Thankful

I can hardly believe 2015 is nearly done. Here are some of the reasons I am thankful this season:

• a friend getting out of the hospital only a little the worse for mileage.
• another friend trading in an original-issue orifice for a shiny new mechanical one that should last a lot longer.
• a boy genius who, despite being a teenager now, still speaks to us much of the time and often in complete sentences.
• a wife whose only real fault is that she often puts the good of her community above her own.
• a home that only feels more comfortable for all the people living here now.
• backyard chickens and fresh eggs!
• a career that lets me make my hobby into something shiny and wonderful, with a real shot at helping a whole lot of people.
• colleagues who take my vision and build it into something far better.
• friends, family, and colleagues who nearly always know when to listen and when to just ignore me.
• donors and fans who support my work, forgive my mistakes, and show me every day how to Bring It.

Meanwhile, I’m trying to get as many things as possible done by the end of the year and laying plans for 2016. Here’s my busy, busy week so far:

Monday: Songwriting workshop at Glassell Park Elementary school as part of my residency with the Theodore Payne foundation. Today wrapped up the residency, so we’ll have a songbook of the kids’ work up son at the GriffinEd site. The kids did some great work!

Tuesday: Recording in studio with the amazing Jeff Abercrombie. We’ve already got more than half the songs for our next kids’ album into the hopper, plus a few other songs for a separate project I’ll tell you about later.

Wednesday: A fun lunchtime presentation to community leaders at our local Kiwanis Club. They laughed in the right places and had a lot of good questions and ideas at the end. It’s always a good sign when the conversations afterward last longer than the presentation did!

Thursday: Gum surgery again. Bother! They promise this one is no big deal though, so I should still be okay to speak to the local Chamber of Commerce this evening.

Plus I just got invited to be the musical GOH at a rather large sci-fi convention; can’t tell you which one yet, as courtesy requires I wait for them to announce first. And developing animated videos. And writing new songs. And lead sheets. And grant applications. And setting up more songwriting residencies. And T-shirts for GriffinEd soon. And a GrifinEd app for iOS and Android in the works. And, and, and… you know what? Too many awesome things is a good problem to have and I am very, very thankful for the people who make it possible for me to do this. To all of you, THANK YOU.