In the past nine hours I've watched a sunset over the Rocky Mountains, pre-dawn over the east coast from 35,000 feet, and a sunrise over Manhattan.

I'm back home in Philadelphia after a ten-day vacation in Denver. Why did I go to Denver? There was no way not to. Carlos was there, Andy was there, Cirque du Soleil was there, Sarah was there, Paul was there, Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus and all the people I know who work on it were just down the road in Colorado Springs...Clearly, the universe wanted me to hang out in Denver. It was good. First real vacation I've had in a long time. I went to a wool festival (ok, not my first choice of activities, but I got to see a guy shear a sheep), hiked in the mountains, saw not one, but two circuses, hung out with friends new and old drinking and playing Guitar Hero, and generally enjoyed life.
I'm really high on the thick atmosphere back down here at sea level, as well as all the caffeine I've had in the past few hours, so maybe that's why I'm in such a good mood. Whatever the reason, I'm feeling pretty good about life and the world and whatnot. The world is my oyster!

Still here! Sitting in my hotel room in downtown Long Beach, CA, at the moment. Had three shows today, and two more tomorrow. Another one on Monday, and then we load out and travel to FABULOUS LAS VEGAS! for a week. After that, it's on to Phoenix, San Diego, Fresno, Sacramento, San Francisco, eventually making our way back to Florida, where we'll close at the end of May. At this point, I'm looking to have the summer off! Off from this gig, anyway, I'll certainly still be working. Got two weddings to light - Kristina's in Tucson on June 1st, and my baby sister's back in Belvidere on July 7th.

Spent New Years in downtown Los Angeles - at an outdoor party called Giant Maximus. It was a circus-themed party - A seven-acre parking lot, three large tents, a Ferris wheel and a Tilt-A-Whirl, ten thousand people, and a not-too-shabby DJ lineup: Sasha, John Digweed, Ferry Corsten, Armin van Buuren, Sander Kleinenberg, Jimmy van M....lots more. I went with a group of people from work, nine of us in all. We arrived at about 11pm (Carlos buying his ticket on the street outside for $50, $40-some dollars less than the rest of us paid), and headed straight for the big tent where Sasha and Digweed were preparing to ring in the new year. Midnight happened, with the crowd and the countdown and the kissing, and, six hours later, I stumbled home to bed.

Odd, I was thinking, that what was easily my best New Year's Eve ever would have happened in a place I'd never been to, and with people I'd known for less than a year. Odd, wonderful, and a perfect example of why life is worth living.

Anyway, happy new year, everyone. Live well.

Update to last entry - I just got an email from her! All is well.

Hello, it's me again. This won't be much of an update, there's just a couple things I need to write down. Firstly, I'm still working for Disney on Ice. It's going very well, and I really enjoy the job and my co-workers. We're currently in Wichita Falls, Texas, and no, I don't know where that is either. We're headed to the west coast of the US, where we'll spend most of the winter and spring. Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco, San Diego, Las Vegas, etc. We'll wrap that up in late May, have some time off, then maybe down to South America for a couple of weeks. After that, in late summer 2007, we're headed to Europe. UK, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Hungary, Sweden, Finland. I can't fricking wait.

Speaking of Finland, though, I'm greatly concerned about my good friend retrogown. We corresponded regularly for five years, but despite repeated emails, I've heard nothing from her since the end of June, just over three months now. Wish I knew what was going on, that's all.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

I'm home. Well, I'm in Philly. I'm not really 'home', because I don't technically have a home anymore, since I gave up my apartment. So I'm staying at my sister's place for a bit. It's weird. I miss the road. I've been here for all of four hours now, and I already want my nice fluffy hotel bed and cable TV and my entire crowd of co-workers.

Don't know when I'll be back again!!

No, really. I'm leaving in a little over two hours to fly from Philly to Detroit, Michigan, where I will join the tour of Disney on Ice's "The Incredibles". We'll move on from there in about a week to Minneapolis, then to St. Louis, Dallas, Houston, Little Rock...

I'm going to be gone quite a while, as long as I can stand the company and they can stand me.

I've ordered a laptop, but I probably won't see it for two or three weeks, sadly. Until then, presume I'm safe and everything.

Also, I had to cut my hair - short. Last time I had my hair cut was December 6, 1994. So yeah. It's really weird. There are pictures of the cutting process, which I'll be sure to post when I get back online. People seem to like the new do, I have yet to accept that it's actually my head in the mirror.

Have I mentioned I've never flown before?

It'll all be fine once I get on the plane.