Oh The Changes Abound!

Well there's been some developments around here.. and for once.. they're all pretty good. The weather is humid and warming up and Saturday it actually hit 95! Ok.. yes, lovely, but OW. And in other places of the world this is normal. This is great! Yay May! But when does that ever happen here? I'll tell you.. ne-ver. A few of my cute summery dresses have even made a few early appearances and they were pretty thrilled, so I heard.. 

So you saw the tattoo.. ? I take it you did.. It's something I've been thinking about for a few years and just didn't know if the design would be something I'd be really happy with for.. oh.. life. But Tony, my work crush, had started his design with this awesome woman, Roni at Hidden Hand, and it just inspired me to finally pursue it.

We messed with the size and a little of the shape always returning back to the original that I'd brought in. We narrowed the claws a little and discussed color, but I was soooo indecisive.. really not knowing what I wanted for sure.. thinking I did and clearly not at all. So I left to think about it further, but not without making the next and final appointment.. just one week away. I wanted something soon, but just far enough out to build the anticipation. 

Funny that I wasn't all that anxious - just a little nervous, mostly because I had my last tattoo done my junior year of college.. uh.. double digit years ago now and it took maybe 15 minutes. I remember that it hurt more than I thought it would, but this one took much longer.. and within five minutes of her starting, she had to stop because there was something going on with the gun. It was good tho to have a rest because I noticed that my whole body was tingling.. like I was high (not that I would AT ALL know what that's like). She said it was endorphins.. all I know is that was the last time I remember it not hurting while I was there.. because after that.. holy friggin crap! Ow! I thought my skin was being scraped off over and over a millimeter at a time. So surprise, right? I'm a complete wuss.

I sat on the table and then she had me lean over the back of a chair, which was good because I had the arms to grab onto when I was tensing every part of my upper body in order to keep my lower back relaxed. I couldn't handle it at all tho at first. I was barely breathing and when I was, I breathed out a little too fast and was making it difficult for her. She was very soothing, but firm with me about the not moving part. She would say 'Try not to..' but what she meant was 'Don't'. And eventually, I just buckled down and even sometimes pushed slightly into the pain because I didn't want to be the one to mess up this entire endeavor. I clenched my teeth, I swore, I whined.. but I did not cry - and I kind of thought I was going to - like who cries over getting a tattoo?! That's the dumbest thing I ever heard of. But after about 45 minutes of that, I was shaking so much from the adrenaline I could barely hand her my credit card, let alone sign my name to the slip. But ooooh.. was I proud!

So I had the tattoo.. and you know what goes with that? A band! That's right.. I'm suddenly in a band. A classic soul band to be exact. A classic soul band.. with no name at the moment.. but who cares? I'M IN A BAND! 

Some of you might not know (I mean, even tho we're all longtime pals, we are virtual pals - tho I still love you to bits!) but I sing a little. A lot actually.. all over.. in the car, at work.. wherever. I'm decent. Better than Britney, but not as good as Christina - to put it not so accurately simply. 

I've been thinking for a while that I need to pursue more artistic adventures and five minutes after searching Craig's List for bar stools for the apartment and getting tired of that, I clicked 'musicians' for the hell of it. I saw an ad for a singer for a classic soul band - mostly back ups and some lead possibly.. and there I was responding to it like an eager little beaver.. er.. well something that sings.. and.. that's eager. Ok.. nevermind. You get the gist.

She emailed back, I sang in her kitchen all a capella style - you know, very formal and nerve-wracking - met with the band the next day and I was in! And ohmygod!! It's so fun! I'M SINGING IN A BAND PEOPLE! How rad is that? I'll tell you.. it's way more than rad! And I actually didn't know it was possible to sing more often than I do now.. but it is! 

Then the weekend just got a little nuts with activities. Friday night on the verge of the weekend heatwave, I met up with Yoda who is so busy he never goes out much. We decided on Thai food before our evening of entertainment, which was a pair of comp tickets to The Actor's latest undertaking at Taproot Theatre - Over The River And Through The Woods, which was fantastic! We didn't know anything about it, but holy crap was it funny and extremely well acted and witty and sweet.. I sort of fell in love with it and so did Yoda. Gave us a lot to talk about afterwards and The Actor came to give hugs and say hello. It'd been a while since I'd seen him and his family had come to see the show as well so we didn't exactly have all the time to catch up, but we've got a plan to do that over drinks for an as of yet unspecified date. 

Saturday was a spur of the moment trip with Yoda to The Land Of All Things Swedish, aka Ikea. Both of us settling in for a good few hours of Major Purchasing - and ohhh.. did we ever. I got a fancy white leather Klippan number (due to Ms. Glamorous Herself having a fit of anger we think over Ms. Shine staying home so much when she was ill with the flu and then trying to go to work for four measly hours.. so little Ms. Kitty missed her madly and decided her best option to communicate her exact level of mad was to pee on our old one. Oh what a world it would be if humans dealt with anger the same way.. can you just imagine?!). It's oh-so sexy and still minus it's legs for the time being.. but it's pretty fabulous. We all agree. 

Clearly, not having exercised enough by walking thousands of miles thru Ikea's warehouses, I hit the gym for a bit.. then met up with my friend, Scott, for some dancing and dj'ing by Miguel Migs, whom I love. Unfortunately, it was literally how hot I imagine Hell to be and when Boz texted around 1 am asking if I wanted to meet up for some company, I thought he'd given me a much better reason to be sweaty. 

Sunday was filled with a) couch delivery at 9:30 am, which included jetting from Boz' like the wind to meet the delivery guy who didn't call before he arrived, b) meeting up with Curls (a newer girlfriend of mine who's joining our Burning Man camp) to start sewing some furry boot covers as part of our collective costumes - and they look pretty damn rad, if I do say so myself (for someone who did NONE of the sewing, mind you - that's me, fyi.. I did the cutting. She sewed. She's a gift, that girl.), c) I then ran to Wazhma's baby shower for a couple of hours and she looked glowy and beautiful and d) off I went after that to rehearsal for the band til 10pm! Dude - I'M IN A BAND! 

Seriously.. it's a little hectic and about to get even more so because of this next show I'm stage managing for the next four (4!) weeks.. and since it's friggin late and this post is stupidly rambly, I'll get back to you with more on that later. Get some sleep and dream lovely things.. and if a band name floats thru your subconscious, try your best to remember it and send it to me, ok? No, I'm really not kidding. Think 60's soul.. but try not to use the words 'soul', 'rock', you know.. that sort of thing.. because you know.. we're a little teensy stumped.. so help a girl with a band with no name out, won't you? Mwah!