A leu cha

Have you ever heard the Miles Davis song A leu cha? It's on the 'Round Midnight album on Columbia. It's one that I've owned for some time but my reaction to it is always the same each time I hear it. It's pure energy. There is no intro...no build-up...no singing, no percussion lead-in. It's like the 100 meter final in the Olympic Games. There's deafening silence, then the gun explodes through like a spotlight through darkness and all of the sprinters burst out of the blocks like crouching tigers pouncing on dinner. That's the way the song goes. Miles and Coltrane start fast and furious on the first note and scarcely slow down for the entire five minutes and fifty-three seconds. It's like when you press fast-forward on a CD and can still hear the sound. I'm exhausted when it ends. I feel like I was running, or that it was my lungs that powered that trumpet and that sax through that exercise.

That's what my day was like today. My daughter peeked in my room and woke me up, and from that point, I was ON. I rolled onto the floor and did 25 quick push-ups, and then proceeded straight to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I threw on some sweats and stepped into my slippers and headed to the kitchen where I would whip up some absolutely exquisite french toast from the round loaf of sweet french sourdough that I had on my counter. My kids loved it. I took some clothes out of the dryer and put some others in there to replace those, and then subsequently put another load in the washing machine. I folded the clothes, then sorted through some mail that had stacked up the last couple of days. I had the football play-offs on and caught some of the UCLA-Wazzu game, but it was like that guy standing on the subway reading the newspaper, folded just so into thirds, trying to ingest that last bit of information before arriving at his stop, or the guy stuffing the sabretto half-smoke frank down his throat as he rushes back to the office. There was not a moment to rest. My kids like to be entertained, so all the while I was thinking of an activity to consume the rest of their afternoon.

We ended up shooting some baskets at the park as it was a nice sunny day, even if it was a bit cool. I drilled then through some footwork and bank shot reps and then we headed home so that I could get dinner together. My mother and my niece came over so that I could help my niece study for a math final that she has this week, so I did that while cooking. For the rest of the night, it seemed that I was cooking or doing dishes, serving folks, clearing plates, cleaning the counter, making up beds. It was intense. Even my meal felt a bit rushed, as I knew that I still had to do the dishes, get more laundry done, and iron my clothes for church in the morning. Que dia larga!

As I wind this up, I'm hoping that Yahoo radio will bless me with Wynton Marsalis' rendition of When it's Sleepy Time Down South to take me down a few notches and prepare me for some restful sleep. Glad to be finally sitting down at this computer, that bed over there looks even better. I must bid you farewell now, but fret not, a well rested version of D's Daily is surely on the horizon. At least I hope it will be. Goodnight.