Good Things

[2/28/2002 8:15:00 AM]
And the biggest full moon in a long time has brought boons to my home. :)

Eric has sent the "get your stuff and get out" email to Tim. He officially doesn't live here anymore.

I called Frank last night and it's on for tonight-- I record my trad. demo. tree songs, and then I start burning copies and putting them out to local places. I kind of wish now I'd gotten it out sooner-- can you believe I forgot about St. Pat's??

Last night also heralded another month of active womanhood. I know it's a little silly to be grateful for that, and there are certainly months I wish it didn't hurt quite so much, but there is a kind of advantage to having a certain time of, well, enforced introspection. It doesn't happen every time, but most times it does. It's also the time I allow myself to have chocolate. :D And there is a certain pagan part of me that considers having it come on at such an amazingly full moon a good omen. Though I suppose considered from another perspective it should be exactly at the dark of the
moon.

Yesterday it rained and rained, harder all the time, all day. It was really good because we need the rain here, but it just felt good as a day-- it was warm and windy, and almost all the snow was gone, things were melting, crocuses starting to sprout their long green leaves. It feels good. If the next two weeks stay warm, we may get through to spring yet. Of course, I think it will herald an unusually cool, wet and foggy summer, bad for the schooner trade, but I don't mind if it will break this drought. Unfortunately, I'm not sure more unusual weather is the answer.

I stayed inside and watched TV, practicing guitar and doing stretches. It felt cozy to be inside with the rain going on-- it felt like spring. Actually it felt like winter in Atlanta, which is maybe what I'm missing. We do tend to idealize what is farther away, and trivialize what is close by. Which is why people cheat, I guess.

But that's another reverie.

More Good Things

[3/7/2002 6:25:04 AM | Susan Hickey]
News! News!

I had to change the template-- I think it was encouraging me to write about sad things. Not that I don't do that anyway-- correspondents have noticed in the past that Im cheerful and perky in person and when I get in front of a
page, I can bitch until the cows come home, and then bitch at the cows. :P

But this past week there's not a lot to whine about, contrary to my whiny attitude for awhile there. The problem with having the bad roomie was he gets to be your outlet-- all the things that are going wrong for you right then you can get out by bitching about this poor loser. So now he's gone, and I have sudeny to get back to worrying about the music, and when am I going to write the next song, or put the one I wrote for Charles down on paper so he can sing it, or send J Michael that book I meant to send as a thank-you for recording with me?

So I'm all blue, wondering if I can actually make it here in Portland, and what will I do if I can't get more work, berating myself for even wanting success with the secondary job when I should be concentrating on the next thing with the music (and when are you going to record now?) when I check the mail and find out that that credit card I applied for I finally got! My first credit card! LLBean Visa, 5,000$ limit-- I have backup! Wahoo! I called Dana to celebrate "Great!" she says, "DON'T USE IT." Sheesh. My euphoria was completely greed-free (or, mostly, anyway ;)); I was and am just happy to have this one little confirmation of my life as a solvent adult, capable of paying my own goddamn bills, which I have been doing since college. The smallest of validations from my society, but I'll take it. :D

Other good things this week-- Went to Frank's and cut my demo. Got it back tonight, the master-- it sounds good! Frank was pretty up about it, and he's a fairly taciturn guy-- "take it to RiRa's" he said, they need more trad." I will, you can bet. Frank knows the little scene here pretty well-- I felt good, and suddenly the idea of this CD bringing real changes in my life here seemed very possible,and I was again psyched about it.

I came home and installed my CD-RW drive, and even got the part about switching the master and slave modes right. Very glad to have something install itself without a hitch (so far knock wood); I never expect it to go that way. It's probably the best policy with most of life, but we keep our wishful thinking, don't we?:P

Bob and Diana came back from their 8 weeks or so on the Continent and the British Isles-- they're so lovey-dovey you'd think they hadn't just spent a long vacation together. They'd be sickening if they weren't both so reserved. As it is they rate an easy 'cute' with an option on 'lovey'. :) We did a movie with Tad-- the Blue Something, a Czech WWII film which was a hell of a lot better in terms of delivery than Pearl Harbor. Though I am being unfair of course-- I expected a lot more from Pearl Harbor than it delivered-- it's hard to go see a Czech WWII film with anything like the same expectations. But even so the Spitfire footage was the most amazing aireal combat I've ever seen, -- even had me on the edge of my seat-- and the guys said it was the best Spit footage they'd ever seen in a film period. Good plot and acting, too. And not depressing, somehow. Not really sure how. Maybe because I was all set for it to be completely nihilistic.

Ok, other good things-- had a day at the Java Net cafe with The Artist's Way and enjoyed some quality time with self; got a list from my online family of Fun Things To Do That Are Free-- I'll post it later. Started a dialogue with a local DJ about good music, we've been emailing like crazy back and forth ever since I called her a brainless giggler. (I hate when the person you're bitching about responds herself, and turns out to be really nice.)

Finally finished Season 3 of Buffy with Bob today-- yay! Great finale! I *love* the Mayor. Got to see two really good eps, Buffy & Angel this week-- *really* love a good story. Applied to ManPower & Assoc. today, we'll see where that goes, my tests were at Master level for Word-- I'm a Word Master! Other tests came out well too. Finally donated blood, though granted on a bad day, Monday. I had just had a rather poor exchange with the temp agencies again, and was feeling useless and unwanted. I was about to work out when I saw the blood drive; I'd been meaning to give--today I just wanted to stand in a line and answer questions where *something* of mine would be acceptable
at the end of it all! For once the donating made me feel all woozy and unstable, so I went home & slept until 6, then stayed up til 2 of course... :P

OK, there was one more good thing this week, and I forget what it is... Oh, well, it will just have to be an unappreciated good thing for a little while longer.

Good night!:)