Stefano and Stefano's already in love w/me and I love being with him. So DA and I ate a bunch of fried crap, I had 3 different drinks, and I said I had to leave at halftime. He gave me a hug in the parking lot and said we should do this again. I dunno. I haven't even heard from DA today so I get the feeling he's up to playing some kind of "cool" game--which I've no time for.
After the show I knew the afterparty would be in the Foundation Room so we tried to find it and after running into Rozzy who pointed the correct way to us, we finally found it. A. joined us and we began ordering drinks and catching up. Stefano's little niece, who is only 20 years old but looks older b/c of the way she wears her hair and dresses, got bought a drink by her waaaayyyy cool uncle!!! This was only my 4th or 5th time to the House of Blues; actually Stefano and I had been there last Tuesday for our DJ friend's Troubador Tuesday event and that is held in the Bronze Peacock room, another room I'd not been in before. FUN! After a few drinks and much camaraderie we dropped A. off at his hotel, dropped off niece at Stefano's 'rents' gorgeous high-rise condo building, and headed home.
Saturday I had to be up too early in order to get to my FINAL Board meeting of the High-spanic Health Coalition. I would be handing over the checkbook and other financial documents--hallelujah! God, it's SO NICE to have one less thing on my plate, yo. One less thing lobbying for my limited energy and attention. Now I am down to serving on only 1 board, the local Women's Health Board. But frankly they are kinda scatterbrained, so so far there is not too much heavy lifting involved.
Since the HHC board (as well as the women's board) are comprised of women naturally they ran over time due to all the incessant, tedious and excessive chit chat so I excused myself ON TIME and got the hell out of there. I ran home to shower, change and get down to NASA as my peeps from the DFW area had driven down and I was to meet them there for T.'s little kid band concert. (T. is a band director for Dallas I.S.D. and this was his kids' little Houston tour.) My peeps that were visiting was T.'s wife Boof, our friend Catyaq, Hand who is visiting all of us from Tokyo, and our friend SW who had been nice enough to drive the 4 of them down in his car. (T. obviously was traveling w/the kids.) These are all friends of mine from college--my best friends from that era, to be sure!
It was so great to see them all and it was fun to be at NASA. I had just been there last May w/S and his daughter, of course. We took lots of pic's and I enjoyed the bands playing. The kids were adorable and T. sat in with them--a ringer! They even played Tower Of Power's "What is Hip" which I had just heard the previous night w/the REAL TOP doing it! After the bands played we futzed around NASA a little bit and then it was time to head back to Houston proper, drop off their luggage at my place (I had insisted they all stay at my house and J. had gotten the place looking real nice and visitor-ready which was great!), then meet Stefano for dinner at a wonderful nearby Tex-Mex restaurant, per Boof's request. Catyaq, me and Stefano were the only ones drinking :-( but me and Catyaq had humongous delicious margaritas so we made up for the others.
After dinner we ran by the liquor store on our way to Stefano's harmonica player Larry's house, as he'd requested that we bring Mudslide fixings. We headed to Larry's so we could catch the big boxing PPV, which MOST of us were excited about! It would also be my 1st time meeting Larry's wife, who of course had heard a lot about me. She had bought this ridiculously large carrot cake that must've been, no joke, about 10 layers high! Ahhhhh... it went well w/my coco rum! They had a couple other friends over for the fight too and during the undercards we all mostly socialized, though Catyaq fell asleep in her chair, heh heh. Great fight though, lasted all 10 rounds and our guy (Pacquaio) won, especially to Boof's great pleasure since she is also Filipino.
We dropped everyone off at my place and I headed to Stefano's for the night. Catyaq and Boof slept in my bed, SW slept in the 2nd bedroom on the futon, and Hand slept on the couch downstairs. Plenty of room for my pals! The next day we all slept in and I wandered over in the late a.m. to get all dolled up for another big day. We all went to eat lunch at a notable legendary BBQ joint and ended our visit together with a visit to Amy's! Stefano and I pointed them towards the northbound freeway and then we went to pick up li'l bro and get to my gig.
The gig was a benefit/40th Birthday party for KPFT, where we just played that radio spot a week ago. It was an absolutely beautiful day out--sunny and warm enough for short sleeves, FINALLY! I checked in, they gave me my performer lanyard and 3 free drink tickets for me and my boys, and we proceeded to explore and commence drinking. There were lots of folks Stefano and I both knew from the music scene and it was a real friendly, laid back, fun scene! Our band was scheduled to go on LAST, which I felt a little weird about. Earlier performers included big time names, like Ray Wiley Hubbard, Guy Forsyth, and Randy Weeks!!! BTW Stefano knew Randy from his 12-years living in L.A. (Stefano's band had opened up for Randy a time or 2 back in the day) and introduced me to him and took a great pic of us together.
