Can't Win Them All

      Valentine’s Day Eve! I guess that doesn’t really get very much attention. Perhaps it should though. Everyone who celebrates, does so on Valentine’s Day, celebrating on Valentine’s Eve would be much more surprising. There’s been times in the past where we went out to fancy lunch, instead of dinner, just to mix it up and skip some of the crowd. I thought it worked great, and I heard no complaints. But, I have it pretty easy. As I’ve mentioned a few times in the past, she’s easy to please. She doesn’t expect much, so whatever I do, is usually met with happiness. Although, I’m not feeling very festive this year. If she gets off work early enough, we may go have an early dinner, but I’m still not sure. We have to eat! So, I’m sure something will be had, but I’m not sure of its romanticism. I may change my mind. We’re dealing with trust issues again. It seems like every time I start to feel like we’re getting on the same page, I find out that we’re not even reading the same book! It’s disheartening. And I know I made a “life-long” commitment, but if those were made under false pretenses, that I was unaware of at the time, how can I be held culpable? I had to issue an ultimatum. This is 3 or 4 times now, outright lies, directly to my face. About things that had been going on for a while. Things I noticed, brought up, and was met with instant denial. Which were, in fact, true. I feel sometimes like I’m in an episode of Austin Powers, where the villain will tell the truth if asked 3 times. It’s ridiculous. It’s as if I’m supposed to have some kind of solace, because the lies were not about the same thing. It’s the same to me: outright lying, right to my face. That’s sociopath stuff! Now, the greater concern is: what can I believe? Coupled with: since it’s been “forgiven” several times, is it seen as some carte blanche to continue?

     It’s a rare rainy day where I live today. Being a typical Southern Californian, that means I usually don’t leave the house. But, I do have practice today, so I will venture out into the wet world. We’re practicing with that guy Jim again. Last week was pretty good. He can play guitar, and his style fit right in. He knew 3 of the 4 songs we were doing, so that worked well. I’m sure he’ll know the other by today, at least somewhat. Enough to get us by. Last week we just played along to the recording, which worked well. So, worst case scenario, we’ll do that again. Something tells me we won’t have to. He seems pretty motivated. And, I’m not sure how much of a life he has. He may have time, like I have time. Regardless, our keyboard player will be joining us tonight. That’s pretty exciting because, when we used to jam, he didn’t have all of his keyboards yet. I was surprised when I started listening to the old discs how much percussion he had done. I guess I forgot. Now we get keys! It should be awesome. Although, he hasn’t played keys to the songs before, so there might be a little bit of a learning curve. But, he’s really good, so I don’t think it’ll be that difficult. He is a music teacher after all. We’re a little bummed because, you guessed it, the drummer cancelled. How many times can you get the flu in one season?! I know there’s stuff going around, but every illness is not the flu! I appreciate not being around the illness, but it really is suspicious. And, just another chance for me to wonder what the truth is. Yay! After tonight, there’s only 2 rehearsals before the gig, I know he can do it, but now I’m wondering if he’s going to. It shouldn’t be too hard, it’s not like we’re playing anything all that complicated. We’ve been playing along to a drum machine, so he can at least do that.

     Last weekend was interesting. Friday night, we went to see our friend’s band, like I told you. It was alright. They did have a decent crowd. The guitar player was good. And, as suspected, the singer was only “okay.” They played a lot of songs that I’m familiar with, and listen to often, so it was a little “off” for me. I imagine if you didn’t hear those songs regularly, they may have sounded better. We did stay the whole time. It was only 2 sets, and a lot of our friends were there. We were home by 11. Saturday was the wife’s annual holiday party. Apparently, they’re too busy in December and January to get any “real” time off, so it’s in February. It was cool. The food was good. Our costumes were great. Although, it didn’t really feel like people were in costumes. The casino kicked my ass. I was almost out of gambling money in the first hour. Luckily, where the actual party was located, there were no games, so I survived. When we got back to the casino, it was mostly drinking, and the last of my cash. I was glad we didn’t go for it too hard, because the next day was Super Bowl! We had a little running around to do beforehand, but we got to the party at a decent time. Our buffalo chicken dip was a hit! They had a nacho/hot dog bar, and we had a lot of fun. The game kind of sucked. Well, that is, unless you like the Eagles. I didn’t care either way, I thought a 3-peat would have been cool, and I can’t root for the Eagles, but, overall, I didn’t care. No one expected a blowout. However, we spent a bunch of money on squares, and we didn’t get a single hit! Not once! I saw all the numbers we had, and I thought: surely, we’ll get something. But the cards were not in our favor. Oh well, can’t win ‘em all.