Music, Writing, and other random words
Valentines Fancy Night
David and I generally don’t celebrate Valentines day. I’ve blogged before about my distaste for the holiday, and years of playing Valentines Day gigs in various fine dining...
Play Dough Night With Ash
Ashleigh and I have been home sick all day today. After laying in bed all day and watching an immoral amount of TV, she asked if we could play with Play Dough. I dragged my achy hiney...
""And she is going to dance, dance hungry, dance full, dance each cold astonishing moment,"
now when she is young and again when she is old."
Valentines Fancy Night
David and I generally don’t celebrate Valentines day. I’ve blogged before about my distaste for the holiday, and years of playing Valentines Day gigs in various fine dining establishments has further reinforced our disdain for this obligatory Hallmark holiday. Typically, restaurants are filled with couples who can’t stand each other, who don’t want to be out on a Tuesday night, but who feel obligated to check the Valentine box — and so we play our music and watch as they rush in, order their food, check their phones, don’t talk to each other, pay the bill, and are rushed out, so that the table can be filled with another couple. No thanks!
This year, I decided to embrace the holiday as a family holiday, so I planned a surprise Valentines dinner for everyone. Since our nice china is in storage, I set the table with our everyday plates and added some heart confetti, charger plates, and candles on vintage saucers for flair:
Then, Ashleigh and I made a heart-shaped cake with strawberry-buttercream icing (photo not mine; original recipe here):
Ashleigh loves to break the eggs. I love the determination on her face in the second photo as she’s trying to crack it open:
And then we made the icing!!
Of course, then she had to lick the mixer beaters:
And the rest of the menu consisted of Greek pasta, garlic bread, salad, steamed asparagus, and sparkling cider that I tinted pink! We played Sinatra on the stereo and ate dinner together by candlelight, and it was fabulous.
SO much better than fighting crowds and making reservations and dropping $150 on a meal you really don’t enjoy!
We are totally making this a tradition.
How did you spend your Valentines day? Are you a jaded Cupid cynic like me, or do you actually revel in the whole thing? Tell me about it!
Read MorePlay Dough Night With Ash
Ashleigh and I have been home sick all day today. After laying in bed all day and watching an immoral amount of TV, she asked if we could play with Play Dough. I dragged my achy hiney downstairs, but it was well worth it. We made pizza…
hamburgers and french fries….
a man with a moustache (Ashleigh’s creation)
and bugs… of course.
Then we did ballerina twirls and somersaults (much to my sick body’s chagrin) to get ready for the Daddy-Daughter Dance on Friday.
Sweet times. She won’t be three very long… I never thought I’d have a little one to play Play Dough with again, so I am trying to soak it all up while I can.
Read More
FRINGE!!
In honor of the return of Fringe tonight (which I’ll review tomorrow), I thought I’d post this amazing video done by fans of the show.
As a video editor, I’m totally geeking out over this video. The girl who put it together is an amateur, but she did an excellent job (in fact, I’m envious of her mad skillz).
Check it out:
Are you a fan of Fringe? Will you be watching the Season 4 premiere tonight?
Read MoreHappy Birthday to my Hubby!
Today is David’s 40th b-day.
God is doing amazing things right now in him and through him, and I’m so proud to be married to this amazing man of God.
I love you, honey, and can’t wait to see what this next decade holds for you and for us!
Stop by his facebook and wish him a happy b-day!
Read MoreBlog 2.0
It’s been awhile since I blogged… I had a good thing going earlier this year, and then I forgot to renew our hosting plan, and lost everything. Including my will to blog.
I finally got re-inspired yesterday and found a template I’m in love with, and so here I am again. Blogging. About nothing.
I was able to import every single blog I’ve ever written (except for this year’s entries), so feel free to browse through the madness.
I’ve decided to make this a blog a home for all my creative pursuits, so I’ve got entries with some of my fiction stuff now, too. More will be coming (as soon as I get the guts to post my latest work). I’ve also got plenty of memoir/reflection type stuff around here, and, to make things interesting, I’ll be posting some of the more pointless stuff that I’ve normally kept separate — reviews of stuff I’m reading, listening to, and watching. And, who knows — maybe I’ll post some vegan recipes from time to time, too. It’s a writing blog, but a girl’s gotta eat, right?
We’ll see how this goes.
Read MoreIn Honor of Nano, an excerpt.
Here is an excerpt from my last year’s Nano Novel, just for fun.
(I am feeling compelled to add all sorts of disclaimers at this point, but I’m going to resist. It is what it is.)
Here we go:
Chosen
Chapter 1 excerpt
The cavernous underground room was deathly silent. Over three hundred people stood in rows, uniform in dress and in emotion. Each was clad in a white, gauzelike tunic and loose-fitting white pants, each person barefoot, each without any distinguishing adornment in their hair or on their bodies. Each woman had their hair fashioned into a single braid, and each man had been shaved bald. Each member stood facing the front of the room, solemnly and with a mixture of monastic calm and stoic determination. No one moved; no one dared breathe. A woman near the back of the room began to cry softly and was quickly ushered out. No one among the rows acknowledged the incident. Their training had been thorough, and only the weak dared show emotion or stand out during a meeting. There were no individuals here, only a collective Body.
At the edges of the rows, men and women in black tunics moved silently, carrying trays with paper cups. The women in black carried trays with cups containing water, pausing at each row and handing out cups to be passed down to each member of the row. The men in black passed out smaller cups, each containing one white capsule. The congregants in white also passed these down the rows, faithfully, bravely. Each person had prepared for this moment, this communion, whether consciously or unconsciously, for many months or years.
When the elements were distributed to every member of the Body, the people in black formed single file lines along the side walls of the room and slowly made their way to the front. They then turned and filed across the front, facing the crowd. The tall man in the center of the black-clad ushers spoke:
“Brothers and sisters, we have waited for this beautiful Day since we embarked on our journey together many years ago. As our numbers have increased, our energies and our psyches have been knit together as one. Now is the time of fulfillment and ultimate enlightenment. We have attained greatness on earth; now we will attain the ultimate achievement, the prize. It is time to journey to the next level. Our travel will be swift. In the shedding of our earthly shell, we will achieve a new freedom and a new level of enlightenment. We will truly become melded into one Great Body, and our collective energy will empower our great leader and strengthen him in his continued work here on earth. Let us therefore cast off the bonds of this plane, and partake together in the final Communion of transcendence.”
Read More