WEEKEND IN PICTURES, AND OW! MY ASS!

Ok, remember how I said I'm going to be more social and get out? Well let me assure you, I'm workin' my social thang. I think I got a total of 8 hours sleep all weekend. If you're interested, a little weekend wrap-up with photos:

Friday:

Game night with "The Board." These are my hometown pals - grew up with these folks and we're still really close friends. We started out as 6, but as the years have gone by girlfriends, wives and husbands were added and we've become a group of 12. We get together every few months and order take out, drink lots of wine, and play board games. Lucky for me, The Board is also super competitive, so it makes for a really fun, rowdy night.


Look at this crew! I love these guys.


This is Brian, one of my oldest friends. We show our love by dueling.

Saturday:

This day was chock-full of good times! First, my beautiful neice Litah stopped by:



Next, I met up with Ben to go to Wes' house concert. He was in town from, San Francisco to test out some of his new music being slated to go on an album. Ben and I didn't really know anyone, but Wes had us sit in and do a couple tunes with him and the three of us brought down the house.

After that, Ben challenged me to some candlepin bowling - and you know I was bringin' it. We got there and played some pool first while we waited for a lane. The thing I love about Ben is that he's just as obnoxious as me and that makes the game a lot of fun. There was a lot of trash talking, and Ben had a penchant for hitting the white ball clear off the table whenever possible.

We then headed over to the bowling lanes and got started. Right as I rolled my first ball I slipped, started to go into a split and ended up falling flat on my ass. It's important to note that this is the SECOND TIME I have fallen in front of Ben while bowling. Ridiculous! Unfortunately, I fell flat on my tailbone and MY ASS IS KILLING ME! I think I broke it.


SMUG, EVIL-FACED BEN

After bowling, we headed to Redbones BBQ joint in Davis Square. We split some ribs, had some great berry martinis and then I secured my place in Weight Watchers hell by ordering pecan pie. God, I love me some pecan pie.


Isn't this pic cool? We took this at Redbone's. It's all firy. Like the BBQ.

Following that, we played some Street Fighter and Baseball on Nintendo. At 1:00, I realized "I am too old to be social." I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open, and I had to go home and go to bed. It was fun to go jumping around from place to place, though. I'll just have to rest up for that in the future.

Unfortunately, when I got home I had to create the program for my Sunday concert and was up until 4:00 am. No sleep for me!

Sunday:

Sunday was my Limelight student concert. I have been teaching a 12 week vocal program course at Limelight, and this was their big show. I got there at 2:30 to start individual dress rehearsals and a group rehearsal of "Respect" followed at 5:00. The concert started at 7:00 and went until about 9:30. All of my students did really well and it was amazing to see the difference from day one to today. I was really proud of them, but also patted myself on the back at the end saying, "I gotta tell ya...I'm a damn good teacher because they all sounded great!" Good times.

After the concert, the Limelight peeps and I went out to California Pizza kitchen to grab some food. I really like the folks I work with: they're cool and really funny and it's always lots of laughs when we hang out.

Afterwards, we all decided to run over and catch the 11:00 pm show of Sideways. I was really interested in seeing this because of all the Oscar buzz. I really enjoyed it, but I don't know that I thought it was Oscar-worthy. Paul Giamatti is great in everything I see him in, yet he's always snubbed for Oscars. He's so great at quirky, neurotic and miserable characters. Poor Paul.



So that was a weekend jam-packed with social activities. I'm really proud of myself for coming out of hibernation and being social again. So now I feel like I need to document things as proof of me having a life!


- posted by Taunia @ 3:11 AM (0) comments

 
OH THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS FRIGHTFUL

For most of last week, I was home sick with mouse invasions and a stomach bug. I fortunately rid myself of both yesterday - finally! One of my student's parents recommended a sonic device that costs $40, but being the thrifty gal I am I ordered 6 for $23 on Ebay and begged the seller to send it to me ASAP. I got them Saturday in the mail, plugged them in and haven't see or heard a mouse since. Yeah for technology!

The stomach bug was not as easy to cure. I started feeling icky on Wednesday and by Thursday and Friday was REALLY sick. I'm not sure if it was a virus or something I ate, but I was mad sick. By Saturday I was feeling slightly better, but not up to getting dressed.

Being the best friend that she is, Suzanne came over on Saturday night in the blizzard to keep me company. We decided to play Scrabble (i.e. I forced her to play) and it was "Extreme Scrabble." That shit took 3.5 hours to finish. Looky here:



I touched up the photos a bit so you could see the "extremeness" of the game. Kinda like the funky lighting at extreme bowling, because I'm cool like dat.

I'm one of those annoying people who comes up with words quickly and wants you to hurry your shit up, and Suzanne likes to really concentrate and find the best play possible. I'm really no fun to play games with, I kinda suck...unless you're just like me and hard-core (Ben).


