All Wrapped Up in a Sushi Roll...

I blinked…

Now it’s Monday, sigh…

I, however, had a great weekend.  Super busy, and my ass is super kicked!

Friday night, as I alluded to earlier, was the ZZ Top/Lynyrd Skynyrd concert at Riverbend (http://www.riverbend.org/).

The show started off with the band The Cadillac Black (http://thecadillacblack.com/), I’d never heard of them before, but I really liked them, they threw down some really good southern rock.  TrippyBeth likes some southern rock! 

Long haired country boys

After The Cadillac Black, Skynyrd took the stage, and tore it down!  The last time I saw them, with Kid Rock, it seemed like they were just phoning it in. But, Friday, they brought it!  I danced my ass off, sang at the top of my lungs and had a GREAT time!

And it was a great night for a hat!!!

Finally, ZZ Top came on… I was so looking forward to them; I’ve loved them for 100 years.  Friday night, ZZ Top were the ones phoning it in.  To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement.  However, they did play “Jesus Just Left Chicago”, I can’t say it was my favorite version, but it was all I really WANTED.  I shouldn’t complain.  I do think that maybe…just maybe The Reverend Willy G should stick with acting at this time in his career.  He is still the embodiment of cool, no doubt.  But I did not feel compelled to shake what my mama gave me while they played.

All and all, it was a fun night anyway… I had a couple of Yuengling Lagers, not too bad, I’m still not sure they completely live up to the hype that surrounded the release a year or so ago, not bad nonetheless.

One of the best things I heard all night was a woman proclaiming “I think I smell some mari-ja-wanna!!”  She must not have a very good smeller; the weed was burning from the minute I arrived until I left! It was Skynyrd and ZZ Top, Lady, what do you expect? Sheesh….

Saturday I slept late, did a little decorating around the apartment, I should have done laundry, but I really hate laundry.

Saturday evening I headed down to the Newport on the Levee to meet a friend for dinner.  The Hat had previously decided that we would dine at the new-ish Naked Tchopstix, a pan-Asian sushi restaurant (www.tchopstix.com/).

All that I can say is AWESOME!!!!! 

But I will say more than that, of course!

Our waiter was fantastic, sadly, I don’t recall his name. 

I started out with the sake/plum wine cocktail (yummy) and L had an IPA that they had on tap.

At our waiter’s suggestion, we tried the Playboy sushi roll…. And I hate to say this but OMG!!

It was DELISH!!  It has a bonus of being served, thanks to some everclear, by being lit afire at your tableside! The fire fuses the sauce with the roll.  The roll stuffed with shrimp and asparagus and tuna (?), the sauce….sigh….the sauce, I could have drank it!! Spicy, but not too spicy.  I want more, NOW!

The bibimbap as it was mixed together...

Then we had the more traditional dolsot bibimbap, which are veggies, beef, rice and an egg served in a sizzling stone bowl.  It is served with a smokey, spicy sauce which is quite tasty as well. 

It is a great dining experience, if you enjoy sushi or just trying new food…. GO…NOW!!!

Sunday, I went for late lunchtime beer at Haufbrauhaus with AW. 

I do not have one drop of German blood, but damn I love German beer!!  I, of course, had the Dunkel and enjoyed a nice visit sitting outside under the shade of an umbrella.  The weather was absolutely PERFECT!

Sunday TrippyBeth...

Sunday evening, I headed back to the Taft Theater to see Kenny Wayne Shepherd!!  He is soooooo pretty and so talented.  He is the ultimate SRV fan, plays Stevie’s licks to perfection.

Robert Cray (http://robertcray.com/) opened for KWS, and WOW… unique blues guitar style, and, holy hell, can that man sing!  I’m definitely a new fan.

As I sat there watching Mr. Cray, I saw people walking up and down the aisles of the theater.  It distracts me, maybe it doesn’t distract everyone, but it does me.  I decided that it would be much better if people were required to, as they travel up and down the aisles, to traverse them dance-dare style!! Shaking their money makers as they go up and down!  It would be an adjunct to the entertainment! So, as I watched the people make their way to and from their seats, I imagined them dancing… should be state law.  I have danced my way out of bars before, with C, it’s pretty fun, even though I am not a good  dancer, and I try!

Kenny Wayne on the right, Noah Hunt on the right... Yummy squared!!

When The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band took the stage, the whole place went cccrrrazy!  With Kenny Wayne playing some sick guitar and Noah Hunt (a Cinci boy!) killing some blues vocals, it was a great show!  I’ve seen them before and they do not disappoint!!

They ended the show with “Blue on Black”, “Oh Well” and “Voodoo Chile”… the whole place was on their feet, rockin and singing… great time!!

I get home last night, not too late, around 11:30 and I’m tired, yet sleep would not come! I was awake until around 6a, the alarm goes off at 6:30a… I may not look my best today, but I’m actually in a good mood, I know… weird.

My new Kindle Fire HD just arrived!!

I’m psyched!  I am a book lover, the feel the smell, the whole experience, but reading in bed had become difficult as I’m having trouble with my eyes (probably chemo related) so I broke down and bought the Kindle, I can’t wait to play with it!!

I HATE ICE CREAM TRUCKS.  It had to be said. 

Their creepy music just sends a shiver up my spine.  It could be due, in part, to never really being exposed to them until I was an adult.  There weren’t ice cream trucks where I grew up.

And, in part, to the ice cream’s association to clowns.  I don’t think I’ve mentioned my aversion to clowns before.  I know it’s not a rare aversion, who can forget Pennywise?? Dammit, I just creeped myself out.

J was telling me the other night that he had ordered a new “awesome” clown mask, as if such a thing could ever exist!

He asked if I wanted to see it “NO” I replied.

“Not even a photo of it?” he asked.

“NO” I replied again.

“Not even a picture?” he asked again.

“NO, and I don’t even like talking about it, honestly” I replied AGAIN.

“OH” he said “You’re one of THOSE.”

Sigh, I am one of THOSE…  it’s ok though, I’m good with it.

Maybe I Should Wear a Mask...

ZZ-friggin-Top tonight folks!!

WOOT WOOT!!

They better play “Jesus Just Left Chicago” (my fav ZZ song) tonight! Surely they will, they generally play it with “Waiting for The Bus”.

Lynyrd Skynyrd will also be playing; I’ve seen them before, when they were on the God & Guns tour.  It seemed silly to me, that while on that tour, that seemed to celebrate guns, yet they still play the song “Saturday Night Special”.  The lyrics of that song say:

So why don't we dump 'em people
To the bottom of the sea.

Seems a little hypocritical to me, but what do I know?  It’s rock-n-roll, so they can do whatever they want, right?  And I’m pretty sure that most of the crowd didn’t catch it, nor did they care.

From what I can tell, this tour is called The Band of Outlaws tour, I think.  There should be some great people watching tonight!  The last time I saw Skynyrd, they were with Kid Rock, and it rained.  So on top of the beer, there was mud, and a lot of it.  It made things super interesting.  But mud is no longer an issue at Riverbend.  They have a beautiful artificial turf lawn now, which is quite nice.

So, last night I took a little road trip with J.  To Bumfuct Cornville, USA.  Since I am from nowheresville, I have the right to say these things.  I do not think that I’m better than anyone, I am just acknowledging facts.

We traveled the 90 minutes up there to visit a haunted house before it opens tonight.  Sort of a behind-the-scenes look at hicktown horror.

As we drove through the corn and soybean fields, dotted here and there with McMansions, several thoughts rattled around in my brain.

The first, “I would NEVER want to live here!”  the only redeeming fact was that they were close to I-71, so escape is a little easier.

The second, “Instead of the biggest house in BFE, I’d much rather have the smallest house in civilization.

The third, as we drove down the driveway to the home of the haunted house devotees, a truck passed us.  Remember the truck from “Jeepers Creepers”???  yea, it reminded me of that truck.

I might die here...

So, my mind started going wild.  This was a perfect place to slaughter some unsuspecting visitors, under the guise of a “Haunted House”.  When we arrived at the home, this feeling grew even stronger.

The folks that were hosting the haunted house were also breeders of Rottweilers.  “This could go so horribly fucking bad….” Kept running through my brain.  “Once I’m slaughtered, the dogs could dispose of my body” while less efficient than hogs, they could probably do a decent job….

My eyes darted around in the darkness of the cornfield for opportunities to escape and potential weapons. “Why in the holy hell did I wear flip flops?”

As J stood around making small talk, I realize that I have to pee, BAD.  Fucking great.  I whisper in J’s ear that I really need to go.

