Elgan speaks
...and her words thunder across the land

�He�s driving a black�tank.�

Saturday, Jun. 18, 2005
1:04 a.m.
It is late, and my headache is back, but I won�t be able to sleep, and stuff has happened, so here goes:

I was not feeling well this morning. The headache was particularly bad and I finally took a couple of extra-strength pain killers mid-morning so I could work on the copying of the score for the TSO piece (I still have 5 or so pages to do). I was suddenly overcome by hunger and finished off the half-sandwich in the fridge which Buddy Boy had brought back from his lunch the other day (whole-wheat bread, cheese, pickles and mustard), which caused a weird sensation in my stomach as though my insides were mentholated. The headache receded to a sensation of dullness behind my eyebrows, not pleasant, and after eating a proper lunch with my husband and son (who was picked up after his math exam), I went back to bed where I slept until 5:45 p.m.

When I got up I felt much better, albeit ravenously hungry, and so I prepared supper (cheese stuffed tortellini with pesto and a cucumber salad) when the phone rang and the Almighty Conga Man, also the keyboard player in Little Princess� band, called because he had not been informed there was no practice that evening and he was in the music department waiting for people who never showed. So I invited him for supper. He accepted. That was nice, actually.

Anyway, afterwards, Little Princess� boyfriend came over and so did the singer, and we split into two groups to go to see Batman Begins, Hubby taking Buddy Boy and the Almighty Conga Man so they could pick up the latter�s girlfriend from work, and I was to take the singer, the boyfriend and my daughter in our old Volvo, which died on the driveway. This is becoming an all-too familiar scenario. So we called a cab to take us to the singer�s house where he borrowed the family car (his mother was not pleased) and we arrived at the cinema after the movie proper had started, only missing the opening credits and something about the young Bruce Wayne falling down a well as well as all those pesky commercials and previews.

The film was loud and fast and furious, and not bad for a comic book movie. The singer did not like it at all. His French-Canadian background excludes the kind of comic books I grew up on, so he finds the whole genre rather ridiculous. We, of course, are seeing our childhood heroes brought to life on the screen and are much more able to suspend disbelief. Ah well.

The rides both there and back were interesting, to say the least. Our driver had only recently acquired his permanent licence (he�s 21 or thereabouts, so a little more responsible than if he were only 16) but still has much to learn about the etiquette of the road and the operation of a motor vehicle in general. Going to the theatre (and this is in pouring rain both ways) his headlights were not functioning and he was using his brights instead, much to the consternation of oncoming drivers. When we came out after the movie I insisted that we check out this situation, and he finally got the headlights working, which made the drive home a little safer for us and them. But he slows down much too late at stops and to turn corners, and my teeth were literally on edge for much of the drive. However, we arrived safely at our destinations and �it�s all good�.

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