Wheeeeeee!

Wow, I need to stay longer. I woke up this morning realizing that today, I want to go shopping, see about 20 different shows, and start heading back toward Indiana.

Yesterday was, well, fun. A lot of fun. It started out with a breakfast date, except we never really got around to breakfast, so how could it be a bad day after that?

Once I got downtown, I started wandering around looking for a place to grab a bite to eat, a beer, and figure out my plan. I saw a place called The Ginger Man, an old brick building with a shaded (it got up to 90 degrees here yesterday) beer garden out back, and some nice tunes coming from behind the fence. So I went in.

Hand to God, Steve Poltz and the Cynics were scheduled to play there in an hour. I had no idea. I said hello to Steve and reassured the Truckee Brothers that I was not stalking them.

A very nice couple who lives in Austin asked if they could sit at the picnic table across from me. I said sure, it makes it look less like I'm sitting by myself.






Cynthia and Tim are from New England. They've been in Austin for 10 years, and still haven't lost their New England accents. They are Ginger Man regulars who took off work early to see Steve Poltz. I told them what a great time I had seeing Steve and the Truckees in Indianapolis.


Poltz and the Cynics started playing, and sounded great as usual. From left: Steve, Christopher/Cady, and Patrick/Peat.



They only played 5 songs and then had to rush off to another show. They played "Bombs," Steve's song that includes the line "Our Pres-ni-dent, he talks so wrong." I thought it was pretty cool that he played that in Texas. A few people in the crowd looked a little uncomfortable. Hee hee!




Patrick ran up to me and gave me a big hug. Cynthia and Tim looked puzzled. "So, do you know them pretty well?" Tim asked a minute later. I explained they were all really nice and talked to everyone after the show in Indianapolis, and that Patrick bought my friend Heck of a Gal's Assbag painting. I did not use the word "groupie."


I stayed and listened to a couple more bands, and Cynthia and Tim's friends started showing up. They were all great and gave me some good tips about shows to see and places to go.

Oh, and while I was at The Ginger Man, The Greek called. He's on his way to Indianapolis. I'm not even going to think about that right now.

I left the Ginger Man around dusk, deciding it might be time to finally eat something to soak up the 5 or so IPAs I had. I stopped at a place near the Convention Center and drank about a gallon of water and had an appetizer. And then I hit the wall big time. My foot started hurting (I twisted it jumping off a table, where I'd been taking pictures of a band at the Ginger Man) and the sleep-deprivation started kicking in.

I went back to my hotel to change clothes and rest a while, but soon realized I was not going to make it back out to see AJ Croce at 1 a.m. Sleep, sweet sleep. Aaahhhh....

More later, but I've got a lot to do today, including buying a peace offering for my sister to make up for ditching our plans this weekend (except that I know her, it will actually take the rest of my life to make up for this. I sent her a text yesterday and just now got the response. It just says, "Bite me."). Peace out.