Day Off in Houston

Crap.

Crap, crap, crap.

5am.

Just woke up. We're at the hotel and everyone has to get off, as the bus will be parking several blocks away.

There's nothing I hate more than arriving at a hotel in the middle of the night and having to get off the bus. Why in the hell can't we leave later so as to arrive around 7 or 8 in the morning? Stupid fucking tour manager and production manager would rather leave at midnight, stay up drinking for 5 hours, then crash into their rooms. Me, I'd just as soon sleep in my nice cold bunk overnight and go into the room when I wake up.

Gather my stuff, head to the room, stepping through the door just about 5:15.

Just as I predicted, the room is hotter than hell. Absolutely no way I can go back to sleep in a room like that, so I turn the AC unit to FREEZE, and go take a walk. Walk for 2 hours before I come back. Damn room's still hot. Read 2 newspapers and eat my bagel while waiting for the room to cool. Finally, around 11:30, I call the front desk and tell them I need to change rooms because the AC's for shit.

Twenty minutes later, I'm in a better room down the hall. AC's good and I have 2 beds, which is great cause I can use one for my luggage.

We're in Houston for 3 days. When I was here a couple of months ago with R. Kelly, I stayed about 2 blocks from here, so I already know where everything is. Four Starbucks, The Container Store (great place), Barnes & Noble, drugstores, everything. This particular hotel (Westin Galleria) is attached to the Galleria, which is a pretty upscale mall.

Work a little, read a lot, do some window-shopping, etc. Around 6:30 my buddy Shawn comes and picks me up to go to dinner. We go to his favorite Chinese buffet, which turns out to be the BEST buffet restaurant I've ever been to. The food is amazing, lots of selections. Crazy – Chinese, fish, seafood, sushi, pizza, all kinds of stuff.

A couple of hours later, Shawn drops me back by the hotel. It's not yet 9 o'clock, so I head to the sports bar in the mall to watch the UNC/Oregon State college world series game. Tonight is the final of a best of 3 series to determine the champ. Carolina loses. Oh, well.

Back to my room to chill and watch some tube before hitting the hay…