DIVA TAUNIA'S BACKSTAGE PASS

Sunday, December 17, 2006

HO! HO! HOOOOOLY HAPPY WEEKEND!

This past weekend ranks up there as one of the best!

Saturday night I had my holiday party. I was a little nervous at first because the party started at 7 and at 7:30 there were only about 6 people there: me, my mom, my dad, our neighbor Paula and Cynthia. But shortly after, the folks started pouring in and at one point, I think we had between 40 and 45 people up in there!



We had people up singing karaoke and making merry all night - until 1:00am! It was again another successful party. During the course of the evening, one of my neighbors said to me that I was really lucky to have so many great friends - and I wholeheartedly agreed with her. I really AM lucky. All of the folks who came last night are good, kind, and fun people. I really am thankful that I'm surrounded by that kind of love.

There was a TON of food and drink, and after the party was over, I realized that I have about a case of beer and ELEVEN BOTTLES of wine! I'll drink the wine over time, but I don't drink beer, so I need to give that away pronto. I'm pretty sure I won't be weighing in this week since I have about a truckload of fattening and tempting foods in my apartment right now.

If you're interested in the slideshow photos of the party, go HERE.

I finally got to bed around 2:00am, and woke up around 9:30 to clean today (Sunday). After that, I stopped by my neighbor Amanda's place because she was having a jewelry showing. I'm usually pretty wary of homemade jewelry, but her stuff was GORGEOUS! And fairly inexpensive. I got a necklace, bracelet, and earrings for $80.00. You can see her stuff www.amandahosmer.com. Support the arts and buy some jewelry!

After that, I had to go to Wellesley for a gig. Last year I was hired by this great couple to sing at their holiday party and they invited me back again. I did the gig with my friend Jim Zaroulis - who's a kick-ass pianist and a good friend of mine.

The thing I love about Jim is that we can go months without doing a gig together, but we've been playing together for so long and know each other so well that we're like a well-oiled machine that just always runs smoothly. But I have to say, we were ON for this gig! We worked that crowd and they were not only up singing and dancing, but laughing all night too. We just had so much FUN that it didn't even seem like work.

The hosts were so amazingly gracious they just seem like old friends now. They love us being there, and it makes me happy that there are people out there who still get joy from having live music in their home. Not only that, but the pay kicks holiday ass. lol Jim and I left there just saying over and over, "what an awesome gig that was!"

What a weekend. Filled with friends, love, and music. Life is really, really good sometimes, you know?

Posted by Taunia @ 9:37 PM :: (0) comments

Friday, December 15, 2006

HOLY CRAP THIS IS FUNNY

Posted by Taunia @ 7:12 AM :: (0) comments

Thursday, December 07, 2006

GAH!

I love my boss. He's the coolest boss EVER. He's in Brazil right now, and he just instant messaged me and asked me if I'd be willing to go to Florida after the new year to visit our .travel registry and meet some folks. Here are the things that immediately went through my head:


1. How awesome is it that my boss thinks so highly of me and my capabilities that he's want me to fly down there and represent us?

2. How cool that I'd get a free trip (probably flying first class!)to Florida?

3. How the HELL am I going to get through a flight to Florida BY MYSELF???

I told him I'd want to go, but that I have a huge fear of flying. He said we could talk about it when he gets back. I don't want to let him down, but I'm also terrified at the prospect of doing the whole airport/flying thing by myself.

I'm getting better with flying, but it's always been with other people. And just because I've done it, doesn't mean I like it. I HATE it. It's terrifying for me. (Yes, I KNOW it's irrational and I KNOW the statistics.)

Anyhow, pretty cool that my boss wants me to go!

Posted by Taunia @ 7:23 AM :: (2) comments

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE FROM MAINE



Sometimes the smallest things make me happy. I'm SO excited because my Poland Spring delivery comes today! I drink about 3-4 gallons of water a week, so I purchased the three 5 gallon package - which will run me about $28 a month. The dispenser comes free, so that is a nice little bonus!

I am SO happy that I don't have to lug water from my car to my 3rd floor loft anymore!! I can't wait for the Poland Spring dude to get here so I can get to drinkin'!

Posted by Taunia @ 9:37 AM :: (3) comments

Sunday, December 03, 2006

A LITTLE LIGHT CAN CHEER YOU UP

Nothing says Christmas like a tacky white tree, and nothing cheers me up more than having it reside in my home with a giant (equally tacky) silver star on the top. Yay for the holidays!

Posted by Taunia @ 2:57 PM :: (0) comments

SUCH A SCAM

Ok, this is my first official "hate" post about the city of Lowell. Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love where I live. My street is gorgeous and has an old-town village charm to it now that it's all decorated for the holidays. (I'll take some pictures soon.) But I thought I'd be safe here from the greedy, scum-sucking crap in areas like Boston. And I'm not.

Last night I went shopping and bought a TON of stuff - including my Christmas tree. Because I was going to have to make several trips upstairs, I wanted to park close to the building. I tried to find a meter spot outside the building but they were all taken. I decided to quickly pull into the lot behind the building which is owned by a dentist. It was 9:30 at night, so I KNOW no one was working.

I was upstairs for a maximum of 10 mins. I came downstairs to see a tow truck pulling out of the lot with my car and I chased it halfway down the block screaming. He saw me too - just kept driving.

They have one VERY small sign in dark red on the top of the building posted that's barely even visible at night. In addition, there was NO ONE in the building AND no one in the lot. I wasn't bothering a soul being there, so you know this tow company made a deal with the dentist's office for a commission of tows. The basically just cruise around looking for someone to tow - instead of there being an ACTUAL problem that someone from the dentist office calls in.

I called them and I had to pay $120 to get my car out. WHAT!?!? How the fuck do they get THAT rate? It's so fucking arbitrary! Before he said $120, he said, "umm...you're looking at about $120." ABOUT $120? So, did you flip a coin or something to come up with that?? AND I had to pay it in cash.

To make matters worse, my car was towed literally 1.6 miles down the street. For that, there's a $90 charge. They there's some bullshit $30 storage fee on top of that. It's SUCH a scam and pisses me off to no end.

Anyhow, I got my car back and now I'm out $120 on my already tight budget. Bah Humbug.

Posted by Taunia @ 12:57 PM :: (0) comments