Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day never has really stirred strong feelings in me, either for or against. Growing up my parents always did a little something for all of us kids. Usually there would be a book, or a small toy with some candy and a card waiting for us, next to our breakfast plates in the morning. It was a nice little reminder of how much they love us, but since their love was obvious all year long, it wasn't a huge deal. My Dad would usually take Mom out to dinner and a movie, but it wasn't like he bought her expensive jewelry like on all the TV ads. It was a nice simple night out for them. I've been thinking more about Valentine's Day this year, and trying to decide how I am going to approach it. Do I want to ignore it completely? Or do I want to try and duplicate my parent's tradition with my housemates? If you have any inexpensive little ideas for letting people know how much I care about them, I would love to hear them.

Also - there is an interesting post about Valentine's Day for us single people over at Blissfully Single that you should read.

another goal - finish a quilt

I have this quilt which I bought materials for several years back. I started the quilt, only getting to the point of finishing the backing and the front base material. The original plan was to applique shapes of hearts and hands all over the front, with each set of hands representing some of my dearest friends. As time went by, I realized that some of my 'dearest friends' weren't really as close as they had been so I adjusted my plan. The second idea was to change the shapes to butterflies and have a large floral applique in the center of the quilt. Finally I decided that was more complicated than I wanted, and a little more frilly than was really me. I started appliqueing flowers of different colors with individual flower petals, before I left WA. Once I got settled in here in TN I realized that I had left some of my fabric at my parents house in my sewing box (which there wasn't room for in my car). A few weeks ago BarlowGirl and I went to a local fabric store, and I bought some replacements. They aren't exactly what I had in mind, but they are close. Below you can see how far I am, and what the other flower colors will be.

Harry Potter - one goal down... a lot more to go

I have acheived one goal on my list for 2009. I have finished the Harry Potter series. The end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was so good! I don't want to ruin it for anyone who hasn't read it yet, so I won't give anything away but if you haven't read it - you should! After finishing the books, I decided to go back and watch all the movies so far. Recently, I renewed my Netflix subscription and lined up the Harry Potter movies in my queue. I've watched the first three movies a couple times before, but it had been a while. I really enjoyed them, and it was funny to see the actors as such little kids! It was interesting to see how close to the story those first few movies are. The 4th and 5th movies however, did not include as much of the story as I would have hoped. I've noticed that the books progressively get deeper and more serious with each one, and with that it seems that each has more details than the first. I especially noticed this after finishing the last book in the series. That being said, I understand that with the each movie, it will be harder to include as many details. However, there were certain things, especially in 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix', that they could have included without the movie being much longer. Anyways... thats my opinion. :) Watching the movies was mostly enjoyable because it was something my friends Gabriel Redding, and Lady Dee and I were able to do together. Lady Dee had never seen any of the Harry Potter movies, and certainly hadn't read the books. (I think we got her hooked!) I am kind of sad, because now I have to wait until July to see the next movie... maybe I will be able to see this one in the theater though!

The House

during the last few weeks, I've realized that my current living situation doesn't seem normal to people outside of it. I also realized that I never explained what my living situation is since I've moved to TN. Maybe if you knew what it is, then some of my other posts would make more sense. I will try to briefly explain...
The Redding Brothers have a friend who is also now their band manager, and she (I'll call her Lady Dee) is leasing a house here in the Nashville area. Its much too large just for her, even when her daughter stays with her. Lady Dee did this on purpose so that two of The Redding Brothers (Josiah & Gabriel) could also live here, including Josiah's wife (BarlowGirl) and kids. I had the pleasure of meeting Lady Dee in 2007 at Micah Redding's wedding, and we hit it off right away. Lady Dee is so full of energy, and has a very generous heart. When she heard that I was wanting to move here to TN, she immediately told me that I could stay at her house as long as I needed. So this is where I landed! I live in a 4 bedroom house with 6 other people, and I'm not related to any of them. However, I feel quite at home here. I think in a way its comforting to all of us to live in a full house. All of us, except Lady Dee, have grown up in families with several kids and are used to living with the noise of other people in the house. Its also interesting that with all these people in the house - I'm the only person who owns a PC and also the only person who eats meat (the rest are all vegetarians). Weird eh? Hopefully this lends you some insight into my environment. :)

a new music interest...

I was catching up on some of my blog-reading, and saw this post at the Common Room. I really liked the music, so I looked up the artist - Lenka on iTunes and on YouTube. I found this other music video from Lenka, which I thought very creative. So I decided to share... unfortunately I can only post the link.

the song is The Show by Lenka.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

The Country Music Hall of Fame

One of my friends heard on the radio the other day that the Country Music Hall of Fame was going to be open to the public for free on saturday. A group of us decided to go, since it was free why not right? I had been curious about the hall/museum since I got here in Nashville, but didn't want to pay the ticket price to go. Some of the old stage outfits from various famous country music singers were quite unusual and Elvis's solid gold cadillac and gold piano were something else. The Williams Family Legacy exhibit was interesting as I didn't know much about Hank Williams Jr. and even less about his father. It was neat to see the Hall of Fame room with all the plaques hanging on the wall in this round room where everyone has equal status. However, I'm glad I didn't pay the $20 it would have been on a normal day. here are a few pictures I took while there...

Funeral Processions

Last week, my best friend (I'll call her BarlowGirl or BG for short) and me were on our way to do a little shopping, just the two of us. It was nice to get out of the house for a bit, and we were chatting away as I was driving. All the sudden we saw two police cars with blue and green flashing lights coming toward us. I turned to BG and said "that was odd", and looked again and noticed a white hurse following the police cars and then a whole line of cars following the hurse. Ahead of us cars were stopped or pulled over, and I couldn't understand what was going on. Noticing my face, BG laughed and said "You think this is weird too right?". I looked at her, and replied "What is this? and why is everyone stopping?". BG then proceeded to explain that it was a funeral procession and that down here in the South people stop or pull over to show respect for the dead and the family. She also told me that the first time she saw this was in Alabama when her and her husband had first gotten married, she thought it was strange too. They just don't do that out West.
A couple days ago I was riding with one of my co-workers to lunch, and she was telling me about the day before when she went to the post office. There had been a funeral procession with police cars at the front, but none at the back and she got mixed up in the procession because she didn't know where it ended. I proceeded to share my funeral procession story, and how I thought it was strange. She was so shocked that I had never seen anything like that before (she was born and raised here in TN), she proceeded to ask me, "If they don't do that in WA, then how do the people get to the cemetery for the burial?". As if there was no other way! I told her that everyone just drives there... with no police escort. She was so flabbergasted by what I told her.
I do have to say, I'm glad BG was with me the first time I saw this funeral procession so that now I understand how to behave when I see another one.