A free day

oh my god, I had a free day in Portland. A WHOLE DAY. No gigs, no rehearsals (well, to be strictly honest, I skipped a rehearsal), and NO WORK. With shocking abruptness my teaching gig has suddenly flattened out and started cruising (because my intro-bio course is finally through the plants and inverts, which was new for me, and is cruising now through the verts and physiology, which I know cold). The elephant research students are finally all trained up (all 47 of them) and rolling. All the grants that are due are done. No exams coming up. No papers to grade. Shocking.... It seems like I suddenly got my life back.

It was UNBELIEVABLE. It was like magic.

I did my laundry.

I took a long, long shower.

I dug a new vegetable bed and planted my all-time favorite veggie, sugar snap peas. :)

I went for a bike ride, and also a jog. This was my first exercise in a MONTH. Sad but true.

I tried out a new recipe for blueberry scones.

I cooked myself a dinner. Another new recipe just for fun.

I opened my box of presents that I'd received 2 weeks ago and hadn't had time to open.

Do other people get to do this stuff too? Is this how other people live? It sure was nice.

And I PRACTICED.... first time in forever....
- tamborim: This is my big thing for spring since if I go to Bloco X again. If I go hitch-hiking all over Europe again I am determined to be doing it with the SMALLEST POSSIBLE INSTRUMENT this time. So I practiced: Leather Jacket over and over and over, because it was driving me nearly insane at the last Lions rehearsal. Then Mao-morta from Junior, which has a similar motif to the Leather Jacket (skipping the downbeat and starting on the ee). Then fast chatter endlessly using Jay's and Jake's and Junior's drills. My chatter's getting better!!! NOT there yet, definitely not that crisp lovely control that players like Jay have, but it feels like it's within reach. I've got to get it locked in before Bloco X.

- caixa: Mocidade as fast as possible, then Lions fast Brenda funk, then Lions Mocidade-with-buzz, then the new Mangueira sticking. Basically everything that ever made me snag and trip, or even just slowly seize up with fatigue, when I was the sole caixa at Lions rehearsals last month (when John and Sue were gone). I even had time to go through my old Monobloco caixa drills that Freddy taught me.

- an hour on Spiro's fantastic congamasterclass.com website (where I have splurged on a 3-month membership) and spent an hour trying to learn guiro shekere from his online instructional videos. I almost got it! well, except for this annoying extra "shk" whenever I try to do two downs in a row. It was so fun! I know I know, it isn't Brazilian, it's CUBAN, but it all ties together, I swear. And the "fun" is what matters anyway.

- timbal: Brian's new Danca-Voce arrangement; and Zak's tricky entrance on the samba-reggae. But real lightly because my hands are all covered with bruises again from yesterday's Lions rehearsal! Somehow whenever I hang out with those 2 guys too much, I end up all beat up and bruised. :)

It feels damn good to be on the horse again.