It's Friday night and I'm at a coffee shop, posting old photographs on facebook because I miss my friends. I'm now one of those people who sit alone in the cafe with a laptop, just screwing around. To my credit, I am not wearing headphones.

The nights are very long these days. There is that sense of always having one's shoulder to the wheel, like Sisyphus, trying to be forthright about it, trying to work hard and look forward to the payoff in sunnier days. It's hard, though. I feel a tension around my eyes almost all of the time, like they just want to close and I won't let them. It was actually a sunny day, but it was all gone by the time I got off work.

In other news, I have all kinds of action coming up, starting in January, and I'll have to have ALL KINDS of memorizing done by then. It's so hard to focus on what seems like a lonely endeavor at this stage.

Okay, there is one wonderful thing about sitting at a desk all day and emerging into the dark street. It does make it easier to get my head together and plan and scheme my concerts. I don't tend to hem and haw and hesitate. I think: what have I got to lose? Nobody's going to hand me any musical opportunities in here.