The winter has set in fully at last - with snow, frigid nights, bright glorious days. Already it's 2013, the year I move west. Just where I'll end up and just when are still a mystery, but I'm on an ever-ascending staircase. My fitness regiment is still strict, and I've gone on a wonderful new journey of nutrition, experimenting with a high protein weight-lifters diet. The results have shown improvements in my workout recovery, in my muscle definition, and in my metabolism. I still can't wait to get to the gym for my run, and look forward to seeing all the great people who are regulars there - we share a passion, after all, and the smiles we exchange are a huge part of my social uptake.

 I've gone into the studio, at last, to record my original ideas, after performing other people's music for more than thirty  years. Every part of the experience has been eye-opening and magical.

While I've never been a social media person, I have recently uploaded some of my music on Reverbnation, learning to link the site to Facebook and Twitter. In a matter of hours I had fans and listeners, and it amazed me to think that putting myself out there in that form would attract people so quickly. I continue to work toward two very different albums with vastly varied themes (one for the music of the 'real' world, and one for the music of my imagined realm, Mirico). I've been fortunate to work with an amazing array of people, and I can only imagine the interactions will continue to bring me learning opportunities.

The interesting thing about recording my own ideas is that the initial listen, away from the studio, found me awestruck - I could do nothing but dance and whoop and could barely sit still. After a while, I listened to the same tracks and felt a sense of deflation, and I thought, 'wow, I could do so much better than that!' Later, however, it seemed I came around, and saw the takes from the early stages as good stepping stones toward greater things. In some cases I scrapped what I had originally done, seeing clearly that I hadn't yet found myself and my 'sound'. Other times I realized the very first (and very early stage of) a take had the magic, where I did something instinctual, or where I harnessed a magic by not over-thinking the song too much. I continue to figure things out one session at a time, and while I don't know where all of this creation may lead, I know it's what I've always been meant to do.