I got a good start on that yesterday, but not intentionally. I took the bus to the grocery store and picked up my meds, then walked the three blocks to where the music rehearsal was supposed to be, 576 B Street, between 5th and 6th Avenue. Only, there was no 576 there -- it was just around 300 North. No problem -- I'd walk up to 576 and it would be there -- they just got the 5th/6th part wrong. Only that is a steep uphill, and since the Avenues count in half blocks, it felt like an awful long way to 11th and B...only to find that B Street stops at 550 North and turns into another street. The nice lady sitting on her steps says, "Do you think they meant D Street? Or E? They go up further..." So I walked over to D -- no luck; E -- no luck. They had said it was a blue house. No blue house. I was tempted to go home at that point, but I was lugging my recorder around and it was whimpering pathetically at the thought of not being played. It had been promised...
So I turned around and went back to B, and then back down to 6th, and just below 6th, at 276 B, I found the house. Argh. Only about a half hour of extra walking, but I was tired already, and it was hot, and did I mention the hill was extra steep?
I arrived so out of breath that I couldn't play for a bit, but that was okay. They hadn't started yet 'cause the harpist was still tuning, so I had a moment to catch my breath, put my alto together, and get the new music. We were all sight-reading some new music, a set of 20 short pieces in four parts (we had a full recorder consort, plus a harp and mandolin!), all with women's names. German, I believe. They started off easy, but ended up with some moderately tricky galliards in 6/2 (though only the soprano line had anything really difficult). It was pretty much perfect for me, since I've been playing flute all summer and switching back to recorder fingerings was almost more than my little brain could handle. These short pieces (some were only half a page long, though with lots of repeats) were almost as good as running scales for drilling the fingerings into my head -- plus they gave the pleasure of playing with people. Good stuff all 'round.
It was a very satisfying rehearsal; we played for two hours, sight reading through the twenty, and then spent an hour eating cheesy popcorn and shortbread and talking about science fiction/fantasy. I may have found some more readers for SH. :-) Didn't try to plug CS -- I don't know these people well enough yet to be quite sure how best to pitch it. The SCA crowd is generally pretty relaxed about such things (heck, I've heard them described as sex fiends -- there's a saying that if you can't get laid at Pennsic, then you might as well just give up entirely), but this is still Utah.
Anyway, I came home totally jazzed up. Checked mail, then called Kevin and talked 'til late -- probably past midnight. Then slept, woke up at 4, and graded my students' web pages, just managing to finish them by 7 (though Karina called at 6:30 from Australia and almost threw me off schedule). Walked in to campus, and had some very relaxed end-of-semester workshop classes today. Came home, made Thai curry for lunch, napped, met with a student, and now here I am. Wanting to sleep more, but drinking tea instead and planning to churn through some more of those godawful driving chapters.
Remember, tonight is LoveBytes again -- hope you guys stop by! :-)