All Things Bright and Lovely: The Bond of Friendship

Greetings from the land where cars go around in a circle REALLY fast and 100,000 people pay good money to watch it--Go Indy 500!

Actually today was spent watching my beloved Indiana Pacers get gobsmacked by LBJ (LeBron James) and his too-talented sidekicks. Oh well, at least they were in the game the whole time. Watched it with my Pops and then headed for Casa Ricky, my little home not-away from home.

Last night was really fund. My dad had 2 tickets for the Indianapolis Symphony performance and he didn't want them so I claimed them. I called my friend AJ and she was initially hesitant and making excuses about the fuzziness of her mothers day plans but once I sent her the link to what the concert was all about she became more interested. If you're keeping score at home, then, yes, that sort of stung but que sera sera.

The program was called "Bond and Beyond"--Music from and inspired by the James Bond films. Since she was a big fan of the films, she was excited to go. (You may refrence the last part of last paragraph in case that last line didn't quite sink in.)

We had a lovely dinner at the Oriental Inn, actually really tasty food which I do not take for granted in such places. And then we headed downtown for the symphony.

AJ had never attened the symphony before and was very impressed with both the music and the lovely concert hall. I felt bad because it really wore her out going to and from the parking lot and the symphony but she handled it quite well. A few years back she had a stroke that left her without the use of her right arm and sorely weakened her left leg. She is very much OK at taking care of herself and has really dealt with alot better than I am sure I would have. We met on the OKCupid dating site, went out a few times for dates and then she informed me we were just going to be friends. It was kind of early in the process for me to be upset about this so I was fine. Better then than later.

Even so, I still rub her back some, in a friendly manner, and pat her on the leg now and again. And she gives me these really long, sweet hugs whenever we part. Honestly, right now that's plenty for me. I was starved for hugs in my last long relationship. I basically went 2 years without one. Which I put up with because I was convinced she was the love of my life and that she would one day wake up and remember that. But she never did and I starved until she finally used emotional plastique explosives to completly destroy me and set me free from my delusion. It hurt. Bad. But the freedom was worth the pain.

I guess my ideal right now would be to have 3-4 ladies I could go out and do stuff with as friends without having to deal with the relationship stuff. It was so funny to me when AJ and I were at Minnetrista, one area of the garden smelled like cat pee and she was worried it was her. I told her not to worry, that I would have told her if she smelled like cat pee because we are friends. If we were dating I would have just smiled and set some new breath-holding records for the car trip.

So, the symphony, it was amazing. They had a Tony-award winning vocalist to perform some of the numbers such as Goldfinger and they did 2 Henry Mancini bits from the Pink Panther (my ringtone btw) and Soul Bossa Nova as well as a Concerto for Orchestra and Cell Phone where a series of cellphone rings were worked into the number. Quite brilliant and funny!

Just a lovely evening! This weekend I am going to see the band Unstable Faultline perfom in the finals of a competitionthat can win them $5000 and a recording deal. This is a band fronted by the son of a lady I work with and they are all 16-17 years old and amazingly talented. I have bought 2 tickets and now I have a week to see if I can find a use for the second one.

Take care, everyone. Hug one another as much as you can bear!