What a fitting conclusion to the first half of this year, spending time bouncing around the West Coast. Gayle & I were married here in Ohio and then  immediately subjected ourselves to the trial by fire that is living in Los Angeles. And because we spent five full years there as a couple before having Elliott, those faces and streets and experiences will always be heavily woven into our DNA. As vividly as the tediousness of LA came back to me (the endless nice weather, the grit/grime/grind of the pulsing machinery, the vapid cell phone conversations), the beauty and opportunity came through louder than ever, as evidenced by how well our friends are doing in their wildly creative lives. Our friends were all amazing hosts and hostesses, and went out of their way to spend time with us. We love you all so very much. Seriously.

It was a necessary pilgrimage. I hadn’t returned since bugging out of there in November 2004. The kids are so young for all that traveling, but I can tell they enjoyed meeting all of our extended family and friends.

Alternating between giddiness and brooding introspection like I do, I tried my best to just take it all in and stay as present as possible. There were obvious challenges with work stuff looming, as well as taking care of children on the road for two weeks. More often than not though, we were incredibly well taken care of. It was literally as easy as it could have been, and we got to see and revisit A LOT of cool stuff. Overall, the visit reaffirmed where we’ve built this current life. It was also easy to see how life there influenced everything that’s going down these days. I can see us spending more time there as the kids grow up, just not on the freeways.

I didn’t trip over any massive epiphanies out there, but did realize that we’re in the middle of a pretty incredible year. After the holidays, I made a declaration that we would take two big trips this year: one without the kids, and one with the kids. The fact that we pulled it off (7 days in Jamaica, and 2 weeks in California with the kids) is pretty wild. All of the bigger goals I’ve set for myself alternate between percolating nicely, and nagging for completion. I ran a few miles today listening to some of Dan’s final mixes of my songs. I received emails yesterday about a million big things happening on the Hamell On Trial side, and I’ll likely surpass my 2009 income by the end of July. Coming home to the house we’ve built over the last six months is incredible and humbling. We’re incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to do what we do.

I remember flying back into LA after visiting family while I lived there. You would need the time away to recharge yourself for another round of shit deflection, or the return to the trenches, or herding the feral cats, etc. This trip the break we needed away from our current life (which looks somewhat bohemian and provincial on the surface, but is really extremely multi-faceted, cutting edge and complex underneath.) It helped me gain perspective on what it is we’re doing here, on how proud I am of our choices, on why it is my duty as a man/dad/husband/artist/seller to return ready to slay some dragons.

I’m ready to get on with it, and ready to define more clearly what it is.

So did anything newsworthy happen in NE Ohio while we were gone? Other than some other young professional moving the hell outta here to realize the treasure was buried beneath his feet the whole damn time? Hahahaha. Boomerang.

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