This Yellow Taxi Cab In Which I Ride

When I arrived at my cubicle for work this morning (Tuesday) after the long weekend, I turned to face my desk and saw the note I had left co-workers Thursday before I left for my vacation day and road trip. I had taped it to my computer screen and it read: "Gone Forever. Leave a Message." I laughed out loud at myself, forgetting I had put the note up. (Yes, that is a picture of Winona Ryder under my computer screen at work) In my last posting, I left off with me leaving Baltimore. On my way out of the city, I noticed another sporting arena and quickly took a picture. A short drive (less than an hour) later, I arrived in Washington, D.C. I found meter parking pretty easily a block away from Hard Rock. I headed straight for Hard Rock leaving my guitar in the car for now. I figured I'd scope out potential busking spots first. There weren't many people on the street at all. In fact, the city felt somewhat deserted. I went back to my car -- after buying two...

A few months ago I decided it might cool to take a road trip to all of the Hard Rock Cafes that I could get to in a long weekend. I collect guitar pins and each cafe has different styles in stock including "city specific" pins that depict something unique about the city in which the cafe is located. My current collection consists of quite a lot from Boston and New York because they are the closest cities and I visit them more frequently than anywhere else. A good portion of my collection is also from the Orlando Hard Rock because they seem to have the most different types of pins available each time I'm there and I end up buying five at a time. Having so many pins from only three cities (and only a few random pins from other cafes that I've visited) makes for a boring collection. I needed more variety and so I decided to go on a quest. I asked friends to go with me, but I ended up going alone. Most of the reasons not to join my quest had to do with not having any mo...

It is approximately fifty years before I will eighty-two. The only reason that I allow myself to think about that is because today is the 50th Anniversary Celebration for Caffe Lena. And as I relax, by sipping an iced coffee at Uncommon Grounds, after a long day of helping celebrate and being immersed in the history of the first fifty years of the Caffe, I can't help but wonder how they will celebrate the one hundred year anniversary (centennial?). Will there even be musicians then? Or will there just be robots that play midi? Truthfully, if any one place in the entire world that WILL still have live humans playing instruments and singing, it will be Caffe Lena. And when you materialize in Saratoga Springs, and people look at you like you are insane for physically carrying an oddly shaped brief case (guitar case), Caffe Lena will still be there next to the Jetson's home, and you will still walk up that tight little staircase into that cozy little room. I may or may not be there...

I am hanging out at the Lone Palm coffee place in Johnstown, NY. This place is literally a five minute walk from my house. I, of course, drove. Wasn't really sure who I was expecting to find here... But there are mostly slightly post high school age kids (young adults?). I'm making friends and everyone appears to be enjoying themselves so thats cool. Hipster sighting.

Sunday night, why have you arrived much sooner than expected? It is growing dark outside and I have not made all of the proper arrangements for your arrival. Such is life, I suppose... When there is something that you want, it takes forever to get it; when there is something that you don't want (Sunday night for instance), it's right there BOOM. I am in bed and am in pain. My back is so sore and my back muscles are in knots (seriously, you can feel 'em!). I think I am in this current state from the week and weekend that I had. Firstly, I had a wonderful weekend LAST weekend. I spent much of Saturday and Sunday with a person that I am growing more and more fond of every day. I had an absolute blast and would love to write more about it, but there are some things that shouldn't be broadcasted to the world via blog (besides the fact that I would write it like a movie script -- because that is what it felt like while I was living it -- and it would take a long time to put i...

I should be mowing my lawn... it's not a jungle, but it's close. If you were to drive my house you might think, "That person should mow his lawn." But, you wouldn't think, "That person NEVER mows his lawn! He should get a ticket!" I should also be doing the dishes or folding the laundry or cleaning the back porch. At seven o'clock on a weekday, and being in the current state-of-being that I find myself in, I do not think I can pull off any of these tasks. If I started to mow the lawn, it would be dark before I finished. If I cleaned the back porch, I would need to clean it again Friday (and I have taken Friday off from work and will have all day long to do chores) and why would I want to clean it twice? I could fold the laundry, but I have already been taking clean clothes out of the baskets that they are currently in and why would I want to ruin that good thing by actually folding it? And the dishes? Eff the effing dishes. I'm truly burned out l...

