beautiful, funny, sad & true

I’m a bit melancholy today.

I don’t think it’s anything big–most likely caused by the myriad of small worries and anxieties that have come to the surface lately, mixed with a liberal dose of exhaustion–but it’s there nonetheless, and I’m feeling it today.

It’s been a pretty decent week, though. My friend Jeannie came to visit from Virginia last week, and we finally got a chance to have lunch together on Monday. It was great to see her, and the ‘scuttlebutt’ or whatever is that she’s planning to move back to Portland in a year, after her job contract is up for renewal. Or, I suppose, NON-renewal.

The Steph Band played a show at a park down in Lake Oswego the other night, which was filmed by two local television stations. Two impossibly chipper women from the “E-Zone” came out and introduced us, telling us to “be sure to tune in and find out when tonight’s show will be aired” and all that. There were two or three camera operators, and even a crane. We all kept smiling at each other in a ‘nudge-nudge-wink-wink’ kind of way, like we couldn’t believe all this was happening for just a little ol’ band like ours. Tony Furtado joined us on guitar and banjo, and Breanna Paletta sang harmony vocals. It was about ninety degrees outside, even before the stage lights were turned on, and it seemed that every time a camera was pointed in my direction, a larger trickle of sweat would run down my face. Yeesh. I’m sure the show will be fine, though.

Thursday I was a basket case, so I stayed home and worked on my apartment. I got a couple of little lamps to go on top of the new bookshelves, and cleaned up all the random boxes of stuff that’s been floating around, some of which has been there since I moved in a year ago. I took my chair downstairs to the basement, to make more space in here, and that made a dramatic improvement. The only thing I have left to do is decide which pictures I want to get printed and framed, now that I have the perfect places for them.

Last night was S & W’s pre-wedding party. They’re getting married on Sunday morning, so last night they had a string of events for their various friends and family members to come and hang out with them. We/they started off at Vincente’s, then moved to the Lucky Labrador, then a handful of the group–myself not included–went 80’s dancing at the Fez Ballroom. It was fun, but both places were extremely loud, especially the Lucky Lab, so I could only hear about every fifth word of the conversations, which is extremely frustrating for me. I’m an introvert by nature anyway, but I AM getting better at reaching out and paying attention, so I felt very frustrated that I just couldn’t hear well enough to stay engaged. (Get it? STAY ENGAGED at a WEDDING PARTY? Now THAT’S good comedy, and THAT’S what keeps you reading this blog.)

This afternoon I’m going to record more accordion parts for Susie Blue’s upcoming CD, then Joan and I are going to see a documentary called “Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox”, which I wanted to see when I went to Seattle to see Paprika a couple of months ago. It looks really great, and Joan’s one of the few people I know who appreciates a good documentary the way I do. From there, we’re going to Ikea to check out the new store. It’s all about keeping her occupied, because the guy she’s been with for the last year just started seeing somebody else, so she’s looking for ways to be out and about and distracted from thinking about all that.

We’ll see what the rest of the weekend brings, but it’s been a few days since I’d written, so I thought I should check in with you and keep you updated.

So I’m sitting here at the computer just now, with my apartment door open, like I do when it’s a beautiful evening such as this, and a guy comes to the door.

“Hey,” he says.

“What’s up?” I ask.

“Is this Twenty-One Fourteen?”

“Yeah,” I reply. “What’s going on?” I’ve never seen this person before, but he looks harmless enough. He walks into my living room and slowly shuts the door behind him.

He asks, “Aren’t you Seattle Guy?”

“No.” I look at him, trying to figure out what in the world he’s referring to. “I’m confused.”

“Oh,” he says, turning toward the door, opening it, and walking back out to the street, where his car is parked.

Even I am amazed at the amount of stuff I crammed into one day. Here’s what today consisted of:

1) got up at 8:00 and sold my oak bookcase (you know, the one that was in my living room), then helped the buyer load it into his truck

2) did three loads of laundry

3) washed the dishes

4) took out the trash and recycling

5) transferred the files I needed from my old computer onto my new computer

6) went to Fred Meyer and bought a dining table and chairs for the kitchen, and food for the trip to Cannon Beach tomorrow

7) assembled the table and almost finished one of the chairs

8) vacuumed the living room floor and did SpiderWebRemoval along the ceiling and corners with the vacuum throughout the entire apartment

9) swept the kitchen floor

10) disassembled the old table that was in my kitchen, and took it to the basement

11) disassembled the new table because it wouldn’t fit through the hallway to get to the kitchen (Grrrr!)

12) reassembled the new table in the kitchen

13) took a shower

14) loaded my instruments in the car and made the hour-long drive down to Salem for a two-hour gig with Breanna Paletta. It was a blast, by the way. I played cello mostly, but also accordion and a little bit of acoustic guitar. My favorite songs were the ones with Breanna singing and playing guitar, her friend Karli playing violin, and me playing cello. Seriously amazing combination.

15) drove the hour-long drive home and unpacked all the instruments from the car

16) wrote this blog entry

17) probably see who’s on Austin City Limits and have a glass of wine. Words cannot express how tired and sore I am right now.

18) go to bed and sleep like an effin’ baby

Yesterday I was stupid in two ways, but really really lucky in three ways, so everything worked out fine. I must have had some mitzvahs or good karma saved up.

STUPID: Last night I left my window down AND my car unlocked.

