Reinventing Joy

So today, is Day 8 of my total vocal rest.  I've managed to go to happy hour and still have fun thanks to my friend's pad and markers! I went to the beach on a whim.  I also started to meditate.  I am quite proud of myself that I was able to accomplish this feat for so long.  It feels longer than 8 days.   I managed to get food poisoning twice this week from bad lettuce at two different restaurants.  What are the odds with that?  I'm supposed to be eating better and I'm avoiding produce like the plague.  Hell, it gave me the plague! Keeping it light and starving!  Not the best way for weight loss at all1  My mom told me that there's a "thing" out there that is tainting the lettuce and killing folks.  That made me feel so much better!  And I'm eating salads like a friggin' rabbit because "thinner is the winner" has been my mantra for quite some time now.  But death by salad is not the way I'm going out of this world. ...

Today is Day 5 of my complete and total vocal rest. Let me rewind a bit for you. On Wednesday, 7/24, I wanted to find out why my voice was getting more hoarse and I wasn't even singing or talking as much.  Ok, I was talking a lot and sang just a little bit.  Ok, a lot.  But I only practiced 1.5 hours for the song I never sang at my mom's retirement party.  Why didn't I sing?!  Because when I got really hoarse, I reached out to my doctor and she told me the steroids prescribed weren't working.  She forbade me from singing at all until she saw me on 7/31.  She also told me to stick to limited talking too.  This was very difficult seeing my family and friends in NJ for a 72 hour period.  And I got more hoarse.  I sounded like Susanne Plechette. On Wednesday, 7/31, my ENT and I looked at my scope of my chords. Which is totally cool to see your chords in action.  However, I saw something that I didn't hope to see.  My swelling...

I've been silent for a while.  Blah Blah Blah! Where have you heard that before?!  When I am afraid to face the truths that creep into my overcrowded mind?  YUP!  It's like a broken record! Nothing has been going on.  For real! I was given my orders to be on vocal rest for 1.5 months and I've sucked royally at it.  I train courses all of the time at work which means talking nonstop.  I try to remember the forward resonance of my voice staying in my head instead of my chest but it's exhausting and quite honestly, I really would just like to have my voice back to normal.  I leave work each day praying that I will magically get onto a project that will allow me to be silent for a FULL day.  Not happening! Karaoke bars are my crack dens.  I pass them on my way home late at night and have this sudden urge to stop and sing a few rounds of "I Will Survive" and "Piano Man" just to get the whole crowd riled up.  But, I don't stop and...

Break It Down (Featuring Joyel) by Megalomusic This is my 1st songwriting collaboration! I co wrote this with the fabulous Paul Rivers. My friend and terrific producer. I've never done a dance mix project before and was hesitant to try. Paul pushed me to get out of my comfort zone and try something new. This is so awesome and so cathartic too. My girlfriend from college just said it was the new anthem for girls who dump guys. Lol! I am so proud of this work and I can't wait to try out more projects with Paul!

I can't believe that it's taken me this long to blog again.  An acquaintance of mine says that we stop journaling when we don't want to face the truths that reveal themselves. I think my real reason was because I'm so friggin busy! I sang with Sammy Friggin Hagar who says I have a great energy and light and told me not to quit singing, Lita Ford says I can sing my heart out, I left a band due to creative differences, I am forming a band because of creative alliances, I'm performing in a bad ass production of Love Loss and What I Wore and have one more weekend to knock their socks off. Then there's the great guitar draught.  I stopped playing.  I really think it was the result of being asked to sing at a local restaurant on the regular -singing the Blues.  I didn't think I could sing the Blues until everyone in the restaurant stopped to hear me sing.  The owner said that he left the food on the grill and just had to hear me sing again.  WOW that's a lo...

I just returned from Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp today. I am more determined to pursue a singing career than ever. Contrary to the ex who told me when we were first dating that they only say nice things because I paid them to(that should have been the moment when I should have let him go from my life but I digress)- I can Sing! I have been battling this pesky low self esteem about singing for a while. And I'm not 100% healed or Oprah at this point. But I do know with no doubt in my mind and soul- I can sing and sing well. And my sound that I've been searching for all these years isn't a particular genre. I hear my "sound" whenever I pour my heart into whatever it is I'm singing. But it has to speak to me. That's the key. I finally noticed that the songs I sang this week: Paranoid -Black Sabbath Can't get enough of your love-Bad Company Why can't this be love-Van Halen Tush-ZZ Top I just wanna make love to you -Foghat All deal with want...

Just had wine with 2 other G.I. Joe exes. Awkward-no. Delicious and validating as to why I dumped his ass- yes!