just enough to waste the day

to anyone wondering where i get 90% of my entry titles- it usually is a quote from a song or artist i am listening to at the moment- in this case 'let it flow' by spiritualized. i am at the coffee shop since it is loafing day. i am going to do some recording later. i wrote a new song last week and i'm going to spend some time recording it today. i just spent some time looking for decent contact microphones for stringed instruments and i think i hit the jackpot. i found one that's pretty inexpensive and looks like it will work very nicely. i'm not sure where i'm going to come up with the money to buy three of them, but since when has that ever stopped me before. this could be nice as it could grant us the possibilities of doing more shows with live strings that will work a bit better than that last one. yay!
i've finally started to get in touch with people about playing shows again. i'm gunning for mid-april for the strings show- ideally a saturday night. if billy can't make it then i guess i'll just place another craigslist ad for a cellist. it's worked fairly well up to now. i'm recording with katelyn on saturday. i wanted to try to get her and chris together for some recording, but i haven't heard a word from him at all, which i'm interpreting as meaning he's too busy to help us out at the moment. i have some things to score now. boy, do i have things to score right now. i have to figure out what songs are ready to go. i can only think of three or four off the top of my head. i had previously thought that more would be ready, but it doesn't look like it's going to be in the cards.
i met someone at work who does market research and he seemed keen to have stefanie and me come in and do a session. that would be a nice way to make some extra money. emily did it one day and said that it was the easiest $50 she's ever made.
march is looming. i need to get my shit together to start planning the tour. get some places lined up for stefanie to call. we are going all-out and are going to contact tons of colleges in the hopes of getting at least three college shows. what would be ideal is if we would be able to play a college show early in the day and then another show at night. what i really wish is that we had the time and energy to play two shows a day- college show in the afternoon, another show at night. that would mean we'd have a free hotel room lined up every night. how nice would that be? plus we'd just be able to view the college shows as practice-sessions.
it never ceases to amaze me how the second i am plugged into this computer typing into this blog how every thought i have is literally dumped from my head.
i had some weird rush of contentment at some point last week. it really freaked me out- sort of a sense that i really didn't mind my job much at all- which is totally true. i have a tendency to bitch and moan about my employment situation all the time, but really this situation isn't so bad. there are a few recurring incidents to be certain, but the job itself is pretty good actually. tips are really good again because there are less people working. less people working also means that there's more to do and the time goes by faster. that might have something to do with the sudden overwhelming sense of good will. my tips are just going into show-going land right now. i started paying money to my credit card so as to pay back the amount as quickly as possible so as not to increase interest. i'm not in a terrible, dying rush to get the ep released. it's going to take some time to raise the funds. i want to be very careful right now not to lose sight of the long-term and resolve it with the short-term. we did successfully renegotiate our lease- our new rent is $730 a month. that's not too bad- only $15 more than our last lease raise. i've been paying stefanie $360 for my half for the last few months so that only raises my end by $5. i even planned out my financial year in my daily planner. it has kind of calmed a lot of my fears and anxieties in a lot of ways. it helps to know what i'm capable of over the course of the next year. it's necessary given everything that i still need to do. a little extra money to save for these things is kind of important, though.
i asked for us to be added to a show at subterranean where darker my love is playing. that'd be really nice if that happened because i wouldn't have to figure out some way to get my ass down there for that show. i can't believe i missed them at schuba's when they came through last time- LAME! a tundra is playing at the whistler on the same night as eleni mandell at schuba's. i'm beginning to think that i'm going to end up going to eleni mandell because i've never seen her play and it's at schuba's so it will be a super-easy trip. whenever i have to go down to belmont it's almost like it's a complete delight because it doesn't take one hour or more. it's almost like when we went to my bloody valentine and nick cave over that weekend of never-ending delights- riding to lawrence from here only takes five minutes. it takes the annoyance out of the commute. why i often get so annoyed with the cta is mainly because everywhere i go on it takes for fucking ever even without all the delays and weird unpredictable crap.
the a tundra show was really fun. i am really glad that we went. once i'd gotten home from work and taken a three hour nap i felt just fine. i really love their 7". i haven't been able to download the mp3s for it yet (it includes a bonus track which i'm pretty pumped to hear). i really should buy their cd sooner rather than later. we ran into miles raymer at the show and had a pleasant and relaxed conversation with him. i'm kind of glad said relaxed conversation occurred because when he interviewed us we were super reserved and guarded. i'm sure he's probably used to that but it really was like night and day- we were just chit-chatting and then he set his recorder on the table and the red light went on and we were totally tight-lipped from that point on, particularly me. when i was talking i couldn't get my thoughts out coherently either- stefanie almost acted as my translator. she often does in those interviews. i was just fine in an email interview, though...
i just sent a random myspace message to a friend of billy's who plays the viola. i asked if she could come by to record on saturday night, but i anticipate she probably won't be able to even if she wants to. i love random myspace messages. i'm always very reticent to send them- but i've found people usually are pretty receptive to that kind of thing. it's one of those things where i have to expect the opposite of what i would do. of course if i got a random message from someone i'd donly met once asking me to play some guitar for them i'd probably jump at the chance. so maybe it will be the opposite in this case. dang. i just really want to get the two at a time principle going on these recordings- i feel like the recordings will come out a bit better. plus i'd like to lighten the load on billy's shoulders. the next visit to kc i would like to be a relaxed one for a change. not just for his sake but for mine as well.
anyway, i shall go now... transmission over.