Czech Republic ten times please! (prosim...)

As I was sitting on my plane back to New York, I looked at all the pictures I had taken with my Blackberry throughout the last ten days. Ten days of essentially the same routine of
a) Arrive at new town
b) Check in at hotel
c) Unload van, set up PA (we travel with a full sound system, because we are REALLY picky about sound)
d) Do sound check
e) Go to hotel, take quick nap, do yoga, gargle, warm up, get dressed, put my face on
f) Perform
g) Chill out a little with beer (for the band members) and water or (gasp!) tea (for me)
h) Break down PA
i) Go to hotel, gargle, take face off, go to bed
j) Get up the next morning, have breakfast, check out
k) Load van
l) REPEAT

This is what we dream of, when we are children. Being on the road and just DOING IT. Of course you never think about how hard this actually is. But that's ok. It's also ok not to tell anybody how hard it is, that would kind of destroy the image of the free bird who is allowed to express herself on stage every night with the audience looking on and bringing their own dreams, hopes and yearnings to the music.

As I was looking back at the last ten days in pictures I was in fact overcome by an immense gratitude. I get to do this. I get to go on the road, experience what it is like to BE on the road, warts and all. I get to feel the elation and deep exhaustion, the desperate need for a cup of coffee, the terrible, panic inducing fragility of being a vocalist on the road, and, most of all, the sharing of music. I am privileged. I am deeply grateful. I am so doing this again!