Anatomy of a Day in the Life of a Lady of Leisure

I'm currently entering my third week of non-day-employment, and am finally settling into a groove. I keep remarking to myself how uncanny it is the amount of things I can get accomplished when my mornings and afternoons aren't spent parked behind a desk. Slowly but surely, my body, house, personal relationships, and music career are getting the attention they deserve. My dry-cleaning lady and I are on a first-name basis and I can finally walk in my bedroom without stumping my toes on some sort of clutter. I have, by no means, gotten everything done, but I finally feel like items get crossed off my to-do list instead of staying parked there for weeks at a time finally to be addressed in haphazard fashion. I'm enjoying what others think may be mundane because I finally have the leisure to get those types of things done. I'm also getting a taste of what domestic life feels like. Rather than just taking care of myself, I'm practicing taking care of a household (which my darling mother keeps reminding me I'm not quite equipped to do right this second).

So what does a typical day look like in my life of leisure? It's not all track suits and soap operas, I assure you. I'm getting my condo ready to put on the market, planning the wedding of the century, and soliciting work so that I don't... you know... starve.

The biggest difference is my waking time. My internal body clock has still been waking me up at 7 am, but now I get to stay in bed and watch West Wing re-runs on Bravo. I get up when I feel prepared to get out of bed rather than over-sleeping and rushing to get into the office on time. I try to do something around the house whether it's purging junk from the loft or scrubbing down the balcony, cleaning out my closet or meeting with a contractor. I go to coffee with a girlfriend or drive down to Chevy Chase and take an aerobics class in the afternoon. I run errands like grocery shopping or picking up dry cleaning or getting my oil changed. When evening falls, it's time to go to work, and I make sure that I'm doing something music-related even if I'm not teaching or leading a rehearsal. If class or a lesson is cancelled or I don't have a scheduled rehearsal, I go to a quiet place and spend time preparing scores or planning a rehearsal. And once all of that is done and the Maestro is finished with his rehearsal, we spend some time with one another so that we don't forget what the other looks like.

My work may be evenings and weekends, but above all, I finally feel rested and un-rushed. I've become a priority in my life again, and the change of pace is a breath of fresh air. I surely don't expect it to last forever, or even for much longer, but for now, my life of leisure is a fantastic shift in pace.

Hello? ::pats microphone:: Is this thing on?

I know, I know... it's been a long time. I'm not even sure if anyone's still subscribed to this bad boy of a blog I started eight thousand years ago. It wasn't my intent to drop off the face of the planet, but life ran away with me. I was working 70 hour weeks and had all sorts of other crazy things going on. And while my life isn't so much slowing down but taking a new direction, I feel myself having "unfrivolous" and interesting things to share and actually having the time to share them.

So without further ado, I'm going to give you the quickest update of my life since February 1st, 2009*:
-I started teaching children and liked it! It's the perfect balance of instructing the youth of America and not-being-in-a-classroom to suit my delicate proclivities. I've music directed The Wiz, Godspell, and now Fame with this awesome group of advanced teenagers and love it more than I ever thought possible.
-I also music directed The Full Monty with an awesome group of guys in Baltimore and the Maryland/DC non-union premiere of RENT.
-I worked my last day at hateful day job this past Friday and have never felt happier in my life. I'm slightly afraid that I might starve, but I'm trying to make a go of music directing theatre and teaching voice full time.

...and... finally, the cream of the crop of updates...

-I'm engaged! The Maestro asked me to marry him in August and we're in the process of planning our big Baltimore wedding for next fall.



So what do I have to say? Why'd I come back to this wild and crazy blogging world, you may ask?

Since I'm finally living the life that is in line with my creative objective for this corner of the 'net, I'm running with it. I want to document my time attempting to make a go of being a professional musician in Charm City and provide insight to anyone else who might be trying to do the same. Also, in the process of planning our upcoming nuptials, I've been stalking bridal blogs along with all of yours, so I want to have an opportunity to share pretty things with you guys. I don't think I'll be attempting to be a bridal blogger. I think that there are plenty of people who already have that job on lockdown, but I'd love to share pretty things that I come across never-the-less.

Also, I never stopped trying out new libations, so I'll also be resuming Wino Wednesdays

So there you go, folks. What has everyone been up to since I've been on blogger sabbatical?

*The deplorably long-ago last time that I stopped past this little corner of the Internet.

The case of the mystery flower bandit

When I walked into work this morning, there was a vase of lillies, carnations, and baby's breath in a vase sitting outside of my closed office door. A few minutes later, upon walking around to the rest of the office, it came to me that all of the women in our office were given similar vases as well. No one who works in the office daily fessed up to giving us the flowers.

We all sat around speculating as to who they could possibly have come from. The only conclusion that we collectively came to was that they were from was a former employee who used to give people flowers from her garden unsolicited. She was a sweet woman, but a little... off. She left a few weeks ago, and we haven't really heard from her since.

Finally, one of my co-workers sent this e-mail out over the server:
Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

This morning when we arrived at work, all of the ladies of [company name redacted because I don't want any crazies showing up and knocking down my office door] found beautiful flowers placed on their desk or in front of their office door.

We haven’t determined who the kind person is that decided to brighten up our morning with the flowers, so this email is a big THANK YOU to that person!

If you would like to come forward, that would be great to thank you in person. If not, just know it was a kind and surprising gesture!

Thank you.

She's a lot more diplomatic than I, because my interoffice e-mail would've looked a little like this:

To everyone--

WHERE DID THE FLOWERS COME FROM?! AT LEAST LEAVE A CARD SO THAT WE DON'T THINK WE'RE GETTING STALKED!

