Mr. Malaprop

A former leatherboy and current friend of mine keeps me up to date of his goings-on with regular mass emails. He's much more of a regular communicator than I am, but I do wish he'd use spell check (or even a dictionary now and again). Then again, I'm kind of glad he doesn't, because his malapropisms make me giggle:

Skiing - Not yet but soon. cannot wait. Im still
taunting, cajoling and generally making a nuance of
myself to the various snow demons.

How does one make a nuance of one's self, I wonder? Do you just stand there in the background for a while and stay in the demon's peripheral vision?

Dad in Town

Boy, I have been really putting the miles on my car, driving here, there, thither, and yon. I had rehearsals in NYC all last week for a gig (which was last Sunday, for which I had to zoom from church).

On Friday, I was invited to a party in Delaware (about an hour away from my house), and I traveled through a really scary thunderstorm to get there, only to find out that the electricity had been down in their neighborhood all day. We still had fun, though, and the electricity came back on while I was there.

My dad came into town on Saturday and I've been kind of busy cleaning up and hanging out with him. He flew into Philadelphia on Saturday night, and we went immediately from the airport to a restaurant, where I had an early birthday party. That was a lot of fun, but the restaurant was really crowded and noisy, so we all kind of had to shout to be heard.

My dad said that he wanted to come to church with me on Sunday, but since we ended up getting home around 11:30, I figured he wouldn't want to get up at 7:30 (4:30 California time!) to sit in church, and I didn't even have a solo. He agreed with me, and ended up sleeping in. Ray drove him to the train station so that my dad could go to DC and spend the night down there with some of his friends. He just got back this afternoon. Unfortunately, I have a rehearsal tonight, so we haven't really spent very much time together.

That will all change tomorrow, however, since we're driving up to Long Island and visiting relatives up there. I'll leave my dad in New York so he can spend time with friends up there for a night, and I have to drive back to Philly for another rehearsal tomorrow night. On Thursday, however, my dad is coming back to NJ to spend Thursday night with me, and then leaving early on Friday morning. It kind of sucks that he's actually leaving ON my birthday, but I'm sure I'll have spent enough time with him by then.

DC Trip

My trip to DC was so much fun! Even though I got stuck in horrendous traffic on the way down to DC, I arrived hale and hearty and ready to play with Shoiley and Geoff. We went to the Spy Museum on the first day and took a trolley tour the second day. It was really nice to just take a vacation and be a tourist. While I was there, I had lunch with E., and he told me all about his first months at law school.

I also spent the evening with E & J, who both know the Muse and had to hear the whole story of The Gig from me. We had a great time, and I'm sorry I don't live closer to them, because we stayed up until the wee hours of the morning talking about life and politics and stuff.

So all in all it was a pleasant trip. I think I like DC better now, as a tourist, than I did when I lived there. And I actually liked DC a lot when I lived there, so that says a lot about DC's tourism department.

Interesting Cake

Today was a crazy day. We had an Evensong at church, so I did two services, was done at 12:30, and then had to be back at church for Evensong at 2:30 (even though the performance wasn't until 5). Since we had about 2 hours, the tenor, who lives literally around the corner from the church in this beautiful historic Victorian house, invited us soloists to lunch at his place. He made salad and quiche (excellent quiche) and we all brought stuff, too (I copped out and stopped at the store for cut up veggies and hummus, but that ended up being a good appetizer. Our soprano soloist made kugel from her grandmother's recipe and pumpkin dip, which ended up being the perfect dessert.

Tomorrow I'm heading off to DC for two days. My friend Shirley is coming to DC, and I figured I could take a couple days off and play in DC with her. I've also got lunch plans with E. while I'm there.

Garage Rocks

I wanted to tell you about how things are shaping up around the house. Surprisingly, Ray is actually doing a lot to help clean up his pinball stuff and put it in the garage. On Sunday, while I was at church, he and Josh took the rented van went to Sears and picked up a freezer that Josh has had his eye on for the last month (just waiting for it to drop in price, which it did). They organized the garage and found a home for all the leather. When I got home, I was still feeling kind of crappy, but I did a little cleaning, too. On Monday, though, I came home to find Ray being really industrious, moving his open pinball machine, guts and all, to the garage. And you know what? The freezer and two pinball machines miraculously fit in the garage alongside all of the leathercrafting stuff! Amazing!

That still leaves four pinball machines in the front room, but I was finally able to vacuum in there (which I haven't been able to do for MONTHS!) and Ray is going to set the daybed up today. He even bought wood to make folding screens that I had suggested for privacy, since we're putting the daybed in the front room with the pinball machines. This way, it'll be almost another room, with the daybed, books, and fireplace on one side and pinball machines on the other side. Yay!

Sick

I've been sick and going to rehearsals with a fever. I know it's not good. I know, I know. But I need the money and I have no insurance.

Friday morning I felt like ass, but I need the money from work, so I decided to go. I only lasted about half a day and I went home. I called the doctor on the unlikely chance that they might have an opening that afternoon, and lo and behold, they did! So I went to the doctor's office and sat in the waiting room for about a half hour. Then I went in and the nurse took my temperature (100) and blood pressure (92/60!). She told me to wait in the room and someone would see me in a minute. I sat there for a couple of minutes and felt so bad I laid down on that little examination bed/table thing and fell asleep. I woke up a half hour later and still nobody had shown up. Finally about five minutes after I had woken up, someone knocked on the door and came in.

It was Melanie, the nurse practitioner, which was fine, because I had seen her before and I knew she was really nice and good. So she examined me, and when I mentioned that I had no insurance she said that she had been thinking of taking a throat culture and sending it to the lab, but seeing as how that would cost too much, she just went and got me some sample antibiotics (a whole bag of them!!) and sent me on my way. She just gave them to me. I'm so impressed. Anyway, I'm taking the antibiotics now and I'm starting to feel better, but I'm still not 100%.

I actually think Ray gave this whatever-it-is (probably strep) to me, because he was up at Faire all those cold weeks during kids days with all those kids who wipe their noses and then hand him money. He had been sick, too, but not feverish (as far as I know), but he never went to the doctor about it. So it's probably his fault. Grrrrr...

This weekend we rented a van and drove up to New York to pick up a daybed from Amy that she's been trying to unload on us for ages. Then, since we had the van, we drove over to Teaneck, NJ to pick up another pinball game that Ray had bought on Thursday. He just happened to mention this to me on Saturday morning, as we started driving to New York, much to my chagrin. Anyway, I have to trust that he knows what he's doing...