Day 5 - 40 Days of Writing (I think?)

I am not supposed to be here. It's a beautiful warm day outside and here I sit at work -- really I'm grateful to have a job, it's not like that. But when I walked over to Trader Joe's at lunchtime, feeling the warm sun, I remembered yesterday when I sat outside a cafe on a street in San Francisco sipping on coffee, and strumming my ukulele, surrounded by the welcoming Victorians and flats all crammed together, buildings with porches and stoops, and secret backyards that you can only see when you go into one of these magical houses that look so small on the outside, but stretch far back -- sort of like the flat where we grew up in San Francisco on 2nd Avenue. From the street, you'd just see a wide porch and doors. The buildings are crammed together, yet they stretch far back and the backyards are yet another world that only the locals or the people who visit the houses see -- filled with trees, grass, beautiful plants, flowers, some yards more rustic than others...some with redwood trees even...

When I visited my friend Dean's flat the other night, I remembered the back yards -- a hidden world...I remembered playing in yards, even jumping fences -- a gorgeouc hidden world.
So what am I doing here at work today? I should be outside playing my ukulele or writing, or doing something somewhere, other than here. Then again, I'm grateful to have a job -- some people aren't so fortunate, so it's good to put everything into perspective.

By the time I managed to escape from work, I could feel one of those pounding headaches coming on, pulsating so that I had to squint because any sort of light hurt it, yet I still managed to drive to San Jose to the Poorhouse Bistro -- and yes, I got there super late, still feeling the stress travel from my head, down to my neck and shoulders -- I popped open the trunk and grabbed my ukulele and dashed into the lovely patio area where Bob and Laurie played ukulele and guitar and sang -- my friends from the Silicon Valley Uke Group whom I also see in Santa Cruz a lot -- we're all like one big, happy family.  I saw Mary Jo and Diana and Dena from Blues Ukes and Silicon Valley Uke Group -- the chicks from the north, and Annette and Bill -- and Steve Martin who runs the whole thing, and I sat next to Leonard who always shares the most amazing songs. It's always fun to jam with Leonard -- and there was Bill Dawson. I smiled and waved at him -- the three of us, me, Bill and Leonard along with a few others, had stayed up until 2:00 am to jam on ukuleles at Burning Uke X campout. As I pulled my ukulele out and began to strum along to Leonard's rendition of "Bad Moon Rising" on ukulele, suddenly I realized that the headache had disappeared and all was well with the world once again.

Wow, I thought -- this is better than therapy!! When you're stressed out, just pick up a ukulele and play and all will be well with the world! I went up and played three songs -- Science Fiction Double Feature, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and A hard Day's Night -- two Beatles songs -- hey, those are among the songs that make me happy.