Life Update News

Hello everyone! Once again it's time for a life update. I figured I should let everyone know what's going on with my personal life and not just the business stuff!

Dénia, Spain Ferry Port

The last few months, I spent in Spain, and the Netherlands. As many of you know, I'm from Idaho, but most of my time in my adulthood has been spent living on cruise ships, and traveling around the world between contracts. In the last year, I was only in the United States 3.5 weeks total! Many of my friends live in Europe and for years I've been contemplating moving to the Netherlands, but my friends all convinced me to check out Spain first. Everything in Europe is a relatively cheap flight or train ride away, and seeing as how I hate being cold and the Netherlands is experiencing a severe housing crisis (just like everywhere else, but arguably worse), I decided to take their advice and spend a couple of months in Spain to see if it felt right.

I love Spain. Who doesn't? The wonderful food and wine culture, the warm Mediterranean weather, the relaxed lifestyle, and the beautiful and friendly people. I spent the first month in Valencia in a shared apartment with two crazy guitar player friends of mine, then went on to Dénia to experience the town recommended to me my many of my friends. There's much too much to write in one single blog, but please let me know if you'd like more details. This is also where I wrote my guide to help short term rental hosts get better ratings. I live in these places all the time and have a lot of advice to give. If you're interested in that, you can find it HERE. I'm happy to do a more detailed travel blog if anyone shows real interest, but suffice it to say, that I enjoyed myself very much and met some wonderful people that I can't wait to see again. I ended my trip to Spain with two days in Formentera, where I mostly laid in bed completely ill and feverish. I'll have to go back there one day and actually do the little holiday I'd hoped for rather than shiver in my expensive Airbnb, but it was still a beautiful place to rest. I took the ferry from Formentera all the way to Barcelona, then flew to the Netherlands where I had planned on staying for two weeks, housesitting for a friend. My conclusion about whether it felt right to live in Spain or not was... well... inconclusive. It was wonderful there, but I still wasn't sure I wanted it to be my home base.

As I descended out of the sunny skies of Spain and into the rain clouds of Amsterdam on my short flight, my heart skipped a beat and I felt the magic and excitement of the Netherlands return to me. In spite of the dreary weather, I felt like I was coming home. Doh! This complicated things for me again. I just spent two months in Spain, looking into all of the job opportunities and visa paperwork, but there was this undeniable feeling in the Netherlands that I just didn't have in Spain. Spain upon reflection, felt like a welcoming place where I was a happy and comfortable guest, observing a beautiful place that others called home. The Netherlands, for better or worse FEELS like home. It almost felt like I wasted my time and money second guessing myself, but then, I'd never have known if I didn't really give it a shot, so while I'm still in reflection mode now, I'm thinking Spain is somewhere I can't wait to visit again, but not sure if it's going to be my home base. Probably not.

Utrecht, Netherlands

My two weeks in the Netherlands quickly turned into 4 as I used a popular housesitting website to find free places to stay after my time housesitting for my friend was through. I stayed in Den Haag (The Hague), Amsterdam, Haarlem, Utrecht, and with friends in Friesland. Side note, if you didn't already know, I have a song called "Amsterdam" that I wrote on a trip to the Netherlands several years ago and you can listen HERE. Between visiting old friends who kindly offered up their guest rooms, to petsitting some very cute pets (special shout-out to Leo the dog!), I was able to see more of the Netherlands and experience more of its culture. I'm now torn about what to do because the housing crisis IS very real there, so I'll have to seriously consider my next move.

People may wonder why I don't want Idaho to be my home base, but it's pretty simple. As a traveling contracted musician, I want to be able to work gigs between contracts, but I don't want to have to store and pay for a car when I'm never there (did I mention 3.5 weeks a year??). I don't have a lifestyle that's conducive to being in Idaho as networking opportunities are low and driving culture really is a huge thing there. I want to return frequently to visit family and friends, but I want my belongings in a cute little apartment for me to return to between contracts, and I want it in an affordable, walk-able city, near my friends and many local businesses hiring musicians and artists. Many decisions need to be made, but until then, I'll keep paying for my storage unit, and dream about where the contents will go.

So now I'm back in Idaho, and I'm preparing for my next ship adventure. I'll be going back on a Holland America ship soon, and this time I'll be the "Regional Soloist" meaning, I'll sing and play guitar, on my own. The Rock Band was such a fun experience and I'm so glad I did that for two whole contracts, but I definitely miss the intimacy of playing solo shows and fulfilling requests all night. I may still return to the band scene in the near future, but in the meantime, I need to get my solo performance chops back up and running. I'll keep everyone posted as I go, and I'm determined to make this a weekly blog from now on.

Thanks as always for the love, care, support, and interest in my journey.