Dec. 30th, 2006

dragonlady7: self-portrait but it's mostly the DSLR in my hands in the mirror (navy)
I was busy today. I feel productive. But I still, still have not finished most of what I wanted to do.
I did finally change the nasty nasty water in the fishtank where Leviathan died. Pleco has been acting sort of logy, and his color is off-- he's paler than he was before. I thought, he needs clean water. So I finally changed the water. Poor Plecosaurus, however, did not enjoy the experience. I did discover that he is capable of swimming veryveryveryfast. I put him into a bowl while I changed the water and let it settle, and he whipped around and around that bowl. I hope I haven't killed him from stress, but if he survived a journey in a plastic bag, he should be ok to have been in a bowl... right?
But he hasn't eaten his bean, and that worries me.
Anyway, at least he's in clean water now.

I also ran a bunch of errands today, including retrieving the present Z bought Us, which the Post Office was holding hostage in wait for a signature. So that's safely home here. Just waiting for Z, so I can open it.
I also reinflated the car's tires, which I thought were very low. Turns out they were only slightly low, but still. So I got them all up exactly to spec---- and then drove away, leaving the four little black plastic caps that cover the whatsit, the inflation points for the tires, sitting on the back of the car, so they're gone now.
It's not like the tires lose air without them, but the tubes are at risk of getting damaged without them. Maybe I'll just be a dork and steal all the ones off our bikes. It's not like the bikes are getting a lot of play at the moment... Hell, I could steal 'em off the scooter and it'd probably be six months or more before Z so much as noticed, so I'd never even have to tell him what an idiot I am. Hopefully before the weather turns warm again I'll have figured out where one goes to buy just the little cap thingies for tires. I really have no idea.

I went to a party just now where the dude who sold him the scooter was. I got into rollergirls via the scooterists, so the two groups overlap quite a bit. Scooter mechanic's girlfriend is on my team. She'd had quite a bit of wine and was in full-on entertaining mode. She was speaking to another rollergirl about a mutual acquaintance, who she'd dated for seven years. "I remember how we broke up," she said suddenly. "I broke his nose!"
In response to our expressions of astonishment and disbelief, she went on. "Oh yes," she said. "We were sitting there in his car-- parked on the left side of the street, outside my parents' house. I remember. And he said, 'I think I want to be a priest.' And I said, 'Fuck you!' and just punched him right in the nose. And I broke it. And then we didn't talk for over a year."

Yup. Tame ones, these rollergirls.
dragonlady7: self-portrait but it's mostly the DSLR in my hands in the mirror (peatcross)
I wish I knew the names of traditional tunes. I don't. They all run together, and I hum along gleefully, but I have no idea what they're called. This is something that has been true for as long as I've been conscious; Dad would never call out the names of songs while he was piping, so I just know them all as Bagpipe Song That Goes Dee-Dah or whatever.
I do know enough to know that Si Bheag Si Mhor is my favorite tune. It has no words, however, to my knowledge. I want more than anything to learn to play it on the harp. But I need a harp, so...
(The link is to a Sendspace of Planxty's recording of it, which is a lovely and lively one but is not quite my favorite. I don't know where I heard it but I once heard a recording of it, or perhaps it was live, played on the harp and uileann pipes, and it was just the most charming thing ever. Actually here's a link to a page that auto-plays (and loops) a scratchy harp version of it that's also quite charming. Of course it's an O'Carolan tune. The title probably means "little [fairy] hill, big [fairy] hill" and, reportedly, refers to a local legend of a war among the fairy folk. I love this tune so much that if I were to ever have a wedding I would learn to waltz just to dance to it.)

Anyhow. Went, by myself, to the seisun at Nietzsche's, and the place was jam-packed. There were fifteen or twenty musicians, including a champion fiddler who won the Mid-Atlantic Fleadh and went to Ireland to compete. There were also two pipers, three or four bodhran players, six or seven fiddlers, a step dancer in hard shoes, a couple of guitarists, a banjo player, and then the usual core group of the accordion/banjo/whistle/flute player, the harp/mandolin/bodhran player, the fiddler-or-two, and the occasional singer/guitarist with whom I've sung before. And then there were like fifty people packed in at the bar, drinking and talking and listening.
And oh yes, the bartender Bill played his accordion again, and played Si Bheag, Si Mhor, and everyone joined in and it was approximately the loveliest thing I've ever heard, if a bit ragged in the flourishes. God I wish it had words. I need to learn to play something so I can join in.

I was highly pleased that the regulars recognized me and insisted I sing, even though the out-of-town group was jamming merrily away (apparently they're from various other locales but visit Buffalo for the holidays). The bartender had apparently been talking me up to various patrons. I even got requests, which was fun. And then I stayed late and noodled around with the singer/guitarist and the banjo player who was rather a rabid Gillian Welch enthusiast. (I attempted Long Black Veil and Orphan Girl with him, with mixed success.) I got email addresses for a couple people so we might attempt to coordinate something. But most importantly, it was a lot of fun and I heard a lot of really beautiful tunes. I hope that one piper comes back-- he said he was actually local. A couple of the people I'd never seen before said they were regulars here and asked me whether I was from out of town! I guess I haven't been coming to the seisuns that long. Well, hopefully I'll see some of these people again. I suppose I could make the effort to go to other seisuns, but I'm sort of low on time for that sort of thing.

Z's plane is delayed, of course. I'm trying to use this opportunity to get the house straightened out like I'd said I would, but I am really quite tired. I may have to go to bed before he gets here-- rollergirls is in 8 hours, after all, and I have a meeting afterward. Guh.

I woke this morning, serendipitously, at 8:44. I blinked at the clock, and said to myself, Man, you just keep sleeping later and later. (Normally I wake unaided at around 7:30, and have not needed to set an alarm for some years now.) About a half-second later I said, Shit, I have to have left for work four minutes ago.
Fortunately traffic is light on Saturday mornings, and I was three minutes early. But it was kind of a shock. I'm still not caught up on sleep. Bah, I really ought to get to bed now, if I'm going. But I wanted to be up to greet Z...

Brrrr. I suppose he wouldn't really mind if I didn't wait up for him, if I went and got in his bed to wait for him there. Even a boy so coy as Z couldn't fail to find that charming. Or so I tell myself. At the least, the bed will be warm for him so he can sleep more comfortably, even if he kicks me out.

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