happy days

Jack had an awesome spread laid out for family and friends Friday night as he always does the evening after Thanksgiving. There’s no corny open forums on what we’re thankful for, or any formality at all for that matter, it’s just Jack’s labor of love, buying and cooking for his peeps. It’s always a lot of fun, the food is always great and it always usually ends with drunkeness and loud music. What else, right? This year was a little different without his Mom and his Dad, we all missed him whether we said so or not. But in attendeance was Bob(zilla) Davis, fresh off tour with “So You Think You Can Dance?”, Carina (after her hellish day of her dad’s broke down van and all that went with that), Jack’s ex and her crazy friend Amy (who I both paint for on occasion), Jack’s daughter and her boyfriend and his family (there’s a long history there, Jack took care of his very sick brother many, many years ago so he already knew the family), plus a host of neighbors, co-workers, a girl from the Apple store and other folks I had never met but were quite nice actually. Our friend Melinda Fine was there who did a lot of work on my second record with her graphic self. I keep forgetting that she’s Greg’s neighbor. But anyway, she gives me a hug and says “You look great!” I’m taken aback a bit by this and say “I’m fat as a little pig, are you crazy?!” “Well…are you happy, because you look happy” she replies. I stood back for a few seconds and thought about all the things that mattered to me all at once, rolling through family..check, beautiful, safe and healthy and then through music…check, play with great people, great new record almost done. “You know, you’re right I guess I am pretty damn happy.”
Every once in a while you gotta step back and see the big picture and realize that your attention to details does really add up to something quite beautiful.
As a follow up, I was in the Food Lion in Bunn last night and the cashier with all the knots on her neck was cracking up to everything I was saying. “I love when you come in here” she said “you’re always in a good mood.” “Life’s too short to be in a bad mood, honey” I told her.