don't go chasing waterfalls

andrew and i went to Multnomah Falls today... an amazingly large and majestic waterfall. we hiked up the icy trail tot the bridge that is right in front of the waterfall. we got drenched.

and i slapped andrew in front of people.

it was a grand time, we played in the snow, throwing snowballs, you know? i kept firing them at him and hitting him and he kept missing me. ;) you know? like it was so cold... you know?

Merry Christmas Eve GingerPeople

yes. tonight michelle and i made gingerbread people, men and women, children and donkeys, cats and sheep, yup and i even made a baby jesus. i ate him. he was yum.

i kinda combined two recipes.

it's weird but i'm starting to not like chocolate as much as i always have. i got my favorite icecream and found out it's not my favorite anymore. hmm. i was pretty surprised, it's been my fav for so long.

well here is a visual for ya'll. we made more than this but, here is our ginger-family. especially made thinking of our other roomie Amanda who is not with us but with her very tall family. notice that the ginger-husband is ginger shorter than the ginger wife :) hah. i love you amanda, and there IS a man out there taller than you! i'm gonna find him!


he may be shorter but he's so muscle-ly. we didn't forget the kitty too, see? 4 chillen. 2 boys, 2 girls. your dream family, with little Ella jr.

Merry Christmas

Camellia Christmas

Corr and I played at the Camellia Lounge in the Pearl last night, and it was so gooood. Breanna and Justin performed before us and their voices were like a heaven cream soup. Blended so wonderfully and goes down the pipe with ease. Beautiful.

it was one of those shows where it just feels... good, to be in the moment, there with my whole self and mind and it just feels so... warm.

i loved playing "what child is this" with her on the flute and i on banjo. uh.

i had the northern italian panini with bacon, it's a vegetarian sandwhich loaded with wonderful foods like tomato, artichoke hearts, and onion, and other yum vegetables. and then, i go and add bacon. i dont' know, it's the only time i ever eat it really. and it's yum. with a cranberry vodka cocktail, mmm. that place is awesome because they feed their artists and give a percentage of the bar tab which is a lot more than a lot of places do for their entertainment/enrichment for the night.

we spent the night at a friends house and cuddled with Ferggy, their 15lb kitty who's not fat at all. oh, and Orlando Bloom.

His face was on a pillow. nice pillow it was. but sorry Orlando, you're just not my type.

sun down again

i keep biting my lip in the same spot. ouch.

sometimes when i see the sun go down, i think, well Valeri you've wasted another day of your life, what are you doing??

good morning!

remember i said it was snowing, and it kept snowing and over night we got about 4-6 inches! it's beautiful, still freezing.

We're listening to classic christmas music as i even type right now... you know, the goods, Bing Crosby, Dean oh Dean, and other famous voices.

here's our back yard


i think i like the snow more so because it won't last all winter... i don't know if i could handle snow all the time. all my shoes have holes in them. well, i do love looking at it! from my warm and cozy living room.


hi Correen. as far as i know, you are the only person to read this stupid blog blog blog. i don't really know why i do this.

i've always preferred to keep my thoughts to myself, i suppose that's why i only tell of little things that happen. like snow. there are a select few whom i divulge my secret thoughts to. yes, i used the word divulge, i'm surprised as well.

i hope the weather is better for driving by friday because i really want to play my last christmas show in Portland at the Camellia Lounge.

it should be nice, just me on my guitar/banjo/piano and Correen on the piano/toy piano/flute and maybe Jon on the trumpet and a little saxophone by Noah.

I see BLUE SKY!

snowing snowing snowing ok.

it's snowing!

we just went for a walk in the freshly fallen snow, and it was so light outside for being nighttime. the snow really reflects all the light and it felt like a dream. a very chilly beautiful dream.

we decorated our tree too, after we had cut it down ourselves and this time it wasn't my butt crack that showed while cutting the tree down.

jackson youth center funds raiser

i did the finishing touches today on the paintings I'll be submitting this friday to sell and help raise money for the jackson youth center in Corvallis OR! I can't wait, a few good bands/artists will be playing their music whilst people mingle and silently bid on whatever piece of art they want to take home.

