Taking a solo

The weekend was crazy. Doobie Brothers concert was really fun, but somehow we WRECKED ourselves. I haven't been wasted like that since college. Just gone. When the bottle of red wine that we were passing around on the commuter train home ran out, we switched to a bottle of Jack Daniels and kept on toasting. Yeah, that kind of night. So Saturday was a little bit sucky. I prioritized my energy to put on a pretty fun show at Pratt Beach with Baba M.nouche, despite the sun and the heat.



Following the show we freshened up and then had a photo shoot with my friend Alex; you can see some more of his work here. Had Greek dinner with Ben and Mike. Wandered over to hear the Smoking Popes at a street festival, got cool treats at Dairy Queen.

Sunday was Father's Day and after fun times with Andrea's dad at the Doobies concert and a disturbing dream, I decided to go home and surprise my dad. The traffic was bad but everything else was good. Saw lots of folks in a short time; WKs stopped by, dinner at Grandpa George and Roberta's house, then Simon celebration at Grandma and Grandpa Simon's. Drove back to Chicago with just enough time to buy Ben some dinner at Pizza Metro.

Monday after my classes I cleaned my entire house. This was because Ben was leaving for Italy the next morning. When I am preoccupied by something I sometimes go into a nonstop cleaning frenzy. In this case I mopped every floor of every room of our house. Had my guitar class graduation that night after dinner at Taco Veloz, and then Ben and I went to Rainbo for a beer. I love Rainbo on Monday nights when it's empty. Love it. That is probably my favorite bar: Rainbo on Monday Nights. But not on many other nights.

Tuesday Ben and I woke up early to get breakfast at Cozy Corner before my Millennium Park gig. Some guy filmed my entire set, but then left before he told me where he was from. I called the public TV stations but it wasn't them. Maybe some guy from the city? One of the moms who was there who I know from class said, "I hope somebody sees you on TV. You're going to be famous. You're really exceptional with kids." It was really nice, and put me in a good mood after saying goodbye to Ben for almost 2 weeks. I got home and went for a long bike ride-- 20 miles!-- before I had to go to work. Graduation night again, and people were all fun. I went out to the Store with everyone, as is the Tuesday night custom, and I had a dollar beer or two and sang me some Queen. At some point on my bike ride home to the empty house, it occurred to me that this need not be a time of trial and sadness; it can also be totally awesome. I was in a great mood, and when I got home I turned on all the lights because everyone there was awake, and I was singing as I whipped up my customary post-bar egg sandwich. I was chatting online, my eggs were in the microwave, my bread was in the toaster oven,

WHHHHHHZZZZZSSSSSSHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhh..........

Blew a fuse. And despite having the empty box of fuses on the counter for months, I never bought any new ones. We don't have a phone book and of course our internet wasn't working, so I called my coworker who I'd been talking to online to see if he'd find out if there were any nearby 24-hour hardware stores. The Home Depot near our house was open till midnight! But it was 12:30. Nothing open, no power. Shit.

I woke up early this morning and made two (stupid wrong size fuses) trips to Home Depot before going to work. Crisis averted. But it was certainly not what I expected from my first night home alone.

Being home alone, by the way, is awesome. So far. I'm trying real deliberately to keep it that way.