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Bandmate On Fire
(and other awesomeness
from the road) |
So, I scrapped the first go around for
this chapter - I just felt you should know. It basically played
out like this (so you'll feel informed and not think that you
missed out on anything): I posted an email I had received asking
if I had a cure for the summertime blues. I responded by lamenting
this individual's boredom, and then proceeded to make a list of
possible cures for the doldrums that were chock full of (seemingly)
clever jokes. That's it. I never finished it, because it just
wasn't all that great. Actually, it was pretty funny, but it just
wasn't very good. My big answer to the guy's question involved
a trip to Wildwood, New Jersey, a place we had spent some time
in earlier in the summer. Wildwood is a fascinating place worth
visiting if you happen to be in the area, but I concluded that
I couldn't, in good conscience, recommend a cure that would ultimately
make you more lonely and depressed than you were when you suffered
from a simple case of warm-weather-boredom. So I scrapped it.
And now what? This is supposed to be a journal of the road, right? But what do you write when you have been on the road for so long and seen so much country, but can't figure out what to say about any of it? Honestly, I don't know. It feels similar to another problem that, until very recently, I thought was only specific to myself. When on the road for any amount of time, I get in this frame of mind where I don't want to talk on the phone to anybody (with the obvious exception of my wife) for as long as I'm away from home. Its weird. Even the people who I know understand what it feels like to be on tour, I can't bring myself to call. I just don't feel like talking about it. If I get a call from somebody, odds are that unless it's a life or death situation, their message will get saved, written down in a file on my computer, and taken care of once I'm back in Waco. It's a bad habit. But I'm not the only one who does it. It was voiced first by our drummer while on this last tour, and then echoed by more people than I ever would have anticipated. And you know what? As bad a habit as it is, it's really nice to know that it's common among traveling musicians. I am normal, by God!
Anyway, have you ever gone on a long family vacation only to return home and be stumped as to what to say about it to your friends? That's my issue. Could be worse, I guess.
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