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Sunday, June 29, 2003
Yesterday was an interesting day. So I'm Grandma (Katie) sitting, which I already mentioned. Nothing unusual there. My other Grandma (Ruth) lives right around the corner from my parents so we'd made plans to visit. And the plan was to head over to the new local Indian casino for the afternoon. Sounded fun to me, and I hadn't seen Jason's work yet either. He was working yesterday so I'd hoped to catch him in action! :) About 12:30 I headed over to pick her up. I get to drive Mom's car while I'm here. Call it a perk. Most cars are better than my car (1990 Nissan Sentra); hers is for sure (2001 Toyota Avalon). First we head to our house so I could check on the zoo. All was well, and Grandma got to see some of our remodeling progress in the kitchen. Then we headed to the casino. What a big place! But *beautiful*. So gorgeous. I mean, it's only a casino, but still, beautiful. The main bar was amazing. Walls of waterfalls, leather chairs, blue lights everywhere, glossy black ceiling and lots of blue iridescent tile. Someone had good taste. And the string of restaurants they'll be opening in a few months is promising. All great stuff. The place was bustling, but not over-crowded. When it first opened, you had to wait in line for *everything*. We eventually found Jason. Is it possible to be cute when you're dealing blackjack? :) Oh yeah. We said 'hi' then went in search of particular slot machines. Grandma sat down and I headed for the Starbucks (they're everywhere, I swear!) Her $20 was gone in no time on a $.05 machine. We scouted another one and this time it was faster. We went back to find Jason and waited at his table until he went on break. Break wasn't so fun because he's not allowed to loiter. So we stood in the hallway and chatted a bit, then he had to go back to the "workers only" part of the building. Grandma had lost all the money she wanted to so we headed home, grabbed some pizza (on Mom, another perk) and watched the second Harry Potter movie. She'd recently read the second book and was interested in the movie. What a good movie! I guess it's time to buy the latest book... I drove her home and hung out for a while. Played my harmonica. I can play a scale now without much pause, but the lower notes are giving me real trouble. We'll see where it goes. I bought it specifically for one song we do with an easy harp solo. In fact someone had a cameo last gig and played it for us. He'd never played harp before and learned the solo in 3 days. Heck! I can do that! But I don't have the song with me over here so I can't practice it... Last evening, Jason and I made plans to meet at a bar to watch a band (felt like we were going on a date or something!) The guitarist and his friend (who is my friend) came out to see us play so I wanted to return the favor. Little did I know I was networking. *Had to stop and give Grandma her eye drops. It's twice a day. Kind of weird laying her back and touching her eye like that to hold it open, but she's a really good patient.* So my friend was there at the bar. He's a guitarist too and we're trying to recruit him. He's thought about it, but not much else. The band was pretty good. They had a good sound and tackled some hard songs well. Had a good Santanna guitar sound. And a quality lead singer, which is refreshing. They were expecting another woman to show up around 11 to sing a couple songs with them, but hadn't shown up yet. The guitarist guy approached me and asked if I knew any of their songs - they do mostly classic rock. The end agreement was if he could get the words to a Pat Benetar song, I would sing it. Well the woman at the bar wrote them down for us... And yes, half way through the set, I went up there with my scribbled notes and sang a song. I knew it mostly and didn't have to read much. I had to stand directly in front of the drums - way loud. But it was fun! Got a quick plug for the band, and applause, then hopped off the stage. I think people were impressed because it seemed so unplanned. Later that woman showed up and she did do a song (Black Velvet) - a sexy song. She was real good; we've seen her before in her regular band. I couldn't help but wonder how we compared. Sometimes when you get good singers together, it comes down to personal preference... It doesn't matter I guess. I had my first real "sit in" with another band and it was fun. Then to top it off, yet another guy guest sang for the last song, and he was awesome. Perfect for the song. This big oaf looking guy with long, wild hair - but he was captivating and played to the audience very well. Apparently, he's an awesome guitar player too. When the gig was over, there was some more chatting with the band. Thanks for singing and all that. I said any time, and they may take me up on the offer. They're not playing any in July, but I suspect they'll be in touch after that. They also showed interest in coming out to see us next gig. We shall see. And Jason had a good opportunity to get us booked there, and that seemed to go over well. It's all good.
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