Arggh.

Could I be any slower in learning the mandolin, please? I've decided I should cut the cord on the tablature method. I really need to learn to sight-read and to know what a musical note on the staff means on the fretboard. Seriously! But good grief. I've been working on "Red-Haired Boy" for a MONTH and still can't just play it from memory. I've been paperclipping strips of paper over the tablature so I can force myself to look at the notation, but I can barely play at all. So slow. So painful.

In news with better progress, since the beginning of the Great Clean Up the House, I Mean REALLY, on Saturday, we/I have done: the entire entryway, including emptying bookshelf, sorting, cleaning and cataloging all the books, moving said bookcase and cleaning behind it, sucking all cobwebs off the ceiling, cleaning the light fixture and washing the front window, fixing the broken terra-cotta candle thingie. The dining room: ditto, removed and replaced all artwork, emptied and sorted bookshelf, cleaned light fixture, sucked down cobwebs. Laundry room: thorough cleaning including sort/dump of shelves, moving washer&dryer and sucking up all cat food beneath, throwing out a dozen crappy old towels. Kitchen: Steve did all the vacuuming, wiping down cabinet fronts, toe-kick area etc. Cleaned all magnets and magnetic words off the fridge. There's a scary thing: A clean, white fridge front with NOTHING ON IT. Removed all crap from top of fridge. TK: clean out fridge, empty and clean all cabinets. Too big a job for this effort. Tonight: Halfway around the weaving/sewing space, including emptying, sorting, dumping bookshelf (I think there are now 100 ancient paperbacks in the discard pile HOORAY), vacuuming artwork and light fixture. Still to do in that space: the evil paperwork pile, wash windows inside. Move loom and vacuum beneath. Vacuum horrible vertical blinds. I NEVER close them; maybe they could just... go away.
If I did the sweep through the whole house every year perhaps I would get rid of a lot of crap. So far, lotta crap has been piled in a corner of the living room for future disposal. Mostly books. Laundry room crap went into the trash.

An excellent weekend

So we spent an AMAZING weekend at the Sunshine State Acosutic Music Camp in St. Pete this weekend, stuffing a gargantuan amount of knowledge into our heads and hoping to retain some of it. I spent several hours in mandolin class with teacher Dennis Devine from San Antonio, Fla., who was quite patient with us, mostly, although I think by the end of Sunday he was maybe a teensy bit exasperated with some of us slow learners. Luckily there were even slower learners than me in the group (not many! Ed, you know who you are!). But overall the group was not blasting along at lightning speed, so even what I wasn't quite getting in terms of execution I was understanding. Also took two hours of singing, a music theory hour, sat in on harmonica to no avail -- they'd already moved on. I did pick up some handouts for Mom.
Anyway, for $129 it was a major positive investment. I hope to not be too tired to even pick up the mando tonight. My fingers are sore but not as bad as I had feared. And we played a lot.
The campground was interesting -- the event is held at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, which sad to report is right by a 4-lane street and too close to I-275 to be quiet. But beautiful big oaks and palms. No hookups, so it was tent camping or trailers w/o electricity. We camped next to a brother and sister in their Aliner (I WANT one!). She was from Tampa, he from Tucson. Nice people in their 60s.
It was hotter than hell, of course, this being Florida and October being no reason to think it might cool off. Easily 90 during the day, easily 80 overnight, and humid! My god. I slept barely at all Friday night, and then unfortunately on Saturday night had a gall bladder attack that might have sent us either home or to an air-conditioned motel if not for the reiki healing powers of Suz Chapman, who laid hands on me, gave me an acupressure point to use, and chastized me for eating fried chicken. Well, I knew that! But it'd been 9 months or so since my last attack and I kinda... forgot. But fortunately with a cool shower, Suz's reiki and then me doing the acupressure point on my hand, plus deep yoga breathing, I was able to get some relief and slept pretty well that night. Back on the Chinese herbs Martha gave me.
We just learned an amazing amount. Steve did fingerpick and flatpick guitar, blues, singing, mountain dulcimer and I don't know what-all. I taped some of my mando stuff which is probably worthless to listen to but hopefully will trigger one thing or another. I do wish Dennis had had some handouts maybe just as reminder sheets, but I guess he has to sort of work within what the students' abilities are and you can't know that before you get there. I was v. impressed with learning "Wabash Cannonball" in EVERY KEY! Plus a little run of notes to embellish it, in EVERY KEY! So I look forward to practicing that, since I could understand what do do even if the fingers were weak at that point.
I did get some stuff right early on, so that was good, and didn't get my fingers slapped for any bad habits, which is also good. And while some people had better mandos than mine, some did not!!!!! One guy had a v. pretty blond Bean Blossom F-style that he paid $375 for -- mine was two hundred LESS than that -- and he thought mine was better. Yay Elderly Instruments!
I do covet an f-style. But must earn one! There was a 1918 Gibson for sale for $850 that had the most gorgeous mellow tone. Not in my price range, sadly.
This week is shaping up to be ugly at work. Reading Festival tab bearing down on me like a freight train. So will be v. busy the rest of the week.

not so bad a day

So it turns out that staying reasonably focused on my work, I got a column written on Kalisha Buckhanon's amazing book, "Upstate." And also a lame-o story for the Cuisine page. Maybe it'll look better tomorrow.
Tonight: getting ready for the big music camp.

could I be more dumb

Good grief. This is the problem with too many various email and blog things going on. Anyway, having recovered my identity for blogging, here I am again. Procrastinating. Hey! I already wrote a column today! Now just two stories plus blah blah bloopity bloop and I'll be good. Hungry, as usual.
I also ventured further into the 21st century by setting up my bills for online bill-paying. Please god, let this help me stay more on top of things. It's ridiculous. Now if I could figure out why the amount I rolled over onto another card is still outstanding on the first card.... evil.