I went to my singing workshop and my coach told me that over the last couple of days people have been dropping out right and left, the last one having called 10 minutes before the workshop was to have started. Of the ten people originally scheduled to be in it, I was the ONLY one who did not cancel. Flaky Californians! Do wish I'd known that it wouldn't happen before I drove all the way down there! So I'm going to use my deposit and some of the remaining funds for the class for private singing lessons for the next few weeks, which will be good for me. She and I did sit and have a little tea before I headed home and we caught up a bit - it had been 5-6 months since we'd seen each other.

Drove home and let Mike know that I would be there earlier than anticipated for the Oscars, but first I had to go to the grocery store so I could make something for dinner. I had ground lamb in the fridge, and had been thinking about some kind of stew combination, so I bought a couple of white onions, 2 sweet potatoes, and a bag of frozen okra. Put the meat, onions, and potatoes in a pot and let it rip for a while with some salt and curry. Added the okra at the end so it didn't overcook. It totally hit the spot, and was filled with beneficials, which I desperately need right now. I've got a scratchy throat and feel like I'm fighting something. Ugh.

I went over to Mike's for part of the Oscars, but I had to leave before the end so I could get at least a couple hours of sleep in before coming to work. I am just wiped out right now, and won't get to rest until later during the day Monday. I've got an acting-related meeting noon so I'll be sleeping after my meeting. Tuesday I have NO plans, and I intend to sleep all day if I can - and Wednesday I am babysitting again and have a date to see "La Bohème" that evening (very excited about that!), so I won't get to sleep much Wednesday. Thursday is another quiet day, and then the weekend. I've GOT to get some acting jobs that will get me OUT of this job. They're coming - VERY soon!

Friday during the day I had an acting event to go to from 10am to noon, and then was running around like crazy trying to get errands done. PO, groceries, etc. At some point during the day I called my chiropractor's office to let them know that Brad HAD called me and that we had a date set up for Saturday. The receptionist went outside to tell me that he was at the office, and that he'd apparently Googled my name and found this blog series! I started cracking up. So he'd seen my adventures and misadventures regarding Mike, and I just thought it was hysterical. And I wondered if he would tell me that he'd seen it or not! I decided to wait and see if he mentioned it.

Got home around 3 pm, and did a few things around the apartment, and left a message for Anne to see if she wanted to watch "Joan of Arcadia" with me, and to call me before the show started to wake me up. Then I got in bed for what I thought would be a couple hours worth of sleep - Anne called me at 9:45, we'd missed the show because she fell asleep after work and had just woken up. Oops. So I got up and watched a little TV and was asleep again within an hour or so. Woke up at 4am on Saturday, and couldn't get back to sleep. And was starving at 5am.

So at 5am I got up, started a load of laundry, did the dishes, did an hour of Pilates, a little bit of yoga, showered, dressed, and headed to Starbucks to meet Brad for coffee. We had a terrific conversation, talked about food, life, yoga, back problems, and all kinds of things, and spent about three hours together. And he DID 'fess up to having seen the blog, and I 'fessed up that the receptionist had told me that he'd seen it. All told, pretty funny! And I won't be complaining about Brad or Mike here!

Back to the date. I had a really nice time! The conversation with Brad just flowed, and I really enjoyed spending time with him, and he was very complimentary - even told me I could cook for him anytime after I described one dish I'd just made! We're supposed to go hiking together next weekend.

After coffee, I headed to a vocal class - I've always strained to be heard and have been known to lose my voice occasionally, and as an actor that is just not good. So I wanted to find out what the problem was, and see how to fix it. I never expected to solve the problem in a three hour class, but he diagnosed the problem within seconds of me opening my mouth, and taught us all a few simple techniques to use to find our true voices. WOW! My voice doesn't SOUND different to the average person, but it sure FEELS different to me! I went to a concert last night and screamed louder and longer than anyone, and didn't strain a bit. Very cool. So I'm practicing all the time so it becomes the natural way for me to speak.

Headed home completely jazzed after the class, and headed home to meet up with Mike and his friend Carrie (a former colleague of his from DC). When I got home I found out that Carrie was meeting us at the venue, so Mike and I grabbed a quick dinner and talked about a few issues that had come up over the last few days. We have resolved them for now, but he's on notice to behave! We drove over to the venue and met Carrie. She'd just flown in from Thailand (vacation), Mike had been up very late the night before, and I'd woken up at 4am, so none of us were terribly awake, but we thoroughly enjoyed Taj Mahal and the opening act (Shamiqua?) - great blues and lots of fun, fun music.

