Hellloooooooooooo everyone!  Greetings from Alexandria after what has been a loooooong time without a post. It was recently suggested by a friend that I restart my blog (thanks, Meredith!), which quite frankly, took me by surprise!  It’s been quite a long time since I posted regularly, and I never thought I had much readership, so it caught me off guard anyone remembered it! Since my last post, things in life are quite different, and about to get a whole lot differenter! 

First of all, if you originally signed up for my old newsletter, The Virtual Trombonist, then I have to tell you that this new iteration is going to be different. It probably won’t contain much, if any, content related to the trombone, or even to classical music. You see, that time period of my life is rapidly coming to a close!  Not exactly a permanent end of my tromboning, but very likely a long break from it, followed by possible short stints now and again. We will see. I make no promises!

The reason?  Well, I am retiring from “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Band at the end of June. I will have spent just shy of 25 years in the band, and it has been a great ride. I simply became ready to start the next chapter of my life, and I will be moving on to a career in the audio visual production world. Many of you know I’ve had a part time career in that field for a few years now, and the time has come to fully commit to a new path.  

I feel like I’ve been released from a cage. Seriously. Even though my military career has been wonderful, it feels like a new beginning and like anything is possible. As a friend said, “now you get to decide what you want to be when you grow up!”

I don’t know about that, but there are some things in my life that I have done as hobbies, or peripherally, that I want to make more time for.  Photography, writing, hiking, cycling, sitting on the beach…. I don’t expect to make a living from any of these (one can always hope!), but I’m excited to spend more time at these and other pursuits.  I’m planning for this blog to begin exploring more topics in these and other areas.  If you are looking for trombone content, you should probably unsubscribe - I will miss you!  Otherwise, welcome, and I look forward to sending out more thoughts into the internet ethers in the coming year.