Full-Time CoolDad

3/5ths of our 2009 Jersey Shore Relay Team: MomVee, CoolAunt, CoolMom

A Long Time Coming

CoolMom and I used to do the Jersey Shore Relay every year with a group of friends. It's a marathon relay from Seaside Heights to Asbury Park, and you split the running among four or five people. My dear friend MomVee and I were standing on the boardwalk in Point Pleasant waiting for one of our teammates to come in; and I told her that my dream was, one day, to leave my corporate job and to just be a stay at home dad. I think that was 2009. That feels like the first time I ever voiced that to someone outside CoolMom and me so matter-of-factly and not in the heat of some work stress or something. There was no CoolDad Music at that point.

Since then, my desire to leave Corporate America has become an incessant refrain from me for anyone willing to listen (or just stuck with no way out, I suppose). CoolDad Music has taken over as my main source of professional (if not financial) fulfillment. Yesterday, I made my dream a reality and put in my two-weeks' notice with no back-up plan other than being a dad, running CoolDad Music, and getting myself back on track health-wise (maybe even race-ready). CoolMom is (unsurprisingly) extremely supportive of the decision, and I couldn't be happier. We've planned and laid the groundwork for this for years, and I realize how lucky I am.

I won't screw this up. I won't squander this opportunity.

I will now be a full-time:

Dad
Husband
Music Blogger / Self-Styled Journalist / Photographer

I hope that means that I can grow CoolDad Music into something "more" ... Whatever that might be. Expand coverage somehow? Go beyond Asbury? Maybe to Brooklyn? Philly? The world? I'm not sure. However it looks, CoolDad Music will always retain its personal focus; and the site will never become just an aggregator for news and info that you can find repeated at all of the big music sites.

This will be an adventure, for sure. It's scary, because it's new. It's scary because I haven't not worked for someone since I've been about 13 or 14 years old. But it also isn't scary because we're a great team here at CDMHQ. We've all got our leg of the relay to run, and we all cheer each other on the whole way.

Stay tuned.