Country, Rock, Birthdays, and a Very Lazy Beastly Morning (Scratch That... Day)

(First, let me start by saying I typed this all last night before the snow and ice hit but fell asleep before actually posting it)

Well, the weekend is over and it's now the next "work" week, although this one promises to be eventful as ice and snow make their way to our doorsteps here in North Texas. I am sure to have photos and stories from what may be the storm of the century... ha ha. But back to this past weekend's festivities...

It was one for which I could find no complaint. There were birthdays to celebrate, some live music to absorb, and some beautiful weather. It was in the 70s only days before we expected to get wind chills in the below zero range accompanied by sleet and snow. Brrr. I began the weekend by driving to Denton to meet some of my buddies at a friend's apartment to celebrate her birthday. We met and caught up as we waited for everyone to arrive and get ready and dressed in their western finest. It seemed that Michelob Ultra was the drink of choice for the pregame activities. After getting ready, we were off to Fort Worth to see the Josh Abbott Band at Billy Bob's Texas, the largest Honky Tonk in the world... only in Texas my friends, only in Texas. While I am not too familiar with Josh Abbott, I knew it would be a good night no matter what. I was in good company for the night, mostly old classmates from high school, and it was my first adventure to Billy Bob's. On top of that, the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo was in progress, so upon arriving to the massive honky tonk we found a sea of boots and cowboy hats. I was a little overwhelmed at first. I had never seen that many people at a country music concert, although I  must admit I have not been to many. We waited in the will call line for what seemed to be quite some time. After the wait, we made our way into the bar. I was astounded. I had never imagined the bar would be so massive and so crowded. It almost felt like an indoor, all-country version of ACL Fest.  There were people everywhere and it was a challenge just to weave through the crowd in the pool table section to make it to the bathroom (yes people, there were massive designated sections throughout the bar for almost every kind of activity that you would imagine taking place in a honky tonk). After grabbing some beers, we made our way to the back room where the band was playing. It was even more packed, so we parked ourselves in front of the nearest bar and commenced to dancing, singing, and celebrating our friend's birthday. Here is a pic of me and the birthday girl:

As a pleasant surprise, we ran into some newlywed friends of ours as well as the new bride's sisters. 

I ran into them after the band had ended the show and we were pushed out of the concert area by security. Now I will admit that at this point I had been hanging by the bar for some time, and I could not seem to find the group I had come with. Thankfully, I ran into the newlyweds and sisters. They seemed to take care of me and assured me I could stay with them that night if necessary. Then, after attempting to convince them to take a pic together on a life sized bull,  a failed venture, and a pic I told them would go great in this post, and checking out the gift shop, I got a call from my ride. They had thought the bar was closing when we were pushed out of the concert area and had gone to the car and realized I was missing as they were ready to exit the parking lot. I thanked the newlyweds and sisters for taking care of me and dashed out to catch my ride back to Denton. We made a pit stop at Whataburger before arriving back to the apartment after a fun drive to munch and finish the Michelobs we had left behind in the fridge. Oh, and on the way back we saw the other car that accompanied us making an impromptu pit-stop on the side of I-35 for what we knew was most likely the purging of alcohol. Then it was crash time. We sprawled out on the couch and floor in the living room to sleep, although there was not much of that to speak of. It was like a high school reunion slumber party as we woke up about every two hours to talk and reminisce about old teachers, old friends, and fond memories. Finally, around 6 AM, I lay my head down on the pillow I was sharing with two of my friends on the floor and fell asleep. Our bodies were like the legs of the Isle of Man flag, the pillow and our heads the center. (I once met a pretty cool guy from the Isle of Man while staying at the India House Hostel in NOLA on a road trip with my brother)

