December 8, 2005... I sat down in row 3, seat D, next to a very tall man in a cowboy hat. He had a longish black zipper bag between his knees, and for a moment I wondered if he wasn't bringing his rifle along. I sat down and smiled and said, "Brought your violin with you?"
He smiled back and said, "No, it's actually a travel guitar."
!!!!!
He's actually packing a mini-Martin, and the two of us proceed to converse about all things musical. He's a bluegrass/country/gospel guitarist from Texas (a traveling salesman by day, but we all know that musicians are always musicians first and everything else just augments that part of our lives).
I told him I was on my way to Fort Worth to play for a wedding, and he recounted a hilarious story of a time he played at a wedding back in the early 70s in a tiny west Texas town. The bride had chosen a couple of songs for the wedding; one was a standard hymn, and the other one was the theme from Love Story. The little old lady pianist had no trouble with the hymn, of course, but when she was told the other song, she had a blank look on her face. She’d never heard the song before. So my friend spent all day Friday working with her to teach it to her... to little avail.
When the wedding was about to start, a large tractor rolled noisily up outside the little country church, its discs spread wide, and came to a stop. The farmer was wearing his Sunday best, and he calmly climbed down off the tractor. "I just wanted to plow that last stretch on my way here," he explained.
The wedding began as planned, with the bride marching down the aisle to the typical "Here Comes the Bride" song. Then the hymn, done beautifully. When it came time for "Love Story," however, my friend reached over to the piano and closed the lid. Under his breath, he said, "Lady, if you touch those keys, you're dead." He proceeded to do the song without her, which pleased her none too well.
Later the groom pulled him aside. "I was wondering how you were going to handle that," he chuckled. "You know she's mad at you, don’t you?"
"She may be related to you, but I ain't ever gonna see her again, so I don't care if she's mad. I wasn't going to try to follow that," my friend said.
It's nice to sit next to someone with whom you have something in common. Makes for a pleasant (and short) flight. I let him listen to SoulFire on my headphones. I wish he could've taken out that little Martin and played, though.
Once on a flight from Miami to Minneapolis, there was a woman sitting two rows ahead of me who had a ukelele and was happily strumming it throughout the flight. I was glad *she* was happy, because the rest of us were less than enthralled.
I spoke to SarahK on my cell phone right before I boarded the plane, so at least I was able to confirm that she does know what flight I'm on and such. I am *so* looking forward to this!!!
I'm enjoying listening to some Etta James, Nat King Cole, Elton John and Harry Connick, Jr. while I'm thirty-thousand feet in the air, too. I heart my laptop. I dl'd the songs for the wedding so I could listen to them in flight while blogging.
I took the day off work today, even though my flight didn't leave until 6PM, because my best friend was having another heart surgery. I picked her up to take her to the hospital; we always do this for one another because it's so much more calming to have one's best girlfriend with you than your husband. Not that Rick and I don't get along; we're fine. But sometimes a girl just needs her best girlfriend with her, y'know?
I sat with her in pre-op for what seemed like endless hours. The nurse who tried to put her IV in was, well, less than competent. She dug around in Cindy's arm for a while, and Cindy (who tolerates a great deal of pain without flinching) was beginning to get a little agitated. Finally the woman called another nurse, who continued to dig around in her arm for a while before pulling the needle out. "Don't know why we can't get that one," she said. Cindy was about to come unglued, of course. They tried again with one on the back of her hand, which went in fine.
Then they all went to lunch. I kid you not -- every single nurse in pre-op left, and the place was EMPTY. We sat there for literally an hour with no-one even peeping in to check on us. Neither of us was impressed by this, of course. The phone at the desk rang and rang... and no-one answered it.
Finally a nurse came in and took us down to surgery, and I had to wave bye and head out for the plane. I'm sitting here on the flight right now and I don't know how she made it through surgery. I hate that. When either of us has surgery, we're always there for each other, and while I was there for the beforehand, I couldn’t be there for the after. I totally hate that.
But she knew that SarahK and a bunch of us were going to go sing karaoke tonight, so she made me promise to call whenever we got done and tell her what I chose to sing. Right now I'm debating... either "Someone To Watch Over Me" or "I've Got a Crush On You"... or maybe I'll freak everyone out and dig up some old Dolly Parton number. I'm a multi-faceted person, I tell you.
I wonder if they have any Ramones karaoke?
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