davidcedillo.com

Yesterday was Barb’s birthday. Barb is our neighbor and we are blessed to have her live next door to us. We have the key to each others’ house. We take care of each others’ pets. When Jenny asked me to make a card for her, I put her in the same league as the coolest neighbors I’ve seen on TV: Kramer from Seinfeld, Rhoda from the Mary Tyler Moore show, and of course Mr. Rogers. Last year for a friend’s birthday she wore a ceremonial dress, sang, and did an interpretive dance around a bonfire. Barb’s the coolest.

They take me back, and they move me forward. I’m being rocked. Jenny and I watched more videos from Choir!Choir!Choir! yesterday. As I watched each one I remembered what it was like to sing in school choirs and church choirs, how I learned my tenor part or my bass part, and how three or four part harmonies created pleasant vibrations in my head. In the Choir!Choir!Choir! videos, choir members made eye contact with each other as they were singing. I didn’t know what they were thinking, but I could tell that it was a shared experience. We could all use a good shared experience right now. I’m looking forward to the time when our social distance is less than 6 feet and we can stand next to someone without a mask and learn a song together. When I see all these people, I see a unity of purpose. I see people of different origins coming together for a common goal. I see people celebrating what it means to be a community alive. Thank you Daveed and Nobu.

One of my Facebook friends who goes by Dave Dirt posted this. It’s a cool spin on an old 80′s tune, Overkill. At first it just looks and sounds like an acoustic song that was recorded in a small nightclub a few years ago– but when the crowd starts singing as a choir something happens. It magically becomes something waaay cooler.

My job requires trust from both sides. I have to trust the folks I call are telling me the truth, and they have to trust that I am calling on behalf of the health department. Sometimes people don’t trust me. To quote this song:
You can’t go the distance
With too much resistance
I know you have doubts
But for God’s sake don’t shut me out

These guys take me where I want to go before I knew I had to be somewhere. Reply All is one of my “go to” podcasts when I need a good distraction, but I don’t want to shut my brain off. PJ Vogt and Alex Goldman host the show and explore weird and intriguing things on the internet. This episode from last March explores the elusive origins of an earworm, a song that works its way into one man’s head. If you need to feel productive while you’re listening to this (it’s a 50 minute story) then do some dishes while it’s playing. That’s what I do! Or you can read about it here, and take the 50 minute plunge later.

First she slid off the vinyl sofa, then she rubbed a balloon on her head, and then she dragged her feet across the carpet on the coldest day of the week. She wanted her hair to look just right! I think her exact words were, “Mom, I want my hair to look like a PLASMA BALL!!!” What?!? You don’t believe me? Ok, ok… I made most of that up, but when Christy texted this image of Katelyn I said “that’s going up on my blog!”

We got together with Barb and Evelyn last night for the first time in over a month. Barb lives next door and Evelyn is across the street. We take precautions to be a three house safe zone bubble. Barb made dinner, Evelyn baked brownies, and Jenny and I brought pineapple chunks and blackberries. Evelyn was self conscious about the way her brownies turned out. They were close to being runny instead of the way she likes them. When Evelyn said, “sorry the brownies are soupy,” I said “just like Soupy Sales!” and she smiled and said “oh he was funny!” I hadn’t thought of Soupy Sales in years.

How do you share the stage with The Beatles? Yesterday I celebrated 10 years of blogging on davidcedillo.com– 10 years and 1,392 posts to be specific! Then I found out that day, February 9th, The Beatles were on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. When I heard the radio dj on WUMB reference the date, I thought “cool! I started my blog that same day!” Then with each Beatles song that followed, it felt like a gradual eclipse because that’s what happens when another sphere moves into your space. So how do I share that moment in time with The Beatles? I just keep blogging and pretend the fans are screaming for me.

Ten years ago today I started writing on davidcedillo.com. If you don’t believe me, go to the archives and check. A lot of water has gone under the bridge and over the dam since then. In ten years I’ve hosted 3 podcasts, jammed with friends and strangers, taught pedestrians how to play songs on fruits and vegetables, used teeter totters for conflict resolution models, and attempted many other artistic endeavors! Here’s to another 10 years!

The zooming and the video calls reached critical mass yesterday. Between 1:30 and 8:00 we visited with our former pastor in Minneapolis, Jenny’s family in Nebraska, and this happy girl in Illinois pictured above! Thaddeus is holding his little girl, Bahiyyih, up close to the camera (thanks Diane for helping me spell her name right!). We were calling to wish Maryam (momma) happy birthday, and we got say ‘hi!’ to the whole family: Thaddeus, Maryam, Maku, and Bahiyyih!