Dear Friends,
After the broken pipe and flood in the kitchen it was almost 8 weeks before I was finally able to return to my apartment. I had to move out but I snuck back in to get a change of clothing, pots and pans, bedding and all kinds of things that my gracious host, John, didn't happen to have. My apartment had to be inspected several times, walls torn out, new wallboard in, plastered, sanded and painted. Someone from the work crew tossed all my kitchen items into 8 huge cartons and crammed them into my bedroom. Everything was dusty. Back at John's place adjustments were challenging for me.
Gotta tell ya that my parents were from Vienna. I grew up with a completely different set of must-haves than John, such as eating at a dining table with an appropriate chair, silverware and kitchen essentials, with the Viennese practice that cooking was not only survival but an aesthetic experience. When our family had dinner we were there before it was served and you couldn't jump up and just do something else when you finished. We ate together at a dinning table at a certain hour and you had to ask to be excused. John however, lived in a chaotic house with barely any rules. He preferred to eat out of a lid or a pot rather than a plate. In my never ending comic mind, I kept seeing John as in the photo below.
If, however, you were a guitar in John's place you'd be treated like a king! Guitars had the table, the chairs, the floor area, the walls, the closets. At any given moment John had at least 20 inexpensive guitars, all meticulously made from parts which he has been collecting for decades. One look around his apartment informs you that this man is 100% serious about his music. Every possible area in his small apartment is completely devoted to writing songs, practicing them at least twice a day, or customizing a new guitar. I enjoyed listening to him practice and probe for new ideas, even though he realized that he was only totally comfortable doing this alone. I enjoyed hearing chords twist and turn, like a hiker exploring the wilderness.
In our next newsletter you'll read what it's really like to be a songwriter in his own words.
Meanwhile, I tried a number of things to be comfortable and to give ourselves some space. I brought my computer to the community room, but there were nosey, loud people, and just way too many distractions to get anything accomplished.
Sleeping at John's turned into sit-com. At first I was happy that I had a nice inflatable bed...until I found out all the air had escaped just after two blissful hours of sleep! I went on Amazon to replace the inflatable bed. The next night I found that the bed was very cold, too narrow, smelled of toxic plastic, and made sounds all night that woke up John. Remember the comedians who made animals from twisting balloons? It was like that. I returned it the next day.
After that I piled up all the blankets we owned on the floor but that was not comfortable either. By now I had become The Princess And The Pea story. Finally I snuck back into my own apartment, reorganized my stuff so that I could wiggle around some narrow spaces to my bed and enjoyed my Sealy mattress! Just had to get up and out of there before the workmen arrived.
The list of improvisations went on and on! John was happy to have me there and was really sweet but alas, living alone was getting more precious every day, for both of us. That last two weeks we were a bit edgy! Our friendship survived, and now that I am back in my own place we are teasing each other about our differences with a lot of laughter.
So that's why this newsletter is late.
We've been working on upgrading older songs, planning a new album, boosting our youtube channel, making shorts, working with the students, and catching up on sleep.
We learned a lot about each other and about ourselves! How about you? What have you gone through lately? What challenges helped you understand yourself or someone else better?
How about some laughter and music for relief? You got it!
Sending our best,
Judy and John