The next day, we watched Tosh.O while waiting on those who had to work that morning to return so we could get some grub. After some good eats at Buffalo Wild Wings, their menu offers a great wrap,  and a stop at Plato's Closet, I made my way to Sachse to attend a party for my cousin's birthday. She was turning 29 on the 29th, definite grounds for celebration. It was beautiful weather and even more beautiful company as I got to see several of my cousins. I indulged in a couple of Shiner Bock draft beers courtesy of my cousin and her husband's homemade garage kegerator. Mmmmm, there is nothing like enjoying a Shiner on a sunny day while catching up with my cousins. The conversation was lively and full of laughs as always, not to mention several reminders that in our family, voices tend to carry. One topic of conversation was not necessarily family friendly, and leaving names out, we gave a pair of our cousins some homework. I'll just say the consensus was that intimacy of all sorts is always important in a healthy relationship... ha ha. That and the fact that certain acts must maintain a delicate balance for all involved parties. Now I am not sure how I managed to carry my camera in my jeans the entire time I was at the birthday cook out and have no pictures, but I assure you it was a gorgeous day and a great time. I got to see my cousins and view one particular cousin's amazing artwork in person.  He free handed some great Dr. Seuss inspired paintings on the walls in his daughter's play room. It was quite impressive. You can find some of his work on Etsy. After a few hours enjoying the deck and the company, I had to cut my time short and make my way back north and into Oklahoma. Oklahoma? you may ask, but it was to meet yet another group of friends to enjoy some more live music at WinStar. It was there that Joan Jett and the Blackhearts were playing (props to my friend who made the concert-going possible). The fun promised to never end that day. I made it just in time to walk into the Casino doors right after my friends, welcomed by a massive fountain and two pairs of dragons made of crystals hanging from the ceiling. We had entered the Beijing section of the massive Chikasaw Nation owned Casino. We then thanked and bid farewell to our Jillinski, AKA the woman who made sure we all made it back to Muenster safely that night after a ride in the Mollenkopf van. Then, after a quick stop at the bathroom, we made our way into the auditorium, grabbed our beers, and found our seats. Little to my knowledge, the opening act for Joan was Gin Blossoms. Talk about a 90s flashback! In case you don't know, here is one of their most popular songs:

They definitely got the women in the crowd primed for Joan. I was slightly surprised to see so many middle-aged women jumping and hollering along to their show, but it made for a fun atmosphere. After catching the tail end of their set, we made our second beer and bathroom runs and settled in for Joan's arrival on stage. While waiting in line for beer, I managed to see several girls most likely around my age looking very much like Kristen Stewart from when she portrayed Joan in the movie "The Runaways."  Now mind you, I am no Kristen Stewart fan, her constant hand to hair swoops in the few movies I have seen her in are quite annoying (I have not and will not watch Twilight, I'll stick to True Blood, but she did pull off a fairly convincing Joan):

After finding our seats once again, not that we actually set in them much, Joan Jett... Joan freaking Jett... J-E-T-T JOAN JOAN  JETT entered the room. (By the way, she made it clear she is a Packers fan that night). Now I am no Joan fanatic, but I know most of her songs and was pretty pumped to see her live.  After all, she is a bit of a rock icon and I was surprised that after years on the road and her fair share of drug, sex, and rock 'n' roll (I've always wanted to legitimately use that phrase in a published sentence),  that she still sounded quite good. I mean, I have somewhat recently seen Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan live and (music gods  and Manna forgive me) was not too impressed by their raw voices. Joan on the other hand sounded like she is still on top of her game. I know their respective ages are quite different and that in 20 to 30 years she will most likely sound very different, but still, I was impressed. (Please do not infer from this that I lack respect for Willie or Bob... I do not in any sense of the word. I was just expecting Joan to sound a little more worn like them.)

But, I digress. Where were we? Oh yes, Joan. She came out on stage and proceeded to rock the entire room. I split time during the show between the two groups of seating we had (half of us on the left side of the center aisle and half of us on the right). I did not sit or stand motionless at any time during her set. Here are a couple of poorly recorded videos to give you a preview:

"Bad Reputation"

                  

I was pretty wrapped up in the show at the time so I did not get a recording of "Crimson and Clover," but it does happen to be one of my favorites, and as an added plus I was next to my GB and Cheryl at the time it was played. Joan sang all of her classics and after coming back on stage for an encore, she left us with her cover of "Everyday People" by Sly & The Family Stone. A great song to end our night with her. Several minutes after her final exit from the stage and after cheers from the crowd subdued, our Joan crew gathered to make our exit from the auditorium, but not without a photo courtesy of a not-so-tech-savvy security guy:

 

To say the least, it was a rough crowd, but a great one at that... ha ha. After grabbing just one more drink, we grabbed our DD, sweet Jillinski, and a big thank you to her for getting us home... hm hum... to Tony's safely. Yes, after indulging our ears at WinStar, we indulged our sense for some hometown fun at Tony's Tavern. Now I know I have mentioned Tony's in just about every post so far and here is the reason why: there are two things you can always find there: buckets of beer and buds of old:

My short time at Tony's that night served as the perfect CH-CH-CH-CH-CH-CH-CH-CH CHERRY BOMB to top off my rockin' sundae of a weekend. All in all, I added to the earnings of Michelob, Bud, Miller, Shiner, and of course Natty, in the respective order in which they were consumed. My Sunday was pretty lazy. It was spent lying on my good friend's couch watching informative shows on The History Channel. We watched several episodes of "Ax Men," in which we found our favorite character to be Shelby the Swamp Man:

I would pay money to spend a week on the bayou with this guy. He is pretty much amazing, AKA his shit is float! (This is a saying you may hear often from me. I am somewhat trying to start a new trend to replace the saying "he/it is solid."  When you say someone's shit is float, you are saying they are the shit,  as in their shit is so much the shit, that you can't flush it because it is so float that it resists the flush). I highly encourage you to adopt the phrase and to tune into "Ax Men." I am now officially addicted to the show. We then indulged ourselves in some viewing of "The Big Lebowski," a favorite movie of mine. For those of you who are familiar with The Dude, I am sipping on a White Russian as I type this post, and I say to you, "forget about the f***ing toe!"

