Yesterday evening was a *weird*. I was walking to my church choir rehearsal and noticed that the streets were much more crowded than usual (it was more of stroll to church - literally, could not move faster due to all the bodies), there were a ton of sirens and people were on their cell phones, many looking panicked or crying. Some woman was a basket case talking on her cell phone about the 'explosion in the Empire State Building.'

I'm shocked that in 'this day and age', here in *Manhattan* people would be so alarmist... freak first, ask questions later. Haven't we learned yet? It almost always is an infrastruction type problem. But 9/11 has definitely stayed with people - that is clear. For myself, I managed to stay calm but had that awful feeling at the pit of my stomach, much like I felt going home after the blackout, before we knew it was merely a technical problem, not anything nefarious. Ugh. I asked a group of businessmen standing on the steps of my church, looking south at the billowing cloud of smoke that was now clearly seen down Park Avenue (and you can't SEE down Park Avenue where we were - you can see about 10 stories up - that's a lot of smoke) what had happened and he said a transformer had blown.

Everyone was wrong - there was a steam pipe explosion which our music director at church told us about when we arrived. I didn't see any of the footage until today, due to extreme fryage (which I'll get too in a sec) but wow. What a mess and sounds and looks seriously scary (there's a slide show at that link). And asbestos? They are supposedly checking the air quality. That said, it's hot and 80% humidity so I'm fairly certain we are all getting some unhealthy exposure at this point. Nice.

I'm happy to say that earlier in the day was much more fun. I was in a crappy mood due to humidity (it's just gross here) but went to rehearse with my band for our gig tomorrow night. I was extremely concerned about timing - two guest musicians, Tobias Ralph and Max Hinojosa... two hours to rehearse (including setting up, chatting about this or that, etc.) and a new tune. After the first tune, I knew we would have more than enough time for everything. These guys just KILL my music. So amazingly great. The band vibe is great and they had amazing ideas for the new song that really brought it into its own. Now I just need to remember the tons of lyrics that it contains! :-) Needless to say, tomorrow night is going to be a lot of fun. I'm very excited to debut the new tune and for everyone to hear this group. Awesome.

Today, I'm chilling out, getting ready for the show. Deciding what color my hair should change to, if any (haircut appointment tonight which tends to lead to new color ideas!), and trying to recover from rehearsing with my band and the church choir for about six hours yesterday. I'm not used to singing this much! My legs feel heavy - I need a nap! Luckily, I got a new shipment from Netflix which I'll be watching tonight with mollythedog. Action movies. How can I go wrong?