Eighteen Dollar Nights

• 18 Dollar Nights
• I Take Jake In

Last (Saturday) night made three eighteen dollar nights in a row.

Like the others, I could have stayed out twice as long trying to make twice as much, because there were still tourists out, and I will never know if I missed out on any 3 AM hundred dollar tippers.

But, the problem really has been my playing my ass off and making the eighteen bucks, and then just running out of motivation and not wanting to play any more, not being able to think of any song that might be cool to do at that particular time. This is after the joint wears off that I smoke as I tune the guitar, about 80 minutes in.

The remedy will be, in large part, getting around to making that huge laminated list of "all the songs I know," and having that with me, to refer to.

When I switched to the D major harmonica last night, I was unable to think of any songs that I know in that key, even though there might have been thirty on such a list, that I have forgotten about.

So, I played "Nowhere Man," by the Beatles and was soon packing up to take a break at the Quartermaster, where I hoped that a cup of coffee would make me want to play more.

It didn't, so I returned to the apartment, where Jacob was sleeping on the couch.

I decided to move him into the back room onto the bed so I could stay up and listen to the radio and my laptop and play the guitar, etc. as well as have access to the kitchen.

He had a falling out with his guardian, Bob, who has basically been sheltering him, making sure he was regularly attending church, and most recently, banning him from coming to the Uxi Duxi for kratom.

This was enough to make Jacob forsake all of that and "move out," even though he has no job, car payments, and is a student at Delgado College, right down the street from the Uxi.

I can see Bob's reasoning, as a legal guardian of Jacob, who has seen him go from coming to the Uxi every Thursday before bible study, to coming here every day of the week, like a kratom head.

He is guarding against him becoming addicted to anything, since, he took guardianship over him because Jacob's parents became derelict in their duties at some point because they are heroin addicts themselves.

But, cutting this short so I can go out and busk would be prudent.

Jacob had some kind of job lined up doing yard work for some lady who was going to pay him a hundred bucks; an amount that say's she is trying to help him out to a degree, since she could have found someone to clean her yard for a fraction of that.

But, he said that it was too hot to work, or something, and that was that.

He is bringing his keyboard over to my place tonight, though, and some music should come out of the whole experience if nothing else. Of course he is going to have to go crawling back to Bob at some point. Unless he want's to stand upon principle and sleep in his car so he can have his kratom shot every day...