Onto the Next Chapter

Weddings and Bad News and when life feels like a book.

Please for the love of God heart this or leave a comment. :)

“I love books. I have even read a few. Most of the ones that are on my shelf remain unread but I’m not throwing them away, I am just waiting for them to beckon me at the right moment.

I have had Patti Smith’s book M Train sitting on my shelf for over a decade until it grew interesting enough for me to pull it down and throw it in my bag for my trip down to Austin Texas for a friends wedding. I had no idea when I would have time to read, the friend getting married is notoriously social and he is a magnet that attracts other lovable degenerates like myself. All this to say, we would most likely be imbibing to the point that in the morning I would not be in the right headspace for Patti’s prose. I arrived at our Airbnb, threw my bag on the bed, showered, got dressed and headed to the day-before-the-wedding-party.

We all descended on Donn’s Depot Piano Bar and Saloon. The family and friends from dozens of cities scattered across the country. The band played Willie. The bar served Lone Star and tequila. The prices were shocking to those of us accustomed to New York City prices, each drink you didn’t have was passing up a bargain. There is no point in me trying to paint the picture of my experience, think of yours, that last great wedding you went to. Great. Best friends from one era of life swapping stories with the best friends of another era of life. All gathered to drink and dance and usher the couple into their next chapter. Well usher we did. The weekend had not even begun, it was Thursday, we had the wedding Friday, Saturday was the the all day afterparty. I woke up after Donn’s Depot with a raging headache and a full heart. The only good hangovers are the ones that carry with them no shame, no regret and they are rare.

Death at Donn's Depot

My friend, Cory, had brought me home an electrolyte beverage from the store and a bag full of famous Austin breakfast tacos. I drank and ate, thankful for the sustenance. The home had a giant Texas sized bath tub, it called to me like a book from the shelf. I put on some peaceful music, got into the bath tub and decided to hear what Patti had to had to say to me after all these years.

The books opening line ‘It’s not so easy to write about nothing.’

She makes it look easy but it’s because she is not writing about nothing. She writes about coffee, memories, adventures, premonitions, chance encounters and lost loves.

I got out of the tub after 45 pages, the entire 80 minute new Andre 3000 flute album and potentially, permanently, pruned skin.

I checked my phone, I had an hour to kill before I had to put my suit on. I took a short nap. I woke up with my usual taut finger tips. Checked my phone again and I had an email informing me that I was about to begin the next chapter of my life. I can’t go into detail, not because I don’t want to, I just don’t know all the details yet. I just know the way in which I pay for rent and books and flights to weddings and Spotify Premium and Donn’s Depot’s Discount Tequila’s was going to change drastically and not for the better.

It’s a special thing to be surrounded by many of your best friends when you get bad news, not horrible news, with horrible news you have to leave your friends and go start planning a funeral. But with bad news the moments become more valuable for the simple economic fact of supply and demand. As the supply of bad news increases, the value of everything else the gives life its sweetness and beauty increases. Then of course you start mulling over the other iron clad economic laws of scarcity, marginal costs, incentives and marginal benefits. Next thing you know the wedding is over and the reception has begun and they are blasting Britney’s Toxic on the dance floor and you’d be a fool to keep pondering the theories of Scottish Economist Adam Smith.

I am going to keep reading Patti’s book. So far it is about those tiny quiet moments, the moments that feel like they might go on forever, sipping, wandering, ruminating, not much happens but it’s beautiful, it is what critics are calling ‘The Ultimate Hungover in a Bathtub Memoir!’

Meanwhile in real life I have been experiencing the big moments, a long anticipated reunion of friends, the exchanging of life long vows, tequila shots at a honkey tonk dive bar. And the sudden news that whether you like it or not, things are about to change. Moments of nostalgia, celebration and unadulterated joy with an internal undercurrent of uncertainty, fear and anxiety? That sure sounds like the end of a chapter to me.”

He says as he turns the page excitedly.