Gigs and Games
Jun. 7th, 2025 01:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
melydiaSophia recently taught me the ADHD Prime Directive: "Don't set it down; put it away." And I've been attempting to put that practice into my life more lately. It's difficult, since 1. I'm not the only person who lives here, and 2. a lot of stuff gets set down and left without a "put away" location ever being designated.
The singing birthday present for the 96-year-old turned out to be not only for a man (for some reason I'd thought it was a woman), but a fellow barbershopper! His daughter sings with the Richmond chorus and their director reached out to us to see if we had any local quartets who could stop by that day. So that was a whole lot of fun. He was so touched. As we were walking back to the car, all of us were saying, "That's why we do this!"
The next morning was our annual Memorial Day gig for City of Fairfax. We sang a patriotic medley while people were getting seated and the national anthem at the start of the ceremony. Then they had a speaker, followed by the reading of every single Fairfax veteran killed in action since World War I, ringing a bell after each one. All told there were some 350 names. The toughest to hear are always the ones from the most recent conflicts. After that we sang a "song for reflection." Last year we sang It Is Well but this year we went with Amazing Grace, which I think suits our voices better. The bass part is identical for all three verses, but I think the other parts might change a bit, and of course Martie was fantastic as lead. They audience applauded afterwards, which was unexpected on its own, but somebody even whistled! Pretty sure that was all Martie's doing. :) And we got our picture in the local paper, which was nice. (No, I don't know why they list us as The Unmuted. We can't seem to convince Mac, who runs it, that our name has no "the" in it.)
Sunday we had another DCC session, which was hilarious as usual. We have the next one on the calendar but it'll depend on Wyatt's summer schedule. In years past he's been gone for weeks at a time; their mom likes to take them to visit her dad, who lives in the Outer Banks. In a couple weeks we're resurrecting the other D&D campaign, and tomorrow Eick is DMing a game here. I guess now that it's summer he has a little bit more free time.
More gigs: Honor Flights last night, tonight, and Tuesday; Unmuted is singing for a women's conference in DC tomorrow; and Beth's in the process of scheduling the chorus to sing at a number of farmers' markets over the next several months. Plus we're resurrecting a bunch of old songs for the annual show, meaning that rehearsal has been a whole lot more interesting lately than it has for the last year and change.
I've mailed all the wedding invitations and RSVPs are trickling in. Jason designed them; in the center is a picture of Princess Donut riding Mongo, with the heading, "What?! Already married?!" I know this invitation was how at least a few people learned we'd already gotten hitched. And the fact that only maybe half a dozen guests will get the DCC reference is just icing on the cake.
Jason and I have been watching Ted Lasso. It's funny and very sweet, which is a nice change. Ted Lasso himself is fun - endlessly positive and optimistic and supportive of literally everyone. I have to keep reminding myself that he is as genuine as he is portrayed; the people I've known in real life who act like that have been manipulators, trying to win over people so that when they do terrible things, they're more likely to get away with it. Sometimes when we're watching I catch myself waiting for the other shoe to drop, for Ted to be unveiled for who he truly is, but I don't think it's that kind of show.
Anyway, the boys are home this weekend and the loud gaming has begun. I can't complain too much - they are having a good time and playing together, rather than the regular "Elliott raging at strangers" 80-decibel concert we are usually treated to - but hoo jiminy is there a lot of yelling. That's one of the reasons I haven't been posting as often - I don't want to do it at work, even during lunch; I can't concentrate at the computer on the bridge when Elliott is in there (which is always); and I don't always want to be isolated downstairs in my study. (Though sometimes that's exactly what I want.)
I have about four hours before I need to get ready for the Honor Flight. Not sure how I'll spend my afternoon yet. We had a new sump pump installed this morning (it was working fine but was super old, and replacing it now was way cheaper than replacing it after it breaks and floods the basement). Maybe I'll see about finding some "away" locations to put things. We moved in July but still haven't emptied all the boxes. It's starting to get a little embarrassing.
The singing birthday present for the 96-year-old turned out to be not only for a man (for some reason I'd thought it was a woman), but a fellow barbershopper! His daughter sings with the Richmond chorus and their director reached out to us to see if we had any local quartets who could stop by that day. So that was a whole lot of fun. He was so touched. As we were walking back to the car, all of us were saying, "That's why we do this!"
The next morning was our annual Memorial Day gig for City of Fairfax. We sang a patriotic medley while people were getting seated and the national anthem at the start of the ceremony. Then they had a speaker, followed by the reading of every single Fairfax veteran killed in action since World War I, ringing a bell after each one. All told there were some 350 names. The toughest to hear are always the ones from the most recent conflicts. After that we sang a "song for reflection." Last year we sang It Is Well but this year we went with Amazing Grace, which I think suits our voices better. The bass part is identical for all three verses, but I think the other parts might change a bit, and of course Martie was fantastic as lead. They audience applauded afterwards, which was unexpected on its own, but somebody even whistled! Pretty sure that was all Martie's doing. :) And we got our picture in the local paper, which was nice. (No, I don't know why they list us as The Unmuted. We can't seem to convince Mac, who runs it, that our name has no "the" in it.)
Sunday we had another DCC session, which was hilarious as usual. We have the next one on the calendar but it'll depend on Wyatt's summer schedule. In years past he's been gone for weeks at a time; their mom likes to take them to visit her dad, who lives in the Outer Banks. In a couple weeks we're resurrecting the other D&D campaign, and tomorrow Eick is DMing a game here. I guess now that it's summer he has a little bit more free time.
More gigs: Honor Flights last night, tonight, and Tuesday; Unmuted is singing for a women's conference in DC tomorrow; and Beth's in the process of scheduling the chorus to sing at a number of farmers' markets over the next several months. Plus we're resurrecting a bunch of old songs for the annual show, meaning that rehearsal has been a whole lot more interesting lately than it has for the last year and change.
I've mailed all the wedding invitations and RSVPs are trickling in. Jason designed them; in the center is a picture of Princess Donut riding Mongo, with the heading, "What?! Already married?!" I know this invitation was how at least a few people learned we'd already gotten hitched. And the fact that only maybe half a dozen guests will get the DCC reference is just icing on the cake.
Jason and I have been watching Ted Lasso. It's funny and very sweet, which is a nice change. Ted Lasso himself is fun - endlessly positive and optimistic and supportive of literally everyone. I have to keep reminding myself that he is as genuine as he is portrayed; the people I've known in real life who act like that have been manipulators, trying to win over people so that when they do terrible things, they're more likely to get away with it. Sometimes when we're watching I catch myself waiting for the other shoe to drop, for Ted to be unveiled for who he truly is, but I don't think it's that kind of show.
Anyway, the boys are home this weekend and the loud gaming has begun. I can't complain too much - they are having a good time and playing together, rather than the regular "Elliott raging at strangers" 80-decibel concert we are usually treated to - but hoo jiminy is there a lot of yelling. That's one of the reasons I haven't been posting as often - I don't want to do it at work, even during lunch; I can't concentrate at the computer on the bridge when Elliott is in there (which is always); and I don't always want to be isolated downstairs in my study. (Though sometimes that's exactly what I want.)
I have about four hours before I need to get ready for the Honor Flight. Not sure how I'll spend my afternoon yet. We had a new sump pump installed this morning (it was working fine but was super old, and replacing it now was way cheaper than replacing it after it breaks and floods the basement). Maybe I'll see about finding some "away" locations to put things. We moved in July but still haven't emptied all the boxes. It's starting to get a little embarrassing.
