A regular life

(First, a comment on a news item from this weekend. It was announced that Audrey Tatou, previously best known for her brilliant performance in the title role of the film Amelie, would be the female lead in The Da Vinci Code. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there is no friggin justice in this world. Look, I don’t ask for much. Just a role for Julie Delpy in a film that people might just have a chance of seeing. Seriously, is that too much to ask of the universe? With all that good karma I’ve built up recently something big better be coming my way soon. Oh, and if Ron Howard ever crosses my path on the street I’m breaking both of his legs for this. You better watch your back Opie.)

In a step to try to jump-start my life, I focused on doing things differently this weekend. Specifically, I went to different bars than I normally frequent. Ok, it’s not much of a stretch but it is a start. Plus, it resulted in my getting carded at a few bars, which hasn’t happened in this town for like a year for me. Was pretty interesting, met some cool people, and had an experience that has made me wonder about bar regulars.

I guess this goes back to my time back at Notre Dame. There was always a running joke between my buddies about the regulars at the Backer. Or, as El Ultimo Gringo so eloquently put it, “The guys who when the five o’clock whistle blows slide straight down the dinosaur’s tail like Fred Flintstone and pedal their car straight to the bar.” We didn’t have anything bad to say about them and in all honesty, they were probably at the bar less than we were. But there was always this sense of disconnect, as we were the cool school kids and they were the townie regulars. And you knew that you were never going to turn out to be one of those guys.

Fast-forward a year and a half to my life, where I woke up one morning to discover that I had somehow found myself in Kansas City. Still not quite sure how that happened, either, it must have been one hell of a night, though. But, here I am, where there are places that I go to where everyone who works there and a number of the regular patrons refer to me by name. And notice when I’ve been away for a few days. And last night when I was at a different bar and seeing the old guy at the end of the bar singing with the jukebox made me wonder, “Oh my God, is that going to be me in twenty years? Or ten, or five, or tomorrow for that manner.”

I guess I don’t worry about it too much. I certainly don’t worry about guys like the guy singing with the jukebox, my view of life is everyone gets to enjoy it whatever way they can as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else in the process. Maybe it’s just a concern of what the future could turn out to be. When you’re a kid you don’t dream of sitting in a box for eight hours a day looking at a computer screen and trying not to fall asleep. You have much bigger dreams than that and I have a feeling that for some people life is just a narrowing of the dream until there really isn’t anything left except denial that there was a dream to begin with.

I’m still dreaming of greatness and of miracles and of running into the perfect woman one night at a bar. As long as I have that, I’ll still keep going. As they say at the beginning of Waking Life, “Dream is Destiny”

The five random CD’s for the week:
1) Billy Bragg and Wilco “Mermaid Avenue Volume 2”
2) Nickel Creek “Nickel Creek”
3) Tommy Malone “Soul Heavy”
4) R.E.M. “Fables of the Reconstruction”
5) Alejandro Escovedo “A Man Under the Influence”