I was snacking on some fresh Bing cherries and started thinking about peanut butter and banana sandwiches. I used to eat these all the time as a kid and decided that I must have one immediately. I remember The King used to love them grilled (ala grilled cheese), but I've never tried it that way. Maybe some day I'll try the Graceland tribute, but today it was just as plain and good as I remembered.
Trying to photograph a happy dog that thinks the camera is a request for sloppy kisses is really frustrating.
Rob, Tammy, and I went out to Cassidy's Irish Pub in Corpus Christi. There is a rumor that all the tile, wood, and stone that decorate the interior of the pub were imported from Ireland. The atmosphere was nice and the band was excellent.
Cluan (from Austin, TX) was performing. In a freaky coincidence, Tammy and one of the band members used to work together like 7 years ago in Austin. I felt like we should have all been singing "It's a Small World" or something. A quick random thought: Corpus Christi needs to publish a public service announcement on flyers and distribute them amongst the young men about town... "If you are going to wear a shirt tucked into your pants, wear a fucking belt. Thank you." After the Havana Club (which I very much liked, but was out-voted hence we left), Executive Surf Club (consequently, the
Burden Brothers will be playing here September 14th... I will be back for that show), and a quick stop at Doctor Rockit's Blues Bar later, we were back en-route to Cassidy's. I was saddened that the Dragon Lounge had burned down. I have some special memories from nights spent in that bar. I made Rob and Tammy stop at this little lounge down the street from the pub. There were 2 customers and an old lady tending bar. The room was large enough for about 20 people. This place had
character. I prefer going to little places that you know are full of stories. This was a beer only joint and most of it was in a can. I would comment about the non-hand washers in the bathroom, but there were no sinks. Oh yeah, the only thing this joint was really missing was some Sinatra on the juke box. On the way to Cassidy's from there, we were approached by "crack whore Mary". Apparently, she is a local icon on the downtown Corpus Christi streets. The rest of our group ignored her and continued their trek. I stopped and
talked to her. A few minutes of her story and four of my dollars later, I caught up. Rob and Tammy had run into a group of 4 or 5 strangers outside the pub door that felt a need to lecture me on their disapproval of what I just did. I tried to explain the concept of letting her buy my money with her words, but their eyes started glazing over and I just had to walk away... away into the loving arms of a beautiful single malt scotch. My scotch understood. Some people just irritate me. Open your mind and take a chance to live every once and a while. Sheep. I dropped Rob and Tammy off before heading back across the Bay. Rob and I made a very cool discovery: our
NexTel Direct Connect works between my phone in Houston and his phone in Corpus Christi. Suddenly, my longest and oldest friend was back in my daily life. This made me smile the entire way home.
Camron and I took Eclair to the beach in the Jeep. She did her best mermaid impersonation and then it was back to the IBC for hot tub and fresh water. Don't get me wrong, ice cold beer in the gullet and dried sea salt on tan skin makes me smile, but there's something about a few refreshing laps in the pool that coax my second wind. The shrimp are cooking. Tasty wine on the deck and toes tracing every texture of the stoney floor as my short legs dangle. I am a texture kinda guy. I completely dig analyzing the textures of everything. Yay me.
I just got home from a great catch-up conversation/lunch with my childhood best friend Rob. He is one of the ever so few people in my life that will always be part of me. No matter what happens to us in our separate lives and regardless of how we drift in and out of contact over time, when we are together again, it is like we never left. It was so good to see him again and to catch up with each other. Bob bought some fresh shrimp off the boat as it came in from its run today. We are having a big shrimp boil on the back deck this evening. My grandmother is coming over with various other relatives. It should be nice. Afterwards, I plan on going to spend a few hours with Rob (and Tammy) before they leave for Austin. I guess this trip was bad timing on my part, but I have committed to myself to try to make it down more often. "This Side of Paradise" is excellent thus far... the young Fitzgerald's descriptive style reminds me of a more sophisticated Hemingway. I love the way you are swept into the prose as if you could step into the scene. I taste each sugary bite of that mind fruit that is rich and ripe on his pages. I find myself longing for more as I break to socialize, but there will time for that later. So far, my trip has been wonderful. I have some mixed feelings about this evening, but that story is too lengthy and complex for a day laced with summer shaded breeze rolling off the cove and wet puppy kisses from Eclair who has embraced the vision of the first Olympic swimmer to look like a Labrador Retriever.
