Chapter 249: A Little Opera Goes A Long Way

You know how I start so many of these blogs by saying that it was a boring day? Well, today I REALLY mean it, at least in reference to the first portion of the day. I woke up on time, at 6am, and immediately went to uploading last night's video blog after having left it to download to the computer from Windows Movie Maker. I was experimenting a bit with the file type & compression process, etc., and apparently I found a really good one because regardless of how long it took to compress & save the file, it took less than five minutes to upload to YouTube, which is awesome. After this was done and posted, I went to brush my teeth and do my morning skincare routine, then made myself some coffee and oatmeal for breakfast. I sat down at the computer to eat, drink my coffee and smoke a cigarette or two. While there, I downloaded last night's episode of "True Blood," which I will probably watch sometime tomorrow while I am off. It wasn't long before the clock was edging towards 7:30am and it was time to get into the bathroom to get dressed and do my hair and makeup for the day. I did another peach/coral look using the Ulta 92-piece Blockbuster that I bought over the weekend, which I am loving so far. I used it on Sunday, as well, and did a very similar peach/coral look then, so I know that those colors work really well but haven't tried out too many of the other eye shadows in the palette. Anyway, it was a really cute look and didn't really take too long to achieve, so I was pretty pleased with it. I was also pleased with the fact that I still had a good amount of time to hang out, smoke a couple more cigarettes and mentally prepare myself for work.

Work was the most boring part of the day. It was 9.5 hours of a whole lot of nothing. I mean, there were calls but aside from that I pretty much spent the entire day not really talking much with anybody or really doing much interacting at all. I basically spent the entire day reading this book that one of my co-workers lent me, called "In My Father's House," by E. Lynn Harris. E. Lynn Harris is a bit of an anomaly to me. I wasn't really familiar with his work prior to this novel, although my co-worker and friend has told me before that she is a big fan of his work. Apparently, most of his work deals with African-American men who are "on the down low," which I find fascinating because E. Lynn Harris himself was an openly gay African-American man and it kind of seems like focusing so much on the "down low" types is kind of perpetuating a big stereotype. It is kind of an odd thing because I know several openly gay, perfectly well-adjusted black men and wasn't aware that it was such a big phenomenon that black men would be living lives with wives and girlfriends or whatever and secretly having sex with other men. I hate that whole idea and it seems like more and more lately the media is trying to make it out like it's the norm for black men. I just find it offensive because, like I said, I know several black men who are out and proud and don't run around trying to be anybody but who they are. Anyway, from what my co-worker was telling me, "In My Father's House" is the first novel of his that is solely focused on an out gay man, as opposed to simply having the gay characters as part of an ensemble or as a secondary character. It is a really good book and it is a shame that E. Lynn Harris passed away before he had a chance to write more like this. It is a really fun, sexy story about a man, Bentley Dean III, who owns and operates a successful modelling agency in South Beach. I like it a lot. I'm almost finished with it and I am thinking of picking up some of E. Lynn Harris' other books to see what they are like.

I basically spent the entire day at work reading this book, though, and barely spoke with my co-workers or anything. The day passed fairly quickly, though, and I was ready to get out of there by 6pm. My Mom and I hadn't taken anything out for dinner tonight, so I suggested that we just pick up a pizza after she gets off and call it a day, which she agreed with. When she dropped me off at home on her 15-minute break, I went over to the opposite side of the apartment from where our door is to go to the mailbox. I reached into my pocket for the mailbox key when I realized that I didn't have my keys on me. Suddenly it dawned on me that I couldn't recall grabbing my keys when I left the house this morning. It was very unlike me. I also didn't grab my iPod when I left the house this morning, either, which is even less like me. I checked the front door and the sliding glass door off of our patio to see if perhaps we had left either one unlocked by accident. I had no such luck. My Mom had already left, as she had to get back to work. So, I sat for a minute not sure what to do. Then I remembered that my sister has a key to our house, as well, so I whipped out my cell phone and called her. She was just arriving at the grocery store, which is just a few blocks from my house, so she said that she would head this way once she was done and open the door for me. It was about 45 minutes later that she did show up but I was very grateful that she came at all. It was a really weird experience for me, though, because it really made me feel kind of dumb and irresponsible. I try really hard nowadays to be an adult and act and behave as such, so when I do something dumb like that where I have to reach out to somebody else for help with a simple task like getting into my house, I feel like all of that effort to be a responsible adult has gone to waste. I know that's not true and it's a silly mistake anybody could make... but it's a silly mistake you don't really see many people make very often. So, it kind of sucked.

