A Few Words on Aging Recklessly

A Few Words on Aging Recklessly

Generally speaking, you don’t need a gun to your head to do stupid things. Most of the time, you do stupid things because you want to and/or think it’s a good idea. As people age, that desire to do stupid things tends to subside, especially when you throw esoteric concepts like children and mortgages into the mix. So why did I think it was a good idea to eat nine hotdogs and drink nine beers in under two hours? At a St. Louis Cardinals game of all places!?!

The fast answer to the question is “I don’t know why I did it.” The long answer requires a bit of unpacking, a lot of reflection, and the constant gnawing need to catch up for lost time.

We can probably back track to when I was young. I definitely did not grow up popular. I definitely had trouble interacting with people. Most people just say i’m autistic, but I actually have an anxiety disorder that makes me hate public spaces. I hate crowds. I hate talking in front of crowds. I’ve never felt comfortable in my own skin. That lent heavily to my inability to be socialable and scratch out a level of popularity that would make me look back in high school in the kind of wistful way so many do. A million jokes are made about people who never quite got over high school. But getting as far away from those years as possible while still having a yearning desire to make those youthful mistakes is probably just as laughable, if not the specific reason I keep finding myself in the messes I get myself in.

Continue reading “A Few Words on Aging Recklessly”

Han Shan – written by Jordan Holmes

Han Shan – written by Jordan Holmes

I realize that this will be a difficult concept to understand, it is foreign, but I am intractable. I am uninterested in whatever you have found in these that you don’t like. It is what it is. We are at an impasse. 

You may call me names, you may find me disgusting, you may find my nature annoying or brash or hypocritical; whatever you may desire I give to you as your personal genie. But I will not change my mind. I will not alter my course. I will not take steps I don’t want to take. 

You may blame me! Blame me!  I accept! I am at fault for Biden’s loss! And I raise you, we are at fault for Biden’s loss! How about that? Whatever blame you may cast upon me, you owe yourself as well! Except when I take that blame, I will take it knowing I tried it your way first, you failed, and I gave you the option to change. I accept full responsibility for my actions. 

Continue reading “Han Shan – written by Jordan Holmes”

A decade of Seeing You Next Tuesday…

A decade of Seeing You Next Tuesday…

Open mics are weird things. As I mentioned in a piece I wrote earlier this year, you are given the chance to get onstage and talk into a microphone and the only thing you have to be able to do is show up and write your name down. On that night, a person going up for the first time is on even playing field with an experienced veteran. All that matters are the jokes.

There are some open mics that are basically booking auditions. Usually held by comedy clubs, these mics are not about working on new material, but they’re about trying to get paid work. Those mics serve a purpose (comedians should learn how to professionally try out for spots) and they are important, and because of that, they’re usually very well attended.

But See You Next Tuesday, a mic celebrating its tenth anniversary of being in the bottom level of Plainfield bar MoeJoes, is not an audition mic. It’s something much, much more special than that.

Continue reading “A decade of Seeing You Next Tuesday…”