hiiiii~ (Patreon)

Just wanted to say a quick thank you so much to everyone here for all your support... I got some super encouraging and kind messages about my tinnitus, and I just want to thank you, sincerely, for being so amazing and for still being here with us in the month of December. I really, really appreciate it. I also want to let you know that there's never any pressure to stay here in Patreon; if you have to end your subscription for 2023, you do NOT have to give a reason or feel guilty about leaving, I promise!! I know times are tough with inflation and the current state of the world, so just please know that your support is absolutely not lost on me, and if you were here with us for ANY amount of time, I'm genuinely so, so grateful for your presence (and, btw, I'll never delete anybody from the Patrons-Only Discord channel!! once you're in, you're in 4 lyfe!!! *you can check out any time you like but you can never leeeeeeave*)

I have to tell you the craziest thing. It is SUCH a small world, I can barely handle it. Yesterday I went to my PO Box since I was shipping out all the EMMAs awards to the winning companies (three hours, 12 hand-written thank you cards, and $150 in shipping labels later...) and I checked my PO Box to find two absolutely amazing things inside. First, a surprise package from Pedalbrainz -- a special edition GOLDEN 3RD EYE!!! I'm in awe of how beautiful it looks!!

Secondly, I found a surprise package from this amazing jewelry company called While Odin Sleeps -- and here's the crazy thing. These two packages are RELATED. You ready for this?? @Obsuramfg on Instagram is the person who makes the enclosures for a bunch of companies like Asheville Music Tools, AND he's the person who helped design the enclosure for Pedalbrainz (most likely designed the Golden Eye above)!!! He reached out via Instagram and told me his girlfriend is 'While Odin Sleeps', and they were both fans of my channel. He asked for my PO Box address and said his girlfriend Lauren really wanted to send me some jewelry as a gift. I had no idea that 1. Scott from Obscuramfg made the enclosures for so many companies I work with, and 2. That Lauren Lester even knew I existed!!!! Real talk, I've been a silent fan of While Odin Sleeps for YEARS!! I remember seeing Lauren's jewelry and obsessing over how ridiculously beautiful her work was, and it was always so hard for me to just pick ONE design to order, so I kept putting it off 🥺 I was expecting to find like maybe one or two pairs in my PO Box, but she sent me FIVE!!!! Along with a really beautiful tin to hold everything in 😭😭😭 They are so breathtakingly beautiful, and they're officially my new favorite earrings, WAAAAY better than my Uno Cards / Furby earrings!!! You'll definitely be seeing me wearing these beauties in some more videos in the future.

Here's another weird / wild thing that happened. I got recognized at our local bar last night! Russ and I went to The Cortland for a quick drink to celebrate a successful EMMAs (again, I can't even express how much time, coordination, and effort went into making this video -- it feels amazing that it was so well received, and I'm so glad so many people enjoyed it!!) and we haven't really had any time to see friends in person besides our fellow demo artists, so I was suuuuper happy to catch up with everyone!! I forgot that Thursday nights are Bingo Nights™️, so of course I had to play. Let me preface this by saying: I am probably the unluckiest person when it comes to chance or bingo things. I ALWAYS seem to lose. Last month my older sister hosted an event for Make-A-Wish, and I put all my tickets (like over 100 tickets) into ONE basket -- it was the basket for a local chicken restaurant that my friend owns, so I wanted to support them. And guess who has two thumbs and didn't win any chicken? *insert some bad joke about not putting all your eggs into one basket* 😂❤️ 

But lo-and-behold, I won not only one Bingo round, but TWO!!!! I won one gift card to the bar, and another gift card to my local coffee shop, and I'm CHERISHING them!! Although I'm trying to cut back on caffeine for my tinnitus, it's going to be so nice to treat Russ and some friends to some lovely drinks (and I can always grab a nice matcha tea!). 

But back to the story. Russ and I are chatting with our friend Petey, and all of a sudden, this guy in a suit comes up beside us and goes, "So sorry to interrupt," and points at me and goes: "You play the harp!" and I laughed and was like "yeah, I do! How did you know??" and he goes: "I watch you on YouTube! Oh my god! I didn't even know you lived around here! I love what you do with effects pedals!" and honestly, I had such a good time chatting with everyone, my voice is sore from trying to speak loudly enough over the bar music. Also, I was rockin' a 25-cent mustache that you can get from a vending machine at the bar. I felt extremely dapper, and I can't believe that guy still recognized me in my newly-found disguise.

Lately I've been playing so much Vampire Survivors on my Steam Deck (thank you so much, Phil!!!) that when I close my eyes I see the gameplay -- the "Tetris Effect" is a real thing!! After we got back from the bar last night, Russ and I finished up another chapter in Detroit: Become Human. He accidentally killed Connor with his poor gameplay decisions (lmaooo WE LOVE CONNOR), so I had to restart the chapter 😂

I hope everyone had a fantastic week, and I hope you enjoy your weekend!! 🥳❤️ I have tons of recording work to do for some scoring projects we're working on, and Russ is about to get home from work any minute, so I'm gonna go get ready to jump right in. Wish me luck! <3