What is it that you want to hear (about??)? Do you want to know more about us? What we are like as much as our likes and dislikes? What it is that drives us and that which has caused us to walk the path we do? Or would you rather have me drone on a out adventures as well as the day to day?
I sat still for a while with this blank page staring up at me, but could not as much as I tried come up with a suitable topic. My mind is as blank as this page once was.
I could spend this journal's time on further exploits and tell you that since my last entry I have sojourned in Florida, North Carolina, and Louisiana, and I am currently sitting on a plane awaiting departure for Florida yet again.
I could tell you that I've had my heart strings plucked of late, but that I am still waiting to see whether the tune will produce a song of love or merely a romantic jingle.
My birthday is coming up, and it is one of the "big ones". So, I have decided to throw a party for myself, and I have been busy trying to pull together all the last minute details - not to mention finish up the guest list.
Since most of my time has been spent in travel, I have had no time to spare on such extracurricular geekeries as playing AD&D and collecting DVDs. The newest interest to intrigue me has been a financial one. But, again, I have not had the time I've needed to further my education to the point where I could put my newly acquired knowledge to good use.
I helped someone adopt a new puppy recently, and although I consider myself a "dog lover", I was surprised by how much I had bonded with the spastic ball of fluff. She was named Karma-for many reasons. How's your karma? Most people's karma is a neutral grey, symbolizing the mixture of the yin and yang energies. My Karma is black with white, fuzzy paws and puppy breath. Good, Karma -bad, Karma.
We're landing in Tampa now, and I still haven't said much of anything. Am I doomed to swim in this soup of trivial drivel, putting to paper that which serves as no substance to anyone? And, even worse, are you doomed to read it simply because the creative juices that are the lifeblood of my imagination tree have withered dry on this wintry day?
The answer?
Well, yes, you ungrateful bastards, and you'll pay for the privilege to do it, too.
A little comedy mixed with sarcasm, yes? A little comedy mixed with sarcasm, yes? A little comedy mixed with sarcasm yes.
I have a little more room left to write. Not only is it a new day, but it is Thanksgiving Day. And it is the day that our two friends, Earl and Therese, get married. We have all been invited to attend, and Jef and I have been asked to stand in as ushers - no worries here, we can ush with the best of them.
So, what am I thankful for? For being able to travel around this great country and always be surrounded by friends. For being able to stand on stages large and small and use one of my most precious gifts, to bring joy to heavy hearts and brighten the human condition if only for a moment.
I am thankful for the lifetime of family that I have been blessed with: from the parents who adopted me from my birthplace in Karachi, Pakistan, to my brothers and sisters who always keep life interesting, yet enjoyable, to my birth mother who has reached out this last year to rekindle the relationship with her too long lost son, to my Tortuga family, who have gifted me with the greatest adventures of my lifetime.
I am thankful for the little things in life: like the dew on grass in the morning, sunrises and sunsets, and puppy dog breath. For having traveled the world enough to know that there is always a new horizon, always another beginning no matter how devastating the last ending.
I am thankful for love, who visits me quite rarely, but always enriches my life when she does. That she has brought most of my friends together, like Earl and Therese, and drove very few of them apart. I am thankful for the woman I am in love with now, though she is too far away and in so many ways. Even so, I am still thankful that I am once more able to experience the joys and the woes of this thing called love.
And thank you, our fans, for enriching our lives wherever we may travel. For enjoying the many different forums in which we Tortugas now express ourselves, like this one. Thank you, and have a most excellent Thanksgiving Day. I know I will.
It is now about 3 a.m. the next morning as I transcribe this from the scratch paper I had written it on early yesterday morning. The turkey is all but gone, and I'm sitting in my hotel room in Hammond, Louisiana. We flew into New Orleans, and we spent a little time in the French Quarter. The rain drizzled down on us, only slightly dampening our evening, but it was the lack of sleep over the last week that finally drove us home. It was a most excellent Thanksgiving Day. I got to speak with most of the people that I had planned to, but I did miss a couple. It's now time for to me to get some shut-eye - we're working on a Friday, so I have to get up by 8 a.m. The rest of you, I'm sure have the day off, and I hope that you enjoy it. Have a lovely few days off, and may the gods of long holiday weekends bless you in whatever it is that you see fit to do.
Ciao, all. R3