Who's better than me?!?!? (See why I suck to play with?)

Anyhow, we ended up watching a lot of VH1 after that. We're both addicted to Surreal Life and Peter Brady, who has the hottest Brady body I have ever seen. Meow!

****************************************

Sunday we woke up to 3 ft of snow. I LOVE snow, that is until I have to remove that shit from my driveway. My snowblower was being fussy and ran out of gas, so Suzanne and I shoveled the driveways by hand. HOLY CRAP. I'm so spoiled with a snowblower.


WORKING HARD


UNIMPRESSED


WELCOME TO NEW ENGLAND!

Well, there's the snow report. Have fun building snowmen and sledding!
- posted by Taunia @ 4:12 PM (0) comments

 
MOUSEVILLE

Ok, I have some wacked-out phobias, I admit it: flying, heights, spiders, and mice. MICE. They FREAK-ME-OUT. All small and grey-black and icky and dirty...and lightening fast fuckers.

Today, I'm getting ready for my lessons and a mouse goes flying by. Then another, then a third. I've been hearing scratching in the walls and I think it's safe to say at this point that I have a mouse problem.

CUE HEART PALPITATIONS.

So now, I have to call all my students and cancel becuase I'm just not down with having mice run over their feet while they're singing. Besides, it would be pretty bad for them to see their otherwise-cool teach freaking out like a baby. I scream....it's not pretty.

So, I call my students one by one and everyone is really understanding. I even got a great story out of one mom! She said she had the same problem and ended up getting some $40 plug-in sonic thing that rid her of mice. (I'll be headed over to the hardware store in just a couple minutes) She also told me her story about them.

Apparently, she had mice all over the house: in the cupboards, in the walls, under the sink, etc. She said they basically took over the house. She also told me that she had a "nips" collection: little bottles of alcohol she collected from vacation spots around the world and she had over 300 of them. One days, she noticed that the bottles had been CHEWED OPEN! So not only did she have mice...she had BELLIGERENT, DRUNK MICE!!!

I nearly lost it when she told me that. We had a good laugh over that story. Thankfully, my liquor is in glass bottles on a high shelf, or I could come home to a bunch of mice in sombreros singing "Wasting Away in Margaritaville."

Too bad I'm allergic to cats. One of those would come in handy now!!
- posted by Taunia @ 11:40 AM (0) comments

 
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE! (and poker)

It's 11:35 pm on Saturday night, and I've already had a really great weekend. My plan to be more social has already delivered positive results!

Friday night, my friends came over for my home poker game. The stakes are always low to keep the game friendly and social - it's a $20 buy-in with .25/.50 bets. We always have a great time cracking on each other and there never fails to be heavy flirtation and blatantly UN-PC remarks at the table. It's crass, and it's fun.

No one ever really crosses the line, and everyone plays to win. Too bad Ben and I have the edge on everyone! There were multiple buy-ins, and therefore Ben left with $34 and at the end of the night, I had $51. Diva needs some new shoes!

Actually, Diva needs her insulin. I haven't taken my insulin in a month because I just couldn't afford to pick up my perscription because of the holidays. Yeah, STUPID, I know. Unfortunately, the medication is wicked-pissa expensive, and for a gal with no health insurance (and a tight budget through the holidays) it takes a toll on the pocketbook. No worries, I promise to not ever do this again. Y'all have to go without presents next year! In any case, my winnings from poker will go towards the medication, so you can all feel better that at least my addiction to cards is helping to provide for my medical care. HA!



Tonight was a really special night. Have any of you seen "Love Actually?" Yes, a chick flick...but I really enjoyed it. Plus, it has my grandmother's boyfriend Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth - she's obsessed) in it!



Well, I got a phone call from a friend asking if I could come and be part of a chorus that was going to recreate a scene from the movie. This guy Jay had decided to propose to his girlfriend and wanted to recreate the wedding scene of the movie. If you're not familiar with it, here's the scoop: during the wedding the groom surprises the bride with an arrangement of The Beatle's "All You Need Is Love." Singers and instrumentalists just popped up out of nowhere in the pews and rafters singing for her. It was a really touching scene...and Jay was going to recreate it for his girl!

First, he went to The Regent Theatre in Arlington and explained to them what he wanted to do and asked if her could rent it. In a wonderful gesture, they donated it to him for the night! Next he contacted my friend who then contacted me and a bunch of other singer-friends and we all were more than happy to participate. Next, he contacted all their family and friends and filled them in on the plan so they could be there to witness this all happen.

We met for a quick run-through at 6:00 and went over the music. The plan was this: at 7:00, the movie "The Wedding Singer" would start playing. (This was their first date and movie together). At 7:20, they would arrive "late" and not see any of the people in the theatre because it was dark. At 7:42, there was a "technical problem" with the movie, and the projection booth announced they'd get it back up and running as soon as possible. Right after that, the music started and we began to sing "Love, Love, Love...." and the lights were raised a bit so she could see as we began to stand up and face her one by one.

