A New Beginning

It's a dawn of a new year (a time for new starts, hopeful beginnings, and positive intentions), and I have realized I haven't blogged since my time at the University of Iowa. A lot has definitely happened since then. I've found the love of my life in my fiance Candice, I've been brought on full-time as an Associate Editor at Premier Guitar magazine where I write/edit articles, videos, and photograph concerts and guitarists' equipment (I interned there for over a year), I've moved in the with aforementioned fiancee in Cedar Rapids, and I've done plenty of great things and experienced stuff I never dreamed possible (meeting dozens of rock stars and music industry folks). I've gotten a lot more tattoos since my last blog a few years ago... yeah, so many now that I forget having certain ones and occasionally remember one tucked under a sock or near an armpit.

On a personal level, I've met some new people that have forever changed my life, including but not limited to, Craig and his wife Ang who are now great friends and worthy foes in games and meaningless trivia (but definitely not bowling), Rebecca and her husband Aaron who although are great people (even if they initiated our friendship by needing to fill in a void for their pizza double-date deal at the Airliner in IC) will never attain the status of the greatest fantasy football GM as the Mother Truckers (that's my team--I'm 12-1 and in the Super Bowl of the league), Jason and his wife Cindy--a sarcastic duo that Candice and I have shared some hard laughs and great times with, Candice's parents Toye and Jerry who have welcomed me into their lives with great acceptance (even if I'm not a Steelers or Hawkeyes fan) and love, Joey and Kelly--both who are great dudes and will be bridesmaids at our wedding (yeah, we're a pretty odd couple), Shawn Hammond and Joe Coffey who as a friends (Editor in Chief and Editorial Director at PG, respectively) have really pushed me to become a better writer/editor (besides that stuff, Shawn loves the Misfits and zombies, and like me, Joe takes eating very seriously!), and last but definitely not least, my best friend Seth and his larger-than-life wife Meghan have come back to Iowa after they attempted to shun the corn state by living in Phoenix and then Jacksonville--I'm glad they're back and within an hour drive of me again... yigah!

And thankfully my family (especially my mom, step-dad Joe, my aunt Lora, and uncle Chuck) has been super supportive of not only my personal life and the relationship and love that has been cultivated with my future-wife Candice, but also in my professional career (now that I am deemed successful it seems like a no-brainer, but about 6-7 years ago I was a lost 20-something who was complacent and sad at a dead-end factory job... I knew nothing except I liked writing--and could do it fairly well--and music, so I just went for it... and here I am!!). But most importantly, cancer tried taking my #1 fan grandma Bublitz, but realized she was like taking on Ali in the Jungle! She took it on the chin and laughed at cancer--heck, she's going back to work next month!

All of the above words were a round-about way to announce (I know, you were hoping for this like a Zeppelin US reunion show) that I'll be blogging on the reg again. Whether it's about my work-trips, concerts I attend, cool shows/books/music I'm into, some new poetry/songs created by yours truly, or just some ranting, it'll be posted hopefully more regular than every other year! So bookmark this sucker and check back semi-often!