The Weekend
These past few days have been up and down. The weekend had such great weather! I spent time downtown walking around, shopping for CDs and taking in the warm weather. I love this weather! These next few months will be my favourite temperature of the year. By late June it will get so muggy and I'll get all flustered and saucy because of the heat.

While I was at HMV i found that all the CDs i wanted were only white-stickered. This meant an average price of $23.95 per CD, and most of them were around the $25 range. What an outrage! I realized that I need to go to the smaller indie or used stores so i can at least afford all the CDs i want. I got my first paycheck wired to my account last Friday, so I thought i needed to reward myself with a few CDs. Luckily i did find what i wanted at a used CD store, and found the others at HMV/Amazon online, at only $17.99 a pop. Much better eh? So even though I am waiting for some of the CDs in, i technically puchased 5 CDs:

1. Damien Rice - O
2. Broken Social Scene - You forgot it in the people
3. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
4. Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism
5. Postal Service - Give Up

Finally I can feel a bit better since i've had so many tracks off these albums in my digital library for so long! :). I can't wait to put these on and listen to them seamlessly on some headphones... it will be well worth the wait!

I also had another band practice over the weekend, but this time it was a little scaled down. There was a quick change of plans and we had to move the time of the practice to the next day, and unfortunately our drummer couldn't make it. It was still very productive, b/c our bassist had only played with us for one practice. We could centre in on the problems he was having, and given the fact that we're performing this Wednesday, we should make sure we hammer out any of the major problems! I'm pretty excited to perform since it has been awhile, and it can help get us out there more too. I was hoping we'd have some CDs to sell, but the recording devil is still upon our shoulders... I am really hoping with the new band members we can now focus on recording, as well as now having more members who can potentially offer a bit of support with the "backend" stuff-- it's been a little hard these past few weeks b/c i have just started a new job an am trying to find a balance there, let alone band too.

Work
Speaking of work, on Monday I had a very long day. It was "just one of those days". I was totally loaded with so many things to do. I was also a bit sick and groggy, so I was moving a bit slower that day as well. You know how that is, when you WANT to move faster, but just can't process and analyze things at the same rate. It's so frustrating, since it's like you've had a few tokes but

A) you're throat is killing you and you can't hear much
B) you AREN'T high and at least enjoying the buzz.

Today was much better, and I think it was also it was b/c it was a start of a new business week, and everyone is going full tilt. Hopefully by Thursday everyone will be winding down again :). I went to Staples to look for a weekly Calendar again. I couldn't find the one that I had chosen over the weekend (i was planning on ordering it at work via the company catalogue), so I went back to a Staples to pick it up myself. Of course, my indecision came back to haunt me. After over HALF AN HOUR of looking at the different models, I ended up with NOTHING! How sad is that? I had second thoughts over not getting one with hours written into it, and I started to warm up to the column-based weekly calendars (see left). They gave a great perspective on the week by aligning the entire week up with the days on the top and small columns. But the thing is, they were either way to big or way to expensive. Some of they were the right size but didn't have hours in them (I didn't want them before, but realized w/this job i really should), and some were just plain UGLY. Could I justify paying $20 for a daybook that was quite cheaply made and I could forsee a per unit cost of no more than $4? And where are the sales?? I won't be using 16.7% (2 of 12 months) of the actual product!! Ah well. I'm not going to settle for one this fast, since i'll be stuck using it everyday for the next 300 days or so!! I hope to find one soon.. the search continues!

Tomorrow is the gig, so I should get back to practicing. I am excited b/c there will be some important people coming who have yet to see me perform on stage in Toronto. Hopefully they'll have a good time and it won't be the last! One of them also just got a new car, so i definitely want to congratulate him on that!! I also have an early press approval off-site, so I have to be prompt to be picked up at my house for 8:30 a.m.!

Take care,

RE

"eat drink and be merry"