The Dreams Have Changed

Two weeks in a row! Alright, I hope this is a trend. Although I was feeling like a nap, I decided to push through anyway, since we never know what tomorrow may bring. Not only is this two weeks in a row for writing, but also two weeks in a row for band practice. Yeah! It was kind of funny, because last week I took Susan with us to band practice. It had been a while since she had gotten to go up. Sh*t it had been a while since we had anyone up. I say “up” because we play up in the mountains, literally looking down over the entire county, it's pretty breath taking. There are some pictures on our website if your interested. The funny part about Susan going to practice was that I asked her to bring the camera, so we could get some pictures, and record a video or two. However, we were not really playing at our best. My guitar player was ill, but decided to push through anyway since we hadn't played in a while. He really didn't feel like having his picture taken. He couldn't sing, I could barely sing, and nobody was really up to par. So, in hindsight, it was probably not the best practice to try to capture images. The only reason Susan even got to go was because Stella Mae was still in Europe. I'm not even sure if I ever went into that with you. Stella Mae just got back from touring England and Scotland, with her school choir. She is safe at home now, for which I am eternally grateful. I am so glad it's finally over. It was weighing on my mind, but now it's over, and everything's fine. I'm glad she got to go.

A funny thing happened to me the other day. It's a little embarrassing to talk about, but I figure I'll go for it anyway. I have always thought that I had overly excessive sweat glands. My pits have been a problem for me since I can remember. So, the other day I was listening to the radio, and they were looking for people to help them with a sweat study. I decided to see what it was all about. The odd thing was, I had just decided to switch off Antiperspirants. I had read that Aluminum, which most of them contain, could be the cause for the yellowing of the shirt. Then, come to find out, for the study, you could not use any product containing Aluminum. I thought that was too close to be coincidence, and felt as though there was some kind of synchronous event happening. Imagine my surprise when I was turned down for the study. Apparently I don't sweat enough for their concerns. I was a bit shocked to realize that what I consider overactive sweat glands don't even qualify for the study. It kind of helps put things into perspective when you think you have a problem, and then come to realize that apparently, other people have it much worse than you. I'm still a little baffled, to think that this thing I've been agonizing over, for years, is essentially no big deal. Well, no big deal to them anyway. But it has gotten me thinking about it. It's a bit like watching Jerry Springer, “At least I'm not like those people!” It makes me wonder what other issues I think I have that wouldn't even qualify for the study.

I suppose that's a fairly decent way to look at things. Although, I do have to say, I try not to make a habit out of comparing myself to the worst. There seems to be something intrinsically negative about comparing yourself to the worst. I usually want to strive for, at least, above average. Being better than the worst is hardly a consolation. I'll have to put some more thought into that. Anyway, before I go I want to touch on one more thing, that kind of touches on last week's topic. Although, this time it's about real dreams, not fantasy dreams. I know other people's dreams can be boring, so I won't go into detail. When I was teaching Traffic School, I would often have dreams of completely bombing. In the theatrical sense of course. People walking out, no control over the class, hysteria. But now that I don't teach that class anymore, I find it very amusing that when I do have Traffic School dreams, I'm killing it. In the theatrical sense of course. I'm teaching the best classes of my life. I'm funny, people are interested, everything is as it should be. It seems so odd to me that now that that part of my life is over with, the dreams have changed. I never had good Traffic School dreams before. And here's the clincher, now that I work retail, my undesirable dreams have to do with not being able to find the right product, not being able to find the proper price, or any other various problems associated with retail sales. I just find it terribly interesting that, both literally and figuratively, my dreams have changed.

Daughn