After a long and eventful weekend, I called it quits and came home Monday afternoon to rest up in order to be able to enjoy the coming winter storm in true Muenster fashion, AKA snow day road. That post is something to look forward to, you and me alike. For those of you who may not know, I am a bit of a weather freak, and in my excitement it is likely I will see little sleep tonight. 

With that, I say goodnight. It should be interesting to experience a thunder snow/sleet storm tonight and tomorrow, and I look forward to creating some more stories to share with you. Until then, I leave you with this song that was shared with me by the recent birthday girl: my cousin:

Sidewalk Sore: Another Beastly Morning

Well, after a bit of a break, I'm back. I have to say, I should have warned you about the previous post. You can expect those sort of posts out of me every once in a while. We will refer to them as "Ryan's Corner." I imagine a fair amount of you will know what that refers to. For those that don't, at my old house in Austin I had a backyard. And in the corner of that backyard, I had a hammock. And in that hammock I spent time pondering my own questions and trying my best to answer those of others.  It was a place to be alone with my thoughts and a place to give whatever advice I could to others. That is the sort of ramblings you can expect from "Ryan's Corner," so stay tuned for the next one (they will most likely come late at night when I am having difficulty sleeping). 

Now, onto another story for your entertainment. This one may read somewhat short due to my lack of a clear memory of the entire event, but what brought me to the most entertaining part of the night is of no real importance. While I still lived in Austin, the glorious ATX, it was always bittersweet to see a friend leave the city and progress to a new stage in life. One friend in particular decided to go out with a bang. She threw a "Keep Austin Weird" themed party to celebrate her departure. That was a great night. My brother, a friend, and I dressed as hipsters and my parents even made an appearance since they were in the 512 that weekend. Our outfits were quite hilarious, although I was dubbed Chester the Molester for the night, due mostly to the style of glasses I chose to wear and the ridiculous staches we were sporting:

Well, after the photo-op and some pregaming, we all went out... that is except for our friend who was leaving Austin; the one for whom the event was thrown. She was unable to decipher between her pregaming and her gaming, an important lesson that one would expect a 4 year UT veteran to have mastered. Regardless, she never made it out of the apartment. So, after a long and fun night, we had to set ourselves on repeat for the following night when our friend would actually be able to join us. We first met at the apartment from the night before to once again get our game faces on, and of course for another attempt at some PB&J acrobatics. 

A preview from the first night:

What happened next, I'm not exactly sure, but I do know it involved a cab ride to Dirty 6th and our fair share of drank. But that is not the important part of this post. It is the events that took place once we returned from the bars of 6th Street in which hilarity ensues. I am not sure exactly what happened, but I had decided to crash on the couch at my friend's. Being a smoker, I had the urge to go to the stair well to indulge my yearning for nicotine one more time before bed. My friend was looking awfully tired in the living room, and since her door locked automatically I asked to borrow her key while stepping outside to the stairwell to ensure my re-entry into the apartment. She insisted that such a thing was not necessary and that there was no way she would fall asleep in the time it took for one cig. In my state of mind, I believed her and stepped outside, allowing the door to close and lock behind me. Several minutes later, I knocked on the door to have her let me back in. There was no answer. So I knocked... and knocked... and knocked even louder. I then began to call, only to hear her ringing phone from the other side of the door. It was in that moment that I realized her assurance that she would not stray to her sleep had been compromised. She had fallen asleep. So I called and knocked hoping to wake her, but it was to no avail. Cold and in only my socks, jeans, and a button up shirt armed with nothing but my cheap flip phone and the last few sticks of my Marlboro Blend 27s, I slumped against the door, exhausted and ready to close my eyes for the night. And that is exactly what I did.

I woke up the next morning to my friend shaking me out of my sleep. I had slept on the sidewalk just outside the front door to her apartment. As I awoke to her frenzied voice and jilting shakes, I realized there was meaning in her urgency. You see, her parents were coming that morning to pack up her room and move her out of the apartment, and they had just woken her up with a phone call saying they had parked and were on their way upstairs. After desperately searching the apartment for my static body, she realized what had happened and ran to prevent what could have been a very awkward morning for me. After she informed me of her parents' arrival, I ran into the apartment, quickly put on my shoes and found a mirror to see just how bad I looked; I already knew that I had Dorito Face. Dorito Face is something you get after a long and late night out, after some drank and no shower before bed. It is especially prevalent in those who slumber on sidewalks. You can check yourself for Dorito Face by rubbing your face with your fingers and then smelling them. If it was a crazy enough night, your fingers will then smell like Nacho Cheese Doritos, and not from eating chips... that is in fact what the face smells like: Nacho Cheese Doritos. After doing my best to straighten myself out, I walked back into the living room to greet her parents (I had previously been recruited to help with the move). With their looks of confusion towards my presentation, we began the move. It was then that I explained that I had crashed at their daughter's the night before. HA, if they only knew I was sleeping on the sidewalk in front of her door just minutes before they knocked on it!

