Yesterday was the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of working on campus:
The Good - I went to an early music concert at noon, a guy playing Bach on the harpsichord. It was wonderful.
The Bad - my colleague and I went to get ice cream, and the students serving it gave us enormous servings. I can't waste food, so I ate all of mine (and she ate all of hers), but I will not even be able to look at sugar for at least a month. I'm not sure if the students were feeling generous because the price for a scoop of ice cream has gone up so much, and so they gave us three scoops, or if they just looked at two plump, middle-aged women and thought, "They must really like their ice cream! We'll be generous!"
The Ugly - I was waiting for the D2 bus yesterday, and it still hadn't come by the time the D1 came. I wondered if it had actually come so early that I had missed it, but the D1 driver told me the D2 was trapped behind an accident on his route. He said he'd take me to where I could catch the B bus, the only one that also goes far enough north to get to my car, since it was a few blocks away. As I waited for the B bus, the D2 finally came, and it was definitely the usual one very late because it was our usual bus driver. The D1 driver had suggested we contact the bus company to complain about what had happened, and when I said, "It's not the driver's fault - I don't want to get him in trouble," he said, "No, they need to know their system isn't working." So the drivers are even more frustrated by the new system than the riders are.
In the evening Travalon and I went to the classic rock jam at the East Side Club again. I brought the electric mandolin, which is a good instrument - a Fender - but it gets overshadowed by its much cooler acoustic predecessor. I have been looking for a chance to play it again, since it's been neglected for years after I was "fired" from the plugged-in Mideastern band. (Now I just need a place to play the bouzouki, the balalaika, the mountain dulcimer, the rebec, the bowed psaltry, the folk instrument tuned like a guitar, and the sitar...) There's a sign-up sheet, and the leader told me to sign in, but I said, "Maybe tonight I'll just play the part of Audience Member." He said, "Too late - someone already signed you in," and I looked at the sheet. Sure enough, someone had written: "Famous - Mandolin." Guess I'm already a regular! Once again I played "Norwegian Wood" in A Dorian and "Cecilia" in I forgot what key - E? - something I don't love, and "Lucky Man" in G, and someone led "Maggie May" by Rod Stewart in C, and they all said I nailed the mandolin part. My problem is that I do so much by ear, and it's really hard to hear myself over the other instruments. Travalon made videos again, and I don't sound nearly as horrible as I'd imagined, but I do hit some... interesting notes now and then.
Today I worked on campus again, and right after work there was a happy hour. It was a small group, a few grad students and a lecturer besides myself, but then a couple of visiting professors from Ole Miss joined us, and one wants to learn to play the violin, so I will try to get her in touch with Hardingfele. She does already play the piano and read music, so she's not starting from total scratch. I would have loved to stay longer, but I had promised to take a social media buddy out for her birthday, so I had to hurry home. Just as I walked out the door, she called to cancel. Good thing she didn't call a minute later, because I wouldn't have answered the phone while driving and would not have known she canceled until getting to the restaurant. So in a sense her timing was good, but if I'd known earlier, I could have hung out at the happy hour. Ah well, c'est la vie. And I didn't learn that from DuoLingo.
Famous Hat
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