There's a stranger in my car. Terraplananananana

Terraplana. Put it in your calendar, Raul said. Ok, well, it’s in my calendar. Terraplana concert, ok cool. I did need to go to a concert, it’s been a while. And I was feeling creatively bankrupt. I talked about it with Kobe. She says (paraphrasing): This is a pivotal moment. A moment for growth. I choose to believe this.

Dear reader, I can’t say I remember this concert in it’s entirety. What can I recall… the venue was a small coffee shop, no, “kava bar” in Tempe. There was a corner with couches and board games. There were string lights above the tiny stage. A T.V. playing some animated abstract image. What’s kava? The waitress said it gets you high but not actually high. Kind of like ketamine? I don’t trust any drugs that start with k, so I declined to purchase. Raul wanted a beer, but they only had kava drinks. Too bad!

A band called Lovre went on. They didn’t have a bassist but they still sounded good. The lead vocalist had a nice voice. I shook his hand after the show and he complimented my earrings, and so for 5 seconds I imagined our lives together, but I didn’t think our children would look appealing, so I dismissed the thought. Raul chatted with them more and discovered that they were on the hunt for a bassist. “She plays bass,” he said, and I was like, dawg, I can’t help here. I am a baby bassist. But good luck to them!

Terraplana went on, and what do I like about Terraplana? They’re from Brazil, and their music is in Portuguese, so I like that I can’t understand the words, only the feeling. They do have the core shoegaze traits, distorted guitars and vocals, slowed melodies, but there’s still this clarity there, it’s not completely distorted, you can still here the music, if that makes sense. It’s not totally sleepy, like Lovesliescrushing for example (and I do like Loveliescrushing, Dear Reader. I’m just trying to help you understand). In other words, I enjoyed the show, it was engaging, and they were very happy to be there, as they conveyed eagerly. Although, as I usually do, I had that moment during a concert where I disassociate and contemplate my 5-year-plan. 5-year-plan… what’s my 5-year-plan? I’ve always thought, I’ll get my Master’s in Computer Science. Use that to make more money. Self-fund (or not!) my MFA. Publish book. Somewhere in between, have an original song published? Go to Japan? Should I aim bigger? Move to the Bay area. Join an AI startup. Profit. Aim bigger? Go to to moon? Live there, have children there, little moon children with moon skulls and moon brains? Aim bigger? Become the sun?

Losing the plot. Ok, Terraplana. I re-associated. There was a young woman standing next to us and she was short, maybe she could not see the show? Raul gestured for her to move, but she shook her head. We talked to her after, her name is Kaylei, she went to the show on a whim, I was hungry, I asked her if she wanted to get food, she said sure! I asked if she would drive, she said she would uber. I offered her a ride. And then! There was a stranger in my car! We went to this fast-casual restaurant, the name, I refuse to recall, because the fries they gave me were so soggy, and why would you do that? But besides the fries, it was fun! Hey, there was a stranger in my car! And it all worked out.

We saw the band ordering at the restaurant, but we didn’t bother them. Actually, after the show, Raul chatted with them a lot, which is how I got a copy of their setlist in the first place. Here, Dear Reader, is the thesis statement of this string of sentences: Chat with strangers. I don’t typically talk to strangers? But there can be benefits, i.e. new friends and cute setlists. I am watching those around me, with their open hearts, and again, I remember: Open My Heart.