Happy Birthday, Babies!
Big Happy Birthday wishes to Auntie Kate and Jessie!


Storm Chasers

All we wanted was to go to Chilli's. It's an American chain Tex-Mex restaurant and since Heather and Kristen are with us at the same time, we decided it would be fun to do a little night of Americana with Jorge and Ray. Poor Ray. Outnumbered by four Americans, he didn't really have a chance.

There are three Chilli's that we know of. One in Wentworthville, one in Campbelltown, and one in Wollongong. We were going to Wentworthville because it was closest. Heather, Kristen, and I had never been to Chilli's in Oz.

It seemed like a simple plan.

We left at 6pm so we could be stuffing our faces by 7.30pm. We weren't trying to do anything fancy. We just wanted a bit of Tex-Mex with free refills, waitresses/waiters we would remember, and a bit of corny Yank nostalgia.

So, we're going along, the boys up front, and the three gals wedged in the backseat. As we're driving, the heavens open up and treat us to a thunderstorm full of heavy rain and hail and all that fun stuff. It's really hard to see, but Ray keeps driving bravely. Finally we spot the Chilli's sign. It calls to us, like a beacon in the night. But it's on the "wrong" side of the road, so Ray take a right to try to come around from the other side. Okay, so we get a teensy weensy bit lost. Just momentarily. HUGE apologies to the poor woman walking on the sidewalk of that little side street we went down. This one street was totally flooded and the car in front of us went by and sprayed a tsunami over this poor lady. We yell, "Oh no!" at the poor dear getting soaked while realising we are about to do the same thing. Ooops!

So, an hour or so after leaving Newtown, we pull up to the infamous Chilli's. We cheer! We made it. Then we say, "Huh. Doesn't it look awfully dark in there?" And we notice all these people coming out. Huh. Ray immediately starts freaking out saying, "Don't tell me they're closed!" So Jorge and I walk in the restaurant, leaving Ray, Kristen and Heather in the car, to go check out the situation. Women coming out tell me, "You won't get any food in there!" I grab a Chilli's employee and ask, "Are you closed?" And he says yup. The electrical storm knocked out the electricity. So Chilli's is closed. What are the chances? We're all infamous for our bad luck, particularly the chaos attractors Lori and Kristen.

Plan B

We could just go back to Sydney, but we're starving. So we're going to drive another half hour to the Chilli's in Campbelltown. We call ahead to make sure they're open. They are. They seem surprised that we ask if they're open. We also want to ask, "Right, so you're really open? How's the weather looking outside?" So we trek along to Chilli's number two and we get stuck in major traffic. Why is there major traffic? Because the road is totally flooded. At this point Ray says, "Okay, I have to ask a question. Is it just me or is this a sign that we're not meant to go to Chilli's? Is God telling us to turn back?" We try to be encouraging and say, "Ah Ray, you can make it, the flooding's not that bad!" Meanwhile, there are two rrushing rivers forming on either side of us and I mistake a tree floating by for a crocodile swimming on through. Policemen are directing cars and their scared drivers through the raging waters in the street. We make it through the first lake, but it's pretty rough going. We wait and wait and see cars up ahead making illegal U-Turns because the roads are too flooded. Ray begs us to give in. We agree. So Ray follows suit and makes a U-turn as well.

It was such a simple plan.

Go to Chilli's. Eat Tex Mex. Come home.

That's all.

Plan C

So we start heading back to Sydney, wondering why we ever bothered to leave Newtown. I mean really, with the 5 of us together, we were just asking for trouble. About 2 minutes into the drive back, Ray spots a "Lonestar" restaurant and says, "How about here?" And we all say, "Hell yeah!" So we go in and there's a 30 minute wait so we head for the bar. I grab a Heineken in the spirit of Yankeeism and we wait for our magic table buzzer to blink and buzz. Every half hour the Lonestar waitresses are subjected to supreme humiliation by having to form a cirle around the tables and perform the "Lonestar" dance, which is like a half-assed choreographed cross between country line-dancing and the Macarena. We felt so bad for these girls. They looked like they wanted to die. The poor things!

So I was totally in the mood for a big juicy steak for a good 40 minutes, yet what do I end up ordering? The fish & chips. Leave it to me to order the fish & chips at a steakhouse!

So, it was a simple plan. We left at 6pm. We ate around 10pm. The food was yummy though. I was so full. I'd ordered cheese fries with melted monterrey jack and swiss chese and ranch dressing as an appetiser. I thought I'd have to be rolled out of the restaurant.

