Beaumont Rockin' Blues Festival - Day One

I am currently trying to ignore the fact that I have a truly disgusting cold. I pried myself off the couch yesterday and headed downtown with my sister, Terry, to the Blues Festival. Her husband, Dan, would meet us out there later. I told her I wanted to go to Rio Rita's for a margarita and some lunch hoping the margarita would distract me from the fact that I couldn't breath. The Grande Suprema Margarita did the trick.

We walked over to the Blues Festival in time to catch Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown and then Tab Benoit with one of the Neville brothers and some Mardi Gras indians. It was blues-a-licious and we're going back out there today.

"Laurie" awards go to:

• Best performance by someone who wasn't there: The woman who worked at one of the local school districts who was sitting beside me. We had never met before but became instant friends. She didn't want anyone from her school district to know she was, shall we say "having so much fun." Yet, whenever a television news camera appeared to be shooting anywhere in our direction, she would wave frantically.
• Best performance by a Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown fan: The elderly black lady in the baby blue shirt who never sat down and never stopped clapping during the whole performance. Shake what God gave you, girl.
• Best performance by someone who was drunk but was trying their best to make people think they weren't drunk: The 50-ish year old woman with the fire engine red hair who dislocated one of the rails separating the VIP area from the rabble, then fell into the VIP area and then valiantly tried to reconnect the rail.