Unt Nowe Eet iss Saaturd-ay

Gut Morgan!

Coffee isn't ready yet, so blog isn't ready yet. Just crawled out of bed, all bleary eyed. Never EVER look at yourself in the mirror when you've had a rough night..

Ow.

The Wild Jungle Woman from Bornio has ESCAPED!

Talk about hurt my eyes. Nothing easy about this old babe, I can tell you.

But two hours in the shower, 3 coats of makeup and shellac on my hair, and I'll be good to go. Now where did I leave the shellac.

Coffee time. Groan! Coffee!

So while the better half empties the dishwasher, I will tell you about my evening--my "work after work", as I like to call it. It's fun work, but work nonetheless.

Our band had a performance--well 3 actually, 2 at the Grand Valley State University Convocation at Forest Hills Fine Arts Center, and one at the bar afterward to celebrate one of the member's birthday. I had no idea that she was born in the same month as me, but she's a Sagitarrius, and I'm a Capricorn.

I arrived early enough to change into my gear, and get in a little bit of knitting, but it was so busy the rest of the time, that I ended up putting it away in favor of food and visiting, jokes and ribaldry...

Anyway, the first performance was pretty standard, and we piped in the graduates and the alums. I had my back to the audience--but that was okay--sort of kept me "on task", rather than looking out at all these fresh graduating faces.

They let us partake of the appetizers--really quite a spread--and have some punch. Then came the second performance to pipe the newly graduating class out of the auditorium. I walked in at the tail end of the group, so was still pretty much by the door, and the PM puts me over by the podium, and nearly up at the edge of the stage. That was a mistake! I smile right now, because it was almost like he made me the star of the show for the second performance, and I played my ever lovin' heart out. People were standing up and clapping and swinging with the music...

Oh, wait, they're leaving...right...yeah...anyhow I slipped in a few snappy drumming licks and pulled the hole thing pretty much out of my (well, never mind where it came from), but the adlib came off really good! And people were staying just to hear it! I smiled. They smiled. Like I said, I was pretty much on the end of the stage. It's the first time I didn't let my stage fright get to me.

So after the performance at GVSU, we all headed over to the bar--what we affectionately call "Battalion HQ", and play...of course, I'm not so well versed in where things are in Grand Rapids, so I get lost. I finally show up though, and we play a few sets. A couple of the fellows at the bar asked me about my drum, and I showed it off for them. They wanted to know if I could play WipeOut. I can't, and said so, but they didn't believe me. I just let my eyes twinkle a little.

Then we start the drum salute.

Now keeping in mind that we haven't actually PLAYED the drum salute for at least 8 weeks--pas du tout! But we tried. Bass and Snare (dat's me) we headed right along, but the tenors lost it in the second part--so the salute was cut a little shorter than normal, but I thought what we did was nothing short of spectacular since we haven't played it in a couple of months.

Then we sat down and drank massive amounts of beer, provided by the bar. One of our members got up and did some karoke--and sang "Hello Dolly", just like Louie Armstrong. It was a great performance and a fun night.

But it was a long freaking drive home.

It was a lonely and dark drive home.

And even though the evening was pretty great as evenings go, when I'm alone on long drives like that, I tend to switch my brain over to thinking about the conversations that I wish I could have with certain people, and the things I'd like to

BEAT OVER THEIR HEADS WITH A BROOM!

And I can get pretty depressed driving long distances alone. So I ask what all this "Stuff" is about, and I get a major card-Titled Initiation-Card 16 in the Celtic Circle. It means I'm going through a transition and spiritual awakening to ever increasing feelings of joy in my life.

Ho boy, does this card have me all wrong!

But I suppose that it could be true. There is nothing seriously wrong in my life. And it's not like I'm truly lonely-I have friends , a man who loves me (only one or two of those--KIDDING) , a good job, a nice home, a dog that won't come when I call her (she's a little headstrong, what can I say), two cats that adore me.

And work to do in the house, and if I don't get started now, it will never get done. I suppose I will have to think on this transition period later in the day! Whew!