Busy Busy

For two long years I was totally unemployed, and unemployable. I spent most of my time at home alone pondering existence, wondering why life seemed to be passing me by so quickly, ignoring any action or interest to be found outside of my four small walls. I was probably depressed. I hardly exercised. I smoked too much. I had hit a rut.

      Then came the invite to start driving my friends band on tour. I'd always wanted to tour, and had gotten a couple of short trips under my belt before accepting their offer. I had always thought that my life would come to life once I got on the road and started chewing up some miles, meeting some people, staying out late and seeing some places I'd never seen before. It was like my whole life was on pause, ready and waiting to go out on the road. I adapted quickly to the sporadic touring the band was doing, retiring home every few days or weeks to rest up and contemplate my experience. I had that time to let it sink in, and to deal with this new everything in my own way; by writing it down and by thinking it over.

      That band now seems to be doing more and more successfully. We just got back from a six-day trip round Germany where every gig was sold out and every audience member there to hear them. We're just wrapping up a two-week UK tour which has been pretty much the same. It seems there is no bounds to their meteoric rise to being a successful indie band. I think back fondly to those first few shows, where we'd arrive early and visit a couple of sights in the city before calmly heading over to the gig. Trying to sleep in a freezing cold van was hell at the time, but seems romantic and part of our initial hardship now. Driving all through the night, a coffee cup perched firmly on the dashboard was taxing then, but sounds like bliss now.

      Now things seem to be moving so fast I can't get a moment to reflect and to understand what is happening. By the time I get back to my room proper we'll have been away for three and a half months solid, with only two days off and five travelling days. It's a crazy schedule we are keeping, but, as I keep telling people it makes up for doing nothing for those two years before that. I just wish I had some time to reflect and soak it up along the way. It's all I can do to keep an up-to-date journal.