First Dip in the Big (Sound) Waves, Etc.

A good weekend has come to pass. Friday on my way home from work I stopped for bunny pellets, hangers and a frozen pizza. I then called and had my standing Friday evening conversation with my mother, who was travelling to Lucas, KS to stay with her sister. We had a nice fun talk about all sorts of topics. Friday had already been a good day because my sister had picked up "Hall & Oates" tickets for their show at the Hollywood bowl on this coming Independence weekend, and she and a couple of her friends will be attending it with us.
I arrived home at approximately the same time as Angela did. She was beat from a long day of volunteering at the animal shelter and then going into work. She's a little dynamo like that, but sometimes it catches up with her and I have to order her to lay down and turn on the TV and do nothing else.
Having finally put Angela into a resting position I changed into some shorts and a tshirt for a nice run. I ran along the river to the equestrian crossing under the 5 freeway and ran a loop around the golf course. It's exactly 5 miles from the corner of Los Feliz and Garden. Lately running this flat path has been very exhilarating. The combination of a lot of hill running and the ridiculous number of push ups I've been doing has really improved my overall time mile for mile. Another reason I love to run on this path is there are often other runners out, going in the same direction, and I love to pick them off one by one. Some of them will even get a bit butt hurt about getting passed and try and give chase. I don't lose these races though, because I have the psychological edge, I knew we were racing for the last 5 minutes and those Johnny Latelys didn't figure it out till I passed them.

Yes, I realize that is a bit childish but I enjoy the hell out of it.

After running I took a very nice long bubble bath. I've been reading David Brin's "Glory Season" and loving it. I should switch to the new book club book, but I only have it on the ipad, which doesn't make for a good bath.

After the bath I ate some Pizza and chatted with Angela, who was still whipped from a day of cleaning cages and crunching numbers.

We needed a few things from Home Depot, and Friday night is the only sane time to go there, so I made a trip there and contacted Devin on the way. He was home enjoying Princessa, a friend's dog who they were dog sitting. It was decided then that Angela and I should head over there for a visit.

We had a nice visit with Devin and Dylan and Princessa. I showed Devin the new keyboard I got to be able to play the Ipad as a synth. Devin and Dylan then showed Angela the new cross stitch kit Devin had bought. We chatted for a bit and held the puppy and finally called it a night fairly early.

Getting home and climbing into bed felt so nice. I had a nice long sleep and it lasted all night.

Saturday I got up around 9:45 and headed to Craig's house for a bit of extra work. We ran some errands and did some heavy shopping and cleaning up after the dogs. I finished just after 4pm and headed home.

We had a Devin Tait and the Traitors rehearsal at 7pm so I got started on packing up what I needed and also remixing some of the backing tracks. I put it all together and Angela and I headed out the door 10 minutes till 7. We had time to stop for cash and were still able to get to the studio by 7pm. This was to be the first time I would play my new guitar through an actual honest to god amp. In the room was a nice Marshall with a 4x12 and man did it cook. Seriously so much fun to play that guitar.

The studio we were in was new to us. Atwater Deluxe, just on the south border of our neighborhood. The guy at the desk was super nice and the room was clean with great equipment. It was such a fun rehearsal. I had been nervous about this gig since we are down a member and I've felt a bit like it snuck up on us, this being our first and only time even rehearsing in studio. Yet through that I felt like we had a nice vibe in the room. We will be debuting a new Turbo Sunshine song at this show that I'm really excited about, "Beat of the Broken Hearted", a song I wrote for Angela to sing. It was sounding amazing already. We also have 2 never before played covers, the Human League "Never Let Me Go" and Whang Chung's "Dance Hall Days". I was pleased with and excited to perform both of them by the end of the rehearsal.

After rehearsal Angela and I stopped and picked up a 6 pack, which just feels like a nice way to come down off a good rehearsal. We were both happy with how it had gone and were excited to wind down a long day. While I worked with Craig she had as usually busted her little tush on our own home. I had been asking Angie to watch Zombieland with me for the past few months. We had originally seen it at the drive in but my truck was just a touch to comfortable and she slept the whole way through it. Finally Saturday night she relented and we watched it. Of course she enjoyed the hell out of it. We had a very nice night drinking our beer and finally falling fast asleep.

Sunday was all about laundry and putting the house back together after the big re-arrange. Pictures and Chandeliers had to be rehung. Sorting and cleaning and organizing had to be done. I was a domestic slave until mid afternoon when Angela I think sensed that I was getting a little stir crazy sent me out to run. I smoked a nice bit of green an headed back to the park for the second time of the weekend. It was a beautiful spacey run.

I finished the evening by working some on the backing track for the show Tuesday, adding some suture sounds between the songs to give us a few moments to regroup and change settings on gear. I then ran the set once for practice. I have really come a long way as a focused musician... I actually practice on my own now.

The weekend ended easily and peacefully. I'm glad to have been a part of it and I look forward to many more.