She was REALLY surprised and kept yelling "WHAT?!?!? WHAT!?!??!" Then he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him and she screamed "YES!" God, it was SO incredibly romantic and *I* got to be a part of it!! (I also got to sing soprano, which I never usually get to do! lol)

Jay goes down as the #1 most romantic guy I've ever met. Kudos to him! Honestly...so much love and thought was put into that proposal, she's a lucky girl. We (girly girls) all dream of having that kind of romantic, personal proposal and she got it! Good for her, and I'm glad they found each other. They were both incredibly grateful and really sweet and even though I don't know them, I'm really happy for them.

Plus, they gave us champagne and a buffet. Really romantic AND generous. Gotta love those two kids!




- posted by Taunia @ 11:33 PM (0) comments

 
PRAY FOR MY TEETH!

I got a call from my dentist's office reminding me of my appointment today, and I promptly had to call them back and tell them I wouldn't be coming. Yeah, dude, I don't have any dental insurance...and that's pretty awful for me considering I'm so obsessed with my teeth. So my options are either to marry a dentist, or have a lot of prayers said for my teeth. I'm pretty sure it's clear to everyone what needs to happen: fold your hands and say a little sumpin' sumpin' to the man upstairs to keep an eye out on my pearly whites!

Yesterday, I stopped by the BSO to go to my credit union. I ended up walking around saying hello to everyone and it was really nice...everyone was really happy to see me and genuinely interested in how I'm doing, what I'm up to. I worked with some really cool people there. Granted, my actual job sucked ass, but the people were and are great.

What was hard for me was walking by Mr. X's office and not stopping in. I had to make a very conscious choice to NOT do that. I hate that this is the way it has to be...but there's a lot of history that can't be erased. It's probably the crappiest thing EVER to be in love with someone that cares for you too, but just chooses to not treat you right. Putting your heart in "protect" mode sucks too: you have to put up a wall emotionally that effects other relationships in your life...but that's the way it is has to be for now.

WEIGH-IN RESULTS: This week I lost - .2 lbs. (Originally thought it was more, but I can't read their damn new printout things). I lost 1/4 of a lb which is exactly one stick of butter. I'm not upset by that because I had such a gigantic weight loss the week before (10.8) that a smaller loss this week was to be expected. Hopefully next week will yield much better results and I'll be back on my way.

I'm also keeping my promise to myself to be more social! I went out with a friend last night, I'm having a poker game Friday night, I'm singing with some friends as part of a marriage proposal on Saturday night (fun and romantic!) and on Sunday I'm helping a friend out with a project. Look at that! Me spending far less time in my house. Ok, well poker is AT my house, but at least I'm being social and winning money!

Now I must go and de-ice my stairs so that I don't have any liability suits from my students!





- posted by Taunia @ 11:22 AM (0) comments

 
PREJUDICE AND STUPID

Last night, I was flipping around on TV and started watching "Celebrity Fit Club" on VH1. Basically, it's a bunch of fat celebrities at boot camp: The Biggest Loser goes Hollywood.

One of the contestants was Ralphie May. Ralphie was the winner of "Last Comic Standing" and he's a funny guy. He's also incredibly handsome - despite being almost 500 lbs.



They interviewed his girlfriend (who was his girlfriend BEFORE he got some celebrity) and she talked about being with him. She said she realized one day that the only reason she wasn't with him was because he was fat, and that was prejudice and stupid of her. Then she went on to talk about all the great things about him: he's funny, kind, intelligent, and HANDSOME.

It just made me happy to see someone get past an obstacle that I constantly deal with. And even though I'm working to lose weight right now, it gave me hope that maybe someone can see past it to love me too.
- posted by Taunia @ 1:45 PM (0) comments

 
DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN GO TO JAIL FOR SPEEDING IN MAINE?

That's right kids....speeding in Maine can land you in jail. Or at least that's what the officer who pulled me over screamed at me.

Ok, granted, I *was* speeding. I do that a lot and I'm not arguing that I was driving poorly- but this guy was FIERCE. Threatening to throw me in jail while Amy and Ben looked on helplessly. He barked, "In Maine you can get thrown into jail for speeding...do you want to spend tonight in jail!?!?" I SO desperately wanted to be a wise-ass and say, "hmm...yeah! I've never been in jail before!" ...but considering I couldn't find my registration, I figured it was best to not provoke him. He gave me a ticket for $180. Serves me right, but honestly I don't have an extra $180 right now. I would have preferred to spend the night in jail. At least I would have had some street cred.

