#1538, Monday, November 9: Plus and minus and plus in my music

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Post 1538, Day 313 of 2015
- 1,774 days since I started this blog -

Daily Comment

Finally, after eleven weeks without playing together, i am Fool had a great rehearsal, with four good new original songs.

I am excited for a couple of reasons. The first is, I've release some of the pressure that build up in me from missing the band. I always feel a sense of loss when the band misses a rehearsal, and this has been eleven weeks!

So, if we don't play for a week, I miss it - I've said it before (here in the Daily Comments, and often times at rehearsals and even gigs): My only complaint about the band is that we don't play enough.

But, beginning in December, the band has a lot of good gigs lined up. We're going to have to rehearse to keep our level of performance up. So I have high hopes that in the coming months, we will reverse this paucity of playing time.

I'm really excited about that.

This is in contrast to my other band, Bradshaw Blues. I have become ambivalent about that band. I think if it weren't for Jim, the drummer, who is one of the sweetest men I've ever known, and with whom I make a rhythm section I am proud of, I would have left that band a while ago. But, because it is so much fun playing with Jim, I didn't, and that has been very good for me in a lot of ways.

Although the band pleases a lot of people, it often doesn't please me. The focus of my displeasure is poor ensemble playing from Chad, the leader of the band. He has a poor sense of timing and rhythm, lack of listening skills, and an emphasis on the wrong aspects of performance. All served up with outbursts of disrespectful behavior.

Gigs can be challenging because it is difficult to cover his lapses in rhythm, timing or chording. He has gotten worse, not better, thanks to the rhythm section's ability to cover his errors. He is making more mistakes, not fewer.

What this means to me is that I have a lot to learn from him.

Whenever I find myself spending time with people who antagonize me, although occasionally needing to vent, I look inward, and think of why this or that behavior pushes my buttons. I look inside - those are areas I have to work on. The responsibility for my feelings, positive or negative, is mine, not whatever external person or thing stimulates them. It's on me.

Because that's what other people come into my life to do - to make me better, to inform me, to provoke change. It is my job to figure out how even seemingly negative people can have a positive influence in my life.

Carl Jung said, "Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."

Food and Diet Section

Today's Weight:                   207.0 lbs.

Previous Weight (11/6):           206.0 lbs.

Net Loss/Gain:                    + 1.0 lbs.

Diet Comment

Not too bad, considering the weekend eating included cheats.

Food Log

Breakfast
Protein shake with almond-coconut milk, kefir, kale, extra-large organic egg, whey powder (36g protein), hemp seeds, hemp protein (7g protein), raw organic cacao powder, chia gel, moringa leaf powder, cinnamon, celery and stevia-inulin blend.

Lunch
Skipped.

Snack
Sriracha chicken breast with cole slaw and a Quest bar.

Dinner 
Cheeseburger with salsa and guacamole.

Snack
A Quest bar.

Liquid Intake
   Espressos: 1;  Coffee: 22 oz.;  Water: 68+ oz. 

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