Actually, Mondays, in and of themselves, are not bad. It's the fact that I have to go that stupid freaking class that I HATE and listen to that superfluous MORON talk and talk and talk and talk forever and ever and ever and EVER, always saying exactly THE SAME DAMN THING as he said ten minutes ago. I mean, seriously, his classes are three hours long because it takes him three hours to make one point! But I am leaving class early tomorrow. I am leaving at 5 so that I can be home in time to watch the Steelers play on Monday Night Football.
I have a BIG meeting tomorrow (today?) with a lady who runs the NPO in Coeur d'Alene about designing their web site. I'm not nervous, per se, but I know that I need to make a good impression. It's not as though I will lose the job; I already have it, mostly because I am doing it pro bono, as it were. But making a stellar impression will make it more likely that I will get some other (paying) work. And, besides, I am getting college credit for doing it. But the issue I have with working on other people's crap is that... it's other people's crap. I mean, it's a challenge and everything to put together something from someone else's vision, and it's probably more rewarding. But there is something about releasing energy and emotion by doing something creative that you thought up all your own, that doesn't require anyone else's input or anything. Anyway, so I have to be up and getting ready to leave in 7 hours, and I have not even typed up my proposal or taken a shower or prepared my "Big-Wig Meeting Clothes" or ANYTHING. I watched TV half the night and ate a couple of cookies. I made my back pop, too. It doesn't really feel any better.
Gig Day: It was almost 7 AM. I went groggily to bed and got woke up at noon while Kenny was loading up the equipment into the band van. I went back to sleep. I got woke up again a half hour later when Kenny brought the drummer over to break down his drums and load them. So I got dressed, got some coffee, and went to work ironing on the transfers to the t-shirts. No real problems there. Then, I started packing for the gig. Magic vocal potion? Check. Cameras? Check. Make-up case? Check. Vocal warm-up CD? Um... Um... Um... the darned thing is not to be found ANYWHERE. I am pretty sure that the Vanishing Drummer ended up with it, since I last had it in his wife's car on the way to a gig (the same time that I lost my cell phone car charger). But I hunted for that for an hour. Finally gave up and went to Mom's for dinner. Gave my Dad one of the black t-shirts (pink logo and all) to wear to the gig. He was really happy. He is my biggest fan. :):):)
Got to the gig. No one could figure out how to set stuff up on the tiny little stage, and no one would listen to me, so I sat and smoked and then talked the drummer through what we'd be doing on the first set (did I mention that we have only practiced with him three times?). The place started filling up. We soundchecked. For some reason, I was shaking and nervous as shit. I had changed the strings on my guitar the night before, and they were still stretching, and, as my amplifier had been set on top of the bassist's amplifier, it was just about shoulder level to me, and I could hear how the strings were stretching during sound check and getting increasingly flat. I tuned the guitar after the first song at sound check, and turned the amp down. Better, but still nervous. Band thinks everything sounds fine. I sit and wait. Meet people. (It's all a blur.) Start the first song. People start getting into it. I start relaxing. Things get better. Drummer's doing GREAT. As the night wore on, we got better and better and more relaxed. We only made a few screw-ups, but that was okay. I can live with that. And then, at the end of the night, the people throwing the party paid us TWICE as much as they had told us that they would. Now THAT was SUPER FREAKING COOL.
So, all in all, it was a busy weekend, but so worth it. I am saving my portion of the gig money to fund the album's pressing and silk-screening, so, now, I only need to come up with another $349 for that... and then $500 for copyrighting (but that can wait until tax time, I figure). My friend David is printing the inserts and CD trays cards for me (bless his heart), so I don't have to worry about that. I DO, however, have to COMPLETELY re-do the insert insides since we dumped The Wannabe and got our new drummer (whom I will no longer call "Piper" since he is no longer doing the thing that made me call him that in the first place, over a year ago). The new album is going to ROCK and be super cool and all artsy and shit and CAN YOU TELL I AM EXCITED ABOUT IT?!?!?!?!?!
I'll quit now and actually do some work. I think.
