Oh Dave! Now

Though not clinically schizophrenic, sometimes I wonder if I missed that fate by just a few twists of a gene. I have always had two distinct personas. In public, I was shy, insecure, self-conscious, quiet. At home, while not a loud-mouthed brat, I was more vocal and carefree. My parents and siblings were in many ways encouraging of my singing, silliness, dress-up, and imagination.

However, they often said my ideas were crazy. I’m not sure who started it but the stock exclamation to one of my questionable comments or decisions was “Oh Dave!” My father, who sadly passed away at 82 just over a year ago, wore it out and used it as recently as a couple of years ago. With a disapproving look, he spoke it in a low tone of disappointment. My late mother would uncomfortably add the word “now” to “Oh Dave,” as in “now behave.”

And in another sense, the boy and young man who was showered with “Oh Dave’s” throughout his life has grown up, and this is where he is Now.

Also, ohdave.com was already taken. (No need to link to or visit it. None.) There’s a Toby Keith song, “As Good as I Once Was,” from 2005 where he gets in a bar fight and calls out to his friend, “Dave” for help. I listened to it and read the lyrics, and he never sings “Oh Dave,” but somehow that has kind-of sort-of become an obscure rallying cry for rednecks, according to Urban Dictionary. Regardless, my family was using “Oh Dave” long before 2005.

So if any of you hip rednecks find your way to this blog, sorry to disappoint. If you like to read, stick around—Dave is a modern Everyman. You might come away with something to stick in your cowboy hat or smear on the sole of your boots.

“Oh Dave Now.” What better title for this weekly chronicle of my crazy ideas, observations, and day-to-day experiences. And self-exploration, self-loathing, and hopefully, self-improvement.

Frankly, I don’t think my ideas are that crazy—certainly not the level of insanity reached by birthers, alien abductees, or American Idol contestants. Face it, as with sexuality, we all have our quirks to get us from A to B (or O as it were). Sometimes I need to talk dirty, sometimes I just want to hug someone tightly, and sometimes it’s all about me.

Well, most of the time it will be about me. It’s my blog! Think of it as self-indulgent twittering on steroids.

Over time, as “Oh Dave Now” progresses and ages, so will my photo, until in a year or so, it will reach present time. Will my writing also mature and be less about potty humor, sex, and what a writing classmate once termed my “anal obsession”? Will it grow towards beauty, love, and spirit?

So welcome to my world and yours too. I relate to all types of people, regardless of income, race, religion, sex, body type, intellect, schooling, or drug of choice. I can find the good in everyone even if I think I can observe their shortcomings. Same with myself. Though a lover of life, people, and possibilities, my enthusiasm is cautious, even now.

You’ll find that the entries will be neither too crude nor too intellectual. I’ll make pop cultural references more than citations of classical music, literature, or Mystical Texts. For example:

“When the nurse inserted the catheter, the pain seared like the saxophone solo in Springsteen’s Jungleland.”

rather than

“The taco peppered my digestive tract like the bassoon motif in the second movement of Shostakovich’s Symphony in BM(inor).”

And away we go!