For the first time since
1968, I live outside of the Kansas City/Lawrence area.
Here I am under the magnolia tree in our front yard, April 2010:
Here I am under the magnolia tree in our front yard, April 2010:
In 2007, after being unemployed ... again
... I took a contract position in Nashville, Tennessee,
working for the State on its Medicaid system, TennCare.
I worked there during the week and flew
home to Overland Park on weekends.
In Nashville, I had a room in the home of Mike O'Neill, who is a friend of my brother-in-law, Rick Yord, and was the drummer for Colt 45 and the Kansas City Blues Band back in the 1970s. Another guy who was almost famous. Mike has a pretty nice home, as well as a recording studio onsite, and some talented people in his circle. It was a great situation, but being away from my family was too much.
Out of the blue, a recruiter called me to pitch a "permanent" job in Olivette, Missouri, a close-in suburb in St. Louis county. At my age, after being underemployed since 2004, the phrase "permanent job" sounded pretty good. To make a long story short, I got the job; this was May of 2007.
In June of 2009, I was laid off from that job due to poor business conditions. Sigh. Since then:
Nov 2009 - June 2010 - contract position with BJC Healthcare, rewriting old server code. It was a challenge, a lot of fun, and a success.
June 2010 - Feb 2011 - contract with Wells Fargo Advisors, formerly known as Wachovia, formerly known as A.G. Edwards;
Feb 2011 - Oct 2011 - contract with S2Tech, creating procedures to load Virginia's Medicaid claims into a data warehouse.
Dec 2011 - one-month contract at Magellan Health Services.
Feb 2012 - Feb 2017 - contract as Applications DBA at Monsanto.
2017 - a couple of contract jobs at Enterprise Holdings and Charter Communications
August 2017 - RETIRED. Thanks, Mom!
BelleAnne started Fall 2009 at a new Costco, decorating cakes about 32 hours per week. She doesn't make a lot of money, and it's hard work, but Costco's health insurance can't be beat! She retired in November 2018. Thanks, Mom! BelleAnne's mother, 88 years old with dementia, lives with us, as does Sophie Friedman, BelleAnne's daughter. Sophie is attending Goldfarb School of Nursing to earn her B.S.N. We rent a house in St. John to BelleAnne's son, Jacob.
For a regionally-known performer, moving to a new place means having to establish oneself all over. The obvious place for me to do that is in the Jewish community; popular-music performers my age aren't in demand unless they're already famous. (Loved the movie "Crazy Heart".) I've been called upon to lead services at B'nai Amoona, Traditional Congregation, and Shaare Zedek.
We belong to Congregation B'nai Amoona, a fairly-large Conservative synagogue. BelleAnne and I play and sing in the "shul band," known as Harif, and also sing frequently with Cantor Sharon Nathanson:
Here are pictures from Purim 2008 at Traditional Congregation, where we are members as well:
Here's a photo from the St Louis Jewish Light, regarding a gig BelleAnne and I did performing some vintage material:
Here's a picture of BelleAnne, Cathy Muschany - an old friend of BelleAnne's - and me
singing/playing at a wedding during the Summer of 2010:
Copyright 2011, 2013 by Andrew Curry
In Nashville, I had a room in the home of Mike O'Neill, who is a friend of my brother-in-law, Rick Yord, and was the drummer for Colt 45 and the Kansas City Blues Band back in the 1970s. Another guy who was almost famous. Mike has a pretty nice home, as well as a recording studio onsite, and some talented people in his circle. It was a great situation, but being away from my family was too much.
Out of the blue, a recruiter called me to pitch a "permanent" job in Olivette, Missouri, a close-in suburb in St. Louis county. At my age, after being underemployed since 2004, the phrase "permanent job" sounded pretty good. To make a long story short, I got the job; this was May of 2007.
In June of 2009, I was laid off from that job due to poor business conditions. Sigh. Since then:
Nov 2009 - June 2010 - contract position with BJC Healthcare, rewriting old server code. It was a challenge, a lot of fun, and a success.
June 2010 - Feb 2011 - contract with Wells Fargo Advisors, formerly known as Wachovia, formerly known as A.G. Edwards;
Feb 2011 - Oct 2011 - contract with S2Tech, creating procedures to load Virginia's Medicaid claims into a data warehouse.
Dec 2011 - one-month contract at Magellan Health Services.
Feb 2012 - Feb 2017 - contract as Applications DBA at Monsanto.
2017 - a couple of contract jobs at Enterprise Holdings and Charter Communications
August 2017 - RETIRED. Thanks, Mom!
BelleAnne started Fall 2009 at a new Costco, decorating cakes about 32 hours per week. She doesn't make a lot of money, and it's hard work, but Costco's health insurance can't be beat! She retired in November 2018. Thanks, Mom! BelleAnne's mother, 88 years old with dementia, lives with us, as does Sophie Friedman, BelleAnne's daughter. Sophie is attending Goldfarb School of Nursing to earn her B.S.N. We rent a house in St. John to BelleAnne's son, Jacob.
For a regionally-known performer, moving to a new place means having to establish oneself all over. The obvious place for me to do that is in the Jewish community; popular-music performers my age aren't in demand unless they're already famous. (Loved the movie "Crazy Heart".) I've been called upon to lead services at B'nai Amoona, Traditional Congregation, and Shaare Zedek.
We belong to Congregation B'nai Amoona, a fairly-large Conservative synagogue. BelleAnne and I play and sing in the "shul band," known as Harif, and also sing frequently with Cantor Sharon Nathanson:
Here are pictures from Purim 2008 at Traditional Congregation, where we are members as well:
 |
 |
Here's a photo from the St Louis Jewish Light, regarding a gig BelleAnne and I did performing some vintage material:
Here's a picture of BelleAnne, Cathy Muschany - an old friend of BelleAnne's - and me
singing/playing at a wedding during the Summer of 2010:
Copyright 2011, 2013 by Andrew Curry