Some are Mathematicians, some are truckdriver's wives...I don't know how it all got started I don't know what they're doin' with they're lives...

When the phone rings at work, I always ask who it is, not to avoid undesirable callers (although sometimes I'd like to), but just to get an idea of what I might be dealing with so I can prepare myself.

Today I got a phone call from a name I hadn't heard in years, & it took me a while to realize where I knew the name from. It was an old friend from high school calling about the upcoming 10 year Reunion. I knew that 10 years was about to pass since my high school graduation, but I had no idea of whether or not there'd be any kind of reunion or not. I don't wake up everyday & wonder what happened to all the people I went to school with, but every now & then I think about it. I don't sit back & romanticize how great I remember high school to be. Some of it was fun. Some of it wasn't fun.

I have a confession to make. I hated running. I have maybe run 6 times since I graduated high school. I don't necessarily regret running track & cross country, well maybe I do, but I wonder how things might've been different had I played a different sport, or none at all. The only other extracurricular activities I remember were drama & the yearbook staff & those didn't appeal to me, now or then. Oh well.

If I go to the reunion, I'm sure not to greatly impress anybody with my profession, although I like it & enjoy it. I don't think I've become better looking since I graduated high school. I'll probably impress people with my hot younger girlfriend, but other than that, I think people turn out to be what they always were to begin with. I'm not a whole lot different than I was in high school, I still like doing most of the same activities that I used to like to do. My political views are a little different, but I'm not sure I had any real political views in high school, maybe just regurgitating things I've heard from others. I never figured I'd turn into a vegetarian, but other than that, I think I turned out kinda like I expected.

It's fun to think about, & then forget about for another ten years...

p.s. It's good to know Mr. Weier is still on the payroll. He's the best teacher that place ever had, but that's another post for another day.

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

Gates of Eden-Bob Dylan, Stockholm Sweden, 2000

Jokerman-Bob Dylan, Hammersmith, 2003

This performance never fails to give me the chills. The album version, from 1983 is okay, but it's rather stale. The song comes to life in this arrangement with this band, however. Whatever vocal abilities Dylan lacks at this age he makes up for it in expressiveness & phrasing. He's got the voice that old blues guys would call that coffin closing sound, especially as he ends each line. It's performances like this that make me go see the old man every time he plays nearby.

It's a shadowy world, skies are slippery gray,
A woman just gave birth to a prince today and dressed him in scarlet.
He'll put the priest in his pocket, put the blade to the heat,
Take the motherless children off the street
And place them at the feet of a harlot.
Oh, Jokerman, you know what he wants,
Oh, Jokerman, you don't show any response.

Praying at the Old Camp Ground-Mississippi John Hurt

Better Git it in Yo Soul!-Charles Mingus, Mingus Ah Um

Blind Hope-Son Volt, Wide Swing Tremolo

Happy Wednesday, friends...

andrew