Making the Band

These photos are by Becca Worple of owenemma photography.  They are totally used without her permission, but with much love and respect.

Sometimes I feel young, sometimes I feel old, sometimes I'm just happy with who and where I am.  The old part sucks.  I'm on high blood pressure medicine (which in and of itself makes you feel old because you are so freaking tired) and getting physical therapy for bursitis and tennis elbow.  Did you know there is a sack on your hip called the bursa and it can get inflamed?  I'm thinking I've had this since puberty and thus why I have saddle bags no matter how much I do or don't exercise.  Still there are a lot of days--once I've dragged myself out of bed--that I'm just happy to be who and where I am.  Ok never really happy about the saddlebags, but other then that.  My kids are a great age, they have great friends, we live in a great place and we have great friends.  We have terrible things happen--right now it seems like we are losing a lot of parents to things like cancer.  But I believe as long as there is a "we" we can get through it.  I'm very lucky because I haven't lost a parent, but I have lost my brother.  The "we" got me through it.

Now I've left this paragraph for most of the day, I have no idea where this pre-coffee random thought was going.  I'm pretty sure it was just an excuse to post the above picture.   I call the band "Midlife Crisis" however, most of the band does not like that name.  I guess some aren't there yet (the cute young lead singer and even younger guitarist) and some are happily on the other side.  The drummer on the other hand loved the name--his drums are a symbol (no pun intended) of his midlife crisis (which ironically enough coincided with the sudden death of his father).  Since they didn't like that name now I call them "The Old Man Band" (sorry to Marc and Robby).  It was very cute to have them come over twice a week to practice their music.  They would each come in with their six pack (of beer not belly) and go play music in our basement for a few hours.  Saturday night they played at our lacrosse fundraiser.  They sounded great (although I worried a bit that playing in the basement was like singing in the shower--which always sounds better then real life), they had a great time and I think most of the crowd was pleasantly surprised by their talent (and ability to all play the same tune at the same time).  

And (perhaps what I was trying to get at pre-coffee) it was fun to be "us" on Saturday night.  Didn't really matter whether we were 38 or 58, we had a few beers (or wine), admired the fact that some of our neighbors can sing and play instruments, and just had fun.  We were "in the moment."  I probably could have stayed up past midnight.  Fortunately I didn't since I rode my bike home uneventfully until I hit my driveway, literally.  

It's important to remember to take your feet off the pedals when you stop.

(Hoping to shamelessly steal video from Becca so you can hear their groove.)