Our annual May trip

We are here in Atlanta for two days....We are spending two nights here and then flying to San Diego (Staying for a week). I am excited about seeing so many of my friends and family in San Diego, and doing karaoke, going to good restaurants.

My sleeping schedule is REALLY messed up right now :) . Not only am I awake at 4 am, but I doubt I will sleep before this afternoon. We'll see! David went to the baseball game here tonight, Braves versus Cincinnati. He decided to go since it was a night game. Originally we were going to spend the evening out at karaoke, but I was so tired and slept all evening instead, so he went to the game. You know I must be tired if I take ANYTHING over karaoke! He is going to tomorrow's game, too, against the Padres, which he had always planned for, but it is a day game, so we should have plenty of time for karaoke afterwards.

We always go to this place I love here in downtown Atlanta called Metro Cafe. They have a huge song selection, nice people work there and sing there, great food, and it's 24 hours (the food, not the karaoke). They have karaoke every single night at 8:30 to very late. I recommend the gyros plate!

We took my MIL to the airport this morning...lately I have been going to bed in the morning, around 10, but coming here messed it up worse. Well, tomorrow (later today, I should say) should be fun...Atlanta is a nice city, with lots of great restaurants and things to do.

We have most of our time in San Diego already booked up! That's the only problem with going there because we have so many friends and family members to see, and we have to cram everyone and everything in. He can't take off as much time as he used to, now that he's dean, either. We fly in Tuesday. Wednesday he is going to Tijuana for lunch and to do a little shopping, then we might see my brother Stephen that evening. He moved very close to where my SIL lives, so that's more convenient. Thursday we are driving up to Riverside to see our friends up there. Friday we come back, and he wants to go to the baseball game that night and also Saturday night. Saturday during the day, we are doing something with his family. Saturday for dinner we are meeting my brother David (and possibly others) for dinner downtown before the game. Sunday morning we are seeing our friends George and Beth in Poway. Sunday night is karaoke. Monday is free so far. Then we fly out again on Tuesday! Very little time to rest, especially fir gun, or go shopping (forget about the beach!) or recover from jet lag... Oh, we might check out one of the casinos if we find a spare hour or so. Oh well, it will be worth it. It always is!

We have had a lot of stress lately for reasons I won't go into, and I gained ten pounds back, so I'm not happy about that. Now I have to really diet and just eat salads and not much else :( Sux! But necessary because of my health. Speaking of health, my allergies have been pretty horrible lately, too. It's especially difficult when I'm singing. My back has been okay, for the most part. Some days are more painful than others, but I'll live! We may be making one major change this year, so stay tuned!

I have been working more on learning, singing, and recording songs and posting them at Singer's Showcase and Singsnap again. It's been difficult with this new karaoke machine I bought (made by Emerson, cost me about $100). It's kind of a cheap piece of junk, but I can't afford better right now. My old Vocalpro machine broke down. I tried to have it fixed, but you have to send it to another state, and the guy charged me to fix it, but it nearly really worked after that. I even sent it to him a second time, and he said it worked fine. Yet, it doesn't. The CD+G player does not work well. The CD's often skip or stick, or don't play at all, which is not good if you are trying to record. A new Vocalpro or any other good one costs at least $350.

For this new cheap machine, I have to sing really loudly right into the microphone, except on higher/louder notes, where I have to move the mic away a bit. Kind of annoying, but it is forcing me to learn some new songs. Also, sometimes it just stops in the middle of the song, or skips (not as bad as the other one), and the remote is junk. The batteries are always popping out.

I tried singing on Singsnap this week, a site where they have the video and the mic is plugged into the computer, but the results have not been that great. The opposite problem there - my voice is way too loud and I have to have the mic a foot away. I asked them for help, and they are trying to help me figure it out. I did switch from my older mic, which is a good one, but I think the mic cord got damaged. I used the new one from the karaoke machine, and that worked much better. There is still some distortion, though. They also suggested that singing with headphones on might help, so I might try that when we get back home.

One of my online karaoke friends uses this software called Cooledit. She records her voice right into the pc, and mixes it with the background music, adding effects, so it results in a more professional sound. The only problem with that it will require me to spend a lot more time on each song as well as learning the software, so I have been reluctant to try it. I may be forced to, though...I'm just very lazy when it comes to all that kind of thing. I'd rather spend time working on learning more songs or working on my voice.

I had an epiphany recently about my singing which has helped me quite a bit. You can read it here if you're interested.

Well, that's about it. Have a great Memorial Day!