Slice Of Life

Slice Of Life, is a Weblog (BLOG) that I write, in which I try to tell some sort of story about something, or someone in my life. Sometimes it's happy, sometimes not, sometimes informative, sometimes...... HA, gotcha, did ya think that I was going to say not? Don't know me very well, do ya? :=) I will try to update the BLOG from time to time, whenever I can.

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Location: Chandler, Arizona, United States

My personality is outgoing, I use to be a wallflower, until I realized that it was all the outgoing people that were having the most fun. It was a tough conversion, but nobody I know today would even remotely consider me to be a wallflower. Basically, when I was young, my parents taught me that if you work hard, you can accomplish anything. I haven't quite found the "anything" part to be always true, but it has inspired me to always try to do, and be, my best.

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Dinner Anyone?

Hey..... Normally, you wouldn't see another SOL this soon, but something happened on Wednesday that scared the crap out of me. My Adventure Club went out to our Monthly "Cultural Dinner" this week, and in addition to dinner, I ALMOST suffered bodily injury.

No, not due to the food. Although the place that we went to was very unusual. We went to a restaurant that served..... Ethiopian Food! Yeah, I know what you're thinking, I thought so too, but hey, I was wrong, it was actually quite good.

They serve it in big plates for 2, that you share with the person across from you, and there was a pile of beef in the middle with 2 sets of 6 vegetable/potato piles, with one set of veggie piles on each side of the plate, and get this..... No Eating Utensils. They serve the plate with this bread type thing, that is sort of like a thick spongy crepe'. You tear off a rectangle of the bread, drape it over whatever you want to pick up, and "pinch" the bread around the food, and eat it like that. Cool huh? I found it to be a little spicy, but I LOVE spicy, so I thought it was GREAT!

So, what was the bodily injury part? Well, the dinner started at 6:30pm, so that means, rush hour traffic. I'm driving down Chandler Blvd, in the center lane, and at 1 stoplight, I glance to my left, and the woman driver is fiddling with her radio. We go down a ways, and I move into the left lane, to turn set up to left in a few lights at Arizona Ave. We come to a normal stop at the next light, with 3 cars ahead of me, and I glance up in the rear view mirror, and I see about 6 car lengths of space, and Headlights coming at me..... WAY TOO FAST. It feels like slow motion, but I look forward again, mentally WILLING the cars ahead of me to GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY! Then I hear brakes locking up, and tires squealing behind me, and I braced my head against the headrest awaiting the expected impact.....

At that moment, the car ahead of me started to move, and I SLAMMED my foot down on the accelerator, and quickly JAMMED it back on the brake, and my Jaguar Leaped forward about 3 feet, and stopped before hitting the car in front of me, and the expected impact from behind........ Didn't happen (WHEW). I looked in my side mirror, and the car behind me, was at a 45 degree angle, half way into the left turn lane.

The only thing I can guess, is that the combination of her turning the wheel at the last minute, with my "Leap Forward" avoided the impact, but I'm SURE that it was VERY close. To my credit, I refrained from giving her the "single finger" sign that I was tempted to, but I turned on my "Caution Flashers" the ENTIRE WAY to the next light, and when she passed me in the left turn lane at the next light, I couldn't help giving her my "dirtiest look". I think I was AT LEAST entitled to that, since she very nearly destroyed my $40K Automobile, not to mention me..... and I think she got the "Pay Attention To Your Driving You Idiot", message that I was trying to send.

So..... (Whew!) how was your week?

Monday, January 24, 2005

Can You Say..... "Grammy Award"?

You may, or may not know this, but I'm a songbird. Yup, if you're one of the people who have worked around me in the last few years, you know that one of the ways I concentrate, is by "singing" to myself. Of course, some of you might not exactly call what I do "singing", and there was this one guy who I worked with in the past, who thought that I was "Crying For Help". Everybody thinks they're a comedian, don't they? Well, anyway, my apologies to those who have had to "put up with" my wailing for the past few years, but just FYI, it wasn't in vain. You see..... This past weekend, I had my first local "Public Performance"

Yup, see, it turns out that the Sports Bar near my house has karaoke on Saturday Nights, starting at 9pm. If you are familiar with the area, it's in Chandler, on the Southwest corner of Kyrene and Chandler Blvd. It use to be called "The Hitts Sportsbar", but now it's "The Regal Beagle". Hey..... I didn't name it, I just go there.

Anyway, I went there to watch a game a few Saturday's ago, and at 9:00pm, they start setting up this Karaoke Machine. Now the last time I "sang publicly" was on my vacation to cancun, over a decade ago, and let's just say..... No record companies called me. At the time, when I asked my friend how I did, she charitably said; "I think you picked the wrong song", which is friend speak for "You Sucked". But maybe she was right..... In any case, I had been going there the last few Saturday's, and this last Saturday, after getting my "Liquid Courage" up, consisting of 3 Carona's and 2 Cuervo Shots, I took the plunge.

I like their set up, because you don't have to get up on stage. They have a wireless mike, so you can grab the mike, and slink back to your table, into the relative darkness of the bar, so I figured, what the hell, right? I think that my mistake in Cancun, was trying to sing above my range. The Cancun song was more for an Alto, or maybe a Soprano, and I now know that I am somewhere more in the Baritone range. I know you're just dying to know, so the song I chose was..... The Devil Went Down To Georgia" by The Charlie Daniels Band.

Hey, don't laugh, I know all the words, and I've got the timing down pat. But just to be sure, I wrote 'First Timer" on the little slip of paper, so if I was really terrible, maybe they'd cut me some slack. So anyway, they call my name, the guy let's everybody know I'm a virgin..... Singer I mean :-) I grab the mike, slink back to the bar, and give it my best baritone shot.........

After the first verse, the bartender Rick gives me that "Fist Bump" thing, someone on the other side of the room yells out Yeeeeee Haaaaa, and after that baby, I was ROLLING! There are 2 "Fiddle Solo's" in the song, and people are doing that "Arm In Arm Square Dance Thing", in between the tables, and of course, at the finale of the song where it goes "I Dun Told You Once You Son Of A Bi.... I'm the Best That's Ever Been", I actually rose off the bar stool and jumped up and down!!

To make a long story short (Yeah Right), I got a rousing round of applause, 2 people High Five'd me along the way to bringing back up the mike, and someone (I still don't know who, hopefully female) bought me a beer. In any case I now know a little bit of what it feels like to be a performer....., even if it was only for 1 song.

So, if you aren't doing anything some Saturday Night, maybe stop on by. I'm thinking of extending my performance to a second song. I don't want to reveal the title, but all I can say, is that it has something to do with "Marvin Gaye", and it involves a "Grapevine". BTW - No autographs please :-)

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