Atlas Shrugged (Cutely) and Other Eric and Shanna Stuff

Last Monday, Mer and I were invited over to our friends’ (Eric and Shanna’s) apartment for dinner and to meet the new kitten. Eric and Shanna are both dog people, but they are not allowed to have a dog, so they decided to adopt a very cute kitty that they named Atlas. Atlas is a black-on-black kitty, and he is very energetic and playful and seems really healthy. It was a delight to get to hold a kitten again and have him zonk out on my lap. Good kitty!

Eric and Shanna have a very cool apartment on the ground floor of a house. It is very much a Chicago-style apartment, with nice woodwork and very high ceilings. Eric and Shanna were allowed to paint the place, and they chose great colors. They were also able to put out an elegant and pretty and matching table setting at the (roughly) ages of 25. Mer and I still can’t put out an elegant table setting at pushing 40.

They made some very good Italian food – two kinds of pasta and a tasty garlic bread. Eric remembered that I like Sprite and made sure he had some on hand for me, which was very considerate. Shanna had procured cookies and cream ice cream and hot fudge for dessert, and even had some ice cream cookies in stock as well. Our reputation for hearty dessert eating apparently went before us.

After supper and dessert, we gushed over Atlas, and then played an English-nerd game, Bethump’d with Words. Bethump’d with Words asks about the history of the English language and the definitions of words and the difference between American and British English. It is quite a fun game for word-nerds, and it was made even more fun by playing with Atlas while playing the game. Sadly, I had to call the game short before it was done because it was getting late and I had to work the next day.

Tuesday evening I “produced” my first concert. I organized a teacher concert at CVCA as a dry run for a potential fundraiser for next winter. It grew out of my desire to hear Eric and Shanna’s band, Bethesda, outside of a bar setting, but it grew into quite a nice little event. My fellow CVCA teachers, Matt and LT (known as the CVCA-only semi-real band The Flealands), opened the evening by playing acoustic guitars, mandolin, and djembe drum, and they sang. LT and Matt are both talented musicians, and they had a very nice sound together for two guys who don’t really play together. They did about 45 minutes’ worth of music, and then we turned the stage over to Bethesda. They took about 15 minutes for setting up and for a sound check (we ran out of time before the concert to do a full sound check), and then proceeded to do a 45-minute set as well. The sound was occasionally spotty for Bethesda; it turned out that the guitars were overwhelming the soundboard and messing up the vocal balance. Because of the quick sound check, each instrument was checked by itself, and so when the entire band was playing louder songs, the soundboard kind of freaked out. Still, the sound was more or less corrected at the cost of just one or two songs, and even then just at the cost of a clear vocal balance.

The crowd was much fun – there were about 100 people there, which is very good for a random Tuesday in June after school has let out, and with a minimum of advertising. The students seemed to really enjoy the evening, and that made it a success in itself. Regarding the concert, I learned several things, and that made it valuable to me – I learned we needed to start 30 minutes earlier for the sound check, and we needed two sound techs instead of just one (one led to too much running around, up and down stairs to and from the tech booth and stage). I’m hoping this will translate into a concert worth paying $5 for next winter.

After the concert and the clean-up, Mer and Dubbs and I went to Friday’s for dessert. I generally need some unwind time after evenings where I am partly responsible for the event, and so we went out to talk, laugh, and relax. All in all, it was a very good evening, even without the presence of Atlas.

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