Is this real life?

I am so happy. I feel like I'm living a miniature version of where I want to be someday.

I've been collaborating with my friend Reif, even across a 3 hour time difference (which makes Skyping kind of interesting). There's a lot of emailing scrap demos to each other, and emailing other ones back with little things added in, etc. It's way fun. I wanted to document our jam session the other day, but didn't want to accidentally exit out of skype by trying to take a screen shot (trust me, I would), so I took a lousy instagram photo instead. But you get the idea. I love this.

Next week I'm headed up to San Jose to join my friends' band Cartoon Bar Fight for a couple gigs as a backing vocalist. We go way back-- I used to play in a keyboard pop band and other various music ventures with my friend Kendall, who founded CBF with her boy Dirk. I've played a few shows with them over the years I guess, and it's always so much fun. Right now I'm working on learning some of their new songs, and brushing up on the older ones.

(me, kendall, dirk, house show, may 2008)

Everything I am doing right now is my future dream job (just on a larger scale, and with monetary reimbursement, etc). I want to collaborate, I want to be a guest vocalist on projects, add my own thing to other people's stuff, work as a songwriter for other people. I don't want to front a band. I've done that before. I just want to mingle around in other people's stuff. Let them take the front, but be a part of the creative process there.

And if not, I'll at least have a degree in family science and experience in teaching preschool and such.

But if I can be a musician professionally? I can't even imagine. Incredible.