beautiful, funny, sad & true

To continue on a theme that I started recently, I’ve been feeling better lately; better enough, in fact, that I don’t want anything to mess up my equilibrium. So I’ve pretty much given up coffee for the last week and a half, and only had wine a couple of nights in the last two weeks. I’ve been feeling much more like my happy-go-lucky self again, and less anxious and weird all the time.
This weekend, however, I had a couple of funny things happen that upset the metaphorical apple cart. Joan and I went out to see Paris Je T’aime on Friday night, and afterwards we went for sushi. After THAT, we went to Pix Patisserie for dessert. It was pretty fantastic, of course, but we also had a couple cups each of decaf coffee, which despite its name actually does contain some caffeine, as you know. So that, combined with the super-concentrated sugar in the dessert, kept me awake until around two in the morning.

At noon on Saturday, I went to the studio to play some parts for the new Susie Blue CD. (I played accordion, xylophone and Omnichord, just in case you’re keeping track.) I felt all cracked out and anxious the entire time, in a way that was obviously brought on by our post-movie binge the night before. After we were done recording, Susie invited EngineerJason and me to her dinner party that night. She, Jason and a couple of other people had gone mushroom hunting the previous day, so mushroom ravioli was on the dinner menu. Everything was made by hand, and it was mind-blowingly good. Naturally we had to have good wine with it, and also naturally, we had way too much of it, especially considering my practically monastic regimen these last couple of weeks.

So yesterday I was completely hung over. Slept till eleven, then just kinda dragged around for most of the day. I did manage to clean my kitchen and bathroom, though, so the day wasn’t a complete bust. Joan called at around five-thirty, and then she and I went to dinner at a new vegan restaurant called Nutshell. The food was incredible, and the service was fantastic, but there were a couple of things I think are worth mentioning that would keep me from giving it the glowing recommendation that it would otherwise get. The two-person tables are about a foot apart, which some people may not be bothered by, but Joan and I both felt pretty uncomfortable and self-conscious. Plus, when customers are getting up to leave or wash their hands, or waiters are delivering food, you’re more likely than not to be bumped, or get someone’s ass in your face, or worse. Plus, the room itself is reverberant and noisy enough that it can be a difficult to hear your own conversation, but everyone else around you is extremely audible. Like I said; these things may not bother other people, but introverts may have a tough time at Nutshell. To be fair, the restaurant is brand new, and I’m sure these quirks–and a few others that have been mentioned in various reviews–will be worked out over time. The food really is unique and stellar, and I’m definitely going back, but it’ll have to be a time when I’m in the mood for that kind of environment.

Today I’m back on track with the aforementioned monastic regimen, and I’m finally starting to feel my equilibrium returning. It was interesting, though, to have a test to see how all of the new changes have been working for me. I wanted to eliminate things that have been acting on my body, and keeping me on the roller coaster, so to speak, and I think giving up the coffee has made the biggest difference. I feel like I’m getting my easy friendliness back, and my sense of humor too; not to mention the fact that I’m even sleeping better. Crazy, how much something that we take for granted as a part of daily life can have such profoundly negative and strange effects on us.

Crazy how serious and long this blog entry is!

Tonight I’m meeting Crystin Byrd and her husband for dinner, and tomorrow night I have a Breanna Paletta gig. Breanna has another multi-instrumentalist friend who’ll be joining us on mandolin, and I’ll be playing cello, so this should be a cool combination. It’ll be the first time we’ve met or played together. Fun!

Here’s to a good pre-birthday week. The Big Day is now only seven days away!

Boy, you can sure tell when I get super busy, because I’m not able to write for a few days.

The last couple of days have been crazy, with work right to a gig each night. I’ll have some more time to write tomorrow, hopefully, but I’m going to brunch with one person, and dinner with another, so it might have to be in the evening.

I got invited last night to play a gig tonight with Tony Furtado. Tony’s a slide guitar and banjo player; one of the best in the country, in fact. He and Stephanie play together–they do live together, after all–so he and I have shared the stage plenty of times before. This show will be a little different, though, since it’s Tony’s show instead of Steph’s. I’m honored to be playing, and I think it’ll be really fun.

I’ve been feeling better this week than I have for the last few. I’m starting to feel better about the situation with Kelly; I miss the good things about our relationship, and there were plenty, but it was really difficult a lot of the time too–eating disorders are vicious–and I certainly don’t miss that. There are still times I miss her, of course, but by now I pretty much feel like myself again, and feel like I have things to offer to someone who will appreciate them. That’s the hardest part about a rough break-up; the way the littlest things can get under your skin and fester.

ANYWAY.

I’m going to go crash for a while before the show. I was supposed to meet Andrea for dinner tonight, but I was feeling too exhausted and sleepy to be any kind of good company, so we rescheduled for tomorrow night.

Talk to you soon; I hope all’s well with you.

Normally I don’t post second-hand things here, but as soon as I saw this picture, I knew it was an instant classic.

This and about a zillion others like it can be found here.

Enjoy!

Today I heard two strange and memorable things.

I should warn you that this entry may be a little bit. . .uhh. . .well, let’s just say that if your sensibilities lean toward the delicate, then this may not be a good entry for you. There’s no bad language or anything, but there’s plenty of talk about bodily functions. Did I say ‘plenty’? I should’ve said ‘all’, I suppose, because that’s pretty much the entire subject of this entry.

You’ve been warned.

