Da Blooze

Whew. It's been a CRAZY ASS week. I got home shortly after noon today. Had too much fun last night. Had fun on Weds. night too. Also Tuesday. Monday was also great. Sunday too. Here's the breakdown:

Sunday: Brunch w/li'l bro and Stefano. I haven't had much of an appetite since last week. I ate a couple bites of queso and couple bites of hummus, but I drank 2 of these $10 decadent lemon vodka drinks. Then Li'l bro and I went to see Jackass in 3D where we were both kinda tipsy so we laughed our asses off. Dropped off li'l bro, went home, passed out on the couch for a couple hours. That evening, went to hang out w/my new guitarist BFFF Jon at his place. Met Stefano after that back at my house.

Monday: Monthly sheriff meeting. Had to turn in my Taser, dammit, but they said if budget allows me to get it back in the future that will definitely happen. Disappointed Mudflap, et. al. when I said I couldn't go to dinner as I was gwine to the blues show at House of Blues. Met Stefano and Phillipo there, but the sound was so god awful we split early. Stefano went home, Phillipo and I went to the Big Easy. I was still a little hungover from the day before so made it a relatively early night.

Tuesday: For the Sake of the Song Premiere at the River Oaks. It was HUGE. Stefano met me at the theater and my dad was there, natch, videotaping, and it was just so cool and awesome. I've never seen the big theater that packed before. I also got to hug Vince Bell who I love and adore so so so much. It was a wonderful event and just so soul-fulfilling.

Wednesday: Rehearsal. I decided to drink ONLY wine all night. Then I went to the Cont. Club to meet Phillipo. We drank more wine there, then left my car and went to the klassic kuntry show at Fitz where we drank even more wine and danced. I also danced w/my Music Editor friend who was there. Then Phillipo and I went to the Big Easy, on the way to get my car blasting Willie Nelson and singing very loudly. We got to the BE just as the house band (incl. Jon) was finishing up. I bid Phillipo adieu and headed out w/Jon to go hang at his place.

Thursday: We played live on KPFT at noon and it was so much fun. After that we went to have a couple drinks before I had to head to work. Then I had to rush home after Job #2 and pray that I could figure out how to work my new amp/cabinet since we were hosting the monthly Houston Blues Soc. jam at Big Easy that night and as the house band, we have to supply the backline. I had to call Rozzy and he walked me through some of it. When I finally got everything plugged in and going, I checked that my next door neighbor wasn't home, plugged in Big Red, and WAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH. DAMN!!! That thing melted my own face off! I was floored and awed. And so excited! So Big Easy was a huge success--full dance floor, great crowd, and Stefano played and Phillipo and even my ex M showed up and lots of other pals and it was just a killer fun time. I danced some and jammed and drank... Stefano left early since he had to work today and when we closed out the night and played a last, quick set Jon showed up, having gotten a damn speeding ticket on the way from leaving his gig to hurry and come see us. We felt bad! But I went home w/him and hung out w/him til today so hopefully I cheered him up.

Tonight I was supposed to go see Chuck Prophet at the Cont. Club w/li'l bro but bro got a good deal to go see the Butthole Surfers in Austin, so now I'm not sure what I'll do. Stefano is waiting for me, of course. Jon is back at Big Easy tonight but I'm kinda wanting a break from there since I was there 3 times this week! I definitely need some kinda beauty sleep and I haven't been home ALL week and it would be great to just chill. This weekend I have nothing booked (except for a French pastry documentary tomorrow at the Museum of Fine Arts) and I'm so glad to get some down time, though I will be spending some major quality time w/Big Red and my new rig to become intimately familiar w/it and just work on some bass lines.

Can Never Be Satisfied

I play the Devil's music
And I'm going straight to hell.
Woman, I'm trouble...

Yep, we do a cover of that Muddy Waters tune. I love it. Shit, I live it. I have been suffering lately and I got no one to blame but my damn self. Don't want to get into it too much here but I've lost my appetite too. The good thing is I've dropped a couple lbs. over the weekend. All I ate yesterday was a couple of bites of hummus and a couple bites of queso at brunch, then that evening I had 3 small bites of string cheese and a Blow Pop. I drank a lot of booze all day though. Sigh. I guess it's a fortuitous thing, what with the decadent holidays soon upon us. Heh. Heh. Ugh!!!

