New Blog

After about six weeks, I guess it's time for another installment of my blog.


I guess if I had to describe this year with one phrase it would be "the year outside my comfort zone" I have done and dealt with a lot of new things this year, some voluntary, some were thrust upon me. In my previous blogs I have mentioned that I was musical director of the Monroe Community Players production of Disney's High School Musical. That ended two weeks ago, thank you God. I probably experienced more stress in one small stretch of time than I have in a very long time. I had an idea of what I was getting myself into when I agreed to do it, yet I did it anyway. I guess me with my big ego couldn't pass up the chance to be in charge of something of that magnitude. I really got myself in a bit over my head, but I had some help, and it went off quite well, despite my lack of experience. I don't think I will take on so much with musicals again, until I have been in a few more as an actor or in a pit orchestra. Overall, it was a great experience, the kids were a lot of fun, and some of them are really talented. I can take credit for putting together a great band. It wasn't hard, I got Dan and Willy of course. I also got Jeremiah Werstein (Kelly's ex) on Keyboard and Jackson Baugh on drums. Jackson is the drummer for Kindred Nation, an awesome Christian band. I could write pages about my experience doing this play, but suffice it to say that it went well enough that they are thinking about doing HSM II in the near future. I would be glad to play bass in the band, but I don't think I want to put in the time as music director again. I guess we broke attendance records for MCP plays, so they are solvent for a while.
Shout is still working on a recording. We have all of the cover songs recorded and now we are working on arranging and recording some originals. We are on track to have it finished by early August, we want it ready for the Faithfest, which is the first weekend in August. We will be at it twice a week for the month of June and half of July in order to meet our self imposed deadline. The Faithfest was our first gig, so we want to release the CD there.
My first triathlon is 3 weeks away now. I think I should be OK to finish it, but I wish I could keep a more consistent training schedule. What I do get to do seems to be working. I am down 20 pounds from my heaviest weight and I can actually run over 4 miles without stopping. I will be hitting it hard for the next 2 weeks and then tapering off a week before in order to let my body recover before the actual event. I went and bought a triathlon suit that you can swim bike and run in. The suit is very tight and doesn't cover much that's for sure. I thought I was starting to look pretty good until I put that darn thing on. Oh well, my vanity ship sailed a long time ago.
This coming weekend I will be at what we call "man camp" Dan and his pastor put this together a couple years ago and it's an annual thing. We have it up at my parents cottage near Reed City. It's a real blast. We do a lot of fishing and other manly pursuits. We also do praise singing and worship. There are bible studies and a lot of discussion of our roles as men in society and especially in our families. It's a real awesome time of fellowship and I'm really looking forward to it.
Hope all is well with everyone that reads this. I invite all of you to write a blog, it's a good way of keeping up. If any of you want to be taken off my list, I won't be offended......much.

Dave