Recording....Why I Avoid It. (A Confession)

Yep, I will freely admit that I use any and all excuses to avoid recording....which may seem counter productive in my desire to "share" my music and eventually release an EP/CD of some sort.But there's so much to this whole music process, writing, arranging shows, learning about marketing and websites and designs....the list goes on. And for a few months, the excuses were endless....my friend Brendan fractured an ankle and sprained his other. His grandmother fell and he spent some time in Texas with her. His kids were sick, I was ill.... on and on and on. And to just start sharing my songs live seemed like enough vulnerability without trapping my voice into a machine into which I could hear myself over and over....and all the little things I could now decide sounded weird...:o)

And so I've focused on the other "things", getting a simple site up and running, getting the first house concerts together.... but I find my excuses now sound lame and fall flat...The time is now. Courage, friends, is leaning into the pressing wind. And then taking a step. Then another.

It's been helpful that I have such a good friend in Brendan, who uses his spare time to help me record with some pretty amazing gear in his basement. That he is teaching me proper recording etiquette, how to be prepared, how to think through my songs from a production view...and gasp! how to play to a click. I am slowly learning how to use pro tools, and to record on my own... it is a process. One that is being learned for a few hours in the evening, when kids have been tucked in bed, and work is done for the day.We are certainly closer to getting some sort of project together. I've settled on doing the songs acoustically.... trying to obtain the closet sound to what you would experience at a house concert. It's amazing in the world of auto tune, what a raw and honest sound is. I can't wait to share the honesty, the flaws, the richness, the whole kit and kaboodle of what God has stirred in me. So keep asking about it, hold me accountable. At the very least, I'm a horrible liar and could be guilted into finishing it. :o)

Elevate 2013

Sometimes you rediscover photos and realized you never properly blogged about them. Good thing there is a quick fix for that problem!  Back in the throes of winter, I had the opportunity to spend an evening on the middle school ski retreat. To backtrack to last year, this was really my first time getting to know some of the youth at Saint Joseph. But this year, schedules changed last minute and I only had Friday night available.

But nonetheless after a few hours in the car and a couple of sketchy pit stops, (sketch mcgetch truck station diner bathroom anyone?) and we arrived somewhere in Ohio...at some camp, I forget the name. Nathan, one of our pastors was leading the evening with me and we settled in the lodge reserved for activities while the kids dropped their stuff off in the cabins. The lodge was great....except for the stuffed owls and other birds of prey that stared out from behind plexiglass boxes, their glass eyes looking just a little too real for my own comfort.....I think what I love about these retreats, is that our youth come with the expectation that they will be engaged and more open than a typical Sunday. It's easy to lead worship when all thirty voices sing out proud and strong together. We had them playing some games with flipping over cups on the floor and ending in a discussion on community.

All too soon, Nathan and I were out the door again to make it back to Fort Wayne and catch some shut eye before Saturday meetings. Sometimes I pity the people that get stuck with me, cause I definitely made him stop so I could take pictures of the oldest concrete street in America!!!!! In his defense, he stayed in the car eating hummus with pretzel chips the whole time. :o)

Ray

I just have to give a huge shout out to my friend Ray. We originally met a couple of years ago, swing dancing (it was both our first times) at the VFW in Colorado Springs. I invited him to the Tuesday night community dinner I attended and we soon became official friends. We only hung out a few times while I was in Colorado, and as far as I know, he never again went swing dancing. :o)Fast forward to my prep to move to Fort Wayne. Ray sent me a quick message telling me a)he was being deployed to Afghanistan for a year with the army and b) his family lived in Illinois, but his sister lived in Indy and would I have time if he stopped in Fort Wayne to hang out for a bit?

So my first day on the job at Saint Joseph and I ended up trucking off to the Art museum downtown (free on Thursdays by the way), and getting coffee with this friend about to go to a dangerous place for an entire year. How brave and courageous he is to serve our country, I am in awe.

Ray and I on my first day at Saint Joseph!