I'm not performing and i'm kinda looking forward to that.

here's a couple pics of what i've done





you remember that face from before that i started? well here it is:





this is a Maiko (Geisha in Training)
I was inspired to paint her because the other night I was talking to a very cute japanese girl by the name of Miyu. She's heading back to Japan in a few days, she was living here going to school for a semester, here we are at my favorite local coffee shop


and of course I'll be selling those beanies.

then saturday I have the special christmas concert, i'll be debuting the christmas song i wrote at 9pm sharp after Ezra Carey performs. i like his music, you should definitely check it out, it's not normal. in a very good way.

www.myspace.com/ezracareymusic

goodnight.
ezra carey

ok that's all for now, there's one more piece of artwork i'll be showing, but not selling. show ya tomorrow. goodnight.

they put christmas lights up at my favorite coffee shop. the bean. this was at the monroe shop. i like white christmas lights.

i forgot to tell you

it's quite funny...

you know when a girl wears a skirt with tights and she goes to the bathroom and while pulling up the tights tucks the skirt into them without knowing it and then walks out of the bathroom unsuspecting of anything mortifying?

well that was me. TWICE.

the first time my mom caught me and i laughed.

the second time, it was at the portland airport. i realized it right when i got oustide the bathroom and fixed it quick BUT when i turned around there was a guy smiling and chuckling so i just shrugged my shoulders to him and laughed. again.

well well ok.
i'm back in OR now. in Portland.
at the camellia lounge, i usually stop by here when i'm in town.
i just got in on a flight from LAX. why can't we be in two places at once? no matter i'll be back down there in a month. geez.

i took some pictures of a couple beanies i made, and one with Selah a dog. our baby.
i made a bunch of beanies to sell at the art/music show we're having in a couple of weeks to raise money for a kid's program in town. I made around 8 this week.




It was my birthday last week, on tuesday, and my mom got me polaroid film!!! and a couple other friends are getting me more, which means a lot to me cause they don't make it anymore. thanks guys, love you!

that's the rocking chair that I used to sit in when I was but 2 years old watching my then favorite movies of all time, never ending story and the adventures of Natty Gan. The first one had a flying Dog, and the second is about a girl who takes off across the country searching for I think her father with her best friend, a WOLF.


I could sit cross legged in that chair with plenty of extra room. and my mom made the afgan on it- that blanket and chair are older than me!


sometimes i really don't know what i'm going to do with myself.
sometimes i feel like i can do anything in the world and then all i want to do is crawl into bed and hide from the world.

dreaming is risky.

but... life would be boring without
it's better to try and fail than to never do anything at all.

failing sucks. oh well here i go.

Happy Thanksgiving ya'll. you all.

I'm thankful for a lot of things in my life, i guess even for the blessing to be breathing, walking and singing. I do enjoy those three things very much.

For my diverse and crazy family.

Selah, the dog.

sunshine.

rainy clouds.

birds singing.

and many more things, and i know that when we are blessed and have much it's important we give to the needy and take care of people who have not. that's really been on my mind... did you know that only 8% of the population of the whole earth have cars. or is it 2%, i dont' know, something crazy like that.

other people outside of western culture living think if you have a car you are RICH.

i want to be apart of it, bringing awareness and moving people to action.

i can think about something all i want but unless i take action, it really doesn't matter.

you know, sometimes i think i like being sad. some days i just wake up and feel so down and out. and although it sucks, at the same i revel in it and feel it to the most.

plus i now have hope so i know the sadness doesn't last forever and sometimes i just have to wait it out.

i do seem to write good songs when i feel this way.

i don't feel that way today, right now, but i was just thinking about it. but...
you never know.

my friend says i'm like the weather, we change so quickly and we're predictable but not at all.

today is my birthday.

happy birthday to me.

yay.

i guess.

I painted today, a girl's face. It's not done.



My birthday, it's on Tuesday the twenty fifth of November... today my friends and I had some birthday sushi and I got my favorite, Waikiki: salmon, yellowtail, avocado, unagi, smelt wrapped in rice and nori. mmm. a year ago I wouldn't have touched the stuff.

Whenever I go on walks, these poems and rhymes come to my mind. I think i'll bring a recorder next time. When the sun is shining and the rain is breaking I go into the forest and listen.

I usually do this, you know where you start doing something and consistently, like blogging, and then you stop for a very long time and then come back to it every once in awhile. I don't really like to talk too much in person so I don't know why I ever thought I would blog all the time. I'm kinda tired. I have to work at 6am tomorrow morning. I found a girl, she plays piano flute and mandolin, I'm teaching her guitar and I'm sure she could play anything she gets her hands on. We're performing my songs on dec 13th, a sort of special christmas concert. We're gonna totally deck the halls but not really. I might even have a man play trumpet for me. I think it will be fun.

paint, painted, painting

I painted today, nothing special, it was all about color. oil paint i used. i painted in the sun under a clear blue sky. it was wonderful. very wonderful.

Christmas

i like christmas music. really i do. very much. now is a bout the time i start listening to it because it loses all it's magic on december 26.

i wrote a christmas song! i think i'll call it "just another christmas song"
there will be sleigh bells a-ringing. it will debut at my show on the 13th of december.

oh goodness.

i'm going to take some pictures of the leaves today in Corvallis because i really want you to see this, the colors are extraordinary and i know my little digital won't do any justice. but that's okay.

lovelove

our kitty Ella ella ella eh eh eh under my umb...

