Friday - alone

It was fun. That's the bottom line. Fun! I sent Rolf and SMJ (straight man Joe) off to see Dinner With Friends which I saw last Sunday. (There was supposed to be another showing last night, Thursday, but I had rehearsal so, I went Sunday. Rolf planned on going last night, but, it turns out they didn't have a Thursday night show because the weekend hadn’t sold out, which is a huge shame because it is a wonderful show, so Rolf had to go tonight.) And I just had to go see the Drummer (my drummer?) tonight.

Rolf and I, along with SMJ and BME, live on Lake Accotink in Springfield Va. We're in the Metropolitan DC area, and it's sooooo nice. (However! Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that "Eminent Domain" can apply for financial reasons of the state, I must say that "Location Location Location" now equals "Risk, Risk, Risk!" Ooooh that pisses me off!)

d'Ohgy (D.O.G) and I went down to the marina for the City of Fairfax Band Sunset Concert. (A 120 member symphonic wind ensemble.) It was l.o.v.e.l.y. I said "Hi" to my friend the drummer, and laid out a towel on the upside of the pavilion. The orchestra was actually facing away from me, but I could see through the pavilion over their heads and watch children playing on the beach, birds diving into the lake (which more accuratly is a pond, and we call it "Our Little Mud Puddle".) It was georgeous.

d'Ohgy was a hoot. She got all up in my face, she was shedding like a, I don't know, a shepherd? And she's a greyhound, so she doesn't usually shed unless she's nervous. I got her to lay down, but she'd get back up and stick her head under my chin time and time again. Now, there were 30 people sitting behind me, so this "affection" she was showing me just made me laugh. The band started to play, there must have been 50 pieces, with drums and timpani. Well, d'Ohgy didn't like it. She was, now she's a big girl, she was trying to get in my lap, even though I'm sitting on a towel, Indian style, reading a book and smoking a cigarette. Many times I got her to lay down, but after about halfway through the concert, sometime after the Judy Garland Medley, she got up from being in my lap, mostly, and went to sit down, so I thought, and took a shit right there not 8 inches away from my knee!

It really was funny. Even if I was laughing more to hide my embarassment from the people behind us. Yeah. They'd begun playing, oh, those tunes that go so well with fireworks? Army marching band stuff, lots of cymbals. Umm hmm, and d'Ohgy was so expecting a clap of thunder, or worse, fireworks, that it scared the shit right out of her.

I took her for a little walk, throwing the shit away on the way. After we'd made it around the pavilion, down to the beach, then back up around the other side of the pavilion, we just stood in the back and watched a beautiful sunset. The Orchestra, symphony. . whatever, was playing the patriotic tunes. . the armed services medley, then "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" the version all you choir boys would know so well. I tried to sing along, but damn, it was just so perfect, clear hot summer night, kids playing, fabulous sunset, great musicianship. . . well try as I might, my throat just closed up and sent all it's extra moisture out through my eyeballs. I did sing the last chorus though. It sent my mind back to high school, with the concert choir singing the very same arrangement behind the concert orchestra for the one and only time. "What about the cut offs?!" someone had asked. And we agreed amongst ourselves that we were going to hold the last note through it all. We didn't know the orchestra conductor, and she didn't know us. I remember all of us on stage, singing as loud as we possibly could, and being pretty sure that no one could hear us because the orchestra was so loud. As we sang the final phrase, "The Truth is Marching ON," the orchestra hit their punctuating chords, again and again, with silence expected between each one, but we held our notes, we held them long and loud. And the conductor was shocked, and thrilled.