Iʻm going to Flagstaff, Arizona instead.
I have had occasion to mention here the band Super Duper, which is fronted by a man with whom Iʻve been friends since the sixth grade. (The co-founder and bassist is one of my housemates, a friend of the front man since college; we were introduced a good decade ago, before the older friend had relocated from New York to Los Angeles.) As was probably inevitable, Iʻve been adopted by Super Duper as an unofficial auxiliary member. Iʻve looked after the merchandise table at a couple of shows, and I took it upon myself to bring a bit of sales panache to the proceedings, by poly-bagging nicely folded t-shirts, employing a trio of cardboard t-shirt display easels, and generating some new signage. I am also at work on a video project for the band about which I donʻt think Iʻm at liberty to say anything in particular at present.
And tomorrow night Iʻll be triggering samples for exactly two songs during the set that Super Duper is playing in Flagstaff.
Never mind why weʻre all driving nine hours into the snow to open for another band. Nobody involves thinks this is particularly smart; mostly it just promises to be fun.
So I wonʻt be spending my Saturday afternoon in the tea room at Zenshuji Soto Mission in Little Tokyo, as I did two weekends ago. That was my second encounter with Yamashita-senseiʻs Urasenke group, and it handily undid the disappointment of my first visit. I actually met Yamashita-sensei–a real cut-up, a Japanese woman gone Yankee–and made tea, and ended up staying for a good five hours when all was said and done. It hardly bothered me that I drew appalling blanks at several points in my simple temae. It was just good to be back.
Work has been great: so much more than I expected when I resigned myself to the job search last October. Just this evening I submitted my last time sheet; come Monday Iʻll be a regular salaried employee at Acme Archives, with health insurance and everything. My performance on the job has been quite satisfactory, I was informed over a lunch of Thai food that the bosses treated me to, and my employers mean to start to involve me in the marketing side of the business in the near future. What a treat it is to have a job, and to like it, and to be liked by the people at it, and to be good at it, and to reasonably expect that itʻll only get better. The only complaint I might raise is that the preparations for this summerʻs Comic Con–also a treat–will prevent me from attending the Midorikai alumni reunion in Honolulu. Quite the disappointment, that, but thereʻs really nothing to be done for it. My only hope is that, if some of my old classmates will be traveling from afar to Hawaii, they might be persuaded to make a stop on their way to or from the reunion to catch up with me here.
The blogʻs sidebar doesnʻt lie: itʻs been nearly three months since I did any work at all on the book I still insist Iʻll finish some day. I think Iʻve given up, though, on re-posting the whole of the Midorikai blog; doesnʻt seem as though anyone is still interested.
Iʻm still not quite used to being as busy as Iʻve gotten–and as I expect to remain. But itʻs good for me, Iʻm sure.
I feel like there are all sorts of other things I meant to mention here at this sitting, but they elude me now, and lots has to get done yet before bedtime, which ought to be reasonably early, as the caravan to Arizona will hit the road early tomorrow, through rain into snow for a night of rock ʻnʻ roll.
Maybe some of those things Iʻm forgetting to mention will come back to me later and prompt me to post here more frequently. But letʻs not hold our breath.