A Nice Peaceful Celebration

      I’m excited I get to have Eruption practice tonight. Eruption is the band I have to this point referred to as my “prog” band. I figure on my way towards being more detailed, things like this should be better known. I’m excited because it’s been almost a month, but I’m also uncertain because I got a cryptic text from our drummer this morning. The text said that his wife was not feeling well, and that he may have to skip practice to take care of their girls. That was 6 hours ago, and I still have no idea if he’s going to make it or not. I’m kind of on the fence about letting the other guys know. The studio we use to practice takes payment the day before we rehearse. So, if we want to cancel, we need to cancel 24 hours in advance or we have to pay anyway. I get it, they want to make sure they have the chance to get the room rented. But no one wants to spend $45 on nothing. Hence, I prefer knowing we’re not practicing more than 24 hours ahead of time. I know things happen, and some of them are out of our control. The guys are usually pretty good at helping me out when we have to pay for nothing. It’s attached to my card, so I’d be stuck with the bill by myself. That’s part of the risk I take, but it’s good to have a good bunch of guys, so I don’t get screwed. The reason I’m comfortable not telling the others is that: 1) At this point, I don’t know that there’s anything to say. I still don’t know anything other than that the drummer might not be there. 2) As may be evident by this point, this has happened before. It actually happens so often that the rest of us have kind of created another band we call JoZ, so we can still use the room, and have fun. We play to a drum machine, and just kind of make up wacky stuff. It’s fun.

     I don’t really have any fear that the rest would cancel if we had no drummer, so I’m not sure a text is even necessary. I’ll wait until I know something. That makes more sense. Either way, I’m excited. We have a show coming up at the end of June, so we have plenty of time to get ready. I know I’m out next week. So, we have to take what we can get. Next week my wife’s company has rented out a local restaurant, so all the employees can watch the Padres game together. I know she wants to go. And it’s a bring your family type thing, so I know she wants us to be there. She said she would be fine by herself, but I know she wants me to go. I guess I’ll have fun too. I realize that these bonding events are necessary, and important. Plus, my wife still doesn’t have her license back yet, so she’d have to Lyft. Not that big of a deal, but if I can help, and save us a few bucks, I’ll do it. For some reason they’re all getting the next day off, so it could be a party. She’s so happy to be involved with a company that does these kinds of things, that it would have to be something pretty severe for me to bail on her. Plus, the place is pretty cool, and it’s very close to us. It’s called the Eastbound Bar & Grill. We’ve been there a few times, it’s got a cool vibe and good food. My wife just got “Employee Spotlight of the Month,” so she’ll probably be meeting all kinds of new fellow employees. She said she was overwhelmed by how many new faces she’s met since the newsletter came out. She’s pretty excited. She’s glad to be recognized. I’m happy for her. In her write-up she talked a lot about our family, so I might be getting a lot of extra attention too.

     Easter was good. We would normally have it at my Mother-in-law’s house, but she’s having some major restroom renovations being done, so it wasn’t going to work. The whole front of her house is in shambles, including parts of the kitchen. She’s got a huge house, and loves having it full of people, so it’s usually our go to spot for the holidays. My parents are now always invited, so it’s like one big happy family. I think everyone is glad we all have that type of relationship. Knowing that our usual spot was unavailable, I asked my parents if they were comfortable hosting. They were happy to. I guess we could have had it at our home, but it’s not that big, and we may have not all had enough room to feel comfortable. We don’t have an extra table, so that limits our guest count. I don’t think we plan on getting an extra table either. We can host a few people, and that’s all we really need. I’m not really a “house full of people” kind of guy. My house was never the house that “everyone hung out at.” My wife and I went over to my parent’s house Saturday night, that way we could wake up there Easter morning. We have a traditional breakfast we usually do, so it’s nice to not have to wake up extra early and drive over there. Plus, it gives us a little extra time to socialize with each other. Even though my parents only live 7 miles from us, we still don’t see them that often. Or talk to them very much for that matter. I think about it. Especially since my Father-in-law died. I know my turn is coming, and I don’t want to be sitting around thinking I should have spent more time with them. So, we soak it up when we can. Easter dinner was great. My Mother-in-law and her boyfriend were able to come, and it was a nice peaceful celebration.