Irish Coffees, Pizza and Xmas plays

I like living in a place where most people actually know each other. I like how around this time of year, school kids come over to both my workplaces to perform Xmas plays and have pizza parties. I like how the kids get a kick out of taking a field trip, even if it is just up the creek to the community center or downtown. I like that, on a good day, my coworkers at my downtown job offer me Irish Coffee and brunch.

Even though I've been feeling a bit antsy and discontented, there are quite a few things that I do like about my current situation. Foremost is that I get a nice balance of staying put (relatively speaking) and traveling about. Just a few more weeks, and I'll be back on that soggy oregon soil I love so much, drinking "damn good coffee," and soaking in as many tunes and as much city food as I can. A few weeks after that, there's a hectic weekend of hitting both New Orleans and Memphis to attend meetings, do presentations, eat a lot of good food and, of course, dance and play music into the early morn. I have to admit, work ain't so bad when it involves going to all these great cities to hang out with performing arts people and "folk" musicians. To add icing to the cake, my boss just told me that Johnny Ramone now has his interpretation of an old time band, and that they will be at the Folk Alliance meeting in Memphis. Ain't life strange and sometimes grand?

I'm not even sure how many trips I've made to the great NW and to NOLA the past couple of years. All I know is that I'll have to find a creative means to keep that travel-mojo working, because I can't stand the idea of not doing this year after year. And I still want to get back to Ukraine one day.

Travel really is an upper for me, despite how much of a homebody I can be. Now, if I can only figure out how to stay on a track that will support my habits... I've got a few possible paths in mind, but I'm not ready to tell you about them yet.