A month of thanks: Catching up

I will catch up... I will. One day...

[Day 2] Today, I'm thankful for my friends. (yeah yeah, getting the obvious ones out of the way first) I have an amazing group of friends, spread out all over the worlds, from all of my many walks of life. Just about everywhere I've traveled, for work or for pleasure, I always have someone there. Whether its letting me crash on their couch or just meeting me for dinner or drinks, there's always someone to keep from feeling alone anywhere.

I wrote the above post, and somehow managed to save it as a draft instead of actually posting it. Oops! But I'll take this opportunity to actually catch up!

Day 3: Saturday I was thankful for quality time with people I don't get to see near often enough, namely my two youngest sisters. The 2nd youngest is a junior in college up at York College in PA, about 2 hours away. She's the VP of her sorority chapter this year, and planned this really fun Girls Day Out luncheon. The youngest and I, along with my best friend who's been an honorary sister for years now, drove up to York for the luncheon. It was a lot of fun! Then, after that, the youngest came with me to see Tony Lucca and Matt Duke at Jammin Java. It was her first time at a show like that, and I think she enjoyed herself.

Day 4: Sunday I was thankful for my fiance. I know, sappy. But seriously, we had a blast just spending the day together. We did super fun stuff early like cleaning the house and running errands. Exciting. But the second half of the day was spent watching a silly movie (That's My Boy, probably the best Happy Madison movie in years) and eating the fantastic steak dinner he made us. That man can cook a steak, let me tell you what! I'm incredibly lucky to have him.

And today, Day 5: I am VERY thankful for my job and the people I work with. Mostly because I have a job and I don't hate going to every day. But also because they're flexible and supportive and good people, and because even though our job is incredibly important, and we all take it very seriously, none of us take ourselves too seriously, and it makes it a good place to work. Can't say that about everyone we work with, but my office in particular is good. I've hated going to work before, and I've been in a spot where I don't have a job to hate going to, so this is definitely the best of both worlds. Especially in this economy, I'm glad to have it.

And... phew! Caught up :)

Some things I get to be proud of

First, just to get it out of the way (and this is not included in the things I got to be proud of)... Anyone who's turned on a TV or picked up a newspaper or been on Facebook in the past few days knows that the conversation has been dominated by conversation about gay marriage. I blogged about my thoughts on this topic back in late 2010, and I don't feel the need to rehash those points again.

Now that that's out of the way, moving on to the REAL topic I wanted to talk about. Anyone who knows me or who has been reading this blog for any period of time knows that I'm a huge music nerd, always have been and probably always will be. I've also always sang, and written off and on for a large majority of my life. I took the "sensible route" and never really pursued singing, which I can't say I completely regret, but I definitely get that slight pang of jealousy when I see someone else on stage and think I should be doing that, and I definitely get a huge rush when I do get the chance to sing on a stage, even if its karaoke. For the most part, though, I'm OK with the fact that most of my singing will be done in my car. I have several friends, some closer than others, who took the giant leap and have pursued their dreams, and I love nothing more than the chance to help them do so and the feeling of pride I feel when they do well. I've two such opportunities this week that I want to share.

First of all, Tony Lucca came in 3rd place on the The Voice this week. I, along with I'd assume a good chunk of 10 year old girls in 1990, had a HUGE crush on Tony when he was on the Mickey Mouse Club, and when I first got to meet him in 2007, I had one of my very few star-struck moments. I've had the pleasure of getting to see Tony play many times since then, and, because he's the type of guy to do so, getting to know him a little bit as a fan as well. So I, along with many of my friends in the Rock Boat family, felt nothing short of huge amounts of pride not only with Tony's amazing run on the show, but also because of the amazing class he showed in dealing with the drama that was Christina Aguilera. If you haven't heard anything of Tony other than what you saw on the Voice, do yourself a favor and go get some of his original music. Its all on iTunes, and I think you can still find his latest album on noisetrade.com for free (with the option of paying what you want).

