It's These Days...

I've been on a bit of a whirlwind trip lately. My plane touched down late on Wednesday night, which meant that me and my buddy had close to a three hour drive back home. The way my international travels have been setup in the past, you leave room for delays and returning to work. By the time I crawled through my door, it was Thursday morning and there was zero part of me that wanted to work at 9a. I picked up the phone at 8:15a to tell my manager that I wasn't going to make it into the office and he tells me, "Why are you calling, you're not back until tomorrow, bro". The truth is was right, why on earth was I even attempting to operate after being in a plane for far too long.

Now, with that being stated, my focus quickly turned to the fact I only had a day to rest and then return back to the Bay Area for a show. I know, I know, torture! To be completely fair, who travels for 24hrs, sleeps for four hours, and then travels back out of town in order to catch a rap show. Yes, you guessed it, me that's who.

No sooner was I back on the road to the Bay Area, I started second guessing myself and my desire to see yet another show with artist whom I'd seen far too many times. We pulled into San Francisco and headed straight to the gig. It's within these days of peril/uncertainty, people have craved the chance to gather and be unified.

As we came through the doors, I could feel the energy of the crowd, the room was filled with smoke, moisture, and voices which were ready to let loose in the name of Liquid Swords, Ironman, and Built Only For Cuban Linx. In all fairness, I was ready to lead the crowd in song if push came to shove; I knew far too many songs and my voice had been silenced for some time. This was the type of show my buddy Steve Etcheverry would have loved, he would have said, "This is rad", whilst handing me a bottle of some smuggled in whiskey.

The show was probably thirty minutes or so in, when I received a text from my dad. "Your nephew has his final match tomorrow @ 9a. - Love Dad..." There I stood, already overheating from both pure excitement of the show and pure stupidity of blowing my voice out within the first three songs. In my head, I wondered how on earth would I make it back home and then to a match. The show was scheduled to end at 11:30p, we'd eat, and then drive back, hopefully landing at home by 3a. There was no way any of this would happen...

Well, the one caveat to this "there's no way" is my buddy, Bobby. I've said this for far too long, Bobby drives a bit too fast and tests the boundaries of comfort when in his car. This is the dude who once was driving close to 90mph, in the rain I might add, when I asked, "Bro, why are you driving so fast", to which he responded, "I don't know, I don't like to drive slow". The estimated time of arrival was somewhere close to 3a but this dude got us home within an hour and a half; that is an hour and a half too my door from the center of San Francisco 😳 .

I took a quick shower and jumped under my blanket, thinking about the fact I hadn't given my body any time to recover from all of the travel. There was a little animosity which grew because I thought about the fact I hadn't been invited to my nephew's by his parents, instead it was a late text which didn't really give me an out, to say I wasn't going to make it. My dad didn't know where I was or what I was doing, on Friday night, BUT his text basically meant, make sure to show up, I don't care where you are or what you've been doing, I know you're in the States.

My eyes began to do some sort of blinking deal around 3:15a and I fell into a deep sleep which lasted until right around 7a when my body woke me up for some reason. I laid in bed and came up with far too many excuses of why I shouldn't get out of bed to see this little dude run around in the cold, however, it was my heart that told me that I had an obligation to show up. It's strange to think about all that I had done within the span of a week and change and this moment created anxiety.

I threw on a pair of shorts, socks, t-shirt, hat, and a sweatshirt and made my way out of my front door. Every part of me felt like death warmed over; I imagined my face was to be that of a person who hadn't slept in days (there was truth to this). No sooner had the twenty five minute drive concluded, I found myself at the field and squinting to find which faces were part of my family tree. Son of a (cuss word)... I'd been spotted and there was no hiding! In my attempt to play it cool, I walked up to my nephew and we exchanged our famous uncle to nephew handshake, I asked him if he was ready and he smiled and nodded his head; it was actually me who wasn't ready for the day 💀 .

The match didn't last too long and I couldn't tell you who won but I could tell you that my nephew scored a goal, my dad held his famous camcorder, and my mom smiled endlessly. It was within this standstill moment, I wondered how on earth I woke up and made it out of my house. There will never be a time when I'll feel what I did that morning. IT'S WITHIN THESE DAYS, I'm reminded that time is forever fleeting, soon these kids won't be so cute per se, I mean they will but they won't be tiny cute kids, my parents won't be here, and shows will not be important as well.

Note to self, remember to capture the moments...

IF you've made it this far, thank you, I hope you're smiling ♥️ .