Letting it Slide

Today was a very busy, very odd day at the Orchard.

Everything that started well turned strange, then came back to being fine.

I was subbing for a colleague, missed a bus and wound up taking a cab - which was basically half the pay I made (well, almost).  Then I left my nifty I.D. tag at home on my keyboard because I put it there so I wouldn't forget it.  We made do with a name card but I still felt incredibly silly nonetheless.

Then I got the wrong computer out of the stacks - twice.

And finally I got caught up with helping an Irish woman get the simplest of cases for her iPod Touch.  It should have been simple but her accent and beguiling air put me off my stroke.  

Wrong case.  It was for an iPhone.

Wrong screen covering.  She has the earlier generation of Touch.  Which I found out after putting the covering on for her and seeing it didn't fit.

Turns out she and her mate were performing this evening at Longfellow Square.  So I made it a point to tell as many people as possible in the 60 minutes between getting home and leaving for the show.

It was a great concert.  The band Slide is mostly from Dublin and made up of 5 people.  A keyboardist/utility wind player (whom I met in the shop), two squeezebox players (button accordion and German concertina) a bazouki player (rather than guitar) and a violinist/vocalist (the beguiling Black Irish woman in the shop).

Mostly they flew over their instruments in classic Irish style, displaying formidable technique and faultless rhythm.  It was a lively, entertaining show.  

The singer, Eithne (two syllables) sang several lovely solo pieces with a real sense of compassion in the texts.

All told it was a good evening and a great end to the day.  I'm really tired but in a good mood and tempted to head back over to One Longfellow and ask them all out for a drink.  It's funny to want to do that and I'm torn between reaching out to people I think I'd really connect with and getting to bed to reflect on such an emotionally full day.

Interesting.