After the concert we were taking Carrie back to her friend's house and stopped for a bite to eat - they ONLY had sandwiches and junk food, so I did the best I could and ordered a turkey sandwich on rye, figuring that even if there's wheat in the rye it was better than any of the other options. We ate quickly 'cuz we had to sit outside in the cold, and then dropped Carrie off and headed home. So I got to bed about 2am, and then tossed and turned until 9am, when I gave up on sleep and decided to get started on my Sunday. I'd hoped to sleep late this morning so as to be better off tonight for work, but it just didn't happen, because I had to meet up with a friend of mine from when I lived in San Antonio six years ago. I hadn't seen Rachel since she got married four years ago, and she now has a three year old. So we met up for lunch today at Jerry's Famous Deli. She looks fantastic, and her daughter and I hit it off pretty quickly. Cute little girl, with the LONGEST eyelashes I've ever seen. I had a great time watching her and seeing Rachel's transformation from single woman to wife and mom. I was laughing at her being such a mom - it was great! So we had a fun lunch, and then they had to head back home, and I came home to try to nap before my singing workshop this afternoon, but I couldn't sleep (again!), so I got online, and I have to head out in a few minutes.

Won't get to watch the Oscars since I'll be in my workshop, but I'm taping them and will go over to Mike's to join him and Carrie for the end of the show. I plan to stay just a little while, though, because I have GOT to get some sleep before I go to work tonight! Even a couple hours will help at this point, especially considering that I have an acting event tomorrow at noon, and then another one at 7pm, so I really need to get sleep whenever I can the next few days. I need to grab some food before I go to my workshop - I'm still having blood sugar issues. Aargh.

Well, I didn't make it to the gym after all. I slept from 11am until 9:30 pm, and had trouble getting out of bed even then. Turned on the TV to watch the rest of "The Apprentice" and the "ER". Got up during the commercial break between shows, and got ready for work during "ER". Ate some leftover egg scramble from this morning, prepared a nice salad for lunch tonight, and headed to Starbucks since I was ready to go by 11:10 and didn't have to be at work until midnight. I hung out at SBUX for about 30 minutes listening to three men discussing some pseudo-philosophical/pseudo-political stuff and sat there laughing at the utter lack of common sense they exhibited in their discussion. It reminded me of when I was in college and we would sit around having this type of discussion, all based on what we'd read, and thinking that what we were discussing was the most important issue in the world, and that we were the only ones who could solve it, even though we didn't have an original thought in our heads. Overhearing their conversation brought back some great memories of those days and thoughts of friends I had back then. I'll get to see one of my best friends from high school and college later this year, and I am SO looking forward to seeing her. She would also have been amused by this conversation tonight.

I headed into work, still early, and sat in the parking lot practicing my singing. I'm starting a singing workshop this weekend that will culminate in a performance in April, so I have to practice as much as I can. If I'm in the car these days, I'm singing my heart out!

Tomorrow will be a busy day, and I probably won't get to sleep much during the day - I've got an orientation for an acting network from 10-noon, have to run to the PO, and have other assorted errands to do before the weekend, which will also be very busy. And I still want to get to the gym! I'm going to try to sleep no more than 3 hours during the day tomorrow so I can sleep tomorrow night - I have a very full day on Saturday and have to be functional all day.

I'm having an eczema breakout on my scalp from something I've eaten. It could be from the cookies yesterday, but it seems 'different' from my usual wheat reaction, so I'm going to be eliminating stuff from my diet to see if I can clear my system out. And no more wheat, definitely!

I knew I'd get some babysitting jobs to help me make ends meet! I will be sitting for this family next Wednesday and the following Wednesday. That will be grocery money and will help me pay off one little debt that I want to get rid of ASAP!

So I babysat for an 18 month old little boy - he is a gorgeous child, blond hair, brown eyes, and when he flashes that smile of his, it melts my heart! Unfortunately, yesterday he was not smiling much! He was so tired, and had a bit of a runny nose, and I couldn't get him to go down for a nap, couldn't get him to eat, and no activity was acceptable for passing the time. And it didn't help that I'd had only 2 hours of sleep and that his mother and I both hoped he'd take a LONG nap so that I could nap, too. In my frustration, fatigue, and partly because of the lack of decent food in the house, I ate two chocolate chip cookies, and only afterwards thought about them being wheat and about me not wanting to eat wheat again until my birthday. Oops. Didn't even make it a day! But I went to the grocery store and bought good stuff, and I'll make sure to take food with me next week so that I have better options and WON'T succumb to the cookies!

