Rant #1,653: Fun Weekend

After my usual long, hard, never-ending week at work--and on top of that, dealing with some other problems related to various things, including the crevice I have in my teeth that I detailed to you a few days ago--I have something of a fun weekend coming up, which actually begins tonight.

I am leaving work early and going into Manhattan, where I am going to meet a few of my childhood buddies for dinner.

It is always nice to meet up with people from my past, and especially those from my childhood.

When we meet up, it's like the past 40-plus years evaporate into thin air, and we talk to each other as if we have been having an unbroken, ongoing conversation, like we were meeting in the park as we did all those years ago.

It is fun to look back on our childhoods, but we also look forward and speak about our current statuses, and all of this makes things quite interesting.

We all seem to be fairly successful in what we have done with our lives, and it makes for lively conversations, over a good meal and drink.

This is the third time in the past several months that we have met--we were actually supposed to have met a few weeks ago, but one thing or another got in the way, and it never happened. It was postponed until today, and now, I think all of us are on board with this meeting.

Yes, it should be fun, a barrel of laughs, and something that I am really looking forward to.

The next thing happens in the morning of the very next day, on Saturday.

It is Record Store Day on April 16, and I will be going to my local record store to see all the goodies that are being offered special just for this day.

With the increased popularity in vinyl--me, I have always preferred this format as a way to listen to music--the special releases for this day are mainly on vinyl, and while some items are kind of pricey, others are within my financial neighborhood, and I hope to pick them up this day.

The one thing I am really hoping I can snare is the Monkees guitar shaped picture disk single. There is another Monkees release--the vinyl release of the previously CD-only box set of all of their original Colgems albums, plus an extra LP of all of their label singles--but since I have all the originals, I really don't need this, nor can I afford it.

For others, every artist from David Bowie through the Zombies will have something out for the day, so it should be like a kid going into a candy shop for anyone who is looking to buy new vinyl on that day.

My local record shop is also going to be donating some of its proceeds to local charities, so it makes the day good for everyone all around.

And on Sunday, I will rest.

Yes, I do work for the weekend, usually just to have some time off to decompress after a busy workweek, but for this weekend, at least, I have some real reasons to rejoice that this time has finally arrived.

The two things that I am doing are really steeped in nostalgia, and I am all for revisiting these times, even for at least a brief period.

It makes me appreciate what I have today even more--certainly meeting up with my friends does just that, but even buying new vinyl in 2016 does too--and makes me happy that I am able to enjoy these things.

My advice to you is to never give up your old friends--contact one soon and try to get together to relive those past years, talk about current times and look ahead to the future--and get out your turntable and take those old records off the shelf, as Bob Seger sang some years ago.

On both accounts, you will be happy you did!

Speak to you on Monday.

And you have a good weekend too!