2023 year in review

It's been an interesting year. Then again, aren't they all?

Most importantly, we are all healthy and relatively happy and everyone still speaks to each other, for the most part. As I type, Marci is in the kitchen getting dinner ready; Riley is at Target, working until about 7; Haley is downstairs with her "friend" John; Kody is on his bed snoozing; I am on the couch typing this up and watching the Packers vs Vikings.

For me, it's been a meh year professionally. Job ended in January with Amazon as my contract was up. I knew that was the case as that was what I accepted. What I didn't realize was that after my job ended, the bottom fell out of the tech industry and 1000s of people lost their jobs all over the country. I figured I'd be able to find a job, but with the economy in the toilet and everyone on a hiring freeze, that became difficult.

As a result, it was back to unemployment for the second time in my life. Unless I count a week in 2019 when we were asked by Atos to take a week off for something, in which case, it would be my third time. But, I digress.

Thankfully, I got unemployment and that helped us to get by. But the trouble was, I couldn't get a callback or an interview. I had plenty of connections, but no one was hiring. I had a little thing going on the side and considered starting a business, but I didn't and I just did some odd jobs here and there to help out.

Through the job drought, I kept it up with bass in Planets and the Sunset Grooves. Kathy dialed me up, but only once for the year; her SPT seems to not be gigging out as much anymore. Planets did 7 gigs, Sunsets did 10, and then my sideman gig with Forest Ray did 12 over the span of 2 weeks through Oregon and California. Despite playing 31 gigs, I would like to do more.

Come May/June, I got a call to go back to work, but also was able to finesse that road trip with Forest Ray. Though I had a bunch of fun with those guys, I don't know if I'd do it again, at least not under those circumstances. Maybe a shorter tour, or if there were lodging and food guarantees in place, but I definitely understand the situation better now. I was hoping it would open things up network-wise, but so far, nada. Which is fine; I love the 2 bands I'm in now and hope I can get more gigs with them in 2024.

In early June, Marci and I visited Haley up in Bellingham. We basically spent one night there, having an AirBnB gift card that we used to book a place. That was a fun getaway and nice to see Haley there doing her thing. We had only seen her in Bellingham in January when we dropped her off to start school. As far as I can tell, she seems to be thriving a bit there, compared to her experience at Concordia. She lived in the dorm for the first part of the year and had a roommate that seemed pretty cool. She came home for the summer and worked at the Coal Creek Y and had some HR drama there, which was super lame, but she seemed to get through that OK enough. She's now renting a place up there with 4 or 5 other girls, and seems to get along with all of them.

Add in this John guy, and she's growing up a bit. Though Hay hasn't told us that they're dating, it sure seems like they are. He's been here 2-3 times this week and she's spent the night at his place a few times as well. But, as with all things Hay, we pretty much need to let her come to us; asking her could put us in a bad position, as lame as that is. She does come to us for help with finances, as challenging as that is for all of us, but we try our best to help her out.

Riley has gotten in his groove at Colorado Mesa. He's doing well with his double major, with Tech Drama and something else, I forget. He seems to be a guy that the professors are investing time and energy with, sort of like the teachers did at NHS. He has his car at school and though that's helpful to him, it's gonna be a pain in May when I have to fly out there and help him drive it back. Better start saving now!

He and Claire are still together and she's been over on the regular as well. They're both working at Target again. Riley gets a lot of love from Target; they appreciate his hustle and leadership. Don't think he has a career in retail but I love that he's learning so much there. He's got a few more weeks here until he goes back to CMU. Hopefully the money he's making helps to carry him through the rest of the school year. He has taken out a loan for school, which sucks, but it is what it is now.

Marci is carrying the house these days. She's teaching like a beast and picking up a couple hours here and there doing tutoring, including our backdoor neighbor's kid, George. I wish we were in a position where she didn't have to work (or at least go to work), and could just be at home and do her thing, but until I can uplevel my career, this is her lot in life, I guess. :/

With the kids out of the house most days now, I feel like Marci and I are stronger than ever. I realized that when the kids are here, I have an "audience" and do act a little differently, and sometimes joke a bit too much at her expense. At the same time, I feel like I'm the one that tries to learn and evolve, where she sort of just goes along, without trying to grow. I don't know who is right or wrong, but it doesn't matter too much. We are good most of the time and I'm happy with that.

I don't know if there's much else to add here without getting too specific about anything. I guess it boils down to my usual response when someone asks me how we are doing. I always say that I can't complain, for the reasons I mentioned above (healthy, happy, etc). If the main drama in my life is the need to find a job, well, I'll take it.

Speaking of jobs, I have a hot lead again at Microsoft, possibly for my old role. Last year at this time, I was talking to those dudes and it was positive. They all agreed they'd like to have me back, but I was a "nice to have" not a "need to have," and they had no budget to make it happen. This year, I am a business need, but it's still under discussion and seeing about budget. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and have a good feeling. Hopefully by this time in January, we are green lit and I am either working or starting work again.

And rather than make this any longer than it already is, I think I'll stop here, start different entries for other stuff. To sum it up, another year in the books, things are good, let's have more of the same.

