December excitement

Its been so wonderful being home! I love being in Lake Arrowhead during the winter.  We've already had a couple of beautiful snowfalls.  I have been mainly relaxing and unwinding, reveling in the fact that I'm not on a ship and I don't have to go to work. :-)

One exciting thing that happened just after I got home was I was lucky enough to have a live audition with Cirque du Soleil, at a little recording studio in Santa Monica.  They had called me because of that video I put together last March, and invited me to come along to their general musician auditions, despite not having a specific spot open for me.  I'm pleased to report that the audition went very well, they really liked me, and at the end I was congratulated and told I had passed! I am now on their list of "potential performers" and now its a waiting game for a job offer or another, more specific, audition.  Its a step along the way!

Other highlights of December have been catching up with old friends, seeing Wicked for Holly's birthday, and just spending time at home with mom and dad.  I've realized my vacation is nearly half over already, sadly.  But I've got the holidays to look forward to, which is completely wonderful.  

Getting home

My last week on board was pretty crazy, as I was dealing with being sick and trying to get everything done despite having low energy. I managed to play my final show just barely, amidst some nasty coughing, and finished packing during the afternoon on my last day. It all happens so fast when you sign off. I said goodbye to people, hopeful of seeing many of them again in January for the world voyage. I've never left a ship I was planning to come back to, it made the transition a bit easier. The goodbyes didn't seem quite so final. I was lucky to have some very handsome help getting my bags off the ship and onto the bus to Heathrow, as this time I'm leaving behind a special man as well.

From Heathrow I took another bus up to Luton to spend a couple of days with my old friend James Middleworth and his girlfriend Catarina. It was great getting to know her and spending time with James. I got to meet Catarina's family, all from Portugal, and experienced a wonderful dinner at their place while surrounded by that beautiful language. From there I took another bus to Coventry, where I met up with another good friend from previous contracts, Daniel. He is musical director of this year's Panto at the Belgrade Theatre, and I was lucky enough to see the last tech run and one of the first performances of the season. It was my first time to see this uniquely British holiday tradition, and I absolutely loved it. It is like musical theatre, the story is always based on a fairy tale, good verses evil, and there are a lot of jokes, physical comedy, and audience participation. Every city in the UK puts one on during the Christmas season, and it is a big family event to go and see one. I loved it....what a laugh. I sat in the pit with Daniel for the second half of the show, and got a kick out of seeing what goes on from his perspective. The musicians get to create all kinds of fun sound effects and really have to keep on their toes - never a dull moment. We got to spend some great time catching up together and went bowling with the cast afterwards. Daniel saw me off onto my last bus of this 4-day adventure, and I finally got to the airport for my 11 hour flight home.

 On the flight I met an interesting character - a young man whose father is from Iran, so he has dual citizenship and was raised in both countries. He was really interesting to talk to, smart, well-traveled and with interesting perspectives on everything. Its great to have a good seating buddy to entertain you with good conversation. When you're not sleeping, that is. I did sleep for most of it. :-)

 Back home I was met by a very handsome man in a tux, holding a sign with my name on it. Yes, my brother Tyler had sportingly agreed to provide me with that hilarious surprise. Also there to meet me were my parents, my newest sister Allison, and my very definitely pregnant sister Holly, with my newest brother Tomas. It was so strange to see my first view of her belly! I had to touch it right away. :-) We all went out to the traditional In N Out dinner afterwards and caught up for a little while. It was so great to see them all there at the airport and spend a little time with them before heading home. We stopped off at Chelsea's new apartment on the way to complete my reuniting with all my siblings. :-) Finally around midnight we made it back to Lake Arrowhead.