i'm on the side without the sun

stefanie and i got into an 'argument' yesterday. i wouldn't normally tell such a story here, but this one has a rather hilarious element to it (most of our fights generally do and we're both able to laugh about them later). there was the whole drama with the tape machine which didn't phase me at all- i did end up going to beans and bagels to check it out and came to the conclusion that the tape machine itself was pretty much fine- the box was quite beaten up but the people who shipped it were at least smart enough to wrap the machine in a few layers of bubble wrap- which is what you're generally supposed to do with those. so i unwrapped it and i even plugged it in and tested to see if the buttons worked. everything i tried did. of course i have no tape yet to test the recording and such, but at least the gears and the motors work. those would probably be the most expensive to repair. since i paid so little for it i am expecting to have to pay to have some things on it fixed. so that was fine. i went home to get an igo car and come back to pick it up and it would be timely enough that stefanie would be getting finished with work at the same time. bonus. we got home and stefanie had a bunch of bags and whatnot and i had that 50 lb machine to carry home. we got back into the apartment and i cancelled the remaining time on the reservation because that means that if you get the car back earlier they don't charge you for the remaining amount of time for which you had it reserved- i often overbudget knowing i'll probably get home and can release the unused time. it's a bit less of a squeeze and less stressful. we get inside and i release the remaining amount of time and we both realise that i left the cd i brought in the car, so i go out there to try and unlock it to get it out. how igo cars are unlocked is with a card and since i'd released the rest of the time it wouldn't unlock the doors when i scanned the card. so then i had to call their little hotline to try and get someone to unlock it. i get stuck in the automated menu because i don't push a button for emergencies that gets you a live person. eventually it just starts the menu over again so i then push 1 because i am tired of waiting and i didn't bundle up because i figured this wouldn't take more than a few minutes. i finally get a live person. they say they can't hear me speaking so i begin to speak very loudly and clearly and then the person hangs up on me. so now i am upset because that is a bit of a frustrating situation to be in. i go back and book time on the car for half an hour so that i will be able to unlock the car, get the cd and then hopefully cancel the rest of the reservation in order to not be charged (you have a bit of a grace period that can allow this). i am frustrated and cursing and mildly upset. i wouldn't say i'm too angry. stefanie tries to help me, i refuse her help and get huffy. she goes off to take a shower right as i am ready to calm down and then i get upset because she doesn't want to talk about it. i am meaning to apologise at this time and that would've been it. instead i got upset that she didn't want to talk so i turn to my trusty friend 'the silent treatment.'
my use of the silent treatment is something i started doing around my friend mike back about 10 years ago when we would spend a lot of time hanging out with teenagers and mike would kind of make me his clown in a lot of ways. if i was in the mood for it i'd go along with it and play the part. i was also recovering from some mondo depression so sometimes i wasn't quite in the mood to be his dancing monkey for this group of teenagers some of whom i didn't really like that much to begin with. sometimes when we'd go out and mike would start up with this dynamic and i wasn't in the mood i'd ask him repeated times to stop and try and talk about how i wasn't feeling up to it and i was depressed and blah blah blah. he would always continue anyway which would make me annoyed and upset. if he persisted despite repeated requests to lay off i turned to the silent treatment because it was the only thing that worked and i was quite good at it. i could easily go for three hours in a large group of people and not say a single word. this would be the only thing that would eventually make mike realise i really was upset. i have always taken great pride in this effective way to stick it to people who are fucking with me when i'm not in the mood. i've used it on will a time or two now as well.
so we aren't speaking to each other. i try to burn a screen, but the screen's all fucked up and i try putting on another layer on the back side. stefanie cooks dinner, but i don't feel like it's okay for me to eat any of it since we're in the midst of this 'fight' so i go out to go to do some birthday shopping for my dad that i was planning on doing today. since we're not speaking i might as well get something done. when i get home i do the dishes as well. finally i am at the computer and it has been about four or so hours without a single word. we make eye contact and finally i say something. so basically stefanie out silent-treatment-ed me. i have been bested. kind of a shame as we had the entire night and it was taken up by silent treatment. but also quite funny because now she has beaten me at my own game. yes, i can see the irony and funny side of this situation.
now i am in the coffee shop writing in this thing. i have to burn a screen later and i'm not so sure it's going to work. every time i make another screen it does something else that i am not expecting. i can't stay updated with this thing. i put too much photoemulsion on and it dripped through the bottom in several places, so now it's kind of bumpy. i added another small layer in the hopes that that would smooth it out, which was somewhat effective, but in a lot of ways not so much. it might fuck with the way that it will print. i am hoping i can finagle it, but we'll see. so that's what i have to do when i get home. kind of a concern since the lines in the film are a bit thin and i'll be using silver ink which nick has told me can be difficult to manage. we shall see. who knows- maybe it'll just ducky...
other than that i haven't got much going on. i'm still looking for places to send promo cds and such. i am just going to continue promoting 'down to sleep.' i'm not planning on sending many copies of 'dandelions' out for review since it would be so quick on the heels of the last release and being a diy-type who's just sending music to people without being solicited it's a bit of a case of overstaying your welcome. it will just make people a bit irritated, and understandably so. plus we're having such a good run of reviews i'd like to see if it will continue. it could make for a bit more of an impressive press kit. i am planning on working 'all hope is blind' in a similar way. i'm going to print up promo cds for that one as well- just 100 or so cdrs in white silk-screened arigato paks.
tomorrow is a recording session. woohoo! it is also the beginning of another week. hopefully this week will be a bit better than last week. it should be- tips should be better and i also get paid on thursday- it's the paycheck that i have to do less with so i will have some extra moneys. yay. extra moneys! i'm going to try and get all of my christmas shopping done with my earnings next week. i'm going to try and save my tips as well so that i can get some mastering tape to get the mixdown process going. the drawback of using tape is that it's quite expensive- $50 for 1 reel. i was thinking of trying to get some on ebay. people tend to sell it for cheap there and it's not that heavily sought-after. i believe that i need about four reels for mixdown- a master copy and a safety copy in case something happens to the master. then i can send magneto the tape reels and that'll be that. i'm pretty excited about it to be truthful. i'm thinking it will most likely sound a lot better. like a warm blanket in this cold, cold winter time.
i think i will end this really long entry now.