I started my first day at Coach today. It was mostly filled with boxes and putting away things, but I got to go home at 4:15, which meant I could have more time to get to my vocal lesson, which was badly needed since traffic was really bad. The song I have to learn this week? How Deep Is Your Love? by The Beegees. I also talked to my teacher about my future in music. She said to follow my heart and do what makes me happy. I already knew this, but having her in my corner really solidified it for me. So...

I'm leaving George Brown and becoming a musician full time.

My parents support me, but they won't be supporting me money wise as much. I'll have to start paying little rent increments, my own transportation (which I was going to pay for anyway), and I'm going to have to start budgeting for reals, but I've never felt this good about something in my life. Gerontology would of been a means to an end for me anyway. I know that I would end up doing music for a living, so why not start now and get my name out there?

Expect to see more creativity coming soon. Time to head to bed so I can get up early to get to Coach tomorrow. We're going to be training with the product. Purses ahoy!

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And the work continues. I joined a bunch of networking sites, joined a japanese language Meetup, worked on my piano, vocals, and japanese today. I also took pictures of our pool's progress. Tomorrow we are going to have concrete in our backyard instead of dirt! I'll post the whole ordeal when it is all done by the end of this week.

I worked out a budget with my Mom that basically states that I have to make at least $20000 by the next September 1st with just my music ability. We'll see how that goes. The ball rolls on...

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Work was like a two sided coin today. The first half of my day was amazing. I had great quality sales, I was happy, it wasn't ridiculously busy. After lunch, it sucked. I had hardly no sales, and the tension of home seeped into my professional life somehow. I finished up my day and went home because I knew I had a vocal lesson at 8.

Or so I thought. My vocal lesson was actually scheduled for 6, so I called my teacher and told her I'd be there at 7. I made it there, learned and killed the new song Just the Two of Us (I kept thinking of the WIll Smith version for some reason). When I got home, my parents gave me a compromise:

"Starting September 1st, you have one year to become successful.

This is your golden year. Make it count."

This means that I will not be going to school for a year so I can pursue this career seriously. I'm going through the budget tomorrow with Maternal Unit and writing a contract to make things final. All that's left after this is to defer (or attempt to) my status at college and I'll be good to go.

I've got my gig all lined up on August 30th with the Ben Navaee Gallery. I'm going to be playing my acoustic and singing from 3:30-5:00 PM. Come look at some amazing art and check me out!

I'm responding to ads like crazy for music and hoping for the best. No word on the orchestra yet, but I have faith. I am staying positive and I will persevere.

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Today I worked 11 hours. It was sweet. Our team unpacked all of the purses and then re-sealed them sans packaging. Coach believes in a lot of useless packaging. However, now I know a lot about the bags that we carry, which is handy for tomorrow: cash and product knowledge training! I hope I exist in the company directory tomorrow. I didn't today (which means I didn't have to punch out or anything muhahaha).

After work I walked to the bus terminal to try and get a schedule... and they were all out. Looks like I'll have to go online tomorrow to print out some maps. I'm taking the bus on Friday. Better mark it on your calendars. Taking the Mississauga bus solo.

As I was walking out to meet my Dad, there was paramedics and 3 people smoking a joint behind the column between the doors... really classy and not related. The paramedics were not smoking up. They were wearing sunglasses and trying to be "cool" paramedics. Sunglasses don't save lives. People save lives.

When I got in the SUV, my Dad started a mini-rant on my future. Later on the evening he came to terms with it and supports me. Thank goodness. I'd hate to not include him in my Thank You... list. "Thanks to all my family, except Parental Unit #2. You know who you are." Harsh.

I recorded a few things today, but nothing you can see yet. Patience is a virtue! And I have to wake up early again tomorrow! Hooray! Good Night!