By the time we went on it was dark and I was worried everyone would be gone but there was still a small but mighty crowd left. Unfortunately George fucked up MAJORLY on 4 songs and even Leo turned and gave him a dirty look at one point. But the crowd still danced on and I learned a looooonnnng time ago to keep smiling and rocking on like everything is great and 99.9% of the audience will never even notice any fuck-ups. After we finished people came up to me with lots of compliments so it was all good. None of us wanted to stop the party so we all went over to the bar near my brother's place and had more drinks. Mr. Wonderful Stefano and I ended the night at my house although he was pretty drunk and basically passed out on me, hee hee!
So tonight we've got rehearsal and Leo is making me rehearse twice/week until our CD release party in early April. I told him I would do this for him for RIGHT NOW but one of the days must be Friday or Sunday so I don't get burned out! It is really not fun spending my entire day going to Job #1, then Job #2, then driving over to Leo's neighborhood without any kind of break the entire day and then getting home at 10pm. And I am SOOOO susceptible to burnout and I MUST be careful with myself.
This week has been pretty laid-back, and unbelievably I had Monday-Wednesday nights free! I went home on Monday night and relaxed and tidied up and got some DVR-catching-up-on. Tues. night I went for a run--of course on the one cold and rainy evening of the week!!! And last night I agreed to meet DA (who's on Spring Break this week) at a midpoint Hooters so he could finally give me my house key back, we could watch the Rockets game, and he could buy me drinks/dinner. It was actually kinda nice to see him and he apologized again for being so damn mean to me before. He invited me to his house for a BBQ on Saturday but I'm going to be working the rodeo all day at the sheriff's office recruiting booth. He mentioned that we "could get back together" but that won't be happening. I am falling in love w/Stefano and Stefano's already in love w/me and I love being with him. So DA and I ate a bunch of fried crap, I had 3 different drinks, and I said I had to leave at halftime. He gave me a hug in the parking lot and said we should do this again. I dunno. I haven't even heard from DA today so I get the feeling he's up to playing some kind of "cool" game--which I've no time for.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Which Way Does That Old Pony Run?
Stefano and I went to the local independent music store yesterday as I am desperate search of a particular Subdudes CD which is also produced by Keb Mo but they didn't have it. Instead I got the new Lyle Lovett and I am now totally obsessed with it. He did the "Pony" song in the film we went to the premiere of last week at the MFAH that I promised to write about in my last blog post. Jesus H. Tapdancing Christ, how I love that song... Oh my GOD!
Anyway, that film premiere was magical. It was the top secret premiere for invited VIP's and cast and crew. And since my dad is actually in the film (and they used some of his camera work too) of course we had to go. It was an amazing time. All the club's owners/friends/workers were there and it was so great to see everyone and they all came up to me for hugs and Stefano was just looking on, totally impressed! Hell, I grew up at the Fair! I introduced Stefano to everyone, including the filmmakers who are also friends of my pater familias. And my beloved Vince Bell was there and Stefano got a great pic of us together and then Lyle fuckin' Lovett walks by. Ohhhh... be still my heart... Lyle and Stefano were even wearing the same cowboy boots! There was plenty o' wine, cheese, and fruit and we were drinking' it up, schmoozing, and having an absolutely killer time. Then it was time to repair downstairs to the auditorium for the film. It was a BEAUTIFUL film. It was like watching major portions of my life flash before my eyes. It premieres at SXSW this Wednesday and my dad says he's going to Austin for that.
Ok, well that's basically that. So this past weekend was SOOOOOOOOO wonderful! Lots of sex, booze, and rock and roll!!! 1st, L. and I had dinner at Maggiano's on Thurs. night and we grubbed seriously! Then I immediately went to meet G. and our friend Opus and M. at another friend of their's house where we stood in the garage and drank beer and caught up. I got home around 11:30pm so it was pretty much an early night.
Friday was when A. was scheduled to be in town w/Tower of Power and I was so excited! He had of course put me on the guest list and even managed to finagle a 3rd ticket for Stefano's niece who was in town sussing out grad school at UH's drama dept. Love that A.!!! Stefano and I met his 'rents for dinner beforehand at one of their fave Vietnamese restaurants where I had actually eaten lunch before once w/Tito J. His 'rents had just returned from a 2-week cruise to South America which I wanted to hear all about. What an adventure! And his little 20-yr old niece was so sweet and cute!
After dinner the 'rents went home and the 3 of us went to the House of Blues for the show. We were late seeing Rozzy's band open b/c I had been stuck in the worst traffic jam in Houston history earlier (not kidding--it was in the news and everything) leaving Job #2 so we were running late generally speaking all evening. But that's ok b/c Stefano hates the singer in that band, heh heh. Stefano ran into a couple of friends of his and that he'd wanted to introduce me to for awhile. We'd snuck in a flask of coco rum and got our Diet Cokes and did our thing, little niece included.
