The Barbeque Question

We spent this afternoon at a backyard barbeque party, to honour friends of ours who are moving to a larger house across town.

At one point, a friend asked me a familiar question. "How are you? How's your music career going?"

As always, The Question was asked kindly and with a certain tone of concern. My neighbours have known about my career for several years now, and it's probably clear that I'm not getting rich on it. (Few people are surprised, perhaps, that we're not the ones who are moving.)

I have fumbled this question many times--looking at times over-confident and at other times desperate--but to my surprise, this time I was fine with it.

Smiling, I thanked my neighbour for asking and said it's going very well. I mentioned a couple of gigs and the new CD coming up.

I didn't mention the subway, even though I know from experience that it would have made for entertaining barbeque conversation.

Today I felt like keeping it my little secret.