Music Update

Brian and I had a wonderful time at Coopers Glen Music Festival. Wonderful. I was right, when I was a little girl. I knew I wanted to sing as my job. Well, it’s not my only job but some weeks it’s what dominates my schedule. I love it and it’s just as good as I thought it might be.

The festival is really well organized, with great volunteers. The other performers were so top-notch that we were just honored to be included in the show with them. The hospitality they showed us was great, the audience was really receptive when were singing, and they bought more CDs than we anticipated they might. We met a lot of great people and hope to see some of them again.

Camping Woes

The down sides to this sort of music business? Porta-potties and sleeping in tents. I’m not an outdoor grrl by any stretch… my favorite “great outdoors” is my hammock on the porch for a few hours on a summer day. Brian and I went down to this weekend’s festival on Saturday rather than going Friday, because sleeping (and changing clothes) in a tent does not make for a fresh looking/feeling LynnH. Tents *after* a performance make much more sense than before.

In fact, Brian suggests we get earplugs for next time (two weeks from now we will attend Wheatland Music Festival, this time not as performers but as regular festival-goers). It’s funny, I can sleep through the sounds of people at larger festivals, when they are yelling for entertainment. I can sleep at home with cars going by blaring stereos or the inevitable ambulance siren (we live near a hospital).

But birds singing/squawking? They can keep me up forever. My brain does not know how to translate birds, I just wake up anytime they make noise. I can’t filter them out. And Coopers Glen had a rooster at the far side of the grounds. Most people would not have been bothered by it but I just couldn’t sleep once he started in.

It also rained pretty hard on Saturday night (while we were safe and dry in the tent). It would start and stop and start again, and every time it started I would awaken once more. I had a hard time getting back to sleep. But that was *after* our performance, so I can’t complain too much. I finally did get back to sleep Sunday morning (after the rooster quit around 9am) and got up at 11am, and got my tea, and things went OK after that.

Ready for Time Off

I’m wiped out, though, my friends. I worked for Altu for 3 days at the Folk Fest, then had a day and a half off before going to Michigan Fiber Festival for 6 days/5 nights. I was home 5 days and then we went to Coopers Glen Music Festival for 2 days. I have nothing scheduled on Monday other than an allergy shot.

And I realize I don’t know how to really have a day off. When I worked a retail job, I remember a woman named Sue told me “A day off running errands and cleaning house is not the same as a day off in your bathrobe reading on the couch.” She was right. And I realized that I’m not at all good at a day off like that.

So I put on my calendar for Monday “DAY OFF.” And I wonder how I’ll do. I have so much to do I am feeling guilty but I’m going to try to let go of that for one day. I remember that when I was in Africa for 5 weeks I did learn to take it a moment at a time. I am capable of doing this. I set aside five weeks. I knit 10 pair of socks in that 5 weeks, and I socialized and was a tourist and I practiced my new saying “I am not in charge.” This saying has proven useful since I returned, too.

One whole day off, though? In the middle of so many things I need to do, things that others may be waiting on me to finish?

The To-Do List

I am in the middle of a teaching schedule, people are asking for my online/email version of the schedule. In this case, the schedule is set for my 3 shops where I normally teach, plus my 2 community education departments. I have a shop or two out of town who may take a day or two or three, but I’m about at promotion time on this project.

I’m also in the middle of a new round of musical acts at Altu’s, booking and promoting and making a web page with that schedule. I’m still matching performers to dates on this one. I hope I’ll be able to schedule at least several months all at once, because I do this little side-job as a gift to my friend, Altu. It’s good to line it up and then forget about it for a while between scheduling times.

And I finally got the yarn in that I’d ordered (to dye) back in ***MAY!*** You heard right: May. And last week I got the yarn I ordered a month or so ago, as well. So I have a pile of yarn ready to dye, and that requires full days of being home to make that work. I know at least four people waiting for me to dye yarn.

I have some folks waiting on polymer clay items they expect I will make (I never did make kazoos last week). And I have some music promotion for our own act, which has been waiting a bit too long. I need to send CDs to a few music stations that are interested, and I need to start over with making a Myspace page for our band (I made one but it’s a personal page which does not allow me to upload our music… sigh.)

There is also the new almost-ready shopping cart for my new website, to sell my patterns and eventually yarn and polymer clay items. I have all the patterns loaded but need a few more tweaks before that’s up and running.

But I’m going to do a little tonight (I’m updating Altu’s music web page which I realize still shows Memorial Day through August 12). And then I’m going to do a day off Monday. Wish me luck.

The Plan

First I will try to sleep in. Then I’m thinking maybe I’ll make myself a special breakfast. I love pancakes but have to make my own, which I do maybe twice a year. So perhaps I’ll do that. Maybe I’ll ride my wonderful bike to the allergist, it’s only maybe 2 miles one way.

And then what? A nap on the porch in the hammock? Get out the spinning wheel (a fiber endeavor that is not work related) and play with the new rovings I got last week at Michigan Fiber Festival? A long bubble bath, perhaps? Altu’s restaurant is closed on Mondays but maybe I’ll find some Indian food for dinner so I won’t have to cook.

We’re planning to go see our friends in the band Steppin’ in It at the Green Door Lounge at night, which we have not done in a while. A sort of date, I would say. A good thing for a day off!
I figure I am bound to gain some energy if I take a selfish day off. And then I will attack the list of not-done-yet items that either are important and I’ll get to them, or they are not as important as they seem to me today and they will fade off the to-do list.

By the Way

Oh, I guess the day off means photos of Coopers Glen and the Sunday night concert at Magdalena’s will be here on Tuesday. Unless I decide that blogging is not work that interferes with the “day off” idea. Or unless I get them edited before bedtime, which right now does not loo very likely.

Suggestions?

Any suggestions for how to take a day off for a bit of a (happy) workaholic artist, would be most welcome.