And the year passed seemingly uneventfully, of course I wasn't the one in Afghanistan! Ray is the first deployed soldier I have had a personal connection to and I often found myself more aware of news headlines pertaining to the Middle East. Thankfully Ray safely made it back.Moving on to this Easter, and Ray again let me know he was going to be in the area visiting family. It just so happened to line up with Jess and I's trip to Chicago. Ray drove up for the day, and gallivanted around town on our "quests and adventures." What I love about Ray is his quiet strength and ease. We had all day to catch up on a year's worth of stories...of which mine may or may not have been a tad more dramatic. But he openly shared about his deployment, although to hear him tell it, not much happened at the base where he fixed and worked on helicopters.

I look forward to the next time Ray and I are in the same part of the country with available schedules. I love that God puts friendships and people into our lives to spend time with and to catch up with, even if years pass in between. I adore that when I am around Ray, it is a piece of Colorado, the wild frontier, touching this flat midwest landscape. He's a pretty cool dude.

Sorry Ray, you made the blog with your very own post!

Chicago

The day after Easter this year was spent in the windy city of Chicago!!! My coworker Jess and I stole away for a beautiful and very exhausting 48 hours (I mean, we had just survived another holy week and then all the walking!!!) :o)

With such limited time we settled on achieving the following goals: one museum, one library, one cemetery, and deep dish Chicago pizza. Everything else was icing on top of a rich and delicious cheesecake (which we also ended up eating at the Cheesecake Factory!!!) I am fascinated by cities....public transportation, diversity of people and languages, so much culture and information packed into skyscrapers and sidewalks. We toured the Art Institute, rode the escalator to the ninth floor of the downtown library, and found their shelf of Ted Dekker books (maybe a following post will explain my love of libraries and cemeteries?), and wandered around a 19th century German-Lutheran cemetery in the Wrigley field area. 

My dear friend Ray, from Colorado came and spent the entire day with us, multiple trips to Starbucks included! They coaxed me up the John Hancock building to watch the sunset (seriously, the elevator ride is 40 seconds long!) and we spent the day in relaxed, story-sharing conversation.

Oh how my heart craves adventure, new places, and a few good stories. It was good to be away, to spend our nights in a 25th floor hotel room with a wide open view of the Chicago skyline, to be with good friends in a great place.

Barn Concert!!!

Who could have predicted that when last week began so "spring-like" and warm, that winter would grasp for one last battle at the exact moment that I would be planning to play in a large, open, gorgeous hayloft? Well, maybe someone who watches the news, but since I don't.... I didn't see it coming. :o) But oh, how much fun it was to play in such a beautiful place despite the chill! And the cold didn't scare everyone, we still had somewhere between 20-30 people brave the evening and cuddle on pews with blankets cocooned and coffee tucked in hand. And thanks to a dear and intelligent friend, a hand/toe warmer saved my right foot from an otherwise frozen night.

So how did I come to play in a barn? Originally, my good friend Brian Durand agreed to host a regular old house concert...but then a couple of weeks later he called and asked, "hey, I have this friend who wants to host concerts in his barn...what do you think?" 

The Stewarts are an amazing family, with a beautiful farm complete with goats, pigs, horses, chickens, rabbits.... how I adore farm animals! The converted hayloft began with tons of hay and old car parts, but cleared out, filled with pews, antiques, and a stage, it is a gorgeous space to play music and spend time with friends. I am thankful that they opened up their home, and when rain changed the parking plan of a pasture, arranged to shuttle people from the local elementary school a half mile away.

The most beautiful moment of the evening, was when John Stewart stepped up to make introductions and welcome everyone. He began, "Suzanne and I prayed this morning that God would bring exactly the right people who needed to be here tonight, whether that was only a couple of folks, or a whole crowd." An echo of my own prayer before each "concert", that God brings those who will enjoy, be touched, and be open to the prompting of the Spirit. After that, it was easy to settle in, warm up the fingers, and take off! We even introduced a couple of new songs...one of my favorite things to do.

So thank you to the Durands, for organizing the night, and for letting me crash in a lego filled room, eat pbandj and sleep on truck sheets, and watch Saturday morning cartoons. Thank you to the Stewarts for hosting and creating such a unique and special place, and thank you to everyone who thought it was a brilliant idea to have music in a barn despite the temperature. Love you all!

