excellent fun times

Last Thursday I was supposed to meet up with Tom after work to play some tunes. He called and asked if we could meet at his house instead of at the school, and I responded that I hadn't brought my guitar along, since I had been planning to just use one of the school's loaner guitars..... I mean, yes, sure. See you at your place.

So I bought a new guitar.

It is a Little Martin. It is about a 3/4 size, spruce top, big sound, easy to play, feels good, smells good, nice backpack case, easy to bike with, highly lovable. With all my gigs lately, and supposed government money coming, and 3 paydays this month, I decided to go ahead and buy this little baby that I've been eyeing for some time. Plus I got a sweet deal in the store. Great for teaching! I can bike to WW now in half the time instead of driving the mile and a half in crappy Lincoln Park traffic! It will be my summer guitar. One day I will also get an electric; that will be winter guitar. It was a highly exciting impulse purchase.

So Thursday: worky work, new guitar, good times Fat Tirin' and playing with Tom, then bus rides with Finn, then biking to Indiana Jones downtown. Excellent.

Friday: Little Martin'd WW, afternoon nap, dinner at Feed, The Strangerer at the Chopin, beers and 90's vampire movies at Gold Star. Excellent.

Saturday: Early morning outside seating brunch at Lula, wrapping bike handlebars (grannysmith-green for Roxy, Bianchi-teal for Lu), bday party in the suburbs, dinner at Spacca Napoli, early bedtime. Excellent.

Sunday: Biked the Drive. Gorgeous sunny breezy cool morning. With Saud and Megan. Clocked in 38 miles before 10am. Grocery shopped. Cleaned. Made a strawberry rhubarb pie. Ben worked on the rubbing and marinating of pork and brisket.

Monday: Memorial Day! Baked mango upside-down cake. Finished cleaning, arranging, and sprucing up. Put on a pretty dress. The rain stayed away, a ton of folks showed up, the food was great. Some OTS folks brought a banjo and a fiddle, and somebody even played my oboe, and I played my new little baby geetar. Everyone enjoyed the tunes, including the neighbor who came over and sat down with a Miller Lite in hand. Well, we were hit by a rotten robin's egg, but whether that was the fault of gravity, our frat-boy neighbors, or an old-time-music-hating robin remains a mystery. Pulled pork. Brisket. Homemade BBQ sauce. Pie. Cake. Salads. Chocolate toffee cookies. Egg olive mint fancy tart. Spicy cornbread. A hamburger cake. (Which Adeline mistook for a giant can of Fancy Feast after her dinnertime passed unnoticed.) We were left at the end of the night with the sign of a successful party: one beer left in the fridge.

Pictures here. Note: the topless guitar playing is an illusion.

It was a huge success but since the party I've been feeling down. Back to work, and picking up lots of extra subbing classes to cover for the money I didn't get to earn from the many classes I didn't get to teach on Monday. Hopefully skies will clear up... Ben and I are going to see a friend's play tonight, and this weekend I've got plans to hang with my Redheaded Ms (Molly & Meredith).

Hosting a party, eating and drinking, playing music, beautiful day, good people... Hard to make me happier than that.