I opened the blinds on my bedroom window (it was somewhat stuffy in my room and I wanted to cool it down a bit before bed). This is what I saw: Huge-ass bumblebee! Its stinger is the size of a syringe! Ahhhhh!

This is the lead singer if the steve palmer band playing at the Linda in Albany. The dude is wearing sweat pants... Seriously... They are maroon... And is polo shirt is a delightful salmon. He is wearing dirty K Mart running shoes and is sporting a lurch hair cut. He walked on stage and started tuning a guitar, so I first thought: "If this were my band, I would have a dress code for my roadies..." Then the rest of the band joined him and they started playing and I almost spilled my drink... REALLY?! Guy. Really. Official Worst Dressed Lead Singer In A Band EVER

It's been a long while since I last blogged. Not sure if there is an acceptable reason for the hiatus or if it just happened due to lack of necessity and/or desire. Either way, I hope you didn't miss me, Blog. Since the last post, I have been up to a lot. I think I'll start with music related stuff first. It has been confirmed that I will be playing at RailFest in Gloversville this year! The date is August 7th. I believe that's a Saturday. I don't know what time I'm on or where exactly RailFest occurs, but I'm sure that info will come to well in advance of me needing to be there. I wrote a couple of songs and have been playing for people. One is called The Girl is Already Gone , which I wrote after two weeks of attempting to connect with women in bars. The song is pretty straight forward and tells the story of waking up after a long night of trying to talk to a girl who uses and abuses the narrator by having him hold her purse and buy her drinks. The narrato...

It's 10:00 am and it's Sunday morning. I am still in bed. I woke up about an hour and a half ago and surfed the web a bit. Then, I decided to blog. It's really not an ideal time of day to blog... I prefer doing it at night when the darkness inspires introspection, but I don't really want to get out of bed right now and blogging is a good way to keep me from attempting to get out of bed. Yesterday was quite an unfullfilling day. I woke up at 6:00 am after going to bed at 3:00 in the morning! I -- much like today -- surfed the web for a little bit. Then, I suffered myself to sleep again. I woke up in the early afternoon and after spending another hour surfing the web, I resolved myself to do something with myself and got up and showered. I got dressed, packed up my laptop, put my shoes on, and headed for an unknown destination. I found myself at the Muddy Cup in Schenectady. I skipped ordering anything because there was a long line. I sat down at a booth and set up my lap...

What do you do when you are in a designer clothing store for trendy women and your friends are shopping and you obviously aren't?? You try on the biggest pair of sunglasses that you can find and vogue appropriately. ???

The List.

Blog Date: 2.15.2010. Engage. I'm lying in bed and I just watched TV on my laptop. Technology is pretty cool. Today, I signed up for NetFlix, just after returning my evil cable box to the firey chasm from whence it came! (okay, so the cable box isn't really that evil. The 80 dollars it was costing me on the hand...). I also exchanged the phone modem for the internet only converter. All in all, I'll be saving about a hundred dollars a month. And NetFlix appears to be better than DVR capabilities ever was! And it's only 8.99 a month! Hoo-ahhh! This past Sunday, I spent most of the day at Uncommon Grounds in Saratoga. My plan was to venture to the mall too, and have dinner some place else entirely. I ended up just reading and surfing for a full eight hours! (I think it's my record amount of time spent in a coffee shop). On Saturday, I wrote the following but didn't post it because I didn't have web capabilities: I find myself sitting in Dunkin Donuts in Amsterd...

