Well, dear readers, we had the big scare yesterday, and it’s a big scare I never need to have again as long as I live. At six o’clock we were rehearsing. One of our singers was taping the accompaniment to their song, so I took a moment to go check e-mails. When I got to the computer my desktop screen was not there. What was there was a message saying I needed to shut the computer down by holding the power button, and then to restart it by pushing the same button. The message was written in several languages. I’d never seen anything like it before in all my years of using a computer. Naturally this happened just after six, when Apple Care is closed. I shut down the computer, then pushed the button to restart it. Instead of restarting it started emitting loud beeps – three in a row, over and over and over again. That was alarming, needless to say. I pushed the button again, and it stopped. Then I tried to start it again and the beeps came back. I pushed the button again, then unplugged the computer. Then I plugged it back in and pushed the button to start it up and again the beeps came. No one here had a clew as to why it was doing it and no one here had ever seen anything like it.
While Melody ran her songs (I never have to worry about her, she’s always on top of everything), I called the Apple Store. I got some guy who was very unhelpful – he didn’t know or care what I was talking about and said I’d have to make an appointment to bring the computer in and that they had no appointments left for the Genius Bar. I told him it was an emergency and I had time sensitive stuff to deal with and I made him get a supervisor on the phone. She was worse than he was and said the same thing. I then got really agitated and I think she sensed I was about to really get nasty, which I was, and she finally got a tech on the phone. I explained the problem and he asked if I’d had an extra memory chip installed. I said that the salesperson had recommended that and that yes, we had and that they’d installed it. He said it was probably that, that it probably hadn’t been installed securely enough. I told him they kept telling me there were no appointments and he reiterated that, but I told him I had to have it fixed and I said I was just coming in. He said they’d put me on the emergency stand-by and get to me when they could.
AJ, our musical director, told me he used to work for Apple and said that what the tech told me sounded right. I watched Melody do her final number, gave her some staging things and then I lugged the big machine to the Apple Store, carrying it a rather long distance from car through Bloomingdale’s, to the second floor and then halfway across the indoor mall. They told my guy I was there and he said he’d try to get to me as soon as he finished with who he was helping. At that point, I saw the guy who sold me the computer, and he was appalled I was having this kind of problem with a computer that wasn’t even two weeks old. So, he spoke to my guy, and about ten minutes later my guy came to me and took the computer to the back room to see what was what. Fifteen minutes later he came out and I met him at the Genius Bar and he told me it had been exactly what he’d thought and that everything was fine. He fired up the computer and all my documents that I’d been working on opened and were exactly as I’d left them. That was the best kind of news, but I was still shaking from The Big Scare.
I got home around eight-fifteen and tried to write, but I was still so upset about all that drama that I went and sat on my couch like so much fish for about forty-five minutes. Then I came back and wrote five more pages and got back into writing mode. Nothing like a little drama to get you completely unfocused and out of your zone. I’m really happy I forced myself to write those five pages, because it enabled me to get back to where I’d been and I did end up doing twenty pages for the day.
Prior to all that, I’d arisen at nine, got my faculties about me and then finessed what I’d written the day before. Then I wrote two new pages, after which I did a two-mile jog. Then I wrote one more page, then had some lunch and picked up one little package. Then I came back home and wrote an additional thirteen pages, as well as finishing the contextual patter. Then it was time for rehearsal. Singers arrived, did their songs, which are sounding VERY good, and then we had The Big Scare.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I will be receiving a telephonic call at eight-thirty in the morning from the East Coast singer, who’ll be running the thing we put together for the APAP cabaret conference. I’ll listen over the phone – not ideal, but better than nothing.
Today, I shall have an early telephonic call, listen to some singing, discuss the patter that I finessed for the East Coast singer, then finesse the twenty pages I wrote, then write new pages, then do some sort of jog, then eat some sort of food, then hopefully pick up some sort of packages and an important envelope, then write some more, start some liner notes if possible, maybe have a dinner, then I will definitely have to sit on my couch like so much fish and watch a motion picture.
Tomorrow, I’ll write and jog, then we have our stumble-through, then I’ll dine. Sunday is our sound check and show, which I’m hoping we have a decent-sized crowd for. Wouldn’t you know, all these people who’ve been telling us as soon as we moved the venue and changed to a weekend show that they’d come for sure, haven’t made their reservations – not a one of them. People – can’t live with ’em, can’t live with ’em. Next week will be a busy writing week, and I have a few meetings, too.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, have a telephonic call and hear some singing, I must finesse pages, I must write new pages, I must jog, I must eat, I must hopefully pick up packages and an important envelope, I must start liner notes, I must maybe attend a dinner, and then I must watch a motion picture. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Friday – what is currently in your CD player and your DVD/video player? I’ll start – CD, nothing – no time to listen to anything. Blu and Ray, next up Contagion. Your turn. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall hopefully dream sweet dreams which will not have a hint of The Big Scare.