Flasking in the Glory

This town is our town.
This town, it's so glamorous.
I bet you'd live here if you could
and be one of us.

Alas, though Portland is littered with rocker chix, The Go-Gos are not among them.

We are, however, home to Nurse Band. I met them this Sunday.

Actual Nurse Band "Gig" Binder

We're in a band, one of the guitarists told me, and we all work together.

When I found out they were nurses, five neo-natal nurses from OHSU, all in a band together, I started asking serious questions.

Not about saving babies' lives. About what it takes to rock out.

Do you need to be an RN to join the band? Or would a licensed vocational nurse be okay?

Any nurse could join they said.

What about a Physician's Assistant?

Long, awkward pause. Clearly the answer was no, they were just too nurse-nice to say so.

Nurse Band was playing at my piano recital.

Yes, I said it. My piano recital.

Although my heart belongs to the accordion, one is lucky to find an accordion teacher with a pulse, let alone an aptitude for teaching music. So last spring I gave up trying and switched to piano lessons.

My piano teacher also teachers guitar, bass, and voice - all the things a nurse needs to know to be a rock star. And this past Sunday, all of her students (except the ones who chickened out at the last minute) joined together for a holiday performance.

The holiday in question being the Feast of the Totally Freakin' Nervous.

Do we dress up? I asked Piano Teacher Jill at my final lesson before the recital.

Just wear something comfortable she assured me.

I opted for leopard overalls.

Which is very comfortable, if you happen to need to take down a gazelle and then fix the engine on your tractor.

I do not claim to have performed my song perfectly. But I did perform it without taking a single swig from my leopard flask.