I have plenty to post on what I am about to say, just haven't had a chance to really think it through and type it out.  My uncle passed away last week and, I don't throw this word around lightly, he showed me exactly what it means to have and create determination.  The last week or so has been hard, but at the same time it has been almost priceless spending time with my family.  Even through tragedy, my uncle is trying to do something.

Since getting through the Christmas/New Year holiday, I have been strict at the gym, which feels great.  I've even nudged 5-pound weights on the last exposed bit of bar on the leg press machine.  Maybe I will see if the machine can hold more than 1180 pounds by the end of winter...time will tell.

Gym is good, as you can tell.  Writing has been thwarted a bit with my uncle and other responsibilities--taking my last continuing education course for personal training this weekend.  Things will slow up next month and I'm already planning on locking myself away for every weekend except the one where I have a concert.  Everyone has been asking me if it's done, but I've actually taken the last couple of months to just enjoy life...and was it ever needed.

That will surely make next month busy, packed and, from a social perspective, rather dull, but this book needs to be done and I cannot wait to see the satisfaction and inspiration shooting from everyone’s eyes when they finally get a hard-bound copy in their hands.

It was so cool to see a fully printed version of my first manuscript.  This book is even better and I’m now at a point where I won’t feel rushed to finish it.  The story will be properly and fully told, and the additional month or two it has taken to reach that point will be infinitely worth it with how seamlessly and fully the connected story is going to be told.

I better enjoy this weekend.  It’ll be the last time I voluntarily walk outside for a while.

Wow – the end of 2011 literally blew right by.  And how hectic and jam packed busy was it, seriously!

I took off most of December from writing and just enjoyed spending time with family.  Starting in September, I began finding concerts to go to literally every couple weeks.  I met a bunch of people and received so much encouragement that is going to motivate me through this year.

Speaking of motivation, I got a nice kick into gear with refining some places in the beginning of my book due to meeting this one band, Scythian, that initially jumpstarted me into the writing spree back in May.  They had some festival concerts rained out, but I finally got to see them in Towson in November.  I brought the first couple of chapters to give to Alex since I got most of my motivation to jump into my writing after talking to him that night in May.

At that Towson show, I discovered that Scythian was playing a reunion DC Christmas-themed show in early December.  The guys put me on the guest list and told me that they wanted more of my book to read.  I didn’t get the message in time, but promised them I would have the first 10 chapters to them by the time of their New Year’s Eve masquerade ball that I also found out about at the Towson show.  The masquerade ball is in NYC, but with all the motivation these guys had given me in such a turbulent year, there was no question in my mind—I had to go.

Between December 9th and Christmas Eve, I barely had any time to work on editing and adding in details to the chapters I wanted to give them.  It got down to the wire, and I gave up some perfect weather days by locking myself inside, but at 9:30 PM two days before New Year’s Eve, I finished the chapters—just in time to get them printed and bound the next day and then head up to NYC the day after.

There is so much more to this story than the brief, condensed version I am giving you, but I was able to bind personalized letters to each of the guys at the front of the book.  I dropped it off before the show, came back all dressed up—much to the approval of Dan—and celebrated the start of a new year with the handful of people that really salvaged and sparked a year for me.

There will be more to come and be told as this year progresses, but I am determined to finish this book and I cannot wait for it to happen.  Now I have 5 more people to nag me about sitting behind my computer and pouring out the rest of this memoir.  So much more to come, but in the meantime while I start plugging away again, go check out Scythian at scythianmusic.com and discover exactly why and how they made my year so amazing.  You’ll dance all night—they wouldn’t have a song titled such if it wasn’t true—with a smile plastered on your face that will never leave.

There is no proper way to end this post, which is probably appropriate because there is so much more motivation…and writing…to come.  So yeah, I better get started on that latter part.  Can’t wait to see what kind and how much of the former spurs from this writing.  Man, I love it when everything comes together full circle.

Happy New Year everyone!  Make sure you take a step towards your dream every day.  That alone will put a smile on your face.