2008 Spring/Summer Tour - Day 8

We hung out at Steve and April's in the morning and checked e-mail, made some calls, watched some tube, etc. In the afternoon I did a semi-impromptu performance at Amy's school. April had asked if I might bring my guitar into Amy's classroom to sing a couple of songs and I said, "Sure." But then I guess a couple of the other teachers overheard and wanted in on that so it ended up being more of a full-blown show with a sound system and everything set up in the cafetorium for about 70-80 kids.

Normally, I would do one of my themed assembly programs at a school, but we only had 25 minutes as it was, so I just did some songs from my usual concert show and mixed in one of the songs/segments from my assemblies. The kids were incredibly enthusiastic, and boy were they loud! Almost too loud, as one teacher had asked me to keep my volume low at the beginning since the room wasn't filled to capacity and was very echoey (as cafetoriums and school gyms tend to be!), and it became difficult for me to hear myself over the kids during the active songs where they burst into laughing and squealing and such. But the show went very well, regardless, and April said that a parent later told her that her daughter, who had never wanted to talk about anything at school, excitedly wanted her to ask what happened at school today... and then told her what a fun time she had at the concert. That was very sweet.

Below is a picture from the end of the show, with Becca and Evee joining me for "This Little Light of Mine". School shows are often a little difficult for them, because normally they want to be right up front and totally involved in everything going on, but for school assemblies they have to stay in back with Mommy and let the school kids have the whole focus and attention. I always introduce them at the end and bring them up for "This Little Light", regardless, but this show was nice because with the loose nature of it they were able to sit up front and participate fully along with the other kids throughout the show.



We went back to Steve and April's, had dinner and played with the girls. It was an incredibly beautiful day so we played outside for a while. We put the girls to bed after their baths and watched 30 Rock and The Office and went to bed ourselves.

A quick mention here about the 5th member of our family, who is sometimes alone for long stretches... our cat, Tiggy. He is very gracious and only asks for some judicious petting and a walk every day at twilight. For some reason, he gets really antsy at dusk and wants to get out and roam, so we put on his leash and walk him around, or rather, he walks around wherever he wants to and we follow the best we can. It's definitely not the same as walking a dog... Sometimes, when we open the RV door, he'll jump out onto the sidewalk and rub himself on the ground... some kind of territorial marking thing... "Tiggy was here!" There are worse ways to mark territory, I suppose. Anyway, below is a picture of Tiggy peeking out of the window, wondering when we're coming back to take him for his walk.