Well, dear readers, I am in a bog of a fog of a haze of a daze and that’s all there is to it, there is nothing to be done about it, other than get through these here notes as quickly as possible and hope that my tummy settles down at some point soon. Now, there are, of course, reasons for all of the above and I shall now explain them as I go along. But first, may I just be the first to point out that it is July? And it is my fervent hope and prayer that July will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. So, let us fly into July.
Yesterday was a long and winding day. It began when I got up after seven hours of sleep. Once up, I had to shave, then shower. Then I answered e-mails and such, and then it was already time to mosey on over to the El Portal to judge the singing contest, which I did. We all got there at noon for some inexplicable reason, other than taking some photographs. The show began about twenty minutes late. There were a LOT of judges from the five weeks of the contest and then there were celebrity judges just for the finals – those included Patrick Cassidy, Davis Gaines, and Derek Klena (a past winner of this contest). This time, thankfully, we didn’t have to critique, only score. They always begin with a staged opening number, and this we had to pay attention to as we now judge on dance as well as singing and acting. For yesterday, their songs were chosen by the producers of the show. So, each of the twelve performers did a monologue and then sang their song, while we assigned our numbers and added them up for each category. That all lasted quite a bit of time, then there was an intermission while they tallied the votes. After intermission, the results were given – the top two scorers would go on to the finale round. The two weren’t a surprise to me or Kay. Then the judges can vote to “save” a performer for the finals and we all did – and for the first time ever there was a tie so there were four finalists rather than three, and Kay and I were happy that it included our favorite. Then they each sang one more song of their own choosing. While I couldn’t be sure, I know what the pattern of this thing is after all these years, so I had a hunch that my favorite (and Kay’s) would win, the pattern being that the saved performer wins. And that proved to be the case and we were very happy for her. She’s very quirky and funny and, for me, most importantly, real.
We didn’t get out of there until 4:45. Kay and I went over to The Federal for some dinner after, and that was really fun. I had mac-and-cheese and a side Caesar – both very good, but I’m wondering if the very rich mac-and-cheese is the cause of my currently upset tummy? We were there about ninety minutes, met the winner of the contest and said hi to some other contestants, then I headed home. I did make a stop at Yum Yum donuts and got a small apple fritter – half the size of a normal apple fritter – then came home.
I had a lot of e-mails to answer, and I ate the apple fritter – and I’m also wondering if THAT could be the cause of my upset tummy – frankly, I think that is actually the logical choice for tummy culprit. Just had a nice fifteen-minute telephonic conversation, hence these here notes are going up even later.
After answering e-mails, I could barely keep my eyes open, so I sat on my couch and dozed off, but it’s not that comfy there for any length of time, so I let music keep playing and I did something very unusual for me – I got in bed and instantly fell asleep for two hours. Then I got up and had an e-mail that contained the chart for the song I recently set to music, so I printed that out and did corrections, then noticed I had a bunch of printer error things – the printhead has, apparently, bitten the dust, so this morning I get to buy a new printer, basically an updated, better version of what I have that’s smaller, which I’ll really like. But I’ve had my current printer for almost a decade, so that’s pretty good service, and it also wasn’t doing firmware updates correctly for the past year and there was no way to fix that.
Today, I’ll be up by ten, then I’ll do some banking and meet the helper at Staples at eleven. We’ll figure out the printer and purchase, then she’ll come back with me and set it up – we’ll first nuke all the drivers and stuff for the old printer so there’s no confusion. After that, I’ll eat and hopefully pick up some packages. Then I’ll choose the last five songs – surprisingly, I’ve currently got nine up-tempo fun songs and only four ballads, so the rest of the choices will be mostly ballads, so that will be fun to choose. I’ll try to find one movie song or medley, and I’ll try to find one 60s or 70s pop song by a writer I like.
The rest of the week is meetings and meals, I have to attend a little staged reading, I think, and I’ll do whatever else needs doing, including a show order and writing commentary.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, do banking, buy a new printer, set up the printer, eat, hopefully pick up packages, choose songs, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite ballads of any kind? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall ask the age-old question: Why doesn’t the apple fritter like me? And lest we forget as we fly into July, it is my fervent hope and prayer that July will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful.