Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Friday: Day of obstacles. Got out to do various urgent tasks (and a couple of less-urgent ones), and kept running into problems that prevented me from doing them, such as finding out the special person I needed to talk to at an office open until 16:30 was never there after 10:00. So I have to get up early on Monday. Did get to see butterfluff briefly, and another friend. Crashed early, before getting all my preparations for Saturday complete. Figured it was more important to sleep and hope I woke up early/refreshed since I was so exhausted. Fell asleep before feeding Perrine.

Saturday: Got up early enough, if not sufficiently refreshed. Noticed that Perrine had eaten even the cheap food she doesn't like, which means she must've gotten plenty hungry during the night. When she saw me get in the shower she suddenly wanted attention -- I'd been out most of Friday and now I was going away again? Got gear assembled and loaded into car only slightly later than my target departure time. Seriously reproachful look from Perrine as I left. But I expected that.

I live four minutes from I95, and managed to hit a construction delay in that short distance. *grr* (Until yesterday morning it had just taken away a lane at a time; now they've got flagmen stopping traffic one way at a time.) I had two routes to choose from, and picked the one I thought would be slightly shorter. It turned out to be a few miles shorter, but had the most annoying traffic on it. Arrived late -- what should have been 45 minute trip wound up taking 70 minutes. Performance started a few minutes early. I only had time to pull one guitar out of its case and plug in when we started the first tune. Weather was cold enough -- and windy enough -- to be finger-unfriendly (yeah, I was moving my fingers, but they still got cold enough during one tune to make the next tune more challenging -- had speed/dexterity problems all day). Had more tuning problems than I have ever had -- my Yamaha guitars have been remarkably stable tuning-wise, but not yesterday. Mike said he had problems with his flute, too. Ugh. Audience smaller than last year, probably due to cold, and many left when we took our break. Actually played with my coat on the whole time (I never do that), and discovered that the coat shifts the position of the guitar enough to be harder on my arms. As we were packing up, a bagpiper I know passed by, complaining about difficulty playing in the cold. DESPITE ALL THAT: basically a good gig; audience that was present seemed to enjoy, we sold a few CDs, I think we played decently except for tuning problems despite the challenges, some young dancers danced in front of the stage, and my arms and hands never really cramped up too badly. Went to lunch with a bandmate, our soundman and his lovely wife, and selki, which was very nice, even if I was too tired to be as social as I would have liked. By the end of our meal, the weather had warmed up to what would have been comfortable performing weather. Go figure.

Driving home I hit a big backup on I70 which turned out to be a rather nasty collision with two cars still stuck together in traffic lanes. Called 911 and was told police etc. were already en route. Merged onto Baltimore beltway and saw an accident on the other side of the median. Got to my exit, and shortly after getting onto 144 I found myself inching past another accident, where someone had gotten rear-ended. Apparently yesterday was not the day to be on the roads.

Got home, realized I was even more tired than I'd thought when I ducked out of previous plan for a big composing/arranging session, figured I should like down for a spell and if I felt good enough to go to a party hosted by a friend I don't see often enough I'd get there, and if not then it meant I was too tired to try in the first place. Did not make it to the party. Did crash after a little television (and before doing some things I'd planned to do before bed). Did spend a little time entertaining Perrine by poking my fingers out from under the blanket then pulling them in so she'd try to pounce and reach under the blanket. Didn't get clawed too badly. Made her happy.

TODAY: Pain woke me at 3:00. About to go back to bed again. Supposed to attend an early music concert this afternoon with another friend I don't see often enough, but need to get details. Have not read friends page since sometime Friday; am behind on email as well. Might catch up late tonight, might catch up Monday.

At least I think I'm going back to sleep ... sitting down to write this may have been a mistake, as I'm noticeably more awake than when I started it. (Awake enough to be tempted to go back and add articles and change it from sleepy-rushed-voice to normal conversational writing tone. But I'm going to let it go as a mishmash and go back to bed and see whether I fall asleep again.)