california street

i work with this women who is surprisingly a stoic. she's had three children and is around 50. she keeps spoutin' these sayings that i like to change and say back to her to see if she'll think i'm just a young cheeky, git. or is it a gat since i'm female? ah well. but she bears my sauciness well and actually seems to like me. they all seem to like me, but whether they do or not, i can only surmise...and hope. i am lucky to have this job, no matter that they cut my hours when sales are down and don't pay me as much as i could be payed. the people are nice, and the environment, sane.

read a script today, complete with "cuts", dialogue, and scenery. interesting read, not because of the content--which was horribly cliched and uncreative--but because i now know how to format a script if i ever wish to write one for some remote reason. also saw a book at the bookstore entitled "the 30 dollar film school" or something like that. didn't read that because i thought it was ridiculous, but it puts me in a certain mindset...

found another option for the paycheck spending. a musical instrument, and perhaps some lessons. i dearly wish to learn how to play the cello. ran into an old man who's 91 at work today. he came in with his cane to look for end tables and since i needed to make a sale, i helped him as best as i could. at first he seemed prickly, as all old people seem to be when first encountered, but he warmed to me when we found some common ground. he said he used to work with frank sinatra in the 60s as his bass player in the band that accompanied him on TV and during shows. he said he was taught at juilliard, school of music in new york. i nearly drooled. what an honor to learn from the greatest musicians at juilliard! he told me all this after seeing some pillows we sell at the store and saying that they remind him of a certain kind of color scheme that the japanese use called kabaka (phonetically spelled as i don't know how to really spell it). interesting to hear him talk about the tones of the colors, about him being an artist and how colors, art and music are all alike and all beautiful. i told him i played the piano and asked if--since he knew how to play the bass--he knew how to play the cello. i also asked if he could teach me. he said he couldn't teach me because he didn't know enough, but if i really wanted to learn, i should go to new york and learn from the best. he admitted it would be pricey--which i sardonically commented on in my head, since that is the first thing i thought of--but he said it would be worth it. he even said i looked like a celloist! fancy that!! a real musician thought i looked like i could play the cello!! he said my small hands weren't a bother as long as i had a head on my shoulders.

when i first heard george gershwin's "rhapsody in blue", i was determined to learn to play the piano just so i could play that song. it has been three years and i have accomplished both: learned to play the piano and to play a version of "rhapsody in blue". i still can't play the entire, 20 min, 20 page piece, but i know a smashing shorter version that takes about 3 min to play and is only 6 pages long. now, i want to learn the cello so i can play some pablo casal and maybe some parts of john rutter's "magnificat".

woohoo!! now off to research some prices online!