In a cold sweat.

Lionel · Heavyweight Member Joined: 25 Jul 2016 Posts: 783

It was the night shift. A catering job and I was just tidying up a dozen or more matters, washing dishes, and whatnot after the party. I can't even remember what company held the function. All I can remember was feeling pressured and rushed. To get in earlier in the day and to get the hell OUT now that the party was over. It was just another one of those menial jobs a musician like me takes to help pay the bills in between gigs. And in recent years I had pretty darn near come close to working full time. Meanwhile gigging only rarely.

Then my cell rings.

It's my daughter. Calling to know when I'm coming to pick her up. No, hadn't forgotten about her although the call does sorta shake me up a bit. Like I don't already have enough on my plate as it is?

"I'll be there dear. No problem"!

Yet in the process of fielding her call she mentions something about "the church". The church parking lot where I'm expected to meet her and take her home...

When it dawns on me! Oh my God I've got a major church gig tomorrow afternoon and I hadn't even purchased the sheet music yet. A freaking major scare. Lucky I didn't have a heart attack right on the spot!

Well it's too late to call as the music store is closed. I'm just freaking out because I couldn't remember off the top of my head whether we had both an am rehearsal and the afternoon concert. Or just the concert. If its both? I'm screwed as the music store won't open in time for me to make tbe rehearsal.

Next I start trying to remember the name of the solo I'm playing tomorrow. A modern classical piece by "Ernest Something or other from Framingham, Massachusetts".Think I even knew the guy at the Conservatory back in the day... I expect that the part is a real bear too and here I am basically a good reading lead player, some jazz but not really a classical guy even if the director has worked with me for the past eleven years off and on.

I look down. My hands are shaking. Meanwhile my coworker whose Spanish is good but English not is using sign language trying to communicate something to me. On top of all my work and distractions she wants me to pour water into a large vase. To help fill her car radiator so that she can start her clunker and drive home to her feed her seven children.

Then? I wake up. In a cold sweat. I've been retired six years and havent done a catering job since '98. While I do still pull an occasional church gig the music is pretty easy but this too is a moot point BECAUSE I'M NOT GIGGING TOMORROW ANYWAY.Besides today is Wednesday.. That and the biggest thing on my schedule is a 2pm doctor's appointment.

It was only a bad dream. On top of that? My daughter is thirty one, very successful and hasn't needed a ride from Dad since 2006.
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Craig Swartz · Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 11:55 am Post subject:

I once was in a deep sleep, dreaming I was performing Handel's "Messiah". Suddenly I woke up with a start and realized I really was...

mm55 · Heavyweight Member Joined: 01 Jul 2013 Posts: 1412

From the title, I expected this thread to be about a funk tune by James Brown.
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Crazy Finn · Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 1:21 pm Post subject:

1jazzyalex · Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 4:27 pm Post subject:

I've not played a competitive sport I used to do for a couple of decades now, yet I still get the occasional dream: the team needs me for some reason and I've got one day to practice because an important match is the next day ... in the cold hard light of day I have to wonder (a) at the amount of confidence the ol' team has in me, out of training as I'd be and (b) how hard up they apparently are, calling up some overweight, out of shape war horse who was last "something" when Clinton was in office.

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pepperdean · Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2016 9:30 am Post subject:

Sort of a reverse situation. While on the road, working a gig outside Boston, I was having a terrible dream one night. Sousa marches kept going through my head and I couldn't get rid of them and get back to sleep. Then I woke up, realized it was July 4, and there was a parade going on outside my window.

Alan