blindfolded

In June I booked a dueling piano gig down south for the month of September. My entertainment director just called me 3 days ago and asked me if I was able to do the show blindfolded. Apparently he is doing some benefit for some blind kids and is playing 24 hours with a blindfold. Since I am scheduled to be up on stage with him for 5 of those hours, he wants me blindfolded also. Like this gig isn't difficult enough with my eye's open!! He told me that we would have someone standing behind us to tell us what was going on with the audience and the written requests. Now, I want to be a good sport so I began practicing today with a blindfold (my favorite college shirt from a gizzillion years ago rolled up and tied around my head), and at first it was really hard. I actually felt myself wanting to hyperventilate. But what I found after a while was that it limited my distractions and I was able to practice for a full 60 minutes without getting up and checking my email or my chat programs or the NY Times, etc. etc. And, although some of my left hand notes were inaccurate, it actually put me into a higher state of concentration and I was more involved with the musiic. When I was finished I didn't even want to remove the blindfold. I'll let you know how it goes in performance.