LUCKY: No one broke into my car, or stole anything out of it, and it didn’t even rain during the night, despite the fact that it was very cloudy, and rain was in the forecast.

There was, however, a huge spider hanging in the middle of the open window, which freaked me out.

Wow. This week has been such a blur that I can’t possibly explain it all–and I don’t even want to try–but here are the high points:

WEDNESDAY – After two rehearsals, Steph and the two new band members played our first show together. It was fun, as usual. DrummerDrew and BassistMichael both felt a little overwhelmed by all the new songs they had to learn, but they are both true champions and great players, and playing with them is a blast.

THURSDAY – I met up with my friend John to go see two different shows in one night. The first was John Vecchiarelli over at the White Eagle. In the interest of full disclosure, I used to play accordion with John three or four years ago. As usual, he sounded great, and it was really good to see him again. Jaime and Becky–with whom I play cello on the rare occasions that they perform–with were there to watch too. They joined us at our table, and Jaime told us that she’s leaving on Tuesday to go to Georgia for grad school. After that, John and I went to Dante’s to see Casey Neill and his all-star band play. We stuck around for about an hour, then had to call it a night.

FRIDAY – I took the day off from work because I had a gig in Salem with Steph and the band. We played outside at the Salem Art Fair. It was a rough gig for all of us. I spent the entire time wondering how to play the guitar. The sound on stage was very loud and strange, and Steph was having difficulty too. BassistMichael and DrummerDrew were frustrated with themselves, because they thought they didn’t do a very good job. I’m here to tell you, however, that they did a great job, especially since we’d all played together only three times before. Oh, and I realized after I got home that I left my blue hoodie sitting on a chair down in Salem. Crap.

Later that night, Kelly and I hung out for the first time in weeks. We started at the Mock Crest Tavern to see her friend’s instrumental jazz fusion band play. The Mock Crest is a tiny and not particularly nice place, but I’ll always have a warm spot in my heart for it since it’s the place where Jacob Ray and I met. They have a computer set up along the wall there, so Kelly and I got online and played some word games while we listened to the band. After we paid and got up to leave, I went to the restroom. As I walked in, there was already a guy in there standing at the urinal. He turned to me and said, “How’s your night going, man?”

I chose to ignore him, and walked directly into the stall. I shut the door behind me, and it slammed a little harder than I intended. The guy tried again. “Night’s going that bad, huh?”

“Nah, it’s fine,” I replied.

He took a minute, then said, “You sit around and play games on a date?” I didn’t even consider responding to that. From inside the stall, I heard him finish up, go to the sink, wash his hands, then just as he was leaving he said, “Loser.” I suddenly felt like I’d had the wind knocked out of me, and that put me in a funk for the rest of the night.

After that, Kelly and I went to Pi-Rem to watch the bellydance troupe Gypsy Caravan. We’ve seen them many times before, but Pi-Rem is the sort of place that lends itself perfectly to performances like that. We had a good time, despite the fact that I still couldn’t get that guy’s words out of my head.

SATURDAY – Woke up at 6:00 a.m. to meet Steph, DrummerDrew, and BassistWill to drive six hours to Clarkston, Washington. We played the Rockin’ the River festival. I had a blast, and this time it really felt like we clicked as a band. Steph was again frustrated by the sound on stage, so she was a little bummed about that. We also had some difficulty getting fed the way we were promised by the show’s sponsors. After the show was over, we decided to drive straight back to Portland. DrummerDrew had been singing the praises of a certain soul food restaurant in the tiny town of Waitsburg, Washington, so after a bit of hemming and hawing, we decided to stop and eat there. It turned out to the high point of the trip for all of us, and it was one of the best meals I’ve had in my entire life. After spending two hours there, we headed back to Portland, arriving at 3:00 in the morning. The two most memorable inside jokes were:

1) doppelganger:
“Is there a band called Doppelganger?”
“I’m pretty sure there is.”
“Is there a band that looks JUST LIKE them that’s also called Doppelganger?”

2) CD’s:
“These nuts aren’t gonna lick themselves.” (Don’t even ask–it was the end of an argument described by DrummerDrew.)
“Hey, do you like CD’s?”
“Yeah. . .?”
“You like ta SEE DEEZ NUTZ?”

Anyway.

SUNDAY (today) – I got up at 10:00 and went in to work, to find that there was hardly work, so I turned around and went back home. I needed to buy a guitar effect pedal that I needed for Gig #4 with Steph and the band this evening. I went to TradeUp Music, where they had a used one that looked like it was in really good condition. I bought it without even trying it until I put it through its paces when I got home. Luckily, it sounded awesome and worked perfectly, so it is now incorporated into my pedalboard setup.

I’d only been home for a little while when YoungerBrotherScott arrived. We went to brunch at Equinox, and caught up on the things that have been happening in our lives. It’s his and SisterInLawTina’s seven-year anniversary today, so they’re going out to Veritable Quandary tonight to celebrate. (In fact, they may very well be there as I’m writing this.) We went to a bookstore, then a flower shop, when he had to leave to pick up Tina. I had a couple of hours to kill, so I came home and took a nap before heading to my gig with Steph. It was a benefit show for autism research, and I wish I had more to tell you about it. We pretty much just set up, rocked, tore down, and left. I was dying to eat dinner and finish up some laundry, and now I’ve done both.

Wow. This turned into a rather lengthy post. What a weekend; it feels like a month. My bed is going to feel particularly good tonight.