i am a butterfly…

Archive for the ‘Hit Me With Music’ Category

Earlier this week, I got a song I hate stuck in my head. When Scott got home from work that evening, I insisted upon regaling him with how much I hate this song and how annoying it is that I can’t stop hearing it. Ever a glutton for punishment himself, he asked what the song was.

As I opened my mouth to tell him, it was gone. Just like that. Gone. I had no idea what song it was and it was no longer hounding me.

What a relief, right? What a win! Suddenly and unexpectedly, I was free!

Beacause I’m me, though, as soon as I couldn’t remember the song, it started driving me crazy that I couldn’t remember the song. Gentle reader, I actually turned to the intertubes and Googled what I could remember of that song, so that I could remember what it was.

Result? It’s now days later and I still haven’t managed to get the damn thing out of my head.

In case you’re wondering, the song is Phil Collins’ Against All Odds. You’re welcome.

Ironically, as my camera has gotten better, I’ve become less likely to actually bring it to shows with me, so these photos are mostly pretty old. I don’t want to have to worry about the camera when I go out.

What a weekend! I was going to write a more detailed post, but I my brain is still too fried.

Steep Canyon Rangers, Infamous Stringdusters, Del McCoury, Railroad Earth, Cornmeal… so much music!

Railroad’s set on Friday was decent, but the Saturday late night set was where is was really at. We survived hail the size of golf balls Saturday afternoon and a tornado that hovered over us without, thankfully, touching down. Between that and all the cancer stuff this past 6 months, I never meant it more when I sang “ain’t it good to be alive?” along with the rest of the crowd.

The above photos show our wonderful camp before the storm. Below is after. Amazingly, our dinner team got out a hot, tasty meal after the storm.

More photos can be found in my Flickr set.

This quote from the article cracked me up:

“This New Wave Nigel doll that they’ve created is just a complete Devo rip-off and the red hat is exactly the red hat that I designed, and it’s copyrighted and trademarked.

“They didn’t ask us anything. Plus, we don’t like McDonald’s, and we don’t like American Idol, so we’re doubly offended.”

It’s here! It’s finally here! My pre-order copy of Railroad Earth’s new album, Amen Corner, arrived today. I’m nearly through my first listen of it. Several tunes really stand out for me, most notable for me so far are Been Down This Road and You’ll Never Know. And Lovin’ You, which is a song I absolutely adore and is one of the few I’ve seen them play live so far.

I’ve studiously ignored listening to any recent shows where they played songs from the new album and I haven’t listened any of the songs being streamed on their Web site, so this is my first time listening to most of these tunes. I’m impressed so far and look forward to listening to it again and again.

I have no idea how this Amazon.com widget I’m posting here works, but I hope it allows you to hear a little of the album. Or you can just go here and listen to some of it. Either way, listen to it and then buy the album. It’s a good one.

We got home yesterday from an incredible weekend of friends and music. It was just what I needed, even if there was some yucky stuff along the way that may lead to a yucky decision in the next few weeks. More about that another time, though.

Railroad Earth was way better in Woodstock than in Northampton, but both shows were worth the trip. Scott was particularly pleased to not have to drive either night, as we had a hotel within walking distance on Friday and K. was our designated grown-up on Saturday. That’s a rare treat for Scott, to not have to watch his alcohol consumption and stop drinking before intermission. A treat for me, too, really, since I usually don’t drink much when he can’t drink, either.

I discovered that a couple of people I know but didn’t know read my blog read my blog. (Did I mangle the language in that sentence, or what?) That’s always a surprise, though a nice one. Obviously, I live my life for the world to see! It’s just still strange for me, though, because I’ve been doing this for 6 years – as of last Monday – and it’s only in the past year or so that I’ve been meeting people in person who say, “Hey, I read your blog.” Sometimes I think only those of you who comment are reading.

I tried to articulate that to the first J. who mentioned it to me on Saturday, but I’d already spent the afternoon drinking my way toward the show and I think I may have ended up sounding unwelcoming, which is absolutely not what I meant.

