There’s something oddly comforting about your computer remembering the WiFi network in a place you haven’t been for a while.
It’s been over a year since I was last at the Minneapolis Airport (for a marathon weekend of a Suzuki Conference followed by a friend’s wedding), but my trusty little laptop was on the job. I love knowing that although so much has changed in the past year, this one little thing is still the same. Feeling grounded at the airport isn’t always a bad thing. #dadjoke
I’d spent the previous week subbing in the house band at the Scottish Country Dance Teachers’ Association of Canada summer school, playing more cello than I ever had in my life, and falling in love with playing something other than fiddle in a fiddle band. Don’t get me wrong; fiddle is my first love, but it’s pretty great not to have to be the musical face of the ensemble for once.
For the record, I also got roped into playing oboe and musical saw. (Read: an instrument I played for about three years in high school, and an “instrument” pulled off the wall of a local’s garage. You guess which is which, ha!) No, there are not going to be videos available. But do check out my first attempted fiddlecam video on the lovely Mount Royal campus!
I taught a few music classes – fiddle, sure, but guys – I actually taught a piano class twice! Think about it – that means they actually let me come back a second time – but largely the week consisted of playing for lots and lots of dance classes. By the end of the week I may have finally gotten the hang of playing cello for the Strathspey, a type of dance and tune unique to Scotland (just in time to leave, ain’t that always the way?). But the highlight of the week, of course, was playing with the full band for the evening dances.
Playing with Reel of Seven is a lot of fun! I’d missed playing with a drummer, and Gary is one of the better folk drummers you can work with. You can’t beat four strong fiddles, each with their own unique background and set of strengths, and Sherryl’s recorder sits nicely on top. Andy is a solid pianist and a good bandleader; he knows what he’s doing and he’s not afraid to apologize when he’s messed up. They even get along well enough to have a band-only party one evening, and everyone seems to actually want to be there (at least enough to work together to sneak extra cookies and pizza from the dining hall for the occasion). A bar set this low may sound like a joke to the uninitiated, but trust me: a long-running ensemble made up of genuine friends is, sadly, not the norm in my experience. All in all, it’s a good situation musically and personally.
But wait, wasn’t that eight people in Reel of Seven?
Yep.
I asked; they don’t remember why.
The week was long, but fun, ending in jam sessions nearly every night. Fortunately Scottish country dancers don’t seem to mind live Scottish music until the wee hours. Check out a video of 3/8ths of Reel of Seven and me playing for an impromptu afterparty dance. As a result, I ran a rough, summer camp-like sleep deficit by the end of the week.
Waiting afterwards at the Calgary airport, I had nearly dozed off when a dancer on my flight approached me. We had been at TAC together all week, but had never been introduced; she recognized me from the band (and I’m sure the fiddle case I had with me helped). Despite copious airport warnings not to watch luggage for strangers, she agreed to keep an eye on my stuff while I ran some errands.
We weren’t seated together, but once we reached Minneapolis we became fast friends. We spent her three-hour layover having a late lunch, introducing her to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, and bitching about the state of the world. We’re now Facebook friends.
Once her plane took off, I tried unsuccessfully to get a pedicure (one location was closed and the other was booked up), and then spent the rest of my six-hour layover at the bar, nursing a scotch and troubleshooting the code for this website. (Please pardon the dust – who knew a blog had a higher technical barrier to entry than a YouTube channel? Well, I suppose anyone who’s browsed YouTube for five seconds might have suspected as much, silly me…)
My section of the international terminal was filled with iPads from which you could order food and drink from the restaurant nearby.
The upside: less human interaction, when all you want to do is sleep.
The downside: no one to ask about your onion allergy.
Oh well, at least the presentation was amusing.
Time to settle in for my first Transatlantic flight!
See you in Iceland!