The Jennifer Blogs

First I should tell you this is not my mother.  I could never use a picture of my actual mother.  That just wouldn't be right.  So I used a stock photo of someone else's mother.


I hate to use my first blog in a long time to whine, but when I stopped to think of what's going on in my life right now, all I can think about is the crap stuff.  So I'm hoping that by writing it all down I can get it out of my system and then maybe focus on the good stuff.


First of all, my mother was just in Singapore for a three-week visit.  We had a great time, but we all joked that my 73-year-old mother is way younger than the rest of us.  She wore us all out, including my teenagers!  (Of course, I should go on the record as saying my kids have gotten pretty lazy lately and aren't in the great shape they once were.)  Mom was ready to go-go-go every day, so that meant a lot of days where I would work, work, work just to get ahead so we could have one day where I didn't have to work.  I sacrificed sleep too.  So now that Mom has been gone for about five days, I'm coming down with something.  She left Tuesday morning and on Friday I started to feel "off."  Here it is Sunday night and I'm still not well.  It actually feels like strep throat without the burning throat.  Weird, right?  Especially since that's what makes strep throat, strep throat!  I've got something going on back there, but not quite sure what it is.  Thing is, I can't go to the doctor because there's really nothing to treat quite yet.  So I'll have to wait until the symptoms get worse or maybe go away on their own.  I'm hoping for the latter.


While Mom was here I was having some pretty bad pains in my leg.  My right calf was burning.  The cramp would begin almost immediately as we began walking anywhere.  Just three or four steps (at a snail's pace even) and I was in excruciating pain.  I went to the doctor while Mom was still here and he ordered an ultrasound.  I didn't want to go while Mom was still here, so I made that appointment for Thursday.  So the day before I started to come down with this non-strep-throat thing, I found out that I have a torn calf muscle.  In fact, the doctor said it appears as though it's a chronic thing and that this has been happening for a long time, possibly even before my injury six years ago that led to my knee surgery five years ago.  I was told to rest the leg.  My doctor doesn't want me walking anywhere.  He said if I have a choice to walk a couple of blocks or take a taxi or bus, I should opt for the public transportation.  No walking.  Period.


So now maybe you see why I can't think of anything else to write about right now.  I'm living in a foreign country where all I wanna do is walk around and take in the sights.  There are many great tours out there.  I've been on several, but not all of them.  But for at least six months I can't go anywhere on this leg if it involves walking on it.  And while I'm resting that now, I've got this crazy non-sore-throat thing I'm also dealing with.


But -- I've got it all down now.  It's been written.  So maybe I can walk past this and figure out what's next, or at least find the good stuff in my life that seems to be hidden behind my shadow of misfortune.

I'm beginning to wonder if my mail was swallowed by Eyjafjallajokull, the Icelandic volcano. You see, my mom mailed a birthday card to The Boy in plenty of time for it to arrive by his 23 April birthday. Around that same time, my friend Lou Ann mailed me Flat Stanley so I could photograph him on the Singapore Flyer or some other really cool Singapore destination.


The thing is, Iceland's volcano decided to erupt and mess with our airspace about this same time. So now I'm wondering - since neither piece of mail has arrived - whether it was lost along the way or maybe it will show up sometime by 2012.


Mailing things internationally can be a bit challenging as it is. It's not a huge deal from Singapore to the US, but it is expensive. But mailing things from the US to Singapore is kind of a hassle, so I feel so grateful to anyone who is willing to send us packages to a place where so many things are illegal or outlawed.


Gum, for instance. Mom sent me some of my favorite gum from the US, but it was taken from me by the Mail Police. Not only did they take it from me, but they made me open my package in front of them, remove the gum and then they proceeded to dump the gum into a bucket of water.


I'm hopeful eventually Jean-Luc's birthday money and Flat Stanley will show up someday, that is, unless Flat Stanley broke out of his package and opened the envelope and is on some shopping spree in Hong Kong. We may never see either of them again.

I have a craving for homemade chocolate chip cookies. And whose better to bake than Nanny's?

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups Rice Krispies
1 cup chocolate chips

Cream together butter and sugar.
Add egg and vanilla. Mix until light & fluffy.
Combine flour, baking soda and salt, and add gradually until blended.
Add Rice Krispies and chocolate chips
Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

Things have really been looking up for me and my business overseas.  I was very excited when I was recently asked to submit a quote for a Johnson & Johnson TV commercial. The client liked my demo, accepted my quote and hired me for the project. Four TV commercials.

I showed up to the studio 30 minutes prior to the scheduled recording so that I would be relaxed and acclimated to my surroundings. I was a little surprised to see that there was no separate booth for me. Instead, there was a microphone toward the back of this roughly 10'x10' room, a sheet music stand for my copy and a tall chair for me to sit in. Oh, and no headphones (and no place for me to plug mine in).

Finally the people from the advertising agency arrived. There were four of them, one a man from the US. The client showed up next and we were ready to go. In addition to these five people (and me) were two people from the studio. Eight people total in this small room.

Before we could begin recording, the engineer had to turn off the air conditioner. They don't have central AC in many places in Singapore, and the wall unit was making too much noise for us to be able to record. To say that it made the room stuffy is a huge understatement.

I wasn't thrilled with my mic either. I was certain a professional recording studio would have a Neumann microphone. When I asked about it, they acted almost like they had never heard of it before. Instead I was recording into some cheap microphone that, quite honestly, did not do my voice any justice. During playback, one of the reps from the advertising agency asked me if I have a cold. She then wanted to know why my voice sounded so different than it did in my demo. The client and the American man from the agency shook their heads, also wanting to know. I did my best to explain to them (without putting down the studio) that my demo was recording on a professional quality studio microphone.

The American man from the ad agency was the one giving me direction. He wanted me to sound sultry during this read. But there was something he didn't like about my delivery. He told me several times he didn't like my phrasing. Those are his words. I quote, "I do not like your phrasing there." He told me this as if I had anything to do with the copy. I did not write the copy, so I could not control the phrasing. I actually figured out about 30 minutes later he did not mean that he didn't like the phrasing. He didn't like the inflection I was giving one of the words in a specific phrase.

To make a long story short, after two hours in the studio, we gave up. There was a lot of external noise. The studio is next door to a school and the children on the playground were very loud. There were also interruptions of people walking in and out of the studio during the recording session. On top of this, some of the ad people found it necessary to leave their cell phones on and every time one of them would vibrate, the buzzing noise would create a huge distraction.

When I left the studio, the client told me it was not me. She told me the problem was that the studio is not a suitable place to record and they would call me back to determine another time. Later that afternoon I got an email from the studio informing me the client was unhappy with me as the talent for this project, stating that my demo did not represent my true abilities.

I was devastated. The truth is, I believe my demo is quite an accurate representation of what I am able to do. However, given the fact that I was asked to record into a less-than-stellar microphone, I can't say I blame her. If I had been allowed to do this project from my own studio, I have no doubt the client would have been completely satisfied with what I would have delivered, and in far less time. In addition, I would have had complete control of my environment.

This experience has given me a little more diva than I had before. I will no longer settle for crappy equipment or less than perfect studio conditions. If it costs me a job, so be it. Not insisting could likely yield the same results, as I learned in this case. For my two hours' time I earned nothing except an insult and a blow to the ego.

It has taken me a little while to be able to blog this. I was too upset to even bring it up until now, but I've moved past it and am still ready to take Singapore by a storm.