i wanted pasta tonight and, i dunno why, the olive garden came to mind. normally we just like to ma eke fun of the place, but the food is actually pretty good, in a very american kind of way.
so we wound up there. and, if you read the insanities very often, you know that the other times we've been to the olive garden, entertaining things happened. in fact, the last time we were there it was our waitress' first day and she brought craig maybe a thousand bowls of soup.
anyway, we get in after about a ten minute wait, during which we were discussing the merits and attractiveness of the typical tanning-bed brown skinned bleached blonde bombshell type which happened to be simpering on the other side of the waiting area. (nele says yea, cri-ag says nay. (i have other things on my mind.))
the waitress comes to the table, asks what we want to drink, and then stops and says, "okay, you guys look really familiar --- are you in a band?"
uh, okay, this is kinda freaky and kinda cool at the same time... we nod...
"wait!" she exclaims, holding up her hands, "don't tell me... i can guess..." and she thinks for a moment, with that it-was-on-the-tip-of-my-tongue look. "i used to work at disc-go-round...."
suddenly, i recognize her --- putting the face with the memory. she's the auburn-haired tall girl who worked there just after their grand opening. we played an in-store show, and she really dug it, and for months after, every time i came in the store she'd ask me about how we were doing. but before i can say anything, she's still thinking aloud, now pointing directly at me and saying, "you, especially, i recognize you." it's gotta be the hair. ["it's the hair. chicks dig the hair."] "you guys played in the store... i just can't remember..."
"it's `as of yet'," neal offers.
"yeah! that's right! 'cause i used to work at disc-go-round, and the manager gave me one of your-all's t-shirts!"
"do you wear it?" neal asks...
"oh, yeah!" then she grins, and adds "to sleep in" with a wink and soft punch on his shoulder. so, this solves the long-standing mystery of who was the unknown girl andy saw so long ago on maxwell street in an AoY t-shirt...
and then the rest of the evening went quasi-normally....
but neal was stricken by the incident. he called kristian from the parking lot on his cell phone ("i love this, i feel so pretentious") just to leave a short message saying, "yeah, dude, we're rock stars, we just got recognized at a restaurant as being in a band!"
of course, there are other things it brings up... like the fact that we actually aren't a band anymore... like the fact that we've seen two of our discs in the used bin at local shops... that one really stings, because it means someone thought the stuff we created and labored over and loved was just crap, or they valued the one dollar they could get for it more than the music. certainly, this happens to all artists, and indeed you can find some really good stuff in the used bin, because people sell them back when they need money, and people simply have different tastes, and, as elysse pointed out, the poor hippies can't afford new cds so the used ones are a godsend. but this seems especially personal to find our stuff in the used bin since it's very doubtful than anyone but people who knew us personally actually bought one of our discs.
oh well, it's all just bellyaching that's neither here nor there. like everything else i write, it seems.
Fri Sep 10 22:15:02 EDT 1999