Hanging With Friends

      Three weeks!  I knew when I had to look when I posted last that it had been a while. I also had to check my calendar, what has been going on? I’ve been pretty busy, but that’s not really an excuse. I’ve got to be able to find an hour a week, or else what the hell am I doing?! I guess I’ll start in a linear fashion, starting from our last transmission. The weekend after I wrote you last was very busy! Saturday was an event that some of us look forward to every year, that we call Meatfest. It is generally a barbeque for about 30 people. For some of us that is the only time we really get to see each other. The host is a barbeque fanatic. He has certain grills he only uses for pork. Some grills only charcoal. He probably has 7, used for various things. He gets very adventurous. It’s usually amazing. People bring sides, but the general idea is, try a bunch of different meats. There is also usually a band, and usually some type of impromptu jams. It’s a lot of fun. I brought some ceviche from a local store. I had tasted the ceviche while we were camping, and knew right then that I would bring it to the party. I was going to bring the hominy that I took camping. But I wasn’t sure if any camping friends were going, and I didn’t want to be mister 1 hit wonder. None of them showed. I would have been safe. I had so much hominy left over after camping that we ended up eating it in every different way we could think of. I should have brought it to Meatfest. I’m not going to be able to eat hominy again for a while.

     One thing that was kind of disappointing was that I thought a lot of people were taking too much food. People were coming out with huge, towering plates of food. I saw plates with 3 or 4 pieces of the same thing. There were a lot of things that many of us didn’t get to try because other people were gorging instead of tasting. I just don’t understand that mentality. Especially because these people are our friends! It seemed very inconsiderate. What we did have was delicious. One of the cool things about this party is that we all have a similar taste profile, so usually all the dishes that people bring are delicious. Towards the end of the party people kept asking if I was going to jam. None of my bandmates were there. And most of the people who I could have played with had been playing all day, so I wasn’t sure how it would work. But, people insisted. So, I jammed. It was fun. I had jammed with the guitar players before, but I never played with the drummer before. He is someone I know. Afterwards people could not believe that we just made some stuff up. People were shocked, it almost felt like we had a gig. I’m glad I didn’t chicken out. I think some people saw me in a different light that night. The next day was Beach Punk Fest 6! That was a blast. Although, on my way to pick up my gear, my check engine light came on. My muffler started sounding weird, and it felt like my car was about to die. So, once I loaded up the gear, I rushed home to change cars. I did not want to risk being all the way at the beach with a questionable vehicle. It’s impossible for me to relax when I’m not sure if I can get home.

     Beach Punk Fest 6 was very cool. There were a lot of people there. A lot of people recognized me, which, I’m almost ashamed to admit, I kind of like. The part I like the most though, is that at least 3 different people told me, towards the end of the night, that they thought we were the best band of the day. I was beaming! I thought the other bands were good. Only one of them was “eh.” The last band was frickin’ awesome. I thought they were next level. I had seen them once before, and was impressed, but this time I was blown away. I don’t know how anyone could think we were better than that. But hey, to each his own. I was a little disappointed that my bandmates didn’t stay around to see any of the other bands. We’re supposed to be celebrating the community, and those guys just bail. They didn’t even stay to watch the promoter’s band! And there had been a mass email, letting us all know that we were expected to support each other. Oh well, at least we represented. But twice in 2 days, I was left wondering: “What’s up with my friends?” One really cool thing that happened was, I ran into an old friend of mine. We lost contact about 13 years ago. He’s kind of “off the grid,” so it was only going to happen this way. It was so interesting too, because the opening band yelled out his name, asking where he was. And I was like: “What? He’s supposed to be here?” He didn’t show up until the last band. I knew the second he walked in. I couldn’t believe it. Apparently, he didn’t even know about the show, he had just gotten home, heard the music, and rolled in. We hung out for a bit then he invited my wife and I to his home. It was so fun, and to think I would have missed it if I hung with my “friends.”