What Are You Doing Right Now?

Ceciliastar, I remember this very well.. I am so proud of you Yee Haw! Way to go. Enjoy your trip to Colorado. I will be going down there in a couple of weeks.

Oh I am so happy for you "The NEW PRODUCTIONS ASSISTANT"

Be sure to let us know how it is going... OK??

Slainte

Hi Ceciliastar1.....so good to see you back. Sounds like you're doing great. A promotion like that is quite an accomplishment, especially is such a short time. News director.... pretty awesome sounds about right!! I am sooooo proud of you!!!!!!!

Hi BGL- "waving"

I am reading your post and trying to catch up again. Hope everyone is having a great day!

Slainte

Congratulations Ceciliastar1, keep up the good work! Have fun with your family in Colorado.

maggiemahone1

Trying to catch up myself.

Other than that, just wasting a little time before I go to bed. Need to get up early tomorrow and get the car registered. ugh.

Emmet...I'm so jealous of you. I really want to learn the pipes, and be good at it. I did recently find out though that the University of North Carolina has a piping class every semester, and it's only $100 tuition. All I need is a chanter. If after the class you are invited to join the UNC pipe band, they supply the pipes and uniforms for FREE! Hopefully by spring we'll be financially stable enough so that I can take the class.

Right now I be playin here!

Haven't had much time to read and catch up with what's going on! So I took a few minutes away from working on paper work from my business to just chill out. Problem is everytime I "chill" I get sleepy!

"Hava Nagila for bagpipes...I just got this request about 11:00 PM last night for a gig this coming Sunday... the bride's mother says that even a few (recognizable) bars of it will be a hoot."

They'd already danced the Hora (I wish I could've seen that!), and as they were applauding the step dancers that had preceded me, I struck in from stage left and marched out into the tables to "Endearing Young Charms" (they wanted a non-sectarian Irish love song, too) then up to the dance floor. After the first couple of bars of "Hava Negila", the crowd literally ROARED; I'm not sure they heard the rest of the tune. A couple more tunes, and I marched off to "Wearing of the Green" to very loud and (I hope) genuinely appreciative applause; I'm not sure they heard that tune, either. What a hoot!

Believe it or not, that's my second big fancy Irish/Jewish wedding in two weeks. The other one was split with both a priest AND a rabbi; he was an Irish -American Jew, she was Catholic Indian. 3/4 of the wedding party was dressed in gorgeous silk and gold saris and long kurtas, with caste marks and turbans, with a smattering of yarmulkes; Hindu, Sikh, Jewish and Christian, and of course Pagan me in my kilt, doublet, and caubeen; rather like piping for the UN. One interesting cultural note; besides the groom, exactly two of the rich patrician Americans said hello to me; the rest treated me like a servant (pretended that I wasn't there). The vast majority of the Indians looked me in the eye, warmly smiled, and nodded, a courtesy I was genuinely happy to sincerely reciprocate.

Emmet, "Enter The Haggis" sometimes play that in the beginning of a set and everyone rolls!

"Emmet...I'm so jealous of you. I really want to learn the pipes, and be good at it. I did recently find out though that the University of North Carolina has a piping class every semester, and it's only $100 tuition. All I need is a chanter. If after the class you are invited to join the UNC pipe band, they supply the pipes and uniforms for FREE! Hopefully by spring we'll be financially stable enough so that I can take the class."

If you can swing it (as I recall, money's pretty darned tight when you're in school), it'll be the best investment you ever make; $100.00 a semester is a deal.
Of course, money can be pretty tight when you're out of school, too; three degrees later, and I'm now earning exactly one dollar less an hour than I did as a sophomore back in the day. C'est la friggin' vie.

A guy at work today was asking me about tonight's gig; I later overheard him complain "Do you know that that son of a ***** earns more in an hour on those ******** bagpipes than we do in a ******* week!?

I highly recommend Naill and McCallum polypenco practice chanters; takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'. Mine's an antique blackwood Lawrie with a genuine ivory ferrule and sole; a real joy to play.

Many congrats to Ceciliastar! That is terrific news!

Brian, how do you like living in NC? How are things going for you there? I lived there a couple years myself. Beautiful country.

Listening to MostlyClassical, an internet classical station on iTunes' radio tuner, and checking out the forums before I hit the sack.

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I'm sitting in my small upstairs lounge/office, sipping a Auchentoshshan malt whisky and listening to CR. I'm looking north towards the border. The sun has just set and I can see the Cheviot silhouetted against the red glow in the sky.

'Chilling'

Exiled Al

Did my fourth gig in six days at noon; a funeral I was called upon to pipe for at 11:00 PM last night, including "Taps". Family was very appreciative; funeral director was absolutely ecstatic. Then went and got a broken molar pulled (had been postponed twice for gigs, and rescheduled again to this afternoon to make way for this morning's funeral); if you've never experienced an extraction, be advised that it's a real bummer. Reading up on the 'Net on dry sockets; "no alcohol" (way too late for that one!), "no woodwinds for 10 to 14 days"...yeah, right! Mandible, you've got exactly four days before your next wedding; get over it!


I think I'm going to go do some (more) narcotics and flake out on the couch, finish watching the series "The Celts" from BBC. Pity I won't remember any of it...

Welcome to the forum, Exiled Al. It's nice to have you here. You should stop by the introduction topic and tell us about yourself. We love having new members.

This is more the case with me. It's been years since I've been in school. The $100. price is for community members. Students actually have to pay the going school rate.

I'll definately keep the Naill McCallum chanters in mind when I'm ready to buy.

We love it! We're both looking for better jobs right now, and money is a bit tight, but the area is beautiful. I love all the trees. Reminds of home in CT. You didn't have all these awesome trees in Florida. It's also nice being close to my daughter again. We spend a lot of time with her, and she loves it.