July 16, 2024

After lounging through the morning, I caught a taxi to the Minneapolis airport. We were out of the city and on the Interstate when my driver, messing with his phone, changed lanes without looking, and hit the car to our right. I was shaken, but not so much in the moment as when I got out of the car and saw how much damage had been done– a more significant collision that I’d thought. The Spanish-speaking driver chattered to me a mile a minute. I thought he was trying to charge me for the distance already traveled. I had no idea what to do. Either the driver called a colleague (driving the same kind of cab) or one happened fortuitously by, for after maybe fifteen minutes I was in another taxi completing the journey. The driver was not going to release my luggage, so I had to shove him a little aside and hit the button myself. Once at the airport I considered that maybe I should have waited for the police, but I hadn’t thought of that in time, and it might have led to missing the flight. My driver’s fault was so obvious it probably didn’t need me to confirm. Sat in the blessed Delta Sky Lounge drinking blood Marys to calm down. Otherwise, uneventful return, except standing with my luggage realizing my phone had deleted (by its own wicked will) Billy’s contact number, and I had no way to call my ride. I cursed out loud and creatively. A woman had fallen on the pavement, so she got the attention I might have otherwise. 

GALA 2024 closed. What I would have said had I not listened to the video of our performance would have been different, for I couldn’t imagine how we would stand up in that crowd, in the midst of New York and Atlanta and Chicago and Los Angeles, etc, which overflowed the stage with their numbers. But we were very, very good. In terms of musicality, none I heard was better. Though we couldn’t provide the tsunamis of sound of the big choruses, we had passion and precision, and even considering just mass of sound, we could probably outdo most choruses twice our size. Whatever I was going to say about the experience is fully changed and redeemed by beholding the unexpected result. In any case, I’m not sad to be home. Not sad to curl by the window last night hoping for a breeze, after all that vaguely inhumane air-conditioning. Stab of grief when there were not cats to greet me– intense, but shorter than before, so, progress. 

A little panicked at how much I spent, but looked at my portfolio and saw that, at 10:30 AM, I’ve made enough already today to cover the cost. Still, time to curb extravagance. I may live longer than I expected.