For long periods of time, I feel like I am stagnant in terms of personal growth. I’m impatient and want to learn about human behavior as deeply and quickly as possible. I ask questions to everyone I am talking with whether I have known you for a million years or if I am speaking with you casually at the deli counter in the Supermarket.
You caught me, my wife is likely thinking “Bullshit he goes to the supermarket!”
Well I used to go, but once she asked me to buy a roasting chicken and I brought home a roastED chicken. She was pissed, but then we acted like two people who were high and proceeded to cut that hot bird open right then and there in the kitchen and eat it like we had the mad munchies.
Then there was the same supermarket trip where she clearly told me to buy PICKLING cucumbers but I accidentally got PICKLED cucumbers. When I got home she is all like “What the hell do you want me to do with these? Do you even know what these are for?”
I am not allowed to go to the supermarket now unless I bring at least one of my kids and a detailed list. When that happens, we also get Ben&Jerry’s, and some other snack-like substances. (Shout out to Pavel in 6th grade band).
Wait. This was supposed to be a post about human growth. Enough about me. What do you think about me? I’m hearing good things. People are talking. Gerry, I love you. I am glad that you came to the lake. We laughed and talked about always thinking with your head. You have always given me great advice and mudslides. Hey, let’s write a tune called “Mudslide Blues.” I’ll send you the changes. I’ll call you and we’ll do lunch, maybe order some band shoes.
Focus Patrick. Focus. Ahh yes, human behavior.
Is it normal to wonder why people call me, talk with me, or reach out? I always do a mental checklist that goes a little something like this:
- Are you wondering how I am?
- Do you have a funny story to share?
- Would you like to get together?
- Do you have tea? (that’s the new generation…we call it gossip)
- Do you need something?
- Why now?
Well, I don’t always do this in the moment, but I am usually wondering it during or after….what I mean is, what and why and how were you led to speak with me?
It has been awesome, since I was sick back in da winter of’24 how many people have bridged a gap of 5-10-even-20 years since speaking with me, and there has been no awkwardness. We say hello (usually by phone), and pick up like we spoke last week. Shout out to Mr. Draper who recently said to me: “so, you want to know what I’ve been up to for the past 35 years since we last spoke? Cool…let’s go.” It was awesome. If you’re reading this Scotty, Miles, Doug, Mark LaChance, Collopy….you are just a few of the people who I still want to talk with. That’s off the top of my head….shit, let’s put the band back together. Rob, are you still cool to set up the kit? Have a beer? Take a limo to the Def Leppard show? Eric, how sweet you bought Ponch a shirt. I forgot about that AND I forgot that people were lighting paper on fire near the fence. I didn’t understand that they were high. Long live the 80’s?
So there’s all that and then this week that lines it all up. The new people. The strangers who will soon not be strangers. Out of the blue, I got a call from an old student who was also my son’s first grade teacher who now teaches kindergarten in a different town who has a youngster that was just diagnosed with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy and she told the mom about me and can I help support the family? Follow all that? The universe lined it up.
The old student who also reached out on LinkedIn last week (hey, congratulate me on 598 years of work and I’m looking to hire!) that she was just diagnosed with MS and do I know anyone? (it’s ME…of course I know people….) Universe.
My friend Lori who is friends with so many wonderful peeps in the rare disease space who asked if I could help get some social hook-ups to another family in Rhode Island. Of course I can!
A couple who I have known since I was a little kid, and faithful readers here, who now have a daughter fighting her own health challenges and reaches out to share strength and support and wonders how a parent stays sane while watching a grown child go through the difficulty of a stage 3 clinical trial cancer med. The answer? There is no answer, but there is strength in community and that’s where I can help.
Finally, great family friends who moved to Maine, but still spend quality time in New Hampshire who recently told me of a cousin of their’s who lives with Myotonic muscular dystrophy and is looking for help and support. My friends told their cousin: “I got a guy.” SURE they do.
All of these things line up. I’m being used in the best way I can be: to provide laughter, support, community and HUMAN CONNECTION. I say that I am impatient in my personal growth? Perhaps the universe is sending a bizzilian signs in a week for a reason. Could it point to the Awesome Support Service Moeschen Arms Naturally?
Yes, read that again. I’ll call it A.S.S.M.A.N.
Keep ’em coming. Let’s talk, network, support, laugh, love, eat lobster, buy the wrong groceries, sit in the sun, write some blues, take a road trip, frolic, get naked, and enjoy.
Well, not the naked part. No one wants to see that after my wife showed me what happens with pickled cucumbers instead of PICKLING ones.
But that’s a whole other blog. Next week I will be in Philadelphia. Please try the veal, and be good to your servers and bartenders. Jenn, bake the cakes and take a road trip. Gag Family, put your fun pants on, Imma run up those Rocky steps in the city of brotherly love, put it on TikChat, FaceGram and Instacart, where I’ll get some Youtube streams. Don’t look now everyone, but I’m an influencer. Wait….I mean an instigator.
Stay safe, stay awesome and stay tuned.
PS: I’ve been meaning to add this. I have read that the average American (Hey! That’s me!) eats 50 hamburgers per year. I read that in January as some New Year’s resolution we’re all going to die if we eat too much cow something something and I thought…50? SHIIIIT that’s one burger a week. No way (well, maybe Falkin)….so I am keeping count. It’s tough in the summer with my wife and brother-in-law being grill masters (RoastING chicken? RoastED chicken) but my current CHEESEBURGER COUNT stands at 19. I shall update you all weekly so it gives you a reason to get up every Thursday. At the bottom of each blog it will say:
CC (Cheeseburger count….Tommy Laycock, you with me on this?) and a number.
So, we begin here….and yes, when I am a fat pig and I eat a double cheeseburger, it DOES count as 2.
CC: 19
Moeschen! 