Birthdays rule.

I love my birthday! It's a chance to reflect on the year past, a chance to set new goals, and a chance to be excited and have a good day - just because. Maybe I'll feel differently once I'm a little bit older, but until then - I wish I could have a birthday every week!

Because I love my birthday so much, for the last few years I have invented a special practice - the Birthday Month. It may not be new, it may not bring world peace, but it does allow you to have a great month. For the entire month of November I try to do only things that make me happy. It may sound selfish, but hear me out. If there's something that I don't feel like doing - I try really hard to make it fun. For example, I teach music lessons to a bunch of cool kids. I like everything about teaching lessons except sending out my monthly invoices. I hate having to go through my calendar and figure out how many lessons the kids have during the upcoming month, how much it will cost, how much their new books were, etc...

So this month I decided to listen to the CD Baby DIY podcast (any musicians out there, you should definitely subscribe to this - they have tons of great ideas, and non-musicians if you're looking for some new music, you'll really enjoy a lot of the episodes) as I was working on my invoices. Sure, I was much less efficient and it took me a little longer (the invoices were three weeks late) BUT I enjoyed doing them! What a breakthrough! I will of course be continuing this practice forever, because now invoices are a chance for me to listen to a really interesting interview.

Obviously, the trick is self-control, and only letting myself listen to the podcast while I'm working on invoices. This makes the invoices exciting - I'm trying not to focus on the part of this system where I could just listen to the podcast at any time. We'll see how long I can go before the system breaks down...

Also, I wanted to post a flyer for a very cool show I have coming up in December. Friday, December 11 at 7 p.m., I'll be playing at The Buttonwood Tree in Middletown (605 Main St.) as a fundraiser and awareness event for Simply Smiles. It is one of my favorite venues of all time - and I'm really looking forward to the evening. So, please - copy this flyer, e-mail it to your friends, get the word out. It's going to be a cool show (I'm working on a few surprise covers and new arrangements of old songs) and it's for an amazing project. Please take a moment and help get the word out!



With all of that said...I thought you'd want to see the cool birthday presents I've received. Last night at midnight I got a great Patagonia sweater from Bryan, and this morning I woke up to a gift card and some funky earrings from Gaby. I have the best family ever!



Start celebrating your birthday month a.s.a.p. and have a great Thanksgiving!