Bleary-eyed blogger.

I spent yesterday mired in taxes. Tax software has simply enabled the government to make everything more complicated - it's a wash. Anyway, papers are ALL OVER the floor in my office area, I have to tiptoe through them on a narrow path. I tore myself away to have lunch with a friend, and then it was back to the grind.

In the late afternoon I realized that today is my one and only rehearsal with a wonderful pianist I've known for years, for a gig this weekend.

Robert and I traded singing and piano lessons many years ago. Since we are both teachers, we were highly amused to hear ourselves giving each other the same whining excuses we'd heard hundreds of times from our own students. "I didn't have time to practice, it sounded better at home..." blah blah blah. We'd say: "one two three GO," and we'd let loose all our complaints and excuses at each other at the same time. It was fun. He learned to sing but I was a lousy piano student. I can oom-pah but that's it. (I enjoy it though.)

This gig we're doing is a pre-wake for the customer's dad - i.e. the dad is still alive and everybody wants to meet and celebrate his life while he can still enjoy the event with them, and they can sing along with Melinama (the dad loves to harmonize), isn't that a great idea? Problem was, the customer was supposed to have sent me the list of songs he wanted but I suddenly realized I hadn't gotten the list.

You know how you look ahead, trying to find the moment of leisure into which you will insert the task you forgot about? I looked ahead and realized: 6:00 pm, i.e. RIGHT THIS SECOND, is the only such moment before I meet with Robert tomorrow at 11:30!

So I called the customer in Maryland, and luckily he answered, and he said he'd sent the list on Saturday, but it was one of those mysterious lost emails (I don't usually believe people when they say "I never received your email" but this time, since it happened to me, I do believe), so he re-sent it, and I had only an hour or so to FIND the nine specified pieces of music, arrange them, and print out the charts for rehearsal.

And then I punched holes in the charts, because pianists never do that, they just chuck them on their pianos and let them slide off over and over, and that drives me crazy, so I punch holes in the charts so they can go in notebooks. And then I put the charts in order, because otherwise Robert will flip flip flip through the pages and that also drives me crazy.

I finished printing out the music, grabbed a banana for dinner, and dashed out the door for a 9 pm (!) rehearsal at Duke's Nelson Music Room. This was dress rehearsal for a Duke Collegium concert. Remember, the a cappella group I joined in order to have some music in my life which I'm not the boss of? In which I can stand in the back with the basses who sound like a huge wonderful organ? Greasy, greasy, greasy, in the very best sense of the word? Our concert of Spanish renaissance music is this Saturday (immediately after the pre-wake). I'm the one singing alto in the back row...

Our fearless young leader (he's extremely cute) was fiddling with a fog machine when we got there. He had a light, with a red gel, focused at the fog. It all looked quite demonic. Perfect for the Inquisition, but not the heavenly atmosphere one might have expected.

I got home at 11:30 and was taking notes on the night's Alborada episode by 11:40. My mind was not at its clearest after a day with the (demonic) tax software so it took me till 12:50 to finish watching... I started blogging ... and fell asleep. I started again this morning at 5:00 and, now that I've finished that, I'm writing to you.

Next, I have to do my Spanish homework and get my violin and leave for Spanish class. After that I'll go straight to Robert Griffin's house, and then straight to pick up my little friend Menticia. Watching her paint a monster for Illustration Friday will be my first moment of peace. (Yikes, it's barely Wednesday and there are already 801 monsters on the "Illustration Friday" wiki!)


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