… and now I'm so much better off

What a cool day,
I slept in, hallelu… then had a lunch date with someone I met at a halloween party which went awesome.  Then I rushed to finish some sketches and get them printed for postcards to add to my merch table for my show tonight. They're potential ideas for T-shirts…? Maybe? What do you think? 

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And my personal favorite :)… 

…. and the printing came together so fast and worked out so well.  I dropped by guitar center to pick up some speaker covers I ordered last week. Then taught a lesson :).  Packed up all the gear and headed to the show. 

My parents, cousin, girlfriends, family friends, (my date from earlier :)), and a big group of my boarding school students - a decent little crowd all showed for the performance.  So good.  The set went well, I felt comfortable and fairly pleased with my in between banter. I try not to think about it too much.  I haven't really looked at how much merch I sold but I walked away with over $20, which is the most I've made so far - yay! 

And THEN… I ran over to Rose Wagner to catch my birthday present! My parents bought me tickets to the Tierney Sutton Band- so amazing! Sure, I spent the money I'd just made on a CD and parking… but it was WORTH IT.  I picked up her Joni Mitchell Cover album and listened to it in the car on the way home.  

I've seen a lot of gratitude posts lately, and after a day like today that's been full of people I love, and things I love I can't help but think about how good I have it.  Two years ago I was living in New York City, working at a restaurant I hated.  I hardly had time to go to auditions,  I didn't have time to write music or think about where I wanted to go with anything in my career and my personal life was virtually nonexistent.  And then, on Thanksgiving Day, I was working the day shift at the restaurant.  I didn't have any plans for the evening, no friends, no food, all I wanted to do was go home, take a nap and watch a movie, by myself… on thanksgiving! My coworker was coming in to relieve me at 5. By 5:30 he wasn't there, and my manager let me know he'd called to say he'd be late.  He didn't get in until 7:00 and was hanging on the bar because he was still hung over from his birthday the night before… and my managers were laughing about it.  I was irate (and never mind that this isolated incident gave manager the impression that I wasn't very positive…??).  

I promised myself that day that if I had to quit the day before Thanksgiving, I would never work that Holiday, in that place ever again.  A year later I was having Thanksgiving with my Family, a holiday I hadn't spent with them in 5 years, finishing up my first Christmas album, and slowly building my teaching studio while dating and spending time with friends.  And two years later, it's only been up, and it'll only go up from here.  I asked God to help me make that decision come to fruition in those moments… and now I'm so much better off.  I'm grateful for my agency, that I can choose to get God's help :).