So, I bought a ukulele. 

I’ve been learning a song a day – to keep things fresh. So far I know “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz, “Let It Be” by The Beatles, and “Creep” by Radiohead. This means that my chord knowledge is expanding as well.

This morning we had a very early start, because we had to drive around the large lake. While the sun was coming up and while Andy was driving through the Cherokee national park, I played ukulele. It was refreshing. It was almost surreal.

It’s the weekend, thank goodness. Doing this show takes a lot out of you every day. Today was especially challenging. We had a long drive to our first school. When we got there, we found out that we had arrived before some of the office staff had – and school wasn’t even going to start until 15 minutes before our show. No big deal, we’re flexible. We did two early morning shows to an attentive audience. However, in the younger children’s show, one little girl in the front row got scared and started crying. Her friend next to her calmed her down and she eventually warmed up to the show. She was in the pre-K class, so the whole experience was probably brand new to her. Also, our volunteer in the second show decided to kick Andy when he was playing the Sneaker.

At lunch, my stomach became very upset and I had to retire to the car to lie down. I’m not sure if it was the germs from kids or the sketchy chinese place we ate at – but something was not right in my stomach. I got over it pretty quickly in time to drive to our afternoon school.

In our afternoon show, we had more challenges. We were only able to be in the space 10 minutes before the show started. It was a race to put up the set. Then the students were under strict instructions to sit in the bleachers, so we had to move the set so they could see the show. No big deal, we’re flexible. The show was kinda twilight-zone. The kids enjoyed it though, and they seemed to learn lots. The volunteer was the tiniest 3rd grader I had ever seen. When I gave her the scroll to hold, she looked like it might tip her over.

Fridays, so far, have been the most strange days of our tours.