Shannon Curtis @ MindSay

Today on our afternoon break, one of Sacramento's mounted police was in the area and was sauntering on past.  Seeing that some of us (okay, I was one of them) were captivated by the beautiful beastie, he stopped to chat with us.  A couple of us got up and stroked the horse.  He liked the attention and licked my hand and butted his snout against me.

Shortly after the pair moved on, I received a text message from Lorelei, in which she stated that our divorce was now official and that she'd be sending me my copies of the paperwork soon.  My reply was, "A horse just licked me!"

Followed a minute later by, "Or was that an inappropriate response?"

Apparently not, because she wrote back and said she literally burst out laughing when she read that.

I'm weird... but in a good way.

So, regular readers will be familiar with my long-standing crush on Shannon Curtis.  And some might even remember when I told her she should have a contest: "Win a Dream Date with Shannon Curtis."  She found it amusing.

I wasn't joking.

Anyway, recently, The Kimberly Trip announced that they were having a sort of raffle for those who bought advance tickets to tonight's show.  The prize was, you guessed it, dinner with Kimberlina.

Naturally, I did two things.  One: I bought my tickets.  And two: I emailed Shannon Curtis to say, "See!  It's a good idea!"

Well, tonight I sent Shannon another email, just to round it all out.

Evidently, Kimberlina and I will be going for sushi.

I really don't know why I don't update this very often.  It's not like I don't have things to ramble on about in a semi-coherent fashion.  Maybe I'm just lazy.  Maybe it's because MindSay is blocked at the office.  Or maybe it's because I like to at least put forth some entertainment value, rather than just blogging about A Day in the Life of Cardigan.  Be that as it may, here's the latest.

Things have been pretty good since returning from the East Coast.  I have to say, the trip really rejuvenated me.  Seeing old friends and my family was a most welcome thing and I've been in good spirits ever since returning.  And it really has been a while, hasn't it?  Almost three weeks. 

The one negative thing that happened (and it's minor) was that my less-than-a-year-old DVD player/DLP projector decided it no longer wanted to eject DVDs.  So I had to return it for repair.  Fortunately, it was still under warranty, so the only thing I had to pay was shipping to the facility.  And since it's here in California, it wasn't that expensive.  I got the machine back yesterday, and all is well.

Oh, the wine I brought back with me.  It survived the trip without breakage.  I opened a bottle of the Rattlesnake Red when my writers group was here, the day after I returned.  I sampled some of it.  And hated it.  But then, I've never liked wine, so this didn't surprise me.

Beer, however...  We brewed our latest batch on the 23rd.  It's a Cherry Bock.  Can't wait until bottling night, which isn't until June 5.  Damn lagers... taking too long to ferment.  However, until then, I've got plenty to hold me over.  My colleague at our D.C. office got me a short subscription to the Microbrew of the Month Club as a thank-you for the work I did there this year.  I received the first shipment yesterday, which has three bottles of four different brews.  Looking forward to sampling them.

Last Friday night, Shannon Curtis did a show here in town.  Ling came up for the show and stayed over.  It was very nice.  Tomorrow night is The Kimberly Trip, and Lilith and I will be there.

I've come to accept the fact that, in addition to falling for girls who work in coffee shops, I'm also a total sucker for girls with musical talent, especially vocal.  Seriously.  It's like ladyluck's thing for tall guys.  Add this factor to the mix, and they immediately become ten times more attractive.  Shannon's opening act falls into this category.  Pity I can't remember her name.

Well, that's not much of an update.  Certainly wasn't entertaining.  But it's time to head to the orifice.

At least it's Friday!

As I think I've mentioned a time or ten in these pages, I'm a writer.  I do love writing, and am very proud of my two novels.  I get such a kick out of hearing from people who've read and loved the books.  Gives me a warm feeling in that special place.

But my bigger passion in life is music.  Given the choice of being a successful novelist or a successful musician, I'd choose musician.  Problem is, I never devoted the time and energy to my playing that I should have. Like many things in my life, I got to a certain level of skill, and just kinda sat there on it.

