The daily rundown, May 3

Despite the fairly late night at the movies and such, the girlfriend and I got up pretty early in the morning. She had warned me that I would probably be awakened by the annual Cinco de Mayo parade, which goes right down the street past their house. She said it's not really all that uncommon for the low riders and such to make a whole lot of noise. Last year, in fact, they were making so much noise that they actually vibrated one or two of her pictures off the wall, breaking the glass in at least one of the frames.

Apparently, however, the parade keeps getting smaller each year, and, as the girlfriend commented, it seems to get crappier and crappier. This year, they had three or four ladies in the traditional dress, which is one of the few things that the girlfriend actually likes about the parade. There were a few of the low riders, but they weren't even bothering to really play Mexican music. They had a couple of rows of horse riders, maybe a dozen and a half total, but even they weren't really decked out in the traditional garb. Most of the parade was really just cars, usually advertising some candidate or business, towing trailers full of people, many of whom did not even remotely look Hispanic. I grabbed my camera when I saw the horseback riders getting ready to pass in front of the house, but they were already past by the time I got the camera turned on and got to the window where I could take a picture of them. And that was just about the last entry in the parade. Overall, I think it was pretty damned pathetic, but oh well.

The girlfriend wanted to spend some time with Ashley, maybe go out to lunch or something, but Ashley and Cory headed out to an early lunch before the girlfriend and I were ready to go, so that kind of put the nix on that plan. Instead, we headed out to a little place called Yummy's that is just a few blocks away, near the corner of Elm and University. I actually wouldn't have even realized the place was there if she didn't already know about it. It's just a little shop in a strip mall, looks like nothing in particular, and when you walk in, it doesn't really add all that much to those initial impressions. There are various posters, pictures, and Near Eastern memorabilia and such hung on the wall, and it definitely looks like the kind of place that is not run on a tremendously high budget. The guys working there seemed nice enough, though. I think we caught them during their own lunch break, and they were sitting at one of the tables eating. The younger man immediately greeted us and had us sit at whatever table we wanted, then got us drinks. He didn't have to provide us with menus, as those were under the glass tabletops. The restaurant, though it primarily advertises as Greek food, is actually a mix of various Near Eastern cuisines, including Greek and Lebanese pretty predominantly. We asked the gentleman for some idea of what some of the less familiar dishes were, and he told us the differences between several of the items whose names I cannot now remember. The girlfriend ordered a gyro, and I ordered a falafel supreme sandwich. Both sandwiches were very good and very filling, and we left with our wallets only a little lighter but feeling very full and satisfied with the choice.

We hung around the house for a little while before she had to go off to work. Unfortunately, we found out that there might be something of an issue with her and Greek food. A while after she went to work, she called and asked me to bring the bottle of antacids to her when I drove down to Dallas to meet with the possible band prospect. Judging from the symptoms she was having, we think there might have been a little bit of spinach in the dish, and she's somewhat allergic to it. Overall, it didn't seem to do a whole lot of damage, but it did make her day at work a little miserable and she was nauseous for a fair amount of the night. We'll have to ask the next time we go up there. She said the same thing's happened with Greek food with her before. It doesn't seem like there was anything bad about the food, no off odors or anything, so either it just didn't set right with her, or it was the allergy.

At around 3:30 or so, I packed my bass and the needed accessories into the car. The band said they already had a bass amp, so that was at least one little thing that I didn't really need to worry about. I headed off down the road, feeling a bit nervous about actually finding the place. I printed out some instructions and such, but that's an area that I've never even been to before. Even the girlfriend said she's not really familiar with that part of Dallas, so I was really driving around blind as far as what to expect. I did print out a map and directions for a couple of alternate routes before I left, and I had my maps in the car, so I figured I couldn't really get all that lost. I just expected to find myself in the middle of some gang-ridden area of town having no freaking clue where I was heading. It didn't turn out that bad, although I did have to make a few loops around blocks and missed more than one turn that I shouldn't have.

The meeting was at a nice little house on a residential street. I was greeted and introduced to the two other band members who were present. The guy who I was e-mailing had told me that it was a female-fronted band, but there was no woman present, and I inquired about that. It turns out that there really isn't a front person committed to the band yet, and the girl who might be taking on that role isn't totally sure that she wants the job yet. Seems that she has other irons in the fire at the moment. So between the combination of that and the type of music they were planning to play, which is a lot more "dance" than it is "rock," I decided to take a pass on the gig and move on toward other things. Half an hour or so later, and I was heading back up the freeway toward Denton.

I got back home in the relatively late part of the evening. I was pretty surprised to see that no one else was around the house, but I guess the girlfriend went out shopping after work. I thought about watching the hockey game that was on, but I figured it would already be mostly over, and I got involved in reading through some of my e-mail and such anyway. I was still doing that when the girlfriend finally did get home. We had a pretty light dinner of sandwiches and chatted a little about our respective days before retiring for the evening...