I guess it all boils down to the fact that I am still affording myself the luxury of Not Thinking About the Future. Because it's Adela Time and my happiness is my #1 priority. Because of what I went through the past 5 yrs. But.... how long can/should I continue to bang that experience like a cheap drum? Then again, to whom am I answering? It's MY life, right? So what if I need to be selfish and narcissistic for awhile? Then again, that's not very Christian--at all.

My li'l bro has coined a certain syndrome "Male Insanity Syndrome." I think I'm going through "Female Insanity Syndrome." Maybe I'll write more about the symptoms later. Maybe I won't.

Monthly sheriff meeting tonight. I have to turn in my Taser--waaah! Then I'm meeting Mr. Wonderful Stefano and Phillipo at the House of Blues for a big blues show. Maybe that'll be a little good medicine, we'll see.

Whoo Whee... It's PartyTime with Goodtime Charleena

That would be me. Hot damn, I didn't get home 'til 7:30 this morning. Last night was way too much fun and I maybe got an hour of sleep so, ouch, it hurts today. "It" being everything. Mommy! Uncle! Someday I'll get too old for this crap, but I kinda doubt it, heh heh.

So rehearsal went fine but I was drinking box wine. Leo and Mir got into an argument in front of us, so I'm glad I was drinking the wine. I had 3 travel mug fulls then it was time to get to Fitz, where Phillipo said he'd meet me. Leo begged off b/c he was tired but he said he really wanted to go except for Mir would get pissed at him for partying w/me. I said that I was more fun than a barrel of monkeys, to which he and George agreed. Then I headed to Fitz and Phillipo had a bar tab going so we had a couple drinks. My friend FM was there and later LDB showed up, though I was mad at him for calling cops "little piggies" on Facebook. He apologized profusely and at first I was mean to him but later I let him hug me before Phillipo and I took off for the blues jam at Big Easy.

Naturally my #1 latest fave guitarist, Jon, was hosting the jam--he's the one that won the IBC's back in 2005. For the past couple of months I've been trying to buddy up to him b/c I am totally crazy about him and also yes, have a tiny crush on him. Phillipo gets jealous when I talk about Jon, but he needs to get over it. Jon made me get up and play bass out of nowhere and I didn't want to at all, but I told Jon he'd owe me and I made him kiss the new blister on my right thumb that I'd developed at rehearsal earlier. Then later on I pretty much ordered him to let Phillipo play guitar so that Jon could sit w/me and we could shoot the shit. I was drunk by then for sure. Jon asked what we were doing later and I said I didn't know and he said he was going to eat somewhere after the jam shut down at 2am. I was down for going anywhere Jon was going!

So by 2am and after much drunken shenanigans Philipo wanted to come over to my place of course, but I said I was going to hang out w/Jon so Philipo was a gentleman and took off. Jon and I went to a local taqueria; he had a taco and I had an iced tea b/c I'd made the mistake of mixing box wine, beer, and Crown that night. Shit! Then he invited me over to watch a DVD of the Howlin Wolf story and since he knows I am dating Stefano I figured there'd be no harm. We watched the DVD and then I wanted to see a DVD of a live Albert Collins concert in Germany but by then I'd decided I was going to crash there and just drive home in a couple hours when it was time to get to work. I sooooo admire Jon, soooo much and we have a lot in common, being Taurus blues musicians from east of Houston. Yeah, we ended up in his bed watching the Albert Collins but it was a big bed, and hey, I don't have a ring on my finger or nothin'.

Ugh. I've said it before and I'll say it again... that 6th drink is almost always a mistake! But I'm still looking forward to the concert tonite, I need to get some jazz piano infusion.

Gotta Get My Groove Back

So I've been takin' it easy the last couple nights. This week I got to sleep in late and get to work late(r) than usual (heh) b/c everyone is at MLA/SCC in Austin. It was only me and our Info. Assistant on Monday and then yesterday it was just me, her and our newest entry-level Librarian, and today she was gone and it was just me and entry-level Lib. Niiiice! Also I got to leave early for a meeting offsite, and am now at Job #2 for a bit before heading home to put on a cute outfit for rehearsal tonight followed by some klassic kuntry at Fitz. LDB will be there and Leo said he'd come w/me too, so I hope he does.

