What a night.
Joe Bonamassa is the kind of guitar player who makes you look at your friend and say "Holy Shit - do you believe that?" Over and over again. We were blown away.
Mind blowing, excellent, over the top, heartfelt blues. Christ, I live for that.
We were in a suite. FOR FREE. One of those rooms up above the great unwashed - the riff raff.
My friend works for the liquor commission; the booze distributors pay for these suites and give them away to the deserving elite. Like us.
The suite holds maybe 20 people comfortably. There were only 6 of us in it - me and my friends and one other couple - so we had room to roam, baby.
A dedicated waitress popping in to take drink orders. Bartenders who do not shy away from generous pours. And a bathroom right down the hall.
That is the only way to do the Casino.
I had to exercise restraint and I was tested early. We met at Ryan's apartment; recently divorced, a genuine bachelor pad, clothes on the floor, sparsely furnished. Ryan and David were smoking up some weed like it was going out of style. David is in his mid twenties, Ryan maybe early thirties.
I took one small hit. I am human after all. Eric, my main man, my close friend was behaving quite well since he was driving to and from the Casino and had our lives in his hands.
Eric is 63. I am 64. All night long, David and Ryan kept calling us The Dads. We of course told them to fuck off. Repeatedly.
Had a couple of generous whiskeys at the Casino but all in all, I surprised myself with my self control.
Apparently I am maturing.
Anyway, I had my night and it was a spectacular night. Filled up with what I need to get through this life - good friends, the blues, whiskey, and a touch of insanity.
It was a taste. Been quite a while. I am now on a mission to revive live music in our life in 2018.
Got free concerts in Henniker every Tuesday night.
Got an outdoor all day blues concert in August half an hour down the road. We attended this annual event a few years ago. Gorgeous day. I had a cooler with beer and whiskey as I dug on the blues; Carol was working on the gorgeous bed spread that now adorns our bed. That is who we are. And the coolest thing was that people kept stopping by to tell Carol how beautiful the bedspread was. Great day; great memory.
Found a bar that I like - Area 23 in Concord. They got a lot of music going on. Reconnected with an old friend who plays guitar; we went to see him in Area 23 last week which exposed me to the joint. Apparently, he plays there a lot.
Catch my drift? There is a lot available out there for cheap money. We just gotta get off our asses.
I am feeling good about 2018. Carol and I really need a good year. I want to make the most of the warm weather; most of all I want to see Carol be happy.
I have never been more tuned in to Carol's happiness than I am right now. Probably sad to say, but also probably true of almost all long term marriages. You settle in to routine and that routine is not exciting. You get too comfortable with each other and forget what an amazing thing it is to have someone by your side.
I learned not to cry as easily when Carol went through the worst of all this. Christ, I couldn't break down every time I updated someone on her condition right after surgery. I learned to swallow my tears, which is something I never thought I would be able to do.
Now, I shed a couple of tears almost every day but I do it in private. I want so badly for Carol to get her health back and it hurts so badly to experience her enormous frustration.
Sometimes they are tears of joy. When she comes home and excitedly tells me she is getting a tingle on the right side of her nose, my heart almost leaps out of my chest. I have to turn away and let a tear trickle down my cheek in stealth.
But we are here now. Warm weather. Easy living. I got a chance to cut loose a little bit doing something that I love and it was tremendous.
Now I gotta get us both there. I try to make the most of every summer, but this year it is an obsession.
I want to see Carol enjoying herself as much as possible.
Bonamassa gave me some juice; a shot in the arm, something that made me feel more like me. It felt really good.
Now I want that for both of us.
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