Entry date: 11-1-2022 - The Weekend - Letters to My Friends

Dear Friends,

What an interesting weekend I had and welcome to November!

Friday night we had a fun practice for the Adolescents gig we did on Saturday and then I watched the Suns beat the Pelicans. That was a good game, even though Deandre Ayton went down with an ankle injury. The Pelicans are really good and gave the Suns all they could handle during the first half, but the Suns were able to prevail pretty handily in the second half.

I like how the Suns took a pretty big shot from both the Warriors and the Pelicans last week and won both games. These teams believe they can punk the Suns and it was nice that they said “No way.” It’s early, sure, but the team looks good so far. Hopefully Ayton will be back soon.

Saturday got off to a great start. Tom, Dave, and I went for a walk and then I met Justin at Dreamy Draw and did another walk. By the time the day was done, I was over 20K in steps, and I felt it on Sunday. Justin and I took the dogs with us and had a good talk and enjoyed our time together as usual. Afterwards, we met Jeff and Angela for breakfast at a place called Kimmyz on Bell and Tatum.

For the price, Kimmyz offers a good, yet simple, breakfast. The four of us (and the two tuckered out dogs with us on the patio) had a good conversation and enjoyed our time together. I really am enjoying the simple things so much more lately. We hung out for quite a while and after we said goodbye to Justin, the rest of us went to Fire and Fury on 32nd St and Thunderbird for round two.

Rhondi met up with us there and we helped her eat some nachos and had a few beers. Fire and Fury is located in the old Joe’s Grotto space. Their pulled pork was pretty tasty, and the beers weren’t half bad, either. I would have liked to have sampled more of their brews, but I did have to drive. After a couple of hours hanging out and talking more, it was time to head home to get ready for the show.

Michael and Tracey rode out with us and we had another fun conversation as we drove across town. It was a great day for that sort of thing. They all dressed up, but I just wore what I thought the guy from the Adolescents would wear.

We played at Yucca Tap Room at 8:30pm. Due to some nasty Saturday night traffic in town, we basically got there in time for me to go on stage and sing. That’s always a bit stressful, but it also didn’t give me a lot of time to get nervous.

I think I was more nervous during the afternoon than I was once we got there and go going. Admittedly, I struggled with learning the lyrics, but I think I pulled it off okay and the boys in the band held their own really well. Learning a whole set of another band’s songs is not the easiest thing to do and considering I couldn’t practice with them for about two weeks right in the middle of our prep time, we did well.

I think I would even do another one of these again. It was fun to just be the singer. I hadn’t done that since the Religious Skid days even though I have been hopeful the opportunity would come along. Just like it is fun to only be the bass player in a band, too. Not that I don’t love being a lead singer/bass player. I love that, too, but I’ve always felt like one took a little bit away from the other.

The best part of all of it, though, was making new friends. I’m driven way more by the richness of a relationship than any accolades or attention. When you play music with people (or probably any creative or worthwhile endeavor), you bond in a way that is hard to describe in words. There is a trust that must be built.

It was good to see a bunch of friends at the show, too. Even though I have little drive to be out and about these days, it doesn’t mean that I don’t like seeing people. I’m still not a huge fan of the Yucca Tap Room. One of the bartenders did everything she could to ignore me all night long. I wonder if she didn’t like my comments about Kari Lake. All said was that she should get fist fucked by the Hulk and I may have implied that I think she is a C word.

Sunday was a nice day of partial relaxing and partial getting shit done. Rhondi and I got some very necessary work done on our freezers. I am ashamed to admit that we are terrible wasters of food. We found some stuff that had serious freezer burn. Stockpiling frozen food is a dumb thing.

I also was offered a new job on Friday and I’m going to take it. I know I have written a lot about being happy with my new music position and I am, but the new opportunity is a chance for me to grow as a teacher and get out of what is a less than stellar environment. I will be moving over to a district near my home and working with 4th grade students for the rest of the year.

This is definitely a new challenge, but I’m ready for it. I have worked with 4th graders in the past and while I prefer 2nd grade, I think I might be just as happy with a class with a few more developing skills to build upon. I got to meet the team I will be on when I interviewed, and they seem like a good group of people. I also like the administration folks I met, too, and even worked with my new principal when I was with Casa.

Should be a very interesting week.

See you tomorrow.

Action shot by Pete J. from the Yucky Tap Room.