It’s a cheater day, but I’m about to climb on the elliptical trainer anyway. Just as soon as I can get my new banjo lesson (Beginner’s banjo vol. 2) downloaded from the Musicians Workshop.
609 calories on the elliptical in my 31 minutes this morning, while I ate crumbly, oily, Chinese almond cookies. Now that’s a cheater day breakfast.
My frustration this morning is with my downloadable banjo lesson from The Musician’s Workshop. The file they give me seems to be corrupted, and I get an “unexpected end of archive” error when I try to open it. This takes most of the convenience out of buying on line. I’ve sent off the email. Let’s see how long it takes them to respond.
Like most cheater days, this has been a slightly weird day. I went off to Starbucks and bought my vente latte. Then I went out searching for a guitar store that Jack told me about. Walked right past it the first time and ended up in some older market area with a man selling fruit trying to get me interested. On my way back to Wanda Plaza I found the guitar store, priced a pickup for my guitar that I think I will buy and have installed. It only takes one small hole, unlike the pickup that Jack bought that would remove square inches of the guitar body. It’s quite expensive – 1,300 RMB which is close to two hundred bucks Canadian. (Okay, $190.16 CDN at today’s exchange rate.) but it would probably cost quite a bit more in Canada. In fact, I’m sure it would cost two hundred just to have it installed back in Canada. So we’ll probably buy it soon. That will help solve the terrible microphone paucity that’s usual at gigs here.
The thing is, I’d only had a couple of Chinese almond cookies for breakfast, a blueberry muffin with that vente latte, and then I had a second vente latte. Wow, was I buzzing. Fortunately, shortly after I got home two students took us out for a hot pot dinner, which was delicious and accompanied by a full bottle of huang jiu. That seems to have balanced my body chemistry. I thought I was stuffed, but we stopped at the campus store on the way home and I bought some hong shu pian (sweet potato chips), which I’m munching on as I finish off the bottle of huang jiu. Does all this constitute a balanced diet for a cheater day?
Right now I’m feeling like a cheater day is never enough. It’s twenty to eleven. I need a shower. But I think I’ll quietly practice my banjo a bit longer. I’ve almost got “Blackberry Blossom” down pat, a very simple version of it that is.