I'll have a side of redneck with that...

Listening to Burn by Ray LaMontagne

So last night was the first time Gwnn went to Austin's row of straight bars filled with drunk fratdaddy's and tourists, the infamous 6th street. It started off normal enough with having to duck around the neighbors as they went in and out of their side of the house but this time was a bit worse than most. The night was supposed to start at 5:30pm but I didn't wind up leaving 'til after 7. But I bolted out the crimson drawdoor on the GwnnMobileHome and it was into the freshly-polished-by-Ukrainian-garden-gnomes Gwnnmobile for the quick, 5-minute jaunt to Austin's version of the tourist trap...

I met Erin and Diane at Rain on 4th to catch the last few songs from Hedda Layne. I can't tell you just how good Hedda is. If you're ever in Austin, you should do yourself a favor and catch her act. Her style of music (a fusion of dance, jazz and electronica) is the perfect way to start out a night. I just really wish that she had some later shows as it would give me something to look forward to for the night. Having to stop at 7:30pm gets you all jazzed to party up but when you finally do achieve your buzz, she's been done for an hour and you're left with the standard fare of mundane dance music.

Anyway, I walk into Rain and find Diane and Erin tucked up nicely against the multicolor lighted stage. Looking around, I only notice 2 other ppl I know; Hedda and Nadine (of which I just met this last week). I order a light beer and slam it in about 5 minutes to get Gwnn's head in the right place (which I quickly followed with another Mick Ultra).

Nadine comes by to say hello (she's working the bar tonight) and she tells us that her and some of her friends will be going to Charlie's for a benefit drag show and asks if we would like to show up there later. Diane and Erin seemed interested and since it didn't start for another 4 hours, we put it on the schedule.

We departed Rain after Hedda stopped (did I mention go see her?) and headed down to South Congress Cafe to grab some munchies. We had to eat quick as Diane had an unpaid "training" class where she works and we couldn't get her there late. With just a few minutes to spare, we got Diane to her work while Erin and I tried to find parking (which is always close to impossible to find downtown at night...). Some 30 mins later, we had a great parking space about 50 ft from the entrance to Lovejoy's. It was serendipity in action (more on that later)...

We walked the 2 1/2 blocks down to Diane's work and then went upstairs to wait for her training class to finish. Three hours tick off the clock and they finally finish up. To us, it just looked like it was just a class on how to pour drinks in this certain establishment (Diane's one of the bartenders...). So at 12:30am, we gain a few more members for our 6th street posse and it's off to the Co-Ed bar to meet up with Alicia's friend.

We have a drink at Co-Ed, a fairly non-descipt bar for 6th street and then at about 1:15am, we move out to LoveJoy's so the girls can play some pool. We get there and I get carded (always love showing the Bubba license to the door troll as Gwnn looks nothing like Bubba's picture...) and I join the girls at the pool table. We now have a pretty nice little group being comprised of Erin and Diane, Diane's friends Alicia and Jessie as well as a few other ppl I met only briefly from the Co-Ed bar.

2am hits and we're kicked out. Now here's one of the reasons I hate living in Texas and the reason for this post. We're standing outside LoveJoy's trying to figure out what to do next when 4 drunk fratdaddy's walk up the street and start hitting on Diane, Alicia and Jessie. They all ask the guys to keep moving but the beligerent drunks just ignore the quite clear signals the girls were sending. Well, push comes to shove (literally) and it degrades into a loud, drunken, slurred-speech-redneck-hairball of cuss words, polyester and denim. I asked the chicken-shit bouncer at LoveJoy's to come out and assist the girls in getting rid of the drunk rednecks of which he came out for 3 minutes and went back inside saying things like "Well, if that girl wants to fight, I'm not going to stop her." and "It looks like the transvestite is starting something so I'll let him finish it." A total dereliction of duty, in my opinion. (BTW, he was talking about Erin who was waist-deep in the hairball and I don't think he realized that I was also of that ilk when he said that to us...)

Things work themselves out and everyone disbands to the far corners of 6th street to pickup their cars and meet at Diane's. I was the lucky one who got to drive Diane to her apartment, which was nice as she was the main reason why I went out in the first place.

Just a bit about Diane (which, if you ever read this Diane, email me!). Diane is intimidatingly beautiful and extremely sharp and quick-witted. You can tell that she really cares about what she's talking about with you as she has that great charisma that makes you feel like she's talking just to you even if the room is crowded. I'm awed by her strong self-confidence and wish that I had just a smidgen of that confidence for myself. Plus it helps that she has the Kiss action figures... I have to admit I've got a bit of a crush... ;)

So we get back to Diane's and Jessie shows up in pretty quick order. Soon afterward, Erin and Alicia show up and the inaugural 6th Street Grrls posse is once again complete.

And so we come to my low point of the night; the end. Gwnn comes off as a bit anti-social in the clubs as Bubba has just never had much fun there. Gwnn would love to dance but doesn't know how; would love sing karaoke but can't carry a tune; loves to talk but hates to scream. Gwnn is so much more comfortable with a few people where conversations can carry w/o blowing a vocal cord. And that's what we had when we finally got back to Diane's. But, great moments don't last forever so at least I got to enjoy that 15 mins. which made the entire evening worth all the trouble for me.

I so hope that I get another chance to go out with the inaugural 6th Street Grrl posse again but maybe on more friendly turf. It would have been nice to meet up with Nadine, Lexie and Rachael at Charlie's but there is always next time.