Gig report: 12/15/2023 Sunset Grooves at the Lime

In however many years of gigging, I can only remember playing the Eastside maybe once or twice. Make it three times after last night, when the Sunset Grooves played the Lime in Kirkland. Even having lived on the Eastside for so long, I had never been inside the Lime.

We were asked by our friend, Ric, who fronts the excellent Prince tribute band, DMSR. This has been on the calendar for only a bit, but we were excited for it and it was our last show of the year. Added bonus was that Marci and Alison were going to be in the crowd, as Ali is visiting from out of town for work.

Alison, me, Marci.

I have been practicing our tunes for a bit now, as we had some new ones to debut (Orleans - Still The One and Styx - Too Much Time On My Hands), as well as some others that we've had some struggles with (Jay Ferguson - Thunder Island and America - You Can Do Magic). I brought both G&L L-1000s and my pedalboard and that was that.

Inside the Lime, stage is behind me.

I was surprised at how big the Lime was when I got there. Walk in the double doors and it's pretty dang big. Bar, kitchen, bathrooms on wall opposite doors, pool tables, pull tabs, dart boards to the left, stage, dance floor and tables to the right. Unfortunately, with all the room, there is no band staging area/green room, so I stood there in front of the stage while Dusty set up his drums. DMSR was on stage prepping for soundcheck and there literally was nowhere else to be, as there were a lot of people in the club.

Dennis (aka Unc) was doing double duty, playing guitar in both bands. He's been such a solid addition to the band, really nailing his guitar parts, solos and vocals and elevating our overall performance. Plus, he looks great on stage. DMSR did a quick run-through of 1999 for sound check and then tore down for us to set up. There was no drum sharing as their drummer had a full electronic kit and more wires than a server room. Pretty crazy.

Quick snap of DMSR getting set up.

Robert on bass for DMSR. He is wicked!

We got setup and ran through Player's Baby Come Back for sound check. It was a little awkward for me as I couldn't hear my bass or vocals very well and we hadn't played that song for a few weeks, so it was rough. Not a great selling point for those in the audience, but I think they understood we were simply checking levels.

Even so, for whatever reason, I felt like I was hearing my bass from the wedges and not through my IEMs. I had the sound guy turn it up and then it was too loud. I was able to manage, though I didn't have the optimal mix. My vocals were up front and I could hear just enough of everyone else to make it work.

Marci and Ali asked if I had earplugs, which I didn't but Unc had some, so after sound check, I handed them some. We took a quick picture, and then a woman asked if she could take our picture for us, so she did. And then she asked me if I was giving out "happy pills." I wasn't sure what she meant as I walked away and got a glass of water. A few moments later, I realized that she thought I was giving out those "happy pills," which were the earplugs. I told her that and she seemed a little bummed out. Go Kirkland!

Speaking of Kirkland, the draw at the Lime was pretty great. Lots of people, very diverse and eclectic, but so Eastside. I feel like there were all ages there; it didn't skew young or old, but there was definitely representation from all generations. Though, being more used to crowds at Seattle shows, this crowd was definitely more cringey at times, if that makes sense.

Anyway, we got on stage and got on with the show. We started with Don't Stop by Fleetwood Mac and I was pleased to see dancers right from the jump. Sound was good enough, but my bass felt super boomy and I couldn't determine if it was the IEMs or the monitors on the floor or the FOH speakers. Nevertheless, I could at least hear, so that's good.

We continued with Brandy, and that was fine. I'm trying a different "oooh" backing vocal in the bridge and hit it wrong at first, but adjusted. I'll get it eventually. Next up was Still The One, and we had tried that way back when, but never worked on it much. With Dennis shoring up the guitars, though, we gave it a try and found we were pretty close. That song has so many guitars in it, and vocals, so we do what we can and I thought it ended up great.

We had something like 20 songs to get through and I feel like we did a great job overall, maybe our best performance yet. Another song we had shelved, Reelin' in the Years, we brought back. The high part in the chorus was tough for Jen, so I took it over and she did the middle harmony and we are finally doing that song justice. Plus, Dennis is nailing the solos, which makes a huge difference.

There were more people on the floor, I promise!

Oh! We had a sax for Maneater! DMSR has a multi-instrumentalist and Unc asked him to play on Maneater. He didn't rehearse with us but he knew the part and jumped on stage and killed it. It was so cool to hear that iconic solo during that song, I loved it.

For the whole set, we had dancers. Marci and Ali were dragged on the floor by various gentlemen. I had a great time watching the crowd. The girls got absorbed by some Lime locals and had some hilarious stories to tell at the end of the night.

We ended up cutting the set short by about 3 songs due to time. We had a great reception and I felt super happy about our performance, we all played really well. We did the awkward teardown of our gear and got off the stage. DMSR got up there and tore it up. They are fantastic and the crowd was extra lubed up for them.

DMSR!

Overall a great night and a really fun way to wrap up my year in live shows. I can't wait to do it again.

Next up, Planets at the Tractor, 1/3/2024.