CH-CH-CH- CHANGES

Well, 6 months ago, my wife and I put our house up for sale on Long Island. She was offered a job back in our home city of Buffalo,NY.

It took me quite awhile to wrap my head around not living in the NYC area anymore. For years, I prided myself on living here and making a life for my family and me near the greatest city on the planet. Not to mention that last year, I finally had the chance to make my entrance into the off Broadway world of NYC. I felt like I was gaining a lot of momentum only to have the wind knocked out of my sails. Leaving Buffalo almost 10 years ago taught me a lot about the world, my career, my family and myself. I was forced to deconstruct every pro and con of this relocation. 

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For anyone who lives in the city or surrounding areas, it is a bitch living here. It's crowded, it's busy, it takes time to get anywhere. What I realized is that a lot of my week was spent on commuting...or walking to the train station, only to sit on a train for close to an hour, to get home. I spend 40 hours a week commuting...that's not including the work week..that's commuting. Yes, I chose to move out to Long Island for my families sake and for awhile I accepted this as par for the course. Over time, the travel wore out it's welcome. So when the opportunity for us to move back to Buffalo arose, I was conflicted.

I knew moving back home would enrich our lives. We'd have more time spent together, more time with family and friends and just a better support system. My kids could see our families more than 3 times a year.  See , we live an hour outside of Manhattan, so our city friends rarely come to see us nor do we travel into the city on the weekends to see them...so we were beginning to feel marooned and alone.

So, after several months of internal deliberation, we decided to put the house up for sale. It made sense. Not so much for myself but most importantly for my family.

I realized that everything I had been doing musically for the 3 years leading up to that, could really be done anywhere. I haven't played live in NYC for almost 3 years, with most of my time devoted to my own studio projects and family, I suppose I could've pushed myself and gotten a band together, but even when I was in a band, trying to schedule rehearsals was a friggin' nightmare I shan't repeat. Not to mention, a lot of the PINWHEEL! writing was done via email anyway. Caroline Prugh and I were in the same room probably twice during the writing process. It was only in the last round of rewrites that we actually got together and hashed out some material together...but for the most part, the creation process was done remotely. 

I have friends both in Manhattan and Brooklyn where I can stay when I fly back into NYC from Buffalo...which is only an hour flight. Sometimes if the L.I.R.R is delayed, my commute is well over 2 hours, one way.

So, my life will change drastically. Moving back to Buffalo will he a huge change...but for the better. I spend a lot of my week inside a train car or underground and seeing my kids for 20 minutes in the morning...that's bunk.