“looking up at the stars… moo…”

“…I’m not making a joke, you know me I take everything so seriously…”

It seems like such a long time ago. Back at Ricks, living with my roommates. All we cared about was boys, and school. It was so carefree, but yet we were so stressed out! One of my best friends/roommates introduced me to the Indigo Girls. They have become my most favorite group to listen to. Its what ties me back to my old friends. After we left school she and I would write emails to each other including little snippits of lyrics from Indigo Girls songs, and when we’d write back we’d include the rest of the phrase. It was a little game we played. If I’m having a down day all I need to do is listen to them and everything seems to be better. One of my most favorite songs is “Back Together Again”. I think because it puts into words and music my creed. “…and I’m never gonna lose you as a friend…” So I want to dedicate this entry to all my friends wherever you might be. That you know that no matter where you go, no matter how far I’m always going to consider you my friend!

Indigo Girls – Back Together Again Lyrics
leaving ain’t fair you know
parting ain’t just
people got to move on
people got to do what they must
and we’re back together again
and i’m never gonna lose you as a friend
growing up free
growing up wild
if you want to know the secret behind the smile
you got to ask a tuesday’s child
and we’re back together again
and i’m never gonna lose you as a friend
well i guess that highway got a hold of me
thinking crazy thoughts like it was going to set me free
this ain’t my place you know
this ain’t my home
and i’m not going to feel right
til you get us back behind the microphones
and we’re back together again
and i’m never gonna lose you as a friend
no i’m never gonna lose you as a friend
no i’m never gonna lose you as a friend

Harry Potter

Okay, so I think some of my friends (me included) have dove into the Harry Potter world a little too deeply! I have one friend that uses the word “Muggle”(anyone non-magical) to describe anyone non-musical. I have another friend that has declared that her son is a member of the Weasley family. (Red Head!). Well I guess I can say that my son could belong to the Malfoy family. (white blonde hair!)

Music Hater?

I think I’m going to cry! Where did I go wrong? My husband and I are both music lovers. We were music MAJORS for crying out loud?!?! So how is it that my son hates music?

He is always telling me “Mommy, stop singing!” when were in the car and I’m singing along to the radio. Or when we’re walking in the mornings and I break out into song.

Plus, I have become the parent of the child that refuses, I mean completely and totally REFUSES to participate in singing time in Nursery! How did I let this happen? Didn’t I play Mozart and Beethoven to my belly when I was pregnant with him? Didn’t I play classical music, and lullaby’s when he was a baby? Hasn’t he listened to his daddy play violin every day since the day he was conceived? Haven’t I song him songs? I’ve tried teaching him the primary songs they sing in Nursery. He just tells me “Mommy, no singing!” Runs away and takes away whatever toy his little sister had her eye on! What do I do? Resign to the fact that my son will never love music? That because he’s been surrounded by it since before he was born that he is going to hate it completely? There has got to be a way to get him to come around. I see other kids and they’re singing all the time. At the grocery store, in the car, etc. No, not my son, he’s making super loud, top of his lungs, car and airplane noises. I hear stories from other mothers, of how cute it is to hear their child sing a movie soundtrack or songs from their favorite cartoon. I don’t know what to do? So I’m pleading, as a musician, as a wife of a musician, as a mother that hoped her children would love music, how do I get my son to love music and want to participate in singing time?

A Happy Ending?

A Happy Ending?

Is that too much to ask? We sat down and watched a movie tonight. One that we had heard rave reviews about. It had won awards! We both had an interest in seeing it. All in all it was a great flick. But come on, what’s with movies never having happy endings anymore? We get to the middle of the movie and think. “NO, that can’t be! It can’t end that way! There’s going to be a happy ending. There has to be!”

Well the movie ended. It was really quite sad. I cried. I was mad! I wanted the bad guy to get their just deserts! And I wanted the good guy to be the one to give it to ‘em! That’s just the way its supposed to be! Isn’t it?