If it did come from one of you, though... um... thanks!

Love,

Downbeats

Once the e-mail went out, I almost instantaneously got a phone call from my direct supervisor (who ironically enough works remotely from home) inquiring about the flowers. She didn't know anything about it either, but suggested that it might be the owner or COO of our company. Once I put the bug in her mind that it might be this former employee, she started getting creeped out, too. I promised her I'd call as soon as we got to the bottom of it. Still, no one has come forward.

At any rate, I got the biggest bouqet of flowers, so I'll get shanked first if it really is a crazy nutjob.

Multi-Tasking by Day

I've recently moved to the other side of my office at the day job, and with the new office, came a second monitor. It's very helpful for certain functions specific to my duties, but it also serves the double purpose as a TV on my desk. I basically work 13 hour days between going into the office at 9 am, being at the theatre by 6, and then not leaving until 10 or 11 pm. As a result, I rarely get to watch TV, unless it's on marathon on a Sunday afternoon when I happen to be not otherwise engaged.

During the day to pass time while I'm doing mindless work, I've taken to watching website TV. With very few exceptions, I've come to the conclusion that they put the serial plot shows and bad television that's not taking off on the network up on their internet homes in their entirety. The stuff that I could get lost in (i.e. Law & Order, Without a Trace, Criminal Minds) is only represented on the network sites by recaps and quick clips. In the past week or two, however, I've watched the entire seasons of Chuck, Numb3rs, The Unit, CSI and CSI Miami, and Lipstick Jungle.

Other than that laundry list of couch potato material, I've also been using the network sites to track two new shows: Swingtown on CBS (middle-aged suburban married swingers in the 70s) and In Plain Sight (a ballsy man-eating US Marshall named Mary that ushers people into the Witness Protection Program). Neither of them (in my highly humble and limited opinion) started extremely well, but I feel like both of them are developing in a way that keeps me checking back to their sites every week to see the next episode. Or maybe it's because I just hate working with Medicare so much that I could spend all day gouging out my eyeballs... bad internet TV is nothing.

iPhone Flick

Knowing that I have to get up in 5 hours for slaving away at the day job makes seeing that when I enter my bedroom so much harder. I could've gotten home earlier as rehearsal ended at 10, but I get wound so tightly by the close of the night that I need some decompression time. As in many nights (especially Mondays), that took form in a few margaritas at Gecko's in Canton with Troy. And then I dragged myself into bed at just past 2 am.

"Excellent customer service is our goal!"

I try not to talk about work anywhere but work. By work, I mean my day job. Mostly I don't talk about it because I'll sound clinically depressed or deranged or homicidal. By day, however, I enjoy my co-workers and try to find the humor in the small things. In short, I laugh to keep from crying.

This was too funny to not share, however. It's an addendum to an e-mail that I received from a sales rep. If you knew this person, you would understand in an instant that this was written without a hint of irony or sarcasm.

"Please note, client is demented and may not be able to express her comfort level accurately."

Occasionally, for a split second in time, I like my job... and it's because of exchanges like this one.

The butt of all jokes = me

Despite my gruff exterior (especially when behind the piano screaming, pulling my hair out, and tearing my garments in despair when people refuse to sing what I JUST. TAUGHT. THEM.), I have an uncanny knack for making people overly comfortable around me. This results in what me and my friends at the production company call "too comfortable." All of those people who think that they're going to get a phone call begging them to be in one of our shows instead of being expected to show up at auditions just like everyone else. All of those people who call themselves close, personal friends when I haven't seen/spoken with them in years. And lastly, and worst of all... all of those people who barely know me from Adam asking me when I'm getting married.

I think this last one is the mortal sin of all social faux pas. It's uncomfortable. It's annoying. It's rude. And most of all, it's none of your business and you're probably not invited to the wedding anyway. Being happily un-single to the same person for the past three years, however, all of humanity thinks it's cute... funny... remotely appropriate to ask me this last question whenever the notion strikes them. Like I'm knocking on death's door. That combined with the fact that about 75% of my remaining close single friends are getting married this summer has put me a little on edge to say the very least.

So that brings me to an amusing exchange I just had with one of my co-workers, whose wife is about to explode with the birth of their first child any day now.

Me: You're going to be a daddy-pants any day now. Wow. You're old.
Him: Yeah, I know.
Me: No, seriously... do you plan on living to be 100?
Him: No, not remotely.
Me: Then a quarter of your life has already come and gone. Isn't that crazy to you?
Him: No, not really. Probably a quarter of yours, too.

So then I remind him that my family (well at least my mother's side) lives until it's ridiculous. My great-great-grandmother lived to be 117. My great-grandmother, who lived with us until I was almost 18, lived to be 104. People in my family just refuse to die. So once I jogged his memory of this fact, I declared the following:

Me: I want to live to be like 105... old enough to have a few chances at being one of those Smuckers people!

and after a brief pause...

Because it's not like I'm going to be on Smuckers for being married for 75 years or something crazy like that.

Him: YES! I can so see it now. ::in a Willard Scott-like voice:: "Downbeat Diva, at 105 years old, hails from Baltimore, Maryland. She loves the theatre and writing songs. She used to teach the theatre to children. And after all of these long years, she just six months ago tied the knot to her college sweetheart!"

We had a good laugh. He decided that he now wanted to live a long life. Just to see me be a Smuckers poster child for the Today Show (because, you know, they'll still do that in 2089). And then the fluorescent bulb in his office flickered a little brighter. I think even God was laughing at us... at me... just like everyone always does.