david cook ruined my life

i’ve been quiet, haven’t i? david cook was busy being on vacation and i was busy being a person with an actual life. relocating to a new city, taking a week-long trip, all alone, to a state where i know nobody. making plans, making moves.

i started this blog because it amused me, because david cook, god love him, does make frequent (and usually successful) attempts to ruin my life. and by “my” life i, of course, mean all of our lives, because if you’re reading this, you probably have at least a foot in the same boat as me. or you’ve come here to mock me, in which case, have at it. i can’t be anything but myself.

in any event, i like to keep it light, usually. i like to be sarcastic here, and intentionally over-the-top, and silly, and — hopefully — amusing.

but today was one of those days, and i don’t feel like being light. it’s father’s day, and i lost my father four years ago. i’ve been traveling alone for a week, and i’m a little lonely. in iran, there are protests raging in the streets and innocent people are being killed, and as much as the coverage makes me cry, i can’t tear myself away.

and i had things i wanted to do today, outdoor things, and the weather sucked and i couldn’t do any of them. i’m here to write a travel article and if i wrote what i did today it would go, approximately: “the weather sucked. nothing really worked out. i watched tv and got takeout from the outback. then i watched more tv.”

but in the evening, i got a phone call from a friend who was at tonight’s david cook concert in wichita, kansas. ryan star was singing “right now.”

yesterday is history
tomorrow may not come
i’m gonna run to the horizon
we are strong
we are young
i’m gonna lay on the ground
feel the rain that’s coming down
and there’s nothing anyone
could do or say to bring me down
right now
right now

i could hear my friends who were there singing along. and i sang along, too. and i felt better.

and the song ended, and she shouted “i love you” and hung up. and i felt better.

the friend who called? i knew her before david cook waltzed into my life and started ruining it. she was my friend’s friend first. but david cook reintroduced us.

she made other friends, because of david cook, and introduced them to me.

i made other friends, because of david cook, and introduced them to her.

those friends introduced us to other friends.

suddenly, because of david cook, i knew all sorts of new people. and some of those people? are some of my very favorite people. people who make me laugh, people who make me think, people who are smart and generous and kind. people who make me so fucking grateful that i fell in love with a boy who sang on tv.

and on a shitty day, when nothing really goes right and all i want to do is hide under the covers, now i can get a phone call from a friend at a david cook show, a friend i rediscovered because of david cook, and the world seems a little brighter.

so david cook may ruin my life, but sometimes, merely by existing, he saves it just a little bit, too.

thanks, dave.

thanks, friends.