Ella likes to lay on your left shoulder and hug you with her paws and wrap herself around the back of your neck. She's a sweetheart.

oh boy so...

oh man oh man... I've been out of OR for a long time and I just got back this week. Back to fresh crisp freezing air and wonderful fluffy clouds. Aaawwww. When I had left so long ago late july I went on a tour with Andrea Hamilton. Here's a blog I meant to post almost two months ago. ok.

Also, I'm going to try and write more often to you. Try being the key word.

July-August blog:
Hello. I have many things to tell you. I’ve had so much fun on this tour with Andrea. www.myspace.com/andreahamiltonmusic
We have been so blessed.

LOS ANGELS, CA

We kicked off the tour in L.A. my hometown, sort of. We played Zephyr Café and then at Room 5 in Hollywood (which by the way is a sweet place to perform at even though some of my merch was stolen- at least they have my music I guess) we shared the stage with Owen Roberts.
He had a good slide guitarist accompanying him, Greg Peters. He might record slide guitar for my next project!

www.myspace.com/owenroberts


SANTA CRUZ, CA

Oh goodness were we treated to some genuine honest to goodness great music. Travis Oberg has one of those voices that is just so, good and soothing. I always loved listening to him and his guitar next to a campfire. Or regular fire in a house too. Just anywhere next to fire really. So we opened for him at Cava Wine Bar in Capitola CA(just south of santa cruz. If you’re in that area check out that place it’s full of delicious wine. Andrea and I ate our Hawaiian dinner on the beach, surrounded by evil seagulls waiting to attack us for our food! But luckily, a young man, well a 10 yr old boy, chased them all away. That was a close one.

www.myspace.com/saltwatermerchants


I’d have to say one of my favorite nights was when we opened for FUTURE OF FORESTRY. We were sandwhiched in between two great bands. NOBILITY OBLIGED opened the night, followed by us, then FOF closed the night. FOF is amazing live, they play all sorts of crazy instruments like… a couple of my favs, the theramin and the vibraphone! And others. Andrea and I did well too, we made the crowd laugh, I like it when that happens. After the show we had homemade pizza at TJs’ parents’ house(he’s in FOF) so good. Mmm. I had a fajita pizza on wheat dough. They were so hospitable. And fun.

www.myspace.com/futureofforestry
www.myspace.com/nobilityobliged



LAKE DON PEDRO: this was weird

So the last time I was at Lake Don Pedro, it was I don’t know, seven years ago maybe? Well we get there and I find we’re camping at the same exact site! AND I’m wearing the same red & white striped bathing suit top! Yeah. Weird. We came for the weekend to lead music worship for a church for their “hot water weekend” retreat. The water was so warm. But not really. The air, now that was sooo hot so the water felt so good and not that cold. I had a bullast. I rode a wave-runner with my new friend Shoe(that’s his nickname) I held on to him for dear life, he went so fast and it was SO fun even though I was a little scared, but don’t tell anyone. Well I just kept imagining what it’d be like to fly off at 35 mi an hour. Mhmm. Not a very good image to have. I drove too. We sang songs under the stars and there were a trillion billion million of them cause we were in the middle of no where! I saw many shooting stars. I can’t wait to visit all those people again.


Back in Santa Cruz

I played at the ABBY, and this place is decorated like, oh my goodness, you’d have to see it to feel the coolness. Exactly how I’d want to decorate my living room someday. I’m kind of a vagabond right now but hey someday I might have my own living room, and my own true love aaaah. Ick. But aaaah that would be nice. SO, it had antique looking couches, chairs (but not shabby) neat frames hanging from the ceiling, well if you’re in santa cruz just go there! 350 mission street. It was a great show, well there were some technical difficulties with the sound but we figured it out. AND I saw a few friends I don’t ever get to see. Amy and Mel <3 AND! My two good friends with whom I studied with in Italy, Mari Chan and Nikki! Vi voglio bene!

Oh yeah, I speak Italian and I have a song I’ve written in Italian too- occhi blu pronounced: o-key blue


Andrea and I hung out in downtown Santa Cruz for a couple days until our next show in Stockton. My auntie lives there and she fed us like kings and queens, well I guess just queens cause we’re not men. MMMM she made the best zucchini and other things. Buonissimo! Delicioso! Sooo good! Delicious!
We saw Chinese acrobats at the boardwalk and rode a couple rides like this spinny thing(in the video!) and the ferris wheel. That was my doing, but it took forever to get on the ride so we talked to strangers. We also did a lot of internet work at a place called Bad Ass Coffee. Yeah. That’s really the name.




STOCKTON, CA

Pretty Mama and the Not so Hots opened for us, I liked them. A lot of people didn’t show up but I had a good time. The ones that did were cool people. I saw my old friend Sarah (haven’t seen her for 6 years!) we played D2 volleyball in college together. We were the best. Hah☺ No really. Jk jk. But really yeah. We played at the BOILER ROOM, it’s right on the canal and it’s a really cool place, check it out if you live in Stockton CA.