“I’ve never been in their house before” is the reply I receive.

Awesome.

I surmised that there would be no way that I could run for my life with a full bladder, so I ask if I can use their bathroom.

A daughter, I assume, escorts me into the house, which doesn’t look too unkempt from the outside.  The inside, however, was a completely different story.

I am greeted by a tiny little dog in a tutu and an elderly couple sitting in matching lounge chairs, who looked at me, puzzled, and kept asking “Who is that girl?”

I hurry into the bathroom the daughter pointed me in the direction of.  There was a night light on in the bathroom, when I flipped the light switch, I realized that the nightlight was the only illumination in the room.  This just keeps getting better.

I had an amazing pee, only to notice that the sink was….. ummmm….not clean.  I turned on the faucet with my elbow and did not use the questionable looking bar of soap.  After I rinsed my hands, I looked at the towel hanging by the sink.  Not gonna happen.  But fortunately, they had some unused-looking guest towels hanging up; I totally used one of those.

I stepped back into the living room where once again the question was raised “Who is that girl?”

When I got back outside, J quietly asked “How was it?”  I just shook my head.

Mercifully, they finally led us to the “haunted house” which appeared to be a cluster of farm sheds connected with slats of wood.  It seemed to be quite dilapidated, but I was assured that it had only recently been constructed.  I was not convinced.

“Do you want to go in the maze?” we were asked.

“No” I replied.

Then they led us into the maze.

The maze was pitch black, fucking dark.  J led as I followed closely.  I am not a fan of mazes, not corn, not hay bales, not the fantastic hedge maze at the Overlook Hotel.  But there I was, in the middle of it.  Followed by a family who kept proclaiming how “Fucking epic” it was.

After several wrong turns and collisions with cardboard covered posts, we emerged into some dim light.  Our journey did not end there.

We entered the haunted house, proper.  I had to admit, they did a good job.  It was a series of rooms, the church/wake scene being my favorite.  Of course, the actors weren’t present, I could see the potential.  It was well done.

Aside from the maze, the most distressing part had to be the smell from the dog kennels.  For fuck’s sake, if you’re going to have hundreds of people visiting your haunted house, do something about the stench.

Soon we were back on the highway headed home.  That was a close one!

Remember how I talked about over sharing yesterday?  Well, guess who got another lesson in it today?? Yep, you guessed it, TrippyBeth!

Earlier this morning I recanted the story to CB, here at the office, about the backstabber and her digestive issues.  She said that she hears it all of the time; their cubes are right next to one another, poor girl.

Not 30 minutes later, a former employee, the one who had previously dropped her pants in my office to show me her wound, appears in our office.

WHAT?!?!

Of course she comes back to me, makes small talk… then begins to tell me about recent dental work, antibiotic therapy and the resulting yeast infection.

WHAT THE FUCK ABOUT MY FACE MAKES PEOPLE WANT TO TELL ME THIS SHIT?!?!

The worst part was when she said that it wasn’t in the “vaginal area” but on her “clit”.  I threw up in my mouth a little bit.

Do people have no shame??

Fortunately I hadn’t eaten breakfast…..

Optimistic Suicide....

“I don’t want to end up in your blog.”

I wonder if writing this blog could end up being dating suicide?

Me, before heading out last night.

I direct people to the blog so that they might get an idea about who I am.  I think that it could make someone decide whether or not they would truly want to meet me.  I’m sure that a person could tell right away if we had zero things in common, or if they thought that I was a super cool, totally awesome chica that they HAD to get to know.

With that being said, I don’t document every minute of my life on here.  First of all, it would be entirely too boring and potentially sad.  But like I said to A last night “I don’t talk about the good things on my blog, some things I like to keep all to myself.”

Of course, there hasn’t been an excessive amount of “good things” going on since I started writing this blog.  That’s not to say that I haven’t had fun, I have, I try to always have fun.

Maybe, when I meet THE ONE (don’t laugh at me, I am allowed to act like a girl) I’ll share it.  Hell, who knows, I could go in to total estrogen overdrive and torture you with unending slobbering over THE ONE.  Doesn’t sound like me.  But I really can’t say what would happen, there has been no precedent.

