Work and Play With Average Jane

Last night I had a very satisfactory evening, even though I got home from work a little later than usual.

I’d had a $100 gift card burning a hole in my pocket since December, so my husband and I decided to go out for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (I know, I know).  I chose my favorite pasta dish and carefully portioned it out so I would have enough leftovers for Wednesday’s lunch and also enough room in my stomach for a piece of cheesecake. 

We thought about using some of the remaining credit to go to a movie, but then remembered that tomorrow is cleaning day and the house was a mess.  We waddled to the car and went home to tackle the chaos.

I looked around at the mounds of dirty pots and pans, the baskets of clean but wrinkled laundry and the piles of junk mail on the counter and decided I needed something to elevate my mood before I got started.

I went up to my office and loaded my iPod with the songs my band does (both originals and covers) and a few extras just for my own entertainment.  I’m learning three new songs for this coming weekend’s band practice.  You’ll get a good snapshot of just how random our song selection is when I tell you that the three artists whose songs we’re adding to the set are Iron Maiden, Rush and Kelly Clarkson.

Anyway, once I had music piped directly into my ears, I was able to crank up my efficiency level and clear out the worst of the clutter and mess in the public portions of the house.  The guest room has been lost for the time being; I think it’s going to take a weekend and a lot of rearranging to figure out what to do with all the stuff we’ve been ditching in there.  Once we fully reclaim the room and can afford to do some light remodeling, I want to get this to put in there.

For this weekend, I’m supposed to think of some more songs to suggest to the band, but I’m having trouble coming up with ideas.  I was about to suggest Jane Child’s "Mona Lisa Smile," but it’s rather dirty and I hate to take the chance that I might end up performing it in earshot of anyone in my life who might be shocked.

I guess I’ll have to run through my CD and record collections and see if anything jumps out at me.  (My extensive collection of recordings on vinyl is the most glaring evidence that I’m more than half a decade older than my bandmates.  I need to stop mentioning it at practice.)

If you have any suggestions of rock, hard rock or heavy metal songs from the late ’70s to present that we could do, please pass them along!  In those genres, I don’t really have an upper limit on vocal range but I discovered at our last practice that Stone Temple Pilots is too low for me.  Let that be your guide.