A couple of years ago after leaving our previous church, I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to be playing again. We were in a really big church that has a ton of top notch musicians and I had been hurt so incredibly badly (being told you're not welcome to play at a church where you were previously playing consistently for 2 years is devastating). I knew I'd miss playing, but just assumed that those days were over. Then about 10 months ago (give or take) I started subbing on the praise team. It was so great to have an opportunity to play the keyboards with so many amazing musicians. Then in February, a vacancy opened up on one of the teams. Incredibly, I was asked to play and have been playing regularly since about March.
Recently, the lead guitar from our team asked if I'd like to join his cover band. I'm thrilled for the opportunity but dag! I haven't been this nervous about playing in a really long time. I know that this is supposed to be fun (how can playing I Love Rock & Roll and Power of Love not be fun???), but for this wedding, I'm just terrified that I'm going to suck up the band and make us lose other potential gigs. I will feel so much better after next Saturday has passed! All that said, I can't believe I'm 35 and in a rock band. Seriously, life is weird!
In other news, summer is barreling by. The kids have mostly enjoyed the summer camp program and have made some good friends there. It doesn't have the greatest supervision, so the boys have had a few incidences of bullying that leave me a little less happy, but overall, it's been pretty good. We had a nice trip to Washington D.C. I hope to take the kids again before too long. They loved riding on the Metro & we had a great time seeing all of the monuments. Very cool. James said that being there made him love our country all the more. Fantastic!
On Sunday, we're taking the kids up to my parents' for two weeks. The children are very excited about it -- I'm not sure about my folks! I think it's that same feeling of excitement and terror that I'm feeling about the wedding! I know that Jason and I are looking forward to a little "staycation" at home. In the past, we've used these weeks to go to a few movies, grab a few dinners out and enjoy being home alone. It's nice to be able to put in a grown-up movie at 6pm so we can stay awake for the whole thing!
After those 2 weeks, we'll have one week with the kids at home, then we go on vacation with my parents. This year, we're going to be going to the mountains of North Carolina. I'm really looking forward to it. Mom keeps telling me that there's nothing to do there, but honestly, sitting around in the pool for a few days sounds pretty darn good to me! Then a week and a half, and school starts back. When I start looking at it like that, it feels like the summer is almost over. It reminds me of the episode of Seinfeld when Elaine & Jerry visit Jerry's parents and he boils their visit down to an afternoon. *grin*
I'm sorry I haven't written much here lately. Summer keeps us all pretty busy. I guess that's a good thing!
I wasn't quite able to get the MM up today that I was hoping for (should be ready to go for next Monday), so instead I'm going to post the special from yesterday. This is the version that we did. The singers were absolutely amazing. On Saturday night I got so overwhelmed by their vocals that I completely lost my place and flubbed up a chorus big time! :::blush:::
Anyway, this is a very simple, but beautiful lyric.
The More I Seek You
The more I seek you, the more I find you. The more I find you, the more I love you. I wanna sit at your feet drink from the cup in your hand. Lay back against you and breath, hear your heart beat This love is so deep, it's more than I can stand. I melt in your peace, it's overwhelming.
I've passed on blogging about some of the racist blunders that have happened on the right since the election of our first African-American president. I don't think Obama's presidency should be about his race and I realize that the number of conservatives who aren't racist far out-weighs the number who are. I admit that I find it troubling (and got disproportionately angry when I received my first racist email from a friend), but I recognize that it is still a minority opinion and is generally addressed relatively quickly from within.
But yesterday's Fox & Friends' Brian Kilmeade's statement about different "species and ethincs (sic)" marrying is the final straw. There wasn't a back-pedal from Kilmead. There wasn't an apology statement from the network. This wasn't taken out of context or spliced together or anything -- it's just naked, unabashed racism. And it. must. stop.
Yesterday on my facebook page, I posted an article from The Daily Beast about racism in the G.O.P. I thought the blogger wrote a really good piece. A friend of mine responded that cries of racism were just a red herring meant to distract from the real issues. I agree that sometimes this is the case. When Janeane Garofalo goes on Countdown with Keith Olbermann and claims that everyone who participated in a Tea Party was racist, that is using the word simply to distract from the real issue. But when you start talking about calling someone a coon, when you send a picture of a "spook" in place of the president, when you say that our first lady is descended from a gorilla, when you make a cd featuring the song "Barak the Magic Negro," when you say that taxes on rich, white Americans are just forced reparations to poor, black Americans; this needs to be addressed. Firmly. Retreating to the same "it's just a distraction" argument simply looks like you are condoning racism, or are at least afraid to call it what it is. And as much as I'm primarily liberal in my political views, I recognize that the country as a whole is healthier when there are multiple strong parties. I hope that the G.O.P. leadership will speak more boldly about this kind of unmasked racism. Or it's going to be a sad day for all "species" of man.
Yesterday was my birthday. I had a really nice day, mostly just spent it resting and reading. The fam knew just what to get me!
Something I didn't know about that date until recently is that it is also the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village. While I am not someone who advocates violent protests, I can understand frustration at dealing with injustice. Takes years of unjust laws and personal abuses, throw alcohol and heat into the mix, and a riot seems somewhat understandable.
The fight continues today. Tomorrow Lt. Dan Choi will be on trial for "moral and professional dereliction" under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Lt. Choi is a West Point trained soldier who is also an Arabic linguist. He came out. He had the option to resign and receive an honorable discharge or to fight. He chose to fight and tomorrow that fight continues.
