10,000 Days Old!!!

Hey Everyone,

Today I'm 10,000 days old. It's kind of a big day for me. I've been working for this day my whole life. Some people told me I'd never make it, but I took it a day at a time and look where I'm at now. So, to all you naysayers out there who said I'd never make it, well, to you I gotta say....I made it

(I need to think of a better response).

Anyway, you're probably all wondering what I've done/what I'm going to do to celebrate my 10,000th day alive. Well, I'm glad you asked. This is how my big day has gone thus far:

I woke up at 5:45 so I could write a paper about Aristotle's Rhetoric and Poetics. I barely finished my paper before the class I was writing it for was over. I ran into the class and put it on the teacher's desk, took my seat, and then waited about 4 minutes for class to end. I think he might be catching on that I don't take his class very seriously.

After the class I went home and changed the strings on my guitar so I could do a little guitar show in Payson. Once I finished changing the stings I packed up my guitars and my amp and started the drive.

When I arrived at Payson I realized two things...first, the place smells horrible. Second, I realized I hadn't had a chance to eat anything yet. I really hate playing the guitar when I haven't eaten anything cause my hand gets a slight tremor.

But it was too late to eat anything so I just went into the classroom and I hoped that the kids wouldn't notice all the mistakes I'd inevitably make with shaky hands.

When I got into the class I was shocked. I don't know if I've ever seen so much energy. The classroom had about 30 chairs but only about 10 kids were using them (and they were the really quiet kids, the ones that stare at the floor all day (but they have level 80 characters on Wold of Warcraft so their priorities are in order)). The rest of the kids were either standing on their chairs or leaning against them. The teacher had Metallica playing over the radio (I wish I had a class like that in middle school) and there was one sort of chubby kid at the head of the classroom just getting down...doing some white man's form of break dancing. That kid could actually dance pretty well.

I sat through the beginning of the class as they all talked about what a guitar was, how many strings it has...why guitars are different from ukuleles etc. As I was waiting I took a look at my amp and noticed that I hadn't brought a power cable for my effects processor. That was a problem cause it meant I only had a clean channel to play on, and these kids weren't into acoustic stuff....they wanted to hear me shred and play Dragon Force 2 billion (is that the name) sorta stuff. They wanted tapping and distortion. What they didn't want was to see me get up there and finger pick some pretty classical song. So, I was off to a bad start.

But things picked up soon. After a few songs they all got really excited and then their hands shot up. Just about every kid there had a song request. It went something like this:

kid: can you play Linkin Park

me: why would I want to?

kid 2: can you play 3 Doors Down?

me: I can, but I'm embarrassed to admit that.

kid 3: can you play any Metallica

me: bless you child (play Metallica).

kid 4: can you play any Beatles songs?

me: Yes as a matter of fact I can...name one.

Kid 4: Octopus's Garden?

me: really of all the Beatles songs...that one?

Kid 5: Can you play any Green Day?

me: of course, everyone can, it's the law...

Kid 6: Do you know any Bon Jovi

me: Bon Jovi? Sorry, I don't play chick rock...how about I just play some songs for you guys and we can do requests at the end....

*****

Throughout all off this I am being peppered by other questions.

I was asked:

1) How did you meet Ms. McCune?
2) Are you and Ms. McCune in love?
3) Are you and Ms. McCune dating?
4) Are you and Ms. McCune brother and sister?
5) Are you Ms. McCune's boyfriend...do you want to be?
6) Are you not allowed to date Ms. McCune because she's a teacher and they can't date people?
7) How come you're wearing a wedding ring? Are you married? (CTR ring...they couldn't tell it was my right hand).

And of course none of the kids paid attention to my and Rachel's responses so the questions kept on repeating.

side note: I was really surprised by how many kids requested AC/DC.

So, it was pretty interesting. I don't think I could handle that kind of job--those kids had too much energy. It was funny for a little while, but if I had to stay there for any length of time I would end my life.

But I still had a good time. It was like I was the fun uncle or grandpa. I came for a short visit, got all the kids excited and riled up...just bouncing off the walls...and then I got to leave and avoid the aftermath.

Oh, and the best part of the whole trip was the intercom--it would not shut up. Every 10 minutes some lady would share another message, and they were usually pretty funny. The best one went like this:

Attention! Attention! Please, we cannot have any more students spraying themselves with perfume or cologne in the hallways. We are sorry if you smell bad and if you are embarrassed by how bad you smell, but please try to smell nice in some other way, perhaps by bathing every day. Too many of you are spraying perfumes in the hallway and it is making it hard for everyone else to breathe.


All the kids took that message without even laughing...as for me, I could barely contain myself. I looked at "Ms. McCune" and Rachel was cracking up too.

Anyway, that's the first half of day 10,000. I'll let you know how the rest of it goes later.

p.s. in some countries, when someone is 10,000 days old, that person's friends and loved one send them 100,000 pennies (or a 100 dollar bill) to commemorate the occasion. Just an idea...

p.p.s. I don't know which countries do that, but I'm sure some country somewhere does that, and I think it's a good idea!