I'll wait up in the dark
For you to speak to me
I'll open up
Release me
It was a pretty quiet weekend. Friday, I pretty much played guitar and hung out in the Boogie Station all night. We have a gig in a couple of weeks, and I had to dust off some songs I haven't played in a while.
What's funny is that, if you are rehearsing for a gig, you just can't play the guitar. You have to sing the lyrics to the song along with it, to give it some context. (By way, this is the same reason that you cannot learn to play drums alone, without accompaniment. ((is that even a word? accompaniment?)))
Anyway, I am not much of a singer, but I was up there, belting out Frosty and Silent Night. Every once in a while, Stanette would come up and catch me, mid-song.
Believe me, it was funny. I run through these songs again and again, so I know the changes by heart... and I will change the tempo or tone. For instance, the gig is acoustic, but I will rehearse electric, with full distortion, and make "Holly Jolly Christmas" into a punk song.
Saturday involved a big push to get the house ready for all the holiday guests. My entire family is coming for Thanksgiving, and for that I am thankful.
It forced us to finish the unpacking priject that has been going on for six months. We have eight people coming to stay here. There's room, but... there are also rooms that haven't been occupied.
We went out for a little bit to downtown Bozeman, ate a nice lunch and buzzed through a couple stores.
I cooked a pasta dish for dinner. Spicy italian sausage (1 lb., bulk, not links), cooked with about 6 or 7 cloves of garlic, a yellow onion and a green pepper. Cook until the sausage is brown. Drain it and put it aside. Boil water and cook a pound of shells. (shells or rotini... because I like the way they hold the sauce.) In a saucepan, while that is boiling, get some sauce going. Garlic, tomato sauce, anise seed (this is key), oregano, crushed red pepper, basil, garlic, onion, pepper, garlic and garlic.
Add the sausage mix to the sauce and let it all hang out together.
Mmmmm.
Today, we made coffee and soaked in the hot tub. I am becoming strangely attached to the rubber duckies.
We went downtown and ate breakfast, then separated to run some errands. I am so into my current book that I geek it in public. I carry this huge hardocover book, and when there is a break in the conversation, or the chick takes my credit card to run it, I will crack it open and read a few sentences. If Stanette gets up to go to the bathroom, I read a few sentences.
If a stoplight seems to last too long, I read a few sentences.
I don't want to talk. I just want to read.
I don't need to talk to you or interact.
I do this on a regular basis. I have four books going right now. Ken Follett's sequel to Pillars of the Earth, World Without End, is right here by the bed. ((It is phenomenal, but a big book. Like a thousand pages. Read both of them, if you have time.))
I have Water Horse, a book about a guy who takes a boat from New York City, up the Hudson, through the Great Lakes, up the Ohio, up the Mississippi, to the Missouri, down the Missouri, all the way to its source here in Montana, over the Continental Divide and down the Columbia to the Pacific. That's my car book. So far, I am to the Mississippi.
I also have my book at work, in my desk. I read it stealthily, if I go to the bathroom or go to lunch. It is by Irvine Welsh, the author of Trainspotting. It's called, If You Liked School, You'll Love Work. It is deliciously twisted.
The other book I have going is Suttree, by Cormac McCarthy. He wrote No Country for Old Men and the Road... so it's pretty damn bleak. But I love it, and I have been plowing my way through everything he has written since about June. He's a legit genius. The Road is being made into a movie with Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn). Expect Oscar to come calling, and expect to cry.
So that's that.
We soaked again this evening and watched the season finale of True Blood, which was KILLER.
If you haven't seen it on HBO, rent it when it comes out. Vampires, sex, great writing and shapeshifters? What's not to like?
What's funny is that, if you are rehearsing for a gig, you just can't play the guitar. You have to sing the lyrics to the song along with it, to give it some context. (By way, this is the same reason that you cannot learn to play drums alone, without accompaniment. ((is that even a word? accompaniment?)))
Anyway, I am not much of a singer, but I was up there, belting out Frosty and Silent Night. Every once in a while, Stanette would come up and catch me, mid-song.
Believe me, it was funny. I run through these songs again and again, so I know the changes by heart... and I will change the tempo or tone. For instance, the gig is acoustic, but I will rehearse electric, with full distortion, and make "Holly Jolly Christmas" into a punk song.
Saturday involved a big push to get the house ready for all the holiday guests. My entire family is coming for Thanksgiving, and for that I am thankful.
It forced us to finish the unpacking priject that has been going on for six months. We have eight people coming to stay here. There's room, but... there are also rooms that haven't been occupied.
We went out for a little bit to downtown Bozeman, ate a nice lunch and buzzed through a couple stores.
I cooked a pasta dish for dinner. Spicy italian sausage (1 lb., bulk, not links), cooked with about 6 or 7 cloves of garlic, a yellow onion and a green pepper. Cook until the sausage is brown. Drain it and put it aside. Boil water and cook a pound of shells. (shells or rotini... because I like the way they hold the sauce.) In a saucepan, while that is boiling, get some sauce going. Garlic, tomato sauce, anise seed (this is key), oregano, crushed red pepper, basil, garlic, onion, pepper, garlic and garlic.
Add the sausage mix to the sauce and let it all hang out together.
Mmmmm.
Today, we made coffee and soaked in the hot tub. I am becoming strangely attached to the rubber duckies.
We went downtown and ate breakfast, then separated to run some errands. I am so into my current book that I geek it in public. I carry this huge hardocover book, and when there is a break in the conversation, or the chick takes my credit card to run it, I will crack it open and read a few sentences. If Stanette gets up to go to the bathroom, I read a few sentences.
If a stoplight seems to last too long, I read a few sentences.
I don't want to talk. I just want to read.
I don't need to talk to you or interact.
I do this on a regular basis. I have four books going right now. Ken Follett's sequel to Pillars of the Earth, World Without End, is right here by the bed. ((It is phenomenal, but a big book. Like a thousand pages. Read both of them, if you have time.))
I have Water Horse, a book about a guy who takes a boat from New York City, up the Hudson, through the Great Lakes, up the Ohio, up the Mississippi, to the Missouri, down the Missouri, all the way to its source here in Montana, over the Continental Divide and down the Columbia to the Pacific. That's my car book. So far, I am to the Mississippi.
I also have my book at work, in my desk. I read it stealthily, if I go to the bathroom or go to lunch. It is by Irvine Welsh, the author of Trainspotting. It's called, If You Liked School, You'll Love Work. It is deliciously twisted.
The other book I have going is Suttree, by Cormac McCarthy. He wrote No Country for Old Men and the Road... so it's pretty damn bleak. But I love it, and I have been plowing my way through everything he has written since about June. He's a legit genius. The Road is being made into a movie with Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn). Expect Oscar to come calling, and expect to cry.
So that's that.
We soaked again this evening and watched the season finale of True Blood, which was KILLER.
If you haven't seen it on HBO, rent it when it comes out. Vampires, sex, great writing and shapeshifters? What's not to like?
posted by Joe at
9:07 PM
6 Comments
