The Cold Front

• Two Nights Under The Dock
• The Saints Game
• Tiposaursus Stolen
• Music

It is Monday afternoon, I am at the library, obviously.
I slept at Leslie's last night.
The previous 2 nights, I had spent under the dock.
This, I did despite the fact that Leslie had gotten 100 dollars on Friday night; and was tearing through it; buying drinks for all....and still had some left.
He insisted that I follow him into a bar that night; where he ordered some kind of shots of alcohol with Abita beer chasers for each of us.
"Leslie, these are like 5 dollar shots with 3 dollar chasers," I said; trying to talk some reason into him.
That backfired.
"I'm just concerned about you binging away all your cash..."
"Well, you know what?" "Bartender! Another round!!"
He woke up in the hospital Saturday morning, not knowing how he had gotten there.
He texted me at one point last night telling me to come to his apartment immediately, as, since he perceived (in his flimsy shirt and his Mardi Gras beads around his neck which were sucking the heat out of him) that it was perilously cold and that I needed to take shelter.

Stolen!

I had played outside the Superdome as the Saints game let out; but I got there late due to the fact that the game was interesting enough to watch too much of on the TV at the big Rouses Market down the street; and it didn't dawn upon me until late in the 3rd quarter that people would be streaming out early, because the Saints had an 18 point lead...
I made about 15 bucks, after starting my case out empty.
The empty case had an effect which I noticed when the very first person who threw a dollar in it kind of shrugged his shoulders as if to say "Nobody else is giving you anything, but I don't care..."
The other 14 dollars came quickly after that one....
Tiposaurus Thief
I didn't have the advantage of the tiposaurus, as I believe it was stolen the previous night.
When I leave to use the restroom I, of course take my guitar and my backpack with me; and I usually take the flashlight out of Lilly's vines from where it shines down upon the tiposaurus and its sign.
But, I must have left the tiposaurus there, during this particular trip to the restroom, and didn't notice its absence until the following morning, thinking that I had probably bagged it up at some point.
Leslie Unmusical
I just ran into Karrie here at the library.
Leslie had left this morning, to go eat at St. Jude's Church.
He was away so long that I eventually impinged upon his neighbor, Jeff, from upstairs to let me out.
I went to the Lilly spot and sat down, "first thing in the morning," and totally sober with a Monster Energy drink by my side and managed to tune up and play, as people walked past and embarrassed me by throwing me money..I'm just tuning up, sorry it sounds so off...
I could really feel the difference between being well rested and sober and under a beautiful sunny morning sky; and how I then had to be a lot more "honest" in the notes that I played because there was no alcohol/marijuana haze glazing things over and forgiving the mistakes and "telling" me that I sounded great, compared to hearing the notes in the light of day.
Then, Leslie showed up; drunk.
He expressed concern over the fact that I may have inconvenienced his neighbor by asking him to let me out.
"No, he was standing at the gate with it open and talking to the next door neighbor..."
He became angry after I told him that when he said that he was going to St. Jude's to eat, that I had calculated that to be about a 1 hour ordeal -10 blocks there, 20 minutes to eat, 10 blocks back...
He began yelling about the fact that it was not his responsibility to tell me if he was to be gone 2 or 3 or 4 hours.
What I hadn't factored in was the fact that he still had money (i.e. alcohol) left in his pocket.
I told him that I had actually made a few dollars, just tuning up.
I took the few dollars from my case, and then pulled the 15 dollars from the Saints game out of my pocket and wadded the bills together before sticking them back in my pocket.
At the sight of that money, Leslie instantly asked: "What do you want to do....get alcohol, right?"
What I wanted to do; I was already doing. I wanted to explore a whole different facet of musicianship; that of playing sober and connecting to other sober people walking past me with espresso in their hands.
He once again implicated that; with money for alcohol on hand; what was the point in sitting there and playing music...let's go get drunk...
I walked off, thinking that Leslie was the Anti-Musician, and telling him that he was embarrassing me by ranting and raving at me on my playing spot. I stopped short of threatening to ring Lilly's bell and have him verbally removed.
I'll ring Lilly's "bell" one of these days...
Love Will Steer The Stars
I had been working through the chords of "Aquarius," by The Fifth Dimension at the time he walked up; and his babbling totally distracted me from the progress which I had been making in rearranging it.
How ironic that a song about "harmony and understanding" had been derailed by my "musician" friend, who has basically stopped playing entirely after getting 100 dollars the other day; and who had turned into a nasty drunk before the sun had even risen overhead.
I think he was angry over the fact that I had been let out of his house; perhaps feeling that he had been holding me captive with no choice but to be his friend; but that I had escaped..