Thunderbolt

Wow, what a crazy week this has been. Jacob began 6th grade and Sophie entered high school. It's the end of elementary school for Jacob and the beginning of high school for Sophie and I'm not sure it could have been any more stressful. As a parent, I worry to death that the two of them will have good teachers, that they'll do well in class, and that they'll avoid the pitfalls that befell me when I was their age. I recall my last year of elementary school as a weird year in which hormones were raging through my body. I was bigger than most of the other kids, had hair growing in strange places, had experienced a voice change that took me from soprano in the school choir to bass, and felt like a complete nerd because of big hair, big glasses and a low self esteem. In other words, 6th grade kind of sucked. I was lucky to have my best friend, Matt, to hang around with, but I don't recall ever being 100% happy during that year. I'd talk back to my teacher, have outbur...

Jacob got braces last week and we thought the next year was going to be traumatic for all of us. The first night, I've never heard him cry in pain so hard and for so long. There wasn't a dry eye in the house that evening. The next day, his mouth was still sore and he was irritable because he couldn't eat any of his favorite foods... which are basically the ONLY foods he eats. Besides milkshakes and glasses of whole milk there was nothing he could eat. The third day, however, things began to take a turn for the better and he's been improving ever since. Tomorrow will be a full week and Jacob's been a real champ. The kid seems to be taking the new addition to his mouth in stride and he's back to being his wise cracking self. I know, kids get braces all the time, but Jake endures so much in his daily life that this seemed like too much. I'm really proud of how he's doing. He's really maturing. Speaking of maturing, Sophie has high school orientation tom...

Not sure why I haven't been putting up notices that new columns are appearing on Popdose. Seems like as soon as I finish something my mind is already on to the next thing I want to write. Anyway, today I have a new Goin' Country column up at Popdose. Please check it out! http://popdose.com/goin-country-the-hot-country-songs-for-the-week-ending-81013/

It's a strange thing when your family goes out of town. For about a day or two, there is a sense of independence, the kind like you had that first week away from your parents' house. But then, as the weeks linger, that feeling of "freedom" becomes oppressive and the walls start closing in. While Julie and the kids were out of town in Ohio, I feel like I slowly lost a part of myself. Three weeks is too long to be away from your family, especially with a holiday thrown in the middle. Not only did I lose my will to write, I lost all sense of routine and felt like I might lose it. This all culminated in bit of an alcohol induced meltdown the Friday before they came home. This is one of the reasons I haven't applied myself to this blog in the past month. I've been trying to regain my sense of being a writer. It's slowly coming back to me. I'm working on some scripts, trying to keep the new country music column up and running over at Popdose, and I've de...

On Tuesday night I attended the Patty Griffin concert at the Wiltern Theater. One of the songs she performed that night was "Be Careful," a song that I featured in the Basement Songs column back in 2009. I love this song and it always reminds me of Sophie.   When I wrote this piece Sophie was still a little girl. Now she's entering high school and I couldn't be prouder. It's a bittersweet feeling, though. She's growing up, and soon, oh so very soon, she won't need her dad any more.  Since the day we moved into our house, I have regularly snuggled my daughter Sophie for about 10 minutes before she goes to sleep at night. When she was younger, it was to help ease her fears over the creaks and rattles of her room when the lights were off. As she got older, this routine turned into an opportunity for the two of us to catch up on our days. I found out about how school was for her, and Sophie asked me questions about my job.  For the past year I have tried to en...

As I continue trying to sell copies of Basement Songs (have you bought your copy, yet), I've begun a new column over at Popdose. It's called "Goin' Country," which, as you may surmise, is about country music. I've written off country music a majority of my life, even though many of the artists I like record music that would fit into some form of the genre. Country may be the one music, besides opera, that I've never given much consideration to. I've spent the past couple of months immersing myself in country and some of the culture and now I'm ready to share my journey with anyone who wants to read. I've always loved history and this venture is giving me a chance to dig a little deeper into American culture and the music that has been a part of our country from its very beginning. Interested? Here's a link to check out the first column. http://popdose.com/popdose-presents-goin-country

This morning at 4:20 AM, I dropped off Julie and the kids at LAX. They flew back to Cleveland to visit Julie's family for three weeks. I've been awake since 3:10 and I feel pretty good. I'm still waiting for the wall to hit me. THREE WEEKS! It gets harder and harder to say goodbye to the family when hey go on trips like this one. For this vacation we'll be apart longer than ever before. I wonder if their leaving added to the emotions I felt when Jake and I went to see Man of Steel over the weekend? Could be. This time around I have some projects to do in the house, little tasks to keep my mind occupied and fill in the void left in the house when they aren't around. I can't talk about them on the Internet because Julie reads this blog. I plan on writing, too. I need to dive back in and get the pen back on the page. I'm not talking about writing reveiws, either. I want to start another book and I have a new column for Popdose that I hope to begin publishing t...