March 30, 2009

11:18 a.m.

Ahhhhh

That happy sigh is the result of waking in my own bed this morning. I got home at 3am to make that happen, but it was worth it.

Our Friday show was, indeed, cancelled. In spite of that I did make the quota of dollars I had hoped to make over the weekend -- exactly. My little painted shaker eggs sold like hotcakes. Who knew? (I get the plastic easter eggs from CVS, put a little barley or rice in them, seal them up and paint them festively -- instant percussion instruments.) I sell them pretty cheaply, considering the time it takes to layer all the paint and everything, but they're so pretty and I like sharing them, thinking that people out in the world are playing my shakers.

We were able to leave Friday evening and stay at James's house. Unfortunately the room I was in was overly warm, and I slept in a twin day bed surrounded on three sides by metal bars. So I was hemmed in and hot. As a result of this unfortunate circumstance I did not sleep AT ALL that night. Not at all. I was pretty tired Saturday for our drive to Virginia.

Saturday we played a benefit for a church whose main mission is sending teams to North Dakota to assist with building and repair projects on the Lakota Indian reservation. It's kind of a losing battle but they keep going every year. The couple who book us for this are old friends, just lovely people. Aaron is a science teacher, and from what he tells us about his class lessons we wish we were his students. He's one of those teachers that makes everything fun and fascinating. They're also very religious, though -- the church is United Methodist, and from the services I can never tell which they're trying harder to focus upon -- the fact that we're all horribly, constantly guilty of sin and needing to beat ourselves up over it, or the fact that we're completely redeemed from sin and should do the happy dance. That's one thing I just don't get about some churches. Most of the ones we get involved with are not so heavy-handed. Anyway we've done this benefit a few times before, and though it was a little sparsely attended, it was a good show. We did play one service the next morning before driving to Philadelphia.

I slept better that night aside from one strange thing. I was in the finished basement. About 5:30 I woke up and hadda pee, and when I came back to bed I gradually realized that there was a dripping sound somewhere. A very active dripping sound. Even with the furnace blower on, and my earplugs in, the dripping was ALL I could hear. Finally I got up to investigate. In the far corner was this pipe that went into a hole in the floor, that was covered by a loose plastic cap about a foot in diameter. That went down into a hole with some pipes in it, and water. I didn't know if that was some kind of sump pump or what, but there was a lot of dripping going on down there. I knew I'd never be able to get back to sleep with that noise, so I rummaged around in a storage area until I found various pillows, towels and sheets to pile all around it to muffle the noise. Eventually it was either muffled enough or it stopped, and I was able to get back to sleep. In the morning I replaced everything in the storage room. Jeez, the things I have to do on the road to get a night's sleep!

We arrived and set up for the house concert in Philly. They were nice folks with two nice kids and an enormous house. I got lost a couple of times. We had a little time to rest, so our host showed my mates to their room upstairs. I would, he said, be in a different place. He led me downstairs (argh!), saying, "You might have to fight the kids for it." It turned out to be the kids' play room (there was a fold-out couch and an enormous television). The kids were playing wii. "My daughter was hoping you'd play wii with them!" he said jovially. I determined right then that we were certainly not staying here the night. I've already slept in the kids' playroom, on a fold-out couch with the bar across my back, with no privacy. I don't have to do that again in my life. Rather than oust them from their games, I opted to lie down on the sofa in the living room where we'd set up for the show. It wasn't quiet but I was able to close my eyes for a little while. It was sufficient for the moment.

They served us a gourmet meal -- this is something we'd been looking forward to -- everything homemade. Two-color pepper soup, yellow and red, poured into the bowls from either side so each filled exactly half the bowl; lamb and venison, mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus. Rosemary and thyme sprigs stuck into the top. Homemade strawberry gelato -- everything dairy free as we'd requested. A bottle of wine, of a caliber of which we only ever dream. We don't normally have wine before a show but we did have a little of this, not wanting to miss it. Yum.

And the show was lovely. Some old fans and friends came, including a couple whose local singing group had performed one of my a cappella songs. They brought me a dvd of their performance, which I haven't seen yet. It'll be nice to hear the 4 part version with men and women singing. I've only heard a women's choir doing it so far! I don't even know what it actually sounds like with male voices involved.

With all the chatting it was hard to get out of there quickly, but we left around 10:00 for the long drive to my mates' house. Chris drove the whole way, and Carol and I alternately dozed and did silly things to keep him awake. Somehow we started singing the theme song from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," with that trilly sort of flute thing at the beginning of each line, do you remember that? It got sillier and sillier, until we were barking like seals and laughing so hard we couldn't breathe. I brought out my remaining shaker eggs and we played percussion for a while. We imitated Tuvan throat singing. Then we relived all the stupid things we'd done on the road. "Remember when you forgot the suitcase with all the cables and gear in it?" "Remember when you forgot the computer with the power point presentation and we couldn't do the school show?" "Remember when you knocked the mic stand onto Chris's guitar?" "Remember when you farted in the middle of the house concert?" Oh, it was a jolly ride home.

Then Chris, who had had a Roy Rogers burger a while back, let out a belch that stank up the whole car and we had to open the windows.

Needless to say, we stayed awake.

********

I discovered that I can put my hair back into a barrette with just a few parts of my bangs still falling out. It's getting longer!

And that is my report. It's a day to catch up and take it easy. A few errands, and preparing for Eagle's visit tomorrow.