I could fall madly in love and my next tattoo will be homage of my beloved! Yea, I’m pretty sure that will never happen.  I don’t mean the “madly in love” part, I mean the tattoo in homage of my beloved.  I cannot see myself EVER getting anyone’s name tattooed upon my skin; I truly believe that’s a bad idea.  A bad idea for me, I’m sure there are folks out there who are perfectly happy with a lover’s name etched upon their breast.  To each his or her own.

I do have tattoos that symbolize family members.  I know their meaning, but the casual onlookers wouldn’t know.  And I’m okay with that.  Some things are personal.  So I could possibly, someday, get a tattoo that symbolizes someone that I have fallen in love with.

I kinda like this, the matching, simple hearts.  My only issue with this, is if (and we all know that it can happen) things go horribly wrong, you are forever stuck with this reminder.  I know it could be covered or removed, but that’s even more of a reminder of a failure.  Just call me Polly Anna, I’m forever the optimist!

Actually I have been a little more optimistic lately.  I have concert tickets to see Black Stone Cherry (http://www.blackstonecherry.com/) tonight that I bought a few months ago.  When I bought the tickets, I thought “I’ll surely be dating someone by then”. 

WRONG.

I did get a friend to agree to go with me tonight, so it will still be fun!  Dinner first at Cock-N-Bull, which I always call Cock-N-Balls thanks to CC, then the concert at The Madison Theater (http://www.madisontheateronline.com/index.php)!!  It’s a cool venue, a great place to catch a show, and as a bonus, it’s not too far from my own humble abode!

I have tickets for an upcoming party over Labor Day weekend, the 2011 Fireworks Party on the Purple People Bridge (http://www.cincyfireworks.com/#!about-us) and, currently, I don’t have a +1, but I still have some time.  It’s a BBQ dinner, up to 10 pints of craft beer or mixed drinks, blues music and you get to watch the fireworks from the bridge.  It shouldn’t be hard to get someone to accompany me to that, right? But, it’s still me, so who knows… (that was a little pessimistic).

I also have an extra ticket for the ZZ Top concert in September, but if I can’t find a date, I’m sure I can get someone to go.  I mean, it’s ZZ-friggin-Top!

I love Covington, so much to do, I’m really glad that I moved here.  It’s a far cry from the town of 500 that I’m from.  There are always festivals and events in the area. 

I remember the first time that I went to Maifest in Mainstrasse.

CC and I met there in the early afternoon.  We began drinking big mugs of festival beer.  I had been chatting with a man that happened to be a detective with an area police department.  We were texting that day and I told him that he should come down to the festival.  I warned him that CC was with me, that he was a guy, but it was totally cool.  He was okay with it and agreed to come down to meet me. But he wouldn’t arrive until approximately 6 hours after I had arrived.

This was poor planning.

When he arrived CC and I had over-imbibed.  In my defense, I was unaware that the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale (KBBA)had such a high alcohol content.  I only knew that it was yummy!

The detective found us listening to a band.  He sat in a chair between CC and I, this was a bad move on his part. 

CC is a terrible wing man, yes I said it.

As the detective and I attempted to chat and get to know one another, CC kept interjecting.  “Are you going to be Beth’s PRIVATE DICK?”  and if he had said it once, I could have blown it off.  He said it OVER AND OVER AND OVER!!!!

Needless to say, the detective suddenly needed to “go to work” and abruptly headed out.  Who could blame him??  I was giggly and silly, CC was inebriated and obnoxious… GO US!

We venture to another bar, when I come to the realization that we will have to get a hotel room.  So I get my phone out to call for one.  I cannot even complete that simple task, and neither can CC.

Since I am never hesitant to talk to strangers when I’m sober, and even less so when drinking, I turn to a couple sitting at a table behind us and say “Hey, can you help us book a hotel room?”

The girl says “Sure!” whips out her phone, and bing, bang, boom has the hotel on the phone, hands us her phone and the next thing I know, we have a room reserved!

So in celebration of their kindness, shots start to flow.  We hang out with them and celebrate for a while before we make our way to the hotel.  I’m sure we were asleep before our heads hit the pillows.

The next morning we were awake by 8am, which is not like either of us.  We were confused.  What was wrong with us?  Why were we awake so early?  As we began to mentally retrace the steps of the evening, I got out my phone.  I saw the time that we were attempting to phone a hotel, did some math in my head.  We were probably back at the hotel by 11pm!! No wonder we were up so early!

So take TrippyBeth’s advice, choose your wingman wisely and remember KBBA has a high alcohol content!!!