What to do, what to do

In case it isn't clear by now, I have recently decided I will be moving from Washington to Nashville. I am planning on moving there around late September or early October. That means I have a little while to figure out what I will be doing down there and where I will be living.

It also gives me a few more months in the D.C. area, whether I'm working or not, or wherever else I choose to be in the meantime. The world is quite open to me at this point, although I do have a lot of weekend gigs occupying my time over the next month and obligating me to be in the D.C. area.

However, there is still a certain draw to Nashville before I start making arrangements to live and work there. The next few days would be a perfect time for me to spend a while down there, particularly as Robert Plant and Alison Krauss will be in town. They perform at the Sommet Center this Saturday night, finishing the second leg of their U.S. tour before they rest up for the third leg two months from now. Nashville is home to Alison and several of the musicians in that touring band, and it is more of a possibility to run into them there than in any other locale. At the moment, I don't have anything I absolutely have to do this weekend, which is the only time that will happen until sometime in September when my current onslaught of weekend gigs and other weekend obligations end.

As far back as a month ago, I looked ahead in my calendar and realized the weekend of July 19 might be my only time during the month to go visit my family in Pennsylvania, particularly that sweet old aunt of mine who has terminal cancer that will be ending her life one of these months. So while I had been planning on a visit there this weekend, I did take the chance to visit on a weekday late last month. I don't think I will be up there again this weekend. Maybe some weekdays sometime soon, though.

But now I have another draw, and that is staying in the D.C. area this weekend to attend a conference for pay, and to participate in some band practices that otherwise would have taken place without me. I could use the money I would make going to the conference, particularly as I would be making more money at that "gig" than I do at many of my music gigs!

So, do I spend money and get to Nashville, where I am not sure where I would be staying and not sure if I would run into the musicians whose company I am seeking, or do I stay in the capital area and get paid to do one thing while fulfilling some other obligations? What to do, what to do?