February 10, 2004

9:41 a.m.

Bits

Rehearsal today. I drank some caffeine lest I conk out in the middle. We have to stop by about 4:00 anyway, so at least it won't be a late night.

Later this week we're all going to see Darwin in a play. He's co-starring with Dick Van Patten. (Those of you under 25, Dick was the lead in an old series called "Eight is Enough." He's also starred in a zillion movies. Old Garde Hollywood!) Dar's part is actually bigger than Dick's, and he sweated over it for months before the one-week rehearsal period. He's barely off the stage the whole time. Dick has done this show for years, and his usual partner is Frank Gorshin (played The Riddler in the original Batman Series), but Frank is doing a one-man show in Vegas right now so they had to get someone else. They hired Dar ("local boy makes good"). It's been very exciting, and now that the show has been running for a while he's not so anxious, and the audiences love it. So the band gets to go to dinner with Dar, and Dick, and Dick's son Jimmy who is also in the show. Can't wait to rub elbows.

That's Thursday. Tomorrow night we have a gig in Lowell. Supposed to be a good venue; we're the feature at an open mic, so we have a set sandwiched in between a bunch of people who have signed up to play two songs for free.

I dreamed of Will last night. He'd had a third operation to move the device (I never can remember what he calls it but it's a heart monitor that defibrillates in case he suddenly goes critical; a small metal box about the size of a credit card, only thicker) to just over his left shoulder, almost on top of the muscle. He was much happier with it there, though in reality that would be a silly place for it. He wouldn't be able to play the bass at all. In the dream I realized that, when I'd seen him a few days before, he'd only been a bit distant because he was still healing.

Also in the dream I was telling him about the Dar situation and the conversation I'd had with him, only my sister was in the room and that was odd, that I was speaking so frankly about it with anyone around. But I thought it was okay and she was nodding encouragingly. In fact I did talk with her about all this last night.

I have to say I'm just so impressed with Rose these last few months. She lost about 37 lbs. and made her exercise routine consistent, went through this difficult eye surgery, trained a rescue dog from a bouncing, chewing, out of control animal to the sweetest, (mostly) disciplined darling I've ever seen... dealt with the loss (meaning placement elsewhere) of two birds she loved which were not compatible with the dog, put another dog down from bone cancer, and is dealing with aNOTHER dog who has cancer. This in addition to everything else that stresses a person out in job and life. And she seems really happy. And I'm related to this person!

Gads, I have to leave in less than half an hour. Ick. Bother. I can't think of a unifying theme for this entry so I'll just call it...