Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

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Turned out OK

It’s a new season for the local community band.  We performed our Halloween concert tonight; on an evening when the wind was howling and the rain pouring we had perhaps 200 or more people show up.  Seemed like a good crowd to me.

I’ve been dreading this concert.  Previous years we’ve shared the stage with a couple of middle school bands, but this year we didn’t have any six graders to help us fill the house with parents, and we had to learn a whole lot more music since it was only us.  We’ve had 6 weeks to rehearse…and I missed last week while I was gallivanting out in California.  Plus I guess it’s just human nature to put off practicing until the concert is right on top of us.

Last night’s rehearsal was the worst I have ever endured.  We sounded terrible.  With a capital T.  It was so discouraging!  After a full day of work and a two hour rehearsal  I came home and practiced for another hour.  Still, though I knew I was as ready as I could be,  I didn’t sleep as I worried about how horrible tonight’s concert was going to be.

I even told my husband not to come.

I worried all day at work.  I worried as I drove through the blinding rain and as I changed into the band outfit in the car.  (I figured it was pouring rain, who was going to be standing out there watching me change?)  I worried as I warmed up.  I worried as we were announced.  To be honest I worried until the first piece was done and we at least all ended at the same time.  In a community band ending at the same time is reason for celebration.

Turns out it was OK.  We had people in the audience dressed in costume, kids there dressed as wizards, and butterflies, ghosts and princesses.  Most of the music sounded relatively fine.  We got a standing ovation that went on and on…and we didn’t have an encore prepared!  The conductor told the audience we’d have an encore prepared if they’d give us a standing ovation again at our holiday concert in December.  They laughed.  So did we.

And my husband?  He showed up even though I told him not to come.  And he said it sounded OK.

From him that’s high praise indeed.


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Home again

Just got back from picking up the Katie-girl.

The woman manning the front desk at the kennel told the helper person to get “the calm Sheltie.”  Right.  They said she was “really quiet.”  Right.  That she “liked to run in circles in her pen.”  Really?

She barked at me the entire way home.  After two walks around the yard to sniff everything and a rousing game of frisbee in the back yard she’s finally settled down with a big sigh for a nap.

We got home at 2:30 a.m. last night.  I could do with a nap myself.  More on our trip later.  (Thanks Ellen for the post about our visit!)

Yawn.

 


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Saying goodbye to the Pacific ocean

Yesterday was spent with the ocean; driving along it, walking beside it, smelling the salt in the air – feeling the wind in our faces.

Most of the day was spent near Big Sur, south of San Fransisco.  We tried, earlier in the week, to visit the Pacific when we were north of the city…

…but fog made the driving hazardous and we gave up after a brief touch.

Yesterday, our last full day in California we wanted to watch the sunset over the Pacific.

So we picked up burgers and ate them on the beach while we waited.  It was perfect way to end a lovely vacation.

Today we’re flying home, going back to our real lives, our Katie-girl, my job.  But not before I get to meet Ellen in person!  She’s coming with her two dogs and we’re going to go for a short walk!  I can’t wait!

I have so many other fun and interesting things to share with all of you, more than I can ever get into this blog,  but for now please enjoy the sunset over the Pacific.  Complements of me.

 

 


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Alcatrz musings

Alcatraz…what is there to say except that I’m glad I never lived there.  Such sadness in such an idyllic spot with views to die for.  Some did.

The cells were tiny, spare, hard.  The best ones had sunlight.  Solitary confinement cells didn’t have any light at all.  We got to go inside a solitary confinement cell while the guard shut the door with a clang.  Six or seven of us stood silent in the hot, humid total darkness.

Freedom makes a person smile.

So much tragedy here, the images are ghostly, faint, movie-like, and yet they were real.  Much is told by people that lived the story.  As one said, “Not much good came out of a stay on the rock.”

Still there were bits of beauty if you looked very carefully.  The color of a roof…

…the shape of a plant…

…the yawn of a bird.

This is an amazing place.  A place to take away lessons about resiliency and hope.

A place I won’t soon forget.


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Golden day in San Fran

Yesterday we wore ourselves out walking in San Fransisco, starting with the Golden Gate Bridge.

Then taking a bus tour through San Fransisco…

…leaving us on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge in Sauceleto where we wandered around and listened to street musicians.

We took a ferry back to San Fransisco…

…then walked about a gazillion blocks, past protesters at the Federal Reserve…

….and took a cable car back to the Wharf.

We are tired.

And I won’t even talk about the naked guys on the beach or protesting Wall Street bailouts in front of the Fed.  Sorry, no pictures of that!

Today we’re on our way to Alcatraz.

 


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Stary PS

The TV weather people said we have fog this morning, but out with the dog just moments ago the stars were bright.  And as I was looking at Orion’s belt and talking to Mom a huge and gorgeous shooting star shot across the sky from north to south.  It looked like it was in two pieces.  I think.  Or maybe my startled eye was just slow and there was only one and the memory of where the one had been a moment before.

One or two, I’m sure it was just Mom sending out a greeting to Katie and me.