My trip to Ingleside was relatively uneventful. Holly (Lauren's cat) was a little freaked out about riding in the same car as Eclair, but she managed. Eclair was perfect. She is just like her daddy... ready for adventure. Ha! Well, when I arrived last night at Bob's, I found out that they expected me to stay in his motor home while here. Normally I would feel weird about that, but this place is phat. It's like a little mobile party palace... complete with all the amenities. I have two air conditioning units, fridge and freezer, full bath with shower, couch, big fat bed with all kinds of funky 70's mood lighting. Excellent. I feel like the only thing I'm missing is a disco ball, cheap liquor, and cheap women and I'm a rock star on tour. Ok... maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit, but the part about it being phat was dead on. I went to the Buckhorn last night. I don't discriminate when it comes to bars really... I'll give any a fair chance... even country bars. Yee-haw! Bob owns the Buckhorn, so I got the royal treatment (ie. free drinks). There was this guy named JR Encina playing that was incredibly talented. I suppose you could say he's the mini-me Guy Forsyth of country music. I know the people that run Blanco's in Houston and they would love this guy. He plays the crowd as well as he plays guitar and that's saying something. I headed back to my trailer (always wanted to say that) after the bar closed for some sleepytime. Eclair was so cute... she's been playing with Theo (who I think she has a doggie crush on) all day and she had this puppy like glow about her. Happy Clayton and happy Eclair went to happy sleep. My mother called me at 8:30 this morning. Ugh! (Note to self: turn off cell phone before bed) We went to Nana's (my grandmother) for breakfast. Out of courtesy to my loved ones, I drank about 4 cups of coffee before joining the conversation. It was so nice to see her again. I haven't been back here since Thanksgiving. I have to get back to being lazy. Ahhh... maybe I'll go swim.
I just bought F. Scott Fitzgerald's "This Side of Paradise" to digest this rainy weekend.
Bertha is threatening to ruin the fun in the sun, but fun in the rain is often just as satisfying. One of the big problems with corporations today is lack of common sense with regard to good business. I switched my local carrier to AT&T and SWB printed, enveloped, stamped, and mailed me a refund check for $0.81. Yes, eighty-one cents. Am I the only one that thinks this is ridiculous? I'm going to cash it and put myself through college. Look out!
Oh, what the hell... I went ahead and
did it.
Today was a blur. I had a 9 o'clock that got pushed back to 10 with my boss, so I actually didn't get out of the office until 10:45. By 11:00, I was half way through a
Grey Goose martini and nibbling on habanero shrimp and ceviche at Cabo with Mark and Greg. Two or three martinis later, we walked over to
Minute Maid Field and settled in for the game. About 4 double martinis later, we forgot about the game and went through a cleaning exit to get out next double out of the park and towards the car. Vodka looks like water. Interesting fact that assists in drinking a double martini in front of several passing police cars in downtown Houston. I toast my "water" to you. Greg headed for Sugarland and Mark and I headed for trouble. I switched gears to
Tanqueray and tonic, and of course it took several of those get rid of my jonez for more Grey Goose... that's good hockey. After mark and I parted ways, I went to dinner with Maria Elena and Michelle at Mi Luna in the village. The food is good, but I question if the tapas are really worth the noise and pretentious crowd. The wait was over an hour, but I called ahead to get my name on the list. Apparently the girl was in a giving mood because normally restraunts here don't do the name thing unless you are present. Mi Luna had Spanish dancers tonight (complete with castinettes) and a traditional style Spanish band. After the tummy was satisfied, I had to stop in and visit with Harry and Eric at Baker St. since they were gigging there tonight. I ran into Charles and Alex. Is it possible to get high on water? LOL. I must be. I had been drinking water since before dinner (I was on the martini/gin and tonic roller coaster until 6 o'clock) and I'm getting this random dizziness again. Odd. Alex (who I haven't seen in over a year) said that I looked good... like I'd been working out. wtf? I am in the worst shape I've been in... well... in my life. Obviously, he was hanging from the crack pipe when he made that comment. It's after midnight so I can safely say that the countdown to my birthday is on four. Maybe I can just sleep through that entire day and it'll be like I didn't have a birthday at all... yeah, that's what I'll do.
