Overdue Update

My friend Ryan Cabrera was in town over the weekend. I've known Ryan since he was a teenager and I got him his first big break... opening for one of our holiday concerts with Destiny's Child and a bunch of other big groups. He went on to have two number-one hits, started dating Ashleigh Simpson, moved to LA, signed with Joe Simpson, etc. We have been friends forever but we rekindled our friendship when he and the show were in the Bahamas last winter at Atlantis. Since then, we've hung out several times... He's a really good guy and I'd like to see him make a big comeback.


Ryan Cabrera, cool guy musician who can pull off a hat like that


Sexy? Oh yea, I got your sexy right here. Umm, not so much.

Anyway, he came to town for the Cowboy game. Friday night was like my-night/his-night. M We went to dinner with a couple other friends at a nice restaurant. That was the "my-night" part. The rest was "his-night" and I take no responsibility. LOL Actually, we went to a club where people dance (they dance, I stand and bob my head) and they drink, and then at around 2am they get told to leave and some of them don't want to because they're really drunk so they start fights. I've never had a more "what am I doing here" moment than the 20 minutes surrounding closing time.
We were rounding up everyone to leave when a black guy and a white guy started yelling at each other. After the black guy backhanded the white guy across the face, a melee ensued. What is a melee and why does it always ensue? Anyway, the poor bouncer jumped in and somehow was sent flying across the room into the wall, head first. Whatever they pay those guys, it's not enough. It was all over in less than a minute but dang... I was about 5 feet away so I had that dilemma, stay here and watch or give up my amazing viewpoint for fear of being pummeled. I decided to stay, ready to jump in to the fight at the first sign of injustice. So everybody gets separated and I go back to looking for Ryan. Within 5 minutes, it starts up AGAIN. The same two guys! I don't know why they were still inside, but they were going at it again for round two. This time, their girlfriends got involved. One petite brunette about 24 jumped on top of the pile, arms flailing at everyone in sight, her little black dress jacked up above her waist. That caused the other guy's girl to go after her. She grabbed the girl by the back of the dress and when she did, she was pulled into the pile and then HER loose-fitting hippie dress went flying over her head. Wearing clean underwear (or ANY underwear) is not just advice that applies to car accidents. It also works if you're going to stampede into a fight in a mini-dress.

These two events caused every guy in the bar to take a keen interest in the fight. The police were brought in for this one and the security staff at the club did an admirable job of breaking it up and keeping the bystanders safe. What a crazy night. I don't know what else to say except you never see that at Applebees.

Sunday, I went as Ryan's guest to the Cowboy game.


Ryan with his dad and mom

He's good friends with Tony Romo (who's dating Jessica, whose dad manages Ryan; see the connection?) and Tony was nice enough to get us tickets to the game. Ryan forgot to ask for a parking pass so even though we got to the stadium a half hour before game time, at kick-off we were stuck in a hopeless traffic jam. I mean, like it will never ever clear up kind of traffic jam. As the guy who's supposed to know where to go, I screwed up and told them to stay right instead of left and we ended up on an access road with literally a mile of cars ahead of us, none of them moving. Making matters worse, Ryan's parents were waiting outside the gate for Ryan to give them the tickets and we were already a half-hour late. After a pseudo-legal detour, we were on open road... heading AWAY from the stadium. Looking across at the other side of the road, it was clear we had been as close as we were ever going to get. We made a u-turn and pulled into a McDonalds two miles from the stadium where we saw an unoccupied cab. These were desperate times so I went in to find the driver. You can accuse me of racial profiling all you want, but I found that driver in about 30 seconds. First try. He was chowin down on a number 1 combo meal when I made my offer; 20 bucks for two miles if we can go right now. He said, "Let me finish eating and I'll take you." We sat in the booth next to him waiting anxiously as this man became the slowest eater in world history. Every french fry was a masterpiece to be examined and admired before it was eaten, and no fry could be eaten all at once. Each had to be dipped in ketchup and then bitten off where the ketchup ended, roughly 1/2 inch per bite. Then he would stop to drink; the refreshment break apparently was designed to let him ponder his life for several moments between bites. He would lean into the straw, take a sip, swallow, and then gaze off into the horizon as if the counter at McDonalds held the secrets to the universe. After about ten minutes of that torture, we decided to find another way. We ended up walking and got into the stadium with 5 minutes left in the first quarter. All is forgotten once you get inside and our seats were great. We had a good time.



Kidd, Ryan, and Chaven at the game.

It's the famous Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders!


That's all the excitement I can stand for one weekend. I'm more accustomed on weekends to staring at the walls, watching youtube for hours, working on the show, and conducting long, frustrating, futile searches for power adapters.