To be continued tomorrow as I am leaving Job #2 now to go run a bunch of errands and head home at a somewhat earlier hour than normal, and FINALLY while it's still light out thanks to Daylight Savings Time! YAY!!!!!!!
Anyway, that film premiere was magical. It was the top secret premiere for invited VIP's and cast and crew. And since my dad is actually in the film (and they used some of his camera work too) of course we had to go. It was an amazing time. All the club's owners/friends/workers were there and it was so great to see everyone and they all came up to me for hugs and Stefano was just looking on, totally impressed! Hell, I grew up at the Fair! I introduced Stefano to everyone, including the filmmakers who are also friends of my pater familias. And my beloved Vince Bell was there and Stefano got a great pic of us together and then Lyle fuckin' Lovett walks by. Ohhhh... be still my heart... Lyle and Stefano were even wearing the same cowboy boots! There was plenty o' wine, cheese, and fruit and we were drinking' it up, schmoozing, and having an absolutely killer time. Then it was time to repair downstairs to the auditorium for the film. It was a BEAUTIFUL film. It was like watching major portions of my life flash before my eyes. It premieres at SXSW this Wednesday and my dad says he's going to Austin for that.
Ok, well that's basically that. So this past weekend was SOOOOOOOOO wonderful! Lots of sex, booze, and rock and roll!!! 1st, L. and I had dinner at Maggiano's on Thurs. night and we grubbed seriously! Then I immediately went to meet G. and our friend Opus and M. at another friend of their's house where we stood in the garage and drank beer and caught up. I got home around 11:30pm so it was pretty much an early night.
Friday was when A. was scheduled to be in town w/Tower of Power and I was so excited! He had of course put me on the guest list and even managed to finagle a 3rd ticket for Stefano's niece who was in town sussing out grad school at UH's drama dept. Love that A.!!! Stefano and I met his 'rents for dinner beforehand at one of their fave Vietnamese restaurants where I had actually eaten lunch before once w/Tito J. His 'rents had just returned from a 2-week cruise to South America which I wanted to hear all about. What an adventure! And his little 20-yr old niece was so sweet and cute!
After dinner the 'rents went home and the 3 of us went to the House of Blues for the show. We were late seeing Rozzy's band open b/c I had been stuck in the worst traffic jam in Houston history earlier (not kidding--it was in the news and everything) leaving Job #2 so we were running late generally speaking all evening. But that's ok b/c Stefano hates the singer in that band, heh heh. Stefano ran into a couple of friends of his and that he'd wanted to introduce me to for awhile. We'd snuck in a flask of coco rum and got our Diet Cokes and did our thing, little niece included.
To be continued tomorrow as I am leaving Job #2 now to go run a bunch of errands and head home at a somewhat earlier hour than normal, and FINALLY while it's still light out thanks to Daylight Savings Time! YAY!!!!!!!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Dearth of Blog Posts Indicate All the Fun Occurring
That is the TRUTH! Well, except for the part where the noted local psychiatrist called in 5 intense searches to me, his personal librarian, last week and I have been totally swamped working on them. For real. He's giving a talk called "New Frontiers in Psychiatry" at the country club where tables are $25,000 each, so I had to really do some fancy searching for him on his topics! And since Job #1 is where I primarily am able to do my blog posting when I am assigned to the reference desk or assigned to a chat hour, time has been at a premium. And I worked from home last Friday too!
But seriously, the days since the last post have been mostly absolutely wonderful. Yesterday was particularly interesting as I was in one of the Best Moods I have ever been in! I just found so many things to be so damn funny yesterday! Every time I turned around something was cracking me up. J2 and her baboon-stolen-cucumber story. Things I was reading online. Funny pictures I saw. Listening to Paul Shaffer's autobio on me iPod!
So lessee... ok so we rang in Stefano's 49th bday last Tuesday very mellowly... he said what he really really wanted was for me to come over and for us to drink a little wine and just hang out together and watch a movie. So that's what we did! No dinner, no cake (well, we'd been eating so much the days before!), just him and me and lots of cuddling. He said it was the best bday weekend he'd ever had in his entire life! Awwwwww.....!
Since I had to be up early w/Stefano on Weds. morning I told my li'l bro I'd take him to get his stitches out (he had a weird freak accident a couple weeks ago whereby he was at work, leaned over to put a bootie over his shoe [he's a pharmacy tech at a hospital a block away from my Job #1], and very BIZARRELY and FREAKILY had the plunger part of his pen stab him in the upper right inner arm and literally tear his flesh/muscle open! Not the sharp pen side--the plunger side!!! 5 stitches, dude!) and it was a good thing too b/c they'd told him to do so between 10-14 days out and this was the 14th day and he was itching so badly he said he was tempted to wear a cone of shame like the ones they put on dogs to keep from biting his stitches out! Lesson learned after we were done getting them removed: if you have deep stitches like that, get them out on the 10th day. Li'l bro said his skin had already started to grow around them and they had to dig the stitches out! UGH!!!!!
