Sundays and 4-1-1

So, quite a bit of you have been wondering where I've been lately. It seems more people than I thought read this thing and they figured out I've been in hiding.

First matter, I seldom get on Yahoo anymore. I really see no use to it other than catch up with people I can catch up with via text message, phone calls, AIM or facebook. Even at that, I've been busy trying to get out of the house and enjoy the summer...doing new things. So, my apologies to those who feel neglected, I do not do it on purpose.

Right then, two weeks ago I went on a vacation to Boston to meet up with some old and new friends. I'm not sure if I want to blog about it yet, but it was very fun and healing in many ways. My best moment of the trip? The picture above. Fenway Park. Specifically? Bottom of the 8th inning, a few thousand people singing Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline"...singing along with a crowd to one of my favorite songs. Singing along with my friends. It was also, in middle of my big grin and loud singing, very saddening. That was my last night with 3 of the people that mean so much to me, and we all live in 4 different regions of this nation...brought together by a screen...yeah I get emotional like that haha. That's my best trip memory. Hands down.

I've been trying new things to do in town and changes to keep myself busy. Yesterday I finally woke up early enough to go for breakfast in this little joint by the highway called Pancake Alley. So how do I begin my day at 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday? Ohhh I locked myself out of the house...nice move. After that minor glitch, I was well on my way to pancake goodness! I get to the little diner and as soon as I sit down and I'm discussing possible pancake overdose with parents, the waitress walks up looking a bit startled and says "Where are you guys from?". Here we go..."Puerto Rico", I answer warily. She laughs and says "Oh my god and here I was talking to the cook and complaining that the 'gringos' were here. Ya'll don't look like you know spanish or hispanic." My dad says "See? That's why you shouldn't talk bad about people, you never know if they'll understand you." We all laugh nervously, she takes our order and scurries off and informs the cook of her recent discovery. The rest of our breakfast time went without a hitch. Good food, nice talk, nice place...weird waitress.

After that it was early enough that we could hit the 'farmer's market' in the neighboring town of Midland, TX. Hmmm...well I guess I'm used to the farmer's markets in Pennsylvania...this was a bit disappointing. There were 12 tables: 3 of them to sign up for "free trips to Hawaii", 1 selling honey, 1 selling knitting stuff, 1 selling bread, 2 selling hand-made jewelry (my favorite hobby :D), 1 selling soap, 1 selling dog treats, an empty one, and the last one had a longhorn skull with some skins for sale. I looked around rather quickly, bought 'Diabetic Bread' (which I'll prolly fill with non diabetic foods) and politely ran out of there quick. It was a bit awkard.

Now, I should know better than to go to guitar shops. I went to the first one and saw a beautiful Luna acoustic guitar, here's the link: http://www.lunaguitars.com/acousticproduct/lunatri.php. While I was playing it in the acoustic room, there was a 14 yr old 'goth' girl sorta just strumming on another guitar. So when I'm done trying that out and I put mine up on the wall, she also gets up and puts hers up and stands in front of me and looks up. She's about 5 feet tall, I'm 5' 9" and 3 times her weight...she's dressed in all black oversized goth clothes looking like death's minion...and out of her mouth I hear: "I just wanted to tell you you're beautiful. I think you're beautiful and felt like I should tell you". I thought it was adorable, I wanted to hug her but somehow she didn't seem like a 'huggy' type. That put a smile on my face as I headed to the next guitar place. Bad mistake, now I want this little number too: http://www.ibanez.com/HollowBodyGuitars/Series-afs. So, if my plans go well...I'll sell my Martin guitar and my other electric Ibanez and get these two.

Finally, I ventured off last night to a local dirt track to watch cars race. It was a redneck paradise of epic proportions. I had so much fun watching the races, nobody got hurt in the wrecks so that's good and I had a beer. Good family fun and I finally met 2 guys who I had only talked to previously on a local car forum. It's funny meeting new people you only know by their screenames. Here's a sloppy re-enactment:

Me: *shaking his hand* I'm MonkeyScrotum.
Dude #1: *laughs and smiles* *shakes back enthusiastically* I'm carwashman, nice to meet you....Yari? (and im wondering how he knows my name???) *slapping dude #2 on arm and pointing at me* This is MonkeyScrotum!
Dude #2: *laughs and smiles* (im guessing its my sn thats funny?) Hey! I'm CrazyPony...
Me: *laughs, snorts, laughs* Heyy!!! Great meeting you! (crazypony has legendary forum reputation and i always laugh at the crap he posts and the fights he gets into...a legend i say)

So that went rather well, and hopefully the rest of the summer when I go to the other races we can now hang out together, they good peeps.

I guess this is the part where I end this rather botchy account of what Ive been up to lately. I'm happy that I feel like playing guitar again, 2 weeks of hating my guitars was not looking promising at all. Everything passes I guess, no hurt lasts forever and music cannot be contained in the same dark box with your sadness and broken thoughts. Maybe I'll be back later today or tomorrow and type down some thoughts.

Happy Sunday!

"It's nearly been a year since he's been gone
But we still sing his goodbye songs
And she knows, she should move on
But she just can't let him go
No, she just can't let him go."
- Joe Purdy