Sometimes you da windshield...

...and sometimes you da bug.

I am home a little earlier than I planned.

Friday night's concert went really well, I thought. A fair portion of the audience was up and dancing through most of our performance; these are some of our staunchest fans, so that's not surprising. There were quite a few people with fire wands, poi (fire and glo varieties) and, glo-staves and even a few lighted (lit?) hoops - like hula hoops only much thicker and heavier, and they look a bit like the aliens are landing when they really get going at night! The few flubs we had were met with good humor - at one point, more than half the audience was up and participating in a spiral dance that distracted on of the band members (not me!!) and she lost her place, but since we were singing a roundish sort of song, it didn't matter. I had my own mistake later on, but nobody noticed so it doesn't count. All in all, band and crown had a fine time. The sky had even cleared for us - rain can kill an outdoor concert!

Several of us sat up laughing and chatting until the wee hours. I (eventually) slept in my van, child free and quite cozy.

I would have slept later into Saturday morning than I did, save for several (hundred) things - a loud-voiced neighbor and flies. There were so many flies, it was like something out of a Hitchcock movie; they buzz and chase each other, and land on a body when she's trying to sleep in. Sigh. The venue used to be a cattle farm, and now has horses, so the flies are not unexpected...the loud voiced neighbor was just annoying. Really, when you're standing right next to someone, do you need to speak to them at top volume?

Saturday was our Zoo concert, so we piled into my van and headed to that. It's hard to gauge how something like that has gone - it's not our usual crown, being made up of mundanes...and they were drinking beer...but I judged it a success since no one threw a beer at us and no one got up from their table and walked out. We recently added a belly dancer to our little group, and she choreographed a few of our songs...and she was fascinating people. We were fascinated too, never having seen her dance to those songs - once in a while, I was wishing I was in the crowd so I could see her better. Friday night, she used fire poi, fire fans, and veils, but for the Zoo she stuck with silk veils, fans, and flag poi - flaming balls whizzing through the air at a beer fueled Zoo event just didn't seem like a good idea to any of us.

Someone, I think a Zoo employee, was photographing and filming, and that was kind of cool...distracting, but cool. I kept trying not to look at him and cringe - I loathe being photographed, but really, one can't hide one's face when performing - it's just not professional! Luckily, he tended to focus on our dancer (as did a number of the folks watching, snapping pictures and shooting video of her) - she was laughing afterwards, saying she supposed now she'd be all over the Internet, on YouTube and the like. Heh...instant celebrity for her!

The band that was following us was very complimentary...and you know you've done OK when a real band, a traditional oldies cover band with actual instruments and a mixing board and lights and such, sits through your whole set (and actually pays attention), claps for you, and then asks if you'd like to stay and sing with them because you have an amazing voice and they can't produce big sound like that. Yes, yes, I'm bragging...it doesn't happen often, but damn...these were musicians! When your fellow craftsmen say nice things, it mean a lot! Sadly, we couldn't stay because we had to get back to our other event to sing at a handfasting (a sort of pagan wedding)...I would have liked to see them, as they were really nice fellows and they seemed like they'd be fun to listen to.

Into the van we piled, and back to our other event we drove. It had rained while we were away. Not just rained. It rained, hailed, and blew hard. The wind was fierce enough to pick up a ten-by- ten canopy and send it hurtling to its doom, smacking someone's truck, another canopy, and finally ripping the door of Satan (the big green outhouse of doom) before coming to a tumbling halt. Guess who secures her canopy to her van when she's camping so it won't blow away? And guess who had to unsecure it in order to transport band and equipment to the Zoo? And guess who didn't at least drop her canopy to its lowest height before she left on the off chance it stormed a bit? And guess who came back to the venue to discover that not only had her canopy tried to take out Satan on its own, but it had knocked over her dry-box (the box that should have kept everything she left behind dry if it rained) and let everything inside said box get soaked?

Yep.

I was a mite put off about that.

The band helped get the van unloaded and I packed the rest of my things (with help from everyone nearby, because they're amazing) and left. I didn't even sing at the handfasting...and I'm ashamed of that. I let my ire, my imbalance, get in the way of a performance. I've never done that before...heck, I'm usually nattering on and on about proffesionalism and how important it is to be on time, ready to go, not to let anything keep us from performing, blah, blah, blah...and I left. I don't know what got into me. I didn't have to leave right away - I could at least have stayed long enough to sing for the newlyweds, who only wanted one song from us, and then driven home last night. Sigh. Often, I am an ass.

I was almost home when I realized something else...my umbrella was hanging from the canopy frame when I left for the Zoo!! OK, so you're probably thinking "So what, it's an umbrella?" Yeah...but it's a Tiffany lampshade umbrella, dragonflies, in blues and greens, and it's so perfectly ME! And I've had it for years. And I can't get another, because no one makes them in those colors any more. Aww, dang. It could very well have survived the flight and landing of the canopy, but I didn't even go look at the wreckage, just left. It's too far to reasonably drive back today- can you believe gas prices?? - so I may never know, unless someone just happens to find my brolly and just happens to know it's mine, and just happens to get it to one of the band members to give to me. Sigh. That's a lot of "just happens" to count on.

Last night I slept here at home, bed full of me, T, Bird, and cats. Much better than flies, flies, and more flies, even if I couldn't really move most of the night.

I haven't unloaded the van yet, so I need to do that. Also, today I will go canopy hunting, and tomorrow or sometime during the week I will start the long, grueling search for a brolly that I like well enough to actually pay for it - it will never be as good as the Tiffany lampshade one, but I need something to keep the sun off (funny - I don't use an umbrella to keep the rain off, but rather to keep the sun off. I often referred to the dragonfly one as my portable shade), and I prefer something pretty and unusual.

Is it weird that I'm more bummed about the twenty-dollar umbrella than I am about the almost three-hundred dollar canopy?