So that was an adventure. What else happened last week? Oh, rehearsal was cancelled on Thurs. night and I was so pleased b/c it was nice to have a rare evening at home with myself. But b/c we had that radio gig on KPFT on Sat. Leo made me come and do a quick hour on Fri. evening after work. I'd asked Stefano to come spend the night at my house b/c my Aunt Flo, aka "The Process" (thanks, Brandone!) was scheduled to come and visit like any day now; nay, literally any hour now as she was supposed to be there starting Weds. or Thurs. and still hadn't made her appearance. We went to eat a good Mexican dinner beforehand at our fave neighborhood Mexican restaurant complete w/margaritas. I wanted to watch A Serious Man before the Oscars on Sunday so we went to my place, got into bed and did that, though I was tipsy and fell asleep towards the end of it.
Saturday we slept in, of course! Though Stefano left in the a.m. so he could go get his coffee and feed his tomato plants. I lounged around all day... ahhh... 'til it was time for him to come pick me up. I wanted to go get a gourmet cupcake before going to the radio station, so we did that. We got to the station before the rest of the band did, and after loading my amp into the studio we stood outside and he smoked a cig and I, a vanilla cigar. Soon Leo and his girlfriend showed up, then our drummer. My music loving friend B. had promised she'd come and watch us do the live spot in person too. Then something really really weird and fucked up happened. The mutual musician friend of mine and Stefano's whose house we had just gone to a couple Sundays ago for our friend's bday party, drove up to the station w/his girlfriend, Mar. We were happy to see them and we waved, then hugged them as they came into the station. They were there to quickly plug on the air their upcoming 3-day music festival on the same show we were about to play on. Cool!
So here's the weird and FUCKED UP part. They went inside and Stefano and I remained outside holding the front door open while Leo, George, and Leo's girlfriend Mir continued to load in gear, mainly George's drum set parts. All of a sudden, Leo's girlfriend Mir looked back at Mar (and yes, these really are abbreviations of their real names) and was like, "Excuse me??? That wasn't very nice, you didn't have to call me that." Apparently Mir had placed her purse and jacket on the desk just inside the front door and Mar had told her she may not want to leave her stuff there b/c things have a way of walking off. Which is true, you do have to be careful in this particular neighborhood and I'm sure you wouldn't do that on a weekday when the station is hustling and bustling w/people--but this was Saturday afternoon and there was NO ONE there except for us the band, the 2 of them, and the 2 DJ's and their lady friend who were in the booth anyway!!! And Mir had said politely something like, "OK, thank you for letting me know" and continued outside to help load stuff in... and Mar said to her, "Bitch!" WTF!!! Mar accused Mir of bitchily ignoring her "warning" and I KNOW that Mir would never do that--she really is a sweet, very nice girl. But Mar has always been nothing but sweet herself when I have seen her over the years as well--so for her to just call Mir a bitch like that, I was shocked and appalled. But I hadn't seen what had happened, so Stefano and I just stood by while they had a heated discussion (more heated on Mar's part) until I said "Enough! Stop it! We gotta get ready for our gig!" just to put an end to it.
Mir grabbed her purse and jacket and came outside and explained her side of it to us and Stefano and I both said we didn't know WHAT had gotten into Mar! Mir continued to help load more of George's stuff inside and I held the door open for her. And THEN... Mar comes over to me and says, "Adela, why don't you take your cigar out back and close the door b/c we're not supposed to have the door open like this." OMG. The WRONG FUCKING THING TO SAY and I WAS THE WRONG FUCKING PERSON TO SAY IT TO. I exploded and immediately yelled at Mar, "What is your problem??? This is our fucking gig and you are harshing our mellow!!! You yell at my guitarist's girlfriend for no fucking reason and that is fucked up, man! You're harshing our mellow!!!" (Yes, I said that twice.) And she backed off while Mir watched and Stefano (I think, I was seeing red) gently moved me to the outside of the porch steps. Oh! I was PISSED!
I stood there, fuming, and Leo came outside and said to me very softly, "babe... focus!" And began reasoning w/me that we were there to do a kickass gig so to just shake it off. Which I did. I decided at once there was no way in hell that piece of shit psycho bitch Mar was going to fuck up my live radio gig or affect my mood or my playing! Then B. walked up and she is always such a wonderful ray of sunshine and we immediately hugged and squealed and began jabbering at each other and I led her inside and I didn't even look in Mar's direction, lucky for her.
I went to the radio booth to see how they guys were doing and they were just about ready. The DJ was so incredibly nice, we'd been chatting before the guys got there and he told Mir and Stefano and B. where they could sit and listen in. Although Stefano ended up bringing Mir's camera into the booth w/us and just stayed there quietly the entire time we played, taking pic's for the record! It was fun to have him right there next to me while we played!
