Some Good News

I did a search at the Copyright Office website and found out that "Rumors" has been officially registered with the Copyright Office. Only four more songs to go.

Miscellaneous Stuff

I forgot to mention this, but, the other day, Kenny ran into a certain former drummer of ours at Safeway. Apparently, he saw Kenny and asked him if we hated him. When Kenny told me this, I was like, "No, I really just don't care." According to this guy, he is now living in Oldtown (oh, joy!) because he got tired of his band in Spokane doing drugs, so he left.

I got a call today from the gal from Mom's church who wanted me to do a web site. She, apparently, has been on the road for 6 days a week, so has not had the opportunity to contact me. However, she called to ask about recording studios as she was looking for one to tour as she is apparently taking some recording studio/audio engineering course online and a tour of a recording studio is part of the program. So, I recommended the new studio owned by the guy who called me yesterday, as one of her prequisites was that the studio be both analog and digital, and this guy's does both.

The drainage situation is finally cleared up. (No pun intended.) Apparently, it was not the drain field, nor was the septic tank full. There were actually TWO problems: 1) there was a blockage between the tub output and the cleanout; and 2) there was a hair blockage in the tub itself. The plumber came over today (at no charge) and fixed the problem and even cleaned the tub for me. How nice!

The electrician is to come over on Tuesday and he will be completely re-wiring the breaker box, so I may be all day without power. In the meantime (probably later this evening) I will clean out the closet under the stairs so that I can put all the crap in the porch in the closet under the stairs. Once the porch is cleaned out, the electrician will be able to get to the breaker box easier, and, after that's done, I will be able to put my office in there. In other news, my neck is out, which is giving me a massive headache; I need to work out still today; I tried to call the drummer to find out if we were practicing Saturday or Sunday, but he was "out"; my new computer monitor will not be shipped until the 31st, so I can't set up my new computer until then (I could set up the computer with this computer monitor, but I'd rather not have to install drivers for it, so, I wait); I have to make plans for someone to watch the kids while Kenny is at work and I am in Spokane on April 3rd and 4th; and, lastly, I am making a list of songs to add to our setlist. Fun.

Kinda Depressed

I don't know what's wrong with me. It's almost as if EVERYTHING is wrong, and I don't know how to fix it.

Yesterday, I got a phone call from a recording studio in Spokane. I'd written to the guy on MySpace to find out, from his perspective, just how long it would take to produce and record five songs. He wrote back a few days ago basically saying, "A hell of a lot less time than a year." So, yesterday, he calls me, and we talked for quite a while about what has gone on with the studio who's been "working" on my songs. Anyway, he told me that he could get a full album's worth of recordings done for us in about two weeks. The only thing: he charges $3,000 per week. However, he said he was interested in a new web site for his recording studio and would consider a partial trade, so I might get it for half.

This guy was so nice on the phone, and already loves my band. He has our CD! So, I think we're going to hammer out the details in the coming weeks and probably start recording in June or July and I will pay it off in August so we can release the CD in September-ish.

However, despite that good news, I am still depressed. I don't really know what's wrong. I do know that several problems have sprung up around the house due to the melting snow. Because the melting snow has saturated the ground out back, there is a lake of standing water. Because of the standing water and the saturated ground, the drainfield is not working properly. As a result, there is sewage (poop and all) backing up into the bathtub. It smells like rotten eggs in the whole house and the drains are unusable. I had planned to work out and take a shower today, but that isn't going to happen because the drains aren't working.

Additionally, the power keeps blinking off for no reason whatsoever. So far, I have found only two plug-ins that are not wired to the same 20-amp breaker. When that breaker blows (at least twice a day), only the stuff plugged into the outlet by the kitchen table (my desktop computer and the desk lamp) and the stuff plugged into the outlets above the kitchen counter backsplash stay running; everything else (including ALL the lights throughout the house) go off. To fix it, you have to go reset the breaker. Kenny has no clue when the electrician is going to be there.

The plumber just finished clearing out the drains, but the sulfuric smell is not yet gone.

I Have Insomnia

Which is odd, because I am VERY tired.

Like I mentioned, I came down with a cold Monday night, had laryngitis by Tuesday, was plugged up Wednesday and Thursday... was so plugged up Thursday night that I didn't go to bed for fear of bugging Kenny, who, by then, had also contracted this stupid thing. I tried to sleep on the couch, but I could not breathe unless I was standing up. I can't sleep standing up, so I decided to give it up and started dinking around on my laptop.

I started playing with a recording program I have, and found an auto tune thingie, which will come in handy for recording later. Anyway, so while I was doing that, about 1PM Friday afternoon, I got a call from the bar we played at last weekend. They had called 6 or 7 other bands because their scheduled band called in sick, and all the other bands they called were also sick. He wanted to know if we would play. I said that, normally, I would jump at the chance, but we had all come down with something, too.

Anyway, so, after the call, I called Kenny to let him know. He was, at first, fine with me saying "no" to the guy 'cause we were sick, but, the more we discussed it, the more we talked ourselves into it. So, I called the bassist and asked him. He, though sick himself, said that he would do whatever we decided. I called the drummer and asked him. He wanted to play, and was disappointed when I said that I didn't know if we could do it 'cause we were sick. I told him that I would talk to Kenny and call him back in an hour or so and let him know.

