Bacation and The Voice!

First and foremost, I cannot believe I have failed to mention here (as opposed to FB where I have shouted from the mountaintops) that my friend, Javier Colon, was not only a contestant on NBC's The Voice, but that he won the whole damn thing last week! I am so unbelievably happy for him and proud to boot. Besides being an insanely talented individual, Jav is also a genuinely good person. Those are hard to come by.

I met Jav in junior high. His best friend and my best friend were dating each other. I'm sure we were both the squeaky third wheel on numerous occasions. Junior high is also where Javier's voice was first discovered by the choir teacher, Ms. Spad. Under her guidance, Jav went from a shy 12-year-old boy to a less shy 14-year-old boy who realized the girls liked guys who could sing:)

I remember all of us scurrying to buy a copy of "Baby" on cassette tape. Jav had written and recorded it for a girl named Caitlin. It was a pretty little love ballad, and you could hear people singing it in the halls for months afterwards. It's still floating around my mother's basement somewhere.

I remember the girls going ballistic after Jav teamed up with a friend to sing "More Than Words" at our talent show. Swoon! Hey, it was 1991; give me a break!

In high school, Javier continued in the choir and senior year, he starred in our fall show, Man of La Mancha. If I remember correctly, we sold out every night. That's a pretty damn good feat for a high school production. At some point during high school, I also remember he and Andy doing Beauty and the Beast, with Jav portraying The Beast and Andy as Gaston (and both were fantastic, BTW).

I lost touch with him after high school, but I followed his career nonetheless. While at a DMB concert in Hartford in 2001, a high school friend and I were sitting on the lawn waiting for the show to begin. The opening band (The Derek Trucks Band) came on, and 15 seconds into the first song, I realized the I knew the voice of the lead singer. I looked up at the monitors, and sure enough, it was Javier. Opening for Dave Matthews. Holy crap. Two years later, I bought his first album, and I was floored when I saw a music video for "Crazy" on friggin' MTV! We knew Jav would make it, and it looked like he did.

Eventually though, he lost his record contract. And that totally sucked. He did the college tour thing for a while, opening for both Joss Stone and the Indigo Girls (pretty cool!). And then came The Voice. And the rest is history.

We're having a big shindig for him this Sunday at our high school. We're all meeting up to celebrate the wonderful man he is and the incredible talent he possesses. And the bonus... we get to see him again. Since we never had a reunion, this is kind of like one. Since he got on the show a few months ago, he's brought our community together. It's pretty amazing.


Javier singing with effin' Stevie Nicks!

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And now for the bacation photos! We had a great bacation (Ellie-speak) in Saco, ME this past weekend. Here's a quick recap via pics.

pretty little street in downtown Saco

family picnic

sis and niece

the Ellie-monster

Essence of both childhood and summer

Me and my lovely sis

Ellie strong!

No pictures please. I'm trying to enjoy this gelato.

Street in downtown Portland

Statue in front of the Portland Regency

Docks of Portland

A girl and her daddy