So, hi J. and J.! Welcome!

In all, it was a really great weekend, spent with wonderful people and wonderful music. I hugged a Goat and a Hun and a Toad and had my ass squeezed by a Mouse.

And, oh yeah, yarn! I won’t even mention how much I spent at WEBS, but as K. pointed out at the time, think how much I saved on shipping!

Happy as a family
Happy hand in hand
Happy as a family singing

Happy as a banjo
Happy as I am
Happy as a banjo ringing

Next Saturday. I could swoon just thinking about it. I hope I don’t swoon when I walk through the door.

We’re going to Northampton for a Railroad Earth show on Friday, and our hotel is HALF A MILE from WEBS. Half a mile! That’s a 10 minute walk! We don’t even need to take the car! But we’ll need the car, because I can’t carry as much in my arms as I can in the car.

Okay, I won’t really buy that much. Not too much. But it’s like going to Mecca.

Yeah, rolling two loves into one!

Yeah, company with make up time so Scott doesn’t need to use PTO!

Yeah, mothers who give Ticketmaster gift cards as gifts!

Yeah, credit cards with enough points to get a free hotel night!

Yeah, WEBS!

And to top it all off, then I get to see Railroad Earth again on Saturday in Woodstock. What a weekend! RRE > yarn > RRE!

I’ve been handling this IVF stuff pretty well, I think. Yeah, there was a breakdown at the end of the first cycle when it didn’t end in pregnancy, but it was a fairly short-lived breakdown and I bounced back pretty quickly.

This current cycle, I’ve been bouncing through pretty well, staying upbeat and keeping my eye focused straight ahead on only the next hurdle – cyst aspiration, start stims, retrieval, etc. – so I was pretty surprised when we walked out the door last night and got in the car, and I immediately felt like crying. I held it together and didn’t, but I felt fragile and vulnerable, both physically and emotionally, all night long. That feeling of being about to start crying went away when we got into the show and I started talking knitting with MamaLo and chatting about Ravelry with Cricket and catching Bruce up on what F is up to these days and dissecting the previous two shows with a whole bunch of other people. I guess I forgot about feeling sad for a while.

Still, when the band started playing, I put Scott in front of me and stuck to him pretty closely, because those fragile and vulnerable feelings were still there. And yet, no one was as shocked as I was when the band broke into Storms and I practically started sobbing. It threw me; I didn’t think that song could affect me that much anymore, especially because I really thought that everything was okay. But, I guess it’s not.

The crying ended when Storms ended, thankfully, though I still spent the rest of the night keeping Scott really close and being a lot more clingy than normal. I guess this IVF thing is getting under my skin more than I realized.

Ahhhhhh. Yoga pants, t-shirt, velvet sweatshirt… today, that’s dressed. It’s been go-go-go for me since last weekend, between appointments at the clinic, pottery class, and Railroad Earth shows. It’s nice to have a Sunday to just kick back and have nothing to do.

Today, I’m going to knit, watch TV, eat lobster tartlets, drink Prosecco, and just generally be a slug. I hear there’s some kind of big game on later today, but I don’t really know too much about that. I guess it probably has something to do with why RRE kept chanting “Here we go Giants, here we go!” over the past three nights, but I don’t really know what it’s all about. I think I’ll watch Australian cowgirls and catch up on Lost today.

This morning sucked because last night? Last night most assuredly did not suck.

Two nights into a three-night Railroad Earth run at Mexicali Blues and I was totally wiped this morning. Getting up to go to the clinic for bloods and u/s was even worse than I thought it would be, and my ass has been dragging all day. All from sheer lack of sleep and bad late-night eating habits, not from too much drinking.

Still, the past two nights have been absolutely worth it. Scott has a full review of Thursday and last night, both of which pretty much sum up my own thoughts on the shows so far. It’s been an incredible couple of nights of music. I can’t believe we get to do it all over again tonight.

Tomorrow morning, I’m going to sleep as late as I can, then get up and hit the couch pretty hard for the rest of the day.