Sick day pt 2

My kid was up most of last night sick. She woke up early today sick as well. You guys know what's coming. You smelled it through your monitors. I didn't get out at all today. I didn't meet anyone. For shame.

I can offer naught but this piece of awesome solace. I call it, awesolace.

Tomorrow I have two appointments with individuals who could shape my future. They're both involved in my career path, and both could have immeasurable influence on my life. I come to you today with empty hands. Tomorrow, I will be at your doorstep with reports on 2 people, the likes of whom have never been posted about in the short life of my tiny blog. I ask that you wait, wait, my children. Patiently wait. For tomorrow, I bring the goods*. Mwa ha.

*'goods' may be replaced with 'bads', if these meetings go south. Offer not available in Montana, Delaware, and some counties in Ohio. Void where prohibited. No purchase necessary. Check local listings for showtimes.

Day 16 bit

I couldn't post last night because my daughter got sick. She rates higher than this blog on good days. On days when she feels pitiful and needs my attention, this thing doesn't stand a chance. I did meet someone, so I was only half a slacker.

To say that I look kinda like the guy I met yesterday is to say that the Pope is kinda Catholic. A barista at the coffee shop we met at thought we were brothers. Not only do we look similar, but we were wearing nearly identical clothes. Uncanny doesn't cut it. we were in a dimension not of sight or sound. Oh, did I mention we're both drummers? This meeting brought new meaning to the phrase, know thyself.

My doppleganger's name is Jason. (Or maybe I'm HIS doppleganger!!! duh, duh, DAAAAAAAAHHHHH!) Jason's a music therapist and drum circle facilitator. I walked over to meet him while he was doodling out cycles of chords based on Chinese scale structures. He explained what he was working on, and about 80% shot right over my head. This guy's a serious musician. He was the first drummer I'd talked to in a while, so I was pretty excited. We talked for nearly 2 hours. I can't relay everything we talked about, but I will say that he challenged me to strive to be better at what I do. Specifically as a drummer, but generally as well. Jason is a stellar drummer, but he doesn't stop with that. He applies that skill to many aspects of his life. He shows the same drive to be a better musician as he does to be a better therapist and businessman. He can do that because they all overlap. In this way he avoids putting something on the back burner to atrophy or be forgotten. Jason manages to keep these varying aspects of his life intertwined instead of entangled. He's an impressive guy.

As a Christ follower I'm taught to be pure. This purity refers to having a single focus that drives my life. Often times I become sidetracked and allow things to block my view of God. To speak musically, I allow discord in the song of my life by putting notes where they don't belong. Jason helped demonstrate how I could remove unnecessary notes and place those that harmonize in their appropriate place, thus creating a more thick and beautiful song. I'm still considering exactly how this works in my life. I'll let you all know what I come up with.

Day 15

I attended some friends' house warming party today. What it ended up being was a family reunion with some 20-25 people I'd never met before. I come from a large, close knit family, and as I alluded to in the previous post, I don't live near them. That being said, I felt right at home with this group of people I knew nothing about. I met a few people, but the person I want to focus on in this post is the matriarch. Well, who I perceived to be in charge, anyway. I was truly blessed to have met and spent time with this venerable lady.


Jeanne, or Grandma Jeanne as she introduced herself, is the kindest and most interesting person I've yet written about for this blog. For the sake of anonymity I'll not write about her life story, however I got a good portion of it during the short amount of time that we talked. One story I want to focus on is her recent hospital stay. She was attacked by a dog near her house. She told me a number of the injuries she sustained. I'm no doctor, but it sounded like she nearly died. She spent days in shock trauma recovering. She lost hearing in one ear. I'm sure she's still in pain. However, after telling me this intense and violent story, what she ended with touched me deeper than anything else. She said, "You know what? My children and grandchildren came together to help me, and that made it all worth while." I couldn't help myself. I gave her a huge hug. I don't think she even knew my name yet, and I gave her this big bear hug. I had no choice! Anyone who puts their family on that level of priority deserves recognition, or more accurately, an embrace from a complete stranger.


Jeanne taught me to look at the positive results of a situation. She didn't tell me that any of the injuries she suffered were good, but the part she focused on was the good that came from them. She also showed me that I should reemphasize the importance of loving my family. There are few things in life as important as one's family. It's too easy for me to forget that, especially being so far away from mine. Thanks, Grandma Jeanne. I hope I get to talk to you again, soon.

Twofer. But also, threefer.

Since I was remiss in my self-made, arbitrary duties yesterday, I've decided to double my efforts. Literally. I met two people named Jason, today. Now you get to read about it.


The first Jason was a blue-collared guy who liked sports. You'd have to know me to get the full force of this, but that's not me. I sometimes pretend to like sports to converse with people, but that's the full breadth of my fanaticism. We did have some common ground in that we were both fathers. We talked about our kids outsmarting us. It was a good, if short conversation.


Jason 2 was introduced to me by a friend. The impetus was our shared home state, Tennessee. My friend assumed that that shared statehood would give us loads to talk about. That happens a lot. This time, however, it panned out. Jason was really nice. We had a long and apocalyptic discussion about the music industry. It was fun and informative. As a bonus, I could speak in my native drawl without being presumed stupid, poorly educated, and/or toothless. Normally I speak with a 'neutral' accent, meaning I emulate whoever I'm speaking to. I guess you could say I did that with Jason 2, too. Oh well.

Lucky number 13

On a Friday, too. Dangit. Yeah, i didn't meet anyone yesterday, so I'll have to do what i did for day 5 and write about a previous meeting. Sorry, guys. I'll apologize to both of you personally later.


Last week I met Mike. Mike had a seriously killer mustache. It was one of those Civil War age sideburns-to-mustache connectors that had about a 6 month growth. That mustache demanded respect, and I happily obliged. Anyway, Mike is a physics teacher and musician. Being a musician drummer myself we had a good deal to talk about. He told me that he has his students study the physics of sound and build their own instruments. That is amazing! I'd have loved that in school! I'm still so impressed by the physical component of sound waves. Impressed and completely uninformed. Mike was an encouragement to look deeper into the science of my music. I think one could follow that trail too deeply and lose track of the art of music. (I the end of that line of thought is what happened with Schoenberg and other atonal composers.) However a better understanding of why your instrument sounds how it sounds can lead to a more thorough form of play.


I think I tried to make up for missing my post yesterday by chasing rabbits today. Maybe if I confuse the readers they won't realize how bad I am at this project. So... did it work?

Day 12

Today I met Noel at the playground with my daughter. That's where I meet most people while I'm a full-time dad. Watching my daughter run around and, with no inhibitions, play with every child she comes in contact with, brings this whole project into perspective. Why is it that kids can socialize so freely while their parents wander around, head-long like social infants.


Noel is a self-proclaimed green-freak. Her family is looking to move soon. They're either looking to buy a house or build a recycled one. I'd never heard of recycled houses, so my peanut brain starts imagining putting a house in with your newspapers and bottles for pick-up day. (is anyone else noticing the unnecessary number of hyphens in this post?) It was encouraging to hear her talk about steps they've taken to be gentler to creation. I could definitely do more, and she encouraged me to step-up my efforts (one more, just for laughs). 

Day 11

Today I met Mary. She introduced herself at the farmers market. She heard me asking for the price of some peaches for my daughter I couldn't afford. She gave me one. Out of the blue. She accepted some payment for it after I pressed the issue, but not its full worth. She tried to walk away afterward, but I stopped her and looked her in the eyes and said, "thank you so much for your kindness." I know it wasn't much, but her heart was truly generous. I hope I can be more actively giving to strangers. Thank you, Mary. You made my day.