The Notebook

I just want to remind everyone that I am not gay. And this post, is not about The Notebook the Movie, its about The Notebook, the Notebook. The Notebook in question has a name, "The Gr8 Mid-American Songbook" and if you have ever seen it in person, you should consider it a High Honor, because only the few and proud have ever been cleared to look upon it. The Back Cover was decorated with Hussies holding Guitars, and the pages were filled with Love, Angst, and the most personal information I have ever penned. If my soul had a window, it would be that Black and White Composition notebook. 5 years of hopes and fears that were only published on my Talking Wall, or the Hood Hallway, or a bonfire in the Canyon. This is the Notebook containing the mysterious "3rd verse" to the song: Something Is Fear. It contained the only copy of the lyrics to the song "3 and a Half Bob Marley Songs Away." It contained sketches of all the Hilarious T-Shirts I was going to make when I got around to it, the Chord Progression to Spilled Drinks and Starlight and a million other awesome things I could never hope to remember. That is why I wrote them down. That notebook has been with me for 5 years, through 8 different states, and exactly 10,841 adventures. It has been in my life longer than my iPhone, my "Are you a Pirate or a Ninja?" shirt, and many of you. And, (drumroll please)due to the negligence and apathy of a friend... it is gone. Forever. With no hope of recovery.

I have had a couple days to deal with this sobering loss. I did cry a little, but that is only because I am emotional. I choose to use this experience as a springboard, and it couldn't come at a better time. February is Album Writing Month, and I intend to fill my new notebook with 14 new, original songs, in the next 28 days. I am also choosing to use this experience as a chance to let go of the past. I have been holding on to a lot of different emotions, that weren't exactly healthy. The Notebook served as sort of a refrigerator for some of those emotions, and a lot of times I would read things that I wrote, and feel the same way I did when I wrote them. I guess that is the power of a great song. Invoking emotion. However, for me, those emotions have a tendency to become my reality and be applied to present situations. That is fine, unless you are reading something you wrote about someone, sometime ago, when someone is still around sometimes and something is not right. Follow?

So I'm opening a new notebook today. And it is completely blank. I am leaving all beef in the past, all of it. I start fresh. I start new. You are welcome to join me.

"This road has all but taught me lessons, about my lonely soul. I am young and getting wiser, soon I will get old." -Joshua James