February 10, 2008

10:50 a.m.

From Greek lychnos (lamp) + bios (life)

I repainted my room here. Do you like it?

Odd stay at the yoga center. They reduced our stay from three nights to two, and placed us against our requests in a sort of overflow building very far from the main building. We had to leave all our gear in the basement covered with a sheet, because schlepping it from Hill House was not an option. Weather was cold and rainy. The rooms were chilly and there was nothing to absorb any sound -- no carpets, no curtains, no soft furniture other than the bed. A serious draft blew into my closed window, so I had to turn the bed facing another way. I heard a couple in the next room murmuring all night. Half their signs in the main building said we were in one room, the other half said a different room.

In spite of all these things, and the energy we allowed ourselves to expend complaining privately about them, we had a surprisingly good number of people at the show. Sylvia Boorstein was giving a talk about the same time in the main hall, so we didn't expect many. But she'd sold out and I guess there must have been some who couldn't get in, and we know we had at least two fans who came specifically to see us. We got to use the Bose tower system, which is a discrete tower for each performer, so we could adjust our own inputs. Kind of cool, though hearing everyone coming out of a different place takes some getting used to. Harder to feel we're blending (although in the room it's different, as the sound fans out from the towers and mixes together), but easier for each of us to hear ourselves.

However, owing to the lousy night's sleep we got the night before, we opted to come home last night instead of heading back to Hill House. I took the long road home because I missed the turnoff to 91. Ended up going down 32 all the way from Palmer to Willi, the route I used to take when the studio was in Massachusetts. It would have been pretty in the daylight. Because of the longer drive I had time to talk to Dar, who saw The Roches in concert in Cambridge. The church was packed with maybe 700 people. They're still fabulous. Suzzy's daughter opened for them.

After a week or so of confusion with the wireless router, passwords, and Computers 101, Dar is up and running on the web. He found his Yahoo inbox yesterday and was able to read email. I love hearing the wonder in his voice when he exclaims that he's actually done something on his own on the computer. Remember this is a person who has NEVER touched anything more complicated than a Walkman (okay, he's got a pretty good phone) and is unfamiliar with a keyboard. ("How do I make a capital letter?") He's conquered a lot of fears to get into this. I'm very proud of him.

I kept sleeping in. What shall I do with my found day, now a third gone? It's been beautifully drab and windy all morning, a little rain, some dancing trees. Now the sun is burning off the clouds, which are racing to get away. I want to make a Valentine's Day card for Dar. I should get to the gym. Do lots of homework reading, organize some press for a school show, and continue with tax work. Maybe make some chili. That pretty much invents my whole day. As a reward, tonight I'll watch the Netflix movie that's been here since I was in Florida.