Today is the four year anniversary of the death of my Poppa. I am always reminded because my birthday follows by two days. That year I moved to Houston on my birthday and listened to two very important albums in my life for the first time on the bus trip down from Nebraska. Keith Urban’s Graffiti U and Kelly Zutrau’s band Wet‘s Still Run.

Last week was crazy busy as I worked thirty-four hours in three days and continued to do another nine covering for someone. It’s helpful because I need to purchase the return flight from Seoul, Korea for the trip in February of 2023. This week and the following weeks schedule will be steadily bringing in work to complete other items on the wish list. I have applied to renew my passport, booked some reservations, paid for travel insurance and also the hotel for my second blood donation trip in December before Christmas. Some of the Greyhound bus tickets are also reserved. I’ll be staying with a repeat visit through Airbnb before Jerry Seinfeld too! So if I could only see Keith Urban in Jacksonville at the beginning of August, I would have done more than I imagined this year so far. However since I have not rejoined any active listening to music, that one will be mostly sold out soon enough before I made that move.

I’m planning to see The Black Phone in theaters late on Tuesday night to replicate the New Year’s theme of watching a movie through midnight until the celebration date when I turn forty-two. Other movies I saw last night were Licorice Pizza and House of Gucci. I didn’t want to see these, still after much ado, finally tried to see both selections in one night. They are over two hours and indeed have some interesting scenes and decent acting, but I wouldn’t recommend them for various reasons. It’s a shame really with these types of combinations of performers coming together in once-of-a-lifetime type stories for me to have to say that and feel that way, but my instincts were right to stay away. However if you must indulge in these choices, I believe there is enough in each to help you regret and not regret your entertainment decisions.

Last update is that I’m reading the newest printed version of Ernesto Che Guevara’s The Motorcyle Diaries. So far it’s incredibly disastrous how much crashing they do and speak of eating meat. I actually can’t believe they haven’t been killed yet. I didn’t know that Che was a medical student and the carefree exploration sense is quite like I expected. Often this is how I think I may have been travelling internationally post college. Simple goals and some poetry to the writing that says basic concepts a little bit different from how they are show me that creatively I can identify with this spirit of travel. Today everywhere has been mapped out, but for us it is a whole new world to discover from our perspectives. The introductions at this point are blown out of perspective to the rest of his life which makes me nervous. Most of the concept of him as a man and traveler I have picked up from popular culture. Having a tattoo of one image of him on my sleeve is a commitment to that, so if I traverse deeper into his writings and history, there is always a possibility I will see something quite different later in my life.