HI...I'm Sorry

Hi!

Hope things are well. I'm sorry I've been gone. I got a new job. I had to leave my old one because of the hours. It was just 40 hours per week. I am now switching gears since it is crunch time (6 months left) to save for Colombia. I just finished working 70 hours this past week. I will be working 90 hours this coming week. I know it's alot but it's crunch time.

The job has its' perks like health insurance for the short time I'm there (I'm there on contract for 6 weeks or so). Another perk is I get free food from great restautrants delivered to me when I do overtime. However the negative with that is gaining weight. I think I've gained 2 pounds this week, in fact I know I did if not more. I will now stop abusing the eating privilege to lose what I've worked so hard to lose..weight. I still have 30 more pounds to go. I would like to ideally do it by September 1. That's hard. I'm gonna have to crank it up somehow. It's hard now that I'm working 10-15 hour days. I'm still training for the marathon. I'm following the training schedule. I haven't gone to the gym as much because of problems with the car, so that is contributing to the 2 pound weight gain. But it's really my lack of diligence.

Anyhow, I started singing on a real microphone for the first time this week. It was a weird experience. I kept popping the mic cuz I wasn't use to it. I was singing "La Vie En Rose" by Edith Piaf. I think it has to be one of my favorite songs ever. I definitely want to do a cover on it a few years from now. It feels natural singing in french actually. French is my first language and the only language I spoke for the first 8 years in my life despite the fact I was born and raised in NYC. The first songs I heard and sang were all french. Maybe my voice will come out now that i'm singing in french,

Another song I would like to do is "Solidao" by Amalia Rodrigues. It's a fado song. Fado comes from Portugal. It is traditionally sung dressed in Black or with a black shawl. It is usually songs about lost love, anguish etc. Anyhow it is beautiful music. Amalia is the most recognize voice of Fado. She died some years ago. There are some new faces like Mariza, Cristina Branco and Debora Rodrigues.

Anyhow, I need to let you go so I can practice. I will come back soon!

P.S. Here's a pic of Amalia. I sure hope I can someday sing halfway as good as here.

Hello,

It's been a few days. how is everyone doing? I'm doing okay. i had my somewhat big piano recital yesterday. it didn't go too well actually. i decided to play only one piece and that was "clair de lune" by debussy. i decided not to play "Moonlight Sonata" by Beethoven because i thought it would be too much for the recital. there were alot of kids there and they were all playing beginner pieces and i thought it would be torture for them and the parents to hear my big long pieces. it would be torture for the parents because although they want to hear it it woudl be hard to keep the kids quiet. those were my thoughts anyhow.

i practiced and played claire de lune a million times and felt reasonably comfortable with it but i completely crashed when i performed it. i forgot the first few notes. and messed up the entire way. people somehow were still moved by it...i don't know how. i was very disappointed needless to say. a couple of friends of mine showed up.

today, i came up with some melodies which were pretty cool. however they are in the key of C major which has been described as the pure, pop, sweet, innocent key to write music in....i loved them....and the more and more i listen to them today the more of a toothache i got....

anyhow, i am again still worrying about the colombia money. i have 5 more weeks on this job but i'm tempted to leave it and jump on another project making more money....o well

i really don't have much to say today...i have to go back home and clean and get ready for the week...

o i almost forgot..i've decided to take flying lessons....but that's something to do when i come back from colombia.....

bye....

p.s. i'm leaving you guys with a picture of my favorite band.."system of a down." they are part of the heavy metal or hard rock (whichever you prefer)sound however which division or department of heavy metal is up for debate (alternative/new metal etc...) really who cares...they fuse armenian melodies and beats amongst others to their hard rock/metal sound...they are simply amazing...they do things that are simply impossible unless you are system of a down....they are socially conscious individuals who are tirelessly trying to get America and the world to recognized the Armenian genocide by the Turkish government between 1915-1923 where 1.5 millions Armenians were killed. oh by the way serj (lead singer) and john (drummer) are pretty hot..don't you think...serj has the long curly hair and john has the shaved head with the little mustache

A Star is Born!!!!

HI!

Well, it finally came....my first vocal performance. It was yesterday night. WOW! Well, let's start from the 2 days before, on Friday.

