Feeling a Bit Yelled at

 

Today I worked on campus, and Hardingfele and I went to the nearby greenhouses over lunch. To my surprise, the leaves I had wanted to pick up last time when the students suddenly invaded were still lying there, alive, so I took some back to my office and stuck them in dirt. We'll see if they survive. I was working on a big project for my sorta-boss, and I had some questions for him, but from his response he seemed annoyed by my questions. That was the first time I felt kind of yelled at today. I did get the project mostly done.

Meanwhile, Travalon was drawing flags with the kids at work for the Winter Olympics. He drew the Croatian flag.

He said he also drew the Bahamian flag, but they said the Bahamas wouldn't have a team in the Winter Olympics, so gave the drawing to his coworker who is originally from the Bahamas. His coworker loved it and hung it on the fridge at work. He didn't take a photo of that, but maybe he can tomorrow. Here are the flags the kids drew.

After work I went to Moldy Jam for the first time in over a month, and it sounds like a lot of other people were also gone recently, because everyone was saying how large the group was but to me it was normal sized. For some reason we played a lot of minor-key and Irish stuff tonight, and some people were complaining about it, but I was loving it. A new couple came and said they wanted to do a song called "Groundhog" since it's Groundhog Day; the group didn't know it, but we had fun learning it. I noticed that early in the evening I was doing really well with learning tunes by ear, but as the evening wore on, I got worse at it. After we took a break (and I ate way too much cheese), some of the leaders called us back by launching into one of my favorite tunes, "Butterfly," a slip jig in E Dorian. Since I know the tune well, I played it with great enthusiasm until noticing people were signaling at me, so the tune had changed, but it was another slip jig in E Dorian so I hadn't noticed. Oops! That was the second time I felt a bit yelled at. It's probably a bigger deal in my mind than in theirs. Once when I sang with the OTHER choir, we were doing a Sweelinck piece I knew well, and I was singing very confidently but was apparently off the beat, because the choir director was signaling at me frantically, so I stopped, listened, and got back in. He probably doesn't even remember that, but it will be forever seared into my memory.

There was a post today about a new Irish session on the first Thursday, so I put a comment asking if it was an open jam. When I got home, I saw the local fiddler had answered "NO" in all caps, and he had sent me a private message that read like an email that I hadn't gotten with more details about how it was only for advanced players, etc. That was the third time I felt a bit yelled at today. There must be an email list I'm not on, because I only know when the Lakeside sessions are by checking the Lakeside website, or when the red-headed flute player mentions them. This session will be this week, in a location I've been dying of curiosity to see, but there's also a Scottish fiddling class at the same time. Maybe I should do that instead and go to the new Irish session next month. Decisions!

Famous Hat