Fair play

Today’s Monday, which means I’m late with this update but these days what else is new? I’m totally swamped but enjoying it.

I’m six weeks into this 12-month gig and haven’t had time to come up for air yet. That might come this weekend, when I head to Denver for Zippy’s tournament, but who knows.

The laptop isn’t making the trip, which means I might go into DTs or similar if I can’t check my email but I do need to get away.

Technically, the two-day excursion isn’t taking any time off as I’ll leave Friday night and get back around midnight on Sunday, but it is time away so that counts in my book.

Honestly, I was thinking about it and I can’t fathom when I’ll take my 10 vacation days. There are some road trips I want to do from here, but right now I either don’t have the time or money.

Really, it’d be nice to just settle into some kind of routine. Until that happens, I stress about being away. There’s so much to do.

But for the past two Saturdays, I have gotten off campus.

My Zac Brown Band ticket winner also bought tickets to give to volunteers. I did that through drawings and the winners of two insisted that I go with them, which was fine with me.

So last Saturday, I got to see the Zac Brown Band, which was very cool. I felt like it was a little closure since I did all that work leading up to the tickets in the first place. (Indeed, multiple people – including my supervisor – told me I should have just taken those tickets for myself anyway, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.)

I’m not all that much of a concert goer but I had a good time during the ZBB. Truth be told, though, I’d have preferred the Eat and Greet – or really, just the Eat.

But I do really like their music (and have now bought two of their CDs) and had a good time, even if I was a bit “on guard” since I was with a volunteer.

The fair was cool, though small. It’s the state fair, but I’m told some of the other cities in ND have larger fairs, so I’m not sure how that works.

This past Saturday, I got to go again. Ashton, my new counterpart as a VISTA, won the tickets and insisted I go with her. I didn’t want to initially (especially since the village coordinator had wanted to go) but caved.

Man, I am glad I did. I had a BLAST.

Yes, the show got started late due to a maelstrom, complete with high winds, hail and evil lightning. But once it got going – about an hour late – it was just awesome.

Ashton and I sat in the grandstand instead of SRO, which was where the tickets were for, and really could barely see the stage. The ZBB had had screens up, but Foreigner didn’t. Not sure whether they did and took them down during the weather delay or what, but I cold only see inch-high people.

Which was fine. It was essentially a cover band at this point anyway, and man, did they cover. I think the only song I knew from them that they *didn’t* do was “Double Vision,” and we missed the first song (prior to the rain delay) and that could have been it for all I knew. And the lead singer sounded exactly like Lou Gramm.

The drummer, whoever he was, was leaving the band after that gig and we knew it was over when they came out and, as he was banging away, started disassembling it and then had hootchie cootchie dancers all over him. Nice send-off.

They brought in the high school choir, which was really special since the school was the one that flooded. The band’s foundation gave a donation and said all CD sales from that night would go directly to the choir, which was nice.

Essentially, it was a fun evening to go and get out, even if now I do feel like I’m hours behind.

I need someone to invent a 40-hour workday, then I’ll be just fine. Fair enough.