Spring cleaning

I went 10 days without any alcohol, caffeine or sweets.

It was hard. Alcohol was the easiest to eliminate, though it was the main thing I wanted to cut out. Hanging around with these musicians all the time, doing gigs, working in a social environment... One Tuesday evening after having mid-day drinks at Emily's cookout I was feeling gross, and looking at the calendar I realized that in the past 20 days only 2 of them had been booze-free. So I decided to take a break. I was also feeling full of Emily's cake, and Easter candy, and miscellaneous sugary sugars, and since I wanted to see how I might feel different clean of poisons for a while, I decided to cut them out as well. And then I thought about the fact that my morning cup of tea was paving the way for a big coffee in the afternoon, which I never used to crave... so caffeine was out too. It was a good test of willpower and a good little spring cleanse. The caffeine was hard but now that I'm off it I am hesitant to get back on that horse. It's pretty great to feel awake as soon as you wake up and not be a big crab in the morning. Caffeine was a physical addiction and the headaches were a bitch, but I can't tell you how badly I WANTED some sugar sometimes. I ate a lot of fruit. And drank a lot of water. And herbal tea, which was my only treat. My insides feel good and hardy.

Last night I ended my cleanse in one go with the excellent Chocolate Stout Cake at the Heartland Cafe. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I can't really tell how my experiment affected me though because I have had bad allergies and congestion, which has made me sick to my stomach, and for the first time in my life I think I am losing my voice. This is very bad, because it is my livelihood. I think it's due to allergies, because I didn't do a ton of extra singing very recently, and I haven't even been to a smoky bar in two weeks. Unless I'm losing it because I'm not having enough beer and cookies and coffee. I'm trying to rest it. Not speaking much, sleeping a lot, drinking water and tea... I even bought a neti pot. It's crazy! Yesterday was a hard voice day, with 4 WW classes in the morning, and then I subbed two piano classes which involved hosting "piano parties" as it is graduation week, and then a gig with Congrss of Strlings. We sang a hot cover of the Bangles cover of Hazy Shade of Winter. It was rockin! I only had to sing 4 songs with them, and they went fine, but that was in a loud smoky bar and when we left I realized that my voice was destroying itself and I didn't speak for the rest of the night.

Now I'm at work trying not to answer the phones if I can help it. Duke's gig tomorrow night. New session of classes starting Monday. Yikes.

Been doing well lately. My cleansing time was a good time. Tea with Emily at Bookcellar, Handlebar with Taavo, Meredith, Kiki and Alex, renting Notes on a Scandal, biking to brunch with Ben at a great place in Greektown called Meli, first ever kids' gig at Costello's with Baba M@nouche, Apart pizzas in the park with Taavo & Meredith before seeing Grindhouse at a crappy theater in Rogers Park, great birthday gig in Deerfield on my way to Pat's surprise party in Milwaukee, fun last days of the session in WW with some kids I've had for 4 months, yoga class, guitar class graduation (The Universe Song from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, complete with choreography and slide whistle), watching Heroes in bed, Earwax brunch with Emily, Finnsitting.

I am reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and I highly recommend it to everyone. Abbey gave it to me when she was in town. It's basically the story of this woman who decides to reinvent herself after divorce and depression through a three-part travel plan: she will go to Rome to focus herself on the pursuit of pleasure, to an ashram in India for the pursuit of devotion, and to Bali to somehow balance the two. It's wonderful. I am dying to travel though and my plans keep getting stymied. Ben is planning a trip to Italy with his parents this summer, and I can't go, so I've been trying to think of exciting things to do while he's gone for 12 days. I was ecstatic when I found that bike ride, and I was planning to go visit Emily for a few days during her month in Nashville. But I don't think I can do either. Turns out those 12 days cover the last week and the first week of a session at work, and I am not allowed to sub out the last day or first day of class. And then the last week of that next session? My family's Door County week. As Ben and I would say, TBT. In other words, IT SUCKS!

Who wants to visit me? June 12-24?

Forgive the long post. I'm trying not to talk today, and I'm not really what you'd call the quiet type. I talk ALL THE TIME.