Last night I did however, work on and pretty much complete my Personnel report that I hadn't even worked on for over a damn week, so that's good. But even on my night off I still had work to do. (I swear, I must secretly love work, I do so much of it...)

We've got a gig this Sat. for the MBGC (hey, see our name on the flyer, cool!). So tonight we'll work up our songs that have gone by the wayside while we were preparing for the IBC's. Should be fun to get back into those songs and work up some new ones. Leo says we'll work on harmonies too--I love to sing harmony and this makes me so happy! Tomorrow night will be fun as we're gwine to Discovery Green to see Jason Moran, who graduated from my high school (years after me, natch) and is getting amazing press in the jazz world. Gawd DAMN the weather has been so fuckin' McCartney! High's in the mid-80's and not too cool at night. LOVING IT. Thank you Jesus!

IBC Letdown

So I got IBC Letdown today. Lots of great things happened yesterday. We really brought it and we melted some faces. We played a killer set. And it was close, very very close. The judges took forever to tally the scores: like over 20 min. It was then that I began to worry, b/c everyone kinda knew it would be between us and this one other band, led by a guy who's been in the music biz for over 30 yrs. But when it was announced, we were 1st runners up, so we came in 2nd. An extremely close 2nd, from all accounts. So that's a good sign. Also that hell, we've only been together just under a year, and Mr. IBC Winner's been doing this for decades! Good sign for us! We really showed the Houston blues world that we are CONTENDERS, baby!!! (BTW Mr. IBC Winner was 2nd back in 2007 when he made an attempt then.)

Yet I still can't quit the second guessing and replaying today. I'm bummed and I know it'll pass soon... but I still can't help but question certain things yesterday, including the shit that is completely out of my control. For example, of the 6 judges, only 2 were musicians?!? (A drummer and a sax player.) For real?!?! Seriously?!? WTF is that all about??? (Another was a singer but I've never counted singers as musicians, ha ha.) And one was a radio DJ and one was a friggin attorney, no joke! An attorney who produced a harmonica documentary, but still! The last one was a producer from a local recording studio. Anyway... One of these days I'm gwine get the nerve to ask the Houston Blues Soc. prez (who is a buddy) why in the hell they got these judges for an International BLUES competition. I guess I would be more at peace with the decision to score us 2nd if the judges were blues musicians of the highest caliber or at least some blues friggin' experts. Then I would respect the decision, 100%.

Regardless, it was a good experience and we had a lot of fun during this whole IBC process. Maybe we even gained some fans too, who knows? There was a community table where all the bands could sell CD's and merch, and apparently we sold 3 CD's and that apparently was 3 more CD's than any of the other bands sold! Leo says we may not even want to do it next year, it'll just depend on where we are in our Leo Trio life and career. And yesterday, bottom line, was fun. I had so many people come out, I couldn't believe it. My dad's 2 cousins came out w/my aunt and uncle. My old college benefactor came out w/his wife and son. L and her sister came out. Phillipo of course. My dad and his ex-girlfriend. My li'l bro was my escort/bodyguard. Stefano was there all day, natch. And the place was packed and we played for an elbow-to-elbow crowd which is always so much fun. So, que sera, sera. Now we move on to our next endeavor/success, whatever that may be!

Sigh. I'll get over these blues in a day or so. It's also just plain ol' letdown, after building up and up to something and then it's just OVER. Like post-wedding day letdown, post vacation letdown, etc. That kinda thing. We rehearse as usual this Weds. for our upcoming gig on Saturday. But tonight, I'm gwine go do a little shopping at Target after work, then try not to think about music for a couple of days. But when I come back to it... it'll be bigger and better than ever. I'm sure of it.

Lockdown. Off the Grid! It's Go Time.

So my handlers and bodyguards are now insisting that I go Off The Grid from here until Sunday. It really shoulda started last night, but I was talked into going out to Discovery Green park to see Two Tons by the music editor of the Press. (He likes me.) I didn't really want to go, except kind of; I can take Two Tons or I can leave them and I usually leave them. But I knew my cousin would be there and it was an incredibly beautiful night last night and also, Stefano and Leo insisted I go hang w/Music Editor b/c they said it'd be good for all of our careers. I said to both of them I do not befriend people b/c I have an agenda, that I don't use people and I certainly wouldn't want anyone to use me (not sure what anyone would use me for, but still...). I said if he ever wanted to write a piece on me/us then it would have to be him that brings it up, NOT me.

