It’s been a while since I’ve Journaled. Almost a complete month. And I’m a bad person. It’s true.
AND it’s not like I’ve had nothing to say or nothing’s been happening – actually there’s been plenty. Some of it’s not public, some of it’s just not that interesting, and often as not I’ve just been too damned busy to write the rest of it down.
The holidays were quiet and private and beautiful. By now the tree has gone up and come down sans incident. We had a big farewell show for Rowan and that was nothing short of amazing. I think that, though we’ve “sold out rooms” before, this is the first time that literally we had people waiting outside hoping to get into the show. I hope it’s a sign of things to come, but it may simply be a thing… not a sign… just a thing.
What else to do with a snow day other than sit at home writing and recording and recording and writing? I plan to post a new tune “Secret Surgery” sooner than later!
We’ve visited farms and Christmas Villages, wandered the city and suburbs in search of Christmas lights and stayed late at the store with Christmas shoppers. I’ve read some books and played some games and we definitely played some shows – but mostly December was something of a blur.
In short – we’ve been keeping busy.
At the moment Heather and I are dividing our forces. Kristen and I are headed south on a long and roundabout road trip and Heather’s holding down the home front barring for a couple of trips to Pennsylvania. We hadn’t entirely planned it this way, but I think it’s working out well.
My brother and his wife move every couple of years – for a while they were in Houston and we’d made a point of touring through the area and seeing him. Then he moved to France and we didn’t see him for a long time – then he moved to DC (!) and had a kid (!) and for a couple of years we managed to do every Christmas with my brother and his family. This year they moved back to Houston but I had hoped to continue the tradition of doing Christmas with them… figuring a quick trip out and back would be harried but potentially a lot of fun.
Unfortunately, Kristen pointed out that the House of Musical Traditions would be loathe to part with two of its central figures during, like, the holidays. Unfortunately, I definitely had to concede her point and we postponed the “Christmas” trip till January… and then since there was more time the trip sort of bloomed into this three week wandering where I’ll get a chance to show Kristen some parts of the country that she’s never been to before, and show off Kristen to some parts of the country that’ve never met her before. We’ll be playing a couple of shows, a lot of open mics, visiting some old friends and a bunch of family and generally running amok.
Not much amok just yet – Kristen and I are headed south on 301 at the moment, bypassing much of the nastiness of I-95 through the stripes of sunshine on what’s got to be one of the coldest days I’ve ever known (weather said it was “6” this morning, with a windchill that went down to 20 below last night). The wind is whipping us around but the sky is crystal clear and it’s a good day for driving – plus or minus the fact that we don’t have enough antifreeze in the washer fluid reservoir and we’re just having to deal with it.
Tonight we’re not too far out of our recent stomping grounds – we’ll just be stopping over in the North Carolina Triangle for an open mic and dinner, staying with one of Kristen’s oldest friends (meaning they’ve known one another for a long time) before heading on to Wilmington in the morning.
Yup. Headed south for the winter. We’re running from the Polar Vortex of 2014. If you’d stood outside this morning waiting around for an ATM to accept your cash deposit you’d be running too.
Ellicott City knows about Christmas. I try to always visit at least once in the snow but things didn’t line up that way. But you’ve GOT to catch the store fronts of Main Street all dressed up for Christmas! The last show of the year – worrying about snow at Parallel Wine Bistro in Ashburn, VA. As always, a beautiful night, with the added Loveliness of celebrating Heather’s brother’s birthday with a bunch of his friends. Not a bad way to do the last gig of 2013! We’ve been getting a fair amount of snow this year, and I adore the stuff. Here’s the snow outside of Heather’s place in Owings Mills, coming down and killing our first show of 2014! Heather and I Loving the snow – and you know what? Still one another – after ALL THESE YEARS!!!
