Monday, July 27, 2009

A Walking Run-On


Walked behind the twins on rollerblades, dragging the dog,
carrying books and the water bottle, past Kalamink Creek and the deerfly
who always circles me, buzzes me, bites the top of my head
until I am safely past the Gardziella's house and into the village limits,
tugging on the dog leash at every shady tree where
the dog goes prone and pants, begging for rest, when finally we reach
the library and deposit books and rummage a styrofoam cup out of the garbage
to pour water into, helping the dog revive,

and starting back we cross with the light and call out to Mr. Nack who is unloading
industrial furniture into the school, and he waves back, recognizing the twins
because it is a small town, but I am still surprised at that after all this time,
and then we are kind to Duncan, the white retriever who is tied to a tree by
giving him a wide berth and stepping into the street but he still barks with hysterical joy and our dog keeps his head down,
until he sees at the next house the black lab behind the invisible fence, resting demurely, and then our dog is all snarls and raised ruff,

and now we stop talking as the heat bears down and walk the last stretch of road
circled by Brandon on his Huffy, and stopping only to estimate the worth
of the riding lawnmower parked for sale in a yard and we deem it not worth a
hundred bucks, but quietly, because we are silent walkers now intent on home and
rest and shade,
for our water is gone and the deer fly is back.

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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

A Close One

If I hadn't cleaned the fridge last night,
I may not have realized how dangerously low we are on
parmesan cheese.



And jelly.



phew.

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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Slug Strategy


We are getting rid of our garden slugs by drowning them in beer.

Apparently they smell it,
are attracted,
slither in to the little beer-filled tins
and drown.

Getting ready to go out and add a few more tins around the bean plants,
I asked twin girl if she thought we ought to pick out the dead slugs
that are already floating in the existing tins....

Middle child piped up that yes we better do that,
in case some slugs happen to look in there and go,

"uh oh."

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Friday, July 17, 2009

How I Do It


Let's say you have to fill in a form
regarding the number of hours driven for Driver's Ed,
the number of minutes read for the library summer program,
or the amount of time spent studying your spelling list each week.

Let's just say that you hadn't been completely diligent
in keeping these records along the way,
but you are really, really, mostly sure that
the numbers you are filling in are nearly and probably mostly accurate.

Let's just say that you fill that form out in one sitting,
like before you dash out the door to school,
or idling in the library parking lot or whatever.

I feel it is useful to use several different color pens,
crayon or pencil to fill in the circles,
varying the style of your shading -
sometimes on the diagonal from left to right,
sometimes right to left, and sometimes in a circular manner.
No more than three circles filled in with one color at a time.

It lends credibility to the completed form.

This is my method.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Pain


I don't ever cry when I think I should.
Sometimes I seem cold, even to myself.

But life has always felt like a dream to me.
So when pain comes, I become an outsider,
looking in, observing.
Disbelieving, really.

I try not to make any sudden moves.

I don't want to jar something loose,
or dislodge anything that might just be
holding me together.

My friend.

I have not really cried for you.

But today I found myself stopped,
as the heaviness grew heavier
and heavier,
and I crawled into bed,
turned off phones,
put the fan on high,
and buried myself.

I could not move.

The heartache that has been placed in your hands
is too much for my mind to comprehend.

But something in my body knows.

*

Friday, July 10, 2009

My Fifteen Minutes (okay maybe forty)



I finally have time to write down the saga....

Wednesday night we were interviewed by Channel 6 news and met Karl the awesome videographer (found out he is a musician too). I wanted to decline the interview, but instead found myself listening to, "Okay don't look at the camera, just look at me, what is your name and how do you spell it?" I still haven't seen the tape but my sister says I actually spoke some coherent words.

The next day we met again to rehearse, have some video taken, and then load up for the Common Ground Music Festival.

After a very strange vehicle procession of three cars trying to stay together, lost parking passes and the assurance that we could "talk ourselves in", we finally made it to the grounds, and unbelievably talked ourselves in! Apparently an SUV filled with amps, guitars and music stands was enough to fool the security guards.

Except...one band member, stranded at the Saginaw gate and not allowed to come in. I have to say that I will take full credit for rescuing him (commandeering a security golf cart and rushing out to get him while fielding frantic phone calls from the stage saying, "where are you? where's Greg? we're doing the sound check NOW!" )

I may also have to take full credit for getting him stuck out there in the first place, but let's not dwell on the negative...

I ended up going onstage, grabbing a crewhand (they were so great) and pointed out my rig, "I have the 1x12, the 2x10, and this amp. I have to go retrieve a lost bandmate, can you just set it up for me?"
He was on it.
I was on it.
I plucked two credentials passes from Thom and dashed off to save the day.

