February is over.

Every rockstar has shades! It was about time I got a pair!

So the month has been fun and adventurous. It's official, my life is one big celebration. I guess that's what happens when you're a Rock Boater, a rockstar, etc. Always looking for a good time wherever and whenever.

So to round out this rather short month, I did the work thing (except for Wednesday) and I did the play thing. Fat Tuesday was earlier this week, and the night started out in chillaxed mode w/ my boo and went into full on party mode w/out my boo by the time I was done. Thus the reason why I didn't do the Wednesday work thing. And I did get my chops busted for that one ("you were updating your facebook status with 'I'm hungover' at 10am, weren't you?").

My friend Casey was in town this week, as she had to get her visa in order to gain entry into China (reason #2 I didn't do the Wednesday work thing). Yep, she's in Shanghai for a good week or so. Anyhoo, we caught up on old times and showed her more bits of the city before she had to fly outta the country.

Last night, I had dinner and drinks w/ my boo. It was just a nice change of pace to just chill w/ the one person I wanted to be with for that one moment. I honestly didn't want last night to end. Like, ever.

Ok, so some of you are wondering how I met my boo, Dana. Well, here's the story, quick and dirty.

It was the birthday weekend. Better yet, it was I'm at my bar, taking down shots at the rate I was taking down bottles of miller lite on The Rock Boat. She came my way, grabbed some water, and the next thing ya know, we had a quick 5-minute conversation, which ended in an exchange of phone numbers. Next thing ya know, we're having a huge texting exchange and BAM, the friendship has deepened. We started dating about a week ago tonight, and neither of us could be any happier at this point.

So there. That's the story.

Time to finish off February in style!

The Rock Boat Niner Blog #4 - Day 2 Action

A few hours after Day 1 was in the books, it was time to get ready for Day 2. The Boat wasn't swaying. Rather, we docked in the Bahamas, which means it was time to get up and walk around.

The cabinmates and I grabbed breakfast up on Lido and then got out of the ship to go walking around Nassau in the Bahamas. I don't do the excursions (costs money) and I don't veer off to far from the ship (the cabbies seem more sketchy down there than back home), so we found a beach and just chilled. It wasn't too sunny of a day, so our time outdoors was short.

  

Upon returning to the ship, we found a Starbucks. Yes, a Starbucks. Of course, I ordered NYC style and the natives working there just shook their heads. Though I did get my drink nonetheless...after they were done making all the frappucinos for those that didn't know any better. But I digress...

BACK TO THE BOAT!

I spent the afternoon up on Lido editing pics and hanging out with Jill, Kristen, Jen, Magan, Rick, Juliana, and Jess before the Tonic set.

(say, isn't that MY RED HAT???)

The Boat then leaves the Bahamas just in time for REUNION OF TONIC!!!!

On a random day, I get a phone call from some random 866 or 877 number. I leave my desk and find an empty breakout office to take the call, and it's a recorded message from not only Emerson Hart (a Rock Boat favorite), but all the other members of Tonic as well. And they were REUNITING FOR THE ROCK BOAT! Probably the most exciting moment since Hanson was announced to be on The Rock Boat.

Tonic basically took me back to the late 90s and early 2000s when they were blaring through the airwaves into my ears. Of course, I remembered "If You Could Only See," a song I still put on the jukebox at my bar to this day. But it was as if the group never broke up to begin with. They played just as the sun was setting, and thus would begin another night of rocking on the high seas.

Once Emerson Hart got the audience singing the rest of "If You Could Only See" (reminiscent of TRB-VIII, when he went solo and did that song), I had to bolt down to the Criterion Lounge for Ernie Halter's second set, a more electric set. Over the past 24 hours, Ernie put himself on gag order to conserve his voice. Heck, he even used his phone late last night to communicate w/ me. But I guess the gag ordered paid off dividends, as he stepped it up several notches from his acoustic set.

After a formal dining break, it was back up to Lido to chill w/ some of my friends and take in some of The Kin (they can throw a Lido party) before heading back to Criterion to see Sam Thacker do his first set. Sam Thacker is definitely no stranger to The Rock Boat and it was refreshing to see him come back with a more rocking electric performance (not that his intimate acoustic sets on TRB-VIII was bad). And after Sam Thacker, it was off to Palladium to do more jumping around to COWBOY MOUTH:

Once the Cowboy Mouth set ended, it was off to the Casino Stage to see Michael Tolcher do his thing...

Four years ago, in my Gavin DeGraw whoring era, Michael Tolcher was always the opening/setup act for him. And it took me however many shows to appreciate his songwriting and his stage presence, and when I started appreciating that, I started to appreciate the person that he was.

