Sold out in El Paso

We played to a totally sold out house in El Paso last night. It was a blast! The largely hispanic crowd was enthusiastic from the first note, and went nuts when Ramone played his trumpet solos.

David and I signed autographs outside after the show. I'm glad he's back.

We arrived in San Antonio around 8:30 this morning after a nine hour overnight bus ride. I spent the first couple of hours on the bus working on computer stuff with Walter, Hussain, and Pedro. About the time we figured out how to set up an shared "Airport" internet connection we drove out of range of cell telephone service and couldn't use it. I slept like a baby for the rest of the night. I was nervous that I'd go through the same problems I had getting used to sleeping on the bus last year. It was a relief to wake rested this morning just as we pulled into San Antonio.

A bunch of us got together for breakfast and ended up spending the day walking around San Antonio's great riverwalk. I also visited the Alamo.

Late in the day, as a group of us were walking back to the hotel, a man walked up with a monkey on his arm. We stopped to look at the little guy and his owner told Erika to just stick out her arm so the monkey could perch there. He also walked across Kristen's arm and I snapped a couple of pictures. Meanwhile, Karen, who turns out to be the smartest among us, is backing way off and looking at the monkey handlers with as if we should all go join the circus. I thought, "My daughter would love to see a picture of me with a monkey," so I stuck out my arm. For some reason the monkey got very excited and clutched my arm tightly. He then crawled up to my shoulder, wrapped his sharp clawed little hands around my neck and started licking the side of my face! The owner laughed and said, "Wow, he really likes you."

Now don't get me wrong, I like being 'liked' as much as the next person, but now that I've experienced it I can say without hesitation that I'm not really fond of being chocked and licked by a monkey. There were several tense moments as the owner struggled to pry the 'monkey in love' from my neck but he held on for dear life to everything he could sink his claws into, including my skin, hair and clothes. I pretended to stay calm and it did hurt a bit, but after a few tense minutes I was free and headed back to the hotel for an alcohol swab and a little antibiotic ointment. Check out the monkey pics and more by using my photographs link. I think I'll go have a banana.


¶ 11:49 PM