In light of the beginnings of the gay rights movement and the journey that still exists, I'm going to feature "One" by U2 for my song today. If you'd like to support Lt. Choi, I'd encourage you to check out this site.
Is it getting better Or do you feel the same Will it make it easier on you now You got someone to blame You say...
One love One life When it's one need In the night One love We get to share it Leaves you baby if you Don't care for it
Did I disappoint you Or leave a bad taste in your mouth You act like you never had love And you want me to go without Well it's...
Too late Tonight To drag the past out into the light We're one, but we're not the same We get to Carry each other Carry each other One...
Have you come here for forgiveness Have you come to raise the dead Have you come here to play Jesus To the lepers in your head
Did I ask too much More than a lot You gave me nothing Now it's all I got We're one But we're not the same Well we Hurt each other Then we do it again You say Love is a temple Love a higher law Love is a temple Love the higher law You ask me to enter But then you make me crawl And I can't be holding on To what you got When all you got is hurt
One love One blood One life You got to do what you should One life With each other Sisters Brothers One life But we're not the same We get to Carry each other Carry each other
So I determined late last night that yesterday was the 17 year anniversary that Jason and I met. It was 1992 and I had just graduated high school. I was at Creation fest (the only one back in those days) with my family. This was the first year that there was a new "cutting edge" stage called The Fringe. I was the only one who really cared about the "harder" music, so I went to the side stage myself while my family went to lunch.
On Friday afternoon, a new band was playing called Sincerely Paul. They had a new wave kind of look to them and I thought they would probably be interesting. I had recently gone to see The Cure in Pittsburgh and they had that same kind of vibe about them. That said, I was totally unfamiliar with their music.
I arrived at the stage and sat down on my towel waiting to see them. There were a few people beside me, so I started talking to them about where they were from, how they were liking the festival and what they thought of the band. The girl who I was talking to didn't know much about the band, so she switched seats with the good looking guy beside her. He and I talked for a while before the concert and at the end of the show, we exchanged mailing addresses (we didn't know about "the internet" back then). I hoped he would write me at college. I went back to my family and joked that I had met Mr. (W)Right at the Sincerely Paul concert.
I was feeling a bit nostalgic about our meeting and Googled "Sincerely Paul." The top search is to a private concierge in London, but down just a little bit is the site for the band that used to be Sincerely Paul. They are now called Slide. I started clicking around on their site and looked at their Gallery page. They had pics there of the concert at Creation that Jason and I had attended. And even more amazingly, they had a picture of the crowd at that concert! And what is truly, crazily amazing, you can totally see Jason and me in it! Check it out!
(click to bigify)
Anyway, I think it's one of the coolest things ever that there is a picture of the first time that my husband and I met. This could be my favorite interweb discovery ever!
I was never a huge Michael Jackson fan, but growing up in the 80's, it was hard to avoid the King of Pop. His influence on pop music is massive. I'm sad that he was allowed to live his life without treatment for his mental illness and I pray for those who are left behind. Here's my favorite Michael Jackson song.
I'm starting with the man in the mirror I'm asking him to change his ways And no message could have been any clearer If you wanna make the world a better place Take a look at yourself and then make a change
I spent a little bit of time this morning cleaning in my basement. It's beyond hideous down there and I wanted to make it at least a little bit less so. Trust me, it's a very little bit, but it felt good to go through stuff and start to pitch stuff that is simply not worth hanging onto. I was able to post a few books to PaperBackSwap and a few old DVDs to SwappaDVD which will gain me a few more credits (yeah, I know bringing more in doesn't help, but it's fun!).
In my cleaning, I ran across a book that a friend had given me in high school called 14000 Things To Be Happy About. I dusted the cobwebs off of it, and enjoyed paging through it a bit. There were some good things in there, but it made me want to come up with my own list. So these are things that make me happy. Feel free to make your own list and share it with me, or just enjoy it on your own. Be happy!
Things that make Alise happy:
the smell of dough rising
watching my kids put on a talent show
figuring out what the perfect Seinfeld quote is for a given situation
staying up late because I can't sleep until I know how the book I'm reading ends
getting feedback on my blog (shameless, I know!)
learning something new about my husband
hiking with the family at Valley Falls
waking up in the morning before the kids are up, with no sound but the coffee pot gurgling
sniffing the top of a new baby's head
a new episode of 30 Rock
making love with my husband in the afternoon with the curtains open and the sun pouring into the room
either of the dogs curling up beside me on the couch and making that contented sound that dogs make when they intend to settle in somewhere
making Tina laugh
being so overwhelmed during worship that it's hard to keep playing the keyboard
watching clips of Designing Women on YouTube
walking barefoot in the grass after it rains
finishing a knitting or crochet project
paying for the meal of the person behind me in the drive-thru lane and watching their face when I pull away
getting mail (the kind delivered by a mail carrier)
beating a video game
going to a bad movie with Julia and being a little bit obnoxious
brushing my daughters' hair
having a deep discussion with someone I disagree with and coming away understanding them better
a new pair of shoes
a clear night far away from all artificial light
hugging
the soggy part at the bottom of the ice cream cone
playing games at my parents' house after Thanksgiving dinner
being with people who make me feel safe to be me
That's a start! I think I could probably make my own book of 14000 + 1 things!
