Just put that plane anywhere.

Well, the week got away from me, and I didn't get a chance to tell you about our other gig last weekend. I was pretty tired when we played, so you might have thought that I actually didn't remember it, but I DO! And it was cool.

We played a private party in Georgetown in an aircraft hangar home neighborhood. I know - what? It's a residential neighborhood where each home has its own private aircraft hangar. You read that right. Each homeowner owns his/her own plane, and they park it at their house! I didn't even know such neighborhoods existed! But when I pulled up to what looked like a normal house, there it was - a little plane parked in the back yard like that's totally normal.

Clusterfest!

So, we've covered what I was doing last Friday, but where were the boys, you ask? Well, they were doing THIS:

Yes, they rocked it duo-style at the Clusterfest music festival at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. Lucky dogs!

On the other side

I'm here. I made it. I survived my work conference, though, it was getting dicey toward the end. I worked almost 55 hours between Wednesday and Saturday. Then I went and played a three-hour gig on Saturday night.

Die. Hard.

The conference: long hours, aching feet, earphones that didn't fit right on a walkie-talkie that never delivered good news, short tempers, the lovely San Antonio Riverwalk, headphones that didn't fit right in the production booth for two large events featuring people with no regard for scripts or clocks, some good food enjoyed in a very cool restaurant, a lot of mediocre food wolfed down in a hurry between events or while doing other things, a lot of money thrown around like rice at a wedding but none thrown at me, someone from high school recognizing me while I worked a chaotic raffle sale in an industry expo, some great people, some not great people, a photo with David Robinson, and a predicted but nonetheless vile meltdown (not mine).

There's more I could say, but you get the idea. A couple of high points and a lot of agony. So, rather than stay focused on it, let's stamp that bitch "Done!" and turn our attention back to things that are awesome - the BAND. I'll write about what The Staylyns have been doing in the next post...after I get some more sleep!

Hell Week

My Hell Week has begun. It actually began this Saturday, when I had to work a full day to get ready for my company's annual conference, which starts on Wednesday and lasts until early afternoon on Saturday. But since technically that was last week, I'll say that Hell Week began today.

I call it that because Wednesday-Friday will be 14-16 hour days each, much of that on my feet. Most hotels and convention centers are freezing, so that contributes to the discomfort, and there are certain events that resemble controlled chaos. Add some pretty nasty personalities to the unavoidable exhaustion, and you have...Hell.

Steel thumbs and a day job

I had my follow-up appointment today for The Thumb. The news was good - increased flexibility and strength. So, I'm well on my way to have Manos de Acero. That's "Hands of Steel" for those of you who don't speak Spanish...go ahead and say it. It's fun. Spanish feels good when you speak it.

In other band news, there's not a lot of band news this week. We are blissfully off this weekend. And I say that not because I don't love to play, because I DO, and we did have a really great gig this past Friday at Junior's Grill and Icehouse in Round Rock (heretofore to be referred to simply as "Junior's" - you'll be in the know when I say that now), but because my day job is interfering this week and next with my music-making.

I'm not *that* rock n roll

I like to think I'm pretty rock 'n roll. After all, I'm in a rock 'n roll band. I've got the bass guitar, the rebel hair, the special section of my closet devoted to "show clothes." That last one may be more "woman" than "rock n roller," but ask any woman in a band, and she's got that section of her closet, so I'm counting it. I don't have tattoos or a drug habit, so I take my rocker cred where I can find it.

But tonight, on a walk through the neighborhood with Johnny, I found out I'm actually pretty tame.

Johnny and I go on walks through the hood pretty often. We know many of our neighbors, and I know where all the friendly cats are that will let me pet them. But we usually don't see anything too exciting. Except for tonight.

As we were finishing up our route, coming up the street behind ours, we came upon a truck. Across the street from the truck was a house where someone was working in their side/back yard. The far side door of the truck was open, meaning the dome light in the cab was on. I saw a little bit of movement by the open door and thought maybe the truck belonged to someone working in that yard, and they were getting a tool or something out of the cab.

As we passed by the driver's side door, and I glanced to my right, and I saw...well, I did not see someone grabbing a tool...or maybe I did. Because what I saw was a lot of white skin (too much really - if you're going to do that, work out or something), possibly some underwear, and a lot of writhing around. I also heard something - a woman making noises like something felt really good and by God she wanted the strangers walking past the truck to KNOW it!

I snapped my head to the left and looked at Johnny, who never broke stride, and asked, "Are they seriously having sex in there?"

Johnny: "Yup."

Me: "On a neighborhood street,with the door open and the dome light on?"

Johnny: "Yup."

Me: "Okaaaaay." (pause) "Really? With people right there working?" I stole a quick glance back, but it was too quick, and I really couldn't see anything without looking longer - a wasted effort, and considering they were in public, I really had every right to make a longer inspection of the situation to make sure I wasn't being punked or something. I regret not being more bold, in light of how bold they were being. It probably would've added to their experience, and I'd have more detail for you, my loyal readers. So, in retrospect, it would have been a public service.

Johnny: "I tried not to get too good of a look, but yes, really."

I pondered this the rest of the walk home and realized that what with my current lack of public sex AND vehicle sex, much less both at the same time, I may not be as rock 'n roll as I think.

Oh sure - I also didn't go to jail tonight and possibly ruin my life by being labeled a sex offender (yes, that can happen). But that probably also detracts from my rocker cred. I guess I'll just have to live with that...and take pictures from now on when I see stuff like that.

Unplugged at The Cove...mostly

This past weekend was a quiet one in terms of gigging, but that was good for two reasons. First, we had three gigs the previous week: the two I previously blogged about and an acoustic gig at The Cove at Southwestern University during the week. Here are some shots from that show (photo credit: Ashley Kraft):