Prior to his first set, I ran into him however many times on The Boat and we caught up on old times, since it had been over a year or so since we last talked, and that was awesome. But yeah, The Tolch didn't skip a beat (even with a band that he's only practiced with ONCE), as he whipped out his arsenal of old and new favorites, as we were going into the Late Night Session:

He certainly had a crowd going by the casino, but it was a night filled with big Rock Boat acts doing their thing. Zac Brown brought his Chicken Fried goodness to round out the Palladium sets, Wideawake got everyone in Criterion going, and delivering the late night Lido Party was Hanson, loaded with fans, superfans, and those that were curious to see and hear what Hanson was all about. So wherever you went on this night, you could not lose!

And as, always, the night for me concluded w/ loads of late night partying at the casino stage, and I even took in a sunrise up on Lido before going back to bed for my nap.

TO BE CONTINUED...

So, um...I'm no longer single.

Yes friends, believe the relationship status on my facebook and myspace.

Oh, this is the start of something good, don't you agree? - Gavin DeGraw, Follow Through

The Rock Boat Niner Blog #3 - Day 1: It's Time to Set Sail!

Day 1 starts rather early. I check out of the hotel around 9:30am to avoid the Rock Boater checkout rush, as is always the case at the Rock Boat Host Hotel. Claire breaks out the getaway SUV, and Miriam and I get on board to grab some breakfast and coffee (good thing Einstein Bros. was right next door to Starbucks ["Riz, you and your NYC orders!"]) and then head over to the airport to grab Manda before dropping the vehicle off and heading over to the port to board.

Boarding is a mix of anticipation and fun all at once. Once you drop your bags off w/ the porter, you pose for Will Byington's (The Rock Boat Official Photographer) camera and then you step inside the port and you wait in line. But that's ok, you get to look around and see musicians mixed in with fans who are wearing custom-made t-shirts, all of who are dying to get on that Boat.

Once all four of us got through the lines and we activate our Sign and Sail cards, we finally got on board. I was home.

And we didn't waste any time in getting our first drink on the Boat. The four of us got up to the Lido Deck to meet up w/ friends and we got our Hurricanes (First Drink: Hurricanes was something that my concert partner-in-crime Julie and I first instituted that on our very first Rock Boat, and it's something that we'll continue to do on every Rock Boat we do.)

Oh yeah, my friend Rachel decides she wants to deliver something to me from the Lido Deck:

Around 4pm was the Mustard, I mean Muster, Drill. It's where you go to your emergency station and put on your lifejackets. It's always a spectacle to see every passenger put on one of these things and lineup real tight within the station. In my station, Stephen Kellogg passed by and everyone applauded for him wearing a lifejacket and being safe!

Once the Muster Drill was over, it was back up to the Lido Deck for the Sail Away Set, and the NAME OF THE BAND IS COWBOY MOUTH. They are from Louisiana and led by a drummer, yes, a drummer, named Fred Le Blanc. Their live sets are full of energy and they want their audience pepped up on every song they deliver. They are no strangers to The Rock Boat, and it was fitting for them to deliver the energy just as the Boat left the dock (after all the other boats took off before us):

Right after the Cowboy Mouth set, it was off to the Criterion Lounge to catch Ernie Halter's first set on The Rock Boat. It was Ernie's first Rock Boat, and he fit in very well all throughout. His first set was acoustic, and he delivered his songs with the same passion at sea as he has on land in the few years I've gone to his shows:

Soon after that, I took all my cabinmates to the first formal dining session of The Rock Boat. And while the food was kickass, formal dining is all about one thing...

WARM CHOCOLATE MELTING CAKE! Every veteran Rock Boater knows you can't finish formal dining without this decadent dessert!

Ok, back to the action.

The first set at the main Palladium stage belonged to David Ryan Harris, also no stranger to The Rock Boat. David Ryan Harris has played guitar for John Mayer on tour and has co-written a lot of songs with a number of singer/songwriters, and thus is a fan favorite and industry favorite. He always delivers every set w/ the precision only he could bring, and it never fades with every succeeding Rock Boat:

Soon after, it was back up to Lido for Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers' first set. I honestly never get tired of them. They know how to get an audience going. They know how to make you smile, laugh and cry all at once. They have provided some of the most beautiful moments of The Rock Boat. And in their second Rock Boat, they showed that they were essentially the heart beat that keeps The Rock Boat going strong.

Well, the night would've ended there, but it didn't! There was plenty of action going on late at night in the casino area. Everyone's gambling, drinking and rocking out to covers and originals by random artists who also wanted to keep the party going. And late night #1 was going strong. Real strong. If I can recall, Zac Brown led the way with others on that small stage. And the late night kept going for me until about 6am, as the Boat was approaching the Bahamas...

TO BE CONTINUED.

