• The construction workers who set up a block-long, yellow plastic tube on the sidewalk in front of the studio door and driveway, elevated on little stands every few yards.
  • The warning lights blinking on my dashboard, more numerous and varied than I’d ever seen at the same time before.
    • Thinking the car might explode and I might die.
    • Realizing that, when we think “I might die,” it’s not necessarily because we think it’s probable, but just because we’d rather not be caught off guard by it. Just in case.
    • Calling a roadside assistance number and talking to a representative who sounded like a very young kid, hesitant about every question (“Um… Do you have, um, a V… a VIN?”). :(
    • Politely hanging up and googling the problem to find out it was a rain-soaked wire. The warning lights turned off when the wire dried out.
  • Resting a kick drum microphone on a pillow and imagining that we were making it comfortable or tucking it into bed.
  • Moving all of the gear for a session (drums, keyboards, mics) to one house, then back into my basement across town for better acoustics.
  • Watching Crazy Rich Asians with Casey. Going into it with an open mind and coming away happy with the multidimensionality of the characters and the not-totally-Hollywood story.
  • Waking up from a nap with the phrases “stank you” and “stankrifice” in my head.