Archive: January 13, 2006

Happy new year! I am back in Vancouver, un-vacationed, back to work, etc., etc. The vacation was fantastic. The older I get, the more I appreciate my family and the time we get to spend together. Highlights of the trip include being met at the airport with birthday balloons, because it was just after midnight on the 24th, cooking yummy vegetarian food for my family, coffee with my lovely friends on my birthday, playing with my sister and her hilarious cats, a super fun gig at my musical home, Rasputin's (more on that in a bit), and singing along to Elton John with my whole family as we sped down the highway on a winter's night. I also had a great trip to Toronto over New Year's, where I had a chance to visit my best friend and play in a real big city. Because I was off for two weeks, I really had a chance to relax, for the first time in a while, and it was great. I hope you all had a chance to take some time off, too. I can't say I have any real New Year's Resolutions this year, other than to start to focus more and more on music. I'm constantly reminded that this is what I want to do with my life. Just need to figure out how!

I played a gig at Rasputin's while in Ottawa, with my high school friends Angie (from our old band Alicide) and Shawna. We had a great time. The audience was so amazing, including some people who had driven from quite a ways outside Ottawa, despite freezing rain, to watch the show. The cafe was packed with old friends, family, family's friends, family of the family's friends - you get the idea. We each played a 45 minute set, but during each set, the other two sang harmony on a couple songs. It was a perfect mix, plus all the rehearsal time was a great excuse to hang out with my old friends. Our finale of Dar Williams' "The Christians and the Pagans", complete with each of singing the parts of the different characters, was a hilarious throwback to performance assemblies at our arts high school. Ah, those were the days. There will be pictures up from that gig in the next little while, on the photo pages of the site.

I don't have a lot to report at the moment in Vancouver. We are about to break the rainfall record for number of consecutive days of rain (we're at 27 or 28 or something ridiculous) and I think it's affecting my mood! I loved the snow while I was in Ottawa, and coming back to SO MUCH RAIN was tough. But I just keep reminding myself that in a month or so, the city will be starting to bloom with spring flowers, and then it'll seem great to not have snow. See, I can be an optimist! In the music front, I have nothing booked at the moment, but there are rumblings of a couple of things at UBC in February. I'll keep y'all posted.

Anyways, my apologies for this not being a more exciting entry. I'm a little low energy this evening, and am trying to rev up to become my normal whilrwind, productive self - or something! To close, as in the tradition, a picture - actually, this time, a MONTAGE! This is a little summary of my holidays (although the cookies were from Vancouver). Enjoy!