Meat

I feel like I’ve let you down. 

My last post was almost 2 months ago. I made that post right before leaving for the Gentlemen of the Road music festival, you know, the “Something Big” that I wrote about in February. Well, I was planning on writing an epic post that would have been an attempt to do justice to the epicness of that weekend. I started writing a post, detailing everything that happened at GOTR, but as I kept writing, it kept getting dumber and dumber, and boring, and not epic. So I stopped. Needless to say, I just wasn’t able to put into words how amazing GOTR was. If you’ve spoken to me in person since then, you’ll know how much fun it was for me and my dad and brother. If you haven’t had the pleasure of speaking with me in the past two months (you poor, poor souls), I’ll leave you with this one sentiment about GOTR, then I’m moving on: Our idols (in this sense, the people who we look up to and are inspired by) are our idols for a reason. If you ever have an opportunity and ability/means to collaborate with your idol, do it. The band fun. had to drop out of GOTR due to illness, but they were replaced by Rock & Roll Hall of Fame legend, John Fogerty (you know, the dude from Creedence Clearwater Revival). Due to the last minute circumstances of the situation, Mumford and Sons (the dudes who were running the whole thing) acted as Fogerty’s backing band. It was magical for everyone in attendance. 

John Fogerty, ladies and gents. With Marcus Mumford on drums. 

Before I get into the meat of what I want to say, I think I’m due to fill you in on recent happenings. About 3 weeks after GOTR, I won a pair of tickets to see the band Those Darlins play a show in Atlanta. Those Darlins were at GOTR. I had just seen them. And their set at GOTR was so good. But when you go to a music festival, or any show really, and the band you’re watching is not the headlining band, they’re not going to do a whole set. So seeing TD at GOTR wasn’t the same as seeing them at their own show. I saw them once before, 3 years ago in Athens. They opened for Ok Go. That’s when I started to get into them. Their show in Atlanta that I won the tickets for, was a part of their third album’s release (I HIGHLY recommend you give their new album Blur The Line a listen. 'Twill change your life). Finally going to a show where Those Darlins were the headliners was pretty great. Not to mention the fact that I was standing right in front of the lead singer. God, it was so good. Like a spiritual experience. Afterward, I spoke to the lead singer, Jessi, and told her that I was at GOTR in St. Augustine, and asked her if she got to meet John Fogerty. She said, no, but that he was a big influence on her growing up, an idol of hers. It was so cute hearing her giddily talk about someone she admires musically (cute, mostly because she’s probably not even 5 feet tall and could probably fit in my pocket). 

Jessi Darlin and yours truly.  

Going along with the earlier sentiment that I made, if you have the opportunity to do something awesome, don’t think twice, just do it. Chances are that what ever it is, is going to be a hellava lot better than sitting on your ass at home. That is something I’ve been learning recently: if an opportunity is placed in front of you, take advantage of it. I had one day’s notice before the Those Darlins show. A couple weeks later, I had two days notice before spending the weekend with my BFF. Great decision. Ok, let’s be honest, spending time with my BFF is always a great decision. 

My best friend’s name is Sarah, but almost the entire time that I’ve known her, I’ve called her Jim. It was a nickname that she earned after starring in the play Treasure Island at the beginning of our first year in college. Even some of our college professors started calling her Jim after a while. It’s in her Facebook name, and that’s how I have her listed in my phone. She is Jim. 

Hailing from Augusta, Georgia, Jim now lives in Metro Atlanta and has just started as a first time 10th grade English teacher. I’m very proud of her because I know how hard she’s worked to get where she is now. She texted me two days before hand asking me to come spend the weekend with her and celebrate Halloween by going to a haunted house with another friend of hers. We did and it was a lot of fun. I mean, you’re pretty much guaranteed a good time when vodka and ghosts, monsters, chainsaws, screaming, and laughter is involved. The only thing missing was Hocus Pocus. It’s a tradition for us to watch the movie, Hocus Pocus every year, but we didn’t this year. In the end, it was an awesome decision to have that somewhat spur of the moment BFF time.

Jim. 

And now for THE MEAT. 

Last thanksgiving, almost a year ago, I was sitting on a dock by a river in Savannah. I made a decision that day. It was a decision that I had been struggling to make for about 2 years. A decision that, once I told my parents about, gave me “golden child” status  again (for the time being, at least). I made the decision to go back to school. I struggled with this decision so much because I really hate school. It still blows my mind that my college gave me a degree, and that I double majored, AND did it in four years. I also struggled with it because I didn’t know what I wanted to do, there were so many avenues I could go down. It was overwhelming to think about. But I made that decision because, even though I loved, and still love, being a piano teacher, I didn’t want that to be my career. 

Now that I’ve had a year to try to figure some things out, I’ve officially made the next step with that decision to go back to school. I just sent in my application for Darton State College. If you know anything about Darton, you might be thinking, “Whaaa?”. When I first made the decision to go back to school, it was that I would go to grad school and get my masters. Darton doesn’t have a graduate program, it’s just now starting some bachelor programs. I am going to Darton for a certificate program. Yep. Not exactly what I was thinking of a year ago. In the past few months, I’ve made several videos for The Levee, where I work. I’ve really enjoyed making these videos, even though they’ve been a bit on the amateur side, using my iPhone to shoot video and iMovie to edit. The program I’m planning on doing is called Video Techniques and Applications. I’ll learn how to use Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, and such, and be able to turn my amateur skills into professional skills. 

In the last year, I’ve been trying to figure out what my “next step” was going to be. I mean, really, you could go back to the beginning of this blog and see how that has been a consistent theme: what’s next? what am I supposed to do/be? where do I go from here? I’m finally starting to formulate an idea. It’s not quite what I thought it was going to be, but in this media heavy age, good video/film editors are in demand. 

So this is it. This is my next step. For now. I’m surprisingly excited to get back into school. But maybe it’s just because I’m looking forward to the school supplies (and I’m not just thinking about notebooks and pencils, more like the new Mac Pro that’s coming out in December, which I’m dying to get my hands on). 

I can feel some cool things coming on the horizon. 

I’m ready for this new ride.

Let’s go.