Happy Holidays 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

This last year we did something a little different for us… we started our New Year’s Resolution in October which consisted of changing ourselves for the better. We changed the way we think about food (reading labels, cutting out bread, sugar, overly processed foods, and eating healthy omega3-rich vitamin-packed natural-energy-supplying foods), started exercising daily (first just forcing ourselves to walk around the block before we could eat dinner, then two blocks, …), and made a plan to get our individual career paths to the next level (Gary is recording a new album that is going to be awesome - Trudi has started an online site to sell some of her artwork and graphics products).

Our results have been very satisfying and have yielded some things we did not expect. Gary has lost 18 pounds, Trudi has lost 85 pounds. We are both back to the size and shape we were when we met 20 years ago. The surprising thing is how we feel. Gary had some nerve pain in his left hand that used to hurt constantly (not good for a guitar player that uses that hand to fret the neck of the guitar). He now barely feels any pain in his hand. Trudi’s knees used to hurt all the time, even more when she was tired so much so that sometimes she would have to take the stairs to our second floor apartment one step at a time. Now she bounds up the stairs, has spring in her step and can walk 5-6 miles without getting winded.

Throughout this year we’ve had some fun times being able to travel, visit with friends we haven’t seen in years, perform at some fun shows and festivals, and have some awesome adventures in the woods, at the beach, and walking around town.

A few of the highlights include: 2/27/10 Mizik for Haiti - a benefit concert held in Harrisburg (Bushmaster, Gary’s band, was the headlining act) - all proceeds were sent to the main hospital in Haiti. 4/24/10 Mechanicsburg Earth Day Festival - an outdoor music and arts festival highlighting green alternatives, followed by an outdoor birthday event thrown by our friend Emma for her daughter (Bushmaster performed at both), and boy can she throw a party. 6/5/10 our friends Kenyon & Lucille invited us to go to “Mountain Jam” with them - a three day outdoor music festival - we went on Saturday, drove up to New York, saw Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeshi, Government Mule, Dave Miller, and several other awesome bands perform, ate falafels from the vendors onsite, and stayed over at K&L’s house (Gary & Kenyon jammed the next day). 7/24/10 Bushmaster performed at the Carlisle Bike Fest - it was right in the middle of the heat wave, but the stands were overflowing with all manner of cool bikers dancing and enjoying the music (about 4500-5000 people). 8/21/10 Our friends Steph & Marcus held their annual wedding anniversary party entitled “Fusion Fest” - what an awesome gathering of cool music loving easy going fun people we had the pleasure to perform for - and playing ping-pong with their three wonderful little ones (Kyia - 4, Cole & Jade - twins 2) made our day! 9/15-17/10 brought us to Ocean City, MD, and the beach for “Delmarva Bike Week” - Bushmaster performed on the main stage of the event on both Thursday and Friday afternoon, then he played at a venue downtown Friday night, then we drove to Beacon, NY for 9/18/10 - Kenyon & Lucille’s wedding - Gary was one of K’s groomsmen, but as we got about 15 miles from the event we got stuck behind a 6-fatality crash on the Garden State Throughway and missed the entire ceremony - we arrived just in time for the pictures (so Gary got to be in the photos) and set up our PA with K&L’s laptop playing music to the guests - what an awesome day, we danced, partied, and had way too much fun!!! 10/3/10 Our friend Tamra arrived from Oklahoma for a visit - we had an awesome time hanging out, going for nature walks, laughing entirely too much, and even went to Beni Hanna’s - the week ended with a Bushmaster performance at the Patuxent Nursery in Bowie, MD, where we got to visit with several friends we haven’t seen in years :-)

We hope your year has been awesome too, and we’d love to hear about it, our goal this year is to stay in touch with our friends and family better. Please send us an email, note, or call some time, we’d love to hear from you!

However you celebrate this holiday season, we hope that you are well and happy - so Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Chanukah, Happy New Year - we hope to see you soon :-)


Please stay in touch with us online throughout the year:

Trudi Gary
trudimcfarlanebrown@hotmail.com bushmaster blues@yahoo.com
trudi-n-garybrown.blogspot.com www.BushmasterBlues.com