Head On

Waking up to a kick in the teeth is never welcome. But I still hit today head on. Despite my low balance, I was out buying Christmas gifts, and I got some good ones. Very colloquial. Of course it's not up to me, but my heart is in the right place.

I spent the bulk of the afternoon developing my website. Finally, after 5 months of being daunted, I will have a website. I have an angel out here on my side who is willing to design the site for free. As well as donate his time to make sure I have everything I need, business cards, etc. He told me this the other day, and we had this afternoon set aside to purchase my domain name. I knew that my business name would be available as a domain, it was. One of my accounts had just enough money to finance the site for a year. And my angel found a discount code, which save 20%, so I should have enough left over to finance the first round of business cards, which I have a template for and, my site is under construction. Given the state of the economy, there are not many restaurants that can afford an outside consultant. But with the way I present myself, these tools will help me with every wine/liquor sales/distribution job I apply for; not to mention every contact I make who asks if I have a card.

After that I made some chicken in white wine. As you can see from the pic, food is best when it is served hot.

And then I was determined, after getting fucked over last week by ridiculous outside forces, to perform at Tiki Bar. For the first time in 4 weeks, a familiar face was running the open mic. And no one wanted to go first, so I took that slot, which was the one I wanted. Everyone there plays 12 bar blues and bullshit singer/songwriter stuff on their guitar. No one expects to hear jazz standards. But I got up there and ripped through mine, "Stormy Weather." Which is a propos as it is alternately spitting and pouring rain in San Diego tonight. I like it here when it rains. I think I want to live in a tropical climate, where it storms every day. I love to watch the palm trees sway in the breeze as the waves crest higher and higher. I can now tell that this building is built for a temperate climate, because every gust of wind, which can't be higher than 20 mph, shakes my doors and windows. It is mild out. Temperate. And it feels like a winter storm. I find this both bemusing, and comforting. I am proud of where I am from.

So the performance went well. And, as expected, it was under 2 minutes. I came off to thunderous applause and many smiling faces who gave me leads and congratulations. Have to love San Diego for that, no one told me to go fuck myself. As a matter of fact, everyone asked me to play more, which I will do next time.

Remember the jazz history major I met at Tiki a few weeks ago? He was there with his buddies, one of whom is a killer chordal guitarist. They were some of my fans, that was cool. I got some leads on jazz clubs downtown. And, by way of comfort, I got some understanding about how closed off and territorial San Diego is, reassurance.

I'm proud of the way I spent my day. I also worked out a ton and watched the Patriots win based on Matt Flynn's inexperience in the final seconds. I'm glad it's raining here. It makes the abundant Christmas lights look appropriate.

The bartender at Tiki is going home for Christmas for the first time in 14 years. That is stunning to me. At Thanksgiving, I had more people that ordinarily blow me off come out of the woodwork asking me what I was doing. Seems everyone has plenty of friends and distractions, but not so much when it comes to family. That will never be my plight. I will be a success out here, and I will never lose my family. And my friends are my family, too. I can't wait to see you all at the end of the week.

p.s. Thank you, Uncle Tom and Aunt Tina, for knowing this version of "Stormy Weather."










Hope you like the song!