Stickboy ‘Sing My Songs’

Take a look at that picture! It’s my copy of today’s musical selection parked right next to the day’s beverage of choice.

As I write this, it’s Friday and it’s the first of three days off! It’s Cinco de Mayo and I’m drinking at home and warming up the Brokeback Mountain on DVD.

I started off the day meeting Jonathan Everett, Tracy Thornton, and Melissa Siler at Terry’s Deli over off Wendover and 68 for lunch. The four of us all went to Northwest Guilford High School many moons ago. This was the first time that Melissa joined us.

Jonathan and I graduated in 1985 and Tracy and Melissa grabbed their diplomas in ’87.

Jonathan is Jonathan and he’s a great musician that has turned on his longhaired musical appreciation for the hectic life of being married and raising a daughter. He’s an IT technician and hates computers, if you can imagine that?

Tracy has something very big coming up for him… He’s been invited to perform for the Joey Ramone Tribute show and charity event for lymphoma cancer research. It’s in the Big Apple and he’s going to do a lot of press for his ‘Pan Is Punks: A Steelpan Tribute To The Ramones’. He was in the February issue of Spin magazine too.

He has a website… www.ttpan.com

Melissa is around 5’6”, attractive, funny, and she kicks ass. Seriously… She kicks ass! Melissa is a bounty hunter. She has a permit to carry concealed weapons and she tracks down folks that skip out on bail. She’s even been assaulted by a deadly weapon… a big ass car. Something like a Lincoln, I know that she told me and I forgot. She showed me her .40 caliber semiautomatic send-ya-to-ya-maker handgun. It was hot.

For some reason, Northwest Guilford really turned out some weirdoes back in the 70’s and 80’s. I do hope the tradition lives on these days.

I tried to talk everyone into seeing one of Tracy’s many bands one night. He plays with Walrus, The Hall Monitors, and does solo gigs with his steelpan. I got the feeling that it fell upon deaf ears. Tracy and I are the only ones without kids.

I left there and headed to the N.C. License Plate Agency to wait and stand in line. And in line I stood for maybe 10 minutes, which wasn’t too bad. I talked to a woman behind me who commented on the long line. I pointed up to the old guy in the title change line and said that he had been in line since he got his driver’s license in 1948.

She didn’t even crack a smile.

I got my little sticker and walked out to my truck, Roxy. I was a little concerned about the two people standing in front of her talking. They looked at me as I was making my way in their direction. I could sense they were feeling a little uneasy too. Then I pulled out my keys and hit the unlock button. They heard Roxy trip my door unlocked and they realized why I was doing.

“Sorry,” the one guy said.

“It’s cool man… Have a good weekend.”

To which he replied, “Happy Cinco de Mayo.”

???

I don’t look remotely Hispanic and I said, “Yeah,” with a slightly sarcastic tone.

Tracy tried to talk me into coming to his Brassfield Ham’s gig that Friday night. I told him that I don’t do “Amateur Nights”. I tend to stay at home when there’s a holiday designed for people to do lots of binge drinking.

He didn’t understand so I explained to him that I’m a professional drinker that doesn’t need a beer company introduced holiday to drink. Personally, I’ve never needed a reason to drink. All I need is the alcohol. Dig?

When you’re out at a bar on one of those “drinking holidays”, folks get loud and obnoxious. And there’s even more folks than usual. They don’t have any manners and for the most part… They’re jerks. They give drinkers like me a bad name. Folks like me drink a few and get a little buzz. We don’t get loud and pushy. We enjoy the drinking while being social. No runs, drips, errors, or fights.

I don’t want the hassles of going out on a “drinking holiday”.

Jonathan pointed out the fact that I’m NOT a professional drinker because I don’t get paid for it.

After getting my new sticker, I dropped by the ABC Store and picked up a bottle of Jim Beam Black. So what if I’m a little late celebrating Robby Gordon’s top ten finish at Talladega last Monday.

Then I dropped by the convenience store for a 2-liter of Coca-Cola and resisted the slight urge to purchase some lottery tickets.

I’ve been catching up on my television shows that I’ve taped and knocking back some Beam & Cokes. Take a look at the picture in this blog entry… That’s the CD that I’m listening to for the day and it also shows my alcohol consumption up to this very point… Friday 8:58 P.M.

Now I’m waiting on SmackDown! to be over and then I can watch that Brokeback Mountain.

I’ll give you a report on that one because just the fact that I want to see it has my mother slightly uptight.