Tommy Tutone, Loverboy, and Rick Springfield at Artpark, 8-13-2019

We saw the concert with Tommy Tutone, Loverboy, and Rick Springfield on August 13, 2019 at Artpark. For me, it was the first time I had seen any of them. Stacey has seen Rick Springfield multiple times in the past. She said this was the best viewing spot she's ever had of Rick Springfield.

Tommy Tutone was out first. I was impressed when I saw him with a Vox guitar amp. These amps were made popular in the 1960s by such groups as the Beatles. They brought their distinctive guitar sound to the masses. His backing band was the same band that Rick Springfield used later in the concert. Tommy Tutone is best known for 80s music, especially 867-5309. But he shows a lot of appreciation for older music, and did his own rendition of "Operator" by Jim Croce. Naturally as expected, the crowd went wild when he did his big hit 867-5309. Other songs he did included "Angel Say No," "Sylvia," and "Cheap Date."

Loverboy rocked as hard as I imagine they always did. Although they are much older, I was impressed that they have four out of the five original members. Original bass player Scott Smith died in 2000. They played "Notorious," "Lucky Ones," "Queen of Broken Hearts," "Take Me to the Top," "The Kid is Hot Tonight," "Lovin' Every Minute of It," "Hot Girls In Love," "Turn Me Loose," "Working' for the Weekend," and "Jump."

It was clear that most people were there to see Rick Springfield. We had the good fortune of being right up by the stage, standing with one or two people in front of us. This allowed me to see the facial expressions of all of the musicians and singers and get some good camera shots. We were in the center of the area where Rick Springfield got the audience involved. Some handed roses to him. He threw a wireless microphone into the audience and ask people to sing a line or two and pass it on to the next person. I almost grabbed it myself but the person next to me got it first. Springfield headed out into the audience and walked through the area up front without any sort of escort at all. I thought it was very brave that he would do this. Rick's set list included "Light This Party Up," "I've Done Everything for You," "Love is Alright Tonite," "Little Demon," "Affair of the Heart," a medley, "The Voodoo House," "Don't Talk to Strangers," "Human Touch, " "Love Somebody," and "Jesse's Girl."

A Special Anniversary and Catching Up

It's been awhile since I had time to write on this blog. Things have been very busy for me in the past couple of years. I got into a new relationship, ultimately got married, I bought a new house, and I've switched jobs around a couple of times. I'm happy that things are settling down for me and I will be able to get back to writing this daily blog that I enjoyed.

I have always enjoyed writing. I like to write in my blog, I like to write poetry, I like to write about the trips I have taken, and more. A couple of years ago shortly after my first marriage came to an end, it was recommend, that I write my autobiography. A lot of people seem to think I have led an interesting life so far. Whether you agree with that or not, writing my autobiography was actually quite therapeutic. Most of my autobiography is posted here in this blog and you can see it on the right side of this page, where it says "autobiography." I still have more to write, and life does go on so my autobiography will never be completely finished.

Probably the biggest change in my life in the past 3 years is my new relationship with Stacey. As of today Stacey and I have been a couple for two years. We first met in March of 2017 at a nightclub in Rochester. We were both in other relationships at the time so neither one of us was looking for someone new. But after a couple months we both became single again and we struck up a great friendship. That friendship lasted through the summer of 2017 until August 15th when we decided that we were a couple. A lot of people saw it coming. We had been saying we were just friends, but most people saw more than that in the two of us. I'll be writing more about my relationship with Stacey, our wedding, and our honeymoon, as time goes on.

Other events in my life over the past several years include the success of my business officiating weddings. When I first got into it in 2014, I figured it would be something fun to do on the side. I figured if I did four, five or six weddings a year, it would be a nice little extra for me. But it is turned into something more than that. I'm probably more surprised than anybody else that I average about 40 weddings a year. It has truly been an amazing experience for me, and I absolutely love doing it. I love meeting a couples, I love hearing stories about how they met, and I love having what I believe is the best spot to witness the wedding, because the couple is literally two feet away from me. As someone with hearing issues, I can't beat the spot I'm standing in to hear what they are saying in the wedding.

