Another good Saturday

So, really good night at the pub last night. My poor husband has the cold I had last week, so I ended up having to go down alone. I don’t love going alone…me, being shy and awkward, it’s always nice to have a buddy to walk in with just in case no one I know is there. And that’s exactly what happened, the bar was full but there were no familiar faces other than Dave, his other half, and the bartender. They were all flat out dealing with the full bar and getting ready for the show that night though. I’d normally just take a seat at the bar and hope whoever I sat next to is better at making conversation than I am, but there weren’t any seats available. When you’re up at the bar, even if you’re rubbish at conversation and so is the person next to you, at least there’s a television you can both stare at. By the way, thanks to awkwardness avoidance I’ve come to learn that I really enjoy watching Rugby. Who knew. 🙂

My guitar needed to sit and acclimate to the temp inside the pub for awhile, so after the bartender poured me my usual, and passed it to me, I resigned myself to standing around awkwardly at a table for what felt like an eternity. When Dave went to get the stage ready I moved down there and stood around at a table by the stage awkwardly for awhile and started to get my stuff out. My guitar still felt cold, so I took the opportunity to ask Dave a couple questions about working the PA system. He was happy to show me what I wanted to know. After that I was at least able to look busy getting all my stuff ready and getting tuned up.

I was really happy when some familiar faces walked into the pub and started to mill about around the table I had spread all my crap out on. When you’ve been standing around somewhere awkwardly and alone for awhile there’s something really validating about people coming in, looking happy to see you, then hugging you. It’s like see….see…I’m not pathetic and sad…I have peeps! In reality, I’m sure no one really cares, or notices, but it makes the Ego feel better, y’know?

Anyway, the band who was supposed to play ended up having to reschedule. Their bus broke down, so that meant I got to play a longer set than normal. Good crowd again this week, a lot of familiar faces and some of the regulars who hadn’t seen me play yet were there this week including my husband’s bagpipe instructor. Afterwards, he told me he wants to do a couple songs with me on the small-pipes and he wants me to join his celtic folk music group. I also had a flute player come up to me wanting to do some songs with me in the future and one of the older regulars started a tip-jar for me part-way through my set, I was really surprised and it was really sweet. The out-pouring of love and support still gets me every single time I play.

Dave’s band had a blast doing their performance and then the bag-pipers had some fun with theirs, they started getting competitive and dueling and just generally having a good time. It just ended up being a really great night all around. I know in reality it’s better for Dave when there’s a band in to play after us, it draws in more of a crowd and he’ll make more those nights. But when there isn’t a band we all just get to kind of relax and have fun. Those are the nights where you remember exactly why you do this. You just feel like you’re hanging out with friends and family and you’re making music for the pure fun of it. Those are the nights that create the best memories and I always treasure them. They’re pure magic.