Friday 18

Friday 18- I did my stretches, ran a mile, lifted weights, and rode my bike.
Today’s Weather was: Temps of around 41 and 64 degrees, NW winds at 6 to 10 MPH, humidity around 31 percent, mostly clear skies.
According to the National Weather Service: “Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 66. North northwest wind around 9 mph. Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 41. North northeast wind between 3 and 5 mph.”
I got an invite on MySpace from the Sun Runner Magazine to go down to their headquarters in Joshua Tree for their Christmas Open House. They also said that musical performers were welcome. So I thought that this might be the perfect time for me to make my first solo appearance playing and singing some of my original songs. I get really nervous when I have to sing in front of folks and kind of avoid it. But I have to start somewhere and get used to it and see how it goes. Also I wouldn’t know anybody there, which will make it really interesting! So I jumped in the Gross Polluter and headed on down.
I arrived at 1:30. There weren’t that many folks at first so I just played guitar without singing. I met photographer Bill Dahl and writer Cynthia Anderson and chatted with them for a spell. They lived in Santa Barbra and moved up to the Mesa here a few years ago. I was talking to Caryn, a nice lady, about how I do my stretches and she showed me a yoga position that I’ll add to my routine.
A guitarist called Randy showed up and was listening to me play. I told him that these were all my original songs and he asked me to sing a few. I told him my problem about singing in front of folks and he said “just think of them as heads of cabbages.” I said “how about a herd of cows.” He said that would be fine. So I sang my songs and Randy played and harmonized along. He thought my songs were pretty good, so I played some more of them. Then he played some Christmas songs. Before he did he told me that most of them have only three cords, so I played along. The folks there were also singing to them. We played for many hours as other guitarists showed up and played along. One kid called Brian played some nice lead guitar as I played the rhythm; I thought it sounded good! Mark and Joe arrived; Mark playing guitar; Joe playing the mandolin- both were mighty good and I mostly listened but did play along now and then. I was having so much fun that I forgot about the time and saw that it was nearing 7pm and was about to leave when Joe asked me if he could play my guitar. Hey no problem I said. God that guy can really pick a guitar; but he broke one of my strings! He offered to get me a new one but I said not to worry that I could fix it later. I said goodbye to my new found friends who helped me get past my phobia of singing in front of folks. I did mighty well and am mighty grateful to them!
I stopped to get a bean and cheese burrito at Santana’s and headed on over to Stoney’s to see how he was doing. He didn’t want to split the burrito with me because he had already eaten.
I got home around 9pm and called Judy Ruggles to tell her all about my big adventure. Then Ron Dehart called and I told him the same story. I am mighty proud of myself to have finally faced my phobia head on and have won!
I did my stretches; didn’t practice my guitar because of the broken string and my fingers were sore; updated the Copper Mountain Mesa Website and sent out the Newsletter; wrote to my journal, posted it to the web, and called it a night. What a fine day it was