Security Please

QUOTE OF THE DAY
If ignorance is bliss, why aren't there more happy people?
~Author Unknown

CURRENT LOCAL WEATHER
WTF? Snow will make a brief celebrity
appearance on last day of summer.
Mass confusion on all fronts.

CURRENTLY ON IPOD
Re: Stacks
Bon Iver

Dear Friends, Family, and my Family of Friends,

After the tragedies of Columbine (especially for the state of Colorado), 9.11, Oklahoma and more, our country beefed up our security to the nth degree. You can hardly buy a Big Mac without giving the last four addresses you've occupied and your Grandmother's Sister's Brother's Best Friend's Girlfriend's Stepfather's Ex-Godfather's Mother's Father's Cat's First Owner's mother's maiden name in order to enjoy it. And only then can you have one if your shoes are off and contained in a little baggie that's zipped up.

In all seriousness, these acts of terror have put us on our gaurd for good reason. We're working on our defenses now and have to be weary of anyone who may want to hurt us. We need to be protective of our freedoms. I was watching the harrowing movie, Slumdog Millionaire the other night and I kept thinking....no way, it's not REALLY like that over there...then I thought...wait, yes, yes it probably is. It gave me perspective, yet again, on why I am glad I'm here.

Where am I going with this?

Yesterday, I had to go to the local high school to speak with one of the teachers. I am going to speak with her high school choir about jazz in about a week and she wanted to see what part of my presentation was about to make sure it was appropriate for her level of students. Sure, no prob. especially since I live close to town. I was running late per my usual.

I finally found the place up the mountain side. Beautiful buildings, beautiful views! Stunning. I was actually very excited to be there. I walked into the school with my ID in my purse, a large black bag that contained my computer and other aides I would need like projector screen hook ups and flyers etc. The desk for visitors to sign in at wasn't real clear. There were a few folks standing around it. One lady in particular was blocking what looked to be a sign in sheet.

She was gabbing, on and on and on and on about something or other. Trust me when I say it was nothing that important. After standing there, making myself more late than I already was, for a few minutes, I said, Excuse me, I am here to see someone. She turned to look at me, gave me a look of disgust, and turned back around. The woman behind the desk repeated what she did. They both continued talking.

A few more minutes passed and I finally said, look, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I really need to get to the meeting with this woman. Can you please help me, I'm sure I need to sign in. The woman said, who do you want to see. I told her what this was about and she snapped and said, "Other building, either walk through or drive around." then she put her feet back up on the desk and went back to her chatting. Ten minutes later I found teh building (not self explanatory) and walked in. Another kid in the hall was just as rude.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE: I COULD HAVE HAD BOMBS, GUNS, ESPRESSO, PUPPIES, PORN MAGAZINES OR VIDEOS, CAMERAS, OR WORSE...TEACHING MATERIALS ON JAZZ HIDDEN IN MY BAG!!! READY TO ATTACK THE KIDS WITH AND NOT A SINGLE PERSON GAVE A DAMN.

I finally found the classroom and the teacher, who had told me it was a planning period, was in class, paid very little attention to me when she did sit down with me, even though I offered to come back at a different time and she said it was okay, didn't know the first thing about who I was and what I was doing even though she hired me and asked if I had knew what jazz was.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE: IF YOU'RE GOING TO HIRE SOMEONE TO COME SPEAK TO YOU'RE KIDS, KNOW WHO THEY ARE AND PREPARE YOURSELF!!!

I left bewildered, confused, upset (I sure am glad this wasn't a school I'm attending or teaching at for safety reasons and am worried for those kids) and sorry that I have to go back next week. I'll up date you more later with how it goes.

What are your thoughts? Should they have been more strict with me when I entered? I look innocent enough and of course, I wasn't going to hurt anyone...but most people look normal...

Yours in fear, fumbling around and funneling thoughts,

Cicily

Remembrance

Dear Doug,

It's been a while since I thought about you, maybe a few minutes, a day, a year or even five years, I'm not exactly sure how long. But somehow, you're always appearing in small ways, here and there, a glimpse, a siren song...and even though I don't hear from you any longer, I know you know that I love you, always have and always will as we were friends until the very end although our communication was lost. The bravery you showed on that day will not be forgotten, not only by your friends and family, but by the world. You're in my thoughts, wherever you are, and I hope one day we'll all meet again for a few cheap beers, some really bad hockey and really good laughs.