But alas, life isn’t fair. We don’t always get happy endings. The bad guy doesn’t get caught. And we just have to accept it. Do we want a happy ending in movies because we believe that’s the way it should be in life? For me, I’m always going to hold out that the good guy will win, that the bad guy will get what he deserves.

Oh, just in case you are wondering what movie we watched tonight.
It was Million Dollar Baby.

Writer’s Block

I have Writer’s Block…

I like to take things literally. Maybe that’s from reading too many Xanth books by Piers Anthony. He has a thing for Puns.

My writer’s block isn’t necessarily the inability to come up with something to write. While walking in the mornings I am bubbling over with ideas. But something (or someone) PHYSICALLY blocking me!

Every time I come up with a topic to write about, that’s the time that its least likely I’ll make it to the computer to actually put my thoughts into words. There’s always something blocking me. I need to do the dishes. My daughter needs a diaper change. My son is chasing Jack (the dog) around the house. My husband just came home and its time to start making dinner. Then its bath and bedtime. WHEW! Now I can finally sit down to the computer and write down my thoughts. Ya, right! my daughter isn’t quite asleep yet and cries for me every 20 minutes, my son keeps getting out of bed… Okay, NOW I can write. Everyone’s asleep!

Its too late, my thoughts are all scattered and I should go to bed too. I guess I can try again tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow I can get around my writer’s blockers.

Music Lit

Awhile back we had a poll on our yahoo!group that asked the question:

“Music Majors: If Music Lit had not been mandatory would you still have taken the class?”

If gave a few options for choices including:

“Yes, I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.”
“Yes, But I would have dropped it.” “
No, are you kidding?” “
No, but I’m glad I did.”

After this poll closed I had planned on writing a post about the answers that “S” and I had voted for and the reason behind it.
For a few of you this might be old news, I’ve either told you the story already or you were there with us when it happened, but for a lot of you it’s new.
Before I begin though let me tell you what our votes where.

I voted: “Yes, I wouldn’t have missed it for anything”
He voted: “No, but I’m glad I did.”
He had changed his vote from what he had chosen originally. He first had voted for: “No, are you kidding?”

And that is where our story begins. Sophomore year at Ricks for us. I took Music Lit fall semester. I started the class with the best of intentions, that is, to pass the class! I was always sick, or I looked sick, or would fall asleep in classes, or would be so tired I couldn’t even function after lunch. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me. I studied really hard, and had always had a passion for history, and what could have been better than combining history with music! I loved going to the lectures and listening to Dr. Call. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t recognize the music, and would forget everything when it came time for the tests. Friends and even teachers (Dr. Taylor, Dr. Brague and Mr. Nielsen) were starting to show concern for me. I didn’t seem like myself and the fact that I was always sick and looked pale and tired was worrying them. I resigned to the fact that I would be failing Music Lit that semester and when it came time to register for Winter Semester classes I signed up for Music Lit again. I still tried really hard to pull out a good grade, and took good notes and tried to do well on the tests, but it just didn’t seem to work for me. The semester ended and I think I remember that I got a D in the class. I fell in love with the subject, and even though I had failed, I looked into whether W.S.U. (Washington State University) had a Music History degree!

