On Saturday July 28th, It will be 2 years since the 100 Monkeys concert that brought us up here. While I wish I was going to be spending the day getting ready to go rock out at another 100 Monkeys show, we all know that sadly, that is not going to happen.
My kids and I an some of or friends will be returning to Voodoo Donuts that morning to remember and celebrate and rejoice in the small joys that brought us all together, and hope that brighter days guide those boys back to the sunshine.
If you are in Portland, come join us. We are going to pretty much relive that day the exact same way it happened the first time around, riding the Max down and wandering the streets til we get to that familiar pepto bismol pink building, though this time we will hopefully this time have a few extra bucks in our pockets so we can afford to actually buy more than one donut, one bottle of water and one Dr. Pepper, but even if we are broke again, we are in a much better place. I am walking into that parking lot a woman who can talk to people about things, and who is a three times over published author who has held a job for almost a full year, and who actually can talk to people above a whisper without stammering most of the time. My son stands up tall and proud and is in acting and he learned to play guitar and write music watching those same boys we were there to see that day. My little girl? The one who thinks that young Mr. Rathbone hung the moon and lit the stars? Well, yeah…she is still convinced of that, (even more so now that hes a daddy and seems happy about it), and she has managed to endure the loss of the band with quite a bit of sadness and by praying that,”Maybe, someday, they will figure it all out.” but as for herself? She is growing like a weed and she has taken off and FLOWN! Shes in the Gifted and Talented program and she still draws pictures for him, but not knowing where to send them she just hangs onto them for that “Someday.” She looks after the other boys in the band as she comes across them on twitter and while she hasn’t really found any other music or bands shes crazy over, she has been teaching herself to play the piano.
The really big change this year is the fact that the two missing people from that first concert will be with us, my two sons that my ex had kept. They are coming with to celebrate a show they wish they had been able to see, and they still feel ripped off that they never got to see their favorite band before things went sideways, but they love to hear the stories and watch the videos from that day and they know that,”The Best Day Ever” really made things a lot better for all of us.
We are celebrating that day in another way as well, I am going to put my latest book,”Paying the Piper” and the book that I dedicated to those boys in that band who inspired so much, “Face In The Rear View Mirror” up for free download all day on July 28th.
If you go to my website(www.jenniferdscroggins.com) on that day, go to the page that is titled, “Writings” and click on the links by each of those books, you will be taken to the E-book download site. If you would be so kind, I would really appreciate it if you would stop by my Guestbook and say,”Hello.” If you have a tale of the 100th Monkey Effect, please, share it there too. My little girl kinda thinks its like Tinkerbell, that maybe if we all believe hard enough, that someday…
A Modern Calamity 