Oh Relief, I'm off to LEAF!

Apologies for the Seussian post titles I've come up with lately, I'm so creative. More apologies for bad alliteration and heavy use of italics. I love the italic feature.

Scott & Emerson left for LEAF festival (Lake Eden Arts Festival) in Black Mountain, NC on Monday, May 7. I haven't seen my husband in three days, will be four when we get there. I'm aware that's not a vast expanse of time, but Scott and I are not good apart. We like being together. We're a real happily married couple, we're not faking. Now that's established, let's move on.
Scott has been teaching music workshops to kids ages K-6 all week and will perform at LEAF tomorrow night. Emerson, the boy in the hat, has hung out at the festival sight in the mornings and helped as needed while Scott taught. Last night Em spent the night with a new friend.

Spencer, who has promised to finish mowing the lawn before we leave (with a push mower--we're still old school at the Perry farm), will discreetly and overtly take notes on my driving habits on our way to join Scott and Emerson tomorrow before the performance. We'll then have LEAF festival weekend together, not to mention Mother's Day spent with my three guys.

Our client will spend the weekend with respite back-up worker and blogger extraordinaire, Colleen Redman, to whom we'll owe a debt of gratitude and greenbacks. Thank you, Colleen.

Golden 5th CD for Scott

Are you familiar with the term 'golden' birthday? I had never heard this term until we moved to Minnesota when I was in high school. It only happens during your first 28 to 31 years--this should give you a clue--as you celebrate the birthday age of your actual birth date. I was born on the 25th, so my golden birthday was when I turned 25.

My husband released his golden 5th CD on May 5 with a party at the Floyd Country Store. Just like you've heard stories that the best and most solid marriages often experience a slight 'snafu' during the wedding ceremony (ours did--Scott's mom lit our unity candle then quickly blew it out and my mom walked between us on her way back from lighting her candle--captured on video 18 years ago), CD release parties work the same way.

After a lengthy sound check and getting the mics to match the corresponding number on the sound board, guess what? No sound--right when Scott was ready to kick off the evening to the awaiting public. It was a full house--not quite like on Jamboree night, but close. Tom Ohmsen (owner of Flat 5 Studios in Salem) was present and saved the day. Thank you, Tom. He's used to multi-channel sound boards and fancy systems, he tweaked this and that, and took the levels to the max. He made it work so Scott and his crew of musicians could 'get by' and the evening began.

After a couple of frayed nerves (mine more than Scott's), it was a raging success. You missed a special evening if I didn't see you in attendance. Many people think they've heard Scott's repertoire a time or three before. You haven't heard what he played last night. He played new solo material off his new CD 8 Miles to Perryville as well as playing with two new groups that he now fronts. The first, Front Porch Swing (I love the word play, every time I say the name it makes me happy), features Bill Adams (dobro) and Bob Thomas (upright bass). They play country swing and old time rag, including songs like "Dream a Little Dream of Me." It turns out that my husband, the blues guy, can croon. The second group, New Dominion Ramblers, features Tom Ohmsen (mandolin) and Dylan Locke (upright bass) and they play an assortment of jazz and other good stuff. Scott is truly enjoying stretching himself and learning new material.

I may not be 100% accurate with the band genre, but I know what I like and my listening ears, dancing feet, swayin' hips and the rest of me had a heckuva time Saturday night.

Thank you to all the people who came out to support Scott. Thanks also to Amy Adams for videotaping the performances.

[Pictures were taken but haven't yet been uploaded. Soon!]

St. Patrick's Day and more

March hasn't been so hot for my writing process, but it's been great for being sick. Spencer caught the flu when I returned from Georgia, then Emerson followed with a cold and 103.7 degree fever for three nights accompanied by lingering congestion and cough. I succumbed to a cold after taking care of them. Somehow Scott managed to stay healthy, despite my waking him up at night when hacking and reaching for yet another delicious cough drop. Our client is healthy, his bedroom is downstairs and he has less exposure to our germs. Today we've turned the corner, I feel almost healthy.

