my weekend

for me, my weekend began as soon as i clocked out of work on Friday afternoon. getting home, getting showered, and changing my mindset was foremost on my mind.

my wife graciously offered to get us chinese food with a restaurant gift card she had. four out of the five of us were fed supremely on this take out feast, while my boy opted for pizza, but then acted out a bit, probably as a result of wishing he would've picked the chinese food.

after that was settled, the evening shut down with relative ease and Saturday morning would be my next assignment. upon the dawn of the morn, yummy pancakes were made for us all by my wife. they were enjoyable, but picking up our apartment and gathering supplies for a musical engagement were on my mind....you could say i'm 'task-oriented' at times :)

boom. done! along with assigments doled out for my wife, stepdaughter, and kids.....i'm a delegate-r like that i guess.

my daughter and i had a lovely lunch together and ran an errand to which she insisted on being the shopping cart driver. nobody was hurt. there were a few close calls though.

afternoon came and me and my 2 kids hit the park to shoot some baskets and play on the jungle-gym equipment....it's so quiet at the school park by our house. i love it.

after i made a makeshift leftover supper for myself and drank a few newcastles, i was off to my musical engagement. when one advertises such gigs, it's easy to become hopeful for a large draw of people. i mean, after all, i am an entertainer and a musician so i hope to entertain and musicianize an audience right?

gig time came. in the process of setting up i broke 2 glass slides that i was to use for some blues playing. i got angry. i swept up my mess. then, it was looking like the gig was gonna be a total bust. '10 minutes more and let's shut it down if nobody shows.' i thought, dang, i sure put together a lot of equipment for this...hope somebody comes.

2 people arrive! fellow musicians who came to listen and hang out! good....an old church friend shows up....good to see his smiling face....in comes another straggler, face familiar, but i'm not sure if i've met him or not?...then my dad, one of my most loyal supporters walks through the door....now there are 9 folks in the cafe....that's including the owner and my friend who's there to help me with the sound and display his homemade instrument creations

it's still not what i had hoped for, but i can work with this. the featured artist (me) then hands off his guitar to one of the musicians who came by, grabs a ukulele for himself, and group singing ensues. this is good. this is entertainment of the participatory sort. this takes the 'look at me' pressure off.

and that, my friends, was very 'worth' it.

it went very well. we went through old spirituals, old folk tunes, and even some country music from the late great Hank Williams Sr.
now i had the place singing....literally. after we did that for a good half an hour or more, i thook my guitar back and did more music....i was very much ready to play for over 2 hours that night.

the owner gave us a few more minutes and so we closed with 'Blowin in the Wind.' it was great to meet some new people, see an old friend and family, and to play some music which allows people to heartily sing along. all was not lost to low attendance and low enthusiasm.

sleep would come on Saturday night and Sunday morning we played the 'hurry and get ready for church' game. i'd say we were all winners, but i was definitely feeling it by the time we entered the 'house of worship.'

no matter, it was a great service and even though i was totally unprepared, i got to help with a children's music presentation and a puppet skit. i like my church. it was great to see my friends, the message was good, and my pastor's song choice and video choices were superb....messy and superb!!!

one of the highlights was playing this song, with my musician friends....