After we played and promoted our upcoming gigs, Stefano and I had planned to go eat at one of his fave restaurants that he's been dying to take me to. But the guys insisted on us all going to get a drink so we went to the place we had our gig a few Fridays ago. Stefano told us all that at one point he was in the backyard of the radio station and Mar and her guy were back there and she told Stefano to apologize to Mir and me for her. Me and Mir were all, fuck that! Mir and Leo said that was obvious backpedaling and I said that Mar needs to have the balls to apologize to our faces. But anyway, we enjoyed many beers and shots of Crown and then Stefano and I had to go to dinner. The bistro was soooo lovely! We had the Moules Mariniere (I never had mussels before, I don't think) w/Belgian fries w/some kind of mayonnaisey dip, and then we shared the puff pastry chicken mushroom sauce thing w/green beans. Slobber! And I had a HUGE glass of Riesling and we ended w/some kind of apple pastry thing w/vanilla ice cream. Oh my God! I was so tipsy by the end of the dinner I was, as Stefano put it, "shucking and jiving pretty well" w/our German waiter over the movie Inglourious Basterds, ha haaaaaa!
Sunday was rehearsal day as I'd promised Leo I'd come over and rehearse and he promised to make his famous beer butt chicken, but as it turns out George had to cancel which was ALL RIGHT w/me b/c I wanted to just lounge around and relax and watch all the Oscar shit on tv! Stefano had planned to come to Leo's w/me so now that plans had changed I offered to buy him dinner for being such a wonderful groupie/roadie/band photog the day before and he said to come over and we'd order Chinese and he'd even watch the Oscars w/me! What. A. MAN!!!!! And we did just that and it was so fun and such a nice night!
And then Monday... MONDAY...! Was the BIG NIGHT. And an incredible experience and wonderful good times at the Museum of Fine Arts. Wine. Cheese. Grapes. Rubbing elbows w/Lyle Lovett! Me, Stefano, my li'l bro, my dad, and my dad's 2 girlfriends. It was SO FUCKING AWESOME! But I'll have to save that story for next time. At least I'm caught up to this week finally!
But seriously, the days since the last post have been mostly absolutely wonderful. Yesterday was particularly interesting as I was in one of the Best Moods I have ever been in! I just found so many things to be so damn funny yesterday! Every time I turned around something was cracking me up. J2 and her baboon-stolen-cucumber story. Things I was reading online. Funny pictures I saw. Listening to Paul Shaffer's autobio on me iPod!
So lessee... ok so we rang in Stefano's 49th bday last Tuesday very mellowly... he said what he really really wanted was for me to come over and for us to drink a little wine and just hang out together and watch a movie. So that's what we did! No dinner, no cake (well, we'd been eating so much the days before!), just him and me and lots of cuddling. He said it was the best bday weekend he'd ever had in his entire life! Awwwwww.....!
Since I had to be up early w/Stefano on Weds. morning I told my li'l bro I'd take him to get his stitches out (he had a weird freak accident a couple weeks ago whereby he was at work, leaned over to put a bootie over his shoe [he's a pharmacy tech at a hospital a block away from my Job #1], and very BIZARRELY and FREAKILY had the plunger part of his pen stab him in the upper right inner arm and literally tear his flesh/muscle open! Not the sharp pen side--the plunger side!!! 5 stitches, dude!) and it was a good thing too b/c they'd told him to do so between 10-14 days out and this was the 14th day and he was itching so badly he said he was tempted to wear a cone of shame like the ones they put on dogs to keep from biting his stitches out! Lesson learned after we were done getting them removed: if you have deep stitches like that, get them out on the 10th day. Li'l bro said his skin had already started to grow around them and they had to dig the stitches out! UGH!!!!!
So that was an adventure. What else happened last week? Oh, rehearsal was cancelled on Thurs. night and I was so pleased b/c it was nice to have a rare evening at home with myself. But b/c we had that radio gig on KPFT on Sat. Leo made me come and do a quick hour on Fri. evening after work. I'd asked Stefano to come spend the night at my house b/c my Aunt Flo, aka "The Process" (thanks, Brandone!) was scheduled to come and visit like any day now; nay, literally any hour now as she was supposed to be there starting Weds. or Thurs. and still hadn't made her appearance. We went to eat a good Mexican dinner beforehand at our fave neighborhood Mexican restaurant complete w/margaritas. I wanted to watch A Serious Man before the Oscars on Sunday so we went to my place, got into bed and did that, though I was tipsy and fell asleep towards the end of it.
Saturday we slept in, of course! Though Stefano left in the a.m. so he could go get his coffee and feed his tomato plants. I lounged around all day... ahhh... 'til it was time for him to come pick me up. I wanted to go get a gourmet cupcake before going to the radio station, so we did that. We got to the station before the rest of the band did, and after loading my amp into the studio we stood outside and he smoked a cig and I, a vanilla cigar. Soon Leo and his girlfriend showed up, then our drummer. My music loving friend B. had promised she'd come and watch us do the live spot in person too. Then something really really weird and fucked up happened. The mutual musician friend of mine and Stefano's whose house we had just gone to a couple Sundays ago for our friend's bday party, drove up to the station w/his girlfriend, Mar. We were happy to see them and we waved, then hugged them as they came into the station. They were there to quickly plug on the air their upcoming 3-day music festival on the same show we were about to play on. Cool!
So here's the weird and FUCKED UP part. They went inside and Stefano and I remained outside holding the front door open while Leo, George, and Leo's girlfriend Mir continued to load in gear, mainly George's drum set parts. All of a sudden, Leo's girlfriend Mir looked back at Mar (and yes, these really are abbreviations of their real names) and was like, "Excuse me??? That wasn't very nice, you didn't have to call me that." Apparently Mir had placed her purse and jacket on the desk just inside the front door and Mar had told her she may not want to leave her stuff there b/c things have a way of walking off. Which is true, you do have to be careful in this particular neighborhood and I'm sure you wouldn't do that on a weekday when the station is hustling and bustling w/people--but this was Saturday afternoon and there was NO ONE there except for us the band, the 2 of them, and the 2 DJ's and their lady friend who were in the booth anyway!!! And Mir had said politely something like, "OK, thank you for letting me know" and continued outside to help load stuff in... and Mar said to her, "Bitch!" WTF!!! Mar accused Mir of bitchily ignoring her "warning" and I KNOW that Mir would never do that--she really is a sweet, very nice girl. But Mar has always been nothing but sweet herself when I have seen her over the years as well--so for her to just call Mir a bitch like that, I was shocked and appalled. But I hadn't seen what had happened, so Stefano and I just stood by while they had a heated discussion (more heated on Mar's part) until I said "Enough! Stop it! We gotta get ready for our gig!" just to put an end to it.
Mir grabbed her purse and jacket and came outside and explained her side of it to us and Stefano and I both said we didn't know WHAT had gotten into Mar! Mir continued to help load more of George's stuff inside and I held the door open for her. And THEN... Mar comes over to me and says, "Adela, why don't you take your cigar out back and close the door b/c we're not supposed to have the door open like this." OMG. The WRONG FUCKING THING TO SAY and I WAS THE WRONG FUCKING PERSON TO SAY IT TO. I exploded and immediately yelled at Mar, "What is your problem??? This is our fucking gig and you are harshing our mellow!!! You yell at my guitarist's girlfriend for no fucking reason and that is fucked up, man! You're harshing our mellow!!!" (Yes, I said that twice.) And she backed off while Mir watched and Stefano (I think, I was seeing red) gently moved me to the outside of the porch steps. Oh! I was PISSED!
I stood there, fuming, and Leo came outside and said to me very softly, "babe... focus!" And began reasoning w/me that we were there to do a kickass gig so to just shake it off. Which I did. I decided at once there was no way in hell that piece of shit psycho bitch Mar was going to fuck up my live radio gig or affect my mood or my playing! Then B. walked up and she is always such a wonderful ray of sunshine and we immediately hugged and squealed and began jabbering at each other and I led her inside and I didn't even look in Mar's direction, lucky for her.
I went to the radio booth to see how they guys were doing and they were just about ready. The DJ was so incredibly nice, we'd been chatting before the guys got there and he told Mir and Stefano and B. where they could sit and listen in. Although Stefano ended up bringing Mir's camera into the booth w/us and just stayed there quietly the entire time we played, taking pic's for the record! It was fun to have him right there next to me while we played!
After we played and promoted our upcoming gigs, Stefano and I had planned to go eat at one of his fave restaurants that he's been dying to take me to. But the guys insisted on us all going to get a drink so we went to the place we had our gig a few Fridays ago. Stefano told us all that at one point he was in the backyard of the radio station and Mar and her guy were back there and she told Stefano to apologize to Mir and me for her. Me and Mir were all, fuck that! Mir and Leo said that was obvious backpedaling and I said that Mar needs to have the balls to apologize to our faces. But anyway, we enjoyed many beers and shots of Crown and then Stefano and I had to go to dinner. The bistro was soooo lovely! We had the Moules Mariniere (I never had mussels before, I don't think) w/Belgian fries w/some kind of mayonnaisey dip, and then we shared the puff pastry chicken mushroom sauce thing w/green beans. Slobber! And I had a HUGE glass of Riesling and we ended w/some kind of apple pastry thing w/vanilla ice cream. Oh my God! I was so tipsy by the end of the dinner I was, as Stefano put it, "shucking and jiving pretty well" w/our German waiter over the movie Inglourious Basterds, ha haaaaaa!
