Getting started...

And I'm not just talking about my blog here. I'm talking about my LIFE. Moving is such a strange, sad, happy, exciting, exhausting MESS! The apartment is coming along, but there are still so many boxes, so many unknowns. What is even in some of these collosal cardboard towers cluttering up the living room, and do I really need it? And if I do open these silent, menacing boxes, will there even be a place for their contents?

My job search reminds me of these boxes. I have a phone call in here, an email exchange there, an interview today...all these different pages filling up my notebook. None of them are sure-fire things. And there are as many unknowns as knowns about each of them. It is a little scary to think of putting an income together a bit at a time rather than just having one job that solves all the problems. But my life does not fit in one box. Musicians have to settle for a little here, a little there sometimes. And when the music box is emptied, sometimes we have to look in other boxes too. I guess I have to be patient and flexible. Not all the boxes can be dealt with at once.

A quick word about my blog name. You all know that I'm a huge Tolkien fan. And many of you know that I consider myself to be a hobbit. Here in our new home, I feel like I'm living in Brandy Hall. The apartment building is small, warm, cozy, and full of kiddos running around. The apartments have a hobbity feel to them somehow...maybe it's the "old" smell or the wood-paneled ceilings. And outside the window, there are trees and farms. This IS the Shire. I haven't seen any Tooks or Brandybucks yet, but I'll keep my eyes open.

Also, my name is deliberately mispelled. The first and only time I conducted a choir with an honest-to-goodness orchestra, my name was printed on the program as "Jessisca." After I got over being irritated, I decided it was quite funny, largely because my friend RA started calling me Je-SSIS-ca (accent on the middle syllable). So there you have it. :-)

That's all for tonight from the Shire. Peace, friends.