We were driving home from a full weekend in Maine. We drove up on Thursday night and stayed in some random guys condo (which was definitely cool of him). Friday morning, we woke up early to immediately go to a radio station to do live on-air publicity. (Note to self: early morning = suckass singing) Right after that we drove to the next radio interview for Maine Public Radio. Although not a long interview, I think it was pretty effective and very cool. You can check it out here:

Maine Public Radio

Just got to the bottom of the page and click on Friday, 1/7/05. It's the entire program, so you can just fast-forward to 17:04 and you'll hear us!

After that, we drove to Maine's NBC studio and did a live on-air performance for the television program 207. The host, Kathleen Shannon was very cool and really liked our music.

Prior to going on camera, Amy and I both asked if they would tape our feet because we both had gigantic boots on that did not match our rock-star outfits. Mine in particular were pretty obnoxious. They looked sort of like these, only with an obnoxious yellow/blue paisley & floral pattern (use your imagination, kids!):



In the middle of our first song, Ben turned to me with a smirk while he was singing and then I looked at the camera: big, ugly-ass pink boots for everyone to see. Lovely.

Our next stop was a tiny (and obscenely overpriced) theatre in Falmouth, ME to see the new movie White Noise.



I LOVE Michael Keaton, so that alone was my reason for going. It was a little shocking to see him. It's been so long since he's been in a major movie, he looked very aged. Anyhow, I thought the movie was stoopid. I disliked it very much, even more so the next day after I had time to mull it over. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, so I'll leave my (lame-ass) review of it out.

Saturday was the actual performance and despite the ass-kicking snow storm that set in a few hours before we had to go on, there was a fairly decent turnout. I thought the show went very well and I had a really great time performing. We're on a new somewhat-reduced performance schedule and I think the break was welcome by most and has had a good affect overall. It has on me, anyhow. It's almost renewed my committment to the band and made me realize what a good thing we have.

So, despite my $180 ticket for being an idiot and poor driver, my weekend was quite successful and I had a great time. Up next: Friday's poker game at my house. Stories, photos, fun.


- posted by Taunia @ 10:51 PM (0) comments

 
STARTING THE NEW YEAR OFF WITH A BANG!

A student of mine was saying to me the other day that she thinks it's ridiculous that at 18 you're supposed to know what to do what your life. I agree. She's feeling overwhelmed and scared about the future, and I remember being her (gasp!) 15 years ago.

The only thing I knew was that I loved music. It was true to me and it was the only thing that was constant in a sea of part-time and desk jobs that made me unhappy. I'm so glad that I am now following my heart in music.....but let's face it, it's hard to make a living this way!

So, in the spirit of keeping my music career afloat while simultaneously paying my bills, I moved my Ebay business to a complete online store: BIG DIVA FASHIONS. I'm worked pretty hard on this and I'm proud that I got it done on time for my own personal deadline (8 minutes to spare!). It's an online consignment shop for plus size clothing. Feel free to pass the link along to anyone you think may be interested in it (i.e. people who like to shop and will make big purchases to support my music career)!

I've also been lucky enough to have people ask me to build their new sites for them. I'm self-taught and very clear about this, but it's nice and flattering that I've been asked, so I'll give it a go! I've done a few websites now, but mostly family stuff:

Taunia Soderquist.com - My Website
Soderquist Construction - My Dad's Website
Soderfest Online - My sister's website for her kids at school who celebrate "Soderfest" (her birthday celebration)

Last night, Wes and I were exchanging emails about promoting our stuff on Craigslist, so I quickly made an ad for him. No joke, I had this done in less than 20 minutes (barring some corrections I had to make later)! Anyhow, here it is:



Wes is very pretty, so his mug on the left only makes the ad more appealing!

I know I have a LOT to learn, but I think I'm pretty good for someone who's self-taught. (I also clearly have NO problems tooting my own horn!)

******************************

We interrupt this journal entry for a special news flash! (Ok, *I* interrupt you, not we...)

WEIGHT WATCHERS UPDATE: Today was my first weigh in and I was hoping for a big loss...and I got it! I lost 10.8 lbs this week. YES, ALMOST 11 LBS IN ONE WEEK! Good lord! I was REALLY strong this week and had to fight a lot of demons, but I did it and feel really good about myself.

The key now is sticking with it - which I feel very motivated to do. At the meeting tonight, there was a woman who said she was talking to her mom about an article she read about smokers. Statistically, most smokers who (finally) quit try SEVERAL TIMES before actually quitting. She said she feels like it's the same thing for a lot of people trying to lose weight and she wasn't going to feel bad that she had been to WW a few times before. I decided I was with her, and that I wasn't going to feel bad either. I did it before, and I can do it again - obviously! Almost 11 lbs. Go me!

So, I hope you're all enjoying the start of 2005 as much as I am. I'll be counting points and being good: I promise!

- posted by Taunia @ 10:16 PM (0) comments