Lost and Found

When Charlie counted in "Old Joe Clark" to start off the show, I was in the dressing room...in my underwear.

Or, rather, that's the starting point of many Barrage-related nightmares I have. We all have them, and often have fun recounting them at breakfast. 

This morning, I woke up from a particularly troubling Barrage-related nightmare which involved, primarily, the hunt for my lost phone. Fortunately, I ended up finding it right before I woke up. [It was, obviously, in the glove compartment of our van...]

Perhaps even more disturbing was that before I found my phone--while dreaming--I thought about how I would tell the story of my lost phone in my blog. And, in a departure from how I normally compose entries, I settled on a title first:

Lost and Found.

After all of the effort my subconscious spent thinking about that fictional title, I consciously feel bad just disregarding it...and yet, it also seems strangely apropos for this entry.

-----

We've been in Wisconsin for the last few days. I don't remember ever having seen this many farms in my life. 

I also don't know if I've ever seen this sign before in my life...

Click on this photo to see it larger.

-----

Last week in Dubuque, IA, we went to the opera. Well, not exactly...we went to the Metropolitan Opera's re-aired, live, high definition broadcast of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. 

It was stunning. 

Sure, the broadcast was 4 hours and 20 minutes...but there were two 30-minute intermissions, and it was only $13! Not a bad way to spend the night. 

If you're not sure whether or not you like opera, this is a great way to learn if you do, and it's a lot cheaper than actually going to an opera.

[For the record, this is the second time I've seen an opera. The first time was actually at the Met, and I was incredibly underwhelmed...but I think I just didn't like the opera I saw.]

Before

1st Intermission

2nd Intermission

After

[Also for the record, the absurd faces do not accurately portray our thoughts...we're just a ridiculous group of people. In all honesty, all four of us really did like it.]

-----

Mississippi River. L to R: Charlie, Dave, Hidayat.

I'm gonna go ahead and assume the river level is high right now...

Click on this panoramic photo to see it larger.

-----

This afternoon I had some tendon pain. Unfortunate? Yes. Unexpected? Not really; I probably took overeager advantage of the extra bits of practice time I found in the past few days. 

...whoops...

Regardless, I didn't play too much during our sound check and rehearsal. So, I went out into the house and listened to the band play through some tunes.

It was a thrilling experience, as I haven't listened to Barrage live and through a sound system since my training nearly three years ago.

It's practically impossible to describe the kick I get out of listening to Barrage. I was giddy with excitement. Amusingly, I actually found myself thinking, "...I want to be in this band!"  [Rules of conventional writing aside, it was more like: AGHHHHHSFKSJD!!!!!! I WANT TO BE IN THIS BAAAAAAAANNNNDDDDD!!!!!!!]

Half-way through Devil's Nightmare, I was overcome with emotion. For the second time I can ever remember, I was in hysterics, simultaneously laughing and crying.

This probably seems just as crazy to you as it does to me. 

But, to me, it almost seems even crazier that what I once called my "dream job" has become, literally, just that: a job about which I get to dream.