BLOG BREAK

It would have made more sense to make this post on Saturday morning, but better late than never, I hope.

As frequent weekend visitors to NCS know by now, I didn’t write a SEEN AND HEARD column yesterday, and I don’t have a SHADES OF BLACK column today. On Friday I flew from Seattle to my hometown of Austin, Texas for a class reunion. As I write this, I’m in the Austin airport waiting for the return flight.

I thought I might have time to write at least short versions of the two weekend columns while I was in Austin, but when I wasn’t hanging out into the wee hours with a lot of old friends, many of whom I haven’t seen in ages, I was dead asleep in my silent hotel room with blackout curtains drawn, late to bed and late to rise. It was a luxury that I decided to indulge to the fullest.

I had trepidations about the Saturday night reunion party, but it turned out to be great. I figured out that people don’t come to class reunions when they’re pretty far along in life unless they’re reasonably happy with their situation and not worried about how they might stack up with other people. It really did seem like everyone was happy to be there. So, I was happy to be there too.

The other get-togethers I had on Friday night and Saturday noon with my closest old friends were also excellent, a mix of serious talk and stupid talk, the kind you can really only have with people who’ve known you for a long time, and you’ve known them for a long time, and there’s no need for anyone to pretend they’re something other than who they are.

Assuming I get home in one piece, we’ll get back in gear tomorrow. We’ll have a couple of premieres and a couple of album reviews to get us started on the new week.

~Islander