The Chocolate Soldier and the Opera Diva

I couldn't believe how gorgeous it was this morning. The sun poured through the windows, but it wasn't the hot, hazy, humid sun of last month. It was soft, pure sunshine, with a hint of a cool breeze and no haze or humidity anywhere. I immediately switched off the air conditioner and fans and flung open the windows.

It was so nice, the air conditioner was off at the laundromat when I got there, too. The cooler weather also brought out the crowds. The place was really busy when I came in. I was just able to get a washer and a dryer.

When I got home, I put away my laundry and dubbed The Chocolate Soldier, a 1941 vehicle for Nelson Eddy and Rise Stevens. Though it uses the songs from the original 1909 operetta, the plot comes from the 1924 play The Guardsman - a Hungarian performer (Eddy) is so jealous of his wife's (Stevens) flirtations, he poses as a Russian actor to test her faithfulness. Nigel Bruce (Watson of the 40s Sherlock Holmes series) is his best friend.

I like the onstage portions so much, I kind of wish they'd stuck to the original story...but Stevens and Eddy both do fairly well with the fluffy plot. Eddy looks like he's having far more fun here than in any of his vehicles with Jeanette MacDonald (and his Russian accent is at least slightly more credible than that ridiculous Spanish accent of his from The Girl of the Golden West).

Went online to work on some ideas for an at-home business. I want to keep things very simple. I'm not buying into anyone else's idea. I want to run my own business and do things my own way. I'm tired of living by other people's (and companies') rules. I'm fed up with "The Company Way" - unlike Robert Morse, Matthew Broderick, and Daniel Radcliffe, I just can't live that way. I'm tired of the revolving door of bosses. (The head store manager who just came here in May already found a better job and is leaving within the next few weeks!) I'm sick of the stress, sick of the silly uniforms, sick of the hundred different rules that keep popping up for no good reason. I don't like shilling for things I don't eat or use, and I'm not crazy about the annoying customers, either. I wasn't meant to work for a big corporation.

Trouble is, now I need to figure out what it is I can do. I already have some ideas. I'd love to try copywriting, editing, database organization, writing newsletters for local businesses, website editing, or virtual assisting. I just need to decide exactly what I want to do and how to advertise it.

I just barely got off in time for work. It turned out to not be worth the effort. Between the beautiful weather and this being the middle of a holiday-less month, we were pin-drop quiet for most of the evening. It was only busy during the usual 4-6 rush hour, and then on-and-off.