I’d sell the shit out of that. Who doesn’t need more time?
Speaking of time, it’s been a while. Sorry about that.
This is the last day of vacation.
When you read this, I will be back in cubicle. It doesn’t feel like I’ve had nine days off. Not even a little bit.
We spent the early part of last week with our mountain friends and that blew by in about five minutes. Pretty much just been recovering since we got home.
No matter how much time I take off, it never feels like enough.
Instead of focusing on the death of my PTO time, I want to tell you guys about something that happened.
It turns out that Randy has his very own tooth fairy. He didn’t even have to give up any teeth! And he didn’t get a quarter. And there was nothing under his pillow, so probably not anything like the tooth fairy.
Anyway, Randy and I both follow someone on Twitter named Jeffrey Brower.
The week before our vacation started, Randy responded to a picture of a list Jeffrey had posted. He said if anyone could tell 
what that list would become, he would buy them a guitar.
Randy says it looked like he was putting together a couple of custom guitars for The Brower Sisters band.
So, Jeffrey asked him what kind of guitar he wanted.
Randy said either a black Fender Telecaster with an “Ignore Alien Orders” sticker on it or an Epiphone Wildkat.
You guys, Randy had a new black Telecaster that same day.
He was just playing along, he didn’t think Jeffrey was serious about actually buying him a guitar. But what Randy found out, Jeffrey said he just really loves buying people guitars.
Joey picked the guitar up from a local music shop and brought it home. Randy held that guitar and was speechless. He was excited, you guys.
I don’t care too much about guitars, but I care about this one.
I have a hard time feeling big feelings when something exciting happens to me, but I very much can feel big feelings for someone else.
So, I guess I got a visit from the grown up tooth fairy as well. Getting to feel that jumping up and down excitement is like Christmas and birthdays and the 4th of July all rolled up in one. Without the fireworks. Also, no flying reindeer.
I wish I could slow time down just a little bit.
I really don’t want to go back to my cubicle. I’m not ready. But I do not wield that kind of power. So, I’ll just be glad that we got some time with friends and that Randy has a new guitar.
AAAHHH!!! The internet cloud has my best reply lol 😀
Randy has a new fucking guitar bought with love????
I am feeling all the Christmas Birthday Fourth of July without fireworks excited happy with you!!!
I’m so sorry you have to go back to your cubicle, but I am so happy you had good happies for 9 whole days <3
Now I'm gonna go follow Jeffrey Brower so I can watch him be happy and share happy 🙂 Sounds like a fun follow!
I’m so glad you are going to follow him. He’s lovely.
I couldn’t possibly love this more! Reentry is definitely hard. I hope your day has some bright spots.
I already have. I got to see my work friend bright and early. I missed her terribly.
How awesome! Randy’s new guitar, of course, not the fact you’ve gotta go back to work…
At least the guitar doesn’t puncture his skin, unlike the sharp pointy puppy teeth of this new brat who has come into our family. (Izzy is awfully damn cute, however, which makes up for a lot )
Ohhhh PUPPY!!!
I wish I could see a picture!
Way to go Randy! See, good things do happen to good people. We own an auto repair shop so our vacations are a couple four day weekends during the summer. NEVER long enough. I’m glad you got to spend time with your mountain friends. Happy Fall!
Thank you! We had a wonderful time. As always.
It’s so far from Christmas right now–my favorite holiday has to come first, and also there’s another after that and I hate bringing it up almost as much as I hate there already being Christmas shit in the stores right now, but there’s a line from Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory that’s always stuck with me: “It’s bad enough in life to do without something you want; but confound it, what gets my goat is not being able to give somebody something you want them to have.”
So, yeah, I get being super happy at Randy’s super happiness because I think it’s amazing that he got a free guitar. I don’t need much but other people’s happiness makes me feel good.
YES!! It’s so much fun to see other people light up! I don’t need much either, but I DO need that.
It’s all about being in the right place at the right time! Good for Randy! And good that you were able to travel to see Mountain Girl for a few days! Going back to work sucks, but you’re back to saying TGIF again – always assuming you ever did in the first place!
Oh yes..I’m dreaming of Friday right now.
Oh my God. My Randy would’ve gone nuts. He’s a bassist and already has too many, but one more super cool one he’d love. Happy for your Randy. Married to a musician, I can feel the excitement from here.
It’s just awesome!
I wish you could stay home too. Glad you and Randy are still making good music together.
Me too, sister!!
My brother’s entire life grew from getting a guitar. Moved to LA, got involved with Ambrosia (a rock group) created his own music, made lots of money…
Oh WOW! I remember them.
OK I fucked up and tried to post a comment with a link in it under this screen name and it didn’t work.
So fuck it, I’ll try again without the link.
Be careful packaging time, as William S. Burroughs used to say that you can OD on it and it kills you.
Never owned a tele, but they are my favorite Fenders.
Sometimes a little magic has to be involved in the proper acquisition of a guitar. Shortly before my twentieth birthday, I was cooking at the Sizzler steak house in Eureka when Mark Maxon, of Maxon’s Music, the largest music store in town, came through the line, got my attention, and asked me to come by the store on my lunch break. I was a little surprised by this, as I didn’t know Mark that well, but I walked the two blocks up 5th street on my lunch and found Mark upstairs and on the phone. He sort of pointed at a guitar case on the floor at his feet, so I opened it to find a Yamaha SA 2000, which was Yamaha’s version of a Gibson ES 335, a thinline semi-hollowbody. I took off my belt buckle, because you don’t play someone else’s thousand dollar guitar while wearing a belt buckle, and picked it up.
After he was done with his phone call, Mark said “Well?” I said “OK, what do I have to do?”
One month, one HFC personal loan for $1,100 that my mom had to cosign, and much anxiety later, I took it home.
In factories where things are built, some of the things that get built are much, much better than some of the other things that get built, even though they are offered up for sale as the same exact things.
That’s how it was with that guitar. It was just excellent. When it was stolen seven years later, I had a hard time replacing it. I eventually bought another similar Yamaha, but it was just never the same class of instrument, and I feel very lucky to have gotten to own that first one during what was really a formative time in my musicianship.
And I feel seriously lucky that when Mark got it in at the store and recognized what he had, he thought of me instead of all of the other guitar players in Eureka and went out of his way to get my attention to it.
I’m glad you got to spend some time with your friends, and I hope your return to work is going at least as well as can be expected.
How is your cat doing? Has your vertigo gotten any better?
Ignore alien orders? Oh right, Joe Strummer. I kind of like Tom Morello’s “Arm the homeless” also.
Okay, thank you for the guitar story, I shared that with Randy.
And thank you for asking…yes, Alfie is good. And my vertigo hasn’t left the building, but it is entirely manageable.
I often feel like there is not enough time, and when my girls were young and we went on holiday it was still mum who did every bloody thing, well it fef;t ;ike that
I feel this!
Ohmyword, I LOVE this story! Congratulations, Randy! What an awesome, awesome prize!
P.S. So sorry that your holiday is over, Michelle! 🙁
It’s a great story! And I am sorry too, but it’s good to get back to a routine. I guess.