P.S. I almost forgot! I'm planning on going to the Fan Expo on Saturday to perform at the Anime Karaoke Contest. Have to get my name out there somehow and network with the other countries. Err... and the otakus. I'm thinking I'm going to sing a song that's not even from an anime. Just to mess with their heads. But it's an awesome song and totally danceable. Plus it's in a genre that isn't all stereotypically anime vocal-esque. Maybe I'll post it tomorrow. Mmmm... yes. A musical preview of this weekend tomorrow. Plus some Japanese studying.

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I did a lot of running around today. It all started at 5 AM for one minute. Then it stopped and I woke again at 6:14 in a terror. I was supposed to be out of the house at 6 to help my friend with her U of T Engineering Matriculation duties! So I woke up my Dad and we arrived at the convocation hall at 7:15.

My first immediate task after apologizing to my friend was to become a cog in the human conveyor belt that was transporting F!rosh goodie bags. After at least 350 bags were placed in a room away from free-stuff hungry students, the next task was ready to be executed.

The original idea was to scan barcodes that students had as proof of their registration fees, but it quickly changed into old-fashioned pen and paper checklists. My job was to write Greek symbols on F!rosh hands that matched with their group. The Engineering faculty love their symbols. That was fun.

After writing twelve symbols on a countless amount of hands, a couple of volunteers and I took the extra F!rosh bags to an office and got to keep one each! Sweet deal considering what was inside: a lot of "Welcome to U of T!" phamplets, a fridge magnet, a stainless steel coffee mug, a plastic water bottle, a few condoms, a USB key, a shot glass, an oversized t-shirt (they only had large and extra-large left), a huge towel, a hard hat (which I exchanged for another towel), and shower sandals (which are actually meant to be used when they dye you purple). A nice compensation. Plus my friend took me out to lunch (I'm getting the next meal). A good way to end a badly started day.

I attempted to take the bus back to my house, but it failed because it turns out that the bus that I wanted to take was at the previous subway station. So I got as far as Sherway Gardens before I had to walk home.

While I was walking, it occurred to me that I could get my busking liscence today. So I called my mother at home to pick me up in order to reach the Civic Centre in time. I had half an hour to drive from one end of Toronto to the other before the liscencing office closed, and I made it!

I can now busk in the streets of Toronto! And busk I did. From 8:45-10:00 I stood in front of the gay TD and played a bunch of songs on the guitar and sang. It was a lot of fun and I got some compliments and elevator stares. Hooray for legal busking!

Now it's time for sleep so I can be pretty for tomorrow at work. 10-5 ahoy! I'm excited for work. Which is a good thing. Yes-siree bob. I shouldn't of had that chai latte after performing... now I don't think I can sleep. But I shall try! Plus I think I'll do another video cover tomorrow. Night!

P.S. Our pool is almost done! All we need now is concrete around the edges and everything will be set.. to put away to use next year. There will be pictures my friends, oh yes.

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Sorry I didn't update yesterday. I finished work at 6, ate dinner, and was about to post when I passed out in my bed at 8. I woke up at 9 today. So much for updating. I got my hair cut and colored around noon and had a lovely chat with my hair dresser. She cuts the hair of a woman who's husband is a producer, so she'll try to pull some strings.

I've completed the music for one of my songs... now it just needs lyrics. I'm working towards a theme, but nothing good is coming of it. I checked out some online ads for musicians and sent in my stuff. Hopefully I'll hear back from people soon. I also just got a myspace (I had one a long time ago, but now I'll have a serious one) and I'm going to upload songs when I feel that they are good enough.

I had a heart to heart (or in this case, a head to head) conversation (confrontation) with my parents tonight about my future. They understand where I'm coming from but they really want me to have a safety net (get at least a college diploma). They also want me to be appraised (like I'm some piece of jewelry) for my talents to see if I can truly make it in the music business (fair enough). Plus I have to write a budget. That's what I'm going to do tomorrow. That, and I'm going with my brother to the Sci-Fi convention. We'll see how that goes.

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