Be prepared for shock and awe...this is a happy blog!
That's right! For the first time in weeks, I won't be opining my latest tragedy, because...there's no tragedy to report! Oh, I'm still not degreed, on the financial precipice, and tiptoeing on the mental brink, but this past week has been a FLOOD of wonderful, triumphant, happy, warm-fuzzies!
Let's begin at the beginning...
Saturday morning, after Sonya & Liam returned from unicycle class to pick up Courtney, I was able to get a few errands run while Sonya took the kids to Flint to see "Annie" with their grandparents. While I was out-and-about, I indulged myself a bit by stopping at my friend's comic store (Comics & More on John R near 11 1/2 Mile Rd.) and chatted him up a while perusing the newest stuff. I had a great time just chilling in his bright, clean store on a nice sunny day while getting a few necessities for my new mobile Fortress of Solitude at the auto parts store nearby. As I walk in, Chris stops everything and says, "I have something for you," and proceeds to hand me a double-disc special edition of "Free Enterprise". Apparently, his friend that works at Anchor Bay had a bunch of leftovers odds and ends he brought in. Chris set that aside for me immediately. Cool free stuff - yea, he's got a customer for life.
Anyway, after a pleasant hour or so of hanging, chatting, and browsing, I bought the newest Batman (#666, and they played up that angle VERY well) and went home to tidy up a bit while I was motivated. Wile I missed the chance to hang with my wife and kids, as we rarely see each other anymore it seems, it was nice to be productive and get a few nagging errands and chores done.
Friday & Saturday nights were my barbershop chorus's annual show. My costume looked great, the chorus performed a fun show, and my quartet did very well.
Liam was an absolute hit as Rudolph and soaked up the adoration of all of the grandparent-types who wanted to take his picture.
After the show, I met up with my mother-in-law and daughter, who came to watch the show. I send Liam off with them to spend the night at Grandma & Grandpa's. As I'm getting ready to change out of my tux, I bump into my friend (and current Pioneer District champ) Paul Ellinger, who had brought his 4-year-old son to his first barbershop show. Knowing with a young-un at his side, he wasn't going to be going to the afterglow, my quartet decided to give them a command performance in the hallway. We sang VERY well (being able to better hear each other) and received some very nice compliments from him.
From there, we went to the afterglow. After a wonderful dinner of breakfast food (that always confused me, as it does every year - beer & scrambled eggs?!), we went up and did my arrangement of "Rainbow Connection" again (I have a tendency to push for that one, not surprisingly) and rang it better than we have in a while. I received several compliments from the guest quartets on my arrangement, and apparently more after I left, as relayed to me by my best friend and lead, Lou. I left a bit early, as I had had an exhausting - but fun - weekend, and arrived home to Sonya and her brother watching TV & chatting. I relayed the events of the evening and went to bed happy and content.
Sunday, I woke up and finally got off my ass to do something that I've been meaning to for a few years - I went to get glasses. I used to have beyond perfect vision, but over the past decade or so, it's been ever-so-slowly deteriorating. I can still function without corrective lenses, but I have to strain a lot more than I used to and freeway and street signs creep up on my more than they should. So, Sunday morning I hopped online and made an appointment at America's Best (yeah, the ones with the always horrible, near disturbing, commercials). They determined I have a slight astigmatism in both eyes (more pronounced in the left) and glasses would help a lot. I picked out a slim, relatively fashionable pair of the ultra-cheap class (to be delivered next week) and headed to my quartet rehearsal in (what I thought was) the nick of time.
I arrive at our baritone's house to find our bass had to push back the time by an hour-and-a-half. Being incommunicado due to problems with our Sprint P.O.S. family plan, I wasn't reachable. Oh well - off to McD's for a bite and a read-though of the Metro Times while I kill a little time.
I arrive a bit early and chat with our bari, Dave, for a while. The other guys arrive and I run down the set list I concocted for Jason Bradley's Birthday Benefit for Gift of Life Michigan the following Wednesday: a nice balance of standard stuff, show songs, and general feel-good music. We run them down one-by-one and a they were ringing amazingly well! In one of the tunes, we hit this beautiful barbershop 7th and just held it there till our tanks ran dry! We didn't want to stop! We cut of the chord just before we all turned blue and burst our laughing with glee!
We discussed the pros and cons of competing this season at districts, go over the logistics of the benefit gig, and parted ways. About 2 hours later than we planned, but DAMN did we feel good about ourselves!
You think that's enough? But WAIT! There's more...
Coming up next: Good Karma takes a "Super Energy Pill"...
