In the Absence of Something Substantial: You remind me of the babe...

That Which I Did Not Do

So I slide a little bit on friday. That was okay, I've given myself 2 days a week break. Lets be honest, the chances that i'll be productive on a friday night are pretty slim anyways. let's presume, then, that Fridays will mostly be an off night. We'll get it out of the way now.

Saturday was going to be the make up for it day. And laundry day. but with music practice and such (more later), I allowed my second break day. I got a couple loads of laundry done.

Sunday was supposed to be my get back on the horse day. And DC al Coda for the laundry. yeah. Neither one of those happened. I missed that repeat bar. But i did manage to take an afternoon nap that felt like someone had knocked me out with a 2x4. or at least what i'd imagine being knocked out by a 2x4 feels like, since i've never actually done it. That is an item not on my to-do list.

but, lest we get preoccupied by the negative space...

Those Things Which I Did Do

Despite completely slacking on my writing, I did not slack in any sort of way with my running. As was mentioned, i chose to 86 Thursday's run, sub haircut by Cheryl. I rescheduled for Friday (which is usually my 2nd rest day for the week), and despite getting off of work late I still got out there! Both Friday and Saturday I got out there and ran my 4 mile course. Ran them both good. Friday was a little slower than the time before that (by about 20 seconds, give or take), but Saturday was, again, my new PB for my 4 mile course!

I don't know what it is about the midwest and my running, but every time I come back from a trip to the midwest, I improve my average mile time. It happened last december when i went back for Christmas. I came back, and my times immediately improved by 45 seconds/mile. And now, after spending a couple of weeks in Dallas, Kansas City, and Nebo, Illinois, I come home and my times are about 45 seconds/mile faster. I can't explain it--I mean, I continue to train when I'm back east but I usually take it pretty easy and mellow when I do. Hmmm. One of life's great mysteries. I'm going back for a week in early september...

Sunday I knew I had to get out and do a long run. I've been running my 4 mile course regular enough, but I've been way behind on my longer runs for training. So I went out for a 6 mile run. I took it easy, slower than I'm planning to run for my race. But it felt good. I was worried how 6 miles was going to be, since it's been 5 or so months since i've gone that far. No need.

Those Things, Being Done, Were Louder than Other Things (Done or Not)

I was asked to lead worship at Newark Pres last weekend. They've hired their new worship leader, but he doesn't start until next week. Well, Nick & Justin were playing, drums and bass, respectively, so there was no way i was going to pass up that opportunity. Alyssa also joined me on vocals which put it over the top.

I've lead worship a couple of times at Newark Pres, always from my acoustic guitar. Once or twice by myself, and once with the band. it's a pretty common worship leader setup. I decided I didn't want to do that this time. Never one to be content with the same ol', I decided to be loud. I decided to break out the electric guitar.

I chose a couple of old staples that most people know, but I pulled out a little known arrangement for one of them (Luna Halo's version of "Humble Thyself"). The other three were pretty straightforward. Humble Thyself wasn't :)

It's a very spacey, tripped out quiet song. And then, in the middle of the song, everything drops out for a second, and this monster, metal guitar riff kicks in out of nowhere (Justin called it the Judas Priest riff). It is the musical equivalent of being kicked in the face. And just when you've recovered, it drops back out and the song resumes it's quiet droning.

It had the desired effect! I'm pretty sure when we played it at practice, Alyssa actually fell over. When we played it at the service, she was ready for it, and she got the congregation (who wasn't expecting anything) into it.

I had a ridiculous amount of fun playing. Nick & Justin are incredible--it's always a pleasure to play with great musicians. It's been a long time since I lead worship with the benefit of another vocalist (and i've learned a lot since then). It was great to compliment each other, and to be able to let Alyssa take lead on a couple of the songs. Really took a lot of pressure off of me.

Those Things, Which Were Done Loudly, But May Not Mean Anything Unless You Play Electric Guitar

the other reason I had fun is because i was able to pull out my "A -game" guitar rig. When I play regularly at Esperanza Viva, I usually use my "B-game" rig, because it was specifically set up for that church. I usually use Alejandra, my Fender anniversary standard telecaster, on which I replaced the neck pickup with a DeMarzio Vintage PAF humbucker. Anyways, I run that through my pedal board (if you must ask, Ibanez Tube Screamer->Electro Harmonix Big Muff Pi->Danelectro Daddy-O->Danelectro Cool Cat->Ibanez PhaseTone TS909->Fulltone Supa-Trem->Guyatone MD3->Tech21 SansAmp Blonde->ART TubeMP preamp) directly into the mixing board.

But this weekend, I pulled out Isabelle, my turn-of-the-century Fender American Telecaster, my baby. And I fished out my real amp, my Fender Blues Jr. I used a delay pedal (because playing without delay may as well not be playing at all), but otherwise it was all amp and guitar (except for on Humble Thyself I used my Danelectro Daddy-O chorus and Danelectro Fab Tone for the Judas Priest riff). It sounded soooo good. The tone was beautiful, exactly like a telecaster was meant to sound.

Anyways, back to topics the rest of you might care about. Sorry about that. If you're not a guitar player, you don't understand. if you are, you're nodding along with me right now.

Those Things Which Were Meant to Be Done

Tonight though, i knew I had to get something done. I couldn't settle for less. I knew I had to finish Chapter 1. And so, tonight, I did. I put down 718 more words, for a total count to date of 2494 words. It's measuring in right at 3 pages on my word processor, kind of short. I'm pretty sure when I come back to rewrite, I'll lengthen it. But that's a long long ways away (I have to pretty much finish the whole thing!), and for now it will do! Chapter 1, v1 FINISHED.

Because you've been so good, for your reading pleasure, is a short paragraph from chapter 1...

"The blues is passionate music, and the lots of us out in Kaycee had been singin' the blues all of our lives. We were out there stewing in it, simmering all that jazz. Anyone who's spent much time at all about musicians knows that we're an emotional sort, carry it all out on our shirtsleeves. We've got to have it all there, ready to haul out every night and poured into all those notes. Whether she was aiming to start swinging at me, or she was just actin' like didn't matter all that much. I knew it was her or me, and she knew the same. One way or another, only one of us was going to be singing that night and the next. If we had to decide that ourselves, we sure would, but I didn't think it was comin to that..."

Those Things Which Appear Every Night (More or Less)

Activities for Today