Last Friday was my last day at my job of 5 1/2 years. It really began to sink in as I packed up my work computer and shipped it off to Austin where it would eventually find a new employee who will use it to maintain Web sites for the large non-profit that owns it. The machine is a Dell Optiplex G110 Pentium III 933 Mhz with 512 MB of RAM - a bit worn around the edges, but still chugging along, now on its third hard drive. I have to admit I got a little choked up as I put it in the box. Not so much out of sentimentality as out of physical exertion: I had forgotten how heavy the damn thing was! Computers, like everything else, have definitely gotten lighter over the past 5 years.

So I've come to the conclusion that the stars must be aligned for positive life changes. Aside from my recent move away from my full-time job to embark on a journey of self-employment and, in the process, re-discover my more literary side, a friend of mine here in DC just found out yesterday that his book will be published by Random House! And to add a little icing to an already sweet deal, Dreamworks also bought the movie rights. This is a definite inspiration to me as I get started writing again. It gives me hope that it really can be done, that some dreams come true. At the same time, it makes me feel a bit intimidated and defeated before I've even begun. I mean, published by Random House, with the possibility of a movie. It's kind of hard to stand tall in the shadow of that achievement! The odds of being published or knowing somebody that has been published are pretty slim as it is, so how bad do those odds get when you have a friend do it who lives within the same 5-mile radius? I'm trying not to think about it. Of course, I could look at it another way: success breeds more success. It's definitely going to be nice to have somebody to bounce ideas off of who has already been through the whole novel writing/publishing experience . . . and come out on top!

So things are going well for my friend on the literary front, and hopefully that will wear off on me a little bit. But even if it doesn't, I've got other things to get excited about on the musical front. This weekend, The Jones jammed for the second time with Mat, and for the second time, we were blown away at how great things sounded with him driving the rhythm. I really feel like we all just clicked, and the music reflected that. With Mat drumming, Mike's songs take on a much more groovy/funky sound and this whole new world of possibilities suddenly seems within reach. We weren't sure if Mat would be able to play with The Jones since he already plays with another great band - Communist Bakesale. But as it turns out, he said this weekend that he was definitely up for having a go at doing both. I am so excited that we'll be playing with him I can hardly stand it. Everybody needs to get ready for a very new Jones sound on July 6th at DC9!

Finally, another bit of good news: after almost having to reschedule my upcoming trip to Houston due to various conflicts, the biggest conflict was worked out today and I'll be able to go after all. There are still some things that turned out to be bad timing with this trip - such as missing the Old 97s at the 9:30 Club, which I had already bought tickets to go see. But I just learned today that Sarah and Oytun will be having a house warming during the weekend I'm in Dallas (the day of the Old 97s show, in fact) so I've traded one misfortune for a bit of happy times with friends. A pretty good trade, I think.

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