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Settling in…

Paco and I are doing good. it’s a little crazy that we don’t have high speed internet, cell phone service, cable, or even a home phone at the present, but we’ve been spending a lot more time together, walking the dog twice a day, playing in the woods, and avoiding unpacking all of our house.We are five miles short of receiving DSL. Hopefully they’ll drag those cables just a bit further, but if not, we’ll be okay. Dial up at workis not as slow as I had thought, though you do have to let someone know that you’re getting on so that they get off…crazy how much i took that T1 connection for granted back at Mars Hill!The house is great. It’s more than great, it’s fabulous!!! I love it. It has a porch swing, neat interior, and a cute kitchen. We’ve had fungetting it squared away.My sewing room is fabulous as well. I ‘ll post pics of the house once we get it cleaned up and unpacked…The best part is being so close the woods. We can walk out our kitchen door and in two minutes be out in the forest. We hiked up to these big limestone boulders the other day and played there. Graham loves this place!And there are elk! Big Furry Elk! All over the place.Mom, Dad, Jason, Jill, Fox, my cousin Elizabeth, our friend Joe, Paco’s brother Ryan, and me and Paco all moved us in. It was great to have everyone here for our move and right before our birthday. It made all the difference.I’m not used to being off the matrix, but can see good in it. seems like things are a little slower here. Paco and i went hiking and played outside, only to find that it was 2 o’clock when we got back. we had done so much already throughout the day, and it was only 2 o’clock!!!crazy.i bought myself a wristwatch for my birthday. it’s the first watch i’ve had in 4 years, since i didn’t have a cellphone to keep time for me!i think i like my job. it’s a little too soon to know exactly what i’ll be doing, but i think it will go well. i like my boss and my coworkers, and the environment is great!my email is the same. Paco has a cell we can use off the mountain down in harlan.

 

 

Foxie, The Darling Nephew

So if you know me, really at all, then you will know how much I love my little nephew! He’s such an adorable little stinker. Here’s some recent photographs from his mommy, my dear sister in law Jill!

 

Here, Fox is fishing for beer cans out of Uncle Kelly’s recycling! What a little scavenger!

Foxie is learning to play the drums on Mom and Dad’s new drumset! Look at how well he holds the drumsticks, all on his own! He was such a pro that day…

 

ACR Class Reunion- Back in Black…

So I went to my high school reunion this past Saturday night. It was not like what I expected… I half expected a lot of childishness and clique-type behavior. What I found was how good it was to see people that I had known since kindergarten, how neat it was to see who people ended up with, what they looked like, what their lives were like!

I really had a lot of emotional response after the event. I was very aware, after it was all over of all the emotional energy I picked up and had attached to me. To know that all of us are in the “Saturn Returns” phase of our life, and we are all, on some level, reconciling our choices and our behaviors was very energetically apparent to me. Now I know some of you reading this may not buy into my “woooish” thoughts, but there’s no denying how high the divorce rates are during the “Saturn returns” faze, and you could definitely do the math with our folks at the reunion and see the reality in the high divorce rates…

I’m not condemning anyone that has gotten divorced. On the contrary, I think that it’s important to accept and realize that we simply are not who we once were, and that it’s better to figure out ourselves, our mission in life, and the lessons we need to learn.

My thoughts on this apply, I think, range from the most successful person in the room to the person with the most to overcome. We all are in this process, we are all challenged with making ourselves be more real, more genuine.

At this reunion, I tried really hard to not ask, “what do you ‘do’ (WHAT A LOADED QUESTION IS THAT)” or “are you married,” or “where did you go to school”… of course I slipped up and asked this kind of thing a couple times, but I consciously didn’t want to do that. Most people volunteered that information, anyway, if they wanted you to know it. I wanted to (and tried to) ask questions like “are you happy now?” “Where are you finding happiness?” I heard lots of stories about divorces and separation from children and sadness. I know people could take one look at me and judge me, to know that I had sadness and frustration because of the evidence of my obvious weight gain. I’m okay with that. My weight gain is not a sign of weakness, like I used to think it was, but rather a sign of reality, a sign of how one can easily set aside their health and body while wrestling with other matters. I hope that it’s like the worn out velveteen rabbit who just wanted to be real, to be loved. I hope that the one good thing that could come from getting heavy is that it’s forced me to take a real hard look and see myself for my strengths and my flaws.

The one thing that really stayed with me at this reunion (after I had time to start thinking it through) is that many of us have sold our souls, on some level, and traded our freedom and pursuit of our dreams for comfort, for security. My friend Heidi pointed out that the reunion-anxiety was not about confronting old friends and acquaintances, but really about confronting our old selves, and seeing if we measure up to what we had intended to become. I’ve thought alot about that, and hope that others are thinking about this too… I hope that everyone there is now thinking about how true to themselves have they remained, how focused they have been on fulfilling their dreams, and how driven they are to revisit those old dreams and ideas and to make peace with them. I hope that we, as adults, can make room for ourselves, as well as others, and trust that we’re all in process. Regardless of our social markers of success, and that someone with a tiny income and no “degrees” may be alot closer to this then someone with six figure salaries and prestige. None of those degrees or dollars really mean anything, really, and may prove more harmful than good in the long run, if they distract us from fulfilling our dreams and becoming powerful loving and kind people.

Enough for now. That was an exciting whirlwind of interaction. I am sending love to everyone I saw, hoping and praying that they all find peace, balance, creativity, love, comfort and personal power.

 

Cheap Airfare!

Oh mi gosh, I’ve just found the best website for finding airfare! Farecast.com is a great site for finding the cheapest flights and has the most intuitive search options…

http://www.farecast.com/

Maybe I’ll be able to afford to travel someday…

 

To Be Nobody But Yourself…

Okay, creepy, but I found this on a stormfront nazi party message board… before you get all creeped out, I was looking on there to find out what they are saying about the resistance in Knoxville, TN that happened today when they had staged a protest around a local horrific murder trial. I lurked for a minute or two, and noticed this quote under one rant about jews or something.

Geez, It’s so creepy to me that the same exact quote that spoke to this neo-nazi could really speak to me! I guess it’s the same how so many different people interpret the bible for whatever the agenda…one book, one billion interpretations. But I was a little uncomfortable that someone in the Klan is also an e.e. cummings fan. I’m an e.e. fan, but definitely not a nazi… how weird!

I think that this is a good reminder that it’s so important that we find the commonailites within us with others, especially those that see the world so differently. If we can find that common thread, perhaps we can find a way to relate to each other, and hope for change, betterment of mankind, and strengthen the bonds of love and fellowship, and work for peace.

 

Ryan Harvey, Concert on YouTube

Found this video of Ryan Harvey, my favorite songwriter these days, playing the best 911 commentary I’ve heard in song in a while.
Check out more Ryan Harvey on the Riot Folk Website.

 Here’s the link to the lyrics to “Was it Worth It?”

 

Blue Ridge Old Time Music Week, 2007

Wow! I had a wonderful week at Blue Ridge Old Time Music Week!!! It was great to reconnect with many of the wonderful people I’ve met over the last 4 years. I really enjoyed meeting new folks and seeing new faces, hearing new tunes! I had the wonderful opportunity to take Alice Gerrard’s Country Music Singing Class, and learned quite a few new great songs.

I’m joyous and singing like a lark!

(Photograph Taken By Kristalyn Bunyan)

 

Mother’s Day Project

Made this wallhanging for my mom for Mother’s Day… I hope she likes it as much as I do. I was really excited about making this one. I made it out of various scraps of fabric in my stash…