BIRTHDAY WEEKEND! *clap clap clapclapclap*

Waiting on a text message. Will there be a bonus 4th Night?

Friday was National Riz Day. Yes, I made my birthday a holiday, and I don't care. Though I did go to work. But with the 3-day weekend coming around, no one was motivated to work, and my phone kept blowing up w/ Facebook notifications (thanks for all the birthday wishes, ya'll are awesome!). Nevertheless, I got out of work about an hour early and hit the gym to get a full workout on. I needed to summon the energy needed to go the distance for a full three nights.

Night 1.
The night starts off at Lucky Jack's on the Lower East Side, where I see my bartender friend Liam working the bar, as per usual. I show up, I throw down the gauntlet at 10pm.

"You, me, shots of Jager."

"No, man. I'm nowhere near ready. But you can take the shot."

And so the night begins. The shot of Jager started a night of extreme mayhem.

Next think you know, I meet this one girl who sits next to me and down goes another shot. And a theme was starting to come around. But not yet.

My friends Monique and Liz came by to have a few drinks with me and catch up on each other's lives. They then had to exit early since they were moving in the morning.

The scene at Lucky Jack's died down for me around midnight when I decided to respond to a friend's text to go to Cubby. Sure, I may have been a few hours late, but I figured if someone was still out, I could head on over to my next destination. And so I exited Lucky Jack's, and hopped on a cab to the West Village to my home bar, The Cubbyhole.

Just to spare you all the details, here was the rundown for the rest of the night: I was given plenty of alcohol, made some new friends, and had the kind of drunken fun that was a bit over the top, like, let's say, at Rock Boat level, if you were to combine all the nights of The Rock Boat into one late night. The bar closes up, I get on a cab, piss off the cab driver (I'll spare you the details on that), almost get arrested but paid off said driver to avoid that, and stumble on home, drunk as a skunk. The stumbling part, I can't quite remember. Seriously.

Day 2.
I wake up at 11:30am, hungover like no other, trying to remember how I got from the cab to my place, looking like a hot mess, as my West Coast friend Amanda would say. I grab lunch, watch a little TV, and then go back to bed.

I wake up late in the afternoon, and call off my usual Saturday Session @ The Cubbyhole. I just could not double up w/ the night's misadventures...

Night 2.
The night wasn't gonna be a repeat Night 1. I was gonna slow things down in the East Village, but still have fun. Anne and Vanessa came by as we shared stories over Pez and beer. The bar we were in wasn't so crowded as it was Valentine's Night and the usual folks were doing all that romantic stuff. The time seemed to have fly by, because Vanessa and I ended up getting kicked out of the bar at closing time.

Night 3.
It's karaoke night. I was ready to break out the vocals, and that I did. Megan came out from LI to meet up w/ me and watch me become the next Karaoke Idol. Ok, not really. The folks at the karaoke bar just saw me as a pro and were pretty damn impressed w/ my vocals. Megan had to make an early exit to catch one of the last trains back out of the city, but I continued to karaoke my way through the night, thanks to my newfound friends at the karaoke bar. I kinda knew that was gonna happen, because every time I do karaoke, it's never a shortened session. I have to keep singing my way through the night until (1) I'm too drunk or (2) it's closing time. And the kicker: I had to get up at 8am to help reconcile my church's bank account. Fun times.

So there you have it. My birthday weekend in a nutshell. Major thanks to all my friends, old and new and in between, for helping me celebrate my birthday.

26 Reasons to enjoy this weekend.

Me, thinking in Sugar Cafe on the Lower East Side.

1. It's a three-day weekend. THREE DAY WEEKEND!
2. I get more time to not think about work
3. I'm hitting up different bars, which means I'll be getting into trouble everywhere I go!
4. I have some of the coolest people coming to see me, and that means the world.
5. I'm over the quarter-life crisis. The deep thoughts of reflection about being in my mid-20s? I've learned to deal.
6. I'll get some free alcohol. And who doesn't like free alcohol, aside from the religious folks and those who think alcohol is bad?
7. I get to follow up every drinking session w/ breakfast food. Yep, breakfast food.
8. I can almost do what I want and almost get away with it.
9. I'm interested to see how people in my different social circles will interact.
10. I'll have all the time in the world to catch up on Facebook. Believe me, the comments will be rolling through non-stop
11. Karaoke! Yes, there is a karaoke element to the weekend!
12. Cupid might shoot an arrow my way and I end up with the love of my life (hey, I can imagine!)
13. I can get away w/ being a rock star without doing all the grunt work a rock star has to do
14. I get to drink away 25 years of frustrating moments.
15. This weekend could be the weekend I reinvent myself.
16. This weekend could be the weekend where I realize my life is so damn fabulous, I don't need to reinvent myself
17. This weekend is my personal New Year.
18. Lucky Jack's
19. Hi*Fi
20. Cubbyhole
21. I actually get to see the best friend in almost a month, and SHE'S IN NYC FOR A FRICKEN CHANGE!
22. My special day, on Friday the 13th? I mean, come on!
23. I get appreciate the fact that it's a bank holiday for a day where we appreciate past Presidents. Can I skip appreciating Dubya?
24. I can still claim to be young
25. I'll be getting gifts of various sorts
26. I get to appreciate the number 26, because that's how old I'll be!

