The phone ring woke me up. I rolled out of bed knowing it must be Sadie and glanced at my clock - 10:00. Friggin' 'ell. I stumbled out to the living room locating the ring and croaked into the phone, "hello". "I'm leaving now to pick you up", "OK", "Did I wake you up?", "No".

The drummer came in for rehearsal today, the first time for me to play with him. It was great. Playing Wednesday's gig should be fine, I'm sitting out on three songs, and otherwise I'm just holding down the roots, basically adding muscle to the band's low-end. This is definitely a band I wouldn't join, or know enough now to quit if I had joined. I've been in this sort of dynamic before where there are the two creative forces, and my own contribution is geared to pleasing them or to be trumped by them, or even decided by them with me in abstensia. I just didn't like the view from the corner of the room I was standing in. Been there, done that. Add to that a drummer who only makes a fraction of rehearsals, and it's not even fun for me or worth my while as a hired gun. I'm not that good of a bassist, I need a drummer to develop groove.

I wasn't planning to go to Delphine's this evening, but she caught me on the phone late in the afternoon and cajoled (and guilted) me to head out to the East Bay. Her building was having a potluck and Del cooked a bunch of food. It was rainy and chilly, but for once I wasn't complaining about it. There was just something appropriate about an outdoor potluck in the Bay Area getting rained on, so I was able to appreciate it (it was under a carport). After a while we headed inside and hung out and chatted, watched some TV with her bro and sis, and then went to see "Better Luck Tomorrow" because her sis had a free pass. I thought it was an excellent film. I almost jumped up and shouted when Versus's "Eskimo" started playing on the soundtrack!

I always enjoy hanging out with Delphine, but there are issues that make me keep my distance when we're not hanging out. Aside from my personal issues, she's one of those Asians who only dates white guys, internalized racism. I've heard some pretty shamelessly racist (granted, internalized) reasons, but hers was pretty novel, I thought. She wants to date Asians, but no Asian guys want to date her. Racist without being racist, very clever. Even I had to smile, intrigued, at that one. Del and I are hugging friends, we hug when we meet and hug when we depart, and her hugs are of the sincere variety. Nice hugs always get major points.