St. Patrick's Day is a national holiday in my mind, we all wore green today and I didn't have to ask. Scott arrived home from work with a Guinness for us to quaff with the homemade pizza he made. I love St. Patrick's Day because I believe I have an Irish soul. I'm 100% German (my great-greats hail from Germany), but as my husband the history buff tells me, long before the land was Germany it was occupied by Celts. This works for me. The local PBS station and IFC (Independent Film Channel) played Irish themed shows; we taped "Visions of Ireland" for the next time I need an Ireland "fix," and a great movie starring Richard Harris, "The Field". We considered going out to celebrate the holiday, but with snow flurries on and off all day, we chose to stay inside and keep warm.

While eating pizza, we cheered on VCU (Virginia Commonwealth) in the NCAA tourney, but no upset last night. Tomorrow we'll see how UVA and VT do, whether they'll advance or not. We enjoy watching sports, but we're selective. We like football, the NCAA basketball tournament, the Tour de France, and the Olympics. My family is from Indiana, so we have a long history of attending or watching The Indy 500. The last 20 years we've watched during the annual Memorial weekend relative-a-thon.

I make no promises, but I'll get back on the productive blogging track I was on earlier this year. I'm expecting the book Getting Things Done in the mail any day. We'll talk about that subject in future posts.

[St. Patrick at Croagh Patrick, driving the snakes out of Ireland. Photo by Pat O'Connor.]

Billy Joel and Family, Too

It's been a week since my last post. I was on a roll then faltered in late February. Sometimes life is like that; you move forward at a quick pace only to realize that you need a breather now and then.

I celebrated March 1--the first day of the new month I was looking forward to--by attending a Billy Joel concert in Atlanta with my sister. It wasn't planned that way, but my sister called the week before to say she'd won free tickets on a radio station to the concert. Believe it or not, I turned her down when she offered me the ticket. I didn't think I could get away; I had a work-related meeting on March 2 and wondered how my busy husband could juggle taking care of our client with giving guitar lessons at his music store. It was my husband who said "You're going, you need a break," and called back my sister to say his wife would take that ticket after all. He is a smart guy, I'm so glad I married him. When I mentioned the concert to my program manager, she said "You'd turn down a Billy Joel concert for a stupid meeting?" What meeting?

I drove to Georgia with Emerson along for company. We drove through heavy fog and rain, but safely arrived at my sister's home. The concert was that night and it was outstanding. I haven't been to a concert in two decades, but from my foggy memory this was up there with the best. He played most all of his hits; I forgot how many Billy Joel tunes I had known, listened and danced to over the years. There were even a few that I didn't know like "Vienna" from 1971 (when I was all of nine years old). Emerson, now 11 1/2, had no clue who Billy Joel was and asked about him. I couldn't describe him nor his music, just that he had 30 hit songs. Emerson had never heard of him since they don't play much Billy Joel on NPR. When I want to hear something more upbeat, I turn the dial to 98.7 (Simon). Their motto is We Play Everything, except they've never played a Billy Joel song now that I'm thinking about it, so they aren't really playing everything, are they? They play a mix of popular hits from the 60's through today and put together a random shuffle of songs you'd never hear anywhere else. The songs that you forgot you used to like; songs from your high school and college days, and when the boys were toddlers, and all the years in between and since. But no Billy Joel.

Emerson and I had a lazy Friday in Georgia with my sister (his Aunt Laura) going out to lunch at my brother-in-law Steve's restaurant and a low-key night at home having dinner with my niece and nephews. Emerson had big fun playing hide-and-seek and other games with his cousins who are still the age that they enjoy playing games. This isn't to say that Emerson's older brother, Spencer, is a big poop at almost-17, but it is true that he has moved beyond playing hide-and-seek. It happens.

On Saturday, we woke up to a rooster's crow. My sister and brother-in-law live in a new subdivision in Gainesville, but their property has a farm (of sorts) behind them. The guy keeps cows and several roosters; apparently one of the roosters was kicked out of the rooster clan and now resides in my sister's back yard. Hearing the crow reminded me of our beloved rooster, Fox, who died last May and lived on our farm for three years. After a while you tune out early morning crowing as it becomes something your brain accepts as normal and you sleep until the alarm clock turns on. This day, the rooster's crow was a natural wake-up call. Emerson and I got ready to leave as my sister and her family got ready to drop off my nephews at their Tae Kwan Do class.