Still with me? Okay, then you must be the kind of person who knows that sometimes you have to sink low to catch the really big fish, so here we go, hand in virtual hand, down to the literary and blogospherical depths.

Around ten o’ clock this morning, I took a break from work and went to the restroom. While I was standing at the urinal, I heard someone in the stall doing some text messaging while they were going Number Two. Now I don’t know why that bothered me so much, but it did. Taptaptap–PFFFT–taptaptap–(gruuuuunt)PLOP/SPLASH(exhale)–taptaptap. The images that came to mind were just not good ones. I hope he washes his hands like a maniac, and I also hope that none of his friends ever has an emergency and needs to use his phone. Okay, so that was Part One.

Part Two was when he started going Number One, and it suddenly sounded like he turned a faucet on in there. I’m talking about a big faucet. I thought to myself, ‘Man, that guy must have a huge urethra!’ Then I thought, ‘IT’S TEN O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING; I DON’T WANT TO THINK ABOUT URETHRAS, ESPECIALLY IF THEY’RE NOT EVEN MY OWN.’ I washed my hands quickly, left the restroom and walked back to my desk.

Normally this is where the blog entry would end. But not today; ohhhhh no.

This afternoon, in another trip to the restroom, I was standing at the urinal when a guy walked in, talking on his cell phone. That in itself is a little weird, but then he turned, walked into the stall and started urinating loudly, WHILE HE WAS STILL ON THE PHONE. I mean, come ON, dude, not only does your girlfriend have to listen to you peeing while you’re on the phone with her, but I have to listen to you peeing AND talking on the phone to your girlfriend. Do us all a favor next time and call her back when you’re done.

SHEESH.

People, man. I’m tellin’ ya, they drive me crazy.

Wow, what a weekend. FINALLY I have a few minutes to fill you in.

Friday’s gig at the Blue Pepper in Salem with Breanna was great, of course. It was just me and her, and I played cello. Mark (the guy who books shows at the venue) joined us on acoustic guitar for a few songs. It was really nice to see our Salem friends again. Say what you will about Salem’s drug problems and crime problems, but all I know of the town is the Blue Pepper. Love it love it.

Saturday I sorta dinked around in the morning, doing laundry and stuff like that, until 5:00, when I had to get to the Doug Fir for TheStephBand’s soundcheck. We waited until almost 6:00, while the main band did their soundcheck, then we finally got to do ours. The show didn’t start until 9:00, so we all went our separate ways afterwards. I went home and relaxed for a while, had some sushi and took my time heading back. The show was great; quite possibly one of our best this year. Everything sounded awesome, and all our shows lately have made us really comfortable playing together. DrummerDrew and BassistWill are really becoming familiar with Steph’s music by now, and it’s nice to see them both stretching out inside the songs. Another fun thing about the show was that I got to meet a blogging friend for the first time. Elizabeth (you know her from Lizzy Dishes Portland fame) was there, and it was really nice to meet her in person. (Hey, Elizabeth!) Saussha and Conny came too, and so did Shelby. Good times were had by everybody, but I think I had the best time of all.

Sunday morning, Saussha and Conny and I went on a little picture expedition. We started down in Southeast Portland, looking for urban decay. There was plenty of urban, but not so much in the way of decay, so we headed up toward the industrial part of town underneath the Fremont Bridge. We each got quite a few pictures, but I haven’t uploaded mine from my camera yet–I’m doing that today–so I’ll have to share some with you as soon as I do. Saussha was talking about making a Flickr page, so you may get a real treat, and be able to see pictures taken by all three of us.
We spent a good amount of time out there, then started to get hungry, so we drove back across the railroad tracks to have a wee bit o’ lunch at the Widmer brewery. I wouldn’t say it was spectacular, but it was decent enough. Then I had to get to the Mississippi Pizza Pub for another cello gig with Breanna. This time ViolinistKarli was there, and that alone catapulted us to the Next Level, for sure. When she would do melodies, that freed me up to do nice counterpoint bass lines and harmonies, in an improvised classical style. The thing I love most about playing in Breanna’s band is that not only are we an amazing and textured rock band, but we can then turn on a dime (“I’ll give you nine cents change.”) and play in a classical ‘chamber pop’ style, and have even more fun because that’s such an unusual thing. LOVEITLOVEITLOVEITLOVEITLOVEIT.
Wayne (who produced her CD) was there last night too, and he joined us on glockenspiel and harmony vocals for a handful of the songs. So nice to see him and his wife Meg again. It’s the first time I’ve gotten to see Meg since all of us were in Yakima to play with Chad Bault two or three months ago. We (Breanna, her friend Jeff, me, Wayne, Meg, and Cris and Manda from the other band who played with us) went to the Crow Bar afterwards to talk until the wee hours. And yes, I brought my cello inside the bar with me. No way I’m leaving it in the car to be stolen.

Incidentally, that thing about stopping on a dime (“I’ll give you nine cents change”) is a reference I slipped in here for Alyssa’s benefit. If you too are wise to the ways of the Cos, feel free to leave a comment.

Today I have NOTHING to do, and I’m very happy about that. All I know is that at this moment I have nowhere that I need to be, and I can spend the entire day at my leisure. After so many days in a row of gigs and driving and trips and conversations and cars full of instruments, it’s nice to just sit here on a sunny day and read. Or write. Or listen to CryingNeighborBaby. Or best of all, I could just sit and reminisce about how fun this five-day weekend has been.