Once I got inside I spent a little while practicing piano, which went pretty well. Viktor wants me to be playing the piece I've been working on with both hands by this week's lesson, which I can pretty well do at this point. I just can't do it well. It's not a big deal, though, I don't think. I'm going to work at it a bit more extensively tomorrow and see if I can improve it before Wednesday. Also, in this time, I was reminded of a new record coming out that I was very excited about that was set for release tomorrow. I think that everybody who has followed the blog for a while now knows of my love for a little "band" called Owl City. Owl City was my favorite new artist of 2009, and the major label debut album, "Ocean Eyes," is counted amongst my favorite albums of recent times. It is an absolutely gorgeous album and one I recommend EVERYBODY check out. Anyway, Adam Young, the one man who is Owl City, has got a new album under another name being released tomorrow. This side project is called Sky Sailing, and it is basically exactly like Owl City, except acoustic. It seems a little silly to do it this way, as opposed to just calling it Owl City acoustic, but that is neither here nor there. This record is called "An Airplane Carried Me To Bed," and it is also a gorgeous record. It sounds exactly like an Owl City record, except without the dancy, electronic elements. In terms of lyrics, melody and all the other factors, this collection of songs could easily be a set of Owl City songs. My personal favorite of these songs is the album's opener, called "A Little Opera Goes A Long Way." It is one I can relate to a LOT lately. It really speaks to exactly what I have been feeling in my life lately. I was talking to my Mom about this the other day - I am bored. I am bored with my life. I am bored with everything around me. There is just this overwhelming feeling in me of "There's got to be something more than this." I know there is. I have always known that my life was meant for so much more than what it is right now. What I haven't ever known is how to get it to where it is meant to be. This song is a major comfort in that whole concept and reminds me of what is important to me in life. The chorus of the song says, "Pretend you're not alone, like you are center stage on Broadway, cos' when you're on your own a little opera goes a long way." It's funny, too, because lately I have been making an effort to spend a little more of my time performing for nobody but me. I feel like it is important to do that sometimes. It helps spark your imagine and helps you to envision what you want out of life... if what you want out of life is to be a performer, that is. I find it very helpful. It kind of takes my mind and my focus back to where I want it to be - on art and performance and music and all the things that I hope to achieve with my life. As far as the rest of the Sky Sailing record, like I said, it is gorgeous. It is like "Ocean Eyes" in a lot of ways - it kind of ebbs and flows and takes you on a journey as you listen to it. I haven't gotten to listen to it too much at this point, though, because of the other thing that happened last night.

A little later yesterday evening, after my Mom and I engorged ourselves on pizza and watched "The Bachelorette," I went online and found another major leak that I knew was coming soon and have been pretty excited for - Sheryl Crow's seventh studio album, "100 Miles From Memphis." This album, I have to say, was a pretty big surprise to me. It is extremely different from anything that Sheryl has done before, which I was kind of anticipating based on the album's first single, "Summer Day." This record is wall-to-wall Motown. If you are looking for the classic Sheryl Crow country/blues/pop sound, it isn't really anywhere to be found on this record. Still, Sheryl has always had bits of a soul/Motown vibe in her music, so it's not completely out of left field. I wasn't expecting the entire album to be in this style, though. The other surprising thing is that the album includes a lot of cover songs and some surprise guests. None of those guests are more surprising, though, than Justin Timberlake. I never imagined there would come a day when there was a song that is listed as Sheryl Crow featuring Justin Timberlake. Still, it works shockingly well. Their voices go together beautifully. The song that they do together is quite the surprise, as well. It is a cover of the Terence Trent D'arby song "Sign Your Name." Sheryl Crow, Justin Timberlake and Terence Trent D'arby are three things I never imagined going together, and had they gone together I would have imagined it being a huge fucking mess. It is not, though - not by a long shot. This album, surprising as it was to me, is fucking brilliant. I did expect that out of it - Sheryl Crow has never let me down before. It's different than I expected but really fucking good. The album includes some really great, soulful, upbeat songs as well as some really gorgeous ballads. Every song on the album is great - there isn't a single one I dislike. My favorites, though, would have to be the opener, "Our Love Is Fading," "Long Road Home," "Say What You Want," (which is a brilliant commentary on American culture as Sheryl has a tendency to do,) "Peaceful Feeling," "Sideways," which features Citizen Cope, and her gorgeous cover/tribute to Michael Jackson, "I Want You Back." I found the inclusion of this particularly poignant knowing that she was a backup singer for Michael for years and I would imagine was very strongly affected by his passing. This is a gorgeous album, though, and I highly recommend everybody check it out when it comes out, the day after my birthday, July 20. It seems like every year some album that I am really into comes out just before or just after my birthday. One year it was Ashlee Simpson's debut album, "Autobiography," which is still a favorite of mine, and another year it was Miley Cyrus' first non-Hannah Montana album, "Breakout," which I still love and listen to quite frequently, and this year it is Sheryl Crow's album, which I don't doubt I will still be loving years from now.

Anyway, I fell asleep writing this last night and it is well into the day on Tuesday by now, so I need to go get to this day. I don't really have any plans for today. I need to watch the movie "Nine," so I can send it back to Netflix. The next thing I am getting is the movie "Invictus," which I have absolutely no interest in seeing but my Mom wants to have here for this weekend, since her boyfriend will be in town. I'm really kind of irritated that she seems to be making this weekend all about hanging out with him. It's my birthday weekend, for chrissakes! I mean, I don't expect the entire weekend to be devoted to ME but I do find it kind of irritating that I am going to spend my four-day birthday weekend spending the bulk of my time sitting in my bedroom watching Netflix movies by myself. That seems pretty shitty. I need to get over myself, though. It's not like I'm turning 12. I'm going to be 27 this year - if there is anything that I want to have happen on my birthday weekend, I need to make it happen for myself. Whatever. Anyway, it is time to go get to the day. My only other plan, aside from watching "Nine" is taking out the trash and, later this evening, making dinner. I can't decide if I should just make some Hamburger Helper or if I should make the somehow less ghetto version of Hamburger Helper known as Spaghetti. Meh, I'll figure it out later. For now, though, I guess all I can say is Good Day. I said good day!