September 9

Post 942, Day 248 of 2013
- and 979 days since I started this blog -

Daily Comment

What happens when you allow yourself to get stressed in a playing situation? 

I don't know. But it happened to my friend Frank - who I have played with often, and who is an excellent - if a bit eccentric - musician (and recording engineer and producer), who I have always gotten along with famously.

Last night he got called up to play guitar in a set I was on, and the singer kept asking for songs nobody - but me - seemed to know. And it was taking a while to sort out. Finally, someone yelled at Frank to stop wasting time.

Uh-oh. 

Frank decided to just start a song. Straight blues, so he figured easy-peasy, and get everybody off his back. 

The only problem is, nobody else on the stage knew what he was doing, and he was doing it so loudly that nobody could understand the things he was yelling at us to clue - and queue - us in.

So the singer came in wrong, way wrong, and, trying to follow her, my part went south as well. It was a real train-wreck, trying to figure out where everyone was and what was happening in the song - no coordination between any of the players.

And Frank just stopped playing and yelled at me. On-stage. He was really angry. He pouted at me, gave me a few look-what-you-made-me-do looks. Then he got a little control back and said, "Let's start again, in E". And we did, and proceeded to have an excellent jam.

If he had just gotten everybody's attention before he started playing the first time (and yelled at me then), those ugly first seconds would have been avoided.

But being accused of wasting time pushed him into high-stress territory, making him feel responsible for the delay (which he wasn't). 

My reaction by being yelled at on the stage was my well-practiced response to being yelled at anywhere: Detach, look neutral, and wait for the yelling to stop. That's something I've been doing since I was about 3 years old.

In the end, we were all lovey-dovey, as George Thoroughgood puts it, and I thanked my stars that meditation and my life-long adaptive/protective habits, have given me the tools to be so immediately, emotionally non-reactive.

Or so I'd like to think.

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 Food and Diet Section

2013 Daily Weight

Today's Weight:         213.6 lbs

Yesterday's Weight:     214.0 lbs

Day Net Loss/Gain:      - 0.4 lbs

Diet Comment

At least my weight is a little less than yesterday's.

Food Log 

Breakfast
Big Fail: A meeting that turned into a work session with snacks provided: Cheese and cracker snack packs. Later, a protein bar.

Lunch

Smoked turkey, black beans, Spring Mix, baby spinach, cole slaw blend, kale and balsamic vinaigrette.

Dinner

Pepperoni and cole slaw, guacamole egg salad on coconut Paleo bread.

Snack
Protein bar.

Liquid Intake   

   Coffee:  30 oz.   Water: 100+ oz.  

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