Aoww, it can't have been over a month since I last wrote. Honestly, in my mind right now, my best guess would've been that my last update was definitely no more than two weeks ago. That's how MUCH I have been packing into my days lately. This is in fact the first time I have had even a few minutes to THINK, sit down, and do a little updating here, and that's only because I cancelled a rehearsal and a meeting tonight. But I have to tell you, I love it! I mean, filling every second of my day with productive beauty - like practicing keyboards, presenting on music therapy, rehearsing with TSO, rehearsing with Moby, performing with Moby, going to see Greg Allman and Friends, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, the Scissor Sisters, the Secret Machines, watching film screenings, rehearsing with our almost band (yes we FOUND a guitarist!!!!!), wow! I am sure I have left things out, but that's somewhat of a summary of the past 4 weeks.
A little more detail:
I saw some great shows. Most of them came up so last minute (although not quite like the Madison Square Garden experiences) that I didn't have my camera. But here's a picture of the Joan Jett show. They totally rocked!
It is so enlightening to see other bands perform, especially since this is one of the directions I am hardcore heading in right now with Erin. And it's going well! Our songs are starting to sound like real songs! And we love our guitarist, who we met through a friend of a friend of a friend of one of Erin's good friends! [Yeah not kidding!] We're going through things song by song now, making them a little more interesting, and our attitudes are really positive so, Yeah!
We played a Moby show last week and it was lots of fun!!! Tiny, small venue called Tonic - maybe 200 people. Everything was live, just like the December 15th Boardies show last year. Beautiful! He's doing promotion on his new album, his "best of". Oh, and almost a totally different band, check out the pictures (I didn't get so many).
FUN and hopefully there will be more one day soon! TSO is rolling. We have had full rehearsals now with the back-up band, and I have to say what a privilege it is to work with so many very fine musicians! I mean, you cannot imagine how much it excites me just to be in the room with so many great players, not to mention actually PLAYING with them! !!!!!!!!!!!
So, other than that I have been dealing with the usual NY novelties, no control over my heat (especially when it's not turned ON and it's in the 40s), wildlife in my apartment (had the exterminators in last week), and walking long blocks to do my laundry. I figured I'd give you a few pictures of these lovelies. Here is where I was this afternoon.
Here's how it goes if I want to do my own laundry: (NOTE, yes, it is 2006)
Step 1. Load the laundry bag and carry it down the many flights of stairs from my 5th floor abode
Step 2. Walk down the block, turn down another block, cross another, and then walk a long block, to the laundromat
Step 3. Load the machines - likely some of the first coin operated laundry machines ever made, and with so much inflation in price over the years it actually takes 5 minutes just to load in the quarters [FYI since the last time I visited the laundromat, maybe a few weeks ago, the price for washing one load has gone up from $3 to $4 - not including drying]
Step 4. Wait. Read. Shop. Avoid the laundry attendant's loudness of conversation...
Step 5. Switch from washer to dryer. One quarter gets you 7 minutes of drying time. I put the thing on fry heat and throw both loads in together, in 42 minutes they're crispy
Step 6. Fold. Or throw in the bag.
Step 7. Long heavy walk back to be greeted with 58 smiling stairs
Also, a New York Novelty is the rare occurrence of wildlife. I had such an experience recently, with a beautiful, majestic, healthy cockroach. One of those GIANTS that has wings and everything. Recently I learned that the cockroach is the fastest moving land insect... So here's how it went. I was in the bathroom, and heard a noise on Matsa's cat food bowl (ok, I realize this story is older than I thought - must've happened a few weeks after I took her to GA, so over a month ago). I looked and only saw what looked like a long hair. I can tell you instantly I knew what must be lurking behind the bowl. _______________________________________ Ok, this line indicates the length of JUST THE ANTENNA of the animal. I found it pleasant to observe that wiggler for a little while. No idea what I was going to do about him at that point. Well, he crawled up into the cat food bowl and WHOA MAMA this was a BIG BOY! I mean, record breaking almost beautiful insect. Well, you know, that chestnut brown like a healthy horse's coat, so big I kind of more considered him a rodent and I like rodents, cute and cuddly - and this guy WAS practically. So, he was fiddling around in the catfood bowl, and then I saw something I never thought I'd see in my life. Just like an animated Pixar roach, or something out of Shrek, he picks up a catfood piece with his front claw-ie things, heaves it up on his head, walking with his hind legs, and successfully drops the catfood over the side of the bowl. WHAT!>!?>! It was then I ran for my camera to actually take a video of him doing this. I left him in there for a while so he could get to another piece of food.
At the same time I was plotting what I was going to do to have my apartment back. I thought I'd take a large plastic lid and while he was in the bowl I'd slam the lid on top of the catfood bowl, pick up the bowl with him inside of it, drop it in a trash bag and drop it out the window. This wasn't a thoroughly thought out plan at that point, but it was what came to me at first. Well, there he went back into the bowl. I got a good picture, but he wasn't doing anything worth a video, so I went ahead with plan A. I slammed the lid on the catfood bowl. But the bowl has ears on it, to look like a little kitty face, and the ears foiled my plan, because they were too close to the wall, so the lid didn't slam down at all. The roach ran at me at his record setting pace, I screamed, threw the lid somewhere (still haven't found it), and ran to my cleaning box. I had a flying insect spray in there, you know, for mosquitoes and fruit flies and things. But I realized this was a rodent sized roach, and he probably would laugh, or maybe only get stronger if I sprayed him with the poison. I was slightly shaking at this point, but decided I didn't have another option. I went back into the bathroom, he was still hanging out with his catfood treasure, and I gave him a little spray. OH! He jumped up off the ground, then flapped his wings and flitted at me! I screamed again (I wonder what my poor neighbor must've thought by this point) and ran to the bedroom, shut the french doors, and called my friend Kyshona. I didn't know what to do. I was sure I had made him mad and he was going to walk out of there on his hind legs just after I fell asleep and start gnawing at my body parts. After a long and calming conversation with her, I decided to check the scene. I didn't see the roach anywhere. Ohhhhhh NO! Just as I had suspected. He had gone back to his hole to devise a plan to kill me in my sleep. AHHhhhh!
Well, to end this story, several hours later I found him, legs up under the sink. Ohhh, and here's the shocking part. You don't even know how sad I was. I wasn't aware of it, but I had been harboring a secret hope that he had survived, learned his lesson, and found his way up to the roof, or down the side of the building, outside to live among the outdoor bugs happily ever after. I promise you, I almost cried. It might have been a full hour before I was able to move past it, never feeling totally ok with having killed such a large and yes, beautiful animal. I actually feel sad right now after writing about it.....
Oh, and the picture I mentioned - here it is! Make sure you double click on this photo to see him at full scale! Notice his left antenna runs somewhere out of the picture! (his right one was probing around in the catfood I guess)
Ok! Here's the scene of this moment. Time for bed! Notice the floor heater sitting in my chair. (Thanks for that Amy) Yes, it is COLD.
And I'm seriously going to start trying to write smaller and more frequent entries. That should be interesting shouldn't it? I already have some things in mind........
LOVE!!!!
:)
Luci