After the grocery store, I headed home, threw all the food into the fridge, got into bed (it was 5pm), and slept until 11:10 pm. My alarm went off at 10pm. It was pouring outside, and was great weather for sleeping, which I could have easily done until morning. Instead, I dragged myself out of bed, put on some warm clothes, and came into the office. I'm hoping it will still be raining in the morning so that I can easily sleep tomorrow.

I didn't eat much at all today - had a banana, some soy milk, 2 choc chip cookies, and some wheat-free toast with almond butter on it. And all that was before I slept tonight. Had a few bites of chicken pesto sausage tonight, but that's it so far. Just not very hungry! I do have a smoothie here, though, and I'm trying to drink that down - it's got pineapple juice, a banana, and a ton of supplements in it.

Tomorrow once I wake up I want to go work out at the gym - I haven't been there in days and days. Sleep is a higher priority! But it's time to try to get some consistency back into my workout plan.

I am still bloated from the wheat, but not as badly as I was yesterday. My new goal is to go 60 days without touching wheat. I can do this! That will bring me close to my birthday, so I will have a planned avoid and eat birthday cake for my birthday.

Didn't get much sleep yesterday. I had to deal with a touchy situation at work, and wanted to talk with Mike about it, and then he wanted to talk to me about something that happened during his trip. It was difficult for him to talk about it, and it was our first 'serious' conversation. I think he was nervous about what my reaction would be to having this conversation - he couldn't look at me most of the time he was telling me about it, and I know he's embarrassed about what happened. There are some things that need to be done to resolve the issue, and that will take place over the next couple of months. Ultimately it will not be a major event in his life, but it feels like a big deal to him now. I'm a bit more removed, so my perspective is that it isn't as big of a deal as he's making it now. I won't share what he's going through here since it's MY life that I'm willing to put on stage, not his.

I will, though, share what happened to me at work. My colleague, who I've known barely a month, told me that he likes me. Sent me a couple of emails telling me that I have marvelous eyes, beautiful smile, whatever. Now, I don't want to make waves with management, and I NEED this job, so I've pretty much ignored it until yesterday. He sent me an email telling me that he's got feelings for me. I've done nothing to encourage ANYONE around here that way - I've got my hands full with Mike and now Brad (the guy from the chiro's office!), and it wouldn't be professional, either. This man is married, too, and I would certainly never encourage something there. I've been professional, friendly, and have largely kept to myself (easy to do when you're tethered to a phone all night). So I got this email, and responded with the following:

"You crazy man! That's very sweet that you have a crush on me, but just remember that I am only a woman - AND your colleague! And aren't you married?" and followed up by telling him that I think it is inappropriate for him to have feelings for me, that he is my colleague, is married, and should be giving compliments to his wife, not to me. I also told him that he barely knows me, and has feelings for this illusion of what he thinks I am like, not the reality of the person that I am. I wanted to be honest and also be blunt that nothing will EVER happen (even if he were single I'm SOOOOO not attracted to him!). He got the point, and I hope that is the end of it. But by the time I got home this morning I was emotionally exhausted. This was unexpected and completely caught me by surprise. So when I got home I wanted to see a friendly face whose attentions I DO welcome, so I called Mike and told him I needed a hug. If my colleague doesn't get the message, I will discuss it with management. I don't need this kind of crap at work. I want to do my job, and land acting jobs so I can quit and get out of here!

Otherwise, things are fine - back on track with my food, and desperately need to get to the grocery store. I ate shrimp and black-eyed peas for lunch yesterday because it was about all I had in the apartment. Tonight's lunch is a smoothie and wheat-free toast and almond butter. I'll get to the store today and prepare something decent for lunch tomorrow.

Brad called me tonight and asked me out for coffee for Saturday morning, so we're meeting up at a Starbucks between us. I won't have a lot of time Saturday - vocal class starts at 2pm, and a concert that night with Mike and a friend of his from out of town, but it will be good to spend a little time with Brad and see if he is someone (else!) I'd like to spend time with.