In which I talk about FKO

[ericcoleman]

We didn't try to get there in one day as we have in previous years. We know a nice hotel in Ft Wayne, due to our trips to Sweetwater, and stayed there both ways. It adds a little to the drive, but it's worth it to not have to find another hotel where I am not afraid of their shower.

We went to Sweetwater on Friday ... but not the music store. Sweetwater Donut Mill in Battle Creek MI. Best ... donuts ... ever!

The border crossing was amusing. The guy knew enough about conventions to ask what kind we were going to. A music con easily explained all of the instruments and other gear in the back of the car.

We had hardly crossed the border when I bought my first Aero Bar.

The con was a wonderful blur. I had to lie to so many people. I mean, the story I told was pretty much true. We are unlikely to be able to get back up there in the next few years, if ever again. Our finances are too unsteady, I have no idea if I will keep getting Social Security or not. If I do, we're doing fine. If I don't, we're going to survive, but it will be very tight. I of course left out that we would not have been there this year if something momentous wasn't going to happen. I did speculate with a couple of people as to who we thought it might be. Both of them agreed that TJ & Mitchell were likely.

It was a great con. The music was amazing. It was so good to see so many people who we care about so much.

And I got more and more nervous.

Let me tell you the beginning of this.

We were driving to Capricon and a friend pinged me on Messenger and said that Rob Wynne wanted my phone number. I said of course, and we started wondering, like you do, about why he wanted my number.

I said "maybe it has something to do with GaFilk?"
Lizzie replied "he's also on the Hall Of Fame committee".
I said "it would be Dave Hayman looking for my number then.

I looked down and realized I had a voice mail.

"Hi, this is Dave Hayman, please call me at your earliest convenience".

Oh dear.

We had to sit on this for 2 months.

Me being me, I got more and more nervous. Worried about the border crossing, wanting to tell people. Still dealing with mobility issues. Still not dealing with people well.

And in the middle of that I retired.

It was a rough two months, lots of stress.

The speech was hard, really hard to get through. I've had a lot of my general feeling of self worth pounded down a lot in my life, and it is still really odd to me that people enjoy what I do. I'm very glad they do, but I feel that has been a rare thing in my life (the wording is very important there).

Kathleen read our induction. The sound in the room when she said "Cheshire Moon" was amazing. Even more a bit into the induction when she said "FilkCast". I lost it then.

I managed to get my composure back by the time we had to go up, get lots of hugs, and then talk tio the room. Lizzie wrote an outline, I wrote out a full speech. I improvise very well, but I knew words would fail me. They still did occasionally. I did digress a couple of times, to the point where I was uncertain where I was in the speech once. I should go back and see how close I got to going word for word.

Then after us TJ & Mitchell. TJ and I had talked the day before, since we got all the same emails before the con. She was amazed because she felt they had kind of vanished from the Filk community. The best comment I heard on that later was yeah, they had gone off, raised kids and been away, but their songs were always there. We are both so incredibly happy for them, it is so well deserved.

Last year when we were at FKO, we did a half hour set. We were still struggling, and managed to stumble through 4 songs. Not our best moment.

This year, even with Lizzie having an asthma attack halfway through, we still had the sort of set that we want to give. We closed with Snow White and it was like all of the struggles we have been through the last few years came roaring out of it.

Now we have to get back to always doing shows like that.

We finally got to the circle Sunday night, and did a great version of Callenwood with Judith rocking along on the bodhran. Now I have to figure out how to get bodhran on the recording. I then basically collapsed. Not in a bad way, just done.

We got going pretty early Monday morning, and for all of our worry, I think it was the quickest border crossing we have ever had.

That evening we went to Sweetwater, and delivered a baby blanket that Lizzie had made for our rep there. We both shopped for some gear, a new preamp/DI for Lizzie's fiddle, and something to alter my voice for Shifting City. Both were found.

We came home to cuddly beasts, Helvetica has been up here on my desk more than ever this week.

We went to a local ren faire today, and the weekend finally caught up with us. We both slept for hours after we got back, and I don't see either of us having problems sleeping after I get done with this.

We're still amazed by it all. For me the biggest thing was hearing the cheers for FilkCast. I cannot begin to say how happy that made me. We live in this little isolation here, so we really don't know if it is having an effect or not. Apparently it is.

Our thanks to the FHoF committee, and our thanks to the Filk community, as I said in my speech, for giving us a place to belong.