It was a brief visit and we were ready to get home. The drive was uneventful, we had great weather, and Floyd County's hills never looked so good--not to mention my husband's handsome face.

[Sorry, I blew it. Didn't take pictures the entire trip. Billy Joel photo courtesy of: http://pomomusings.com/2007/03/02/billy-joel-at-atlantas-philips-arena/]

...but Seriously

I began writing this post Thursday, January 11th, but life got in the way. In my work as Foster Care Provider, you never know what will happen. I was finishing my previous post when the phone rang, it was the substitute Case Worker (social worker) who had tried to visit my client at work. He usually works on Thursday, but last week it was preplanned for him to work on Friday. The Case Worker was on her way back from his employer and wanted to stop in for a 'surprise visit'. I'm not fond of surprise visits. Imagine your long-distance relatives calling to let you know they'll be at your house in fifteen minutes. Well, it's not quite that bad. You welcome their visit, but because you knew in advance you cleaned your house, right? Thankfully, I had vacuumed that morning, but areas of the house were, let's say, off-limits. Surprise visits come with this job; I experience one every other month from my Program Manager, but she gives clues to narrow it down to a few days. It's still a surprise but not 100%. The visit went well with the Case Worker. I met someone new (she has two kids and her oldest daughter is the same age as my oldest son) and my client enjoyed seeing someone whom he's known for many years.

Now let's get to my post. After a few lighthearted entries I am turning to my serious side, to my true nature. In fact, my 6th grade teacher, Mr. James Alexander, wrote in my end of year autograph book that I was "too serious." He had me pegged at age 11. My husband naturally jokes and teases people with ease and makes light of problems. Not me. I'm the sober, pensive, stern, and, some would say, humorless one. No! It can't be, yet it is. My husband and I are very yin-yang and good for each other; he makes me lighten up and relax, whereas I think I help him see the solemn side (and to live within a budget--which is truly a severe and weighty matter). [Thanks to Roget's New Millennium Thesaurus.]

The somber subject on my mind is the war in Iraq. It began March 19, 2003, almost four years ago and less than a week after (oldest son) Spencer's 13th birthday. Fast forward four years. Spencer is soon to be 17 and we as individuals, and as a nation, never dreamed that the war would be going strong--and picking up steam--four years later. On January 10th, President Bush addressed the nation, he stated that he wanted to commit another 21,000 troops to Iraq. If this comes to pass, by the time the troops arrive overseas, the war will be in its 5th year. If you disagree with sending more troops to Iraq, please take five minutes to speak out. Call or write an email or letter to your Congressperson or member of the U.S. Senate. Let them know your opinion. You can be in support of the troops who are over there without supporting the war and without supporting President Bush's plan to bring another 21,000 troops to Iraq. Like countless other families, I have a cousin currently stationed in Iraq and my husband, Scott, had a cousin stationed in Afghanistan a few years ago. Everyone knows somebody who is or has been stationed in Iraq or knows someone else who has family stationed in Iraq. The war in Iraq touches us all, as any long-term war does.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Senator Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) support President Bush's plan, but I was thankful hear a strong dissenting opinion from Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence Committee.

“I am opposed to the escalation of American involvement in Iraq, including more U.S. troops. This is a dangerously wrong-headed strategy that will drive America deeper into an unwinnable swamp at a great cost. It is wrong to place American troops into the middle of Iraq’s civil war. It is not in America’s national interest to increase our troop presence in Iraq. The President’s strategy will cost more American lives, sink us deeper into the bog of Iraq making it more difficult to get out, cost billions of dollars more, further strain an American military that has already reached its breaking point, further diminish America’s standing in the Middle East, and continue to allow the Iraqis to walk away from their responsibilities. The fate of Iraq will be determined by the Iraqis—not the Americans. We have already given four years, thousands of lives, and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to Iraq."

The photo was taken when Senator Hagel visited Nebraska troops in Iraq while leading a Congressional Delegation to the Middle East in November. (Pictured left to right) Lt. Col. Gary Krupa, USAF, Senator Hagel and Lt. Col. Stephen Graf, USAF.

To read the remainder of Sen. Hagel's statement, please go here.