Goodbye, June   Wednesday June 30 2010

Well, the month of June ends in 36 minutes, so I’d better give at least some blog attention to the positive occurrences of this month, before it’s too late!

First of all, early this month my friends Skull and Bone Band had a CD release party at one of Tampa’s best music venues, Skipper’s Smokehouse. It was their first time playing there, and they had a huge turnout– I think that almost every person in Tampa that I know walked past the bench where my recently-injured self was parked that night. It was a great show, too! My attendance at band performances was once a weekly occurrence, but in the past year I had gone to not one of their shows. I regret that, now, because I learned at the CD release party that supporting your friends’ band is more than just showing you care, listening to their music and contributing to their earnings by paying the entry fee. There is also participating in the vast fellowship of friends that such events create, and feeling connected to a large group of both friends and otherwise strangers who are all–somehow!– a part of the same great web of personal and creative associations that you are, and who have all come to participate in this one happening. When I listen to a big famous band like Led Zeppelin, I am just listening to great music, but when I listen to a band that friends of mine have created, like the Skull and Bone Band, I am also listening to the sounds of a happy community. It is pretty great!

Shortly after the Skull and Bone show, Mike and I had a party for a long-lost friend, also named Mike, who moved to Japan about three years ago and came back for his first visit in all that time. I managed to not get any decent pictures of him.

My friend Jeff recently purchased a fixer-upper type of house, afflicted mainly by the interior design efforts of the previous owners, who had absurdly poor taste and did things like paint over pretty stone walls and doors and bathtubs and other things that are best left unpainted. Jeff decided to use the house as an opportunity to teach himself how to do things like build walls, lay tile, install kitchen cabinets, etc. Having spent several months hard at work, he had some friends over to watch the World Cup, and to check out the progress. (Many of those friends had actually been helping with the progress, though I was not one of them.)

Father’s Day also happened this month, and I had an especially good Father’s Day weekend. I traveled across the state to Vero, where I went to the doctor and was given a much smaller foot brace and encouraged to ride my bike as part of my recovery exercise routine, much to my great joy! Next, my dad and I spent the day in Ft. Lauderdale, where we celebrated my grandpa’s 85th birthday and spent time with all of my aunts and uncles, and 67% of my cousins. (First cousins, that is.) This was topped off by a visit to Chez Porky’s, a restaurant that has reached legendary status in my life and deserves a post all it’s own: anything less than pages of carefully crafted, glowing accolades is simply not doing it justice. I mean, raspberry hot wings? Come. On. It’s incredible.

Anyway, the day after that, my parents and I celebrated Father’s Day by watching old westerns on TV and then having Dzia-Dzia over for a feast.

That night, we set up my tent inside the house, as part of our preparations for our long-awaited family camping/road trip this summer, a trip that is now a mere six days away, and I can hardly stand the excitement!

Last Sunday, Mike and I spent all day with Kevin and Kelly, who acquired a new barbecue grill. (Actually, Kevin and Mike acquired a new barbecue grill; Kelly and I went shopping for shoes. But do not let that give you the impression that I am not just as serious about barbecue as any man.) In honor of this purchase, we and Jeff and Anne Marie and all of the canine friends that collectively live among us had a big cookout/dinner gathering.

It was wonderful! I am never quite as happy as I am when I am eating food with friends.

Lastly, my diploma arrived in the mail.

I am very proud of this document, which I worked so hard for. The fact that it specifies “American History” makes me feel a rush of excitement. For so long I have wanted to know everything there is to know about American History, and while I certainly don’t know even one percent of everything there is to know, I often become convinced that I do not know ANYTHING, at least not anything worthwhile. But look, there it is, printed on that paper: I do know something! A lot of something! This is assurance that I ought to be able to have without looking at a diploma, but it’s a different kind of feeling, I guess, to have it on paper.

It also puts a smile on my face to see that it is dated May 7. My graduation was May 8, but May 7 would have been my Mema’s 83rd birthday. She died two years ago now, but if she is out there looking down upon me, she is proud of me, I know. She didn’t get to go to college when she was young, so she went as an adult, receiving her PhD in Literature from the University of Miami when she was 47 years old.

She didn’t expect her grandchildren to follow in her footsteps, or anything, but she and I were always close, and I know that this particular accomplishment of mine would really have put a smile on her face.

Anyway, June has been a somewhat torturous month what with the injuries, accidents, and sicknesses, but as you can see, plenty of great things happened as well. And July promises to be fantastic!