Why can't Mondays just leave nice weekends alone?

You know it's bad when you have a really nice weekend and Monday just sucks so much you don't even have time to post about it, never mind read about your friends' weekends.

Anyway, back to the nice weekend, because I really don't want to think about work for another few minutes.  Saturday winterswan  and vayrocklord  came over to visit and check out the flute choir as potential wedding music.  We chatted with them for a while before the rehearsal, they came to the performance and then we went out for dinner at Ruby Tuesday after.  We crashed pretty quickly when we got home.  Sunday morning we had a wonderful breakfast provided by my wonderful wife before they hit the road to go back to Providence.  It really was a good time and made me realize how much I miss being close enough to my friends to do that sort of thing.

So about this rehearsal / concert.  The Silver Village Flute Choir played at a bookstore in Shelton Saturday night.  It was a free job, but we play for the love of playing, so that was ok with us.  Unfortunately, one of my members got a paying job for several weekends in a row.  One of them was this job.  Fortunately she was able to get us a substitute because there were just barely enough of us available that night to cover all the parts.  Unfortunately, we don't play with a conductor so I wasn't real comfortable having someone sight read a performance.  Fortunately, everyone was able to come to my house an hour and a half early so we could run the tough parts and give her a feel for the ensemble.  It all worked out beautifully.  We had a crowd of about 25 in the audience.  The group did a great job.  I was thrilled.  We even got a two thumbs up from Monique, my best and worst critic.  She said it was the best she'd heard us play in a long time.  Woo-hoo.

Ah, nice happy thoughts.  Now back to reality and another grueling day.

Flute choir performance follow up

Wow!  This is one of the best thank you notes ever.  It came from the bookstore owner where the flute choir played Saturday.

Hi, Rick! Where should I even begin?? Let's just say that the Silver Village Flute Choir performance was AWESOME!!!!! I honestly did not know what to expect and you went way above and beyond my imagination. Everyone just loved it to pieces and some of my customers came back yesterday AND today to tell me how much they enjoyed it and want to know when will you be performing again! Yikes.

Please, do relay our sincerest gratitude to everyone who performed and know that we truly appreciated your time and energy. Personally, I loved the music so much I did not want it to end! (My favorite was your transcription of the Moonlight Sonata.) I know I am unable to pay for a performance at this time and would not dream of asking you to volunteer your time for repeat performances. That said, if you ever need a willing audience to test out new materials or just feel like performing, you know who to call!!!

(By the way, if you were to charge, how much would it be? Just an estimate would be fine. In case I win the lottery...)

Thank you, thank you again. From the bottom of our hearts. Keep up the beautiful work.

Regards,
Dorothy
Written Words Bookstore

I am most pleased.  I suspect we will play there again, maybe in May or June.

Trip to VA

I will be in VA all next week.  That's right, Monique and I are taking a vacation.  We'll be in Williamsburg most of the week, where we're using our timeshare and getting an additional 4 units to host the family for Tuesday night through Saturday morning, covering the Thanksgiving celebration.

However, we will be in norther VA Saturday and I sent out the following email to my friends in the hopes at least some of them could get together with us while we're down there.  It occured to me today that I'm a dork because I could have covered the ones I forgot or didn't have emails for through LJ. 

Hi all

Me and my darling wife Monique will be down in Virginia for a whole week starting Friday night November 21. Most of that time we'll be in

Williamsburg, but Saturday the 22nd will see us in Fairfax.  On Saturday at 10:00 am we'll be going to the annual Columbia Flute Festival in Falls Church (http://www.columbiaflutechoir.org/) I'd love to have any of you music lovers join us. It's a wonderful experience where 4 or 5 high caliber groups each play about 3 pieces. It's free and worth every penny.  Beside, I'd get to enjoy your company.

Afterward, our day is free. We're up for meeting with people in whatever setting anyone would like.  If you can't make afternoon plans, we'd be delighted to go out to breakfast with early risers before the flute festival too.  If you know people we'd love to see that aren't on this list, it's likely I  don't have their email addresses. Feel free to include them in our plans.

I hope to hear from you all and see you soon.

BTW, anyone who wants to spend a day or two in Williamsburg is welcome to come down with us. We have five condos for the week and family doesn't start arriving until Tuesday night. Additional time with friends would be welcome.

Rick (aka Zephyr)
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So far I have a couple of the people that was sent to joining me for the flute choir performance with a "maybe" for lunch.  If you weren't on that list and are in the Fairfax, VA area and want to join us for the performance, lunch or something after (or a visit to Williamsburg), let me know.