2) I had fun at my two birthday party gigs yesterday. Unfortunately, Bede was too sick to take Lucia to her classmate's birthday party yesterday (on our 7th wedding anniversary), and she was a bit down about that. However, the host from my second gig sent me home with cake and balloons for Lucia, so that was a perk.
3) I had a dream last night that I was taking a high school/college course with Neil Gaiman as the professor. When I received my report card, I found that Gaiman had flunked me. Gaiman had written in the margins, "Sorry about this--I think I gave too much reading material for this course." Never mind that in the dream I had no recollection of taking Gaiman's course, and would certainly have done the reading had I known what the assignments actually were. My dreams of late have all been variations on the theme of finding out that all my degrees are going to be negated unless I take two high school/college/graduate school courses. These courses are often a combination of English, Science, and Gym. I have a hard time finding my classes and by the time I do, the semester is almost over. I think these dreams have something to do with my lifelong frustration over the implied expectation that I can read my professors' or supervisors' minds. (Memorandum to past professors and supervisors: I can't read your minds. I know you're older and wiser than I, but trust me on this one.)
4) I'm in the midst of participating in HipWriterMama's latest 30 day challenge. This month, I'm working on barre chords for 15 minutes every day. While I've got the F chord (barring 2 strings) down and am successfully strumming a B flat barre chord 75% of the time, I've yet to incorporate these chords into songs smoothly. However, I thought this might be a good time to introduce my F7 major chord for those of you perpetually frustrated by the F chord on the guitar. I use the F7 major chord for quick changes between C and G chords, and also for arpeggios on the upper tier a la House of the Rising Sun. Here it is:
