March 09, 2004 - 12:48 AM

More Stuff in the Life of Me

Where did we leave off? Oh, right, Vienna Teng on Wednesday of last week (interestingly enough, I've been getting quite a few hits on this diary from people who are searching for Vienna on Google). It's been a busy couple of days since then, so here we go with another quick Wrap-Around-the-Weekend edition of the Pkers diary. But don't be mislead by the word "quick", because, as you know, I wouldn't know how to mince words if I was the Mince Prince of Minskapinsk.

Thursday I sallied forth to Westwood to see Vienna again at Borders Bookstore. Even though she was without the string players, she still put on a choice performance with a totally different setlist. I was quite happy that she acquiesced to my request for the song "Soon Love Soon", a sing-along in the style of African folk-spirituals (if you've seen the movie The Power of One, you know what I'm talking about). Vienna's set filled me with such spirit and energy, I immediately left a message for my sister, wanting her to call me back so that I could share my buzz.

5 minutes later, my mom called to tell me that my dad was, at that moment, on a plane bound for Korea. A few days before, he had received word that his eldest sister's husband had passed away. Since most of his family lives in Korea, and he hasn't seen them (including his mother, my last surviving grandparent) in more than 5 years, he decided to go. He bought a plane ticket the next day, and was on the plane the following day; he'll be in Korea for about a week. I hope that the trip isn't too difficult for him...hugs over the Pacific to my dad.

Oh, and my mom also informed me that my cat has been throwing up every day. But she hasn't taken her to the vet yet. *shrug*

My paycheck SNAFU from the previous pay period was resolved earlier in the week, but the subsequent paycheck that we received Thursday contained more muck-ups. I was missing an entire 20 hour day's worth of pay (in addition to some missing vacation time accrual). Argh. But, I did book some personal studio time for projects on Saturday and Sunday, which turned out to be quite nice.

Later, I talked with my brother Phil on the phone; we discussed baseball, the Red Sox, music (I'm trying to convince him to see Susan Werner in April in Cambridge), movies (he finally saw Lost in Translation and loved it)...you know...this that and the like. It turns out that his wife Jen will be coming out to SF in April to visit her sister, but he won't be able to make it with her because of work, so no fun visit from Phil yet again. Bum. A little after our conversation, Soph finally called me back. I shared my Vienna joy with her and got a promise that she was going to see her when Vienna's in Boston next month; I wasn't able to get a solid "yes" about her seeing Susan with Phil, though. I'll have to work them a little harder on that front.

Finally, LDBL called me about the substitute teaching gig for Friday. Originally, he was going to be taking 9 kids to Cal-State Northridge for a "Future Scholars" college prep symposium while I taught his English classes; he and the directors later decided that I should be the one chaperoning the kids while LDBL stayed to teach English. This was fine by me, since it meant for an easier first day.

So, I woke up at 6:30 AM Friday morning and made it to the school by 7:40. Unfortunately, I parked in a spot that was verboten between 9 and 11 AM on Fridays (my sense of day of the week is quite screwed at this point, what with the lack of a steady work schedule), so at the end of the day, a $25 fine was waiting for me. The rest of the day was okeydokey, though. The kids were nice to me, I got to tote my new backpack around all day, the sun was out, the campus was pretty. And I'll be getting paid $150 for my babysitting services.

Plus, I received good news from my insurance company that I had actually overpaid for my car repairs since the accident was not my fault, and I would be receiving a reimbursement for that as well as a possible reimbursement for my rental car expenses (I just have to send out a copy of the Rental receipt tomorrow). Cha-ching.

I also got a call from my doctor's office with the results of my blood test. Everything is normal except for my cholesterol, which is 236. This led me to rethink my diet (not that I eat irrationally bad or anything, but I do eat too much deep fried stuff and red meat to really be healthy, especially when I'm working and order food off of the client's account) and what I had in my cupboards and refrigerator (very little).

Friday night was spent at Nick and LDBL's apartment, eating a LEAN burger, watching TV, playing Playstation, and winning at Poker again.

Saturday was spent almost entirely at the studio mixing one of Sara Lieb's songs that we'd recorded back in November. I did a pretty good job of it, too (although, the requisite day-after listening revealed a few flaws that I wish I could correct). A triumphant Saturday was followed by a decent Sunday showing, in which I tweaked and re-edited a song for Adrianne that she had cowritten with one of the songwriters of Natalie Imbruglia's hit Torn. The mix as she gave it to me was done except for a new guitar and lead vocal part that just had to be replaced, but she wasn't totally pleased with it. We figured out what was "wrong" with it and I futzed around with the mutiple layers of guitars, added some funky effects, and took out a few bars. She was pleased with the final result and, I hope it makes it onto her record which comes out at the end of this month.

And, after the session, I finally went grocery shopping. Bought $90 worth of vegetables, fruit, juice, milk, soup, and turkey lunchmeat. I'm gonna be healthy for at least a month I hope, or die trying.

As for today, I drove down to Santa Monica to play some cello on a track for my friend Simon (he does incidental music for shows such as CSI), attempted to clear up some of my new paycheck woes, received an offer for 2 more teaching gigs next week, and took Nick back to the Hotel Cafe to see Sylvie Lewis and Kevin So. By the way, you're all ass monkeys for not showing up. Sylvie had a full band with her (all new players who I'd never seen before) and debuted a few new songs in addition the "old" new songs she's been doing for the past year. She'll be in Boston and NY this month, with jaunts back here to finish up her album, then to England to renew her passport and take care of other business, and another show on the 30th at the Hotel Cafe.

Final notes: I received Jonatha Brooke's Back in the Circus, Blackalicious's A2G, the Fooly Cooly soundtrack, and the Lost in Translation DVD from Amazon and will get back to you on them. I also finally watched This Is Spinal Tap and, while amused, didn't find it to be as uproarious as others had claimed it to be.

Now Listening To : Fooly Cooly Soundtrack (the Pillows rock!)
Random Thought : Who wrote "I woke up early the day I died"? Is that even a poem? I don't think it's Emily Dickinson.

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