B-day blog, cont.

After classes, I entered homework assignments onto the website, wrote comments and ran through my guitar part for the song I was doing at the acoustic café later that evening. The song I chose to play is my own “Birthday Cry,” which was written for Sam Loewenstein, my partner in the defunct Parents. The tune asks a lot of a singer’s range and it was written for a female to sing insofar as it was inspired by Sam’s own experience so I enlisted the help of a very talented student on campus to croon the lead while I played acoustic and sang backup harmonies. She wasn’t available to practice again after school on Thursday but I rehearsed the song myself anyway because we switched the key a whole step higher than the one I played it in with Sam singing.

Then it was off on my weekly road trip to bring a student to a meeting in Hatfield. She’s very easy to get along with, loves reading, loves school, tells great jokes (her trademark is erupting into giggles as she’s trying to deliver the punch line) and she enjoys soaking up all the new music I play on our ride there. In case you’re thinking- “hey, why can’t she choose the music?” Well, I offered, but all her music exists only on the computer in her dorm. Anyway, while she was at her meeting, I pulled up to the convenience store in Hatfield under a street lamp so I could get to work on lesson prep for the next day and then I promptly fell asleep for about 20 minutes. Upon waking, I went in the store, bought a bottled iced tea and grabbed an Advocate to read so that I could further busy myself in order to refrain from getting to work. Soon enough, it was time to pick the student back up and head to dinner.

We always eat at the Whole Foods buffet bar in Hadley, only this night we were joined by Shelly and also Hannah, who wanted to give me her birthday present in person. She picked out a mustard yellow school shirt along with a multi-colored striped tie that matched perfectly well. Nice work.

As soon as I got back to campus, I had to race over to the Student Activity Center, for the Acoustic Café had already begun. There were a few poetry readings, a stand-up comic, several guys and girls with guitars (we heard M. & J. do “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd, I. Played Lowell George’s “Willin’,” Neil Young’s “Heart Of Gold” played by the only other faculty member performer, a few original numbers penned by the resident singer-songwriter on campus, who maybe most closely resembles Jewel in style. D. and I played our song to a hushed room. As fine a singer as she is- she had the tune down in five run-throughs, and even if she was unsure of what note(s) to sing, she never wavered off-key, plus she even reworked the chorus melody line a tad so that it actually sounds better than I’d written it- she doesn’t sing very often so the kids hung on every note of the performance. From the second verse onwards, she had pulled rather far away from the mike so I had to adjust by strumming more quietly. The room was silent anyway and her voice is very strong and carried well so the performance came off well. At some point, we’ll record a version in the Recording Studio Club to capture it for posterity.

I ended up returning to the domicile around 9:30, flopped down on the couch and caught up with the wife for about 20 minutes, then had a snack and settled into my next day’s prep work finally. While talking to Shelly, I was feeling that uneasy still-got-work-to-do-tonight feeling but as usual, Shelly crystallized the reality for me. The school day went well, I collaborated with one student on a musical performance, had dinner with another who feels at ease enough with me to dine with me and my family (can you imagine having dinner with one of your teachers, their spouse and 4-year old daughter?), and although it happened the previous day, I was just telling Shelly that I had sent an extremely well-written piece of student writing via email to an internationally famous author and actually received a response. So, yes, at nearly 10 PM, after having been go-go-go since 6 am that morning (not counting the 20 minute power nap in the school van), I still had work to do but it was a fine way to spend a birthday.