During the Christmas break I again got very sick; so sick in fact that when it came time to drive back to school I couldn’t do it. My dad ended up driving me back to school while I slept the whole 9 hr drive back to Ricks. When I got back to school and the first day of classes began I had no voice, coughing so bad I could hardly breath, and I had a sty in my eye. All my classes were a disaster! I was determined to do well in Music Lit this time around! I saw “S” sitting in the back of the classroom; we had had a couple of classes’ together fall semester and I knew he had a keen grasp and understanding of EVERYTHING musical. It just seemed so easy for him, so instead of sitting down in the front of the class like I had done the fall semester, with some of my other friends, I decided to sit in the back near him. As I couldn’t talk because I had lost my voice, I passed him a note in class asking if he would like to be study partners for Music Lit. He agreed. I wanted to immediately set up a study group for that weekend but he said he was going skiing instead. Well the weekend came and I wasn’t getting better. In fact I was sicker. Even my roommates were getting concerned. I finally broke down and went to the Medical Center on campus to find out what I had and why I was always so sick. I found out that immediately I had laryngitis, and bronchitis and I needed eye drops for the sty in my eye. I told the doctor that I was always sick the semester before and always felt tired and looked pale. He decided that maybe I needed some blood work. When the results came back it showed that I had been anemic. The reason I had no energy, was always so tired, and was constantly getting sick. My immune system was down so I was susceptible to everything. After receiving some medication to improve my iron count, eye drops for the sty and instructions to stop wearing eye makeup for awhile and eat more leafy greens, I started to feel better.
We did become study partners for the class, and good friends as well, (we never dated during that semester, though, I did like him the whole time). I took the notes, he just knew all the music stuff! The rest is “history” I guess you could say… He pulled an A from the class just like all the other classes he had ever taken, and I got an A- or B+, I can’t remember which exactly. I know I held an A the whole semester but that I didn’t do as well on the Final Exam as I had hoped.
When he voted “No, are you kidding?” in the poll, I had to remind him that because of taking that class we eventually got together. He decided that maybe he needed to change his vote. But he wants it on the record that the reason he changed his vote to “No, but I’m glad I did” is because he ended up marrying me because of it. He said it had nothing to do with the actual class…
My vote had a dual purpose. You could say I loved the class so much I failed it the first time so I could take it again… I always intended to go to W.S.U. and study Music History. But that obviously wasn’t in the cards for me. Instead I married the guy that helped me to love Music Lit even more by helping me pass the class…

The First Time to BLOG

I’ve decided to start a blog. It seems like the “cool” thing to do. Even though I’ve always prided myself in not following the norm, I’m doing it in my own hip way! I’ve always tried to work against the norm, but since becoming a mommy, I seem to have conformed a little. Who knows, maybe that makes me more weird now then I was before…
There are previous posts made on here. But those were all done on a different website, but I wanted to keep a record of them all in one place. This is my first ACTUAL blog post.

Backyard Safari

(originally posted on fishbowlinsider yahoo!group 8/22/05)
In the past week or so we have seen a wide range of different animals either in our backyard or while on our morning walks. My son has had the chance to see roadrunners, monster-sized ants (seriously they could be from a horror movie), a butterfly the size of a bird, a toad, a praying mantis, a jackrabbit, lizards, a hawk, hummingbirds, blue jays, ground squirrals, and prairie dogs.
Its been a very eventful week for my daughter as well. Last wednesday she turned 13 months. The saturday before she started taking her first steps, and the day after turning 13 months she FINALLY cut her first tooth!

Today marks my 8 week check-in for starting my weight-loss/exercise program. In the first 4 weeks I lost 7 pounds. I am sad to say that the past 4 weeks have not been as successful. Because of different things that have come up this month, this month has not gone well. I am at the same weight I was at my 4 week mark. Good thing is, I know I gained a couple of pounds back during the past 4 weeks, so at least I’m starting the 3rd month where I started the 2nd month. So I have a long way to go to make my half way goal of 15 pounds after 3 months. But on the brighter side I have gained a nice tan from walking and playing tennis. I am no longer the pale, sickly white that I was at the beginning of the summer.

A.M. Radio Talk Show Host

I have this thing about me. Maybe you can call it an illness I don’t know. But I hate losing touch with someone. A few years after leaving Ricks I wanted to get back in touch with all my music major friends. I started a newsletter! That was back in 2002, and it only lasted a few issues. In February of this year I reinstated my newsletter. Along with it I started a yahoo!group where we could share in each others daily lives. Its called the Fish Bowl Insider. All of the previous posts made on my blog were originally posted on the fishbowl insider over the past few months.

