Ask And You Shall Receive...HELP!

So, with this trip to Texas, I am working on getting my Dad's affairs in order.  Part of that is getting family momentos and stuff out of my parent's home.  My brother pitched in a helping hand and we both were floored by the amount of crap my parents (mostly my Mom) crammed into every room, closet, cabinet, and drawer.  We were both ready to pick through it and just abandon a lot of it for someone else to deal with until...

...we were driving down the street and my brother lamented about how crappy the house looked due to the overgrown "lawn" (a lot of dirt and some grass/weeds growing in patches across the property).  I saw a gentleman a few houses a way cutting grass and suggested to my brother, "Why don't we just hire him to do it."  So, we did!  Nothing like being able to tell one of your own people to cut YOUR grass (*rimshot!*) - but we do it in Spanish - cuz he'll do a better job for us (*rimshot!*).  Anyway, we hired him and paid him to make the house look a little less abandoned by cutting down the jungle.  While he did that, a crew looking for scrap metal came by and asked if we needed any help hauling stuff away.  *BAM*  More of our people to assist!  So we hired them on the spot!

Both of us were floored as to our good fortune.  Not only were we able to  get help clearing out the house we were able to also sell off some of the items we has no idea how to get rid of - lawnmower, barbeque, tools, TVs, etc.  And on top of that, we were able to clear the house out completely!  RAWK!

We put up a couple of things on Craigslist being pessimistic about our chances on selling them.  I've been getting text messages/phone calls galore on these items!  PRICED TO MOVE!  So, after these things are sold, we actually may have covered the cost completely of hiring the crews and shipping the keepers to our homes!

I know that I put the request for help into the Universe and it was granted for me.  YES IT WORKS!  I get it Universe.  Thank you for reminding me of that!

Becoming a Jive Tukey

<-- Looks scrumptious, right?  Yep, I thought so too...

Easter weekend involved a lot of family time.  With everything going with Salsation, work, my Dad, the kids, tax season, and my other yearning artistic endeavors, I'd been under slept for a while.  I wasn't really into going to dinner with in-laws -not because of them - but I just wanted to sleep.  A good reason to go in addition to being with family was that we were going to be fed. Yum!

Easter dinner typically consists of Thanksgiving's fixings - turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing, etc.  So, naturally, it made sense to chow down on the meat and potatoes portions.  I should avoid those things but don't.  One, it's not often I get to eat turkey, and two I was hungry.  I ate it and felt no ill effects from eat the bird.

Two nights later I got treated to eating at a neighbor's home.  Again, I as under-slept and wanting just to go to bed.  My neighbor decided to use his rotisserie adapter on his barbeque to cook it and it came out awesomely.  So, of course, I pigged out.

The very next day. I woke up SUPER anxious.  I felt like I was going to explode - life was too much to bear.  Everything was super amplified in priority and nervousness.  I was breathing heavy the whole morning, unable to think about anything for longer than a couple of minutes, and just felt like crap.  The other odd things was that for the life of me i couldn't my hands or feet to warm up.  They were solid blocks of ice.  My hips and pelvis started to ache and I just want to shut down completely and curl up in a ball in a corner somewhere.  I also felt tightness and short pains in my chest.  It was the oddest feeling.

I racked my brain for an explanation.  I thought to myself, "Just the day before I felt fine and tackled a ton of things on my own. Now today I can barely handle the sound of my own family living with me. WTF?!"  This behavior continued until 2:30 PM after forcing myself to get out of the house and into the sun, getting some food, and trying to chill out by listening to talk radio at very high volumes.  I finally felt "normal" around 5 PM.

I took time to reflect on what could've cause this for me and the only thing I can think of was eating that turkey.  My body doesn't like turkey anymore.  I guess it never really did.   So, the next time I know turkey is on the menu, a quick stop for food is in order :)

Don't Talk, Just Do Follow Up

So, It's been about 12 days since I seriously commited to the idea of just doing things instead of talking about doing them.  Here's my progress report so far:

• Started the long-talked about musical podcast Musical Chairs Podcast where I give my honest opinions about music that I (don't) care about.  I come up with a list of 5 things for a subject I really have some strong opinions about.  I've been going at it solo because I felt I couldn't do it alone.  However, with this new attitude, I decided to go at it alone.  Even if it sucks, at least I accomplished something.  As Eli Porter would say, "I'm da bess man...I deed it..."
  
• I am starting to getting interested in auditioning again.  I've signed up for one next week and had one last week.  I keep talking about doing it - getting back in the game - and coming up with excuses to not do it.  I also reached out to a few folks to start booking shows for me to perform in.  gonna just jump back in and sink or swim.
  
• I am dealing with some family matters that quire frankly gave myself a 13 year reprieve some by moving away to Chicago.  It's giving me more creative material than I may want to deal with at this time but I think it's also therapeutic as well as I've got a lot of unresolved issues.
  

More things to document soon.

Don't Talk - Just Do

As the new year has arrived, I've come to the realization that I've been my own worst enemy regarding what I want to do in my creative life.  I come up constantly with reasons as to why I can't/won't do t things I' ve always wanted to do.  Here's a short list of items I constantly have runningi n my  brain:

• I'm not a good singer...
• I want everything to be perfect...
• Inspiration is just supposed to happen...
• It's too hard...
• I don't have the ability to do it...
• I don't have time for it.

When I was a kid, I could do anything.  Why as an adult do I put up so many obstacles to my own creativity?  I feel like a liar when talking to my sons a bout being anything they want to be when I don't live up to what I preach to them.

That's changing.

Tomorrow.

I can and will do anything I want to.

Being a Musician Fawkin' Rawks!

I attended a Christmas party where we got into a pretty in-depth discussion regarding the pop culture relevance of popular artists such as Britney, Madonna and Lady Gaga.  I made the argument that Lady Gaga had "jumped the shark" with her outrageousness in wardrobe and overall circus-like spectacle public outings as those things overshadow her actual musicianship.  The girl can play an instrument or two and can actually write songs.

I can't wait until she stops trying to go bigger and better with the Cique du Gaga shtick and reconnect with the DIY, struggling artist within her.  Even if that girl is long gone, perhaps her aura remains and would influence the songwriting on future records.  I guarantee it''l be the best record yet from her.


With all of that said, I do respect Gaga and others like her in their abilities to perform, sing/lip sync, and entertain a lot of people.  I don't have that skillset in my bag of tricks and I do admire their prowess at it.  However, when people would rather see your songs versus listen to them, something's wrong.

I was so charged by the conversation tonight that I rawked out the whole way home.  It was just the conversation I needed to remind me of just how much I love music and performing it (I think that the 2 songs I did via Rockband helped as well).  Can't wait until tomorrow to work on music for 2012!