Waking up has never been an easy process for me. And if you love sleep, I'm sure you can sympathize with me. You know the routine. Your alarm goes off and you hit snooze. Your alarm could be your favorite song (The Beatles, Taylor Swift, Kesha, Harry Belafonte......ok, I blame my wife for the latter three artists), a radio station, or just that plain old annoying panging alarm sound that we all hate. Whatever helps you get up in the morning. Anyway.......Seven or eight minutes go by......alarm goes off.....and you hit snooze again. And again......and again......rinse lather repeat. This is a daily routine for me. But somehow those days turned into months. And those months turned into a year. How the heck did that happen? Where have I been? What have I been up to?
As it turns out, quite a bit. Over the last year, I've been through some pretty dramatic changes. A year ago in November, my then fiance' (now my wife) and I did something neither one of us had done before. We took a road trip out West. The first part of the trip wasn't much to look at as we drove through Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas (although parts of Missouri were surprisingly beautiful). After attending a wedding in Oklahoma, we ventured on to Amarillo, Texas and stumbled into a wonderful surprise in Palo Duro Canyon, which happens to be the second largest canyon in the US. The state that came next would steal our hearts......New Mexico. I could go on and on about it, but not right now as I'd like to bring you up to speed. Colorado would be next (also a beautiful place) before the boring drive home that took us back through Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois.
In March, I went through a career change. I left behind my cushy job that I held onto for ten years in pursuit of something that offered more stability and upside. I couldn't afford to keep up that unpredictable lifestyle anymore. At least not right now. As excited as I was to take on something new, I vastly underestimated how difficult the transition would be. For the first time in my life, I was being truly challenged and pushed. And man I will tell you.......it.....is.......HARD! This sounds strange coming from a young, middle aged man, but I seriously had no idea how tough of a change this would be. At the age of 35, I still feel like I'm growing up for the first time. Learning and growing are good things. But man, they are painful!
Meanwhile, as I've been going through this transition, my greatest ally, Melissa, and I had been experiencing the ups and downs of planning our wedding. We'd both been experiencing severe financial stress while fretting over seemingly insignificant details while trying not to kill our families, friends, and each other. But in the end, we made it through and understood why we went through all the trouble. Melissa's parents hosted an absolutely lovely bridal shower that featured a really awesome circus-like tent in their driveway. In September, we had our rehearsal dinner where we invited all of our closest family and friends. We toasted each and every one of them and told them how much we loved them. The next day was our wedding. To say that it was perfect would be an understatement. It was beyond our imagination of perfect......it was magical......as if fairy dust had been sprinkled throughout the entire grounds of the venue AND onto all of our guests. It was an extraordinary experience that neither Melissa or myself will soon forget. After the wedding, we took a small "mini-moon" to Sawyer, Michigan and rented a charming house that was nestled in what I would describe as part woods and part beach. We lounged at the pool, soaked in the hot tub, built fires, cooked yummy food, snuggled, and relaxed. It was wonderful. We are horribly spoiled....I know.
And I think all of that explains why this harsh dose of reality that followed has been so hard. I have underestimated the rubber band effect of coming back down to earth. But now that I'm starting to feel slightly grounded again, I miss being creative. It's a side of me that I've neglected for quite a while. I have a "Reliables" album to finish that my bass player, Bob, has been tinkering with for what seems like forever. It's a great record and I want to make it available to anyone who wants to listen. Once that's complete, I'd like to somehow put all of the emotions and feelings that I've been experiencing over the past year into music and lyric. I don't know what it will translate into yet. It may be a Reliables record, it may be a solo record, or it may involve collaboration from various sources. Who knows. All I know is I'm ready to be creative again. Where have I been?
Oh yeah, I have a website.......