The Sound and the Word

I performed a couple of pieces at The Sound and the Word at Misanthropy Gallery last night. Andria Papineau and Damon run this new monthly series at a neat little gallery on Pender Street. The big event was The Leftover Fugitives - Barbara Adler, Brendan McLeod, Marc Berube and CR Avery. They are going to the UK at the end of January, so are raising funds right now for their tour. They did about 7 or 8 group pieces with music, singing, spoken word. It was simply gorgeous! The place was packed and people were so enthusiastic, cheering, stomping clapping, singing the chorus. What fun, and what talent. I've seen all of these artists before (except Marc, but now I've seen and met him). On their own they are each outstanding. Together is more than the sum of the parts. They are doing another fundraiser on Jan. 16 at the Railway Club. Don't miss it.

Other than that, yesterday rated at negative 1.5 stars out of 5. There were a couple of small obstacles at work that left me discombobulated, even though it didn't take much to recover. I'm still feeling like I have to go back and talk some more to people - wish I'd done a better job on the spot, but sometimes your brain stalls and it just takes a bit of time and another try. Then my husband, who was going to drive my daughter to her show, got called back to work for an emergency after he had left, so I had to race home early and slam together some supper before driving. When I got home I discovered that the kitchen drain must have been plugged bad in the morning because the dishwasher (which I left running when I left for work in the morning) had backed up into the sink and overflowed onto the kitchen floor. When the kids got home from school they threw beach towels on it. So there I was at 5:15 chucking together supper and slopping up the floor and bailing the gukky sink and getting ready to drive daughter to the show then go back to my office for a while, then go downtown to be a poet. Bleggggg. Oh yeah, then at the reading, I accidentally knocked over this guy's beer with my foot while I was squeezing into my seat and then I nearly fell into another guy's lap. I felt like the elephant of misfortune.

The saving grace is my wonderful husband. He finished up with the emergency at the lab and called me on his cell on the way home to offer to bring me supper, and remembered that I was going to read and wished me well and was just generally very sweet and appreciative. Then he drove home and unplugged the sink cleaned up the whole bloody mess that I had not had time to deal with. I thought, "If he's exhausted from worked and stressed to the hilt and can still be this kind and thoughtful, I can get over one yukky day." I do need my vacation, I can tell. And I sure hope he gets some vacation too. From the amount of work still rolling in he might be working all except for a couple of days around Christmas. He's working this weekend too. Hmmm, maybe I'll go to his work and kidnap him and go hide out in a cabin with him for a few days and they'll just have to figure out how to manage. Nice thought.

Question: Why is there often too much of some things and not enough of others?

mompoet - frazzed but counting down (7 work hours to Christmas vacation)