Pending evaluation

Today began around 7:30 AM or so, I think.  No run this morning - I think we're both feeling kinda overly-busy and crazy through next weekend.

Instead, got ready and wandered out the door a bit late.  We met Mr. Eric Fields (by chance) at the Porter T stop, and I freaked him out by wandering up unannounced and close-walking next to him.  Sorry, Eric!  I think it confused him for a piece.

Said my goodbyes to Julia and Eric at the Kendall stop - they were going on to South Station to catch a bus to NYC for the day.  (Crazy, they know.)  I made it into work by around 10:00 AM.

Felt kinda messed up today.  I don't know what I did, but I just did not eat right, or something, and felt completely wacky until around 4:00 PM when my brain/body chemistry finally evened themselves out.  Frustrating.  Managed to get a few things done, though.  Not as much as I would have preferred, but we do what we can.

Left work around 5:30 and took the T back home.  Had a bite to eat and beat Plants vs. Zombies adventure mode (!!) while I ate.  Around 7:30 PM (I don't know where the time went) I moseyed over to Dave's for a lesson.  We got started maybe 8:20 PM.  Or, rather, we got talking around 8:20 PM.  I think we got to the lesson bit around 9:00 PM, and that lasted until around 10:00 PM.  So I got back home around, I think, 11:00 PM or so.  Maybe a touch earlier, I don't know.

So we talked a lot about what I'm supposed to do for my evaluation next (not this) weekend.

Play West Coast Blues with folks - melody, comping, and solo.
Play Tune Up with folks - ditto.
Learn a few bars of a Wes Montgomery solo for WCB.  Play it at the beginning of my solo thang.
Play Eb Lydian for people.

This is scary.

We broke the whole thing down into tasks, cause Dave's awesome.  Basically... a bunch of stuff I need to do between now and next Friday night.  I think I need to re-prioritize a few things this next week to make room.  It just kinda... has to happen.  I need this to go well, and for me to feel like I actually did a good job, as opposed to just kinda squeaking by.  Or, at least, did the best I was able to.

I'm trying to figure out if there's some way I can get some practice in during the workday around lunch time.  Bleh.  Maybe I can roof deck it... I dunno.  I can't think of anywhere in the building I could actually practice.  I kinda need to, though.  Urgh.

So once home, I rearranged a few things in here.  Tried putting the whiteboard in a portrait orientation on my little black desk/table, rather than on top of my dresser in crazy-landscape-ness.  It feels much more natural, even though the tray is running vertical and, thus, useless. It fits in the space better.

What is all that bass?  Tell me you people are going to give it a rest.  Ugh.  Sounds like a drum corps somewhere near by.

Anyway, I think that's about all the steam I have for the day.

Tomorrow is Friday?  Holy crap.

A7 Altered

Today I learned how to play the melody from Tune Up, by Miles Davis.  This doesn't sound like much, but sadly it took me forever to sit down and actually get around to doing it.

Once I did, it took all of half an hour.

That's the stupid part about music.  I can work on a song for months - some aspects of it anyway - and not get around to the melody until... now?  Are you kidding?  And it only took a little bit of time!  Why hadn't I figured this out sooner?  Gah, how frustrating.

But, well, it is what it is.  I've resigned myself to the fact that, at this point, my progress will just be slow.  Take right now for instance; there are any number of things I could be doing with my time this instant.  Instead, I'm... recuperating.  I don't feel like I have the mental energy at the moment to accomplish anything beyond listening to some music, reading an article or two, and posting here.

Maybe a video game, but I don't have any of those.  At least, none that I'm willing to pick up right now.

So... whew, here I am.

Tomorrow I'm not going into the office until the afternoon, most likely.  Going to head over to our client's place in the morning instead to meet with the gentleman there who'll be doing the page integration on their side.  Should be a good meeting!

I can't believe tomorrow is already Friday.  It's odd how life just gets increasingly faster paced the older you get.  Every year I feel like time is slipping by faster and faster.  I don't even know where this week went - it's just gone.

Man, I'm sleepy.

Grr, argh.

Today consisted of estimation, gym, High Fidelity, and failure.

Mr. Erik and I spent most of our day estimating tasks for the aforementioned New Project. This is, somehow, exhausting work. You wouldn't think it, just from watching. Two guys sitting in an alcove saying, "Oh! And we have to do blah, blah, blah." Then wondering, "How long will that take?" Then writing, "4 hours," into a spreadsheet.

Somehow that sounds straightforward, and it is, but by the end of today I was wiped.

Outside of that, the gym went by fairly quickly because I wanted to get home and practice.

Ahh, the best laid plans.

I got home, and the universe conspired to defeat me when I walked in to find Matt watching High Fidelity. This is one of those movies that I've seen once, really liked, and never had occasion to see again. Between the day's various forms of tiredness (read: estimation and exercise), I sat down on the couch to have dinner and ended up staying through the whole movie, which ended promptly at 10:00 PM.

Wandering over to my office, I endeavored to find my sheet music for Tune Up (Miles Davis). "Well, crap, it's not in this stack of papers."

"Oh, junk, it's not over here either."

"Maybe it's in... no, it's not there either."

"Shit."

I have no idea where it is. I feel like a moron. It's just... gone. I kinda know the melody, more or less, and the Internet is useless for finding a legitimate site to get music off of. I tried Note Flight - unfortunately no one has written it up.

So... I'm stuck. Grr. This is one of those frustrating days, rather than one of the fulfilling ones.