Incepta Nova

So my weekend goes from low to high, to low to high, to low to high.

Friday was a busy day for me at work, but I scored two tickets to Damien Rice for tonight at Radio City Music Hall. I've never been, and I've never seen him before. Well worth the price, from what I've heard. We had a "party" that night, and by party, I mean Veen proclaiming that our house was to be filled with throngs of perfect strangers, attractive women, and the like. This was the place to be, apparently. So we went and bought booze with Jay (p.s. who lives with me now!), and bought all the other necessities. Then we all spent two hours cleaning, cooking, and getting ready, and then waited for people to come. 9, 9:30, 10, 10:30, no one. I started drinking some gin and tonic, and started to feel good. Finally, the first person arrived, Lauren, with her friend. The next person did not show until 11 or so, and that was about it.

The party wasn't really a bust though. I had a rough night on my end, I really hoped some people would have showed, but they didn't. But I did okay, even though Jay and I went through the entire bottle of gin. I woke up on Saturday at 8am, still feeling a bit drunk.

Still can't sleep in when I want to. I knew I had a busy Saturday night ahead of me, so I relaxed in the afternoon. I was hoping to rehearse with Adam, but he had some unforseen crap to deal with, so that was put on hold. Then, the Sabres game was on, and once again, high, low, high, low, big low... Their season is over. Finito. It's amazing, because I feel like we can't re-capture what we lost Saturday afternoon. I don't know if our city has another run in them ending in disappointment like this.

After the game, we went to my gig, Elliot and I both being in quiet funks. He's definitely trying to deal with some things, taking it head on, and I think it's healthy for him to do it that way. We have similar problems, and I started to see how all this "stuff" is present that was never there a year ago. We don't like feeling lonely, hurt, frustrated, and so on, and maybe we're going through a rough patch, but I think we both need to take a step back in our respective situations.

We get to the gig and meet up with Adam. Felt good to see him again, it had been at least a year since I last saw him or played with him. He was a trooper, but I could tell how frustrated he was that we could not rehearse. So we set up, and in the time before we played, we sat up in the front of the bar and went over songs. It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't terrible either.

The show was good, we got to play some old favorites of mine, songs I haven't sang in years. "Old love / leave me alone / Old love / Go on home" So therapeutic to sing the blues, to have a melody meet you in your frustration. The first set was low-key, playing for some older people, and then we took a break.

As we begin to start the next set, 20 or so women file into the bar, all wearing glow-in-the-dark purple necklaces, and shirts on that said "Bridal Squad." These ladies wanted to get down, get their drink on, and go nuts. So we started playing the songs that make the feet move, and they all like lost it. They were coming up on stage, dancing with me as I played, giving me some glowy-necklaces, screaming - it was almost frenzy. We keep playing, and then finally finish up, and as I step to walk off-stage, one of the girls in the bridal party grabs me by the hand, and leads me towards the back of the room. She says, "you have the most amazing voice...its totally hot" and then starts kissing me. I'm stone sober, sweating, tired, and making out with a perfect stranger. She kissed me like she was eating a peach, so forcefully opening and closing her mouth, and it felt really good to taste someone new. I pulled away though, I was caught off guard, and politely excused myself after I gave her my card.

Then we took Adam back to the train, and walked back with Jay and Elliot to pick up our stuff and head out. We get back, and I see Leah, the bartender, putting away her Yankee hat. I told her that we should do a shot in the hopes the Yankees finally beat the Mets on Sunday. So then we start talking, and I see that she lives right near my work, and goes to the games all the time. Then Leak mentioned she has tickets next week, and offers one with me to go with her. I had to tell her how into baseball I am, how I know Jason Giambi's on-base-percentage and other stupid stats, and how I just have to study the game when I'm watching, and I guess she's the same way. So we swapped numbers, and said goodnight.

On the way home, the 4 roommates all finally were together to talk for one of the first times since Jay moved in. Elliot gave me back my cell phone battery (which I made him hold onto so I would not use my phone and distract myself), and I had 4 messages, and a voicemail. Three of the messages were from the guys, giving me updates on the gig and stuff, and one was from my friend Jessica Carroll. I'm glad she's making the effort to be a part of my life now, and it felt really good to feel her reach out to me. I didn't check the voicemail until we started moving, and it was from that girl from the bridal party, apparently she wanted to meet up with me at another bar. She was annihilated, and it was just a stupid passing thing, so we continued home. We get home, I debrief the gig with Elliot, and finally get in bed at 3:30am. Goodnight.

Sunday, I get woken up by a message from Jessica again, and I asked her to call me later in the day. But I was still up. 8:22 am. I lay in bed, watching South Park and listening to music. Then Jay and I watch Meet the Press, and two Senators were on debating the Iraq war. It's all lost on me now, and when I hear discussion of it, it makes me upset and frustrated.

Then we went to Church, and the mass at St. Ephram's, despite its length, was one of the best masses I've ever been a part of. It was a celebration of the ordination of one of the Deacons at the Church, ordained the previous evening by the Bishop. The full choir was present with instrumentation, the same that had been there for Easter. They sang and played like heavenly hosts, and moved me to tears. The entire church was filled with such love and faith, that I could not help but close my eyes and thank God for putting me in that place.

The Gospel reading was about unity. Jesus tells God the Father that they are one, and how He longs for all of us to be one in Him and God the Father. The thing that struck me was when Jesus said that He knows that all of the people in this work are God's gift to Jesus, and how thankful Christ was for this gift. It was such a beautiful moment, and pleasant reminder, that I am loved, by so many around me. The people I know are tangible gifts from God, real and true presences of his love and generosity. We often lose touch with this, and take them for granted, or get angry or frustrated with them. However, the most important thing I took from it was that I am a gift for others, even God. If I want to touch someone's life, I am empowered to do so. I am expected to do so.

We left Mass, and then came back to do some final re-arranging around the house. It felt great to work alongside the rest of the guys, joke, and be merry. Vinny kept razzing me about the impromptu make-out at the bar last night, and Jay kept giving me his four-finger "finger" he learned from his 3 year-old sister. Elliot kept to himself, but still was around laughing and taking part in things.

Around 10:30 then, Maria Lisa showed up from Buffalo. Her train got in late, so she asked to crash at our place last night as well. I'm excited to spend more time with her, as she's always been someone I've wanted to really get to know. She had a job interview today, and then afterwards we're grabbing dinner, and going to the concert. It should be an amazing night out, and the weather is only making it more so.

That's my weekend, and I feel great having written it all out for myself. New song ideas, new people, new scents, new roommates, new tastes, new beginnings.