Snow

Snow. It's piled up on my balcony and covering the parking lots outside my apartment. The plows started coming through last night, to clear away the worst from the middle of the carports...which really has just pushed the snow to rest behind the cars tucked away under cover....I may not have to brush snow off the top of the green bullet, but there is a certain degree of "digging out" required no matter where you are today! I wish I could have a snow day today and stay tucked inside, dreaming up grand ideas for Easter and beyond.... but we happen to close only in the event that the police declare an emergency and are ordered to stay off the roads.... oh, the life of an adult. 

Snow is pretty. But I don't like it very much. Unless I don't have to go anywhere. I think the next place I am going to live is going to get less snow. Or at least when snow comes, everything shuts down and waits it out. 

Hope you are warm and safe today. Also that your driveway seems shorter and your shovel seems lighter than you ever thought possible. And your day includes a cup of hot cocoa, a good book, and a cozy nap.

A Coffee/Chocolate Date

I adore time with my nephews. One of the best Christmas gifts I had this year was to meet sweet little Luke, who stole/shares my birthday. I don't have many opportunities to see Luke and Jacob, but I look forward to our skype dates and the holidays that we all end up in Virginia. Nate is growing into such a smart little man. I love surprising him in coming home and playing pirates and construction workers and robots. We only had about half of my days in Virginia together and I remember asking him Saturday morning how the day before went. He looked at me and said, "Not as good without you." Heart melter.

Sunday morning I went to the contemporary service at the Baptist Church in Colonial Beach. I love this little country church for its passionate and welcoming people. They may be small in numbers, but they are huge in spirit and testimony. Afterwards, with some time to kill, I asked Nate if he wanted to go to the local coffee shop with me. We packed up all the chocolate goodies we could find and headed down to the main drag through town. 

We settled at one of the taller tables, and I secretly held his chair with a foot, hoping he wouldn't tip it, as I sipped on a mocha and he split his chocolate cookie with me. We played a game on my phone and talked about the alphabet, when I was leaving, normal four year old stuff. I love that he is growing and learning and that we could steal away from the family house for a bit of an adventure around town. Such a special part of my trip home.

The Haircut

There are parts of moving that are easy. Finding an apartment, settling into a new job, making friends.... and then there are hard things: finding a hairdresser. Oh...you don't feel the same way? I think it's a combination of loyalty, love, and the inability to make a decision three weeks in advance to set an appointment. The last time I had a haircut was in the kitchen of my friend's house in Colorado while I was crazy in pain from a tooth infection. That was last May.It was needed. And in perfect timing with my trip to Virginia. Since I ended up in Springfield everyday, we went a little early that Saturday morning and got our 'hair did". Well, my mom and I did anyways.

Up until a few years ago, we had gone to the same guy since before my mom started having kids at age 19. His name was Toy, who told me over the years that I should consider a trip to Thailand, that the people there would be fascinated with my blonde hair and blue eyes. 

But Toy did not do updos, and when prom came around, we went to Fatima, two chairs down in that same salon. A couple of years later and with a tight schedule of Toy, my sister and I started having Fatima cut our hair. We fell in love. Then Fatima moved to the salon across the street...gasp! It took a while, but we soon followed her over and haven't left the Tiki Hair Salon with its pale yellow walls and brown/grey tiled floors. I adored walking in on Saturday morning to an excited, "You're back!" followed by a hug and fingering of my now troubling and cumbersome long hair.

I had planned on just a cut, but as mom was getting her first dye ever to hide "the grays", I impulsively stood up and said, "I want highlights." Fatima nodded, asked a question about length and we were off.For the record, most impulsive decisions of mine, do not take three hours to see through to the end. But it was fun to sit with foil in my hair, reading magazines, and watching others come through. It's been fun to come back and see reactions...I had one friend stare at me for a good thirty seconds before asking me what was different.  I'm now set for the next couple of months. Doesn't solve the eventual decision of where to go, but I did get a business card of a stylist while at the bank the other day....