Word Vomit

by Matt

I thought I'd try something a little different today. My head has been all over the place lately. This may be a bit reflective of the 24hr news cycle-information available within seconds-culture. I'm just going to peel back my skull, and tell you what's been on my mind.

• The baby will soon be on it's way. In just about 4 weeks, I will have another beautiful girl added to my 4 person family. We're all getting very excited. But more importantly, we're getting ready. Things are not just starting to come together. We have new baby things for the room, to replace the baby things we no longer have. We'll be moving E into L's room soon. We got a new baby seat.

• And that leads me to my next thought. We are almost owners of a new minivan. We hadn't planned on it until we realized three seats wouldn't fit into our hybrid SUV. We pretty much decided on it yesterday. We scoped out one fast. We've already priced it out; test drove it; and tomorrow we'll be looking at financing through our credit union. I'm a little uncomfortable about how fast it's happening. I like the car a lot, but I feel spending that much money should take some more time.

• I'm going to to miss our Hybrid. It got great mileage. I could drive around town using no gas. It cut down on our pollution emissions. It's a smaller car than a minivan. I like small cars. They're great on gas; they're very maneuverable; and they feel like a shuttlepod. (Yeah, I just said that.) I wish my family could continue to grow, but we could all fit in a little car. Maybe one that had a pocket dimension in the trunk, so I could store stuff (including them) in it.

• I'm interested in watching the royal wedding. Not live of course, but on my Tivo. L will love seeing a real, live, princess in her wedding dress. I'm interested in the traditions & to some extent, the pageantry. If you know me, you know this would never be my thing. The idea that this family is so cherished by the British people; that their personal history and events are celebrated in such a way; I can't help but fascinated by it. I like history.

• I'm worried that I won't have a lot of work this summer. As I've stated before, I play trombone. The group I've been working with the most, is touring with a featured performer. The tour, however, isn't paying enough to support horns on the tour. So the rhythm section (drums, guitar, keys, bass guitar, & percussion) will be touring all through the month of June, and into the beginning of July. This is usually a big time for me, with all of the various groups I play with. But a lot of the outdoor festivals aren't hiring larger bands (i.e. multiples singers, horns, etc.) for their events. So my main group will be out of town; the other groups I play with have few gigs; and Carrie will be off of work for a few months.

• I'm not overly concerned for us financially. We have money put away to cover our bills for that time. But I feel a little uneasy with very little income coming in. That's probably just the dad in me. I'm considering a change in focus, musically. Maybe something that will bring in more money, and be more self-starting. The idea would be that I could create my own gigs, and be less reliant on "waiting and hoping for the phone to ring." That's what one of my music professors always talked about. I'm waiting for emails & texts, but the idea is the same.

• E, lately, has been blossoming into her own person. I see more of herself coming through. She usually has been mimicking L's mannerisms and phrases. That's all changed, though. She's more impetuous than L. And definitely more stubborn. She seems to be more mischievous, too. She likes to stir the pot. I love it. It reminds me of me.

Whew. Thanks for that. That felt great.