New Year's Eve/Day is My Favorite Holiday

For a self-proclaimed self-help junkie, this is the ultimate holiday. There's no religious meaning, no patriotic ceremonies. It's just the flipping over of a calendar day, year, and this time, a decade. It's just an excuse to reflect and refocus. It's like we all worship the concept of self-improvement for a day. And it makes me soooo happy.

Today we look back and what we've done, celebrate the good, mourn the bad, say goodbye and blow it out with a big party. Tomorrow we make goals, resolutions, predictions and get started on the ever impossible task of living some perfect life. But really it's all just a beautiful mess that only takes shape when you get the long view or somehow squish it into a neat little song.  And days like today are good inspiration.

I'm not sure yet how I'll asses my year, or what I'll resolve to do this decade. But I do know that I want to keep reflecting and resolving as I go. And try to fit in some plain old just-doing and being-in-the-moment while I'm at it.

Bad day/ Bad Meinberg

We might have had our first bad day. It was also our first day off and we didn't have a real plan, so that means decisions. Deciding where to go, where to eat, where to stay and for how long. How cheap of a hotel or hostel can we stand?

And deciding really wears you down. It is not relaxing, it's stressful. And the longer you draw it out, the worse it feels.

That's why we decided (ha!) that we'd spend the next two nights in the same place. That way, one decision covers two nights. So we mapped our trip, found a city close to our next gig and searched for hotels in the vacinity.

It was so amazingly lucky that knowing nothing about the town, and being only able to communicate with the hotel proprietress in beginner German, we were able to reserve a great clean, triple room in the resort town of Bad Meinberg where there are lovely Nordic Walking trails and mineral springs and baths.

We gave our brains a real day off, gave the car a day off and gave our bodies a little exercize. So almost everyone else visiting the town was over 70, and all the boutiques were full of flannel nightgowns and Mephisto shoes, and this amazing mineral water really just makes you poop five minutes later, it was still relaxing.

We just ate and strolled and hiked and watched a movie and tried to speak and understand German. Simple problems. And we're off again!

Fondue!

More cheese please

The food has been amazing and plentiful on our trip. Every restaurant
has served from-scratch, fresh food and excellent coffee and bread.
We've had Bockbier last night, Swiss wine, Scotch whiskey, and plenty
of water "without gas" (carbonation).

We've also had so much good cheese. I think it's was served with every
meal, including the breakfast buffet. But the cheesy highlight was
visiting the old medieval town of Gruyere and eating a giant pot of
fondue. We dipped fresh French bread and boiled potatoes in the
perfectly melted blend of wine, Emmentaler and Gruyere cheese. And it
was so good, and we just couldn't stop eating, no matter how full we
felt until all the fondue was gone.

All except Charlie, that is, who loves cheese but has a lactose
intolerance. She tried a few glorious bites and vowed that next time
she comes back to Europe, she will pack more lactaid than CDs.

Oops, gotta run! Our host at this country guest house is arriving with
our breakfast. And look, he has cheese!

Travel Day

Today is the first big day of my trip and it involves many modes of transportation. Car, train, subway, taxi, and then airplane to Zurich. Leg one is done. Gonna try to catch a few Zzz on the train, but not too many, because I do want to sleep a long time on the plane.

I'm really excited to go - in a way that I hadn't anticipated. I've been so caught up in the details of planning and thinking about work that I forgot how profound international travel can be. It really rocks your core to be in a different culture, so that every minute is vibrant and special. I'm really looking forward to living in that heightened reality for a bit.

Also, I'm really excited to meet the people I have been emailing with and talking to on the phone. And to meet the local people at our shows! I feel lucky to travel in this way, not really a tourist.

AND I'm really excited to play music every night and get the band rockin' and just feel the commraderie of making art with friends.

Ok, my ticket is punched, sleepy time for me.

Making sure/Final preperations

Hi!!!!!!!

I'm so excited for my European tour, so all those exclamation points are warranted. I'm running around packing and getting everything ready. This message is just to make sure that I'm all set up to post blogs from my phone. Now I have to figure our how to get pictures in here. Maybe Facebook. I don't know. Better check my packing priorities and see what I have time for.

!!!!!!!!!! Just for good measure.

Out of Tenn

I'm trying to live as though traveling to New York or Boston for one night is no big deal. It's hard to suck it up and drive or sit on the train for hours just to see a show, but I know in the long run it's good for me. I need to stay connected to that city energy and see great live music. So last night I trekked to Boston for the Ten Out of Tenn show at Cafe 939 at Berkelee College. It's ten Nashville based songwriters touring together on Willie Nelson's old bus.

I only knew the music of a couple of the artists and I had heard of a couple of the others, but at least 6 of the artists were new to me, and I didn't know what to expect from the night. Especially since I don't generally consider myself a big fan of 'indie-pop." But about 3 songs in to the show, I remembered that every time I go out the see music in Nashville, even if it's a friend of a friend who's music is in some style I don't think I like, I'm always impressed. The level of musicianship and writing is just so great in that town, just about everything sounds good.

What I thought was going to be a loose jam by a bunch of songwriters was actually a tightly arranged band with a rotating cast of musicians held together by the solid drumming of Will Sayles. Each of the "ten" took a couple of turns at the center mic, leading the band in their songs, but then they'd scoot over to a keyboard or trade off guitar for bass and sing some harmonies. The sound was surprisingly consistent, even though each songwriter's personality came through clearly. Everyone seemed to be having a great time and the whole show had an after-school-special/Fat Albert kind of feel to it. Only these hopeful kids can really play, and from the looks of their bios and the slick TOT website, they know how to manage their own careers, too. I bought "the bundle" that included one of each of their CDs, plus the latest TOT compilation, which was only $50.

Sarah Siskind and Ashley Monroe were probably my favorites, probably because they were the more Americana part of the show and they both have such interesting voices. Madi Diaz was a Berkelee grad with lots of fans in the crowd and I really liked her, too. I wouldn't be surprised if one of her songs becomes a Fiest-y kind of indie hit. I didn't love Jedd Hughes' songs at the show, mostly because they were so loud and I couldn't hear the lyrics, but his EP is great and I'm sure I'll play it lots and try to see him again.

So worth the drive to Boston. And I was home by 1:30am. No big deal, that's how I roll.