A busy Lindsay is a happy Lindsay

Lately I've been in the money.

This is pretty awesome. Lots of performances and parties, two new babysitting gigs, picking up desk shifts, subbing WW classes, even subbing a kids guitar class this weekend! It's awesome but my days are literally jam packed. When I'm not working I'm sneaking in babysitting hours, and with summer plans everyone's looking for subs so I'm subbing Saturday morning classes three weeks in a row, and saying yes to every party gig I'm offered. Tonight I'm babysitting last minute for the kid of one of the guitar teachers at the school from 10pm until 1am. It's pretty sweet though, just hanging out, watching TV, petting the cat and the dog. They are as nice as can be and encouraged me to "have a beer or two" about five times before they left. Tonight Fiona's sleeping but I'm psyched to play with her when I sit again on Saturday; she is a super cutie. So I'm making a lot of money but I can't quite count on having this extra work in the future, and I still feel like I have to take whatever I can get whenever I can get it. It's tiring, but I do well when I'm busy, and every day is something new so it's still stimulating. It also has paved the way for two very awesome things:

#1: Health insurance! Basically emergency-only coverage, but still! I feel very grown up.

#2: SUNDAYS OFF! After paying my dues for two years, I have been relieved of my Sunday shift. I'm making enough to do without the money, especially if I can get gigs on Sundays instead of sitting at the desk. My boss knew I was trying to get someone else to take the shift, and she recently hired some new people, and told me that if I was still interested in getting rid of my Sundays she'd put one of them on the shift. So as it stands now, I'm done teaching on Fridays at 2, and then until Tuesday afternoon all I have scheduled (apart from any shifts/gigs/classes I choose to pick up) is 2 Monday morning classes. Weekend AND MonTues! AWESOME!

In other news, on Monday night I did something for the very first time. I performed at an "Acoustic Underground" showcase, solo, just me and my guitar, all original material. This was my first go at the singer-songwriter thing. I said yes to my friend and coworker Graham when he asked me if I'd like to be part of the "Ladies Night" show he was booking at Silvie's because I wanted a reason to complete the songs I've written bits of in the past year. Sometimes all it takes is someone else putting a deadline on you. For me at least. So six original songs! It went great; nerve-wracking but very fun. A TON of people came out to see me! Ben, Taavo, Emily, Jeremy and friends, Michael and Kris from my band, Kevin and Christine from the front desk, Jillian and Jessica from the school, Andrew from the store, Karen from my guitar class, Tony from high school, Liz from the bakery. I felt very loved. I felt good about the presentation of my songs, though all of the good guitar players in the room made me self-conscious. I got lots of nice comments, and the rather strange "Perfect for works in progress!", though I suppose they were all quite fresh and truly could use more polishing. It gave me new reasons to practice guitar enough not to be sloppy. Also I'm going to spend some of my extra cash on getting my guitar set up with a new saddle, and have a pickup put in. Sweet!

And I bought a new bike seat too. Go sit bones go!