Just wanted to say a very special thank you to everyone that was with me for my birthday this year. This year we were out in Nashville, Tennessee for an Acceleration Training headed by Marc Accetta (www.MarcAccetta.com) for WorldVentures. From their initial conception trainings have now grown in sizes well over the 1,000 person mark with the help of being spearheaded by Marc Accetta, personal friend and mentor to me on a monthly basis throughout the US. I’ve been lucky enough to travel to such places as New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Hawaii, Miami, as well as other great destinations that most people only dream of visiting. This year while in Nashville I had the honor to meet one of Marc’s long time personal friends Laurie Rubidge (www.laurierubidge.com). Laurie has also had amazing success in the Personal Growth and Development industry throughout Laurie Rubidge’s career she has trained tens of thousands of people from all over the globe. Laurie has dedicated over 18 years of her life to inspire and motivate people to be the best they can be. Being that we were visiting he hometown she took the initiative to be in charge of giving us all the hotspots to visit while in Nashville. I was lucky enough to have my girlfriend Melinda with me, also one of my best friends Robert Oblon, which as of this past March in Las Vegas, NV has been named President of WorldVentures at their Annual Convention. This year at the WorldVentures Convention in front of over 4,000 people in attendance we were able to do the first ever WorldVentures concert. It was definitely awesome to play drums along with Robert, as well as having Marc sing a couple of songs. It was something that no one ever expected. A lot of work and time went into this year’s convention and I would have to say that everyone was excited and amazed to see several of WorldVentures reps & employees participate in this year’s concert. Who knows what we’ll pull off in 2009…
On another note, I wanted to give much props to both Robert and Marc, Robert Oblon recently became a big with the North Texas Big Brother Big Sister organization. Marc and Kelly Accetta which have been involved with the Big Brother Big Sister organization already for about 6 years have recently been asked to head the Board of Directors for Collin County chapter of BBBS. Big Brother Big Sister is an amazing organization and I’ve been lucky enough to attend their annual Black Tie and Boots ceremony for the past 2 years and meet one of their top people Mr.Charles Pierson. Just being around Marc and Kelly and seeing all of the positive guidance and support that they have given their little brother has made me realize that I should also apply to join to help out this organization in 2008.
As we all organized ourselves in the lobby at the Gaylord Opryland and waited for the limos the excitement and laughs had already began remembering how on Saturday night I rang in my birthday at the local Jack Daniel’s Saloon with Jeff Bolf singing on stage and also having my midnight birthday drink with Marc, Melinda and the rest of my friends there. We had a great party crew that was getting ready to invade downtown Nashville, so we went to The Stage where we tuned in to a little different kind of music than what most people have seen me listen to…Country! A lot of people think that because I listen to mainstream party music or hip hop then that’s all I listen to but they forget that I was born in South Texas just minutes from the border. And I’ve played in a number of bands where we sometimes had to play some country music, so I was no stranger to Dwight Yoakum, George Strait, Georgia Satellites and many others. On our way out of The Stage we stumbled across Layla’s Hillbilly & Country INN….there they had a great country band that was just jamming out. I had the honor of being asked to come up and jam out with them as you’ll see below and it was definitely fun, a little different than playing with Tejano bands but it was still fun to get back behind the set and jam out in Nashville.
I must say that in the past 2 or 3 months, I’ve been finding myself behind the drum set more and more often. First, in Las Vegas for the WorldVentures Annual Convention, we did some cover tunes from The Beatles, Eddie Money, Stevie Wonder and a couple of other bands. I’ll be sharing some of those videos down the road. Then in April Eddie Head and Jessica his fiancé decided to join their lives together in holy matrimony. I must say both of them are some of the most amazing people that I’ve had the opportunity of meeting, if you want to see some photos from their wedding check out this link…(http://www.perezblog.net/). So during their wedding reception we got an opportunity to get up on stage and jam out for a couple of songs. Then finally in Nashville for my birthday I had the opportunity to play once again. Drumming has always been one of the passions in my life and although I don’t pursue it on a full time base now, I still think that I’ll keep behind a drumset throughout my life and if an opportunity does allow itself where I can squeeze in playing with a band that can handle my crazy traveling schedule well then I am definitely open to the opportunity…That’s all for now…
Monico Perez 