We never got our Chilli fix. Lord knows when we'll try again. But one thing's for sure. We're going to check the weather channel first ;)

...

Breaking the Seal

Thanks to M for letting me share the juicy gossip tonight. Really felt good to get some of that out! Some of that's been building up for a few months now, so it was nice to share with someone who knows the people involved. :)

"Sleep, Sleep is Good"

Only Rammstein will fully get the title for today's blog, but the general idea is what I mean today. As I barely slept Friday or Saturday nights and I slept badly last night. Lil' Loz's (Aussification of Lori) been tired all day long. It is about 9pm and I was supposed to do some web work tonight, but methinks I'm going to go to bed now as I've got an early meeting @ work tomorrow. (By the way, Chad, my co-workers/friends have been calling me Loz...in addition to Lozza, Lozzarina, Lozzana, Lozzy Lozzy Lozzy Oy Oy Oy [yeah, I know], Truck and of course Butterfly and Biscuit, and other terms of endearment I won't type here. But thank you for pointing out that technically, Loz is my proper Aussie name as it contains less syllables than Lori ;)

There are lots of cool musical happenings this week and I really want to go to them all, but there's a chance I may miss all of them - crazy huh? Sad, really...but I've got after-work drinks tomorrow, Chaos Theory class on Wednesday, and Valentine's Day a.k.a. "Thank God I'm Single" Day to celebrate with all my single female friends on Thursday. So hopefully Friday/Saturday will give me that music boost I'm needing if I can't pack it in during the week.

I had a dream last night that I was on a talk radio show trying to figure out the biggest questions of the world...i.e.
"What is the meaning of life?"
"Is there a God?"
"Is there life after death?"
"Why are we here?" and
"Why do I always come up with new melodies for songs when I'm in the loo?"

Maybe I'll dream the answers tonight! ;)

The Best Laid Plans, Good Musical Outings, & Dealing With Difficult People 101

Damn, and I was being so good about writing too! :(

Friday night was not all it was meant to be. We had to ditch our Mike Patton solo gig plan at kinda the last minute and Fidelma and I have decided that we're totally jinxed. Whenever we try to make plans, a phenomenal hail storm occurs. No, really. I think Zeus is trying to keep us apart. I think we need to create some sort of secret signal so we never speak of our plans aloud. If we talk about it, it won't happen. So we need something like baseball signals, only ones that can be transmitted over e-mail/mobile. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. Even the plans of dancing were not all they were meant to be. Big sorries to Jo, Dan, Jorge, and Kristen - you guys know why! (Actually, some dumbass Cole's worker knows why too, but he was clueless ;)

Anyhoo, Friday night ended with a big stomach ache and not much sleep, but Saturday proved to be much better. I got a fair bit of writing done during the day and then I night I went to see the hilariously talented Merri May Gill @ Cafe 9. The food was excellent, as was the entertainment. I believe Ms. Gill is coming back to Sydney, maybe round May, and I highly recommend. She combines comedy and bluesy/folky/rocky/country music and she has a super set of pipes. Perhaps I'll round up a posse next time...Anyway it was funny because I was just talking about Yap and Mel and who walks in Cafe 9 but Mel? Do-dee-doo-doo-DOOOO! Thankfully, I was only saying nice things ;)

After Merri May Gill, we went to go see Salmonella Dub @ DCM on Oxford Street. I'd never been there before and I'm dying to know if the dance floor always feels like it's going to cave in like that! ;) The joint was packed and sweaty and all that fun stuff, but Salmonella put on another fabulous show. Very mellow, very laid-back, very groove-quenching, very contagious. I've seen them before, and I look forward to seeing them again, though outside with a little more personal space would be nice :) Huge thanks to C for a very fun evening! ;)

I got home around 2 a.m. than talked on the phone with Reese's Pieces until nearly 3 a.m. - after all, we had an entire 12 hours to catch up on! :) Anyhoo, I went to be around 3.30 and when my lil alarm clock started screeching at me at 7 a.m. I was not a happy camper. I had my "How to Deal with Difficult People" course from 9am-5pm. It was very interesting and a good refresher course from my Cognitive Behavioural Therapy class from 2 years ago...now I have to see how much I've learned by interacting with all those punks in my life ;)

Gotta do some work, then I'm off to bed, I am so zonked!

p.s. Tomahawk rocked my world on Thursday...but I haven't the energy to discuss that now! Sweet dreams!