Day Off in Los Angeles

Nope, that is NOT an April Fool's joke. That's the price of gasoline at the Mobil station at the corner of Beverly Blvd. and La Cienega, across the street from my hotel. It's gone up 4 cents per gallon since yesterday. I pretty sure I've never seen prices that high before, so I figured I better get a photo…

Got up around 8 this morning. Went down the street to hang out at Starbucks with a latte and a scone, then I walked around the neighborhood a bit. Watched the Martinsville race in my room – strange to watch racin' at 10:30 in the morning. Damn Jimmy Johnson - that useless prick has now won 3 of the last 4 races. Hope somebody figures out how he's cheating. And soon.

After that, I went downstairs to the gym and ran a few miles on a treadmill.

Josh is throwing a crew party for everyone tonight. It's at some tourist-type joint called the Saddle Ranch Chop House over at the Universal CityWalk. All-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink. I heard the budget for the party was about $15k. AND there's a mechanical bull to ride. Whoo-hoo!

Went over about 7:30 with Dennis, his buddy Donnie from Phoenix, Debra Copelan, our travel agent, and Ivan Copelan, our road manager, who lives on my bus. Ivan and Debra had a big ol' rental SUV and the five of us jumped in and took off for the valley.

I read about the place online today. Total tourist joint, but we had a huge, huge back room all to ourselves, with a bar, two bartenders, a wait staff of five, and a massive buffet.

Josh showed up wearing a cowboy hat and was the first person to get on the bull. Right there, I'm impressed – he's worth a bazillion dollars and he's leading by example. Cool.

A bunch of folks followed the boss. Colette, the cello player in the band, was overheard saying that there was no way she'd ride the bull. Someone asked what it would take. She said she wouldn't do it unless she had on pants (she was wearing a skirt) and she got $200. My dumb ass was just drunk enough to whip out a hundred dollar bill and say "Well, here's half of it, when the other half shows up I guess you gotta ride the bull, pants or no pants." At which point, Mike Colucci (one of the riggers) whipped out another Benjamin. Twenty minutes later, after she was tossed from the bull, I handed her the $200. Guess she earned it.

After the party wrapped, sometime after midnight, we all jumped back in the car and headed to the Sevendust show at the House of Blues on Sunset. The show was over but we were only going to hang out with the band, anyway. Stayed there for a beer, then I caught a ride with Ivan and Deb back to the hotel…