Another adventure that is starting up again for me is selling travel. I had sold travel in the past for six years, from 2005 until 2011. I have continued my travels around the world over the past few years, especially cruising. A lot of people ask me for advice about cruises that they want to take. I also like traveling with groups of people. I can meet the needs of people who are looking for someone who can help them book their cruise, and I can help myself by arranging group trips and cruises in order to have a fun group of people to travel with. You will also continue to see more stories about my travels and about weddings on my blog pages. For now it's good to be back and I will continue writing on a daily basis. You can either go to the link yourself, you can follow the link on my Facebook page, or you can sign up for a daily email that includes my blog.

Cruising Solo

by Paul Pakusch
Facebook

Altogether, I have been on 18 cruises. In the past four years, many of my experiences have been to cruise alone as a passenger. On these cruises, I have had a cabin to myself. Usually cruise lines charge for two people per cabin. You can add a third or fourth guest in the cabin for a reduced rate. But when you travel by yourself, cruise lines still want the minimum of two passengers per cabin. 

Once in awhile, you can find a deal where you get a reduced rate for traveling by yourself. In my experience, most cruise lines do not have this option. If you talk to a travel agent, look on the various web sites, or do web searches, you can sometimes find one of these deals. You have to be persistent about finding them. I have found these deals with Norwegian Cruise Line. I stumbled onto it for the first time in March of 2016. It was not something I expected, I just happened to get lucky because I booked it at the last moment, about four days before the cruise was scheduled to depart. What I discovered is that Norwegian Cruise Line will sometimes offer a solo cruise rate at the last minute when they are trying to fill up the cabins on a ship. That particular Cruise was on the Norwegian Jade out of Houston, with a Caribbean itinerary.

Norwegian Cruise Line in general seems to have a better deal for solo cruisers than most if not all of the other cruise lines. Norwegian has been building cabins on its newer ships designed specifically for a solo cruiser. These cabins are smaller than the other cabins, and they offer no privacy for the shower stall. If you're by yourself, quite frankly you don't need any privacy. The bathroom does have a door on it. I've found the cabins to be layed out in an efficient manner for the amount of space available.

The solo cabins are grouped together in the center of the ship, so they don't have any outside views or balconies. What they do have is a shared private lounge called The Studio that is accessible only with your room key. The studio is a good place for solo travelers to get together, have a drink, chat, and meet to discuss activities that they can do together. A crew member is assigned to the solo travelers, and they meet early each evening to discuss possibilities of activities to do together. These activities include the dining rooms where all can sit together. Sometimes they get seats together in the theater for the evening show. Depending on what other activities the  solo cruisers are interested in, they can make plans to do those activities together.

On that March 2016 cruise, five of us solo cruisers got together to rent motor scooters to to travel around Cozumel Mexico for 4 hours. We had a blast! I have been involved in other activities with solo cruisers such as going on shore excursions together, dancing, dance contests, and other games. I have never felt alone while cruising solo. It's been a great way to meet people from all over the world. I have stayed in touch with many of them.

Christmas

Life is full of joyous and sad occasions. People come and go all the time, which is something we can't control. Christmas is a magical wonderland when we're kids. That's a feeling we can never quite recreate when we're older. Then Christmas becomes what we make of it. We can sit around allowing ourselves to feel sad over someone who is gone or won't come to visit, or we can go out and bring joy to others. Make time to visit shut-ins, hospitals, nursing homes. Participate in church activities. Call on a friend or relative you haven't seen in years. Do these and the joy you bring to others will bring joy to your own heart many times over.

Self-Defeatism

Two Poems I Wrote

My First Elvis Record, with a Surprising Twist

By Paul Pakusch

I wonder how many people remember record-of-the-month clubs. You would sign up to receive 8 record albums in the mail for free, or a penny, or some silly, baiting amount. In return, you would have membership in a club where you were obligated to buy a certain number of records after that within a certain amount of time. When I was in high school, I joined the RCA Record Club.  I was a huge John Denver fan at the time and purchased several of his albums, along with other RCA artists that I liked.

I had recently been exposed to a few songs by Elvis, so I decided to buy one of his albums.  It was this one, "Elvis, a Legendary Performer."

The day came when it arrived in the mail. I took it to my bedroom, put it on the stereo and put my headphones on. As I listened, I read the booklet about Elvis that came with the album. I was mesmerized by his music, the pictures in the booklet, and the story of how he shot to fame.

I must've played through the album several times. I reflected upon his popularity and I remember thinking, "I wonder how the world will react when the day comes that he dies."

It was a prophetic thought and I didn't have to wait long to find out how the world would react.  The date my first Elvis album arrived, and I layed on my bed listening, was August 16, 1977. Elvis died that day.