Abundance

I was introduced to a thought a couple of years ago… from someone I’d call a philosopher, Dr. Wayne Dyer. In one of his books I read about the thought of opening your life to the concept of “abundance…” I don’t have the chapter in front of me, and I'll try not misquote or mis-apply the thought, but what I understood is the idea of opening your “awareness” to the abundance of the world…

For example: I used to not pick up pennies if they were tails, “bad luck” I'd say and the woman I was dating, (now my wife) asked, "how is gettin’ a penny bad luck?" Well, when someone points out that you’re silly in such a logical way, if you’re smart enough, you change your thinking… And that penny was my first abundance… Since that week, where I read, and I stopped coming up with reasons to NOT pick up money… I have found over $300.00 on the ground, on the street, sometimes when passing through a casino, and not just in the USA, but in several foreign countries, etc. etc.

One time I was telling my sister about the thought, and we walked out and on the street was a $10 bill, and we laughed and for a minute I think she thought I had actually PLANTED it there during out lunch to make a point... but she knows I'm too cheap to take that kinda chance with $10!!!

Yeah, I’d say I’m lucky but not just for this… Sure I keep my eyes open, I now CONSCIOUSLY think that I’m gonna find change and/or money… this is/was just a new way of being AWARE. A new thought that I practice thinking...

More than just that, I needed something to do with my new found Abundance… how can I give back… with this new "LUCK"??? And I found a way, to share it...

I found this organization call Kiva.org where they allow people who have (or FIND) a little extra… to give micro-loans to various parts of the world… It’s call a micro-loan, 'cause they can be made in amounts of $25 given individually but pooled with other micro-loans. You don’t get interest on the loan, and I think you can get updates, but I just like giving. Here's how it works for me, when I find some money, I put it in a jar and when it gets to about $10+ I count it out, put it in the bank, double it from my own earnings and make a loan… In about a year you most often get paid back and can take the money out and keep it, or re-loan it… which is what I have done... My $300+ find, (added to as I have) has made over 200 loans in the past few years, and it’s one of my favorite feelings. I’ve kept it pretty quiet ‘cause I didn’t want the idea of the loan to be anything about me, but I just crossed 25 years in comedy, and it’s not a bad thing to introduce others to new ways they can help people. I've introduced friends (Shout out to Katsy’s first loan) and family to it, have even asked some to give to Kiva instead of a present... Anyhow, I'm gonna now put it out when I make a loan on Facebook and hopefully if anyone finds abundance in their bank account, or on the street, they too can do something good with it.

Giving, and now sharing the information… maybe that’s the real ABUNDANCE I’ve been allowed to FIND.

25 years ago… lucky then, lucky now…

I’ve wanted to be a comedian before I knew there was such a word. Second grade, Mrs. Norberg’s class, I did a report or story about what I wanted to be when I grew up… and even then, for my future, I wanted to make people laugh… Around that time, someone gave me a joke book and in it, there were MANY things I didn’t understand, and when I asked the older people around me, and some wiser school-mates “what does this joke mean?” they laughed! Some tried to explain why… and so I found there was a power in the words, and a mystery to them that I couldn’t wait to solve, to figure out… It’s still FUN figuring out what makes people laugh… (well, SOME people…)

I wanted to be a comic “professionally” like the people I listened to that lived in my folks record cabinet, Shelley Berman and Bob Newhart, and on the TV like Johnny Carson and Bob Hope, and later with the great minds and material of Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, and George Carlin…

I’ve been so lucky, I moved to San Francisco after a few tries of doin’ comedy in College, and hung out with some of the funniest people I’ve ever known… (one of the funniest named Jim I met in college!) and most of them I still know… a solid part of a larger supportive group that was far more willing to laugh than ever to criticize, people who were generous with suggestions and theory and who also shared rather than hoarded work… What a beautiful community to have tasted my first attempts to do comedy as a “wanna be” pro… I’m friends with most of them even now… both those that stayed in this crazy Show-biz thing, and those that found more “sane” (some might say ‘legitimate’) work. I’d go crippled typing out their names here, but those of you who remember those ‘artist’ days, and were part of them… Well, THANK YOU…

25 years ago today, February 1, 1987… John Cantu, club owner of the iconic Holy City Zoo in San Francisco gave me 10% of the “door” to be part of a show. And at $2 a head, I made $12.20 and the next morning I quit the job I had at the time… A job I didn’t hate, I just loved the idea of COMEDY so much more!

25 years from now, I hope I’m still bein’ funny, and still unraveling the mysteries of what makes strangers and some friends, and even me laugh…

Here’s to another 25 years, and bein’ so lucky…

Still a New Year

Wow, another Monday zipping up to be noticed… another blog that is pulling at my guilt strings…

I’m pretty sure I may not be so fond of this getting older/time flying faster thing as I see it first hand. I always heard it from great uncles and such but living it… Yikes… wasn’t it just January First…??!??

I’m home, which is great, but I sure am not getting the things done I had planned to do when I was planning to BE home, which is not so great. Pay bills, catch up on reading, write some comedy, write ‘thank-you’ notes, fix the den/office/guest room to be a den/office/guestroom. Organize garage and put the cool stuff I’ve forgotten about into the den/office/guestroom.

