Up to speed.

So, first things first. To get you all caught up:

A few years ago, I moved from Spartanburg, SC to the Raleigh, NC area because I wanted to learn to do something for a living that wasn't working at Target. To be more precise - I wanted to become a luthier (for those of you who don't know, a luthier is someone who builds stringed instruments).

I chose Raleigh because of it's proximity to Clayton, NC, where my mother lives with a fine gentleman named Keith who crafts wood toys for a living. Keith has a well equipped woodshop and plenty of experience with woodworking (and machining, and plumbing, and welding... seriously, the list goes on), some contacts with craftsmen organizations, and an eye for quality and detail that I relate to well.

So, I've been here three years and haven't built a guitar yet. Or even really taken steps toward building one. So far, I've constructed a nice cutting board for my brother and a shelf for my girlfriend... and both of those projects were completed well over a year ago - and I still work for Target.

Now, though, I've gotten my enthusiasm about the thing back. I don't know what happened - maybe I got tired of playing video games all the time, maybe seeing Angela (my woman) go back to school for something she was excited about got me thinking, or maybe it was something else entirely. Regardless, I'm glad it happened.