Chapter 167: Keeps Getting Better

Okay, so it is 11:39pm right and I have wound up putting off the blog for a little too long this evening. With that in mind, I am going to keep it brief this evening. It wasn’t the most eventful day in the world so there isn’t really all that much to be said in the first place. I do want to begin, though, with something I intended to include in last night’s blog but forgot about because it didn’t really fit the tone or theme of last night’s entry. One really great thing that I didn’t necessarily expect but happened upon yesterday was a HUGE announcement from one of my top five favorite artists of all-time, Kylie Minogue. A YouTube video was put out with a very brief instrumental snippet of what is set to be the first single from her brand new album, “Aphrodite,” due out July 5, 2010!!! As I have mentioned a few times recently, 2010 hasn’t seen the release of a lot of really great music so far. The summer season is shaping up to change that all around, though. First there was the release of the brand new single, “Invisible Light,” by the band that created two of my all-time favorite albums, Scissor Sisters. Their third album is set for release in June and now Kylie has a new one in July! I was already feeling uncharacteristically excited about this summer for no real reason but now that there is new Kylie coming out, I am even more excited! Seriously, Kylie Minogue hasn’t disappointed me once in her career and I certainly don’t expect it to happen this time. To make both of these recent announcements even better, there is a very exciting link between these two records – they were both produced by one of my absolute favorite producers out there, Stuart Price. He produced my very favorite Madonna album, “Confessions On A Dance Floor” and has done amazing remixes for a large number of my favorite artists, as well as doing amazing music all his own with his band Zoot Woman. I am really excited to see what he has managed to cook up for both Kylie and Scissor Sisters!

Today was considerably better than yesterday, in spite of one really big mess that could have easily ruined my day but didn’t at all. I woke up late again today, at 7:45am. Keeping in mind the sentiment of yesterday’s blog and my new Dolly-inspired philosophy, I didn’t let that get in my way and I made it a point to simply expect great things. I washed my face, brushed my teeth and smoked a cigarette all before 8am and was ready to workout again by then. My Mom and I decided that this week was going to be all “Zumba” workouts and, in spite of being kind of tired, I pushed myself to go ahead with it, expecting a great workout. Turns out, it WAS a great workout! After we finished the workout I was feeling really energized and the endorphins flowing were putting me in a pretty great mood. I went to get ready for work and decided to try something a little different. I have pretty well decided that my makeup concept for summer is all about combining bronze tones with bright colors, (which, I’m not going to lie, is a concept I kind of stole from the Urban Decay “Summer Of Love” ad campaigns.) I decided to give that a try today with my NYX S104 palette. I did a smoky eye look using a shimmery cream color on the inner corners of my eyes, a few different shimmery bronze colors on the outer corner and in the crease and, to spice it up a bit, a bright purple underneath the eye, connecting to the bronze colors on the outer corner. I really loved that look and felt really cute today. I wore one of my favorite pairs of jeans, from the Siegfried “My Old Denim” collection, and my solid lavender crew neck t-shirt from Old Navy with a long peace sign dog tag stile necklace to add something to the plain shirt.

The first couple hours at work passed by fairly quickly. On my first break, I walked the parking lot with my Mom to get a little extra exercise. It was a really nice day and it felt good to get a little outdoor time and a little extra exercise. I also spent my lunch break with my Mom, as per usual. After lunch, I went back upstairs and sat down in my chair and heard an awful sound. I also felt an awful sensation that I was all too familiar with. I have a very long history of randomly splitting my pants. It happened as soon as I got back from lunch at 2pm, and I immediately went and told my sister about it. She told me to stay in my seat and wait until my Mom went to her lunch break at 3:30pm, then I could go home and change. I felt very self-conscious about this but made it a point not to get out of my seat for any reason during that time. I didn’t mention it to any of my co-workers and I’m honestly not sure that any of them even knew what happened. When I did get up to leave, I placed my bag behind me enough to cover it, as far as I know. The whole thing really sucked but at least I got to come home long enough to change. Like I said before, that easily could have ruined my day if I had let it, but I refused. I still expected great things out of the day. I also spent a large portion of the day, after our client left at 12:30pm, reading the new RuPaul book, “Workin’ It.” I am pretty well finished with the book, actually. It is a really quick and fun read filled with all kinds of tips on fashion, makeup and drag which are all things that I am very interested in. I have said it a million times before and I will say it again, RuPaul is a huge inspiration to me. This book is really a lot of fun and also filled with tons of gorgeous photos of Ru in a wide variety of looks. I felt very inspired by it.

This evening was also my piano lesson. As I have discussed a few times during the past week, I was pretty worried about tonight’s lesson because I got so lost with this new piece that I had a lot of trouble practicing and pretty well didn’t do much practice at all. I was worried that Viktor would be pissed off at my lack of progress and did not want to be a disappointment. When I explained the matter to him, he was really friendly and perfectly okay with the whole thing. That was very nice. It was a really good lesson this evening, too, and I am really excited to practice the piece now that I have sorted out my issues with it. It is a really fun piece and I am excited to learn to play it better. I am very happy with the progress I have made so far with the piano and am only expecting things to get better. I am expecting to be great… and if I am not great, I am going to do everything in my power to become great. Viktor offered, as he has for the past few weeks, to give me a ride home. For the first time, though, I decided to take him up on it. We had some very pleasant conversation all the way to my house and got to talk on a much more personal level than we have before. It was really nice. He asked a lot of questions and told me a lot that I didn’t know about him before. I love getting to know people in my life better. It only makes sense that I should get to know him on a slightly more personal level, too, because he is the man who is teaching me piano. In all likelihood, he will be one of the most important men in my life story. Piano is the gateway that will lead me to all of my dreams, and he is the one guiding me through it. I am extremely grateful for that and also for the fact that he is such a nice guy and we gel really well with one another. Sure, his looks may be a bit distracting for me at times but I am definitely learning a LOT from him.

When I got home, I sat around watching makeup tutorials on YouTube for about an hour before my Mom got home. She picked up one of those things of Publix fried chicken and we heated up leftover sides to go with it. I watched “Idol Gives Back,” which wasn’t as good this year as some previous years. I donated $10, which I learned is enough to buy a bed net for a child in Africa, which could actually save them from contracting malaria. Malaria is a major epidemic throughout Africa and it can be prevented in a way as simple as providing a net to go around people’s beds to keep out mosquitoes transporting the disease. I really feel like I should have given more but I am broke enough as it is. If there is one thing I hate about the life I am leading right now, it is the fact that I don’t have the money to help all the people I would like to help. Whether it is my friends and family who are struggling, or children in Africa and various other countries throughout the world, I just hear about so many issues and really wish I could do more about it. Still, what I can do, and frequently do, is wish the best and send positive energy out in their direction. It still makes me feel a little wrong for spending such large amounts of money on things like clothes and makeup for myself. It kind of sucks. I was going to say it kind of sucks not having the power to change the world but regardless of my money situation I know that I DO have the power to change the world. I am going to keep working on it. I expect great things.

It is now 12:26am and the only thing I can expect right now is a great night of sleep. I am going to make it happen. My sleep has been coming more and more easily lately. I am very grateful for that. My days have been passing a lot more easily, too. Like Christina Aguilera said, “It keeps getting better." That is my new motto to accompany my new philosophy. I expect great things, and I expect it to Keep Getting Better. For now, though, I am off to bed. Good night.