Earning a night out

I had a busy day yesterday. Misty had been feeling sick, so she went to the doctor in the morning. While she was gone, I made breakfast for the girls, cleaned the bathroom sinks, scrubbed the toilet, vacuumed, swept the kitchen floor, and washed two loads of laundry. Then Misty returned from the doctor to report that she has walking pneumonia. I wasn't surprised, since she's had a come-and-go wheezing cough at night for over a month now. She'd been to the doctor about it before, but it never quite got cleared up, and now it was accompanied by a sore throat and fever.

Misty did her best to tune the girls out and get some rest. Sometimes, though, it's like they can sense that you really need quiet, and they respond with the opposite. They came out in the yard with me and ran around playing and screaming while I mowed the lawn.

After a full day's work around the house, it made it easier for me to get away with going out at night to Bottletree to see A Fine Frenzy. I'd bugged Misty for weeks about going with me (she's usually not a fan of live concerts), and I think she would have really liked the music if she hadn't gotten sick. I enjoyed the show, but it's just not the same standing there by yourself.

A Fine Frenzy - 'The Minnow and the Trout,' live at Bottletree

Here are a few more videos from the concert.

After the show, I took a moment to talk to Josh Joplin, who was one of the opening acts with the band Among the Oak & Ash. I'd wanted to tell him that his song, "Camera One," was one I listened to a lot when I was going through a rough time about seven years ago, and it had made me feel better. He thanked me for sharing.

I think it's a wonderful thing about music that even if a song doesn't mean that much to the artist, it can mean a great deal to someone else (which is one of the themes of a Nick Horbny novel I just finished called Juliet, Naked). In this case, the song was rather important to Josh, as he told me, it was a turning point in his career that helped enable him to be doing what he's doing today.

Here are a couple videos from his set.