Sunday was rehearsal day as I'd promised Leo I'd come over and rehearse and he promised to make his famous beer butt chicken, but as it turns out George had to cancel which was ALL RIGHT w/me b/c I wanted to just lounge around and relax and watch all the Oscar shit on tv! Stefano had planned to come to Leo's w/me so now that plans had changed I offered to buy him dinner for being such a wonderful groupie/roadie/band photog the day before and he said to come over and we'd order Chinese and he'd even watch the Oscars w/me! What. A. MAN!!!!! And we did just that and it was so fun and such a nice night!
And then Monday... MONDAY...! Was the BIG NIGHT. And an incredible experience and wonderful good times at the Museum of Fine Arts. Wine. Cheese. Grapes. Rubbing elbows w/Lyle Lovett! Me, Stefano, my li'l bro, my dad, and my dad's 2 girlfriends. It was SO FUCKING AWESOME! But I'll have to save that story for next time. At least I'm caught up to this week finally!
Monday, March 01, 2010
My Sweet Pisces
Well this has been One Stellar Weekend! Even if I did have to work the short shift yesterday here at Job #1! And the fun only continues tonight, as Stefano has decided that since I've never had scallops before he will cook a scallop/shrimp/whole wheat pasta dinner for us tonight. What a man!!!
So on Fri. night we got all dolled up (I wore my tight J-Lo-ish denim jumpsuit, the one in the picture on this blog) and went downtown for dinner and the Keb Mo concert. While waiting for a table at the Italian restaurant we went next door to the bar and had a drink (Disarrono). At dinner we shared a big antipasto plate and then he had a shrimp salad and I had the linguini w/clam sauce. We both had wine. Damn, I still can't believe I'm talking about food! The House of BANG! is going to fire me from my CFO position. Anyway, then we got to the show and found our floor seats and Keb was already playing as he'd started 15 min. early, damn him. I'd snuck in 2 flasks so we got Diet Cokes and spiked 'em up good--screw you House of Blues and your jacked-up drink prices!
Keb did an acoustic show w/a young Chinaman accompanying him on guitar, harmonica, and keyboards on occasion. It was a great show! I kept yelling out "Riley!" as I wanted him to play "Riley B. King", the song I was TOTALLY obsessed with last fall when I was going through my most low period. But he never did it, although he DID do "Henry" which I also love and which made me cry the 1st time I saw him do it in Gruene Hall years ago. I was feeling pretty toasty by the time the encore came up and Keb walks out and says "No one asked for this song tonight" and launches into "Riley"!!! I immediately began loudly protesting to Stefano and anyone within earshot that I indeed *HAD* been yelling out for "Riley" all night! Then I sat back and enjoyed the song, slipping into it like a nice warm bath... ahhhh....
Saturday a.m. I had to be up kinda early-ish in order to get to my eyebrow appt., then I zipped over to Academy as I decided I finally needed to buy some of those Underarmour shirts that help suck your perspiration away from you when your Kevlar vest starts to heat you up, which is ALL the time! I also needed some new sports bras for running and while I was there perused the clearance racks and scored big time on some cute workout hoodies at $4.88 each!!! Bought 5--score!!! Went home and tried to work up the energy to clean my gun but that did not happen and I was enjoying lounging around my house so much I was a 1/2 hour late getting to the substation for a 3pm starting patrol shift but oh well.
Patrolled w/a deputy I'd never worked with before, a young kinda hotheaded cop type but a real go-getter which was cool. There was an armed robber we were hunting for but he apparently knew I was out there b/c he stayed in and behaved. Ended the night with 3 arrests for crack cocaine and then I headed home to Stefano. And BTW, the Underarmour shirt did work very well to my great pleasure.
I had promised on Sunday to go w/Stefano to the running shoe store to get his new shoes, so we did that and he got a very nice pair which I was so happy to get for him, then I ran to Job #1 which was very nearby and had mostly a quiet cakewalk day there. Finally it was time to get to Stefano's house and get to the legendary local restaurant I'd wanted to take him to for his b-day meal! It was fun to drive right under the San Jacinto monument to get there, and we had a table right by the window so we could see the water and the ferry. (Side note: my partner from Sat. had told me about a DOA/suicide he worked there once, a guy who drove his car into the water and refused to let bystanders rescue him. They basically helplessly watched him drown!) Anyway, the food was scrumptious! We had alligator for appetizer, a bottle of Freixnut, I had the stuffed shrimp w/baked potato, Stefano had the tilapia w/veggies, and we ended w/a slice of Banana Foster pie!
