Friends: Virtual tethers that keep me grounded

AGA Muhlach

As soon as I touch down, I’m off flitting away again. My work schedule brings me back to the United States and Canada for more concerts, as well as a few family-related visits (Nicole has a brand new cousin, so we’re going to pay the wee one a visit).

My itinerary includes Salt Lake City, Edmonton, Vancouver and San Francisco, as well as a few stops in Southern California.

Yes, it’s way too much fun being on the road. I love the musicians I work with, the cities I visit and the fans I meet at the end of each show. I’ve been incredibly fortunate.

However, the flitting and floating about isn’t possible without the virtual tethers that keep me in contact with the earth. I need these connecting fibers in my life; without them, I can’t do what I love to do.

Allow me to introduce a few of them.

Best friends

We celebrated the birthday of one of my best friends a few nights ago. It had been quite a while since we lived in the same city. We have seen each other through romantic make-ups and breakups, and other ups and downs. This year, she decided to have dinner with her siblings and close friends.

What she said before we all headed home was most touching: “I thought that tonight, I would be having dinner with only my immediate family… Turned out I would celebrate my birthday with my whole family.”

The same could be said for many of my closest friends. We share secrets, see each other through benders and hangovers, weddings and divorces, births and more births. We’ve seen each other laugh hard and cry harder; seen the insides of each other’s guest rooms, crashed on each other’s couches. They are on my mind wherever I am, and every time I open my mouth to sing.

I come from a very, very big family and we are spread out all over North America and parts of Europe. It’s safe to say that wherever I land, there will be a cousin, an aunt or an uncle somewhere close by.

Whenever I’m in Vancouver, there’s a first cousin and her family that I can visit. In Los Angeles, both Rob and I have a ton of cousins with whom we spend a lot of time.

Bed and soup

During one visit to Los Angeles, I found myself feeling under the weather. I stayed for a few days at one cousin’s house, where she nursed me back to health with plenty of soup, a comfy bed, fresh air and a wicked sense of humor. I sweated out one sheet set in the effort to get better.

Another cousin, a nurse, made sure I took my meds correctly and was my roommate (and unofficial photographer) during one work-related road trip.

On past trips, a few of my male (and larger lesbian) cousins have acted as de facto bodyguards for me on past shows. They’re large and in charge, and no one had better mess with any of them.

And most important of all…

The fans!

Many artists say they have the best fans in the whole world. I can claim the same thing. They are loyal and faithful, whether at a concert or at a musical.

There is a particular group that has been coming to my shows for as long as I can remember.

Everyone first met at a Usenet newsgroup called alt.fan.lea-sa
longa. Many discussions, photographs, get-togethers and field trips followed, and their faces are all familiar to me. I know many of them by name, and the group is spread out much in the same way that my family is.

There are a bunch in Manila, a few on the West Coast, some more on the East Coast. I’ve seen them at shows in London, New York and Los Angeles. AFLS (as the group is called) is well represented at every show, and it makes me happy to see them and know they’re in my corner, no matter how badly I mess up.

With my constant and consistent sense of wanderlust, I will always have the need to travel around as I do my work. But, like a kite that is suspended in the air on a windy day, there is a string that connects and powers me, wherever the wind takes me.

Happy Birthday!

To my favorite leading man, Aga Muhlach, as he celebrates his birthday tomorrow. Have a wonderful celebration and may you and your family always be blessed. Mwah!