The list. It's open mic and you should be here at caffe lena. We miss your pesence and especially your voice. Most likely you are at home and not wanting to venture out into the cold January night that we are having. I don't blame you; it is very cold and the roads are somewhat treacherous in parts if you aren't careful. Enjoy your being warm, but think about us here at the open mic. After all, we are thinking about you! Wish you were here

I hate sweat pants and I use the word "hate" because it is a simple word and tends to be precise. However, I feel a stronger distaste to sweat pants than the word "hate" can truly communicate. (This thought is brought to you by the three college age women at Panera bread who are wearing sweats and look disgusting). *Note: the last time I wore sweat pants, I was in 6th grade. I have not worn them since. I'm in Panera Bread (as you may have guessed) in Schenectady. I'm having a "me-date." First, I picked up some cat paraphernalia for Orea (my cat), which was the purpose of me leaving the house today. Then, I went to Barnes and Noble and spent about fifty dollars on books. I think I am excited about reading again. I had picked up a bunch of books back in late summer and started reading one of them. I just couldn't get into it... it remains one of only a handful of books that I started and did not complete. I grabbed some interesting looking fantas...

It must be open mic night. I am sitting quietly in a back corner of rhe caffe with the harmonica contraption around my neck. Of course, I am feeling uneasy about playing the harmonica for the first time in front of people... I guess: here goes nothin'. Guitars

It's a new year and I have been out of the house a couple of times so far. Which essentially means I'm not fulfilling my resolution of hybernating until spring. Although, this morning (it's really almost noon), I find myself in bed and not wanting to get out of it regardless of how much crap housework I have to do today. I have heard the phone ring twice and my cell phone buzz once and I haven't made any moves to detach myself from the bed. One of the times-that-I-left-my-house-so-far-this-year was suppossed to be fun and somewhat fulfilling. It turned out to be awkward and I left. I went to an open mic night in Fultonville. I had first heard about the open mic some time last summer and had every intention of attending some time. It is held once a month in a basement in a church. I finally made myself go (telling myself it was my new year's resolution to put myself in new situations) this past Saturday night. I arrived at about ten minutes to seven, found the sign u...

I wasn't planning on writing about 2009 until 2010, but I'm awake and I can't sleep. I had a rather trying day at work today and have been feeling quite unfulfilled since then. My hope is that unloading some thoughts into this blog-thing will result in enough easing of my mind in order for me to fall asleep. It has now become a ritual on the blog for me to write about the past year on New Year's day. First, however, I re-read the previous New Year's day post and compare and contrast (apparently) last year's self to this year's self. The 2008 post is found here. The first thing I noticed in re-reading the post is that a lot of positives occurred throughout 2008. There were lights at the end of tunnels and I generally seemed to make steps in good directions. One thing that I didn't post about that day, but was on my mind non-the-less, was my relationship with Stephanie. It was about that time that things started to feel not-right. There were many discussio...

Being that I celebrated Christmas/my-birthday with my family on the Saturday six days before actual Christmas/my-birthday, the 25th of December was rather uneventful. There were no candles to blow and no wishes to make. There was no out-of-tune and out-of-sync singing of happy birthday . And there were no spankings and/or a pinch-to-grow-an-inch. Especially, there were no hugs. There was very little socializing (I attempted to go to a gathering at a friend's place, but no one else was gathering and so I left so the boyfriend/ex-boyfriend -- she and he couldn't seem to agree -- could be there without the oddity of my random being-there-ness). Even so, I felt mostly fulfilled, as I had received many merry-and/or-happy-birthdays from friends and family via facebook messages, myspace messages, text messages, and phone calls. I also got to spend my birthday (for the first time in my entire life!) doing just exactly what I wanted to. And for this year, I wanted to play a video game t...

It has been a very buys last two weeks. I haven't had the time to sit, organize my thoughts, and blog. I'm not quite sure where to start. It really has been that busy and my thoughts are a whirlwind. Two Thursdays ago, I attended Open Mic as usual. It was a good night overall, and I feel as though I did a particularly good job on my Christmas song, Frozen . I also played Endless . After playing I received really wonderful compliments from some people in the audience. One was from, Tom (think), who hosts an open mic in Fultonville at a church once a month. He was quite impressed with Frozen , which made me feel very good. I have to say that it may be one of my most well-written songs as far as the whole package is concerned. On Friday and Saturday, I did some Christmas shopping and started making my black santa hat (yes, I bought materials and sewed a santa hat for myself -- I can be quite crafty). I wrapped gifts for my family and put them underneath my tree. The doing of these...