Oh well, bills are paid, (and AT&T was caught taking $2/month they shouldn’t be… winner!!!) I heard an entire book on ‘tape’ (well… CD… I’m behind but not that behind…) helped create and celebrate a surprise birthday (adults really can move quickly and in unison when they like somebody…) baby sat, (I know… I have friends with BABIES!!!) Caught up on how I did in Fantasy Football, (Broke even?) and what else? Cleaned out the closet, as somehow I’m no longer a 32x32 no matter how much I asked Santa and sometimes God for my perceived waist to be my actual waist… Ahhh that’s right, I did find out how ‘face time’ technology works, and found time to go through my big bucket o’ change and add a few “precious” coins to my penny collection… and turned the rest o’ the bucket into I-tunes… test drove a few cars since my was wrecked a while ago… and by the time that was done… I found a few more bills that some how escaped being paid…

OK so it’s simple pleasures when home, pet the dog, grind the coffee, kiss the wife, (not in that order ‘cause she likes coffee as much as I do) and try a little stand-up where allowed, on paper or on stage… the plan is to relax… recharge so you can charge out again… I have another week home, so let’s see if I can get around to some aspect of that den/office/guestroom… it’d be a nice place to pay bills…

Resolution Time

Ahhh, the first blog of a new year, so many things to say, and maybe I’ll be smart enough to spread out all the things worth saying to more than just one blog…

Here we are… a brand-new year and the first thing I get to notice, despite wanting to be unique… I found that when it comes to resolutions… I fall into the category as 93% of all human beings in the Western world that make resolutions... The top 2 are mine too: I 'd like to do better physically and financially, and yeah, like 99% of that 93% I fully expect that despite tryin’ like heck's to stick to a plan, I’ll probably fail… Most folks, give up, give in, or get back into bad habits… So, my solution: I’ve added to my resolutions so I have at least hope of ONE breakin’ through the pack…

I hope (or “resolve”) to become smarter about something (comedy, statistics, French SOMETHING!!!) which I realize takes work… I hope to be nicer, which in this day and age takes even MORE work… I hope to write more, which means, unfortunately, that I'll write more bad stuff, (which isn’t really work for ME…) ‘cause a higher percentage of what one writes is usually NOT perfect, and in my case not many times funny… I hope to be in touch with friends more, and maybe even have time left over to make a few more new friends…

And I know that 2011 was pretty good to me, I had enough work to pay my bills, (which hasn’t always been the case) I went on one of the best trips of my life… (and I got to take my wife… which hasn’t always been the case… whew!!!) I saw friends get married, saw friends have babies (different friends… which hasn’t always been the case... whew!!) I saw children of mine and in the family plan for the real world in wonderful ways, (which with those kids has USUALLY been the case... whew, whew, whew!!!) and I saw a mother (MINE) beat back cancer that Doctors nearly gave up hope on… I know... Infinity Whew!!!

Sure I spent some foolish money, probably on food that made me gain some foolish weight, BUT if I had to have another 2011 in 2012, I’d take it… Here’s to bein’ richer and skinnier in 2012, or at least smelling the roses (you can’t eat those) and takin’ the time to be HAPPIER right where I am… which might be my BEST resolution so far…

Travel Day/Pre-Travel Day

I head home today (as you read this) First Monday of November, (second Blog in a row for those counting at home, trying to make up for the hiatus of both brain and typing power/prowess…) and so I’m working this pre-trip, ‘cause I’m currently (day before you read this) where the internet is plentiful and inexpensive, which seems to continually beat the opposite. So in amongst the preparation for the last show tonight, (which includes the new material to put in if they’re goin’ with me, and the anchor material to jump to if they’re going against me…) and the ‘always somber’ packing. (You see it’s not just clothes, it’s all the projects I brought too, that only got a scouring, a once over that made me realize I have more to do on ALL of them, and it brought up more of other things to do that I didn’t bring along… I mean, instead of the “to do” list becoming the “ta-done” list, the first list has just been made longer…), I figured I’d blog in the middle of the morning , while the coffee is hot, before I forget to do it, and then I have to find both the rare and expensive internet… to keep up.

I know the best way to prepare for doing things, for getting things DONE, is to prioritize, however I’m one of those strange folks where the priorities shift depending on what dessert I had, what time zone I’m in, or what bill is due… I see priorities not as hard and fast, but more as mood oriented, a method by which I have only barely survived up to this point... I seem to still work best like I did in the past, when the term paper was due the next day, and if I could just get the same pressure applied on a general basis, I’d probably run in 4^th gear more, rather than the occasional 2^nd and often reverse… (I’d probably also be in line for the double blind test for the new ulcer medicine but at least I’d get more done…)

Ah well, the bags half packed (a certain priority) the backpack has the essential projects I don’t want to trust to the baggage handlers, and there’s more coffee somewhere… There’s this Sunday’s News-programs, and still football being played, and just maybe the audience tonight, will go along with me and I’ll feed them (and thus myself) some new bits…, and I got one more blog done… that’s a good check mark… and I'll take it...