An attitude adjustment

The day after returning to Las Vegas after a week in Detroit, the band decided to leave for New Mexico around midnight. That meant getting there the same day we were to check in the hotel and perform the show. I got into Steve's Astro mini-van that was packed to the ceiling with all the equipment we needed including suitcases, speakers, monitors, mic stands, keyboards and of course my guitars. We were geared up for the long 8 hour plus drive. Steve had a couple of those high caffeine energy drinks along with energy tablets to keep him wide awake for the drive. Though the long drive would give me enough time to rest, I couldn't sleep. I was so used to sleeping a certain way back home, with complete quiet and darkness. As I was trying to adjust and trying to get some sleep, I thought about how adjusted the other band members were. For them the lack of a set routine was neither a bother nor an inconvenience. For me, the light frost on the ground seemed like enough reason to stay in the van when we stopped for coffee in Flagstaff. I shivered with cold though I was bundled up and gazed at the tiny snowflakes in the air. The trip began to feel like a mission rather than a drive to a gig. When I drove to a gig back home the only major thing I had to deal with was parking which back then seemed more like an ordeal. All those "ordeals" now seemed rather small in comparison to traveling all night in a a van on the way to New Mexico. At around 6:30 AM Steve decided to stop at a convenience store off the highway. I had assumed that he was probably getting another coffee but instead came back with a couple of beers. He in a very matter of fact tone of voice explained to me that he had mistakenly consumed too much caffeine and that the beer would bring him back to normal.(?) Steve to me seemed like a road warrior who could handle any situation that came up. He was always so calm and collected no matter what, perhaps after being on the road for quite some time, like the rest of the band. I was the newbie, the rookie as he nicknamed me. I was now getting a 5 week crash course of life on the road and wondering how soon it would be till I was adjusted like everyone else. We had a five night gig at The Sandia and another weekend gig at the Route 66 Casino in Albuquerque. So we drove to the hotel, checked in, grabbed our luggage, went to our rooms, went right to the venue, checked in at the security desk, took out the equipment, set up the stage, did a sound check, went back to the hotel and had just enough time to get ready and drive back to the venue to play about 4 sets that night. I was tired and feeling light-headed from lack of sleep. During the show, we had some technical problems with the mixing board and I had to adapt on the spot. Sometimes I also had to do what they call "winging it" by playing songs I had never rehearsed or ever played. Later that week, the gigs did become fun and I met lots of friendly people who would cheer me on as I'd play in a wild frenzy with the usual playing guitar behind the head stint that was now a regular part of the show. Sometimes people would ask me for a guitar pick or an autograph. Sometimes people would say hello as I walked around the venue and tell me I'm great. One guy wanted to meet me and waited till the gig was over so that he could ask me about how I had learned to play the guitar like that. I was being treated like star everywhere I went. Sometimes I was having so much fun that I felt guilty but then I'd get over it. We also had a weekend gig @ Route 66 so we made the 45 min drive to the venue to set up the stage the day before the gig in order to save time. Most of the equipment was in the van, so we took out the gear and set up the stage ourselves which included monitors, drums, amps, mics, mic stands and two large keyboards that had alot of cables that needed to be hooked up to a sub mixer. It took over an hour even though the van was parked right outside the entrance leading to the stage door. After we were all set up, we found out that there was going to be another band that same night and we had to tear down almost the entire set up. Tearing it down didn't take as much time as setting up but it wasn't my ideal way to spend the entire afternoon also considering that it was going to take another 45 min drive just to get back to the hotel. But at least the job itself was fun so when I thought of it like that, setting up and tearing down didn't seem so bad. At the gig, people were cheering and having fun and later we got to eat a fabulous steak dinner with wine and dessert for free at the restaurant.We had a great time as we held up our glasses and I especially loved the fact that my only job that night besides having to set up again was to play my guitar while smiling onstage. Back home, I had jobs in which I had worked at parties and now my job felt like a party. Funny how things can really change within oneself. When I came home to LA, I had gotten a call to participate on a reality based TV show called 12 Corazones on the Latin American Telemundo Network. I didn't stop to think about it much since it seemed like just another work experience. It was fun to be around the sets, the cameras, and the audience. I was doing the best I could to recall the Spanish I had learned as a child, having grown up in Miami in a Colombian family. At one point during shooting one of the producers of the show asked me if I wouldn't mind doing a short pole dance. After 5 weeks of dancing with a guitar onstage for 6 nights a week, 4 or 5 sets a night, a 20 second pole dance was going to be a piece of cake. I just sort of faked it as I knew absolutely nothing about pole dancing except from what I'd seen on television. I just was happy to have learned how to dance without tripping over my guitar cable. In my mind I was just simply picking up a little extra cash while I was at home in between road gigs. Afterwards, I went over to a pick up a CD from a drummer who's KISS tribute band was in need of an "Ace Frehley" in case I could fill in as a substitute. Doing a TV show and signing up to fill for a KISS tribute band didn't seem like a very different or unusual thing to do. It surprised me at how I no longer became stressed out over the daily details living day to day as I did before. Everything in my life seemed a little more matter of fact and very typical. Perhaps I was adjusting to the road life and really did fit in after all. It's interesting to me how while I was away I was going through a change that I hadn't notice till I got home. I couldn't say when It happened or how, but there was indeed a real shift in me that took place. I had wondered if I was ever going to adjust to pace of the road, the lack of routine, the traveling. I had answered that Craigslist ad in search of a job as a guitarist but I was getting much more than that. As grown up as I was, I was, in fact becoming more "grown up". This "job" was more than a new routine, or lack of one. It was an expansion of my conscious horizon more than I had ever hoped for or imagined.