"Here's another one," Larry said, placing a report on my desk in front of me. Lately, we'd been having trouble at our border with Egypt. As you might know, Egypt is one of our greatest enemies. For several reasons. Obviously, Amarkia is an enclave within Egypt and they feel like they own us or something. And then, there's stands the issue of religious persecution. There is no freedom of religion in Egypt and they are extremely strict and cruel with minorities. And since we are opposed to that, they don't like us. Plus, like just about every other country, they are insanely jealous of our technological advances.

"Oh, please. Don't tell me there are more problems with the border."

"Well, I won't say it, but I'll say it anyway. Just like last time. A group of anti-Amarkian teens throwing rocks and other things at the border. They tried to provoke the guards at the gates. Of course, they didn't but the Egyptian government is on their side. Twitter's filled with anti-Amarkian comments and threats."

I laughed. "That's nothing new."

I looked through the reports. I handed them to him and said, "Eh. Just file these. Might need them later."

He went over to put them away in the filing cabinet. "So how's the whole music thing going?"

I looked at him. "Since when are you interested in my personal doings?"

He shrugged. "Since I don't know when. How did it go?"

"Well, it certainly wasn't what I didn't think it would be."

"Huh?"

"Forget it. All I did was meet the band and the recording guys. I sang three songs and redid each of them like five times. It was a good thing I didn't lose my voice. Mr. Murphy says that my voice is so good that I don't need any vocal lessons, breathing exercises or any of that."

"Well, I haven't heard you sing. But I imagine that to have a voice that good, well, you just gotta be born ready to sing. It's not something you can take in voice lessons. Like all those great opera singers. They don't learn. They're born like that."

"Well, yeah. But you know, Mr. Murphy tells me that pretty much anyone can sing with training. I'm not saying that everyone has that as a gift but they can develop it as a talent. You know, there's a huge difference between those two terms."

"I imagine. What songs did you sing?"

"Eh. Well. I was kinda asked to keep that secret until the album is actually released."

"Oh, come tell me!"

I started doing some important paperwork. "No can do. Sorry."

"Come on! You've told me all your secrets."

"Yeah, but not this one. You'll just have to wait till mid-May. Sorry."

"Yeah, but, you're the one who told me you like Lilia."

"I know, but…"

"And you're the one who told me that your 46-year-old uncle likes Taylor Swift music and everyone else made fun of you because of that."

"Yeah, but…"

"And you're the one who told me that your favorite novel is…"

"LARRY! I get the idea. But when I say no, that means NO! Get it through your thick reptilian skull!"

His face said, "All right, all right. Geez!" He went back to whatever work he was doing. I really would want to tell him. No matter what kind of nut he is, he's the best person in the world to tell secrets to. But, I couldn't reveal, not even this. Not even to you, dear reader. Whoever you are.

Sorry I can't tell you. Really, I can't. You'll have to wait, too.

Anyways. That day after work, I went by the studio to do some more work on the album. Boy, I never knew that making one CD could be so complicated! There's recording and editing and mixing sounds and re-doing lots of songs over and over and the music and…wow!

Makes you really think and appreciate all the hard work that goes into one simple CD. All at once, it didn't seem as much fun as I thought it would be.

Well, that's the price you pay for being talented.

So there you are. How I got started on my music career. And in a later story, I'll tell you more about this. But for now, I leave you with this thought….it is better to laugh a whole day than to cry a whole year. (Okay, that wasn't so good. Never mind. Goodbye anyways.)