So I went! And had a pretty good time. Most of my pals were out there, I found my cousin, brought some box wine w/me, me and Mus. Ed. had beers, I made him dance with me, and I made a local photographer take a pic of us that turned out pretty cute. Then I gave Mus. Ed. a ride to the Continental so he could see/review the Old 97's show (I definitely didn't want to go to that--not that I don't like them, I was just TIRED--but it was sold out anyway) and on the way I blasted Bonecrusher for him, which made him giggle. These 2 black guys were stopped at a red light next to us at one point and b/c I was tipsy, I rolled down the window and saw that they were laughing at me, a crazy Hispanic girl blasting Bonecrusher!!! Musta been my 2 ponytails on top of my head. Anyway, it was kinda funny.

Tonight is just a bday party at a restaurant and it's one of Stefano's friends who's turning 50 so it shouldn't be that crazy of a shindig. Afterwards we'll go home, I'd love to catch up on the 2 Weeds episodes I've missed lately, and then we'll sleeeeep... Tomorrow is supposed to be Easy Like Sunday Morning. I'll sleep late but not too late b/c I need to get to bed early tomorrow night. I'll relax, then I hafta go to U of H for this website thing for my Women's Health Board, then go across the freeway to Leo's for rehearsal. After that it's home for a night of relaxation: a nice satisfying healthy dinner, doing my nails, getting my outfit ready for Sunday, doing some laundry, reading, movie watching, NO drinking and NO valium to help me sleep--I'll want to fall asleep early on my own.

There's a chance I might go to dinner at a new restaurant w/Mus. Ed. and my cousins, but that'll be early, around 7-ish if we do go. Mus. Ed. wanted me to go out again tomorrow night but I had to tell him that if I went out on Thurs. night then Sat. was out. Leo was on me like flies on shit about this, and he was very happy when I told him a happy medium had been reached. Stefano also angrily ordered me to NOT go out on Sat. night! (He'll be at his gig and therefore I'll be left alone and unsupervised.) Damn, these guys are serious. I can't blame them though. I have little to no resistance when it comes to going out, as we all know. Even Phillipo offered to babysit me at my house on Sat. night but then we realized that that would be a very bad idea, since whenever we get together we always start drinking... a lot.

Sunday a.m. I'll get up early, go for my run, listen to The Holmes Bros., Taj Mahal, SRV, Bonecrusher, and then get my neighborhood breakfast tacos, just like I did before the Semi-finals. I'll get dressed and do my hair/makeup carefully and thoughtfully (haven't decided on my final accessories yet), then get to the straw-drawing by 1:30pm. Immediately after that I'll go to my bro's place where I will relax, finish getting dressed (I don't want to show up at 1:30 dressed b/c I want my final outfit to be a surprise to the other bands), finger my bass and practice a little so that I'm warm all day long, and then me and li'l bro will get to the gig around 3ish. Maybe even 4ish depending on what order we'll play in. I don't want to watch the other bands if there's any that go on before us. I want to be fresh and deliver The Leo Trio w/no distractions. But after we play... oh the partying shall commence! I'm bringing my own party supplies: flasks, lollipops, and my pipe. No matter what happens, I am definitely going to have a good time!

Ooh My Little Head

Owww... just a few drinks last night and my head's had a slight, almost-under-the-radar ache all damn day. Gimme a break. All's I had to drink was 1 Crown and Diet Coke, 2 Miller Lites, and 1 Frangelico mit lime!!! Then again, we didn't eat very much. There were 4 of us sharing 2 appetizer platters, so I was mostly just picking at it. Then I was busy dancing for awhile. It was so fun though! We saw this band and they are old timey! I love them! They got mandolin and washtub bass and gong! I'd talked Mr. Wonderful and Leo into joining me last night and natch, there were plenny of our music-loving friends there. At one point on the dance floor the harp player came out and leaned against me as he played. Aw shucks!

