April 30, 2026

Surprises, as long as they’re happy ones, are always fun to come across.  No guarantees can be given about a weekly or even monthly occurrence, but they do see to arrive in bunches.

One cannot actively pursue seeking them out, a fact that definitely endears itself to the lazier side of my personality.

But they can pass by without notice or warning, should you be too wrapped up with interior thoughts to be paying attention to anything passing by at all.

I currently find myself actively hoping for the surprise of finding out this never-ending lawsuit my co-op has been involved with has finally been granted a court date.  But, as this last close-to-a-decade has shown, a unique, mentally-imagined surprise is usually the one that never arrives.

In New York City, surprises are always right around the corner.  A restaurant has opened, another one has shut down.  My niece Lindsay granted me a beaming hello upon seeing me walk towards her on Amsterdam Ave last week.  A sudden impulse to change course towards my former apartment on West 78th Street had me walking right past a movie production, with a pleasant-looking Cameron Diaz gamely enduring multiple takes for a simple half-block stroll.  I was able to take a photo before some security guard rather pleasantly advised me this was not allowed.  He didn’t mention anything about posting my one picture on a website, however…

Just yesterday, my great childhood friend reminded me of my shocked reaction when I randomly ran into another Andrew Peisch one afternoon while working a bar shift.  The concerning aspect may have been how the entire encounter had completely escaped my memory.

I dimly remember the event now…

Dreams can come as a complete surprise, and recently I’ve been having a rash of them.  Just this morning I woke to being vaguely annoyed how many more people another great friend - Gerald Theron - had seated in his section than mine.  We last worked together as waiters in Martha’s Vineyard around twenty-five years ago.

Surprises are different than memorable moments, but they often align.  Life’s random gifts should not be taken for granted, in my opinion.  I could go on and on about this, but instead let me surprise all of you by - probably for the first time ever - quoting myself.  This is from a song called “In My Mind”.

There have been moments I was exactly where I should be

Such precious moments where everything came so easily

Line them up and there’s a path that might have been meant for me

And perhaps I’ve just once again been burying the lead, because the main surprise of the month - for all of you if not for me - is that I FINALLY have a new song up and running on michaelaba.com.  Please feel free to click over to the music page and check it out!

Simply scroll down to the last song in the collection.

The collection, interestingly enough, is called “Waiting for the Next Surprise”.