What Kind of Day Has it Been?
This was my Saturday.

Midnight.
I glance up at the clock and it says twenty minutes after twelve, so subtract the twenty minutes of bar time and it’s midnight. Friday has turned into Saturday. Normally, I’d be thinking about heading to bed around now. Instead, I’m standing in a room full of people who aren’t all paying attention to me, but they are all aware of me.
Directly in front of me are two Stanton Str8–80 turntables and a mixer. To my right are two crates of records, carefully chosen for the crowd in the bar. Every crowd, every event is just a little different. This bar likes healthy doses of 70s and 80s rock—songs they can sing along to. I’m just wrapping up a funk-and-soul set, before slipping into some glam and eighties pop.
The table closest to me is enjoying the music, singing along and coming over to give me a fist bump every now and then. Even dude-bros dig David Bowie. Then again, everybody digs David Bowie.
12:15AM
I’ve been spinning records for nearly three hours now and I only just finished my first beer (in that same time, I drank a pitcher of water—hyrdration is important). I don’t really want more beer, so I get a small glass of bourbon to sip on while I finish out my set. Bourbon puts me into a yacht rock mood, so seventies soft rock, here I come!
1:30AM
Nearing the end of their shift on a kind of strange night (not a bad night, just a funny vibe in the air), the bartenders bring shots of tequila (no training wheels, thank you very much) to toast the night. It’s been at least a few months since I’ve had any tequila. I’m relieved to tell you that it’s still delicious.
2:30AM
I finish up packing all of my gear and records into my car, then make one last pass through the bar to be sure I didn’t miss anything. Loading and unloading gear is the real work of DJing. That’s what I get paid for. Playing records is just the fringe benefit. I say thank you and goodnight to the bartenders and tell them that I’ll see them next Friday night.
Loading and unloading gear is the real work of DJing. Playing records is just the fringe benefit.
2:45AM
Driving home. It’s chilly but I’ve got the windows rolled down to let the night air cool off (loading gear is sweaty work). After a night of loud music, the radio in the car is off and I’m just enjoying the white noise of the wind rushing in.
I cross the bridge over to the west side of town—my side of town—feeling the weird mix of tired and wired you have after a gig. I’m not in bad shape at all, but with bad knees and ankles, being on my feet for five hours just makes them ache. And carrying gear adds to the ache.
2:50AM
I get home, let Daisy out, and consider my late-night-snack options. I know that there is cold pizza in the fridge, but decided a banana was a smarter decision. Earlier tonight, a friend I haven’t seen for a couple of months commented on my weight loss. I’m certain that played in my decision to go with the banana instead of the pizza.
I play with Daisy, browse a few news sites and then Facebook for a bit, check e-mail, play a few of turns of Scrabble and then make my way upstairs.
3:30AM
After brushing my teeth, I climb into bed where Daisy is already stretched out like a week’s wash. I give her some goodnight scratches and did a little negotiating over a reasonable wake-up time. We agree that sleeping until at least 8AM was going to work for us both.
7:00AM
Daisy breaks our negotiated peace, waking me up an hour before I wanted to be up. I get it, though. We are (normally) early risers and she needs to get outside. I briefly debate letting her go outside and coming back to bed, but while debating, I brush my teeth and get dressed. The debate was over before it began. We head out for a 2-mile walk.
8:00AM
We’re back home and I’ve got a full cup of coffee and a long TO DO list in front of me. I feel good, but exhausted. As much as I love DJing, the day after is always like this. At some point I am probably going to have to quit DJing because the late nights are just hell on my routine.
I spend the morning getting a few things done around the house, do a little bit of work on a couple of projects, then get ready to run some errands.
12:30PM
Bank. Deposit a check, get a little walkin’ around money.
12:45PM
Pet Supplies Plus. I didn’t really need food, but they e-mailed me a pretty good coupon, so I want to take advantage. Spend walkin’ around money on dog food.
1:00PM
Stop by Mom’s house. I try to get by there during the week when I can, but those tend to be quick visits. I usually try to get there on the weekend when I can stay for a little while. She catches me up on her news of the week and tells me about what she’s got going on next week. She has a short list of projects I need to take care of, which I’m going to get done over Labor Day weekend. She has stuff to do and so do I, so I head out after an hour and change.
2:30PM
Meijer. Grocery shopping. I’ll never understand people who say they don’t like grocery shopping. I love it. I only had a few things to pick up, but I wander around the store for a little while.
3:30PM
I’m back home and still need to get my bike ride in, but I am having a hard time keeping my eyes open. My short night of sleep is catching up to me, as it does every Saturday. Decide to take a nap.
4:30PM
After sleeping like a rock for one hour, I wake up and consider skipping my ride. I don’t miss many days, but I don’t want to use ‘too sleepy’ as an excuse. I make myself get up and get dressed for a ride. My audiobook right now isn’t actually a book, but a collection of BBC Radio dramatizations of several of the George Smiley novels by John LeCarré.
5:30PM
Back home after 11+ miles on my bike. It was a good ride, but you can feel the autumn’s cool in the air. Just a couple of weeks ago, the sun still felt hot. Not the past couple of days, though.
Thought about mowing the lawn, but I’m just exhausted. I hate feeling like this, but this is what it’s like after every gig. For right now loving DJing is winning that battle, but I think that will change soon enough. As much fun as it is for a few hours one night, I’m not sure it’s worth trading off my entire next day. And the day when I decide that my love of the next day outweights my love of DJing will be the day I hang up my headphones for good.
The lawn does need to be cut, but it doesn’t look terrible. I decide to leave the lawn until tomorrow, then putter around the house a bit before heading up to take a shower.
8:00PM
My only plans for the evening are a little reading and a little TV. I haven’t read much today, so I grab my book and sit on the couch. I’m rereading a book that I really love, called Balling the Jack by Frank Baldwin. I think I ran across this book when I lived in Denver…maybe at Tower Records? It’s just a well written story. No pretense about it, he just wrote a book where I liked the characters, hated the antagonists and the story moved along nicely.
Frank Baldwin wrote a second book which was not as good. It was called Jake & Mimi. I think I liked it, but I’ve never read it a second time. As my memory serves, it seems like it was along the lines of 50 Shades of Gray. After the second book, he just disappeared. I think he was (or is) doing some screenwriting. He should write the script for Balling the Jack, the book is just SCREAMING for a film to be made of it.
After reading, I try to catch up on Halt & Catch Fire. I managed to watch last week’s episode, but I’ll have to leave tonight’s for Sunday.
11:00PM
The TV is turned off and, as much as I’d like to pick up my book, I think I’d rather write for a little while. I am still sitting on the couch, yawning constantly, and know that I’m not long for this world. I’ll get to bed at a reasonable time tonight, wake up tomorrow and everything will be back to normal.
11:30PM
Prep the coffee maker for the morning and look at my TO DO list from today/for tomorrow. I’m trying to do this more regularly…just a little light planning for the following day.
11:55PM
Head upstairs, brush my teeth and get ready for bed. Goodnight, Medium.
