A Case of the Mondays: Back to Work

Having an entire week off is damn-near the greatest thing ever. When that vacation includes a trip the Peppermill, two men's league bball games, a poker night at my friend's house, a show at the Boxing Donkey, and tons of NCAA basketball action, you know it was a great time.

- Poker night at my friend Mike's house was a great time. Regardless of my cards getting me into trouble, it was still fun to hang out with the group that got together. My game is suffering from an in between phase where I'm going from a super tight player to a more creative player, but when I make a sizable bluff, I need to be more sure that someone doesn't have me crushed (or I need to push them off the hand no matter what they have.) I'm sure this will come as I practice, so I'm not terribly worried about it.

- The Boxing Donkey was great the other night. People were ready to sing-a-long from the get go. One of my favorite groups of people that come in from time to time was there, and getting things rolling. They immediately asked me if I could play Tenacious D's "F*** Her Gently." I replied, "You put some money in my tip bucket and we'll see what I can do." Normally, if there's any haggling, the tip can get up to $5, but they went straight to the top. "I'll give you $20!"

Gee, let me think... ummm... ok!

Needless to say, the song got played (which depending on the establishment and time of night, I may be contractually bound to NOT play the song- lucky, not the case in this situation.) I think everyone enjoyed it, and probably learned a thing or two about love-making in the process.

One last thing about the night. I know I've complained about this before, but it seems like I keep running into this situation, so it's worth a mention. Upwards of six different people asked me to either sing in the microphone or play the guitar on Saturday night. The answer is NO. My Gibson J45 will not be played by random drunk strangers ever, and when I'm hired to play at a bar, it's my responsibility to make sure that everyone is having a good time, and part of that is me making sure that everything sounds good. You may be a phenomenal singer- well in that case, why don't you contact the establishment and get a show for yourself? Oh, because you're not actually that good? Interesting...

The point is, I'm a really nice guy, but I'm also working when I'm playing shows. I don't show up to your job and say, "Hey! I'm really good at those accounting spreadsheets your doing- let me do them and turn them into your boss!" This sounds like a great idea until you get fired for me doing a horrible job.

- Nothing terribly exciting to report from men's league basketball. My thumb is jammed, so that sucks. A jammed thumb is literally the wimpiest, most annoying injury. No one cares if you have a jammed thumb because, let's be honest, why should they? And yet, it hurts like hell and bothers you in almost any activity you want to engage in during the day. Another example of this type of wimpy/annoying pain- a hangnail.

- I don't have much in depth analysis for the NCAA tournament. I've enjoyed the games a ton, but I do have to complain about the amount of fouls I've seen on jumpshots. In fact, many of these have been on 3 point jumpshots. Hell, the big man on Baylor got two fouls in 5 seconds and the second of which was a foul on a 3 point jumpshot. Please, coaches, I beg of you, teach your players how to close out without fouling before I throw the remote control through my TV. Please?

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and remember, I'm playing twice this week. The first is Live Band Karaoke on Thursday where you can actually sing with me on stage and it is completely acceptable. Second is Friday when I open for Automatic Rival. Both shows are the G St Pub in Davis at 10pm. Get there!