I hope everyone had a happy holiday! I’m on a bus right now heading down to Logan Airport to fly back down to NYC. I’m blogging on the bus because it has free wi-fi, and I can do that because I ended up getting a new laptop from the best parents in the world. In my last post I was lamenting about my old laptop being infected. The guys at Staples informed me that the computer was so infected that they couldn’t really remove any of the viruses. I was resigned to backing up the files and wiping out the hard drive when I got back to NYC, and complained about it to my dad a little bit the day before Christmas – completely not expecting for him to go out and buy me a brand new laptop to surprise me with on Christmas morning! It was awesome. I got my Dell laptop in 2004 and it was going pretty senile, had a 40GB hard drive and 2GB of RAM. This new computer has a 500GB drive and over 4GB of RAM. Wireless internet built in, as well as a webcam. Gone are the days of having to attach 1000 things to my computer via USB when I’m travelling. Also, this new laptop is about as heavy as the old laptops power unit! Needless to say, I’m a happy camper. Who said that material objects can’t bring happiness?
I got this great book from my good friend Jeff Wilson. It’s called “Three Wishes” and it is a collection put together by the Jazz Baroness – Nica de Koenigswarter. She went around and asked all of these well and not-so-well-known jazz musicians the question: “If you could be granted three wishes, what would they be?” Some of the answers are spiritual, some are funny, and many are about the desire to have money! That last one makes me feel better, to think that these jazz icons worried about things on the material plane. My three wishes are:
1. To always have enough money to live a comfortable life.
2. To have a great music career.
3. To have a long and healthy life full of love and happiness.
What are your three wishes? It’s a good thing to think about as the New Year approaches.
Another enjoyable experience that I had while staying in NH was going to the Press Room this past Sunday. The Press Room in Portsmouth, NH is one of the only places to hear jazz in the Seacoast region, and I use to hang out there a fair amount when I was living in NH several years ago. My old friend Tim Webb was playing there with a great band that included Matt Langley on tenor sax, Peter Moutis on drums, and Jeff Galindo on trombone. I had never met Jeff before, but it was great to hear him play. Also, I hadn’t seen Peter in about 15 years! So it was awesome to see him again too. I also got to sit in with the band, and it’s always a pleasure to play with Tim – it always reminds me of simpler times in my life before I moved to NYC. These guys are all doing an excellent job at keeping creative music alive in NH. It was also great to see a lot of people in the audience, some who I hadn’t seen since my NH days as well.
About to board the plane for NYC. It was such a nice trip and Christmas. Looking forward to 2010!