Chapter 172: Jealous Of My Boogie

Okay, it is almost midnight already so I am going to keep the blog brief tonight. It wasn’t that eventful of a day, honestly. I mean, it wasn’t a bad day or a non-productive day but it was a day that I just don’t have a whole lot to say about. I woke up at 8am, got to work on time, yada yada yada. I wore a blue and gold makeup look today that I just didn’t feel great about. I mean, it was decent but it would have looked better had I gone with a brown instead of blue. I was wearing a blue shirt, though, and am still obsessing over the Maui Wowie shade in my “Summer Of Love” palette. I am intent to do a look without Maui Wowie tomorrow, though. I may use some of the other colors in the palette but definitely no Maui Wowie. After all, I love it so much that I want it to last and if I wear it every day that simply won’t happen. Anyway, over the course of the weekend I drank all of the soda in this house and, in spite of my extensive work in the café at Borders, I don’t know how to make coffee on a home coffeemaker, so I didn’t have any caffeine this morning. I also didn’t sleep the best in the world last night, so I was pretty tired throughout most of today. Work passed fairly quickly, though. I spent most of the workday finishing Lauren Conrad’s book, “Sweet Little Lies,” which was even better than the first “LA Candy” book, and moving on to reread one of my very favorite books, “Rashomon & Other Stories” by Ryunosuke Akutagawa. This is a collection of short stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, two of which inspired the classic film “Rashomon” from director Akira Kurosawa. Three of the stories in this book also served as the inspiration for one of my very favorite Off-Broadway shows, “See What I Wanna See.” It is really a breathtaking book, and any of you Broadway buffs who haven’t checked out “See What I Wanna See,” you absolutely should buy the OBCR immediately – it is pretty breathtaking and some of Idina Menzel’s best work, in my opinion.

Now, I mentioned over the weekend that I had set myself the task of writing two new songs Monday-Friday, as well as recording a video of me singing one song every day and practicing piano for at least 15 minutes every day, as well. Today was the start date for that, and I am proud to say that all three goals were accomplished! Both of the songs I wrote today were VERY pop-oriented, a little more pop than I personally want to go but which could work for somebody else. There was one song that was only loosely based on personal experience, inspired by a joke from Whitney Cummings, about somebody getting upset with you for doing things that you had already told them you would wind up doing. Whitney Cummings was making a joke about “Twilight” and how, in the beginning, Edward tells Bella that he wants to kill her and she’s like, “It’s okay, I trust you.” She compares that to how many women are in relationships, where a guy tells them up front all the horrible shit he has a history of doing, and the woman is like, “It’s okay, I trust you.” In my opinion, they don’t really have a right to get upset when the man does go ahead and do those things – they were warned. So, I wrote a little song inspired by that whole concept. I wasn’t overly pleased with that one but it was something. The second song I wrote was much more autobiographical and really rooted in my feelings in life right now. It was called “Steam,” and it’s basically a song about having a shitty day and just needing to blow off some steam afterwards. I liked that one a lot. It was very Miley Cyrus inspired, with a touch of LeAnn Rimes. As far as the video I recorded this evening, I sang one of my favorite songs of all-time that I sang at the last Open Mic Night I did, the only one I’ve done here in Sarasota, called “Gardenia” by Mandy Moore. Singing this song and watching the video back really proved to me what I already knew – that I need work. I remember singing that song at the Open Mic Night – it was gorgeous. I sang it pretty well flawlessly and the people there were impressed with it all. I got so many compliments on my voice that night. Playing back this video, I know if I did that now I wouldn’t be getting those same types of compliments. It just didn’t go like it did then. Practice makes perfect, though, and I am going to keep working at this every day. The piano went well today, as well. I feel like the piece that I have been working on is slowly but surely clicking into place for me. It is starting to make a lot more sense in my mind and I am very grateful for that. This whole piano thing just might end up working out for me. I am just kidding, of course. This whole piano thing will DEFINITELY end up working out for me. I expect great things.

To end this blog, I just want to take a moment to discuss the end of one of my favorite TV obsessions of the moment. Tonight was the grand finale of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” I am sad to see it end but also very excited that they announced during the finale that there is a new show coming this Summer called “RuPaul’s Drag U,” which is basically like “Flavor Of Love Charm School,” with drag queens. They are bringing back contestants from both seasons of “Drag Race” for a “Charm School” style competition series. I am excited, in particular, that my very favorite queen from either season of the show, Miss Pandora Boxx, is going to be one of the contestants. As far as the finale of this show, however, I was thoroughly disappointed. There was a very clear winner in the final three, Raven, who was robbed and wound up in second place. Very disappointing. The queen who did win, Miss Tyra Sanchez, certainly embodied RuPaul’s clever saying, “Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve & Talent,” but was really green in comparison to Raven, who never came across as anything less than a seasoned professional. I thought it was a shitty choice. Still, it was a crappy end to a great series, kind of like that final season of “The L Word.” You went all that way with the show only to have everything turned upside down at the very end. Still, I am going to miss seeing these queens every week… at least, until “Drag U” starts. For now, though, it is 12:21am and I should most definitely be in bed. Goodnight!