Happy New Year

So the new decade has begun. 2010. It sorta seems similar to the other one, except we have two whole digits to deal with. I won't begrudge this year anything. I will embrace it just like the other years. And give it the single status-filled enjoyment it deserves.

Last year I didn't really go out much. Instead I did more traveling. And in my new cities I went out and got to taste what it was like to gallivant solo in places like Miami, New York and most recently, Austin.

I spent New Years in Austin. Austin, the music capital of the world. I had heard so much about it before I went. I knew a co-worker who packed up his life and belongings and moved to Austin, and he did that with so much relish, I was envious. So you can see why I really wanted to go to this place. Austin did not disappoint. It was the southern version of New York, except with live music everywhere. If you know me, you know I love live music. It is music in its purest form. In Atlanta, finding a place that plays live music is like a hunt, you have to call, google, investigate. But not so in Austin, all you have to ask is: What kind of music? What band? How many bands? That's just so sick.

Going out there to take in a live band on my own was so much fun. All you have to do is let your guard down, don't think everyone is staring at you because you're there solo, (which I was thinking the entire time) and just embrace the moment, the music and the atmosphere and that's it.

With that being said, that is one of my New Year's resolutions: to let my guard down. Whenever I go out, after wrestling with my inner demons, defeating them and leaving them on the couch, I get there and I'm instantly uptight and not letting go. I just think everyone's staring at me and wondering, why are you here by yourself, which they probably are, but I shouldn't be caught up in myself thinking about it all night. Rarely have I let go. The only time I remember was probably in Miami, but everyone let's go in Miami so that's no exception. But if you're going to go out, make the best of it, live it out. So you're there by yourself, who cares, everyone would wish they had the cajones to do what you did, so make them envy you and take in the moment.

That's my vote of confidence to myself and to everyone who's ever had the guts to go it alone.