JUNE 1, 2008

Happy New Years Day

I'm 45 today, grateful to be, to feel the fresh spring air of lingering May. To be able to walk my morning walk and take in the sights and sounds of the first day of the rest of my life. I'm parked up on a switch back like shelf, carved into the east hill of Port Jefferson Harbor. My very own personal box seat, the cab of my pickup. It's windshield is a three dimensional screen, that changes with the mood of the days and its tides....

DISCONNECTED..APRIL 2008

The main land is a series of many bridges behind me, crossing from one island to another until i lost count, until i reached the last island as far south as one can travel by car, bicycle or foot and at the end is where i cast all my worries into the sea, where the ocean meets The Gulf of Mexico and carries them further away. Later, four or five days i woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of my cel phone vibrating on the night table. I knew by the length of its hum, it was a voicemail. I was frozen in bed, quiet and still, but my mind was racing, they found me. I traveled all this way and forgot that i was carrying a tracking device from the mainland. A message left in the middle of the night could only be worriesome or worse. I thought i got away clean, in fact i can't bring myself to answer it, although my imagination is probably worse, pull yourself together and pick up the phone, or throw it into the ocean with all of the other tracking devices that lay at the bottom. Bury your tracks and go for a swim, be disconnected for another day, disconnected from the mainland that is. The distance will do you good.

Our Last Sweethearts Dance

My daughter and I entered the beautifully decorated elementary school gym for our fifth and last Sweethearts Dance. As we walked along the outer walls searching for her sweetheart-shaped balloon with her name on it, among what seemed like hundreds of others, the first balloon she pulled down and twirled around read, Andie Fortier. We both looked at each other and smiled. All the past dances we circled the gym, two and three times before we found hers. Tonight would prove to be the best of them all for us, especially for me. I’m a terrible dancer and on most occasions I try to avoid it, except for this one, the one time you must check your self consciousness at the door if you really want to enjoy yourself. In fact I think that might be a great thing to do at any stage in ones life. We danced the night away and took a lot of pictures in our minds and with our camera. My little girl, whose not so little any more whisked me away with her staying right besides me the whole night, never letting me out of her sight, something she may have done when she was younger, for obvious reasons, but tonight it was for a mutual savoring of a father and daughters love for each other and although there will be other dances to come, but never quite like this one. When dessert was being served, we ran to the table to take a picture of the heart-shaped cake Mom and Andie baked so proudly. We lined up to get a piece, all the desserts were made with love. Afterwards we went downtown for a scoop of ice cream, and to linger in the after glow. I could tell we both did not want to go home just yet, so I suggested we sneak into our hometown playhouse, Theatre Three, and check out their latest production. Afterwards we made our way back to our cottage up on the hill, just In time before our car turned into a pumpkin, while I closed up downstairs I heard Andie telling Mom about our night with such sweet inflections in her voice, such beautiful music to a fathers ears. I thank the fairy godmothers, all the moms that wave their wands and magically created a very enchanted, unforgettable Sweethearts Dance.....

Andrew Fortier

Special thanks to everyone that participated in March 1st, "Neighborhood House" appearance. It was a great night of love and energy, shared by all. I can't wait to do it again. Special, special thanks to Paul and Maria and their hospitality for making the Neighborhood House feel like my very own home.

"February's Gift"

Busiest February ever, even though we had the extra day in February, it felt shorter than most. It was a crazy month, beginning with a surprise birthday party for my mom in Ocala, Florida. Creating a great family reunion, leading to two days in Disney, with my brothers and all of our families.

Back home in New York, ready to begin a carpentry job that needed to be completed by March 1st, with the pressure of other scattered and unfinished projects on my mind, having to focus on one thing was a challange. Rehersals and recording sessions somehow still fit in, along with sleigh riding and a day of snowboarding with the kids. I wrote a new song called "Always Sunny Above The Clouds". In the swell of February i was devistated, along with everyone else by the loss of Lisa Leon, a young, beautiful wife, mom, friend and light. I was moved to tears, as her husband Steve professed his and there love for each other, and how there hobby was spending time together. The turning of a page that changes our lives forever, so deep, so profound, there are no words kind enough to explain, only tears.

Work. work and more work, my wife called me to see if i was going to make it up to the elementary school as 1:45, for Andie Juliette is getting an award today. 'Do you think she'd mind if i missed this one', Mellie said, "no, as long as one of us was there she'd be fine". This was one day before my show, and before the families house i was working on needed to be completed, for they were due back from a month's long abscence, with all of that said, i put down my tools and raced to Andie's school, and there beside my wife was a saved seat, for she knew i'd be there, she knows me better than i do sometimes. I watched that day emotionally as each one of her classmates got up and recieved there awards. I thought as fast as this world is spinning, this day will seem like yesterday, as we watch our young adults throwing there graduating caps up in the air. I thank god and February for this extra day, truly a gift....