(The Sea)²

Yesterday was my first full doubleheader since surgery; I went to therapy up in Harrison then to see The Sea The Seat at Spiral Sounds Concerts in Jersey City. That involved a lot of traveling, I knew it would be pushing my body.

The trip to therapy went smoothly. I made the bus that takes me half the distance to the train, made the train, and then the bus that takes me to the hospital. Even when things work smoothly, it’s a long trip.

Therapy was weird. At one point the therapist felt guilty as we had gotten off my mental state and into a deep discussion of feminism in TV science fiction and fantasy television shows. We covered Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek:TOS, Star Trek:TNG, Andromeda, and Stargate. It was a very me, conversation. Katherine, you’d have enjoyed it too. We did get to my issues too; I started right off with something bothering me and had the satisfaction of my therapist acknowledging that it should bother me; I wasn’t over-reacting.

All this talk led to a problem, the session started late and then went long. I looked at my watch and saw that my bus was supposed to have left 2-minutes earlier. So now I had to walk the 1.6 miles to the train station. The universe had a joke at my expense as the bus came ten minutes late and passed me as I was walking.

It was a beautiful day so I usually wouldn’t mind walking but it’s still been just 15 days since surgery and the time was close enough that I had to walk quickly. I paid for that the rest of the day with not just being tired but with a sore back. It’s still sore.

Every mode of transportation I needed was delayed. First the bus then came 10 minutes late. Then the train to Penn Station was 8 minutes later. If I had known that I wouldn’t have had to walk quickly. Then the train hit congesting getting into Grand Central Station and waited in the tunnels for an open track. Then the 4 train hit congestion and had to wait at every stop for the train ahead of it to leave the platform. Then the PATH train had to sit and wait before the Exchange Place station. I have never had that on the PATH train.

I tried something new for dinner. Instead of taking the tunnel from Fulton to the PATH train I walked on the streets and discovered a plaza of food kiosks by the Oculus. It looked like a street fair. I had hot Thai fried chicken. It was excellent. I chose it because it had the shortest line.

I always get to the Spiral Sounds aka Gidge’s and Loyse’s house early, before doors open at 6:30. Because of the delays I arrived at precisely 6:30. I was still the first one there. I had more energy then I expected. I thought I might collapse on the couch until the show started but I was able to socialize and help out for a while. I even ran downstairs a number of times to answer the door as others arrived. My adrenaline was pumping.

Then it all caught up to me and I crashed on the couch. Now there were guests there so I couldn’t lie down but I sat without moving much. I was eventually joined by my two friends attending the show, Gene and Isabel. They live on Long Island but are big enough fans of Chuck and Mira to make the trip. I was hoping they would. They brought great chocolate cake, that made it even better.

The Sea the Sea was in their duo format, just Chuck and Mira. They spent most of last year performing as a 4-piece. Both formats are fine with me; they are one of the best bands out there. When I sell them I point out that their voices blend better than any two people I had ever heard. That was the first thing that caught my ear, but it’s no longer what keeps me interested. Now it’s the arrangements of the harmony and the songs. They can write, and they can sing. There is just so much there there. I confirmed something that I have often suspected, I was the part of the first audience to hear their biggest hit, Love We Are Love. They didn’t even have a band name when they sang that at the Budgiedome song circle. I’m a true early adopter of The Sea the Sea.

I had to decide between sitting up front as I usually do or on the couch in the back. My body voted for the couch and I let it have its way. That proved wise as it was starting to break down. I have to remember to bring acetaminophen with me. My back could have used it. I was also very tired. The show was great enough to keep me awake but I listened for much of the show slumped over on the couch with my eyes closed. You could tell I was awake as I still was able to make some quips between songs. My body shuts down but not my brain. They are one of those bands that stimulate my thinking while I feel very comfortable with them as people so I will say my better quips out loud. Occasionally I even have some insight into what they are discussing in their banter.

My plan for after the show was to run out and get home as soon as possible My plan failed. I ended up on the deck talking to Mira for half an hour. Chuck joined us to say that they had to get going; They had to drive back to Troy that night. But he got sucked into the conversation too.

I’m disappointed that I am not sure of one fact. During the break I was also talking to Mira and Chuck and Mira said, “This is the best conversation we ever had.” I’m not sure what the topic was. It might have been about birds crapping on people’s heads. That happened to Mira at a festival. She used the past tense of shit, shat in telling the story. I have never heard anyone else use that but my father. He used to love to quote Aristophanes, in The Birds. “I looked up at the sky and a bird shat in my eye.” How can I have never read Aristophanes? That’s going on my reading list.

As happens every late night my ride home took much longer than it should have. The PATH was fine but the D train once again took forever. When I got home, well after 1 AM it all caught up to me and I collapsed in bed. Thank god I had acetaminophen so my back stopped hurting after a while. It was back to barking when I woke up so I took some more. Right now I’m fine.

Today’s adventure is Seth and Emily’s wedding in Brooklyn. I’ll be seeing Gene and Isabel again. My guess is that once again I’ll be sitting with them. I promised Carolann that I’d take a picture of myself looking spiffy in my new sports jacket. I haven’t been illustrating my blog for a long time, maybe I’ll make an exception tomorrow. Now it’s time for breakfast. The only hold up is that means getting out of my comfy chair. Anyone want to come over and serve me breakfast?