Last night I went to TB’s house with J and the rest of the band to record. We didn’t finish until 11:30, and I was so wired afterward that I didn’t get to sleep ’til 12:30. And then Mr. Bread woke me up about nine times during the night.

I am so sleepy this morning.

When Bread finally came up to bed he flashed the overhead light on (I hate when he does that because it always wakes me up), then he woke me up a bunch more times between 4:30 and seven because he’s a cuddle freak who CANNOT HOLD STILL. He likes to move every 15 seconds or so, which drives me nuts. I startle awake when he puts his hand on my hip because I’m ticklish, and then I drift back off, and then he moves again, and I drift back off, and then he moves again… It’s a total pain. I wish I still slept like a corpse; it was so nice back then, sleeping through fire alarms. *sigh*

I’m thinking of trying that amino acid that’s supposed to help you sleep – I need to be able to sleep all night, and Bread’d probably throw a fit if I tried to sleep in another bed most of the time. I just sleep so lightly these days! I hate thirty-something; twenty-something was SO much better.

Anyway: recording. When I got to TB’s house around seven last night he was still setting up; he hadn’t known he’d be hosting the recording until about three hours prior and was busy untangling cords and plugging things in. I sat on the floor for awhile, studying a really strange-looking speaker made out of round tubs and solid state electronics (audiophiles and their crazy speakers!), until J and K showed up, then I waited around doing nothing until finally Snow showed up.

Then there was a nearly enternal period of time where we didn’t rehearse, didn’t record, and didn’t particularly accomplish anything musically which made me a little crazy… but then, I’m not a particularly patient person. TB was tweaking stuff on the laptop and messing with gear; during that time I’d’ve preferred to run an entire song THROUGH a few times rather than just mess around with a vamp the way we did, OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER… You have to remember, I’ve only done these songs a few times each. J wrote them, so he knows them inside out, but I felt I could use the rehearsal.

Finally we started recording. We were all facing the couch, which had mirrors on it so we could see each other (I never used them), but TB said he couldn’t hear me and had me move. I ended up standing squished between J and K – having some personal space issues because I was literally inches away from both of them. Even in a choir you get about half a foot of space, and you’re not singing straight at someone sitting in front of you in a chair! It was odd, but I got used to it.

(I think I have some form of hospitality disease that causes me to not want to inflict my personal odors on people at such close proximity. You should be allowed to not have to smell my breath when I sing! Snort! Plus I was hot as hell, and since developing this damned anxiety condition I’ve begun to SMELL BAD when I sweat. I hate it. I’M A VEGETARIAN, FER CHRISSAKES. I SHOULD NOT SMELL BAD WHEN I SWEAT! I might have to start using deodorant for the first time in my ENTIRE LIFE. Fucking hormones.)

TB’s a full-on audiophile and has totally great nerdy gear. He’s got this mic – it’s so sensitive it can pick up clothes rustling or the sound of someone swallowing three feet away from it. I don’t even have a spot mic, I’m just singing in the room and it picks me up perfectly. There was a spot mic on K’s hand drum but TB took it down in the mix because the stereo mic sounded so great. I was amazed.

We recorded one song – the Gayatri Mantra – maybe five times. Since it was a live recording, I did both cool stuff and bad stuff on every take. We’ll be able to go back later and add additional vocal tracks if we want to, which should cover any weak spots, but true mistakes (on my part) exist on every take and will remain there since there’s no way to punch them out.

TB played back two versions, but I gave my headphones to… aw, crap, I’ve forgotten her name… to the cute girl who was being an excellent, ideal audience and counting out mantras on her fingers so we’d know where we were in the song. She has to leave next Tuesday to go home to Australia. Really nice chick; I’d like to be friends with her. She made a heart in the dust on the rear window of my Jeep and wrote “No. 8” above it. Her accent is adorable. I think she’s probably my age, give or take.

“Number 8” is a nickname J gave me last week. I’d made a joke about needing “eight black chicks” to sing something, and he’d said I was eight black chicks and started calling me Number 8. Cute, huh?

So I didn’t listen to either playback all the way through, mostly because I didn’t care: I won’t be choosing the take that goes on the album, and I can’t correct anything, so I figured I’d let my overheated ears cool down and let our mantra-counting girl hear the takes with the keyboard in the mix. This decision got me an interesting response; everyone started telling me how wonderful I sounded. Apparently I was printing as insecure, when in fact I was hot (I hate headphones, they make my ears ROAST) and having a nic fit I wasn’t willing to satisfy – there was no WAY I was going to stand in two non-smokers’ laps after a cigarette.

It’s always nice to get one’s ego stroked, of course. So that was nice. Snow and J told me they’d auditioned five other singers before me, which I didn’t even believe until they got really vehement about it. How cute is that!

Tonight, we’re meeting at 6:30 to record another track, and we’ll be meeting Tuesday-through-Thursday ad infinitum until all the songs are recorded.

And J wants to go to Aspen in May to sing for his guru, Sai Ma, which I’d consider doing if I could afford it, which I won’t be able to – since my entire reason for being at this point is to SEE TODD IN CHICAGO IN MAY!!!