Can't buy you happiness, but can buy you cool new toys.

I spent a little over $400 today at Guitar Center. Writing that first sentence made me cringe a little bit, but I know it's for the greater good. Everything I picked up today I know I'll need for the Halcats gig on the Noordam, so I take solace in the fact that they're all useful pieces of equipment, albeit expensive, cool looking pieces of equipment.
There was something about the whole experience that made it a slightly comforting one, namely the fact that this is for my job. I get to play guitar and, therefore, necessitate awesome guitar gadgets of various functions, colors, and ambiguous names. The guitar geek I keep inside got to play around a bit today, to fawn and drool at all the expensive gear and pretend for a moment that price tags were an elaborate joke designed by "the man" to keep these beautiful works of art out of most hands. So, that was cool.
The other thing that stood out to me was how the clerk and I were talking to each other, namely the appropriate jargon that was tossed around the entire time: "I need a Line6 Pod...Dean Markly Blue Steels, 11's...I play a PRS, but the Ibanez will work...klaatu barada nikto..." and so forth.

I think I'm slowly becoming the person I wanted to be when I was 13.
Cheers.

and....we're back.

I started my first blog because I was about to spend a semester in Italy, and it naturally seemed like the right thing to do. I figured that, if nothing else, my friends and family back home could see what I was up to, and I'd keep up with writing in some way since, well, I had a writing minor thing going. When I got back to Ithaca the blog sort of faded out of my conscience; maybe because it was devoted to my “fake” semester and the “very much real” semester had begun, maybe because the stress of both a senior recital and an intensive independent study was enough to keep me busy, maybe both. Either way, the notion that I had a blog out there haunted me in a way. I felt as if I had failed in a way, that I couldn’t even take the time to write just a paragraph or two about life post-Milan, or my perspective about finishing up my undergrad. How lame is that?

Which is why I wanted to keep this blog going. It’s not about a fake semester—I’ve come to accept that Milan was an isolated incident of irresponsibility and debauchery (unless you’re my mom, in which case it was a good, wholesome time). This is about what’s “next” for me, the illusive, terrifying concept of the future and taking that next inevitable step towards adulthood (apparently highly overrated, from what I gather). True, much of this was fueled by playing guitar on a cruise ship, a post-college occupation I feel I can rightfully deem far more kick ass than most other post-college scenarios. Considering all the guff I got from everyone about being a guitar performance major, I actually take pride in how cool this job is. Law school or Mexico? Sales analyst or playing guitar on a beach? Long commute to work or sail in the middle of a beautiful ocean? Flipping burgers or not flipping burgers? I rest my beautifully laid case.

If nothing else this is just to amuse myself, to see how many words I can pound out before I begin to repeat myself or grow bored with the subject matter. Then again, I feel like my life would really suck if I didn’t have anything remotely noteworthy to write about. If not suck, at least be boring, which itself would suck. I think that since I'm in a bit of a safe spot now (i.e. making money) I can relax in the comfort that things haven't really blown up in my face (i.e. being a jobless bum) while working for the next step (i.e. grad school). Until then, a few funny things need to happen at some point...true?