Day 12: March 9, 2010 Flight back to Portland, Oregon

Day 12: March 9, 2010 Flight back to Portland, Oregon

We’re at the gate. A bunch of women about my age (I know because someone just opened a birthday card) just filled the seats around us. Girl’s morning out? Or is it an extension of last night? I should ask them if they were the ones in the next hotel room in Ogallala. They’re a happy five some. I do miss all my women friends. There’s a different energy; a different kind of humor, with subject matter completely different than I share with Frank. He has his guy times, too, especially the musicians he jams with once a week. It’s fun being the “little woman” around them. When we get back, as early as tomorrow, we’ll be back to our normal lives, both socially and work-wise. We’ll be in the same house, but going in different directions. We’ll be happy to see Allie (she may even have skipped class today to pick us up at the airport) and our two pooches, and all the flowers on the porches. Tomorrow will be a wonderful reunion with my students. Tonight, even, we’ll have our weekly Tuesday night Ping Pong in our garage. That’s been going on for over fifteen years! Being the only female, it sure isn’t like “bunko” or “book club.” I get to duke it out and dance around to oldies Rock’n Roll, snort, groan, shout, and belly laugh. It’s great to have guy friends, too.

We’re laughing about how whenever we’re in a hurry with all our stuff, we have to be careful when not to say we’re musicians on tour. This morning we had lots of heavy bags for the Shuttle Bus driver to unload. I apologized and mentioned to him why, along with a tip, as Frank scrambled to get a cart so we could check in on time. He starts in with,
“Do you know (so and so)? And (so and so?) He used to be on the Laurence Welk Show” etc. “Where’d you guys play? What kind of stuff do you do? Any Merle Haggard?” and “I remember when…” Well. If I had his job and had to shuttle people at 4:00 in the morning, I’d try to eke something exciting about it, too.

Also, people are eager to tell me about their daughters, sons, granddaughters, nieces, etc. who are taking piano lessons. Sometimes adults lament that they have stopped, and tell me stories about some nun who used to rap their knuckles with a stick if they made a mistake. They were terrified! I tell them to start back up again along side their kids, as long as their present teacher speaks softly and DOSEN’T carry a stick! I have several parent/child combinations, and it works well. We work hard. My motto: “It’s FUN to work hard!”

The sun is rising on a pink blanket of clouds below us. Just under those white, fluffy things, we were driving, performing, laughing, schlepping, snoring, running, (for fun), pigging out, and rolling into a lot of new towns. We have been asked by Allied Concert Services if we’re interested in doing it again in 2012. The answer is: Yes, please! We also have some other irons in the fire for different tours, and if they come about, there will be more blogs, for sure. I’m even working on a book currently. Hopefully between our website, emails, Face book, Twitter and God knows what else, we’ll keep you posted, for sure.


As Dr, Seuss put it:
“Instead of being sad that it’s over, be happy that it happened.”

We just dined at a five-star restaurant of life. Thanks for joining us!


Sallyeharmon@yahoo.com