Florida. Songs. Family.

Hey yall!

So what’s cool/new/interesting/noteworthy…

1. I write to you from sunny Florida! (not at the moment, as it’s 11:26 pm) I had time on my side so I came down to my favorite southern state (no offense, everybody) and have had a b-last. I attended an audition, caught up with various friends, experienced the nightlife, went to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot and spent the afternoon poolside. Oh and I finished off the trip with cheesecake. It has been a splendidly perfect little mini-vacay. Sometimes you just need a change of scenery, ya know? I know I do. Since I live/work/hangout/spendallmytime with the same set of people (and have for the past [almost] 3 months) I needed to get out of the Real World Wytheville for a bit and see different faces and smell different places. So to speak. Anyway, it’s been good to recharge and enjoy all the goodness Orlando has to offer. I only lived here 6 months but there is something so familiar and homey about this place to me. I made close friends very quickly here. Orlando is also very nostalgic for me because my first taste of grown-up was here. I packed my bags and moved here 2 weeks after graduation. I can’t believe that was 3 years ago…but yes, I can because so much LIFE has been lived since! Oh the living and the learning…

2. I don’t know if you know I play guitar. I actually started playing when I was 13. My mom (the author of “Near Perfect Parenting”) was brilliant and saw that my previous passion—cheerleading (HA!)—was not what we’ll call my shining star talent. She knew I loved music and thought maybe I needed a hobby or something that could help with my textbook youngest child needs. So she signed me up for guitar lessons! With a burst of self-esteem and a new found love I learned to play every church praise chorus in existence. I then moved on to writing some of my own stuff. When I got in college my songwriting slowed down a lot. I think it was in part because my focus shifted almost entirely on to musical theatre. Also, in college I may have gotten a bit downtrodden on the whole singer/songwriter thing as I saw (almost) every peer of mine going for the same thing. After leaving my guitar in Nashville and living in Orlando and NYC I picked it up again last fall. I had forgotten how satisfying it was to learn how to play a song I liked. To minimize giving you all the unnecessary details I began to play even more at the cast house in Wytheville. My friends and fellow cast members seemed to genuinely feel moved and enjoy the music. 2 of them even went so far as to give me a new journal for the express purpose of writing music again. So it’s been about 5 weeks since my birthday and I’ve completed 2 songs. It’s so. so. satisfying.

3. 3rd of all you should know that May is the month of family. Did I ever tell you about how I decided in January that each month of 2010 is going to have a different focus for me? I opted to organize things that way instead of having some laundry list of goals/resolutions. The May focus is to invest in and nurture my relationships with family. And that I have been doing! My amazing sister see HERE spent the last 2 weeks in the States and even came to Wytheville to see the Sound of Music. We had slumber parties both there and in Raleigh during our cousin Talia’s epic Bat Mitzvah weekend. The one sad thing that happened lately is that my Grandma had a looot of damage to her house due to that crazy flood that swept through Nashville. The entire ground level of her condo is pretty ruined. Thankfully my mom and her siblings have really rallied together to support her through this horrendously difficult situation. Can you imagine being in your 70’s and all of a sudden losing everything? Not me. If we’re spinning this in the positive light (which we always do) we’re just glad Gram is safe and that Stanley is too. Sharing the Bat Mitzvah events and Mother’s Day with her was extra special this year.

That's all for now. If you want to hear some great music you should probably go look at youtube.com/jeffcarl. Jeff is a close friend of mine and an inspiringly profound musician. His cover of 'Brooklyn' is my lullaby tonight.