Yesterday was a rough day. Today isn’t too much better, but at least I really don’t have anything to do. Yesterday at least didn’t start this was, but things went to Hell relatively swiftly.
It’s been a fun enough week. Monday’s open mic was typical of recent Teavolve nights – crowded and impressive, with me perhaps being grumpier than I’d like to be as I struggle to make sure everyone fits on to our little stage. We’ve been victims of our own success recently, and having more than 20 performers every night means that every Monday I’m turning people away, which NEVER makes me feel good. It’s got me to the point of maybe even rethinking my list structure…
We also had a pretty fabulous night at Parallel Wine Bistro – four hour bar gigs have their plusses and minuses, with one of the plusses being it’s a long enough stretch of time that we’ll EVENTUALLY find our people – and sure enough about half way through we had a good number of fabulous devotees and dancers. Had an embarrassing moment of feedback when I set my eBow down on the gain knob for Heather’s channel. All was forgiven as we rocked the night away. However, I was feeling dehydrated and flopsome for the drive home and came home exhausted.
Saturday dawned bright and beautiful and with me still conscious. I got a’wanderin’ and worked my way through a bunch of errands. Life was good, the day was beautiful but I could feel an edge of a cold or something creeping in. Over the past couple of days I’d been feeling something that I THOUGHT was my allergies coming forth to damage my well-being but by Saturday, prepping for our Teavolve show, I was definitely getting sick.
In the muzziness that came with all-of-the-above I was perhaps inordinately pleased with my errand running. Paid the rent, picked up finger picks, paid a visit to the record store, picked up more cold medicine, got gas, got tequila… you know, the important stuff… I came home and realized I needed a shave, but didn’t feel like lathering up so I dusted off my electric razor, and assuming it’s battery was probably dead I plugged it in and swiped down my left cheek.
VICIOUS burning sensation! Holy crap – maybe using it while plugged in is a BAD idea. So I unplugged it and took a swipe at the other cheek – perhaps because I’m an idiot. Same burning at which point I finally look at the damn thing. I guess at some point I’d dropped it or damaged it or SOMETHING, but the metal foil was jagged and roughed up – and at this point I realized that just before a show in which I was going to perform in front of a bunch of new fans I had scratched my face up viciously. Slowly, both cheeks were beginning to bleed.
Fucking Hell. Cold water and dabbing got the inflammation and the bleeding under control, and Mosno didn’t notice till I called his attention to it, but I’d gone from good day to bad day pretty swiftly, feeling like anyone who looked at me was going to be thinking “no, really rob – NO MEANS NO”. Merde.
Death doom and destruction. I’ve been so excited for this show – a trio gig with myself, Mosno Al-Moseeki and Nelson Emokpae. When we first did it it was just kind of a thrown together thing, a last-minute celebration of Teavolve’s anniversary, but we had a GREAT time and decided we’d want to do it again. Last night was to be this marvelous thing, and something (oh who knows what) about our current political climate made it all the more important that we were playing this show where a Nigerian, a Sudanese and a third-generation white kid – a Christian, a Muslim and an atheist – were playing together, bringing our fans together, mingling our sounds – and in truth it WAS a marvelous thing. An incredible night of music, but by the time we were halfway through our first set I was well and truly in the clutches of a cold, sweating and struggling. Cough held at bay by the marvelous goo that is Dayquil – however I definitely was feeling both the dehydration and mood-levelling that goes with cold medicine and I ended up spending all the time that I wasn’t performing sort of sulking away from people.
By the time I got home I was well and truly miserable. Kristen was finally home from HER mini-tour but I immediately dosed up with Nyquil in the hope that sleep would ventually come and I’d soon be able to eradicate whatever bug had found haven in my body.
