I’ve missed two whole weeks of photographing my belly. That’s what hectic touring will do! These last two weeks have been INSANE and I can’t express how happy I am that I’m poised to step on a plane tomorrow to head back to my partner, pillow and peace. No more hotels, no more road travel, and home cooking! Don’t get me wrong, I love to play music live. But, as my belly continues to explode outwards and Little Spark gets bigger and bigger in here, I really just want to sit down and do nothing! Luckily, I’ll have the chance to rest when I get home. Six weeks of intensive work has now afforded me that privilege.

The last two weeks of road travel were especially hard. I was really tired all the time. I started to have trouble getting in and out of my Grandma’s old Buick LeSabre. It’s fairly low to the ground, after all, and hauling myself up and out of that boat of a car was a struggle towards the end. Not to mention the fact that I had to get in and out quite frequently as a result of this brand new bladder I have. I think it must be true that new things are built to break down these days because this bladder will surely be over-used into obsolescence before long!  (Made in China? hhhm! LOL!)

The stage shows went well, though. I had some physical issues at the end that I hadn’t anticipated, however.

First of all, my belly started to become a fulcrum for the guitar. It was as thought I was playing a teeter totter. The larger my belly has become, the more the guitar rocked back and forth, which didn’t always rock in the way that I’d hope to rock, if you catch my drift. It was more like a constant circus balancing act against my body and made for some rather weird dance moves, I’m sure! My center of gravity is already wacky, vertically, so adding the horizontal imbalance of the guitar to my weeble-wobble reality really didn’t make for much grace on stage. I found myself trying to anchor my feet to the floor during the songs and surely must have looked like I was positioning my legs to counteract seasickness or something. Well, that’s probably apropos anyway considering I’ve been regularly calling myself a house boat…

The second thing that happened was related to my foot pedals. You see, I play with some guitar effects and a loop pedal for my voice. These are activated by my feet. There I was on stage last week (I think it was Sunday in East Lansing at The Pump House) and I looked down at my feet to see what settings my guitar was set to and…

I couldn’t see them.

Yes, the moment arrived. My entire electronic story was invisible and all I could see was my belly where my feet should have been. I completely missed my effects cue and found myself having to jut out my butt so that I could bend at the waist and see what was under the giant canopy of Little Spark’s quarters. I managed to get the effects engaged and move on with the song and, being the professional (butt jutting) artist that I am, I also managed not to make it look like a mistake but… ARGH!!@#!

Still, it was funny. At least, it was after I realized what was going on!

That was when it really dawned on me that it was time to get off the road. Only one more week of shows remained and I got through them with a smile with lots of joy & humour.  Playing music is joyous after all, but laughing at myself throughout this last week (and sharing those moments with the audience) also helped with the fatigue. I figured out ways to see what was happening at my feet and balance the teeter-totter guitar against my beach ball, but I have to admit that I’m happy to be heading home.

Now, here I sit, packed and ready to go. Little Spark already has his/her own suitcase. I managed to fill a whole case (and then some–it spread into the other suitcase!) of the generous gifts that were showered upon us (me & Little Spark and Guo Jian) as I travelled across North America this season. Thank you so much for all of your generosity and thoughtfulness. There are so many things that I hadn’t thought about yet and you all have helped me to remember the little things. I am now equipped with reusable diapers, breast milk bottles, bibs and baby’s first books among many other beautiful gifts. I can’t wait to show Guo Jian when I get home. Little Spark is already such a lucky kid!

Thank you again for all of your support while I’ve been “PREGGERS IN NORTH AMERICA” for the past six weeks. I couldn’t have done it without you.

This week, my partner Guo Jian has been away with his band too and so we have only been able to be in touch by telephone. Today, we finally got a chance to have a Skype session on my last day on the continent. He always asks to see my belly when we use Skype and so when I stood up, he was shocked at the growth. He jokingly compared what was happening to my body to an upgrade in apartments. After exclaiming loudly with many different pitches of “Wow” and “It’s so Big!”, he said, “Little Spark is building a new wing in there. It’s kind of like you started out as a bachelor apartment and now you’ve got a one-bedroom!”

And so it is. Little Spark has the luxury suite!

See you next year, with baby in tow.

Off I go to be “PREGGERS IN CHINA” again for another 11 or so weeks…

I’ve got some nesting to do.