I worked a seven-hour shift tonight. I enjoyed it. I'm becoming more a part of the team and the work is more familiar. The restaurant was busy and I had several tables and served lots of people and never even had a chance to sit down and eat my...
Somehow I made it through college, graduate school and 11 years in Chicago as a musician, without ever once waiting tables. Sick of corporate America, I have recently taken a job at one of Chicago's fine restaurants. I'm grateful they hired me with no serving...
I had a great gig on Sunday night. It was my biggest audience yet, and included people who were neither my friends nor friends of friends, but bona fide FANS who just came out because they like my music. That was very significant to me. I called it my "Christmas Show"...
From 2003 to 2004 I worked very hard to achieve a 15-pound weightloss. It was a long and expensive experience and was much harder than I expected (details here). I feel proud to be maintaining the weightloss, which I do with daily exercise and a relentless vigilance...
Regina's Holiday Set Sun Nov 28 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. Uncommon Ground Cafe (Wrigleyville) 1214 W. Grace (near Clark) Neal Alger on guitar no cover I have a gig this weekend. I'm worried that no one will come. I wouldn't have picked the Sunday after Thanksgiving for a...
Yes, it's true: my long nightmare of 9 weeks of sleeping in, staying out late, performing, dating, and throwing dinner parties with lots of leftovers, is over. TOday I re-join the ranks of the employed. I'm excited to begin my brand new career in the restaurant...
Sometimes people who have just met me say things like, "So you really enjoy music?" I never know what to say to this. To me this question is similar to "So you really enjoy breathing?" Singing is simply what I'm hard-wired to do. It's not a choice, I don't evaluate it...
I apologize for making anyone feel nervous with my suicide post. It was not a "cry for help," but a discussion of some things I think about. I appreciate the comments and emails of those who responded as if it were a cry for help. I know these things have to be taken...
My last day at my last job was in Septemeber. Since then I have lazily looked for work and applied to some regular 9-to-5 jobs, but I was very distracted by the election. After volunteering six straight days to the end of the Kerry campaign, I am finally ready to turn...
Okay, look: forget about the suicide thing. I'm beginning to regret having posted it. I don't mean to bring people down or make their lives more complicated with yet another nuanced subject to develop an opinion on. I just get angry sometimes that mental illness is...
Yes, it's Regina's "anything goes" blog, where anything on her mind ends up in print for the whole world to see. Even I feel self-conscious about how different today's post is from the previous one, but here it is anyway: what I've been thinking about today. This is...
(No, this has nothing to do with the election. Life goes on.) I have stopped wearing a bra. I just can't be bothered with them anymore: they're uncomfortable, expensive and structurally ridiculous when you really think about it. Imagine a male equivalent that all men...
Oh my god. This guy obviously didn't read Michael Moore's letter: "Ground Zero Suicide Inspired by Election."
And I'm sure I'll stop crying soon.
From Saturday through election day I'll be volunteering and living in Wausau, Wisconsin where I will do whatever is necessary to get all Kerry supporters to the polls in that area. Single people like me are critical to this campaign. Let's proudly pull MORE than our...