Well, I ate breakfast at 1pm today, and just finished dinner. So that should tell you something about my night :P

Actually, it was pretty tame. After I had my voice lesson with Joel (more on that later) I headed home, changed and called my friend Elizabeth. Who had thought, because I didn't e-mail her back, that we weren't going out anymore. But she'd e-mailed my work account, and I had all last week off. Oops. So she jumped in the car, we met at the Christmas Tree Shops and headed into Cambridge. Met up with Michelle, went to Zuzu and Asgard (cool bar with medieval Irish theme, I think I'll go hang out there with my laptop the next time I try to write high fantasy) but only had two drinks. Since I'm broke. Really broke. After paying my taxes I have about fifty bucks left to my name. Period. End quote. Please, God, may nothing go wrong before I get the money from my book. Please?

Oh, the voice lesson went well. As well as it could when I still sound like crap and couldn't get above G! And I got lost on the way to church where he's the music director (they're letting him give lessons there). But Joel gave me lots of exercises and stuff to work on. Needless to say, driving to work is going to get interesting ;) He was a sweetheart and worked with me for over an hour, close to an hour and a half, and then only charged me for a half hour. And I hadn't even mentioned how broke I am! (Blows kisses to Joel) But it was really helpful, and I could hear my voice improving as we worked on it. I'd missed singing, the shower and in the car doesn't count ;P We're meeting again on Thursday, hopefully by then my voice will be back to full strength. It had better be, since the audition is only a week and a day away!

Today I woke up and put green gunk all over my face (facial mask) and then the phone rings. I'd forgot I had a massage! (which I know sounds so pretentious, but really it's just because I was in a car accident a few years ago, have a bad back, and if I don't receive massage at least twice a month walking without pain becomes difficult). So I washed the green stuff off (figuring the National Enquirer didn't need any more reported martian sightings) and rushed over to Beverly. Also worked on my garden today, since the weather was finally nice enough. I put down this seedling stuff to fill in the bare spots. It's bright blue and looks like insulation. And I have to water it twice a day for three weeks :( But hopefully when it's done growing I'll have a pretty yard.

Have not written at all today - bad Dena! - but I did post three crits that were long overdue. And I figured out I currently owe twelve crits. Gulp. It's going to be a long week!

- D

Okay, in the "I am a dork" department, I went to the music store and bought a couple of books of music to go through with Joel this afternoon (we're meeting at 4pm). And didn't notice that one of them was instrumental :P I was disappointed, they didn't have the Scarlet PImpernel or Chess (which the salesclerk had never heard of. Is it just me, or is that odd?). But they're ordering them for me and they should arrive early next week. Hopefully they'll get here quickly, because I have several candidates for an uptempo piece and none for a ballad. Both the ballads I was thinking of singing are in those two shows. And I refuse to sing anything by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Gag me with a spoon. Hello, I'll write one melody, turn it into four or five different shows, change the lyrics, and make a fortune! Don't belive me? Try singing one of his songs from memory, bet you ten bucks in the middle of it you'll switch to a song from a different show :P So I ended up with the songbooks for South Pacific and Flower Drum Song (two of my favorites).

I also talked with friends/arranged tonight. About four of us will be meeting at the Middle East around 8pm. I'm excited to get out! None of them know each other, though, so that could prove interesting :) Hopefully they'll get along/have stuff in common. Or it could be a loooong night.

Finally got my oil changed, three thousand miles past when I was supposed to! Oops :) Then I came back home and wrote five pages in Magpie! Yeah! I'm happy with the page count, up to roughly page eighty-two, and the way things are going thus far. I just hope the quality of my writing matches the beginning few chapters. I think I'm using incense too much as a setting detail :P, but the Chinese did burn it a lot, and according to my research it was a constant presence in the home. I may reach a hundred pages this weekend, I've got a lot of free time scheduled for writing. Wait, is that an oxymoron? "free time" and "scheduled?" :) I think I've got most of my POV characters, but I'm still wrestling with Loung. Slippery bastard that he is ;)

Off to eat lunch - yes, it's 2:45pm my time, what can I say? I don't keep regular hours :)

- D

My brain is made up of mashed baby food :) I dropped my family off at the airport this morning. Having to wake up at 4:30am should be illegal. And then spend 1 and a 1/2 hours in the car? Bleh! Then I came back home, cleaned my bathroom (two females sharing a bathroom - my sister and I, that is - does not make for cleanliness), took a shower and a nap and then started in cleaning the house. I love my nephew, but ditto on the cleanliness with a tweny-one month old baby ;) And I was afraid my roommate would threaten to move out if I didn't clean :P

I wrote five pages today, too, yeah!

My mom and sister got in Sunday pm, my brother Monday am. I didn't have to teach, which was good, so we were free the rest of the day. I drove them around the North Shore and we looked at big houses and the gorgeous coastline. Then Tues. we went into Boston, I dropped them at a mall while I took care of some business, and then we walked around the Commons and Newbery St. My little nephew was such a good boy the whole trip. He's just a happy baby, always laughing and smiling for no reason, really easy-going, and hardly ever cried. We went shopping, ate dinner at Chili's, and then home. My sister and I went and saw Chicago - finally! I've been dying to get to it! - and while I thought CZJ was excellent, RZ....let's just say she's not a dancer and it shows :P But it was a good movie. Wednesday I taught - brought my sister to class with me - and then we went on a trolley tour of Boston. It's funny to be a tourist in your own town! Then my friend Steph - to whom I send great thank you's - watched the baby so we could go out to a "real" dinner. We went to an excellent restaurant in Salem called the Lyceum. My sister was so disgusted when I told her I couldn't think of anywhere to go that was nice, the nicest places my boyfriends have ever taken me were Appleby's and the like, so we had to get a recommendation from my roommate and Steph. And my new goal is to date a guy who will take me there at least once :P

I wanted to go to dance class tonight, but I'm wiped. It's hard not to have any real private/personal time for several days, and my family doesn't always get along, so things got tense a few times. And I can't bear the thought of getting in the car again after all the driving I've done the last few days. So I'm sticking close to home tonight. I owe crits up the wazzoo, need to write thank-you notes and finish cleaning the house. But I think I'll take another nap first. I have tomorrow off work, I'll catch up on everything then. Really.

- D