I’m a “composer”

Much better than a decomposer, eh? (cue the “wah-wah-wah” sound effect).
So in the continuing saga of Heath pursues his dreams in a round about way, here’s the latest on what’s happening. The big nice professional studio downtown who I was doing the “mock folk song” jingle for, had asked me to send them the “music only” so they could get a bunch of different singers to sing it (which is what the ad campaign called for; there would be different people singing every line). I sent them the music only which I had recorded at home on my computer. The next day I emailed to make sure they got it, and I got a response saying “yeah, we’ve been working on it all day. Come on down and help the engineer mix it if you have the time”. Well I knew the engineer didn’t really need my help mixing it, but I certainly didn’t want to pass up some face time at the studio, which is a way cool place, so I immediately went down there.
I went and sat in the extremely cushy control room, and watched the guy fly through the Pro-tools program like a madman, tweaking the tiniest details that I was amazed his ear could even detect. There I was, listening to my own composition being sung by a mass of different people, and watching a professional engineer at a professional studio laboring over this little jingle I had written. It was super cool. He’d play little chunks of it over and over, adjusting levels, EQ, compression, etc. All these people singing my silly little words over my goofy music. Very cool.
As I left I was surprised to be handed a check for $100. Now normally I would have got $350 just for the demo, but I was initially told that since this was “on spec” meaning that the studio didn’t have this sold yet, and were doing it for free to try and impress the client into buying it, coupled with the fact that it was sort of my “audition” to be considered for the pool of composers, that I would be doing it for free. Nice surprise for me! Even better yet, if the client buys the spot I’ll get another $2500.
After this cool experience, Friday was not so good. I had what could only be described as a mini-nervous breakdown in relation to the whole life/job situation. I was just miserable and had a long talk with Jess about it all. We don’t really have much more of a clue than before, but it was good that we talked about it. Basically the problem is that I swing wildly between two extremes. One being “Hey everything is starting to take off and a real job would only prohibit me from adequate pursuing these fruits to fruition”. The other being “What the hell am I thinking? I have no idea if any of these avenues will actually be able to support life ever. I need to get a real job and just accept that I’ll have to pursue these things as a hobby only”.
Admittedly, we could scrape along at least until January on my meager earnings, plus perhaps borrowing some money from Craig (who has said he’s happy to help me out) knowing that I have some decent money coming to me in December. It would still be a stretch though until Jess can get a job.
The main problem is that all the things I’m pursuing really require full time dedication to make them happen. I may try and take some job at least until such time as it becomes a problem. For example if some project comes up that I couldn’t get off work for, then worry about quitting then. I don’t know. It’s very complicated.
Will and Annika have both filled me with envy (even though I know his job can suck, it’s still way cool and at least related to his interests and desires) and also inspired me. I actually sat down and worked on my screenplay today. I’m terribly lazy about it, and I really want to finish it so that I can get on to the painful process of letting others critique it, and then doing massive re-writes I’m sure. Then I can submit it to an agent, who will love it and get me a large money deal with someone to direct and star in it, because it’s feckin rules. I’m convinced it’s my ticket out (OK, so I’m being just a bit insanely hopeful; it’s the only way to be).
2 more things:
1. my mailbox was karmically balanced today. I got a bill from our new cable company for 94.32, but after canceling HBO which we got free for a month, and using our free pay-per-view movie coupon for “Equilibrium” it was $80. I also got a check from our old cable company (I guess I paid for the month after we had left) for 86.75. Looks like my karma is in the good for about $6.75.
2. Twice in this entry, I have used parentheses wherein I really needed to end one sentence and start another . For example the sentence:

I’m convinced it’s my ticket out (OK, so I’m being just a bit insanely hopeful; it’s the only way to be.)

What the hell is the correct way to do that? I chose a semi-colon for lack of knowing what to do. Should the semi-colon be a period within the parentheses? Should I just not structure a sentence that way because it’s wrong? Help!