MAB - Thank you for the posts. I was never disagreeing with you! In your posts it seemed you thought I wasn't 'getting it'. I know you are so right...I need to play out, will hopefully do it soon. My husband has offered some warehouse space for me to use for an open mic night - which I might try and do. I want to ask around and see if there's any interest. It would be very simple - nothing crazy. But I thought if I could get about 20 people or so to show up (not just say they will) I could maybe then ask a friend of mine who has a restuarant if he wouldn't mind hosting it there on an off night. But I will take baby steps with it. I'm not looking to take on something huge at the moment. The problem with most open mics around here is that they really are very noisy - we don't have places like Douglas Corner, where everyone is genuinely focused on the music. I'm going to attend a few open mics in the near future - haven't been to any in a while. Maybe I'll be wrong, but I don't think so. Anyway, I will watch how they run it and how it goes before I try the warehouse thing. I have many connections now through my daughters music academy and there are lots of songwriters/artists there. They actually host an open mic there, but it's mainly the younger kids doing it.
I am reaching out to artists and writing with three people locally so I am doing better on that end. Writing long distance is just hard to accomplish these days.
Justin - Nice ice bucket challenge! I was just challenged today - I'm kinda pissed to be honest. LOL. Glad you seem to like the new job. Good to get a job with the town. There's usually decent job security and hopefully potentional to keep moving up in your career.
OD - Hey you...good to see you on here. You seem to be behaving yourself mostly, too!
Phil - Thanks for the info! I'll look into it.