Friday night, I was supposed to have vocal class but I asked to change for a later time and my vocal instructor said it was fine. However, he called me while I was on my way there to tell me that he forgot something else was going at the church so we couldn't have class. I was pissed. I wanted to have a lesson before dress rehearsal. Anyhow, we had class Saturday morning. He did not tell me an accompanyist would be there, so that freaked me out. Up till then, I had not performed in front of anyone except my vocal instructor. While I was practicing "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps," I was having a very difficult time because I was nervous and still not comfortable with that song. Anyhow, while I was singing, some woman walked in and interrupted me and my instructor just stopped and talked to her. I guess he had a meeting with her before me and she never showed up or whatever. First of all, how rude was she to just walk in. Secondly, worst of all, how utterly disrespectful, unprofessional, and rude my vocal instructor was when he stopped and talked to her. They kept on talking. I just grabbed my stuff and walked out. I was livid. As I was driving, I started crying because I just could not understand the level of disrespect and unprofessionalism shown by my teacher. Needless to say I pondered on whether I would perform and continue taking lessons from him.

I decided to go practice piano for awhile and that helped me for a bit. I did go back to dress rehearsal at the end of it. I told him then I was not singing "Perhaps" and I ran through "Turn Back O' Man."

The next day, Sunday, I was very calm as I went through the day, practicing the piano and guitar. I had a mini-dress rehearsal with an autistic child whom I'm accompanying on my guitar this Saturday. I worked out. It was a fine day. I went to the Church early to relax and prepare for the show.

When I got there, there was a girl who was rehearsing. She was going to be one of the highlights of the show because of her great soprano vocal technique etc. Yes, she was good. But I have to say I was annoyed hearing her. She bored me. I hope this is not a sign of the bad divadom. My teacher has noticed I'm competitive even when people are "supposedly" out of my league. You may be out of my league for now. I know I'm a good performer and I know I'm good in whatever artistic thing I do whether, piano or dancing. Now once I get my voice under control, you won't be able to compete, at least I think so. I will give permission to my friends and family members to seriously slap me once I make it big and become a bad diva.
Anyhow, I practiced some piano again to warm up a bit.

When the show started, we were asked to sit in the pews on stage with the other performers to wait for ourt turn. I sat for the first song. The guy was good...another classical technical vocalist. Then, I started to get nervous a bit. I honestly did not want to hear anybody else sing, good or bad, because it made me nervous. I walked right after he performed his first song. I went to a practice room and practiced my song. I then changed and sat waiting for my performance. I performed at the end. I was performer number 16 out of 18 performances. I was to come from the back of the church. I was fine waiting.

Then, my vocal instructor did his singing introduction before I was to come on. I had my hands on the door handles waiting to swing them open for my grand entrance. As my hands laid there, my heart started to pump hard and loud. I could only hear and feel my heart and only the echo of my vocal instructor's introduction. I was freaking out!!!! Then, I opened the door and........A STAR WAS BORN!!!!!! I did my thing and it was amazing!!!!!!!!!! The nervousness stopped as soon as I flung the doors open. I can't exactly tell you the feeling I got while I was performing and when I was done. This is what I am meant to do! This is why I was put on this earth.

All the performers including the vocal elite of the group loved the performance. Their eyes, the performers' and audience members', were bright and wide and with gaping smiles and excited happy feelings running in their body.

I got some great compliments from a couple of the church going elderly folks who were there. They were so excited. The younger folks said I got huge guts for doing what I did and they also loved it. My performance was more raunchy and I was performing inside a church with many church goers including the minister there. I didn't care and don't care. It's probably because I don't believe in organized religion or practice any. Or maybe because I'm just a good performer!

While I was driving home and when I got home, I could not stop jumping up and down. I was so excited. I was on such a euphoric high after performing. I knew it was a great performance with my big alto voice ringing throughout the church. Yes, I'm not a perfectly trained vocalist yet, but I will get there and my performing guts are gonna ring through...well I think they're ringing through already.

Gosh!!!! I can't describe the feeling I had and still have from performing. I've never got that from playing piano, guitar, or even dancing. The people who complimented me said I seriously fooled everyone into believing that this was my first performance. IT WAS MY FIRST SINGING PERFORMANCE EVER!!! WOW!!! I hope that's a good sign of things to come in the future (10s of millions of albums sold, sold out arena tours etc). Maybe it's the sign that I'll be performing for millions of people around the world in sold arenas like Madison Square Garden and Plaza de las Ventas just for me!!!!! WOW!!!!!

P.S. Soon you'll be seeing me in this pic instead of Shakira. (no i'm not trying to replace nor will i ever, but just picture a brown skin girl with long black hair with that same crowd...that's going to happen)