If you’ve ever been to Yakima, Washington, you may or may not know about Ron’s Drive-In at 16th and. . .uhh. . .Lincoln.

My family moved to Yakima in 1971 from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Suffice it to say that I still wonder why we ever moved. If I’d had any say, I would have happily chosen to stay in Cambridge, rather than a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, but whatever. It’s all water under the proverbial bridge, and I have a really good life now, in Portland, so it all works out.

I know, I know. All my Yakima stories start that way. And this post started out as a witty, insightful memoir! Le Sigh.

So anyway, Ron’s Drive-In. They were famous for chocolate and vanilla swirl ice-cream cones, so one hot summer day while my brother and I were driving around, and we stopped at the traffic light in front of Ron’s, we looked up to read their rotating sign. It said,

“HAVE YOU HAD YOUR 1 AND 1 TODAY?”

Then there was a space, and two 2′s almost underneath the 1′s. We sat at the light, confused, reading aloud, trying to work out what it said.

“Have you had your. . .one and one, two and two. . .one-two and one-two. . .one-over-two, one-over-tw–ohhh. Half and half!” I wish I could excuse our ignorance by telling you that we were too young to know any better, but in all honesty I can’t. I was in high school and my brother was in junior high.

Boy, did we feel intelligent that day.

I only didn’t write about the cello until now because I’ve been too busy playing it lately to write about it.

I took it in most importantly to get one of the tuning pegs fixed, because every time I’d turn it to tune up, it would slip and go completely slack, which makes the cello useless. So I’d been unable to play for weeks.
(With the exception of the other day, of course, when my friend Sam loaned me his cello for rehearsal with Steph. Thank you, Sam!)
Since I was taking it in for that repair anyway, I had a new end pin (the ‘pin’ that the cello sits on) and tailpiece (where the strings attach) installed at the same time. Now it sits at the correct height, the strings stay in tune, and it’s much easier to adjust the fine tuning also. What a difference!

I picked it up on Thursday afternoon, and had rehearsal with Jaime & Becky that night. Ohmygosh, we had so much fun! They haven’t been playing any gigs for probably a year, because Becky was in Russia teaching and volunteering, but now she’s back, and they’re back. So look for us to start playing out a bit.

Last night, Alyssa and I sat out and talked for a while, then used a two-for-one coupon and went to get a slice of pizza. I had the first pepperoni I’ve had in six months. (Before that, it had been about a year and a half, on my birthday.) Kelly called while we were still at the pizza place, and I told her about the Pepperoni Factor. She said, “You know there’s pork in that.”
“That’s what I hear.”
“You know you’re gonna go to hell.”
“Tchyeah. I knew that, ’cause of all the taking-the-Lord’s-name-in-vain and the copious amounts of pre-marital sex.”

Anyway.

The pepperoni tasted good, but I don’t think it really agreed with me; I’m feeling it this morning. After that, I ended up with a couple of hours to myself, so I pulled out the cello and just sat and played my little heart out. I have to re-learn everything, because it feels like a completely different instrument now. I have to learn how to hold it between my knees, how to make my left arm go to just the right places on the neck, and how to make the bow go to just the right places on the strings.

Funny how I’ve learned to play on such an unconventional instrument. Cello’s a difficult instrument to learn anyway–and this is from someone who plays piano, accordion, guitar, bass, drums, organ, keyboards, AND cello–but throw in all the weird quirks and incorrect angles that mine has, and I’m sure I’ll have plenty of habits to un-learn.

The good news is that when I play on someone else’s instrument, suddenly everything feels right, and it makes playing incredibly easier, but their instruments aren’t usually of the same quality as mine. Mine may look all banged up, or not be as pretty as most, but it’s really a superb instrument. You can tell, even by the way it resonates when you pluck the strings. It’s an Ernst Heinrich Roth, from 1963. Loveitloveitloveitloveit.

And it won’t be much longer before it’s completely fixed and adjusted to standard specifications, which will make it sound even better and play even easier.

I can’t wait!

Since it was the last working day pre-Easter, we all chipped in and had a potluck. Which was fine, but the real fun came when one lady brought in Peep candles. We suddenly regressed to being a bunch of five-year-olds, and this was the result.

Oh, and today was my Yearly Performance Review. It consisted of my former supervisor, my new supervisor, the head honcho boss, and me. It went well. We all agreed that I’m intelligent, resourceful, resilient, open-minded, likeable, communicative, slightly unmotivated, and I could use my time more efficiently. And considering the changes I’ve been put through this year (three new positions in the last five months), everyone agreed that I’ve handled things surprisingly well, all things considered.

It was a really nice weekend, but really super busy at the same time.

I took my cello in for Part One of a two-part major overhaul. It’s getting lots of little things fixed and upgraded, and it’s going to get its body re-glued, because the glue’s so old that the thing is barely able to hold itself together anymore. Having that fixed will make a huge improvement in the sound of the instrument, and all the other little fixes will help with its playability. It will sit at the correct height and stay in tune better now; both very important things. Part Two of the overhaul will require major surgery on the fingerboard and neck, and will be much more expensive, so I’ll have to save up a bit for it.

We did more Susie Blue recording with Jason Roark last Saturday. We tracked drums, accordion, and hand claps. After I got home and unloaded my car, Kelly and I went to Urban Outfitters, and I got a cool new pair of pants. Very exciting. I was supposed to go to a show that night, but I was pretty beat after working hard in the studio, so I went back over to Kelly’s, intending to crash, but instead we stayed up really late, drinking chardonnay and watching “Young Frankenstein.” (That’s FRAHNK-en-shteen. . .)

When I got home on Sunday morning, I spent the next two or three hours washing, vacuuming, and detailing my car. Afterwards, I sat in the sun on the front steps of my building to eat lunch, when Kelly arrived. She walked over to Lloyd Center to look for some new clothes, and I met her after my laundry was done and I’d taken a shower. We walked around for a long time, and were both exhausted by the time we got home, so we took a nap while listening to the jazz trio rehearse next door. Pretty dang nice way to spend an afternoon. Then she went home and I went over to rehearse with Stephanie.

Came home all jazzed after having two cups of tea over at Steph’s, so I watched the first episode of the new This American Life TV show. What an amazing program. As a long-time devotee of the radio show, I’m glad they’re doing the television version the ‘right’ way. It has everything I like about the radio version, plus some other elements that just aren’t possible to achieve on the radio. Well done. And as a hopefully interesting aside, did you notice the show’s tag line? ‘Funny, real, surprising, unscripted, true.’ Don’t forget ‘beautiful’ and ‘sad’!

This week is getting a little crazy. (So crazy, in fact, that I can’t seem to keep up with my blog entries!) Rehearsal with Crystin Byrd, CD release with the Young Immortals for the Starbucks compilation, gig with Stephanie Schneiderman, cello back from the repair shop, and rehearsal with Jaime and Becky.

Next week should be a little less crazy. . .