I had the nicest most relaxing most low-key holiday ever!  Well, I got a little homesick on Christmas Eve ‘cuz I couldn’t be with my folks down in Texas.  But oh well, everyone was scattered all over the damn state so it just wasn’t feasible.  I’ll be seeing them pretty soon anyway, or at least I know I’m going down in March for SXSW, if I don’t see them before then.  YES you heard me!!  I’m playing SXSW for the first time, whoo-hoo!!  My agent Derek hooked me up with that gig, bless his heart.  I don’t know exactly when or where I’m playing yet, but I know I’m on the roster and that’s very exciting.

Christmas Day was great.  I drove down to Eric’s and found the NUMERO UNO parking spot right next to his building, it was totally preemo!  I couldn’t believe how I lucked out with that… he lives in the Gold Coast and it’s usually a total pain to park over there.  I left the van in that spot all weekend and was real sorry to abandon it on Sunday night.  Probably won’t see it open up again until next Christmas, alas.  So anyhow, we went to his friend Geoff’s mom’s apartment for Christmas dinner.  It was nothing fancy, just a nice relaxing meal with nice relaxing folks.  We played Eric’s new CD in the background and got pelted with questions from Geoff’s mom about our music and how we met.  It’s a long story that seems to get more and more convoluted every time we try to tell it.  :-)

The day after Christmas was Eric’s annual Boxing Day gathering of miscellaneous friends, that was another fun and low-key event.  We spent the earlier part of the day walking around Michigan Ave. and scouting out the bargains at Filene’s Basement.  Not buying, just looking.  Well, I tried on a skirt but of course it didn’t fit — I’m working on that now that the holidays are over, I swear!  Heheh.

Thursday the 30th was the show at the Beat Kitchen of course… that was the first time Eric and I played on a bill together.  It was a lot of fun other than the fact that he was getting pretty sick with a bad cough.  But he joked about it during his set and made it through just fine.  I sang backups on one of his songs, and played my solo set afterwards and did alright too.

By New Year’s Eve Eric was really feelin’ shitty with that cough — he’s not even a smoker, wtf?!?  So we decided to take it easy and just chill out in my neighborhood.  We took a bottle of vino to my favorite neighborhood Thai place — Mark Shippy from U.S. Maple was eating there too so we shared the wine with his table as well.  Fun.  Then we went back to my place and watched Amelie, which Eric hadn’t seen before.  I had turned him on to City of Lost Children a few weeks ago so this was a natural followup (same director).

At midnight we turned on the local TV station for the kissy-kissy countdown.  Our first New Year’s.  Ah… it’s so nice to be in love, to have such a great guy to spend the holidays with, and to be so excited about what’s coming up this year!  In both our lives individually, and our lives together too.  I shouldn’t… I mean, I don’t want to nauseate y’all any more than I have to but life is so good right now.  I keep thinking I know how lucky I am, that I can’t possibly love this guy any more than I do already, but he keeps surprising me!  Practically every time we hang out I discover yet another aspect of him, or some fun fact that just fills me up with even more love and pride and admiration for what a great person he is.  I’ve never dated anybody like him before.  Or rather, there’s just something about him that the other guys lacked, I can’t put my finger on it.  He’s just… a real man, how else can I phrase it?  A real man, a very good man, a man that I love and want to keep on loving from now on, yep!!  Not to put down anybody else I’ve dated (not at all!) but this is one high-caliber guy, a real keeper for sure.  He’s the one I love, and he loves me too and we most definitely deserve this.  Uh-huh!!  Heheh.  Oh I know, I’ve been wrong about guys before and nothing in life can be 100% certain, but it seems pretty damn solid.  My heart is set, my mind is made up and that’s that, Eric’s the one for me.  :-)

ANYWAY, BLEECCHH!!  I’ll shut up now about that, ha ha.  New Year’s Day.  We had dinner at Penny’s with Geoff, and Sara (Sarah?), an old friend of theirs who lives in Austin now and is in town for the next few weeks.  She’s totally cool, we were all laughin’ up a storm.  After that Eric and I moseyed over to the Hothouse to see the Andy Bey show.  It was SO SO good!! I absolutely loved it and I got pretty tipsy on vodka gimlets… I only have real cocktails about once or twice a year, so I reckon that was a pretty great time to do that, heheh.

Anything else?  Well, one really bizarre new thing for me is that last week I started working out at an actual GYM.  I know, it’s insane, I don’t seem like the type do I?  Well, Eric goes to a gym and he’s not really the type either but there ya go… now we’re both gym rats I guess.  It’s supposed to be good for ya ain’t it?  So.  I had a free pass to this gym by my house, I was doing it every day all last week.  Now my week of freedom is over though, I have to either join that gym or find another one.  I love the idea of exercising but I want to try some other gyms before I make up my mind.  Today (=yesterday) I worked out with Eric at HIS gym, which is a very fancy one in the heart of Trixieland.  I had a good workout but ehhhh… not really for me I don’t think.  It’s a really nice place but it’s just too expensive for me, I need one with like a $20 or $30/month membership fee at the most.  All I really want to do is use a few machines (a treadmill, elliptical and bike) so why should I have to pay for all this other stuff I won’t use?  Well… if I could afford the membership I’d totally love it, but I can’t, so let’s just say IT SUCKS and I won’t ever want that, heheh. So… anybody have any suggestions for a good cheap gym around here?  Or better yet, maybe one of my fans is a trainer at one of these places and can get me in for free, that’s the ticket!!  Hee.