Earlier this year, I set this personal goal for myself of being in a band by the time I'm 45.  (And I turn 44 in three weeks.)  Well, I've come to accept that having this particular goal might be a bit too much, and that I was setting myself up for disappointment with it.  Forming a band isn't easy, especially (as Jeffry of The Kimberly Trip pointed out) when talking about musicians who've been around a while.  Young kids forming a band... that works, because they're all still musically exploring.  But once they've been playing for ten, twenty years... they're pretty set in their ways... so finding a whole group of them who can play well together, and like what they're all playing... not so easy.

So, this past week, I came up with another goal... one that's not a long-term thing like a band, but... well, lemme just tell you how I came up with this wacky idea.  Remember the Shannon Curtis show I went to on Thursday night?  It was actually a birthday bash for Jerry, the guy who books a lot of musical acts downtown.  He'd invited many of his favorite performers to do a show.  How cool is that?  Seeing a bunch of your absolute faves on one bill?  Pretty damn cool, I think.  I'd certainly like to see something like that.  And I pictured Roberta Chevrette, Shannon Curtis, and The Kimberly Trip all in one show.  Awesome!

This, in turn, got me to thinking of another birthday show I saw this year, where The Kimberly Trip played for their bass player's niece.  During the show, the niece actually sang the song "Supergloo" with the band, in place of Kimberlina.  And that's when my mind got all wonky on me.

You might see where I'm going with this.  Cardigan would have a birthday bash, with his favorite locals, and he'd play guitar on one song with each of them.

Told you it was wacky.  I mean, there's no way I could get all three of these to agree.  None of them have even heard me play.  And besides, I haven't played guitar in front of more than a few people at a time since... um... 1981?  Yeah.  Dumb idea.

But Saturday night, in a WTF moment, I asked Roberta.  "Sure!" she said.  "I'd totally be down for that!"  And in that moment, the butterflies burst into existence in my stomach.

The following morning, Shannon Curtis gave a tentative yes via MySpace message.  Assuming, of course, that her career doesn't have her in another part of the country at that point.

And today, via email, Jeffry said, "I'd have ZERO issue with you joining us for a tune...that would be RAD!"  With, of course, the same caveat that Shannon put forth.

I'm... stunned.  This went from half-assed concept to actual, confirmed plans in a matter of days. 

Damn butterflies.  Guess it doesn't matter how long they live.  Little bastards are just gonna breed in there, anyway.  I'm gonna be excited and scared to death for the next year.

Tonight, I had a wonderful time with two gorgeous women.  Lilith joined Kate and me for dinner at Marrakech tonight.  It was the first time they'd met, and they hit it off great, as I knew they would.  They actually have some friends in common, and used to even hang in the same circles.  Small world.

After dinner, we went to see Shannon Curtis play.  I got to introduce them to her before the show.  Both of them were blown away by her performance, and bought her CDs.  It was a short set, but that turned out to be good, since Kate had a bit of a crisis back at her place.  She's one of the managers of the apartment complex where she lives, and her next-door neighbor had a plumbing issue of the solid waste variety.  She got the other apartment manager to summon the plumber, and thing were under control, but as soon as Shannon was done, we all left so that she could get home.

During one of Shannon's songs, Ken Burnett accompanied her on mandolin.  Ken often plays with Roberta Chevrette, whom I haven't seen in forever.  After the show, I asked him about her.  He said she's not currently performing, due to going back to school.  But, he said, she's doing a show this Saturday night, here in town.  So guess where I'll be?

As Kate and I were waiting for Cass, after she parked, before going into the show, we heard this very strange creature noises coming from behind the fence in a yard between two houses.  Neither of us could tell what it was, but the animal sounded pretty agitated.  We went closer.  (Hey, there was a fence!)  Kate knelt down to look closer.  Then she was up like a shot.

"Skunk!" she said, and we both hightailed it away from the two skunks who came dashing out behind her.  We didn't get sprayed, but there was definitely some liquid salvo action.  We could sure smell it.  Good thing it missed us, or we'd be smelling worse than the apartment with the plumbing problem.

Tell you what, though... that strange noise is one I won't soon forget!