Rehearsal tonight. We had rehearsal on Monday night too; was supposed to be Sunday but George's brother came into town and he hadn't seen him in 2 yrs, so we postponed. Having Sunday off was soooo awesome... especially since I was exhausted from working Greek Fest on Saturday. We'd gone out on Fri. night, of course, to Festival Chicano, then to Big Easy after that, so I didn't get much sleep before having to be at Greek Fest at 8am on Sat. I usually don't work the day shift at Greek, but I'd signed up for day this year so I'd be free at night for musical festivities.

Greek Fest was groovy. My adrenaline got pumping once, when there was a possible heart attack victim in the gym (where they have the Greek dancing kid shows) and I was working in the kids' area which is right next to the gym. Me and another deputy RAN INSIDE and this woman was on the floor, leaning against the wall. We lay her down and I unbuttoned her jeans in case we'd have to do CPR--I was thinking I wanted her clothes to be loosened. Fortunately the deputy I was with is also a paramedic, and then a woman ran over, saying she was a nurse. They monitored the pulse in her carotids and I checked her pulse in her wrist; but I was so nervous at 1st I was searching for it with my thumb before I realized what I was doing (you don't check pulses with your thumb as we have a pulse in our thumb!) and quickly switched to my fingers, where I detected a pulse, indeed, thank God. They called an ambulance and we tried to clear the many people in the audience out of the way. Then the Chief showed up and asked me if I'd had lunch yet, to which I said no and he said to go ahead. I trotted off just in time to meet Mr. Wonderful at the gate, so I escorted him inside and we got to have lunch together!

They were shorthanded for the evening shift so I worked an extra hour, then grabbed my free Greek plate and pastry box and headed home. I had just enough time to shower, change, relax a little bit, then Mr. Wonderful picked me up for a nice pizza dinner. We ate totally vegetarian, including the verdura! We decided to skip the last night of Festival Chicano, then we went to see our friends play at the Big Easy. One slow dance and one drink but then I was sooo tired we went back to Stefano's house, where I proceeded to sleep for almost 12 much-needed hrs. After I finally woke up we went for a nice run/walk, and then went to see our other friends play at Central Market. I love Central Market! I got 2 kinds of chicken salad, these huge cranberry/blueberry muffins, and this totally decadent "white chocolate pumpkin bread." Stefano let me pick out ingredients for our dinner that night and I picked fish, veggies, risotto, wine, and some beautiful bread. Stefano grilled everything and I brought over the Greek pastry box for dessert.

I had to take Monday off from Job #1. I'd been so drugged up on Benadryl last week but I had too much important stuff going on and couldn't take any sick time off. And I had so many things to catch up on around the house (the usual: mail piling up, dishwasher needed emptying, laundry, towels folded, etc. etc.) that I figured I was due for a damn break. So Monday was great and I got a lot done before heading to Job #2, then rehearsal. At rehearsal we ran through our set twice but George's bro and their friends headed over while we were in the middle of everything and they had beer and they requested some of their fave songs, and we did them but it was kinda distracting so Leo told them rehearsal tonite and on Sat. will be closed rehearsals. I didn't mind the distractions 100% as I figured it would be good training. I remember in high school this fellow violist who would practice, uninhibited, while the entire room was filing in, tuning up, getting ready, etc. and he said it was good to training to remain focused while a bunch of stuff was going on around you and there were lots of people in the room, also to not get as nervous in auditions, playing for large groups of people, etc.

Benadryl Funnnnnnnnn

Not really, it's making me stoned and drowsy. After I got home from rehearsal last night I passed out on my couch around 9:30pmish, lights on, tv on, still in my clothes. I took another one today at lunchtime (7 hrs. ago) and am STILL drowsy and my heart is beating weird. But I'm still gwine out tonight! I must! It's the 1st night of Festival Chicano. Phillipo will meet me there, also George and his peeps will be up on the hill. However I cannot sit on the hill as I'm in a nice pinstripe suit and pumps b/c I'm at Job #2 and will be heading straight to the Fest, so I'll need to sit in the seats.

I ain't got much else to report except that we finally decided on our final 5 songs for our setlist. 2 straight shuffles instead of 1 (and I feel so good about that, b/c I am a straight shuffle bassist--that's where my strength lies), 1 classic slow blues, 1 jumpy one, and our cover of "Roxanne." 4 originals and the 1 cover, which is a unique cover indeed. We come in at 18 minutes so we're golden, golden, golden!

