Well, it was a roller-coaster year. I started 2006 energized by music, flying coast-to-coast to play shows, and basically working whatever freelance gigs necessary to pay the bills while spending night after night in rehearsal and recording. We opened for Wolfmother at the mighty Noise Pop, we played the Shoreline Amphitheatre and rubbed tattooed elbows with the big shots. A few times, I turned on the radio and heard my band playing. Then, our drummer Eric quit the band and we slowly death-spiraled. It's ironic that a guy who literally never wears shoes left such large ones to fill. Just when the ball got rolling, no less. But so it goes. We're all pals.
And on the highest of points, Kelsey and I got engaged. It takes the most steadfast and strong woman to chip through my many emotional walls, and she's the one that was able to do it. We're in the process of planning the zillions of things that have to happen between now and August.
And, just as the ups and downs of the freelance life started to wear me out, I lucked out with a steady contract job at Electronic Arts that turned into employment. I'm doing more design and not sitting here looking at lines of arcane code all day, which is a huge plus. Also, the people here are great and hey -- we're sitting here looking at freakin' video games. Can't argue with that.