25 days, $1080, And a Bucket of Stories - Day 6

 25 days, $1080, And a Bucket of Stories - Day 6

Goal: Play in the Subway 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 25 days making at least 1080.00, which will cover all my bills for January.


Need 1080

Below Goal: 78
Above Goal:
Under Hours: 5.00
Over Hours:
Days off taken - 2

For Today
Goal: 60
Actual: 27
TIME: 3
WHERE: Monroe
CD's Sold: 2
Temp: High 26, Low 9, Current 20, feels like 5
I feel like as long as we're in the double digits - we're golden.

I'm having a hard time this morning. Little overwhelmed with everything. Subway. Peach. Spoon River. Weather. Sleep. Groceries.   Its stemming from having a rough time yesterday. Getting a tiny amount of sleep Saturday, barely any money in the subway and then - really - not being able to STOMP on 1 and 3, and ACCENT STRUM on 2 and 4... ... ... ... ...

I'm working on a production of James and the Giant Peach with Filament Theater that opens February 11th. We're writing this song - that has foot tambourine on beats 1 and 3, scratching on the guitar throughout, and then accenting strums on 2 and 4 - and IT. IS. SO. HARD. I'm impatient with it. I should just be able to DO it. It's so simple. Infuriatingly simple. We worked the song for about an hour yesterday and I just can't get it yet. And - you know - there's a month. We have a month. I have 29 days to learn how to do it so I shouldn't be getting all upset about it - but - MAN - Grinds my gears.

So I'll keep working. slowly but surely, right?


 Today is one of those days where I could just sit inside, eat Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Tombstone pizza, and watch Star Trek: Next Generation until the cows come home by themselves - Which, my farmer friends tell me, they seldom do.

Days like today - I want to cower - I want to hide and pretend they're not happening - I'm not sure why they pop up. But I think its when I get overwhelmed. When there's a lot to do. Too much to do. When I can't focus on the day-to-day the hour-to-hour and can only see the massive big picture.

So the only thing to do, is just get the Huckleberry out the door. And start doing.

So I'm gonna burn 5 CD's. And get the Huckleberry out of here -

Stay Warm Chicago -

Love Ryan

EDIT:

I made it through the day. That - is a success.

If I take out CD sales - it means I made approx. 5.67 dollars an hour today. with them, I made a solid 9. So I'm gona hang on to 9 while I try and figure out why a made so little money today. I also - made about 6 dollars in change, from the looks of it. - But I don't count the change. I just put it in a jar as a failsafe at the end of the month.
I played from 2-5. A solid time of day. Maybe it was because it was Monday? Or perhaps Monroe is going dry. That happens after a while. Everyone that would give you money, has given you money, and they need a break from you before they'll toss more.
I don't know - - - -

I played through Every song on my list today though. I have a list - that is wildly incomplete. There are 50 songs on it - half covers, half my stuff - and I'm missing about 15 songs. You know what that means?
I have FIFTY songs - in my head. That's crazy. I've thought, that sometimes - Its hard for me to remember things down the road, because all my memory is filled up with songs - but - I don't think the mind works like that ;)

The awesome part about this day - was when I got to rehearsal for Peach. We do this thing called "Check in" when we get there, and "reinforce" when we leave. Check in, is where you tell the group anything you want - in order to be present in the room. You can let go of something, say your excited about something, just talk about your day - whatever you want. And Reinforce, is where you talk about what you want to - Reinforce from the day. haha.

So today at Check In I said,
    " I just want everyone to know, that its been a really weird day. I'm feeling real weird, but I'm choosing right now - to have an incredible rest of my day." And then I did.

Groucho Marx has this great quote that I attached to the bottom of my emails as a signature about 5 years ago -

I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it. 
Groucho Marx

When I read that for the first time - It changed the way I think about things. I can't always do it - but Happiness, in a large part - Is a choice. At least for me it is. It took me getting to rehearsal, recognizing i had a chance for a restart, and choosing to do it - But its the best I've felt in 36 hours - So, it worked. It really did. So thanks Groucho. That quote seldom lets me down.

its 2 am. The combined efforts of the "Single track work" on the redline, a late night, emergency shopping trip to Jewel because I was completely out of food, Racking a gallon of homemade Mead, and writing this blog have kept me up 2 hours past when I should have gone to sleep. Necessary tasks I suppose.

Goodnight. Sweet dreams. Don't let any Doctor Seuss monsters bite.

Ryan