The other opportunity to be proud this week, while smaller in scale, was HUGE for me. When I met Amy Gerhartz back in 2005, she was playing coffee shops and restaurants in the Norfolk, VA area and working a day job at a music venue just waiting for the right show to convince her bosses to let her be the opening act. That chance came in December that year, when Jason Mraz and Better Than Ezra were playing. I was in the audience that night, and while I had met her once before, I fell in love with her music based on the short set she played. We became fast friends, even though within a few months both of us had moved out of the area - me to DC for the next Navy job, and Amy to New York in pursuit of her dreams. In the past seven years, I've watched Amy do everything she could to get herself out there. I've seen her play in seedy bars, do residencies in swanky NYC restaurants, move to Atlanta in hopes of breaking into the amazing independent scene there, work day jobs she hated to make ends meet, have deals and opportunities dangled in front of her only to have them not work out, but still continue on and grow in every possible way. Last spring, she released a five song EP, with the promise of more to come. The first time I heard those five songs I was in the car with Amy, and I couldn't even express how proud I was of her.

Since she moved to Atlanta, Amy's been able to gain exposure to a wide variety of people who have done pretty well at advancing the careers of independent musicians. That's how she ended up working with her producer, the amazing Brian Fechino, known also to many as a phenomenal guitarist. And I'll take a little bit of credit, although Brian may have had more influence, with getting Amy's name to the folks over at Rock By The Sea - I'd been suggesting her to them for a long time, and this year they booked her for their annual fundraiser festival. I was supposed to go down to Panama City Beach for the event, but between the new job and the trip to see my sister and her family that I have coming up, I just couldn't make it happen. But I got an email halfway through it from one of the organizers telling me that Amy was a hit, so I knew I couldn't wait to hear from her how it had gone.

Turns out, saying that she was a hit was an understatement. Apparently, Ken Block, the lead singer of Sister Hazel, was among many who fell in love with Amy at this event. He had seen her play and heard her music before, but apparently she went to a new level for him at this event. He gave her a shout out from stage during Sister Hazel's show. He led the crowd in getting her to play an encore during her show. Basically, he was her biggest fan, and made sure everyone knew it. Amy sold more merchandise than just about anyone at the event. She gained countless new fans. And all of this is just ahead of the release of the second of her five song EPs.

I am SO INCREDIBLY PROUD of Amy. Words don't even begin to express it. I told her I was going to start living vicariously through her, because only good things can come from here on out. The only way that I can really think of to show how proud I am of her is to tell you all to go buy her music!! The Volume 1 EP is available on itunes or you can order hard copies through her website. Volume 2 is coming soon (should be available for download at all the usual spots on May 15th) but until then you can listen to samples of the songs here or here. And she'll be touring soon, so keep your eyes open for dates in your area. And in general, because I have a feeling Amy's going places.

The Tax Man Cometh...

Today, a monumental thing is happening. And not in a good way. For the first time in my working life, I owed taxes in 2011. And not just a few bucks - in the (very low, not that it matters) four figures. And I set today as the day for that debit to occur.

Luckily for me, I am in a financial situation where I was just able to suck it up and pay the tax bill. No having to put it on a credit card, or set up a payment plan that would be subject to interest, but off the top of my head, I can think of at least 5 things that money could have gone towards - the new couch, the Visa, the Mastercard, a new flat-iron (I've had the same one for nearly 10 years - its legit!!), and/or my next grad school class.

Instead, I'll just wait for the debit to happen, cry a little, and put a little less than originally planned towards all of the above. And hope that this year, since I just started a new job, my withholdings will be a little bit closer to on the mark!

(Oh, and for those of you who may be curious, Tony did, in fact, get saved by America on The Voice last night. Go Team Rock Boat, and on to the next round!)

It's Official.

I suck at blogging. And at keeping New Year's resolutions. But worse at blogging.

I have been so MIA lately that it's not even funny. I have a semi-good excuse, though. Since the last blog, I've gone on The Rock Boat, moved houses, and moved jobs. That's a lot for 2 months!

But now that I'm settling in to both the job and the house, I really do want to start writing more. Maybe I'll succeed, maybe I won't. But I really do want to try.

First topic for discussion: Christina Aguilera completely dogging Tony Lucca last night on The Voice. Can we say jealous much? Seriously, just because Justin Timberlake is supporting him and not her, she's going to say something like that on TV? She who has Alicia Keys' backup singer on her team, and don't anyone forget it? Sorry Xtina, its not the "celebrity sway" that's going to keep Tony on the show - its the fan base that he's been building for the past 20 years, been taking the time to get to know, and who will support him not only because of the amazing music we've seen him put out over the years (which, by the way, is the furthest thing from one dimensional ever, and you'd know it if you'd listened to any of it) and because of the fact that he is a genuinely good person.

And that's my rant for the day :) Follow Tony on Facebook and Twitter, and watch tonight to see him (hopefully) get saved live on The Voice!