February 2nd, 2013.

Sarah “Ukulele Sarah-Nade” Hensler and her improvised uke-kazoo performing a kazoo solo at the last Takoma Park Open Mic at Capital City Cheesecake. It was a damn charming way to go out. The last TPOM was bitter-sweet. I think that when the CCC lasses had first informed me they were thinking of cutting it, I was ready for the concept, but not quite ready to be done – I’d have been happier getting to the end of the year. And then when they waffled a bit and asked for a monthly open mic, on a Wednesday, I sort of knew it wouldn’t work as well but was happy to run it. A week or so ago they went ahead and said that the monthly format, trying to get people to the open mic on a Wednesday at 5.30pm or so wasn’t doing as well and that they were going to go ahead and let it go – I was ready for it this time and I’ve got plenty of other plates spinning – I think it came as a surprise to the rest of the community though and though I’d tried to play it off as “I’m just really busy with other projects” to take some of the heat off of Capital City Cheesecake – but that just resulted in them getting a bunch of people saying “if rob’s no longer interested I’LL host it” – but really, no-one’s changing their mind about it. Still – we had a fantastic last night, and not having the big build up of a grand finale meant that the night was relatively chill. Perfect for a kazoo solo.

It’s 12.52am and in about 12 hours I’ll be showing up for what is effectively my 20 year high school reunion.

Not totally – it’s not just my class that’s going to be there, and actually it’s focused around one particular teacher: a beloved high school photo teacher who has recently lost his wife. We’re converging to say “we remember you, Love you and you had a huge influence on us”. I don’t know what it’s going to be like, I don’t know if there will be speeches, I don’t know if I need to dress purty – but through the magic of Facebook at least I DO know who is going to be there… (and maybe won’t spend too much time wracking my brain, trying to remember people)

I just got finished playing a pretty easy-going bar gig. i.e. we just loaded in a sizable sound system and a bunch of instruments, played music for four hours, broke everything down, dragged it back to the car in 28 degree weather. It’s a good paycheck – and like I said – it’s “easy-going” which means we played pretty much what we damn-well pleased, had great food, weren’t hassled too much by people wanting us to play x y or z (we got requests, but mostly for our own songs or covers that we’re known for – OTHER requests [not honoured] included “anything by Sara McLaughlin”, “Islands in the Stream” by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Pardon [!], “Forever Young” and “Outshine” by Soundgarden). But it’s a long drive. We left Baltimore a little before 4 to avoid the worst of the Friday evening rush hour around DC. And then it’s a long drive home. Heather will probably drop me off shortly before 2am. Heather will probably get home shortly AFTER 2am…

It’s still a good paycheck, but I’m wondering how much my own Lifestyle is about to be thrown into contrast with that of my peers. I’m very aware of burning the candle at both ends most days / nights. At the moment I’m heartily aware of being almost 40 (I turn 38 on Thursday!). The kids who were pregnant in high school probably are having their first grandkids right now… that doesn’t generally include my photo friends but … there’s that number. 20 years!

I have a lot of older friends who probably have little sympathy for the above lament. I have a lot of younger friends who probably don’t quite GET this lament. It didn’t click till I thought through the numbers… class of 93. 2013. 20 years. It hit me again when we were getting paid tonight and I was standing next to the register with the little sticker that reminded people that “you can drink if you were born before this date in 1992”.

In 1992 I was a junior in high school. I had yet to have touched a musical instrument. I was painting furiously and listening to a lot of Indigo Girls, Megadeth and Cypress Hill. I was dating a girl from Roosevelt High School and at times we flirted with the idea of planning our Lives around one another. I had long hair, wore flannel shirts and was

about to discover that Seattle had suddenly made this fashionable. I was looking at myself tonight and thinking that my wardrobe hasn’t changed much: there are no holes in my jeans (usually), or in my t-shirts (generally) and I’ve switched to a different style of underwear. My flannel shirts also don’t have holes in them, and there’s no paint on anything I wear (though there are plenty of ink and Sharpie stains) and nothing has been drawn on (except for one pair of pants). I now own 3 ties, but I don’t wear them (the first purchased for when Rowan and I were the Blues Brothers for Halloween in Missouri, the second purchased for Keola’s wedding and worn again for Rowan’s and the third purchased on a whim in Ohio and never worn). When I last saw these people I had yet to hear of email, the internet barely existed and I had yet to use a mouse.

Madness says I. Well, I hope to get to sleep tonight so that I don’t look even OLDER when I see these people…

Below – a joyous meeting with my old friends from high school!