Happy Easter!

This has been the greatest 8 days for me. It started last Saturday night when I saw Gilmour's Breakfast at the Knights of Columbus in Westboro. Sunday I played poker at the Tavern and lost. Monday I played at the Lazy Dog and came in second to Victor, which meant I won the certificate. Tuesday I played at the Sports Pub in Framingham and came in first in the first round. Wednesday I went back and came in first in the second round. So I won a certificate three nights in a row, and my points for April and the second quarter started out with a bang! Gotta go check the leaderboards at some point. Thursday we had the first home game we've had in a while, and only the second since I lost my job. Friday morning, Paul sent me down to the casino which turned out to be a bad idea but at least I had fun. Plus it was a beautiful day. Friday night, more Gilmour's Breakfast but first I had dinner with Amy and we watched "What the %^&*@# Do We Know" together, Down the Rabbit Hole version, pausing for discussion. I always enjoy the time I spend with Amy and am very glad we met! The GB show in Connecticut was amazing, they had a girl singer come onstage to scat the Great Gig in the Sky and it is no exaggeration when I tell you my eyes got moist listening to this woman belt out this beautiful song. She did an amazing job. Amazing. I've never heard anyone besides Claire Torrey sing that song so well. I hope they invite her back to do it again! Yesterday I played in my first monthly tournament and came in twelfth out of 29, not bad for a first attempt and starting with so many fewer chips than most contestants. Today has been extraordinarily relaxing and I am gearing up for yet another week on the job search. Hopefully etfile calls me back in pretty soon, I don't want to lose hope with them but fear I may be too expensive, time will tell.

Edit 05-18-09: Easter Sunday was a very good day for me. After the monthly tournament on Saturday, I had sent out a couple of Facebook friend requests. Sunday around noon-ish, one of them was accepted and some communication started up. That friendship has blossomed and I had a very good early spring because of it. And to quote Forrest Gump, "and that's all I have to say about that."

Roger Waters and Pink Floyd

Lately I have been reminiscing a lot about the Pink Floyd reunion at Live8 on July 2nd, 2005. I don't really have the words to articulate the full meaning of this event to my life. I find it remarkable that this happened after I had completely given up hope that this would ever happen. The same thing happened after my mother died. We had made an agreement ahead of time (we knew well in advance that she was going to die from non-Hodgkins lymphoma) that she would come to me in a dream if it were at all possible, and that she would tell me I was right in everything I had come to believe about what happens after we die, through my reading of near-death experiences. Well she waited (I forget now) either three or six months to actually make this visit to me, and it was definitely after I had given up all hope of it ever happening.
When I met Steven Tyler the first time, he showed up to the charity event moments after I had given up all hope that it was ever going to happen.
In a way it makes me want to give up all hope that I will ever win the lottery! Why do I get the feeling if I did that, I would win?!?

Let Go, Let God

Abraham's stream - Surrender - Let Go, Let God, isn't it all the same, really? Relax, go with the flow, take it as it comes, live in the moment, is it all saying the same thing, or something different? Be good to yourself, do unto others, you can't love another until you love yourself...

How can people hurt each other? That's what I don't get. How can people deliberately harm another person with malicious intent? Don't you realize what you do to me, you do to yourself? Are you not concerned with the life after this one, where you get to go through it as me, and get to be on the receiving end of that pain you inflicted? This is why I am an uplifter in this lifetime. When I get to be you, I want the interactions you have with me to be pleasant and memorable and leave you with a smile on your face when you think of me. I really don't want to see myself crying through your eyes. So please don't make me cry, you will only come to regret it.

It's all the same

Abraham-Hicks' "Stream of Well-Being" = A Course in Miracles "Nothing real can be threatened, nothing unreal exists, herein lies the peace of God = Taoism "Going with the Tao" = Let Go, Let God or Surrender. It's all saying the same thing. Again, Abraham-Hicks "You are loved, all is well". What is there to be worried about? What can happen to you? You are energy and can neither be destroyed nor created but merely change form. There is a lot more going on here than we can just see with our eyes, but you really have to be open to accepting it in order to be able to see it. It's all perception, that's all it is. You get to decide if it's "positive" or "negative". You get to decide "what it means". And inside, you know you know the answer.

My Bliss

I am finding it is easier to raise my vibration and experience my bliss now that I don't work.
I guess the work day took a lot of my focus and I wasn't really able to fully concentrate on raising my vibration. I thought I was feeling gratitude a lot of the time but in fact I was mostly concerned with filling out my time sheet, wondering how the next call or meeting was going to go, hoping to get invited to participate in lunches and wondering what my boss and colleagues thought of me. I don't have any of that anymore! Now I can enjoy Facebook, and the reminiscent feelings that keep washing over me like waves. Now I can appreciate having music and videos at my fingertips and totally under my control, especially the volume! I realize I need to get a new job and start working again very soon, but for now, I am thoroughly enjoying my unexpected time off. Getting my vibration this high can only be good for me and my future.

The Little Soul and The Sun

I don't know if I'm allowed to post this link or what, but here it is:
http://www.sapphyr.net/largegems/littlesoul-thesun.htm

This is a quick read and a gentle introduction to the Conversations with God material as well as a primer for A Course in Miracles.

When someone pisses me off (and you know who you are!) I remind myself that we had a pre-existing agreement to be here together and to interact with one another and to present ourselves with Forgiveness Opportunities. Thank you to the people in my life who are teaching me to love unconditionally. I may not show it all the time, but I really do love you all.

More on music

Well I could've edited my last blog but instead I will just amend it here. As my friend RG says, there are rules and there are exceptions. Obviously I like some bands whose lead singers' voices are not all that pleasing to me. Without intending to hurt Robbie Taylor's feelings, I don't particularly care for his voice. I was describing Gilmour's Breakfast to a colleague who asked me if the lead singer sounds more like Roger Waters or David Gilmour. I had to be honest and tell him Rob sounds like neither. He does a very very good job with the music, his passion is intense, his stage presence is right on, and he almost always gets all the words right (I'm still mad that he f*cked up Goodbye Cruel World at Lazy Dog after charging me 8 bucks to get in there - the song is short enough to begin with and he chopped a bunch of it out) but he really doesn't have the angelic quality of David Gilmour or the mean sounding sharp edge of Roger Waters.
I would've liked to go see them on New Year's Eve, but the weather and driving conditions, combined with the fact that I did not purchase my ticket in advance, along with my general lack of desire to be out on New Year's, kept me home. I was just checking out their tour dates and I am going to have lots more opportunities to see them. Hopefully for cheap or for free. If this bullshit with the rising cover charges persists, I will content myself to just catch them on YouTube/MySpace, their Charter cable appearance and their own website.

Edit: I really don't want to hurt Rob's feelings and I don't want him to think I don't like his singing because I do like it. But I stand by my statement that he doesn't sound like David Gilmour or Roger Waters. He does an awesome job though and I really enjoy their music. And I'm looking forward to the show at the Lucky Dog this Friday night!

Edit #2: They played Goodbye Cruel World again last night and now I realize it wasn't Robbie's fault that part of it got cut out, it's the whole band! I think they need to listen to it again.

Edit #3: He may not sound like Roger Waters or David Gilmour, but he's a pretty close match wtih Roy Harper, I realized the other day listening to Have a Cigar on the radio.