And the beat goes on

Steve Irwin died, and it hit me a lot harder than I thought such a thing could. The last two days have been taken up a great deal by thoughts of him and his passing, and I hardly think I'm alone in that. Feeling a little embarassed by my odd state of grief, I told John about it, and he confessed the exact same sentiment. I wouldn't be surprised if there are thousands of people out there going through exactly the same thing.

Everything keeps rolling along, though. I lost my two pups, and many dear friends and family lost loved ones in the past months. This feels like yet one more dear friend is gone, and I hardly consider that to be an exaggeration. And here we are, rolling along with our lives, as I suppose we must all do. tking the time to pause and reflect is the natural and expected thing to do, sure, but then it's back to living. I've often found it odd, actually, that this culture is so devoted to this ideal. Other cultures spend a very long time mourning such losses, and it would seem garrish and highly inappropriate to do otherwise. Anyway, I stand somewhere in the middle of all of it. We go on living, and we go on in rememberance. Should it be a solemn rememberance? On that point, I'm not so sure. Loss of those we love saddens us, to be sure, but it shouldn't stop us all from living on. Easier said than done, I think, when cnsidering the grief I know has stricken so many people in such cases, the kind of grief that has on occassion racked my own soul.

And the beat goes on...

Craig and I just finished the first half of the final mix for the CD, finishing up the rest of it this weekend and sending it off for good to Mark for mastering and being officially done with this album. From there, I send it off for duplication, and I get back to weekly erformances for promoting te album and getting the word out that I do this little music thing. Classes have given me plenty of reading to chew on, and I've been chipping away at it the best I can so far. John's at school today, first teaching in the morning, then going to his course at NYU. This is my day off, so I'll be working on the apartment, doing a good bit of reading, and hopefully stealing away for a few minutes to play some guitar. John Sauvey is staying with us tomorrow evening, so I have an apartment to make look as though we live like normal people and didn't just move in. I have my work cut out for me, but I don't think it's insurmountable. Besides, I can hear the beat from here, and that's my cue to get a move on.

Oh, yeah... Happy birthday, Mom. You look amazing, you deserve the world of happiness, and I'm just one of countless people that absolutely love you, so don't forget that you're one of the best people that most of us will ever know. Remember fun? Pay it a visit some time soon, will you?