Welcome to my midlife crisis!

FRIENDS! I'm here. I'm caffeinated. I'm having a midlife crisis.

A friend of mine whom I don't see very often gave me some great advice last weekend. His initials are E.C. and his name rhymes with pelvis poshdello. Despite being a massively famous rock star, he somehow takes time to talk and listen and, like, therapize me. I caught up with him this weekend, introduced him to Graham, and he shared some good advice. This man is incredibly smart, which pleases me to no end and also explains his thousand endeavours and brilliant art.

Anyway, enough namedropping.

The weekend was good enough to make me want to hit reset and meet this midlife crisis full-on, eyes-on-the-road, full-focus, intentional life, etc.

I'm sort of wrestling with the whole I'm 41 with terrible genes, and there's not time to do all the things I want to do. I've got a TON of songs left in me, several romance novels, maybe one literary novel, and thousands of blogs. I also have a family to feed and support and love and snuggle and electricity bills to play, so my self-employment requires a re-boot.

I'm going to buckle down and focus on the Patreon template of art and hope that enough people out there find my music/blogs/photography/videos compelling enough to pledge $1 a month (or $5 a month?) which is basically like buying me two lattes a year.

My first album came out almost 15 years ago. I sold almost 4000 copies from stage and record stores. That income stream is just no longer available because of Spotify, etc, and that is okay with me. I acutally LOVE technology, and I LOVE the accessibility of music to all. I mean, how many kids now know about the Federalist Papers because Hamilton was readily available to the world? It's great. Music on demand is INCREDIBLE. Technology is AMAZING. I'm here for it.

I challenge anyone who has the means -- or anyone who used to, like, buy CDs on occasion, even if that was from Columbia House paste-a-penny-to-the-advert-and-mail-it-in -- to choose a few musicians on Patreon and pledge $1/month to them. Feel good about it. You are directly supporting ART.

To my own Patrons on PATREON, I'm going to be putting out some special info about various things that I'm not putting in my own blog (i mean, i have to have some incentive, right? even if it's just juicy gossip?!). And THANK YOU to the two wonderful people who jumped right on to offer support. It made me all weepy, like, legit tears and stuff, to know that there are two people out there who believe in supporting artists. It also makes me realize that if I have some sort of steady income, then I can finish these novels and these songs and also pay bills while I try to make the world a better place.

Enjoy my writing/music? Here’s how you can show your love:

BECOME an ARTIST PATRON! www.patreon.com/brigidkaelin

If you can't be a patron, then maybe one of these??

Donate a cuppa tea (this seriously helps!!): www.ko-fi.com/brigidkaelin 
Follow my instagram: www.instagram.com/BrigidKaelin 

Like me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/brigidkaelin 

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brigidkaelin 

Favorite meals from around the world!

I unapologetically take food photos while I'm traveling. I also unapologetically have an iPhone and Alexas in several rooms of my house. I love being able to walk inside and announce to my thermostat to make it warm, and I love being able to look back through my iCloud for a geotagged photo to remember JUST what that pizza place was called in Florence where our Couchsurfing host Antonio took us for a late-night bite after we watched that amazing trio, The Three Harmonicas, with that delightful American fiddler we'd met on the streets. Don't talk to me about privacy. I'm smart. I know the risks. I just don't care about that anymore because my parents died this year, and I don't care about anything. The GeoTag function is AMAZING for recalling restaurants and villages.

My food photos remind me of the amazing adventures I've had, whether it was that miso restaurant where I had breakfast on the top of Mount Fuji after watching the sun rise from above the clouds or that Earl Grey gelato I had at some back alley shop in Italy.

Today, I'm bringing you photos of some of my favorite treats from around the world. Unfortunately the Japan trip was pre-iPhone, so it may as well never have happened.

Spam me with your food photos!!

Enjoy my writing/music? Here’s how you can show your love:

BECOME an ARTIST PATRON! www.patreon.com/brigidkaelin

If you can't be a patron, then maybe one of these??

Donate a cuppa tea (this seriously helps!!): www.ko-fi.com/brigidkaelin 
Follow my instagram: www.instagram.com/BrigidKaelin 

Like me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/brigidkaelin 

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brigidkaelin 

Chocolate waffle: Amsterdam 

Curry chips: Glasgow, Scotland

Full Scottish Breakfast: Isle of Skye

Spiced cider: Christmas market in Stockholm

Italian restaurant: Gamla Stan, Sweden

World's best pizza: Campo del Fiori, Rome, Italy

Also the world's best pizza: GustoPizza, Florence, Italy

New career choices and dirty romance novels and Mozart

Anyone out there doing NaNoWriMo?? I'm not officially because I know better than to limit my writing to November. I tried to do it in 2011, failed because I was overcome with pregnancy depression, and then I guess I just thought I couldn't do it anymore. Now I know that November 30 is not a hard deadline, and I'm gonna schedule in writing time.

I've also decided not to try to overachieve and attempt a brilliant, literary novel. I've decided that since I'm obsessed with reading light, mindless novels, then I need to write some like that instead. Also, since I unintentionally read all of that erotica trilogy a few weeks ago, then maybe I should try my hand at writing dirty romance novels. Because my parents are dead, so what have I to be embarrassed about?

(Hi, kids!! Love you! Don't be embarrassed by your mother! Maybe I'll publish a series of erotica books and you'll be able pay for college.)

Scheduling, in general, is helping me have a little bit of control over a life that I'm quite certain (finally) is completely out of my hands. It's nice to have a coffee date or a novel-writing-hour on my calendar, between gigs and emails and recording sessions.

I'm truly hoping to be productive this winter rather than just re-reading Wuthering Heights in yet another fit of seasonal depression.

So tell me ... are you writing? WHAT are you writing? Are you making other art? Tell me about it!

Oh yeah, I just deposited a whopping $1.85 from Spotify, so I'm not going to be afraid to post a do you enjoy my writing and would you perhaps feel happier today if you gave some actual, obvious, dollar-signed support to an artist link to my ko-fi.com/brigidkaelin page. I've had a Patreon in draft (edited to add: omg i just hit publish so now it's not in draft anymore!!!) for years (literally YEARS) so tell me if you're super hip to the Patreon and perhaps that will nudge me to finally get my admin crap together and plan an entire Patreon mission. It's just so much admin when all I really want to do is provide delightful art, in the form of blogs and songs and live shows and PDFs of my music and #100daysofMozart (have you been following that on my Instagram??) and such. Turns out that a lot of you didn't know that I actually play the piano REALLY FREAKING WELL. #fooledya

LOVE YOU ALL.

Here’s how YOU can show your love:

Donate a cuppa tea (this seriously helps!!): www.ko-fi.com/brigidkaelin 
Follow my instagram: www.instagram.com/BrigidKaelin 

Like me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/brigidkaelin 

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brigidkaelin