After dinner it was time to head to the Sunday night blues jam, all the way across town. Stefano had his Telecaster in the trunk; I didn't bring my bass b/c 1. I don't really like to play in jams anymore--being a professional musician makes me feel a little above that and also I kinda got it out of my system doing it for years when I was younger anyway, and 2. I can always borrow someone else's bass should I get a wild hair and choose to get up and play. Sure enough, my ex-boyfriend was there playing but I didn't get a chance to talk to him b/c the house band played for over an hour. There were also no jammers there, weirdly, though a couple of musicians we both knew did drop in. The real entertainment were the dancers on the tiny dance floor, a group of big legged black girls and this skinny young white kid who was doing some serious James Brown moves!
So we stayed long enough to watch the house band finish playing and then we skedaddled back to Stefano's house. And we slept in this morning, which was soooooo nice. Not sure what we're doing tomorrow night on his actual b-day but I did take tomorrow night off of Job #2 so we can do whatever he wants!
So on Fri. night we got all dolled up (I wore my tight J-Lo-ish denim jumpsuit, the one in the picture on this blog) and went downtown for dinner and the Keb Mo concert. While waiting for a table at the Italian restaurant we went next door to the bar and had a drink (Disarrono). At dinner we shared a big antipasto plate and then he had a shrimp salad and I had the linguini w/clam sauce. We both had wine. Damn, I still can't believe I'm talking about food! The House of BANG! is going to fire me from my CFO position. Anyway, then we got to the show and found our floor seats and Keb was already playing as he'd started 15 min. early, damn him. I'd snuck in 2 flasks so we got Diet Cokes and spiked 'em up good--screw you House of Blues and your jacked-up drink prices!
Keb did an acoustic show w/a young Chinaman accompanying him on guitar, harmonica, and keyboards on occasion. It was a great show! I kept yelling out "Riley!" as I wanted him to play "Riley B. King", the song I was TOTALLY obsessed with last fall when I was going through my most low period. But he never did it, although he DID do "Henry" which I also love and which made me cry the 1st time I saw him do it in Gruene Hall years ago. I was feeling pretty toasty by the time the encore came up and Keb walks out and says "No one asked for this song tonight" and launches into "Riley"!!! I immediately began loudly protesting to Stefano and anyone within earshot that I indeed *HAD* been yelling out for "Riley" all night! Then I sat back and enjoyed the song, slipping into it like a nice warm bath... ahhhh....
Saturday a.m. I had to be up kinda early-ish in order to get to my eyebrow appt., then I zipped over to Academy as I decided I finally needed to buy some of those Underarmour shirts that help suck your perspiration away from you when your Kevlar vest starts to heat you up, which is ALL the time! I also needed some new sports bras for running and while I was there perused the clearance racks and scored big time on some cute workout hoodies at $4.88 each!!! Bought 5--score!!! Went home and tried to work up the energy to clean my gun but that did not happen and I was enjoying lounging around my house so much I was a 1/2 hour late getting to the substation for a 3pm starting patrol shift but oh well.
Patrolled w/a deputy I'd never worked with before, a young kinda hotheaded cop type but a real go-getter which was cool. There was an armed robber we were hunting for but he apparently knew I was out there b/c he stayed in and behaved. Ended the night with 3 arrests for crack cocaine and then I headed home to Stefano. And BTW, the Underarmour shirt did work very well to my great pleasure.
I had promised on Sunday to go w/Stefano to the running shoe store to get his new shoes, so we did that and he got a very nice pair which I was so happy to get for him, then I ran to Job #1 which was very nearby and had mostly a quiet cakewalk day there. Finally it was time to get to Stefano's house and get to the legendary local restaurant I'd wanted to take him to for his b-day meal! It was fun to drive right under the San Jacinto monument to get there, and we had a table right by the window so we could see the water and the ferry. (Side note: my partner from Sat. had told me about a DOA/suicide he worked there once, a guy who drove his car into the water and refused to let bystanders rescue him. They basically helplessly watched him drown!) Anyway, the food was scrumptious! We had alligator for appetizer, a bottle of Freixnut, I had the stuffed shrimp w/baked potato, Stefano had the tilapia w/veggies, and we ended w/a slice of Banana Foster pie!
After dinner it was time to head to the Sunday night blues jam, all the way across town. Stefano had his Telecaster in the trunk; I didn't bring my bass b/c 1. I don't really like to play in jams anymore--being a professional musician makes me feel a little above that and also I kinda got it out of my system doing it for years when I was younger anyway, and 2. I can always borrow someone else's bass should I get a wild hair and choose to get up and play. Sure enough, my ex-boyfriend was there playing but I didn't get a chance to talk to him b/c the house band played for over an hour. There were also no jammers there, weirdly, though a couple of musicians we both knew did drop in. The real entertainment were the dancers on the tiny dance floor, a group of big legged black girls and this skinny young white kid who was doing some serious James Brown moves!
So we stayed long enough to watch the house band finish playing and then we skedaddled back to Stefano's house. And we slept in this morning, which was soooooo nice. Not sure what we're doing tomorrow night on his actual b-day but I did take tomorrow night off of Job #2 so we can do whatever he wants!
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