you just never know.

junior and mrs junior took baby girl and went out of town, so we went to pick up the dog from doggie day care and return her to the sad & lonely crate. (just kidding... i mean, it's a crate and all, but she's just going to sleep... not with the lonely.)

anyway, "we" took off to do this chore, but i was just going along for the ride. he could have accomplished the task without my help, and in fact, he did accomplish the task without my help because i basically sat around, played two-dots, and took a spontaneous nap. aaaand, fast forward to dog in crate headed to sleep, people in car headed to home.

until we get to the stoplight.

and at the stoplight.

we don't turn right.

we go straight.

what? whaaat?

this is why i came along!

IT'S ADVENTURE TIME!

we end up at a live music venue on writer's night. i have never been to a writer's night so i don't really know what to expect. we get a couple beers, chips & salsa, settle in beside some guy's guitar. "here, i'll move it." "no, you can leave it."

first up is a simple country boy. he sings about liquor and women. okay, if i expected anything, i have to admit that a trucker-hatted country singer is it. he's not great, but he's all right. not much style or attitude, but damn, he got up there and sang his stuff out loud in front of people. kudos.

next up is this older guy with a bluesy-rock style. he sings about women and cars, and claims this one song - yellow chevy - was used on NPR's car talk. (i looked it up and in fact, it was!) he's not great, but he's all right, and he's unexpected. he's got this way of working the audience - you can tell he's an experienced performer. he's fun to watch.

next up is a girl wearing black from her kohl smoky eyes down to her doc martens. hmm. what's this? everyone's got a guitar in their hands, and she's no different, but what she does with it is different. there's no country here, no showmanship. this girl starts singing about grey days and pain and angst. she's very good - only drawback is that all three songs actually sound the same. so. something to work on there.

next up is our guitar buddy - the guy who's guitar is beside us. he collects it and gets up there and starts off with a funny song about having a voice only a mother could love. it's funny and cute in a roger-miller sort of way. his voice is okay - true, it's not great, but it's fine. and he's funny. he's got another song about "don't quit your day job". haha. his final song... unfortunately, he doesn't really have it down, stumbles a couple times. ugh. you can tell he's embarrassed. he leaves. too bad, really, because he's bringing something to the table and whatnot.

next up is this sort of soft-grunge kid. he's down here from maryland, getting away from the snow, in his flannel shirt and old jeans and artfully poised boggin hat. he's a pretty good guitar player and a pretty good singer, in a john mayer sort of way, but he's either overly shy or overly disinterested. he's got something to offer, but he's not offering it. he mentions his girl and sings a song to her and everyone claps and he sits down.

next up is... his girl! hey, they both sing! and she is holding nothing back. nothing. she is by far the best of the night. great voice, real melodies with unfamiliar licks, original lyrics without forced rhymes. nice! and, nice to look at - she's tall, fit, comfortable in her clothes. she's got these gold earrings dandling and this half-buzzed sort of throwback haircut that she just... she just carries it off. it's impressive is what it is.

so, of course, when her 15 minutes are up, we leave.

the list went on. there were more to come. next up was slated a pair of young sisters, and you can imagine they were going to be great. well, maybe. i mean, youngsters are a toss up, really. could be brilliant, could be tortured rhymes on tired melodies.

we chose our moment and we left. maybe we'll go again, maybe not. maybe it will become a regular thing we do, maybe it will forever be a one-timer, never to be repeated. you never know, see? that's life around here. you just never know.