I went to Las Alamedas with a friend tonight for dinner. I like that restaurant. The food is good and the atmosphere is great... plus I'm a sucker for mariachis. After dinner, I met Irfan for some drinks at Baker Street. We went to the erotic poetry reading at Helios. That was actually pretty cool. Some of the readers just sucked, but at least they read their schtuff. There were two that stood out in my mind. The one guy that recited an original poem about cocaine and it's bad joo-joo was especially good. I want to go on the record as saying that I definitely don't condone the use of cocaine. I hate cocaine and everything about it.... I just like the way it smells. Ba-dum-da! Well now, where was I? Oh yes, erotic poetry... Audra showed up and we went back to Baker St. Pub for a pitcher of liquid bread. All and all, it was a good night. I especially enjoyed dinner... the conversation and company, not the food. Sleepytime.
Have you even poured yourself a cup of coffee, taken a sip, and it was so bad you had to spit it back into the cup and throw the cup out? That just happened to me and I can drink some preeeeeetty bad coffee. I can imagine it being like sucking septic tank effluent with a straw. My dear friend Harry is back in town after a week in Florida with his family. He and his wife took their kids to Micky Mouse land for the week. He's a good dad and an all around great guy. Dwayne and I went over to the Park Shops for lunch. I wanted to stop for a manicure afterwards, but he thinks having your body pampered tampers with your manhood. Not me baby... give me the manicure, pedicure, facial, etc. I am a day spa kinda guy. I am taking Eclair to the beach this weekend. I'm going to stay at Bob's (my mother's boyfriend) house on the cove. He's got a pretty nice jacuzzi on the deck and his back yard is on the water, so you can fish, swim, ski, sail, etc. with easy access. I miss fresh seafood daily from my youth and growing up on the water. At Bob's, you can stop the shrimpers as they come in for the day and buy giant tiger prawn right off the boat to grill on the barby. Give me a nice bottle of wine, hot tub, and cool sea breeze under a starry sky and I'm set. Eclair will be happy to see Theo (Bob's dog)... I think she has a thing for him. Now, if I can just make it through the week...
I forgot to mention last night: Guy announced a soon-to-be-released CD consisting of all acoustic tracks recorded at his home. He sang at least one of the songs of the disc and it was a different style for him... should be interesting.
Guy was incredible... as always. His show was unexpectedly completely different. It was just him and George Rarey with their guitars on stage... all acoustic. What an amazing gig. I had been looking forward to it for weeks. I managed to get seats... invited people... the pub was excellent. The food was above average and the atmosphere was perfect. It was very intimate... kinda VH1 Storytellers-ish with small round tables in front of the stage. Everyone seemed to be there to enjoy an evening with Guy... everyone except half of the people at my table. I simple tolerated it at first, but eventually it ruined my evening. I got up and left before the end of the show. Fucking inconsiderate and rude... but hey, it's a free country. I'm a big First Amendment supporter. If you want to come to a quaint little pub filled with people that are all there to listen and appreciate one talented artist, sit a table that a "friend" fronted 80 bones and part of his day to get so you wouldn't have to stand, and sit there and talk loudly, chuckle, giggle, laugh, crack jokes, etc... hey, it your right as Americans. I didn't spend eight years serving this country and spending fucking countless months away from US soil to infringe upon the very freedom that my (and the thousands before me) sacrifice ensures. If I were either not enjoying or not interested in the show, I would leave and go to greener pastures where I can frolic in a loud "fun bar" rather than fuck it up for those sitting around me. But hey, that's just me. I was disappointed more than angry. I don't really get angry... but disappointment, now there's an emotion that I am ever so familiar with... good thing I have lot of experience with it... it made tonight an easy stroll. As I have said before, being single and not having a special someone to share my ups and downs with, I find that I am happiest with listening to live music... absorbing it, appreciating it... every nuance of instrumental sound or vocal expression. It is understandable that many people don't share this passion and music is... well, just music. That being said, it is a certainty that in the future, when I go out for a band... any band... I will not share my companionship and my time with anyone that doesn't share at least a modicum of my appreciation. I don't care what anyone says; everyone has buttons that set them off. Guess what? You found one of mine mutherfuckers.