I know it’s already Tuesday night, rx but man, stuff I had an awesome weekend.
Friday night was supposed to be the night we meet with our church small group, but only two of the couples were available, so we ended up skipping the study and just hanging out, which was really nice. It was really low key and laid back. We just chatted and our kids played.
Saturday morning I got up early to do a five mile run with some friends. Our circle of runners is expanding, and one of the two new runners with us this weekend was someone who used to live right up the street from me back in high school. We used to be really close, but we lost touch after high school, so this was the first we had a chance to catch up. And catching up on almost twenty years is a great way to take your mind off of the fact that you’re running five miles.
The run itself was great, and I was pleased with my time. It rained for most of our run, but that honestly felt great. I had my iPhone wrapped in a plastic bag inside my armband, so it stayed nice and dry.
Saturday evening was the Battle of the Bands at the Art & Soul Cafe. I was asked to be the emcee, which was a blast. I normally don’t like speaking quite so much in front of crowds, but I was in the zone. I introduced the three competing bands as well as the artist whose work was on display. They also asked me to play a couple songs after the last band performed so that the audience would have something to do while the judges deliberated. I ended up doing four songs, and unbelievably, the same kids who had been going nuts for the screamo bands a few minutes earlier really seemed to be enjoying my music and cheered wildly. To top off the evening, I did a song called “Sara†by The Rainchildren, who used to be a pretty big name in the local music scene before they broke up in the ‘90s. One of the judges had been the percussionist for The Rainchildren, and he joined me onstage to play that song. That was pretty cool.
Congratulations to End Of Silence for winning the competition, by the way. That was a nice moment for me, because their lead guitarist is in the youth group at my church, and I’ve watched him go from zero to awesome on the guitar. And their singer (screamer?) used to go to my church and has helped me lead worship a few times. Great guys with bright futures. It was really great to see their excitement when they won.
On Sunday morning, we had three baptisms during our church service, two of whom were children. All three shared their testimonies, and I don’t think there was a dry eye in the church by the time they were done.
We followed the church service with our annual church family picnic. Burgers and hot dogs on the grill, lots of good food, a dunk tank, two hundred water balloons, and a homemade waterslide.
I got home right in time to meet my friend Matt, who was coming over to do some recording for a solo EP he’s working on. We worked on music for about two hours, which was fantastic. Made me wish I had my own professional studio so I could spend more time on music. Anyway, we got the bulk of the recording done, but I still have some mixing to do, and Matt asked me if I’d lay down some bass, some lead guitar, and maybe some harmonies.
After Matt left, we went to the home of another family from our church for a nice meal on the grill. The whole thing was kind of impromptu, but the food was great and the conversation was wonderful. Our daughters conspired for my daughter to spend the night, so we took our son home and put him to bed.
At that point, finally able to breathe and relax after a really busy weekend, Jen and I had the opportunity to spend a romantic evening alone, something we rarely get a chance to do these days.
So yeah. That was a pretty sweet weekend.