Blogathon seems to get shorter and shorter ever year, which is not to say that it’s any more or less difficult, just less. At the end of the first year i felt as if i had just won a bonus New Years’ ball drop — all fanfare, but in the middle of July when i was too exhausted to be expected to know what to do about it. Last year it was exhiliration — jumping up and down on the bed excitement.

What does the end bring with it this year? If anything, i think it brings promise of potential — of more excellent things to come. The ‘thon itself shattered its donation goal of $80,000 , more than doubled its number of participants, and was mentioned in a decent array of local and internet media this week. And i continued to hone my mixing ability to the point where some of the blogathon songs could have easily been album tracks if i had taken the time to prepare for them a little bit better. We promise to get bigger and better, blogathon and i, and we promise to see you next year.

In no especially precise order: Thank you to Persa, for being such a receptive soundboard for my early recordings; Amanda and Chris, for stopping by for a while to be an audience; Wes for sitting patiently while i neglected to put his talents to better use; Maggie, for keeping Elise and i so god-damned amused; Dina, for stopping by to lend a hand to my concert; Lisa, for weekly conversation and being an outlet for my Blogathon enthusiasm; Laurel, for being unafraid to let us build a whole song around her voice; Ms Stark, who was very inspiring altogether; SL for finding the time to stop by and raise the coolness factor of my shindig; Chris, for schlepping his bass here in the middle of the night even after i thought he was a totally different person; Rabi, because i knew she’d be watching and yes, i know exactly what your comment meant; Ross, for patiently attempting to learn the bassline to a song that i didn’t wind up using anyhow; Erika for bravely co-hosting and finally letting her voice be heard on CK; Scott and Shannon, for doing something that i want to be able to do in a way that i would have never thought of doing; Melon, for all of her fantastic illustrations (sorry i only used two!); Anthony, for his ear, inspiration, and equipment; TEOS and Mike Kovacs, for their generous artistic donations; Gina, for her dedication to helping me make good music even without being here for the ‘Thon itself; Lindsay, for her absolutely stunning voice and cheering presence; Kate, for being the host that i couldn’t be and the cook that i don’t know how to be; Elise, for her clarinet and for putting up with endless amounts of drama and rescheduling because of how important this is to me; and finally, and most importantly, Cat Connor, not only for inventing and perpetuating this event, but for having enough faith to realize that this year was just a practice for next year, which will rock even harder.

And, thank you reader/listener/friend, you are the reason i even bother to do this in the first place.

One more to go.