The Rock Boat Niner Blog #2 - It's Time to Fly to Miami!

It's the day before The Rock Boat Niner. I was recovering from my fever, but I wasn't at 100%. I get up early to finish packing and pump in some Excedrin for what I thought was my migraine, but whatever. I was anxious and excited to get out of NYC and meet up with people I only see once a year (among the rest of my concert crew) and rock out to some pretty damn good artists, like Aslyn and Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers I get out the door around 9am to get on a yellow cab to LaGuardia Airport to catch my 12 noon flight.

I get to the airport, check-in and as I'm waiting on my friend Christi to arrive so we can get on the plane together, I was hoping and praying that my plane wouldn't fly into Canadian geese, thus taking the plane down on the Hudson River...

The day before, in the office, I was watching footage of a US Airways plane on the Hudson River. The plane left LaGuardia, took the usual route over Northern Manhattan only for the plane to fly through (literally through) Canadian geese, thus shutting both its engines down and forcing the pilot to make the most heroic move in bringing the plane down on Hudson safely. One of my co-workers wished me luck in getting out the city.

Christi arrives not too long after I check in and we go through security together, as we got all excited about TRB and everything that went with it. And even though we were on different seats on the plane, it was really good to be around another Rock Boater at the airport before the fun begins!

Just before I get on the plane, one of my co-workers decides to IM me on my BlackBerry Messenger to try to get some work-related stuff out of me, and of course, I shut that down instantly.

Anyway, the plane takes off a bit after 12, and it takes the same course as that US Airways flight from the day before. We fly over the Hudson River and I'm hoping and praying we get out of the NYC airspace with both our engines still intact. A couple of minutes after we took off, we got out of the NYC airspace in one piece. It was gonna be a smooth flight down to Miami.

I get to Miami a bit after 3pm, and Christi and I are waiting endlessly for luggage to arrive. Meanwhile, my friend Kirsten is circling around the airport in her Mini Cooper with my other Rock Boat buddies Marianne and Sam, all waiting for me to get out w/ my luggage. It probably took a good 30 minutes to get my luggage and then get Kirsten to finally come back around and get me. And when she did come around, it was the greatest feeling ever. The adrenaline kicked in and it was like I never had that fever. I was just fricken excited to see the Rock Boat crew again!

All four of us leave the airport in a crammed Mini Cooper (it was so crammed, I had to put my heavy luggage ON MY LAP), drop Sam off at her hotel, and then headed over to the TRB Host Hotel, the Marriott Biscayne Bay. And the reuniting kept going!

Just as I was checking in, Lindsay sneaks up from behind to give me a big hug. I love her and her parents. That's really all I can say. Lindsay and I catch up for a bit while the hotel staff give us complimentary glasses of champagne (props to the Marriott for knowing what Rock Boaters like...FREE ALCOHOL).

Once I was done checking in, my cabinmate Miriam arrives and her, Sam, Kirsten, and I head up to the hotel room to get ready for the Pre-Party fesitivities!

A bit after 6pm, we all head downstairs to where the Pre-Party was taking place. When I got there, I saw so many people I hadn't seen since the last Rock Boat, along with my local concert crew and the concert crew I've come to know and love over the years...including the newbies that met me at recent shows. For those that hadn't seen me in so long, they actually had no idea who I was until they noticed my Red Hat. At one point, when one of my Rock Boat buddies introduced me to their crew, he told them "This is Riz...or whatever's left of Riz." Though my favorite reaction of the night came from my friend Rebecca W., who couldn't believe how different I looked from a year ago with the weight loss and all. Fun times. The remainder of the night was spent making the rounds, catching up with the folks from Sixthman and some of my favorite Rock Boaters ever, including Rachel....

Later in the evening, as the Pre-Party moved from the outdoor area to one of the ballrooms on the 3rd floor for the hotel, I was making the rounds saying hi to more people and waiting on Claire who drives up in a rented SUV that might as well have been a getaway car. Claire and I grab dinner, and afterwards we walk around for a bit to see who was around before I called it a night at 11pm. I wanted to continue partying, but I still wasn't at 100% strength from the fever earlier in the week and figured I needed to rest up anyway, since we had an early start to Boarding Day.

TO BE CONTINUED...