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.