All is Found

45

Back again in California. The last two months at home have been wonderful. I got to be home for Halloween and I loved every second of it. Thea thought I went a little crazy with the decorations but I had so much fun putting them up I almost didn't stop. For the first time in a long time I was able to set up an ofrendas. I included my mother, siblings and Ed on it. When Thea questioned it and I explained what it is. The next day I asked Thea if she wanted to include a picture of her parents and Allison on it. She didn't give me an answer so I left it alone. The following day there were two new pictures on the table.

            On Halloween, Thea was working at headquarters in uniform to help out with the extra calls. We are planning on going to Lindsey's Halloween party the next day since Thea had off. I was on candy duty with Pat for most of the night. Nikki was off with Malia at a party at a friend of Malia's since she had the night off. As the kids started to slow down I left Pat in charge of the candy and changed into my costume.

            My costume for jokes is a prisoner, completely with Thea's spare pair of handcuffs. I left Pat and drove down to the station to surprise Thea. When I got there I was surprised to see her working the desk. Needless to say she was surprised to see me in my costume. Rory got a laugh at Thea's reaction and I just gave her a sweet kiss.

            Over the past two months I have been slowly chipping away at my new music. Right now I have the album planned out for 15 songs. I have three songs completely done. I'm taking my time and not rushing these songs because of how much they mean to me.

            As the date for the AMA's got closer, I had a decision to make in regards to which song I want to play. I had a conference call with Toby and a few people from the label along with Alyssa and my band. The AMA's suggested I perform Tell Her You Love Her because of all the success it has but I didn't want to. Toby and I went back and forth to perform something new from the upcoming album but decided it wasn't far enough along to release anything new from it yet. Then we circled back to My Heart. I was all for it but we got push back from the AMA's saying it might be too heavy of a song to sing. Toby pushed for it though and finally we got them to approve it.

            Thea actually has her off days that weekend and Monday and is able to come out to the show. I'm excited for her to get to come out and be here with me. Nikki and I left a week before the show and are staying with Alyssa in her apartment. I needed to be out here early to rehearse the show with my band since it has been months since we have played together.

            I also wanted to come out early because I wanted to meet with the band I Prevail. I have listened to their stuff a lot since they came out and wanted to have them featured on two songs I have working for this album. They were coming out to California for some AMA's stuff and I thought it would be the perfect time to get into the studio together. I wanted to have guy screaming some of the verses on these two songs and thought they would be perfect.

            Alyssa set us up with studio time and I got to know the guys a little before I pitched them the songs I have been working on. They were totally on board and we got to work right away on them. We ended up working for three days on the two songs. When we were done with them, they sounded amazing. It was nice to work with them because they come from a completely different background then I do. These two songs are kind of heavy but that's how I always envisioned them to be.

            While I've been in California, I also had a chance to work with Halsey on two other songs. We didn't get a chance to finish them together but she is going to be in New York in December and she said she would come to visit me to finish these songs up. The album is really starting to come together nicely now and I may be able to release it earlier then I thought.