Up for our last sitting, for me it was a good and focused. Breakfast and spirits are buoyed. I do personal practice as the rest of the team sans MB work on the Bach circulation. One of the things that I had to deal with this weekend is not getting depressed about not playing on some pieces that I can't play well. Sometime I want to try and it is demoralizing when I can't. Bottom line, practice, practice, practice! Jane and Bridge join us for lunch and a basement performance and Bridge's energy is catching, an intense little man!  Work on repertoire, plugged a short tea and then I leave before dinner as taking Tuesday of will create a bitch of a Wednesday. The drive home from Summerville is surreal, normal for a transition from GC back to the outside world. The family is glad to see me as I am them Isabel is particularly huggy.

Tuesday: Up at 7, feeling physically better, but still drippy. Shower, then downstairs to set out breakfast goods. The band mates show up, and a sitting in the ballroom. Breakfast, with some more visiting good spirits. Victor read us some esoteric material while we chewed our granola. The story of the cats and the meat.

We were thinking about arranging a JSB invention as a circulation, so we split into two teams (Dev, David and Victor on the treble clef, Meli, Terry and myself on the bass) and did some work. We played the first page or so, but realized we wouldn't really have time to make it happen before the Friday gig. Dev left for a school commitment. We worked in the basement amplified for some time, running repertoire and working on circulation. I showed the basic form and patterns of Asturias, consulting tab for the twinkles. Around noon, I went upstairs, and heated soup, cut bread, and so on. Victor's wife Jane and their son Bridge showed up at 12:30, and we gave them a brief impromptu performance. And then some lunch, with the McSurelys sitting around the head of the table. Bridge declared that he didn't like soup. I commented it was too bad that Dev wasn't around to tell some jokes.

More work in the basement, running repertoire, and working on circulation. Dev returned. An abbreviated tea break. (Notes to self: work on the Bicycling bass-line, and brush up on the 'main lead' of Eye of the Needle.) Wrapped up around 5:20.

Upstairs and the final meeting. Mostly quiet. A few questions answered, talk about the gig on Friday, then thanks all around.

We put the house back in order and cleaned as Victor did some cooking. Many hands. Meli and Martin took off. We ate dinner with Victor (spaghetti with a delicious sauce full of solids, and salad). Dev and Terry depart. The rest of us talk about "Star Trek." Also, MB laughed quite hard, remembering the Weight Watchers recipe cards. David and Victor left around 8, leaving MB and me alone to do the last bit of tidying. Once that was done, I fixed the lock on the basement door. It had been broken by an overenthusiastic turn of the key by a lodging crafty. I should have let them know that you need to push the door in a bit to get the bolt to engage.

A long phone call with my mom, catching up. She's had new counters in her kitchen installed. It had gotten too late for a walk, so I did some email tidying, and MB and I ate some pie. More computering. Soon bed.

A day a low lows and high highs, I suppose. Woke up cranky. G was on breakfast duty. Sitting was quiet and I went back to my kneeling pose. T complimented me on it, but I have to confess I "think" about being uncomfortable for the last half of the sitting, so it isn't the best pose. I tried to visualize, during the sitting, playing EotN. Visualizing all the ups and downs. Hard to do but seemed useful.
Breakfast was good and V read to us. He told two stories...about a man who went to see a guru, the guru made him wait, while he waited, a man attracted many cats into a the waiting room with meat scraps, then shooed away all the cats but two. The other story was about a guru who was ask a guy who wanted to be his student, "are you muslim?" The student replied, "I don't know," thinking it was a trick question. The guru sent him away. The student said later, "You know, I'm not a muslim." The guru replied, "If you had said 'no' or 'yes,' I could have worked with you!" Ma did a good interpretation of the first story. Something about you will get what you seek if you follow the path, but not all of you will get it. I think this is what he said. Also, I should say these are true stories, just, I don't know the history and context well enough to remember more details than this.
V assigned the group to work on a Bach circulation, but Ma and I were not included. So, he and I did dishes. Ma kept up good cheer by performing more Monty Python for V. All was cozy all morning. I did good work with EofN and figured that I could keep my foot tapping during the whole piece mostly if I kept the metronome at 112. We spent the latter part of the morning in the basement plugged in. We started with EofN and that was certainly my best ever performance of that. Then 3rd Relation which I've decided is my favorite piece. I have visions of many children doing a kind of skip-dance to it...where they swarm and flock, group and peel away. I sat during more songs, then G showed us Asterious (sp?). I was engaged with that for a short while, but became frustrated and defeated...a good mood vanished and I became upset. Suffered woe. We got a call from J that she and B were coming to lunch. Soon I made an escape from guitar playing and disappeared, when I reemerged everyone was going back to the basement to play for J and B. I watched the soup.
Lunch was very nice because of the added company. V interviewed J about her early GC memories. Apparently, V worried friends because they thought he was in a cult. J described that the early courses she visited were in middle-of-nowhere places. She said some folks shot at the barn while she was there. Many fun hand games with B. He's good at eating carrots, but rejected the lentil soup. He's also very agile at taking plates and such from the table to the counter.
B liked the Hughes instrument collection. Exit of J and B from the GC scene was held up by a missing magic wand. I saw it tucked in J's bag, so hopefully I will get wishes granted by Wizard B.
Back to plugged in practice. Good times and the music was good. I did not so good performances of EotN. I really need to be warmed up for that piece. I also play the Bartok piece. And do smaller parts on Israel & Moving Force. Slow circulation with Hope and a twinkle with Asterious. I guess this is much better than having a single line in a movie or a play.
Tea was quick, back to work. Around 5-ish we came back upstairs. Hug time with G. I asked V about how he came to be main guide of the GCNE. It seems that it just happened and that its a difficult job sort of. But, I told him he was good at it and he is. We did a very brief sitting and then V asked us if we had questions about the Friday gig. We chatted. We are to wear black pants (or a skirt) and a bright color top with no words or images. We said thanks and such. V got going on a spaghetti dinner and the rest of the folks started cleaning. Me left to go to a Beastie Boys concert. Me left to head back to family in RI. Just D, T, Da, V, G and me for dinner. Talk of squord caused me to laugh outloud with a last bite of spaghetti in my mouth. A minor embarrassing mess. V came up with an idea for a squord cookbook where the recipies were different but produced the same result. Da mentioned that it would be great to have the same picture for each recipie. Suddenly, I had a vision of the Weight Watchers recipe cards (www.candyboots.com)...the one with the grey-brown bundt cake mass and a yellow pig. That's why I laughed with my mouth full. We composed and had a very interesting talk about Star Trek and science fiction. Clean up. V and Da got the official Hughes goodbye.
G and I finished cleaning up. I made lunches for tomorrow...as we will re-enter the salaried work world tomorrow. G fixed the basement lock. Then some computer work. G called his mom. I showered. We ate pie and ice cream thanks to Me.