Finally, we were on stage for the sound check, and did all that jazz. I had my camera with me, and decided to forego the cool rockstar persona in favor of waving wildly whenever I saw a friend in the audience and snapping pictures of them, the sound people, the stage, the gathering crowd, the rafters of the hugongous stage...I was a geek. At one point I accidentally stepped on Greg's guitar pedal and something very very bad happened. A very very loud, very very bad sound reverberated through the echoing canyon of a spectator area. I quickly shut it off and made my sad worried face at Greg but he just shrugged and said supportively, "Glad I didn't do that."



I was also texting my yaya and suddenly looked down to see a picture of them on my phone, standing next to the Common Ground sign. The text said, "Do you really think your yaya would miss this??" They came. Diane from Georgia, swooping in and gathering up Joann so that at this very cool moment we could all be together.

Sorta.
I had to get back to the sound stuff and oh yeah I had a set to do!

But first, supper.

We went to this big tent with a huge spread of all sorts of free stuff to eat. I love free food.
I was standing undecidedly by the drink table when this girl comes up to me and says, "Where's the water?" She had a little ponytail, no makeup, jogging shorts, and looked like she really needed some water. I shrugged, "I don't know," I said. She gestured to the igloo container on the table and said, "Is that water?" I said, "No I think that's fruit punch or something."

And thus ends my entire conversation with Sheryl Crow.
Memorable.

Only I didn't know it was Sheryl Crow at the time.
Thus my stunning repartee.

Sheryl Crow has long blond hair in ringlets.
And she's tall and glamorous.
She's not tiny and cute and regular looking.

Only she is.

Keeping in mind that I had no idea who had just asked me for water, I went to sit down with my bandmates in order to poke my salmon, push my sweet potato slices around on my plate, and gnaw on the pineapple upside down cake, feeling slightly ill but in a good, probably-not-going-to-throw-up kind of way.

I glanced over at the table next to us and then whispered to Jon, "Hey, I think that's Sheryl Crow's bassist." I had done my research and checked him out on her website before the gig. "Yeah, probably so," he says, noting that Sheryl Crow is sitting right next to the guy...

Yes, I saw the tiny ponytail girl sitting there, but I didn't connect the dots.

Later in the dressing room Jon would say, "You mean you recognized Sheryl Crow's bassist but you didn't recognize Sheryl Crow?"

Yes, that would be me, over here in the dork corner.


Speaking of the dressing room, oh my goodness there was a dressing room!
More free food. Free snacks!
Just lead me to the tiny Snickers, the cold bottled water and the soda my dahlings...

I was just standing there enjoying the moment, when another band entered the trailer. They had a room on the other side and we shared the common room. Only they weren't hunkered over the free food panting and fanning themselves, they were solely intent on primping.

And primp they did. I looked down at my outfit, which I had thought fairly stylish and watched the girl singer talk about how she needed TWO HOURS to do her hair and makeup. She had a miniskirt and really long boots and really long hair. She had two girlfriends hovering over her with mascara wands and curling irons.

I had fanned my armpits, lined my eyes and dusted my face with powder to get rid of shine.
Yes, stylin.

Anyway, we dashed out the door and they wished us good luck while adding a couple of extra feet to their already amazingly extended eyelashes. I think I felt one brush my back as I tottered out the door in my sensible shoes.

Well I could go on and on.

Anyway, we played the set and it was amazing - the crowd was so great - the drummers played their heads off (pun intended), we all smiled and just enjoyed the vastness of the moment. It was over way way way too quickly.

After the gig it was so great to be able to pull my yaya backstage for a few minutes, and then to just hang out with the band - enjoying some of Sheryl's show, staying too long at IHOP to just wind down (and to get some food, I was suddenly starving, and kept worrying that my platter would not be large enough,) but oh, viva la french toast it was GOOD at 1am!!

Some of the band members...I have no idea why they are holding shorts.


My yaya...



The entire day was so so so good.
One that I will not likely forget very soon.

My favorite part?

All of the well wishes from friends and family, and those amazing people who actually spent their hard-earned money on tickets for this event!

Wow, talk about cool.
Now THAT's cool.

I'm feelin' the love.


peace!

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For more pics, go here
or visit my facebook profile!

Thursday, July 09, 2009

The Daily Grind


Things to do today:

Stake the tomatoes
Scrub the upstairs toilet
Open for Sheryl Crow

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Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Camp


I went through some papers in my cupboard and found
a very old packing list for our annual camping trip.
I figured it could come in handy for the family and posted it on the fridge.

Many overheard giggles later,
I peered over the children's heads to read:

"Water Wings"
and
"Pull-ups"

Ohhh...doesn't seem that long ago.

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Saturday, July 04, 2009

Sheryl Crow


Doesn't she look like a nice person?
Wouldn't you just like to have her over for dinner some night?

Or failing to accomplish that, wouldn't it be cool if your band could open for her
on the main stage at the Common Ground Music Festival
at 7pm on Thursday, July 9th?

That's what I thought too.
I really like her.

Check the festival out here.

Or you can check out our band here.

Peace!

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Haven't Posted


Here is something precious.

And Happy 4th of July!

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