My Name is NOT Bella

People constantly call me "Bella" and I don't really like it. That's not my name, it's my stage name. It's a pretty enough name but when I was given that name about 10 yrs. ago it wasn't one of America's most popular girls' names, like it is now! Ok, rant over. Hee hee!

How did yet another perfectly good weekend get away from me again?! Oh jeez. Well, Friday night was SO worth it, with the free Texmaniacs concert. It was me, Mr. Wonderful Stefano, George, his wife, Phillipo, and Phillipo's mom and stepdad. We ALL danced! The .99 cent margaritas were flowing! It was so great. We only stayed for the 1st set though, as I had to get up early on Sat. to work on my Personnel file for the new applicant I'm investigating. That's b/c I made the appt. to interview him on Sat. afternoon.

Before I left to go downtown and pick up the unmarked patrol car and get to the applicant's house (a goddamn HOUR away from my house) Stefano called me, urgently saying that the cheesy sports bar we played at last week needed us to play at the last minute that night--however we had no drummer. So we immediately got on the horn to all our drummer friends. All my drummer peeps were either already gigging or busy with other commitments. Then I was busy w/my interview for a couple of hours. But after I was done and driving back Stefano said they got a drummer, actually one I'd played with back in August when I sat in with that other band for the outdoor gig the night of our in-store performance.

I hated to have to miss the live CD show at Anderson Fair but god knows I need the gig and the $ for that cabinet I still have to buy for my new amp. It was still a very hard decision, but my li'l bro made me feel better by pointing out that Bill Cade would totally understand. Anyway, the gig was lame, as I knew it would be. The prob with playing at sports bars is no one's paying attention to the band in the corner. They're all smoking and drinking and watching the big screen TV's. But I always enjoy playing w/Mr. Wonderful and his harp player and the drummer is also a pal, so it was all good. Several Crown and Diet Cokes also took the edge off. And that $ at the end of the night sure didn't hurt either. We also went to Waffle House afterwards for a pecan waffle--yum!

On Sunday I slept 'til noon. I had to, as we didn't get to bed 'til 4am! Then I had to get up and work on a new bass line for one of Leo's songs. I wanted to spruce it up a little bit. Rehearsal was short and sweet thankfully, but we are still a little undecided on our 5-song set list. It's a delicate balance between "types" of blues songs--i.e., we have a standard slow blues song, then we have a straight shuffle, and then our blues cover of The Police's "Roxanne" which everyone always gets a kick out of, but now we have to decide on the final 2 songs. Song order is also a major consideration, due to style and keys, etc. Hmmmm.

After rehearsal I ran by Express, a store I rarely go to but I had a gift card and I had some ideas for our look for the finals. We decided on a black and white color scheme and I'd gotten some look ideas out of the Victoria's Secretions clothing catalog, so I was curious to see if I could find something similar at Express. I did, actually! These really cool black shorts that were sparkly as they had silver thread woven throughout. Unfortunately there were only 3 prs. left and the largest size was a size 4. FORTUNATELY I fit into them!!!!!!!!!!!! Hello, Crown and *DIET* Cokes and all this running I force myself to do!!! I then found a snug, long-sleeve white cotton shirt w/silver cufflinks (size SMALL!) to go on top and my outfit is now complete, once I add shoes from my closet (black cowboy boots?) and maybe a silver tube top under the shirt, which I also already own. Total cost: $91 but with my gift card and another discount I paid $57. HELL. YEAH!!!!!

Then to celebrate, I went for a run along the bayou. Last night Mr. Wonderful came to spend the night at my house and today he started his new job. He was a little subdued last night as his 3 weeks of freedom came to an end, but I already talked to him today and his 1st day went fine. I'm so happy to hear it. Tonight is a night OFF for me, and tomorrow too but Wednesday begins the nonstop madness again. Rehearsal Weds. night, and Thurs. night is the 1st night of the 3-day Festival Chicano that I must make appearances at. Friday night is when I'll take Stefano to the Festival; after that I want to go see our friend's band play at the Big Easy; Sat. I have to work security at Greek Fest from 8a-4p; Sat. night is the final night of Festival; after that I want to see my new guitarist friend that I'm obsessed with play at the Big Easy; and Sunday we have rehearsal again. Madness, I tell you, madness!