Saturday March 27, 2010 – Final Guitar Craft Course - Day 7

Saturday March 27, 2010 – Final Guitar Craft Course - Day 7

The Guitar Circle I
Guitar Craft 25th Anniversary Completion Course
Special Project: The Orchestra Of Crafty Guitarists III
Convento La Pace, Sassoferrato (Ancona), Italy

8:54am

The “course cold” is making the rounds. It doesn’t seem particularly virulent, thankfully, but widespread low-key sniffling, sneezing and hacking is noticeable. So far, I think I have dodged that bullet. Just a few more hours of vigilance needed.

My body was a wreck this morning. I awoke once before daylight, a little confused about where I was and what time of the day it might be, but made it back to sleep pretty readily. Then I re-awoke just before my alarm went off, as usual. My entire body was tingling, literally from head to toe, with that feeling I usually experience late at night when I have been up far too long, and I am in total exhaustion; my yawns go straight to the soles of my feet. It would seem that last night’s performance might have been a little more physically grueling than I had given it credit for. I could tell by my mental and emotional state that it had taken its toll in those respects, but I hadn’t quite allowed for the sheer physical demands. I resisted getting out of bed for as long as possible.

I just checked, and that was the third time I have used the word, “grueling”, in my journal this week.

Sitting, nevertheless, was quite good and clear. At one point a police car was screaming nearby, and seemed to be going around in circles and never getting farther away, until after what seemed like five minutes the sound finally dopplered off into the distance. I found myself wondering what it would be like to have to go through life making that sound where ever I went. But then it occurred to me that, basically, we all do. Some of us are just more literally audible than others.

Doing some pre-packing this morning to avoid the crunch. Nothing ever quite fits back the way it came. Plus, during the morning sitting I found myself wondering when Daylight Saving Time begins in Europe, and sure enough on the board this morning appeared a reminder that it is tonight. Cruel irony. Many of us need to be on a 7am flight from Ancona, which is an hour+ drive from here. Almost tempted to just stay up tonight. That rarely works in practice, even though it always sounds good in concept.

3:45pm

More or less a gentle day. A morning meeting for reflections, observations, comments, and points of seeing. I had something cooking, but when I thought about it I found I missed what was being said, and I felt I was primarily there to listen. So I let it go, for the final meeting or not at all. Tai Chi. Lunch. A walk with a friend in the beautiful sunny (though not altogether warm, it turns out) weather. Back to some work in the House, in my case giving my bathroom a good scrubbing. Soon, Tea. I believe I have meetings for the rest of the afternoon.

1:30/2:30am – Europe about to go to Daylight Saving in about 30 minutes.

The day took an interesting turn. Basically, the course was over, but we had details to take care of. Some meetings that were supposed to happen, didn’t. Some surprises. I got most of my packing done. Cleaned my room for the last time. Thought I’d take a shower, knowing that at 4am I would not be in the mood. Just as I was about to go for it, an emergency arose that took my attention almost until supper. It was very good, on a human level, but it wrecked my schedule. Supper was full of too many music performances, getting in at the last minute what had been put off all week. Some of it fun, but for me too much. I wanted to be with the people around me. After supper, finally a shower, and then the final meeting.

After the final meeting, which ended a little after 11:30, there was a merchandise opportunity in the dining hall. I had nothing to sell, but I did have a computer loaded with GC History related photos, so I set up a slide show and hosted, pointing out all the interesting characters, in come cases to the interesting characters themselves. Then, up to my room to finish packing. This thankfully did not take as long as I had feared, since by then it was well after 1am, or 2am, depending on how you look at it, and I had a 5am call for the ride to Ancona.

Views from my room on the final day of the course.