That's right! For the first time in weeks, I won't be opining my latest tragedy, because...there's no tragedy to report! Oh, I'm still not degreed, on the financial precipice, and tiptoeing on the mental brink, but this past week has been a FLOOD of wonderful, triumphant, happy, warm-fuzzies!
Let's begin at the beginning...
Saturday morning, after Sonya & Liam returned from unicycle class to pick up Courtney, I was able to get a few errands run while Sonya took the kids to Flint to see "Annie" with their grandparents. While I was out-and-about, I indulged myself a bit by stopping at my friend's comic store (Comics & More on John R near 11 1/2 Mile Rd.) and chatted him up a while perusing the newest stuff. I had a great time just chilling in his bright, clean store on a nice sunny day while getting a few necessities for my new mobile Fortress of Solitude at the auto parts store nearby. As I walk in, Chris stops everything and says, "I have something for you," and proceeds to hand me a double-disc special edition of "Free Enterprise". Apparently, his friend that works at Anchor Bay had a bunch of leftovers odds and ends he brought in. Chris set that aside for me immediately. Cool free stuff - yea, he's got a customer for life.
Anyway, after a pleasant hour or so of hanging, chatting, and browsing, I bought the newest Batman (#666, and they played up that angle VERY well) and went home to tidy up a bit while I was motivated. Wile I missed the chance to hang with my wife and kids, as we rarely see each other anymore it seems, it was nice to be productive and get a few nagging errands and chores done.
Friday & Saturday nights were my barbershop chorus's annual show. My costume looked great, the chorus performed a fun show, and my quartet did very well.
Liam was an absolute hit as Rudolph and soaked up the adoration of all of the grandparent-types who wanted to take his picture.
After the show, I met up with my mother-in-law and daughter, who came to watch the show. I send Liam off with them to spend the night at Grandma & Grandpa's. As I'm getting ready to change out of my tux, I bump into my friend (and current Pioneer District champ) Paul Ellinger, who had brought his 4-year-old son to his first barbershop show. Knowing with a young-un at his side, he wasn't going to be going to the afterglow, my quartet decided to give them a command performance in the hallway. We sang VERY well (being able to better hear each other) and received some very nice compliments from him.
From there, we went to the afterglow. After a wonderful dinner of breakfast food (that always confused me, as it does every year - beer & scrambled eggs?!), we went up and did my arrangement of "Rainbow Connection" again (I have a tendency to push for that one, not surprisingly) and rang it better than we have in a while. I received several compliments from the guest quartets on my arrangement, and apparently more after I left, as relayed to me by my best friend and lead, Lou. I left a bit early, as I had had an exhausting - but fun - weekend, and arrived home to Sonya and her brother watching TV & chatting. I relayed the events of the evening and went to bed happy and content.
Sunday, I woke up and finally got off my ass to do something that I've been meaning to for a few years - I went to get glasses. I used to have beyond perfect vision, but over the past decade or so, it's been ever-so-slowly deteriorating. I can still function without corrective lenses, but I have to strain a lot more than I used to and freeway and street signs creep up on my more than they should. So, Sunday morning I hopped online and made an appointment at America's Best (yeah, the ones with the always horrible, near disturbing, commercials). They determined I have a slight astigmatism in both eyes (more pronounced in the left) and glasses would help a lot. I picked out a slim, relatively fashionable pair of the ultra-cheap class (to be delivered next week) and headed to my quartet rehearsal in (what I thought was) the nick of time.
I arrive at our baritone's house to find our bass had to push back the time by an hour-and-a-half. Being incommunicado due to problems with our Sprint P.O.S. family plan, I wasn't reachable. Oh well - off to McD's for a bite and a read-though of the Metro Times while I kill a little time.
I arrive a bit early and chat with our bari, Dave, for a while. The other guys arrive and I run down the set list I concocted for Jason Bradley's Birthday Benefit for Gift of Life Michigan the following Wednesday: a nice balance of standard stuff, show songs, and general feel-good music. We run them down one-by-one and a they were ringing amazingly well! In one of the tunes, we hit this beautiful barbershop 7th and just held it there till our tanks ran dry! We didn't want to stop! We cut of the chord just before we all turned blue and burst our laughing with glee!
We discussed the pros and cons of competing this season at districts, go over the logistics of the benefit gig, and parted ways. About 2 hours later than we planned, but DAMN did we feel good about ourselves!
You think that's enough? But WAIT! There's more...
Coming up next: Good Karma takes a "Super Energy Pill"...
1 comment:
Boy, it's nice to hear that things are turning around...
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