So far, married life has been pretty good.  Okay, it's been a lot like being single except with slightly more daily paperwork while we name each other as pension beneficiaries, open a joint savings account, plan travel for the next several months, write thank-you notes, etc.  Basically, though, I spend all my time running, teaching, practicing, ( Read more... )

I'm in Upper Michigan right now, planning a wedding.  For Thursday.  My mom is flying in, but otherwise it's nothing particularly elaborate.  I'll have to go back to Oklahoma on Friday.  Very short honeymoon, but definitely an entire shoebox full of love letters.

Okay, go.

Today, after an exhausting weekend of being my mom's stand partner on viola for two rehearsals and two concerts, I woke up early and went with my dad to church.  We try to do this about once a year.  Basically just drop in somewhere (if he's substituting as organist, that's where we go, but otherwise it's to one of a group of churches where we're ( Read more... )

Things normal stand partners don't normally say :

"FIX IT!" really loudly, when the wind blows the music during the concert.

"Don't encourage her," when another musician pays a compliment.

"Is it raining?  Is it raining?"  five minutes later, "Is it raining?" while you're trying to read alto clef.

"I know you can't see the music and are hitting the ( Read more... )

Yesterday morning, I arrived in Delaware from Atlanta at approximately 4 AM.  It was a long, exhausting drive, but I did get to wave at the Washington Monument and the Capitol as I came through Washington, D.C.  I also spent a fair bit of time being followed by a creepy truck with a big, lighted cross on its front grill.  It was even scarier than ( Read more... )

This is the post I promised to make about the radio station I met in Memphis.  It played SO MANY awesome songs I'd never heard before, mixed in with Elizabeth's Old Favorites, like Queen, the Police, and Cake.  Woohoo!  I stuck a piece of paper to my dashboard and took notes, so that I could find these songs again:

Click to view

Click to view

Click to view

Click to view

Oh, and you know what else is ( Read more... )

This morning I left Little Rock at 7 AM, heading east on 40.  As I came into Memphis, I fell in love with the World's Greatest Radio Station, 91.6 The Pig.  I will post an entirely separate entry about this at a later date.

As I was leaving Memphis, I realized I had missed Highway 78, the apparent hypotenuse of a triangle of highways all headed ( Read more... )

With a month of all-bills-paid free time, four new tires, and too many vacation options to choose just one, I've begun a three-week road trip up and down the eastern US.  Thanks especially to the two dear friends who are cat-, plant-, and house-sitting for me over the next three weeks!

Yesterday morning, while fielding umpteen last-minute phone ( Read more... )

I believe that by the end of May, I will have earned enough money to pay my mortgage, car insurance, and car payments through the end of the summer.  This leaves health insurance, medical bills (that I think I can have severely reduced for a while, since I have a very good payment history and since it will be a temporary unemployment), utility ( Read more... )

I just found out my cousin died over the weekend in a winter hiking accident in upstate New York.  He had been trying to walk out to get help for his injured hiking partner, who survived.  His body was brought down on Monday.

( Read more... )