Saturday Night Out Is Girl's Night Out

Last night my friend Pam and I went out, and we had a blast! The night began at the 10th Annual Southwest Florida Blues Festival. We got there around 4:30 or 5:00, although the festival gates opened at 11 AM. We met up with my Mom and Tommy, and setup our chairs amid the crowd.



When we arrived, Robin Rogers was on the stage. She's got an awesome voice, and a great enthusiasm on stage.


And the next thing I knew, she'd broken out a harmonica. A woman with a harmonica? I don't know whether I've ever seen a woman play harmonica before. You go girl!


Then we snuck off to scope out the food situation. I found this vendor booth that would have been perfect for my ex-husband.


He always loved the "exotic" stuff-- anything to shock people! I decided to go with the Italian Beef.

And you had to love the "Me So Corny" girls at the Roasted Corn booth!

After we sat back down, we found Motor City Josh and the Big 3 had taken to the stage.


Later they did a song from their new album Forty Four. The song was "Evil is Goin' On".


I really like them! In fact, I liked them so much that I waited in line to buy one of their CDs, which they autographed for me, and Josh gave me a shirt for a few dollars more.

We took a break to get a little dessert after I picked up my CD. Since the frozen chocolate-covered key lime pie on a stick was no longer available, I went for a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream instead.

After Motor City Josh & the Big 3, Shane Dwight took to the stage. He performed a great rendition of Stevie Ray Vaughn's "Pride and Joy".


Shane was pretty funny, too. There was even a moment when he said that he'd been wondering about a guy in the front row who kept yelling about the "crap song". He said that he was wondering what this guy's problem was-- why'd he keep yelling about their "crap song"? Finally he realized the guy was saying "crack song", in reference to one of their songs which I think he said was called "It's a Good Life" or something like that, and it made one reference to "crack". He said, "I'm sorry man! I was feeling hostile towards you! I was getting ticked off over you talking about the 'crap song'. I apologize!" So here's a clip of the "crap/crack song"...


We left just as Moreland & Arbunkle took to the stage, which was one of the bands that I'd been wanting to see perform. But it was getting late, and we'd already been at the festival for four hours or longer. So we decided to change venues. Mom and Tommy had already left shortly before, but the night wasn't over for the girls yet!

First Pam and I ran by my work, where we played a game of pinball.


Yes, we have pinball machines at work. That's the kind of stuff that goes on in tech offices. Back when we were a bigger office and we were in better economic times, we would have hour long tournaments during lunch. (Want a game of "distraction pinball", Woodrow?) These days I only play a few times a year. Usually when I play is when I have our computer guys on the phone, and I'm working with them on our server, and waiting for the server to reboot or something, since the pinball machines are next to the server.

After a stopover at work, Pam and I headed downtown. We stopped in at Cafe Matisse, where I had some hot mint tea, and then we headed over to H2 where we listened to a performer play guitar and sing. I really liked him.

It was a long evening, but a good one.