Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"You call yourselves Comedy Writers? We have an elephant -- the biggest, funniest- looking animal in the world and you can't think of anything to do with it? You ought to be ashamed of yourselves." -- Mark Evanier

So there was this party last night to honor musicians visiting from Scotland, and some of us Homespun Ceilidh Band folks were going to be there. I wasn't feeling great, so I was moving kind of slowly yesterday evening to begin with, then I noticed yet another new hole in the shirt I was going to wear, so I pulled out a needle and thread and spent a little time fixing that, making my start even later. (Yes, I've been trying to get shirts to butterfluff to copy -- I keep not getting there. Hoping to do that in the next few days.) Then when I got in the car and turned the key, the battery disconnected itself. It does this sometimes. The positive battery clamp is tightened as far as it'll go but still randomly decides to work loose every so often, and it's always as I try to start the car. (Click: clock lights up; click: idiot lights turn on in lamp-test mode; click: everything dies, including clock.) So I go jiggle the cable. Then I ran into unusual (for that hour) traffic on I95, then construction traffic on I495, and my instrument lights suddenly go dark so I have to use a flashlight to check the temperature gauge (I'm still having overheating problems). Then I get on the Clara Barton parkway and my headlights seem unusually dim. And getting worse. Either the directions were unclear or I spaced on a step, but I missed the site and kept going, trying to see addresses, wondering whether I have taillights ... I had two headlights, but even with high-beams, not much light. I resorted to holding the flashlight (actually a bicycle headlamp) out the window pointed at the road. Stop at a Pizza Hut to ask directions (hey, they've got these detailed delivery maps, y'know?), managed to get headlight to behave for a little while, call band-mates' cell phones to try to get directions clarified ... finally show up at the ceilidh really really late and extremely frustrated.

Find John and Trix and Felicia jamming with a few other people and join in. While I'm playing, Ellen spots me, tells me I have to taste her ice cream before she leaves, then comes back a moment later and starts feeding me really yummy ice cream while I'm playing guitar. Okay, so good things happen the same night as bad things -- there's a lot to be said for having a beautiful harpist spooning ice cream into my mouth while I play nifty music. I listen to some folks getting up to do songs or stories or play solo tunes; meet some folks, try out someone's very old Martin, uh, model 015 I think it was ... nibble some munchies, sing "Unnatural Love", back up Ellen on a song, feel really hot and sweaty because the number of human bodies in the room jacked up the local humidity, and finally get to jam a little more at the very end (when most folks had gone).

Went to Arlington instead of back to Baltimore -- holding the flashlight out the window to augment my again-failing headlights the whole way! - and spent the night there. Planned to head home early (maybe middayish) today 'cause I had stuff I really needed to do in Baltimore, but wound up getting a 3+ hour massage from anniemal instead. Very very good (much needed!) thing keeping me from doing other things. By then it was rush hour. Came home after dinner (and a little more headlight-tinkering) to a desperately cuddle-hungry cat. (Food-hungry too -- empty food bowl -- but she seemed much more concerned about the strokes and cuddles. Isn't that a violation of the Cat Code or something?) Cat's sitting on my lap right now.

So I'm a whole day further behind on stuff I was already too far behind on, and there was much frustration and annoyance last night (two hours to complete a 45-minute trip and multiple electrical problems resulting in my arriving near the end of an event I'd comitted to attending -- not a mood-lifter), but there have also been some really amazingly cool things in the past 25 hours or so. I can't legitimately whine about how much trouble the car was and how far behind I am without also mentioning hugs and ice cream and music and an extremely long and thorough massage and dinner and a very sweet cat.

Now to try to get more stuff done before I go crash. Tomorrow's going to be busy.