This is one of them: (posted 8/18/05)
I told my husband about the Pizza Poll I just put on here. He just compared me to a local talk radio host and how he comes up with new topics for that days shows. Some of them are really off the wall, and its pretty funny to listen to. Especially Friday afternoons during the 5 o’clock hour which is ALWAYS the “Hour of Rage”. People call in with their rage (something that really irks them) and whoever has the best one at the end of the hour wins a gift certificate to a restaurant or something. If I HAVE to listen to Talk Radio, I don’t mind listening to this guy. Maybe thats where I get my inspiration for coming up with different topics to talk about on here… Just like Jim Villanucci some topics are a big hit and gets lots of callers and some are a complete bomb and go unnoticed. but hey… “its a work in progress…” (thats from Monsters, Inc. I’ve obviously watched that with my son WAY TOO MANY TIMES!)

Monsoon Season

(originally posted on fishbowlinsider 8/15/05)
The North American monsoon occurs from mid July into September and affects Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and California . It pushes as far west as the Peninsular Ranges and Transverse Ranges of southern California but rarely reaches the coastal strip (a wall of desert thunderstorms only a half-hour’s drive away is a common summer sight from the sunny skies along the coast). The North American monsoon is associated with an area of high pressure, called the subtropical ridge that moves northward during the monsoon season. At the surface, the monsoon is associated with a weak high that forms over the four corners region and a thermal low that forms over the Colorado River valley. The Bermuda high also plays some role in the monsoon. The placement of the high and low pressure areas causes the wind to shift from westerly to southerly. Moisture is drawn northward from the Gulf of California into northern Mexico and the Southwest United States. Rainfall during the monsoon occurs as thunderstorms over the southern Rocky Mountains and adjacent areas. This season of almost daily thunderstorms is often called the Southwest, Mexican or Arizona monsoon. It is also sometimes called the Desert Monsoon as a large part of the affected area is desert. As much as 70% of rainfall in the region occurs during the summer monsoon season. Many desert plants are adapted to take advantage of this wet season in the usually-dry area. Because of the danger of being caught in the open when these storms suddenly appear, many golf courses in Arizona have thunderstorm warning systems.(and New Mexico, theres a golf course near us and we can hear the siren after the first site of lightning)

Since I first moved to Phoenix almost 6 years ago I have loved the Monsoon Season. It is so refreshing from the HOT summer days. Here in New Mexico they don’t typically start till mid July. And this summer has had an even later start. It gets really humid during this time of year and you can see the thunderclouds building and rolling in from the South East. For the past few weeks, we’ve had the clouds and the humidity but not much of the rain. And for the past week, it has looked and felt like Portland, Oregon (which is one of my most favorite places). We just haven’t gotten the rain. We’ve had much cooler temperatures as well, in fact today the predicted high is only supposed to be 78 degrees! Well Saturday night that all changed. We saw the clouds roll in, and just hoped and prayed that we would actually get some rain here in town. (it has been flooding in other parts of the state). It looked really promising, and then all of a sudden it didn’t. But we were fooled. The wind started to blow from the west, then it started to sprinkle lightly around 6pm. It started to rain a little harder and then the thunder and lightning started. We heard one clap so loud that it hurt our ears and shook the house. It was the loudest thunder boom I had ever heard. And it must have ripped a hole in the clouds as well because then it started to dump down on top of us. Our satellite stopped working because of the rain, the kids were already in bed so we just went outside and stood by the front door and watched the rain fall, the gutters fill, and the rivers running down the street. For almost an hour it rained like the heavens had opened up.And for that almost hour’s time the thunder rolled constantly. You couldn’t hear one thunder clap end and another begin. It was just constant rumbling. The satellite came back on so we went inside to finish watching the movie we started. All of a sudden the lights and t.v. flickered, we looked at each other and thought “that was weird”and then a few seconds later there was another huge thunderclap that shook the house and hurt our ears. After that one I was so glad the kids were sleeping, and was really surprised that neither of them had woken up. A few minutes later the rain started to let up, and you could see that the sun was breaking through the clouds as it was setting because it cast this odd yellow light on everything. I’m not the only one that enjoys the cooler, wetter weather the monsoon season provides. On my morning walks I have noticed that the plants that bloom in the spring usually go dormant during the extreme heat part of the summer, but are all starting to rebloom now that the days and nights are cooler. The desert really is an amazing place…