2008 so far...

The past couple months have been pretty terrible really. Actually, this year so far has felt that way. First I spent a month and a half without work and without being able to sing. This took away my ability to stay busy working and also to keep occupied with music, which is my leisure and love. Then, February came and my dog died. Then my friend Paco died. All the while I was draining my bank account dry because of my work situation. All of these things put together have amounted to 2008 looking like the worst year in a long time.

Of course, just as all good things must come to an end, all bad things must also, or so I hope.

Fortunately, I have been overloaded with work during the last two weeks. I finally got another screenplay translation. The nice thing is that I do this one from scratch, instead of heavily editing a poor translation. It is more work, but it is twice the pay. I also found out that one of the projects I have been involved in has been taken up for and will be produced. It will be done in spanish, but my translation was used for overseas promotion of the project to investors. The important thing is that the producer I work for is finding success with his projects, which hopefully means a more stable working environment for me.

On top of that, my other job has started to set in. I have been hired by Kenny's company, Ashoka as a writer. The way that works is that each regional branch finds candidates for Ashoka to sponsor and after a long selection and interview process they send each candidate's profile to the company headquarters in Washington DC. Unfortunately, many profiles are poorly written by non-native english speakers and their candidates often get rejected merely because their work isn't properly explained. That's where I come in. I am in the middle of finishing up a few profiles for the Spanish branch, and if all goes well I will be helping out other european branches as well. So far I know they are sending me to Germany in June. I have to be there for the final candidate interview process, which usually takes a week.

So at least work has been going ok (finally).

As to my voice, I finally went to a specialist yesterday who took a video of my vocal cords. Apparently I have two problems. Fortunately, I have not injured them with nodules or anything of that kind. What I do have, however, is a congenital malformation where the cords don't close fully. This leads to vocal fatigue and straining. Normally, this would just be a mild irritation, but because of my several monthlong bout with Acid Reflux, the cords are sore and swollen. So I suppose the cure is twofold: get rid of the acid reflux (which I have so far been unable to do), and do physical therapy to get my cords back in place. I am quite afraid though, because the people who I know that have gone through this kind of therapy usually have their voices changed by the end of it. I quite like my voice now. I like the timbre and range. People say I have my own sound. I am really scared I'll lose that. Then again, maybe the process will make my voice richer and my range larger. I don't know.

But at least there are steps to be taken towards singing again.

And while friends can never be replaced, at least new ones can be added to enrich your life. This past weekend my mom bought a new portuguese podengo puppy. It is different from the 3 labradors I have been used to. It is a smaller dog, for one. It is a different breed type (a hunting dog, believe it or not). Therefore it has a very different personality than our previous dogs. It was the runt of the litter and is still getting used to its new home, so it's still a bit skittish, but it's pretty cute.
As to its name, I wanted to call it Idea. that way you could say "good idea!" when it was good, and "bad idea!" when it misbehaved. But our friends thought it was an ugly and cumbersome name, so that was that. I suggested "kitty" for the dog's name, but they didn't take to that. Neither did they like "batman". In the end we settled on Tessa, which is a bit boring, but is a safe name.




And in a few years: