Thursday, January 15, 2009

Stay Inside Newfoundland; There's a Popcorn Blizzard on the Way

I was flipping through my notebook the other day and found an entry dated January 5th. I vaguely remember writing it in Tagbilaran. Tagbilaran is where my disease really hit the gas and started messing me up big-time. I was on a self-prescribed drug cocktail and, quite frankly, am very impressed I had the sense and clarity to form coherent sentences. Well, mostly coherent sentences anyway. For some reason I felt it was necessary to write "Rick Bozzo: Bassist of 'Popcorn Blizzard'" in the middle of the page. I have no idea who this Rick Bozzo character is, nor am I familiar with the music of Popcorn Blizzard, although I assume he is, and they are, terrible. A quick Google search confirmed that Mr. Bozzo was indeed the bassist of Popcorn Blizzard, a band once fronted by MeatLoaf in the late '60s. This confirms that: a) I am not completely insane but b) I am quite possibly going insane. The following composition is the rest of that entry.

Rick Bozzo? Really?

Since accepting the CIDA internship and moving to the Philippines I have learned a lot about myself. Some of my discoveries have been significant; others have been insignificant. One of my bigger discoveries has been that, when pushed, I can actually conceptualize and follow a plan. Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm a terrible planner. If given the choice between phoning ahead and booking that campground, ensuring a comfortable night next to a warm fire on a swath of groomed land, or playing "Say It Ain't So" 'one more time, I swear!', you can put your money on a flawless rendition of the Weezer classic and a cold night in the back of a Corolla. Faced with the very real possibility of spending the entirety of my Christmas vacation watching HBO and hating myself, and having no unbelievably patient girlfriend to baby me, I realized I needed to take some initiative. I booked flights, phoned hotels, visited tourist information booths, and explored cities. This might not sound too impressive because it isn't. It even isn't a little impressive. It's wholly unimpressive. But, for a man of my caliber, it's quite an accomplishment. And, I'd be lying if I said I was not a tiny bit proud of myself for actually following through with everything. I've achieved normality.

On second thought, I'm going to stop it here. The next half of the blog entry gets pretty odd. I guess the drug cocktail really kicked in at that point. I talk about nothing for four paragraphs and then it just ends. Guess I should have read the whole entry before starting to type it, eh? Pretty anticlimactic, huh? Sorry.

Well, I'm going to post this anyway. Pretty unprofessional stuff. Since I'm not a professional, I can be forgiven. At least you learned that Rick Bozzo was the bassist of Popcorn Blizzard. That's something, right?

I'll have something better next time. Or not. Get off my back.

2 comments:

Nikita said...

being someone who has vacationed with you/planned your vacation for you i am very proud of you for taking the initative :)
ps. i would love to have a popcorn blizzard please... it would make me extremely happy, but a big chub

Anonymous said...

I always said you had what it takes ,to do what you want, but you will do it when the time comes, well the time has come. i'm so proud of ya buddy dad. You got some heads turning.....