So, Kenny and I talked it over some more, and decided that it was worth it, so Kenny called the bar back and told them that we would be there. So, I started warming up my voice. It wasn't terrible, but I had no stamina, no power, and I went into coughing fits every little bit. Not good. But, the more I worked it (and the more tea I drank), the better it got. Kenny brought me some cold pills, and that alleviated the stuffy head. I called everyone back and told them that we would be playing and to meet us at the house at about 6:30 or so. I called Dad and asked to borrow his truck.

So, we went to the show, and I felt like crap. I had a fever, sore throat.... I was MISERABLE. And my singing... was tentative, to say the least. We managed to get through it, though. We went home at about 2AM and I crashed. Sick, no sleep, and then a show? DRAINING.

I got up at 11AM and took a shower, cooked food for Kenny, did a load of dishes, and drank copious amounts of tea in preparation for the show Saturday night. I put on my make-up and did my hair in an adorable high ponytail and I trimmed my bangs so I looked very 1960s glam-ish. Or something. Anyway, I thought the hair and makeup combo was cute, and I picked out the most AWESOME outfit EVER to wear that night: it was just a simple pair of jeans, but for a shirt, I wore a CHAINMAIL TANK TOP. That's right: little silver rings all hooked together with tiny crystals dangling all over it. I only had a bra on underneath, so, over it, I put on this long, tight, black blazer with only one button, and the button was right under the boobs. The front of the blazer separated in the middle to reveal a little bit of the sparkly chainmail and my skin. It was AWESOME, and a HUGE hit all around.

Saturday night, Kenny was feeling worse than me, but we were both miserable, and the bassist looked like he was on death's door. The drummer was the only one who wasn't visibly sick, but even he said that he had felt like he'd been sick all winter, and wasn't 100% either night. In any case, for being sick and on last minute notice, we were AMAZING. I can't think of another band that would do what we did. We even pulled off "Radar Love" (a song that has troubled us for a while at practice) both nights, as well as both nights the weekend before.

So, Sunday, even though I went to bed at about 3AM, I didn't get up until 2PM. I did a load of dishes, watched a little TV, and just generally did nothing. I dinked around on the computer for quite a while. Which is where I still am. The Daylight Savings Time thing has really screwed with me. I want to be back on a day schedule, anyway, so I'll just stay up today and hope that no bars call this afternoon wanting us to play tonight. HA!

Arg.

I am still ill. The nights are way worse than the days, but they usually are, with colds. On the whole, though, I am feeling a lot better since the fever went away. I am just tired of blowing my nose and sneezing everything 30 seconds.

I'm Getting Sick...

...which irritates me to no end. I'm pretty sure I know where I got it, since Dad was so sick. The weird feeling in my throat professed to full-on laryngitis (sp?) by this morning when I got up. Though my voice returned somewhat a little later, I am still very croaky. The last time this happened in September, it progressed to a head cold. I could really do without that. Right this moment, I feel a little nauseated, I have a fever, and my throat hurts. In addition, I seem to be having some trouble spelling, as this paragraph has had to be edited three times for typos. Grr.

Re: Luck

Friday afternoon, I was working on school stuff, and got a call from a friend of mine. I helped him out with some MySpace stuff, but, while I was on the phone to him, I got a call from my bass player who told me that a friend of his told him that the band was scheduled to play at a new bar in Newport. I thought that was odd, so I had Kenny call the bar to find out if that was true.

He told them when he got them on the phone that he was calling to find out how they did booking: did we need to bring a demo? And they told us that the band they'd booked for their opening weekend (a band out of Spokane) had canceled on them, and could we come down and play that night? This was at 3:30PM. Kenny called the drummer - who was in Spokane at the time - and told him, and he rushed home to get ready. I rushed around and got ready and told the bass player to come down, that we had a show.

Dad came over and we loaded everything into his truck and went down there. The place was PACKED. There had to be 100 people there. We totally rocked the place with VERY few mistakes. It was awesome. It was standing room only, people 4 deep at the bar... and we rocked, feeding off the crowd energy.

Unfortunately, a night like that on the first night ALWAYS means that there will be almost nobody there the second night. Kenny thought that me and the bassist were totally wrong when we both (separately) predicted that that very thing would happen. I told Kenny that we would see.

Saturday morning, I got up and made blueberry muffins, scrambled eggs, and mashed potato patties for breakfast and then started repairing the dress I thought I wanted to wear for the show that night. But I was totally dreading going. I knew that there wasn't going to be a crowd.

Around 3PM, I got ready to go, but Dad was feeling terrible, so he didn't come to the show; instead, he stayed here and watched the kids for me. We got to the show, and I was right: there were (maybe) 20 people in the bar, and it didn't get very much better all night. People drifted in and out while barhopping, but there was never any more than 40 people in the place, and that was at the end of the night when all the other bars had closed down.

Afterward, Kenny gave the bar owner our card, and, apparently, the bar owner said he would put our band "into rotation" with other bands he was having. We'll see what happens.