Arrive in time for the Opener.

Yeah, so I heard a song on my drive home from my daughter's violin lesson a bit ago.  
Song is Treason, from the band Naked Raygun.

Naked Raygun's a punk band outta Chicago, were active late 80's - early 90's, the same time period that found me working at my Alma Mater's FM radio station.   WDBM, East Lansing.  

Man, I was such a fan of this song, and the record that contained it.  The copy at the radio station was even pressed on red vinyl.      Sweet.

Snuck back to my hometown on a weeknight to catch them play the State Theatre, got back to my apartment around 2am, half deaf, half drunk and feeling so goddam cool for having gone on that adventure.  

Fast forward 12 years, I'm at the now-defunct rock club, The Double Door, In Chicago.
A good friend of ours boyfriends' band was one of six on the bill, a fundraiser for the Red Cross, JUST after 9/11.   We didn't love his band, but we loved our friend, Cara, and we liked being out with her, around music.    And of course, it WAS the Double Door, and I believe we might have been on the guest list.  It happened once or twice.  
So there we were, low musical expectations, half drunk and feeling so goddam cool....  

One of the other bands on the bill, The Pegboys, took the stage.   They played a song, and then stopped.  The guitarist stepped up to the microphone, and announced that for that night, given the circumstances of the show, maybe a different bands' music would be more appropriate.
Turns out, half the band were previously in... Naked Raygun.   I'm standing within spitting distance of the stage, watching an impromptu Naked Raygun set.   I was... transfixed, transcended, transported....
It was cool.

And I never would have experienced that, if I had not put myself in a position to be surprised and delighted.

Hey, it frequently didn't pan out.   For every surprise reunion set from a favorite band, were two nights where we decided it was more fun to stand out on the sidewalk, where the band noise was sufficiently muffled.  

But what if something amazing happened, and you weren't there?

In staying with the live music theme -  This is why we always try to arrive in time to catch the openers, and to stay for the headliner if the band we WANT to see's opening.     Because what if something amazing happened, and.....

Shoot, man.  You paid for the whole concert.    
And while it frequently doesn't pan out, if we didn't put ourselves in a position to be surprised and delighted, we never would have discovered Carbon Leaf.   We would showed up just in time for the headliner, enjoyed their set, and left, none the wiser.   20 years of awesome concerts, in three different states later, they've given us far more musical joy and memories, with far more friends, than any 5 other bands.    
All because we were open to putting ourselves in a position to be surprised and delighted.

Random Travel thoughts 2, Electric Boogaloo. I got out more.

So, The whole "Call a random # and find out about your car" bit worked shockingly well.
Almost like those folks had done this before.   Car was a Caddy, as apparently it was the only one in the area, so I got nudged up for nothing.
Driver was a very chatty guy from Thailand, originally.  
We got along well enough, except that about halfway to my hotel, he started talking about how he was going home for a vacation soon, and while there, he planned to visit prostitutes, because that's what you do on vacation.  That segued into a long, drawn out diatribe about how marriage is bad and.... I kinda put him on mute, in my head, after that.

He loves his daughter though, a ton.  Talked about her a lot.   Didn't see the disconnect...

Checked into my hotel, it was 7:45, which is 10:45pm in my head, and in my empty belly.
Hotel's on an island, there's...one restaurant, at the OTHER hotel on the island.  Guess I'll eat there.

Was offered a table by a portable heater, on the patio, overlooking the river and downtown Long Beach.  Realized that everyone there was seated by a heater.   It was sixty out, still.  
Um.... yeah.  Ok if I sit by the water over...there?
A $21 quesadilla and one beer later, and I'm walking back to my hotel.  

Day 2:    I stayed up crazy late watching TV, in hopes that I would NOT wake up at 2:30 local time this morning.   Forgot to turn off my phone, so the text my wife sent me at 2:15 CA time.... woke me up real good.
Curses.

Drifted back for a bit, eventually, but overall, I sink further into the hole.

Hoped to stumble across fellow employees at Residence Inn's free breakfast.   Dare to hope, even though I had no idea what they looked like.     I needed a ride to the conference...

Didn't really matter what they looked like, because the room was full of eastern european men in business casual, sitting together, and a couple tables of folks so obviously, stereotypically dressed to go on a cruise that I wondered if they were play acting.  

2nd cup of coffee went really well with the sunrise.  

random travel thoughts - I need to get out more - Part 1

Transcribed from original long hand form....

I sit here in seat 26D.
I've not been on an airplane in five years.  Five years ago - two different trips, five different airports, in 10 days.
Then... nothing.

Hasn't changed much, except perhaps the airlines have gotten even stingier with beverages.

So, 26D, midway through a flight from ORD to LAX.  I've already eaten the worlds smallest bag of pretzels, and drank a coke, and watched one of the movies I downloaded in preparation for this flight.

REDS - Fun movie.   Take the time, if you've not already seen it.

My wife and daughter gave up a book on spirituality and Minecraft, respectively, so that I could watch movies on the Kindle on my trip.
Wait..
Wife... daughter... spirituality.. minecraft....  YEP.  I got them in the right order.    

I'm writing this longhand, something I stopped doing a long time ago.  I have to slow my brain down when writing long hand.  That's not something I do well.

One of the first passengers to board in my section promptly threw up, upon finding their seat.  Yep, they HAD to know they were not well, two minutes earlier when they had not yet boarded the plane, but hey, no reason to NOT get on the plane, that will be full of people.    Those of us in the aisle noticed the smell, first.     The attendant claimed it was the smell of the plane de-icer, right to our faces, as we watched them clean up the mess.

So I got that going for me.
............................

I'm writing this with my Dale Carnegie pen, given to me at the end of one class, for having given the most inspirational speech of the week.  
It was about moving forward anyhow.

The universe kicks you in the nuts (gender specific, I realize...), you find very uncertain future ahead of you all the sudden, but you build the chicken coop and buy the chickens anyhow.
Because that was the deal, the promise.
So you just decide that it's all gonna work out, and...you keep the promise.  You buy the chickens.

That two minutes of livestock-themed inspiration earned me a pen.    I confess, now, to all of you here, that this was a speech I made up in class that very evening, after realizing that the one I practiced all the way to class, would offend at least half of the people in the room, after hearing all of them talk about their relationships with jesus christ.  

 I meant every word, but....  Ya just never know what's gonna resonate with folks.

I could have written all of that in 1/4 the time on a laptop.....
...........................
When I sat down, I thought maybe, Just maybe...this would be the flight I'd finally, after all these years, be able to sleep thru.

Silly boy.

............

We just hit a bump of turbulence, and I heard "uuuggghhhhhhhh" from behind me.   Hope that's not the puker....

..........

You know al those videos you see on FB, of the ridiculous LA traffic?    Yes, that's where I'm headed. And I'm supposed to calla phone # upon landing, give whomever answers my reservation #, and then find out when my car service will show up, and where.   Hope it's comfy, as it looks like I'll be sitting in it for awhile.

One day conference tomorrow, followed by three days/nights catching up w/ an old friend.  Itinerary's loose, almost comically so.

I will be happy just to be outside.

I hope there's pudding.