sure enough…

man, am i glad my wisdom teeth are out.

the surgeon didn’t have me count down or anything – i was just OUT. I do remember, however, howling in pain during the procedure. it was my lower-left tooth, which was the reason i went in there in the first place. I “woke up” in a chair in a separate room, crying. Crying, crying, crying. Crying. In SO much pain. Crying. it was all i could do. my whole upper body ached like it’s never ached before.

i took a video of myself in the car – still crying. awful.

got home, did a facebook video with mom translating, and then i sat on the couch in pure agony for hours. i took 1.5 vicodins. had two ice packs pressed against my head, but the pain was from my neck to the top of my skull. in my ears. in my eyes. it would not be relieved no matter what i did.

I had prepared a huge bowl of strawberry jello, which i gently dug into. Temporarily, i started feeling better! then the pain came back and the whole process repeated itself. a few hours later (after changing gauze over and over and over and over again), i ate some more jello. Mom & Guy put “Gran Torino” in for us to watch, and i promptly fell asleep for almost the whole movie.

By the time the movie was over, and i woke up, i was feeling much better! Now, the pain is localized to where it SHOULD be – my mouth and my jaw. Fine with me. Mom & Guy asked if they could take me back to their house to sleep, but i refused. I just wanna be in my own bed! With Mo! They were amazing, though, and it was really so, so wonderful to have them with me, in my apartment, all day. I am lucky.

Now, hopefully it’s smooth sailing. I’ve got plenty of pain meds left, and four more days off. sweet.

well, it’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon… i’ve bought a hammock. i’ve got a glass of chardonnay. working on some photos. finished editing the interviews from the wedding i did the other day. and found out that i have about TWO MONTHS worth of time off i need to take before November.

life is good.

Paul invited me to Ireland, where he and Vanesa will be vacationing all through August. And i’d really like to visit Michael for a few days in la-la land. Sorry, Chris, i think Japan is out this time, but let’s meet somewhere else!

Things are good. i made two months worth of rent in four hours yesterday while photographing a wedding – and that was at my OLD rate! My health is good, Momo’s health is good, i’m getting better at my photography AND my voicework – speaking of that, i’ve got another hour of voice work to do with WNPR, because, sadly, they’ve canned our station manager. Yikes. I’m not sure if this effects the Colin show i am supposed to be some kind of part of, but we’ll see.

Going part-time at tmo will be so awesome. I can’t wait to fill in the time!!!

That’s it. just a few random thoughts before heading back into photoshop to work on some very late Independence Day photos. I raise my glass to you all out there.

Oof.

Metric’s people said i could do an email interview with Emily. Cool, right? I had initially wanted a face-to-face interview, more like a discussion than a pop-quiz. I didn’t want to shoot out questions that could be answered in one shot and then moved on. In all the interviews i saw, she’s not a one-line answer type of person, so that was promising!

So, i thought, let me put a good list of email questions together, and see what she says! One of the questions is something i wanted to ask in person, about something she mentioned in a documentary on ilovemetric.com. She said: “i’d given up on writing, which i didn’t tell anybody that i work with”. She went to Buenos Aires when she was questioning her future as a songwriter, and i wondered if her relationship with self-doubt was any different now that she’s enjoying this well-deserved success.

What’s weird is that she not only missed the point of the question, but denied ever having considered “backing out” of writing. Are “giving up” and “backing out” different? Weird.

The whole thing seemed like a dud of an interview, but i’m glad i had the opportunity.

Me: If you could go back in time, what’s something you would tell yourself as Metric was just getting started?

Emily: Don’t listen to anybody who tries to tell you what to do as an artist.

Me: If you weren’t a musician in this lifetime, what would you be doing?

Emily: Growing sweet potatoes and milking cows

Me: Since your consideration of backing out of song-writing, how has your relationship with your own self-doubt changed?

Emily: I never considered “backing out”. I was writing a lot, i just didn’t like any of it! I realized that for me writing can never become a chore. I would quit before I would let that happen. I want to actually experience moments of such emotion and complexity in my life that I feel compelled to convey them in a song, not just spend my life sitting around trying to think of something to say.

Me: What do you want your audience to take from the live shows that they couldn’t get from the albums?

Emily: Live music is not television. Anything can happen. The future is unwritten.

Me: What direction do you want to go once you’re ready for the next musical step?

Emily: No idea!

Me: What are some of your “dream collaborations”?

Emily: A lot of my heros are dead. Of the living, I think a cameo on “Flight of the Conchords” would be a good start.

Me: What do you think about right before you go on-stage? What do you like to do as soon as you’re off-stage after a set?

Emily: My mind is completely clear before and after a show, it is the best part of the day.

Me: I was really drawn to the idea of the “campfire test”… Could there be an acoustic Metric CD in the future?

Emily: Yeah, we’ve been talking about that! Until then, you can download a free MP3 of “Help, I’m Alive” acoustic at ilovemetric.com