Arizona missed the memo...winter is supposed to be cold.

What have I learned over these past two weeks? Arizona is warm. States in the Midwest, however, are not.

(For the record, the coldest I've ever encountered was -16 °F, with wind chill, in Boston a few years ago.)

Fortunately, I had anticipated cold weather this winter. With 2 scarves, 2 beanies, a sweat shirt, 2 sweaters, a vest and a North Face jacket, I've been more or less warm (clarification: I did not wear all of these items at once).

We spent the past two weeks winding our way North from Texas, performing in Arkansas, Kansas, Iowa, Ohio, Illinois and Michigan. Because we travelled mostly by car (expect for one small portion which was by plane), I saw quite a bit of interstate highway.

I was also able to see some more friends over the past two weeks! In Iowa, Ken and Carmella (parents of one of my best friends from ASU, Sarah Schultes) drove over 2 hours to come see Barrage perform in Des Moines. I was able to get dinner with them before the show, and had a great time being able to catch up with the two of them! Two of my great friends from ASU, Chad Jacobs and Josh Ybarra, both of whom now live and work in Chicago, came to the show in Skokie, IL. I had not seen them since early this summer, and they even gave me a driving tour of the Chicago area!

Josh, me, and Chad after the show.

Thanks again to Ken, Carmella, Chad and Josh for coming to see the show!

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I had originally written this post back in Roscommon, Michigan, but was not able to get it online because of a poor internet connection. Currently, I'm in Copenhagen, Denmark, soon to embark on a 26 day Christmas tour of Denmark with Danish singer Stig Rossen. I'm quite excited to be back in Denmark, because it's such an awesome country. Also, word on the street is that Denmark celebrates Christmas like no other country does--I can't wait to experience the merriment and Christmas cheer!

As a sidenote, it's about 5:30 a.m. here. Why, you ask, am I up at 5:30 a.m.? I've actually been laying awake in my bed since 3:00 a.m., unable to fall back asleep due to jet lag. After a long day of international travel and less-than-desirable sleeping conditions (i.e. on a plane through the night), I couldn't help but fall asleep around 9:30 p.m. last night, which is incredibly early for this on-the-road lifestyle; since I'm used to only getting about 6 hours of sleep a night, my body had had enough by 3 a.m.

This situation is further complicated by the fact that Jason is still asleep...which means I can't really do anything somewhat productive that would require light and/or noise-making because I don't want to wake him up. Fortunately, for my mental health and sanity, I realized that I could use my laptop (which doesn't require a room light) and finish typing up this post (I'm not a heavy typer, so it doesn't make much noise).

...and that is the story behind this post.