All my love,

Cicily

Shin Splints, Split Ends and Heavyweights

Quote of the Day:
The leading cause of death of fashion
models is falling through street grates.
~Dave Barry

Current Local Weather:
Fall. Air. Crispy and cool with a renewed
sense of self blowing in from the NW

Currently on my iPOD:
"Wake Up Call"
Maroon 5
Won't Be Soon Before Long

Dear Friends, Family and my Family of Friends,

Yeah, yeah, it's been a bit, but take pity on me and my poor wrists. The MS, as you probably guessed by my last post in August, is done. I'm awaiting a fly-by red-inking gift from my editor and last I heard from her the edits were going slow but well. I guess that's good, right? Someone? Reassurance please? I still worry that she'll come back with a...hmm, not quite what I wanted, either redo or get out. Upon asking Super Agent G if this had happened to anyone he knew or had represented he said, well..not yet.

What have I been up to in the meantime?

1) Trimming split ends and waxing brows. Learning how to regain that thing called self-esteem and wearing more than pajamas around the house.

2) Learning how to walk again. What? I have two legs? They move? WTF? Who invented this? Amazingly enough, when you sit on your a** for a few weeks, rather 9 months or so, your muscle mass goes out the window. I used to be able to run a 5K a day. Now, walking over 30 minutes a day produces the most awful shin splints in the world. So I'm doing sit ups and more and walking, etc. Must get back in shape.

3) Dieting. When you sit on your a** as mentioned above, your a** gets calories and late night snacking or say early 4am snacking or your fifth breakfast of the day snacking benefits on an almost exclusive basis. Now that I've won the a** the size of Montana contest and can wear that crown with pride, I'm going to have to fork it over to some other hapless writer on a deadline. Starting NOW.

4) Refocusing on a new project or two...or four. Yep, they're coming at me like crazy. Can't say it's a terribly bad thing to be a writer who has working ideas or works in progress... I know, I know, I'm a fool for starting up already, but life is WAY TOO SHORT to not do this. One includes a much anticipated cook book that will be self-published and sold as a fund raiser for my scholarships for the retreats. Look for it around the Holidays.

5) Forging ahead with the last minute logistics for the retreats. This October is going to be a MUCH needed break and FUN. That little three letter word that I used to know. We actually used to be friends! I've got a GREAT group of peeps joining me in the mountains and a staff to be reckoned with. Looking forward to hanging with each of them and getting to know them.

6) Working on school presentations for the Rocky Mountain Author Fest. This should be great. I'm presenting lessons on communication and listening using jazz to 87 fifth graders and a gaggle of high schoolers during the first week of October.

That's it for now I guess...I'm off to do an interview for the next book..more on that soon. For all of those who asked about what it was like to finish the book and see it through to this stage...well, it wasn't easy. Actually it was MUCH more difficult than I had anticipated it being. I like to compare it to moving. You've got the truck all packed and you're ready to go, you stop back in the house to do one more round of odds and ends and you realize you have a whole truck load of those odds and ends to pack hiding in corners. I still feel like I have things that are missing or edits I overlooked or pieces missing etc. At one point I was looking over the draft and realized I had left out 30 artists that I had cut out to edit and put back in but failed on that last step. OOPS.

They made it back in...

The other difficulty I ran into is the coordination of the book. Hundreds of jazz artists, their managers, mailing legal forms and whatnot was a task I had grossly underestimated. I would have hired ten assistants had I known what it was going to be like those last few weeks. I was to the point where I would sleep for thirty-forty minutes and get back up and write for 4-6 hours and then repeat it. Everyonce in a while I'd sleep for 6 hours and then stay up for 24. I'm still tired.

But it's done.

DONE.

DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE.

Except for edits, of course.

How are you guys? Something more informative and fun next time, will rap on the Vail Jazz Fest and my adventures with Wycliff, Super Agent G and Gal Pal Deb.

Yours in Slight Disorientation, Shotty Blogging and Sunny Days Ahead,

Cicily