April 14, 2006

6:34 p.m.

Nasturtiums, If I Can Get Them

Sparkspark's announcement of her new tiara has caused me to spring up and don my own. Welcome to the glitter club, Spark -- dames of the diadem! Hiss has realized that the more people she sends tiaras to, the more of us will mention her prominently in our entries, thus vastly increasing the likelihood of hits on her fab site. Don't forget to take the cost off your taxes, Hiss. Advertising is a business expense. :)

It's been nine days since I sat in my diary chair, and we went to the midwest. The flights were direct, but United made us sign a thing in Hartford saying they wouldn't be held responsible for any damage to luggage. Then they proceeded to dent everything we checked. The instruments were all okay and the cases still close and latch, but it made me not want to fly United ever again. The flight back was better; no signatures were required, and there were no inspection slips in the cases, meaning they weren't even opened.

It was an interesting weekend. Carol came down with a terrible cold the day we left, and Friday could barely sing at all. The venue was horrible, too -- a rock bar complete with residual cigarette smoke and a shitty sound system. It's a folk club we were playing for, but their other two (better) "found spaces" weren't available for our date, so we were stuck at, I kid you not, the Kryptonite Club. We didn't find out until after the first number that Carol wouldn't be singing anything, so we played two short sets of the Bornearly Show and got out as quickly as we could. It was horrible in more ways than I care to enumerate.

The only upside was that not many people showed up.

Saturday, however, was another story. We were prepared to go "Carol Lite," and by then she was able to sing a little more anyway. It was held in a UU Church with gorgeous acoustics and, glory be, a whole lot of people. It was everything that Friday's gig hadn't been. We sold completely out of our main CD, and people were reduced to buying the few solo CDs that Carol and I had brought. Both nights we were put up in nice hotels, and I got my own room.

Those were in Illinois. Sunday we were in Wisconsin at a house concert we'd done once before. The host has one of the probably finest collections of Beatles memorabelia in the world. He also has a connection to Prairie Home Companion, and for what it's worth we're going to use it. We've had these leads before, and even had many of our fans write gushing letters to PHC on our behalf, but so far Garrison's attention has evaded us. Not done trying yet, though.

We flew home Monday and I had a full week of commitments waiting for me. Not all work, though. Tuesday I got a haircut and did laundry and printed poetry books at Rose's house. Wednesday, Dar and I had a very mousey playday in Boston -- he took me CLOTHES SHOPPING (wow... I don't think anyone has done that since mom bought me school clothes) and got me some really awesome and beautiful things, plus a gorgeous, silver plated, hanging Buddha head for my apartment. I was so long trying on clothes at the last place that we had to cancel our dinner reservation at Legal Seafood. But we walked around the corner and found the most excellent Thai place, and shared a salmon curry. Then we went to see Spamalot! It was so outrageous! The guy who cleans windows for him now is the costumier, and he got us house seats (worth $90 each -- I checked the tickets!) and we were beside ourselves the whole time, snickering and poking each other and muttering all the Monty Python routines under our breath. What a fun night.

(Just let me catch my breath here.)

Then, yesterday I visited with Steve. He drove out this way for the first time since before last summer. He still can barely see out of the eye that was operated on, so it was a bit of a gamble for him to drive this far. Originally we were going to have dinner with Rose and Mike, but they had an appointment with their tax accountant right at dinner time and Steve had to start his drive back before it got dark, so we just ate here instead. He got to see the paint job in the apartment, and I gave him copies of my books. We also went for a long walk on the rail trail, and the day was just perfect, though thunderstorms had been predicted. In fact it hasn't rained in quite a while here.

Then last evening, after I made sure Steve found his way back to the highway, Carol and I met at Rose's house to work on this next kids' song we're doing in two weeks. They wanted a four part, contrapuntal piece that could be sung by 500 K-through-5th graders, as part of their Earth Day school activities. Carol showed up with a verse/chorus thing she'd been working on which, she admitted, was not exactly what they had asked for. We dabbled with it for a while and finally decided that she'd work out the chorus harmonies and I'd take the verses and try to come up with the polyphonic elements. We finished our wine and each went home -- but on the way home I was listening to the radio, and a certain song caught my attention. I have no idea what it was, but I liked the minor key and the rhythm and the progression, so I started singing something over it that could serve us. By the time I got home I had the start of Perfect Planet, which I finished transcribing today in four fabulous, cool parts that are (I hope) simple enough for kids to learn in 40 minutes. I sang it for C&C over the phone and they loved it, so I'll go Saturday and record the parts at their house so we can send the school a work CD and sheet music.

Whew.

I'm proud of myself. But it showed me once again that I'm better writing by myself than trying to collaborate. I need all that silence around me to hear what's going on in my head.

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So here it is Friday, and Wes and I were going to pick up my new kitchen table today. But he had to be out of town, and I got too engrossed in home projects to want to go all the way to Vernon anyway, so we'll do that Monday instead, after my car appointment. Meanwhile there's a Reiki share tomorrow, hosted by my teacher, and I'm finally going. Sunday I get to sleep in and then start working on the mouse book proposal. I don't think I mentioned this yet, but forgive me if I did -- Wes has a connection now at Penguin books, so he's going to pitch the idea and my prototypes to someone there in a few weeks. Does anyone have a pattern for sewing a mouse?

Next week is largely open after Monday. I'm volunteering Wednesday afternoon at the artisans' cooperative, but other than that I might just not plan anything! It's been a while since I saw white space on my calendar. It makes my shoulders drop just a little bit, like I didn't realize I was hunching them.

And that's my report. I've finished the third season of Six Feet Under, and will pick up the fourth at C&C's tomorrow. It's Spring; I'm on the lookout for annuals, particularly nasturtiums. Last year my sweet peas didn't germinate very well, and nothing matured. I'll stick with petunias this year, which are hardy and prolific. And nasturtiums, if I can get them.