Saturday, March 27, 2004

Recharging

I see I haven't posted here all week. It's been the kind of week where each morning I think, "Just get to the weekend." Not that there's been anything horrible going on--I've just been tired and feeling uninspired. Sometimes my insomniac sleep cycle gets even more out of whack and I end up feeling really lethargic. The boyfriend gets off work at noon on Fridays. Yesterday morning he asked if I'd pick him up at lunchtime so he could use the car in the afternoon to run errands. As we were driving back to my office, I was commenting on what a difference it made this week to not have spent last Sunday at the beach, as we usually do. (Between his gig schedule and some showery weather, it didn't happen.) That day at the beach (and yes, we are incredibly lucky to get to experience that year-round!!) really recharges my batteries and relaxes me for the coming week. He said he could feel the difference, too. We've had some good showers this week and a doozy of a one last night--so much so that he went off to his gig (at an outdoor restaurant) and arrived home shortly afterward because it had been canceled. The forecast is for more of the same over the weekend. I almost don't care if it pours tomorrow--we gotta get to the beach! Actually, we've been known to frolic like fish in the water during a heavy shower (the water feels warmer when it rains...why is that?) He's got a golf game scheduled with his buddy today (they've been playing together every Saturday for the last couple of months). He's had a crazy gig schedule the last couple of weeks, so I should let him sleep him. But I might have to wake him in time to hit the beach for breakfast just to get a little beach hit before he heads to the course. Of course, I could spend all day at the beach if I felt like it. But I tend to "force" myself to stay home on Saturday afternoons just to try to do SOMETHING to tidy up the house (not that it usually gets done). :) Oooh, I just remembered...he grabbed the mail yesterday and we've got a bunch of new magazines and catalogs. Well, you know what I'll be doing while I wait for him to show up on the part of the course where I can watch them!

Tonight he's playing the Spring Concert with the University of the Virgin Islands Big Band. He's not even a member of the band, but got called for the gig. They rehearsed Monday and Wednesday nights. Wednesday night's rehearsal included the guest artist, a bass player named Larry Ridley. (I've never heard of him.) He looks like an older gentleman from his picture in the paper. It says he's executive director of the African American Jazz Caucus. Don't know what that is, but it sounds good. He's also been inducted into Downbeat magazine's "Jazz Education Hall of Fame." I asked the boyfriend when he got home from rehearsal Wednesday night, "So, how was the bass player?" "Okay." He makes me laugh. I guess when you have the kind of chops my boy's got it takes a LOT to impress him. I rarely go to his gigs, but I do plan to go tonight. I LOVE to hear him play big band music and it's one of his big loves--going all the way back to when he was at Oregon's Mt. Hood Community College on a jazz scholarship. He was a member of their award-winning Jazz Lab Band where his bandmates included: Chris Botti (a trumpeter who has a solo career, lately a member of Sting's band and more cheesily, the bandleader on the "Caroline Rhea" show), Ben Wolfe (a bass player who's spent years touring with Diana Krall and Wynton Marsalis' Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra) and Todd Field (actor and award-winning director of "In the Bedroom"--he played trombone...if you saw Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut," Todd played pianist Nick Nightingale...Tom Cruise goes to the club to hear him and when the band gets ready to take a break, Todd introduces the band members and uses the name of one of their Mt. Hood teachers...a bit of movie trivia for ya.) And those are just the more well-known members. It was a talented group. So I'm looking forward to hearing him lay down some serious swing tonight.

But the first order of business is a big mug of strong decaf while checking out one of Yahoo's Daily Picks. If you want to start your weekend with some art created by a bunch of visual pioneers, click here.

Have a good one.

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