After completing the move, my friend's parents were kind enough to thank me by inviting me to eat lunch with them at Pappasito's. They did however request that I douse myself in Febreze before accompanying them for fajitas; a request I was happy to accommodate. Even I could smell an odor over my Dorito Face: BO. After lunch, we said our goodbyes, and I quickly made my way back to my own apartment; back to my own bed. Ah, it was a wonderful feeling to lay my sidewalk sore body down on a softer surface; and for that day, I forgot that my mattress was an old and worn hunk of metal and fabric, caring only that it was not a rough and cold piece of concrete.

A Wedding, A Beastly Morning, and the Beauty of the Backroad

So earlier this month, two of my high school classmates, Ryan and Megan, took their leap into marriage. After years of dating they have tied the knot and said, “I do” to a life together. It was a great wedding, full of friends, dancing, fun, and of course, some drank. It was a wedding that their friends and family had been anxiously awaiting… and I must say the wedding was well worth the wait. What a fun night it was, and a great celebration of the newlyweds. Each Muenster wedding I attend, I find the true skill involved in avoiding the hazards of a beer slicked dance floor, that and the value of some comfortable shoes. 

 

 After many a brew at the wedding as well as at the after party at the local watering hole Tony’s, I was ready for bed. I would not realize which bed that meant until the next morning. I awoke around 10 am to a phone call from my mom. After taking a minute to absorb my surroundings, I realized I could answer her burning question of where I was. I awoke in the bed of what I am sure were the finest linens, colored pink and zebra stripe. I then realized the walls were also pink, the only choice when designing a room around pink and zebra sheets for a little girl. I then walked to the front door and realized where I was. I had slept in a girl’s bedroom in Saint Jo, the town to the west of Muenster, and… it was snowing. Needless to say, I was confused. Now as a disclaimer, I must say that the girl whose room I was in was not there. She spent the night at grandma’s house that night. I feel the need not to divulge the events that took place to bring me to such a place, but the short version is some friends needed a car to get back home, so I allowed them to drive my car home with me as a passenger. After waking everyone up, we headed east out of Saint Jo, a drive that provided lots of laughter and some very loosely pieced together memories of the night before. It was quite the morning.

Later that day, I decided I needed to take full advantage of the freshly fallen snow and met up with two of my good friends to ride around and take it all in on the notorious backroads that lie to the north of Muenster. To those who may not be familiar, that is what we do in Muenster. We grab some friends, perhaps some drank, a great playlist on the IPod, and a vehicle and head north on the gravel roads of Cooke County. Almost anyone you speak to in Muenster has taken advantage of these gravel roads and the amazing views they afford their travelers. It was a great day for a day road, and we were not the only ones with such a great idea as we passed many notable cars on our drive. Snow on the ground and snowscapes beyond every hill were the perfect setting for some great conversation and of course some sing-along to our favorite tunes. 

It was on that road with my friends that I re-discovered my affinity for the back road. Leaving all worries behind as you pass the city limit sign with only one obligation: stopping on the side of the road periodically to allow the passengers to relieve themselves. I could not have imagined a better way to appreciate the snow, other than being a young kid building a massive snowman and indulging in snowball fights. We were however able to get a peak into the latter. We were very entertained and surprised when we were ambushed on one road by a handful of kids armed with snowballs. As I looked to my left at the kids popping up from behind rocks and hurling snowballs towards my car, I was taken by surprise by the sound of a loud thump to my right. A rogue kid armed with a massive snowball hit his target, my passenger side window. That little event provided us all with some chuckles. As the daylight dwindled and the roads grew slightly icy, we indulged our appetites by eating some deer chili at another friend’s house in the Ville. Props to the chef. While there, I honed my skills in the extremely competitive sport of Foosball. Thanks to plenty of fierce competition, I have actually surprised others and myself by becoming much better. I always seem to surprise myself with my skills for mediocre sports, and thank God for that… ha ha. I never really was the sporty kind. After some good times in the garage and a handful of matches, we noticed the time and headed back to the Ster to call it a night. It was quite a long day, but very fun and a perfect end to the weekend.

That my friends is how you enjoy the snow in Muenster, that is the beauty of the backroad.