bouncyMuch fun and merriment was had at J. Raymond's engagement party on Saturday. It started out very humdrum, as the majority of the guests were older folk. Most of them were friends of the bride-to-be and her family, as she is native to the Armpit of New England, whereas my ex-roommate hails from the Cal-i-forn-eye-ay. In addition to myself, the Submersible Death Trap was represented by CornFed and LevelSeventy; also appearing were former crew member WickedGangstAH and his newly pregnant wife (and congrats to them!) It got more interesting once the crowd thinned out and only the twentysomethings were left. After I drove home just after midnight, I felt a weird surge of adrenaline, which explains how I was able to knock out two posts before crashing.
This afternoon as I was heading to the base to replenish my stash of brewdogs, I noticed a banner along the side of Route 12, and exclaimed "fuck! That was last night, wasn't it?" The event in question was the Sara Evans concert on the SUBASE ballfields. LevelSeventy has been raving for weeks about his desire to catch this show; if you check out her website, you'll understand why. Oh, and he claims that her music is good too. I can't vouch for it, as I had never heard of her prior to this, and still haven't ever heard any of her songs. When I went to research her career for this, I was struck by two things: for one, she's thirty-seven, and for two, she's got three kids. At this time, I invite you to look at the imagery again (at her site, or wherever else). Impressive. As was the case when The Wreckers (of whom Michelle Branch is one half) played SUBASE a year and a half ago, I'm surprised and puzzled that an artist with such credentials would come to an out-of-the-way place like Groton.
Let's continue with female musicians...I must say, I have been remiss in my acerbic commentary on the tribulations of Amy Winehouse. I'm not sure how I missed her punching a fan at the Glastonbury festival, shortly after I last mentioned her in this space. Then she was drinking red wine on stage at a show in Spain at the beginning of the month. And this evening she went back into hospital for unknown reasons. Reading these articles is really leading me to wonder just what she's got living in that beehive hairdo. But let's look on the bright side here - at least she hasn't procreated yet. That, and her husband is properly behind bars for throwing down with a bar owner. (That's no way to treat a man who's serving alcohol, regardless of its quality.)
I guess I should close with something positive. I won again at Mohegan Sun today, albeit only to the tune of $60. Today was especially fun because of the people at the table - mostly Mets and Red Sox fans, making it a veritable Yankee-hating extravaganza. Also, at one point I gently pointed out that another player's bet was below the table minimum. He proceeded to wonder whether I was a "house shill." I almost pulled out my military identification in response. If anyone in our general area was working for the casino, I would have gone with two attractive, cowboy-hat wearing women in line for the Wolf Den. They certainly took my mind off the game on multiple occasions. It reminded me that taking several weeks off from playing in the fall of 2006 to actually learn blackjack strategy was a wise move; despite a wandering brain, I needed only to look at the table to immediately know what to do. And with that, it's time to watch 21 again...