Working the 24 hour shift?

Bon, bon, bon! Sorry I'm not too diligent about keeping the whole world up to date on my life - heck, I was at my aunt's newly acquired old house (a major fixer-upper) demolishing chicken coops, building fences around trees, digging flower beds, scooping water out of a flooded basement and thanking God I was wearing rubber-soled shoes when I accidentally touched a live wire with the metal end of a vacuum cleaner (it makes lovely sparks, you know, plus every time I scream I rediscover my inner-soprano) in that same basement, f*ing old house, while trying to be a normal person, that is, talking on the phone, having dinner and going to the movies with my boyfriend - please do tell me when I had time to post journal entries, especially with a slow-poke internet connection!

So. Now that I'm "home" (what's home anyway?) at my parents' house in the middle of nowhere, keeping an eye on the dog, the cat, the rat, the thirteen hens and the gazillion plants, in exchange for money to buy food and gas for the week, I might have time to keep everyone posted on my double-reedly irrelevant life.

You see, I'm so focused and well-rested I forgot my bassoon at my aunt's house as I left yesterday, only to realize it more than halfway home. So I figured: "Shag it, I'll just practice some other time, and to heck with the Chicoutimi audition, it's too far anyway." It turns out the no-practicing plan will work just fine, as I'll be busy earning a living at night, and hopefully not investing quite all of it on making a concert series happen, during the day, this week.

Earning a living at night was not originally part of the plan - until God (or whatever you want to call God) decided to show me God exists, yet again, thanks very much, this afternoon. I found out around 2 that someone I knew as a kid is in the hospital; he had a stroke and whatnot a week ago. He's recovering, but he has panick attacks at night, so his wife and kids have been taking turns sitting at his bedside around the clock for the past week. However, they've all got kids themselves and they're getting tired, so they need someone else to take over the night shift for a little while, say, two weeks. So they rang Mary, the pastor at the Anglican church I go to, to see if she knew anyone who'd be available for the job.

Strangely enough, I had to call Mary for totally unrelated business - our concert series, which I will talk about in a few moments - , so I did, and she told me about this family who had called her inquiring about a night-time helper. She gave me the number, I called, found out who it was, so I agreed to go, naturally. I'll be watching on Ed 11 PM to 8 AM five or six days a week until I go back to school... I know a few people who'll kick me in the teeth (including my significant other, who doesn't really appreciate the fact that even though we're technically living in the same city now, as opposed to the whole of last year, we're not seeing each other much more than we used to) for accepting the job, but I can't say no to people who need me. Plus I can't decline a weekly income I hadn't hoped for. I'll call that a Sign.

Hanging out with Ed at night will probably be difficult, but if he's feeling well, it could be nice in a way; he's extremely intelligent and a multi-talented person. He's a fabulous photographer (just won a competition today) and musician, he played trombone as leader of a 12-piece jazz band when he was younger and still plays piano. So we'll have stuff ot talk about when he wakes up at night!

Divine tap on the shoulder number two, lighter than the previous: there was nothing in the fridge tonight, and making dinner out of nothing, my specialty, seemed like a tremendous ordeal. I had pretty well decided to grab some junk on my way to the hospital instead of cooking... Then my aunt came here with her two grandchildren to pick up her dog (she's hardly ever home), amd we all saw her brother driving up to my grandmother's house with his fiancée, so we all ended up in one place for dinner, salmon and lamb with potatoes, spinach and salad, all for free, thank you very much!

Now, now, enough of the non-musical stuff. Have you ever tried to put a concert series together outside of a big city, without any money other than the little you've got to begin with? Caroline (oboemoboe) and I had that brilliant idea, and it should work, mind you, but it's TOUGH! People are not as generous as we thought they would be. But we'll work it out. Heck yeah. :) There's no price too high for the satisfaction we'll get from playing in the series we organized, with the ensemble we put together and manage. Meanwhile we do need to find about $2000 by August 28th. Any ideas, anyone? By the way, donations are welcome and we've got concert tickets for sale, just e-mail us at ensemble_andromede@yahoo.ca...!!

Other than that, I had a nice swim in a lake this afternoon, with the dogs, and now I'm off to bed. Gotta be in church at 8 AND 10 tomorrow morning, for a variety of reasons... no I don't need two services every Sunday, no matter how nice hey are. But the congregation is addicted to music, and this church is where we'll be playing half our concerts this year... Sure, I'm a crass opportunist for taking advantage of the post-service breakfast at 9 and coffee hour at 11, but hey! We could sell a hundred tickets tomorrow morning, That wouldn't hurt!

Caro, is that enough of a journal entry to make up for the last two weeks?