We played in Redding the next night and stayed the night with Andrea’s roommates mother. The next morning she cooked me some farm fresh eggs, the best over-medium eggs I’ve ever had in my life!


PORTLAND, OR

Back home at the CAMELIA LOUNGE felt so good. You live in Porltand? Go there now! A coffee shop by day and a lounge and bar by night. A bunch of fans who have become my friends came out and brought new people! They are so awesome, you know who you are Christa, Jason, Stephen. I also made a new friend Nader, from Saudi Arabia, he gave me dates. I’m talkin’ Saudi Arabian dates, no sugar added, just naturally dried, they are the most amazing dried fruit I’ve ever tasted. Very sweet and so yum! Thanks Nader. Andrea and I hung out with everyone after the show, first at VooDoo Doughnuts on 3rd street in the Pearl and then at Stephens house in NE Portland.

CAMAS, WA

At Twilight Pizza Bistro, seriously one of the best pizza I’ve ever tasted I promise you. If you’re in porltand or Vancouver WA you should go there it’s so worth it. It’s in a cute little place that has live music every Saturday night. And what I love most about this place is that the owners support art, music and pay their musicians to come. They are a breath of fresh air in an industry that wants our talents and art for free. So eat there, it’s delicious.

A friend of Andrea is working at a college nearby and she brought a bunch of awesome people with her. Thanks for coming ya’ll!

www.twlightpizzabistro.com

And we stayed the night with a friend of mine who has a handsome husband and two adorable imaginative children. Well she’s a fox so I’m not surprised her husband is good looking as well. And he makes the best apple sauce chocolate chip cookies ever. She’s actually an amazing photographer, check her out and hire her:

www.shannonsewell.com

CORVALLIS, OR

So now we’ve been in Corvallis since Sunday and it’s been so nice to be home for awhile. Well my home. Andrea loves it too. We rode our bikes the other night to the theater to watch The Dark Knight with Christian Bale. We had been waiting the whole tour for this, and it did not disappoint. It was a little weird though, knowing Heath Ledger is no longer alive. But he did an excellent job portraying the joker. We rode home after midnight, just us two on the streets. We were talking of how we’d never do this in LA! Yeah. Never.

We have a show tomorrow night at Bombs Away Café, then Saturday morning at the farmer’s market, then we head back to Cali to finish the tour. I’m planning on performing at the 3rd street promenade(an outdoor mall) in Santa Monica, CA for all of September and some of October! So I’ll be in LA for quite awhile. I’ll miss OR and my friends here but I’m looking forward to this new adventure. I no longer have a “day job” … so this is it! I’m not sure where my income will come from in the next few months, if I’ll even have one but I feel so peaceful about it because I trust that God will provide for my needs. It’s his time so it’s the perfect time.

phew, that's all.

long time no write

wow, it's been a whole month since my last entry and much has happened. kind of.

I went white water rafting and tandem kayaking for the first time in my life! In the kayak we wiped out in a class 3 or 4 rapid called Brown's Hole on the Mckenzie River in OR. We got stuck under the water, under the kayak for a little bit. It was weird. But we survived and got back in the kayak after being saved by our friends in the raft.

Then two or so weeks later I went camping at the Rogue River in Southern OR to kayak with Michelle, her niece, and two other awesome families. We spent about 4 days out on the river and I kayaked all by myself and had a grrreat time! They said the river is "warm", the warmest in OR. Well it may be the warmest in OR but it is by no means what one would call warm. But it did feel good because it was HOT in the air world. We swung from a rope into the water like tarzan and i got a little bit of poison oak. Just a littttle. Like two spots on my leg. Everyone wanted to eat the food we brought cause it was so yum and we cook yum. we be good yum cooks. Michelle and I. Michelle is also my roommate.

Oh yeah! we recently decorated the spare bedroom and it looks fabulous. I'll get a picture up for you.

Is anyone out there??

midnight cherry pickin'

a friend and i picked cherries off someone's tree in their front yard. at night. we made our getaway on our cruisers, one purple, one green.




it was magnificent.

I'll take one wife here and another wife there

My friend Michelle recently bought two hand puppets made in Yemen, a little country at the tip of Saudi Arabia, by a woman who makes and sell these things to support her family. In Yemen, women also follow the guidelines of covering their whole bodies except for the eyes. The woman calls her lady puppets "resilliant spirit" because the women of Yemen are tough in order to survive, they need to be strong to get by. The women dress in all black and the men in all white. How nice that the men have to wear white in such a hot country.

The woman has a husband, he's from Saudi Arabia. He has a wife in Saudi Arabia and she is his wife while he's in Yemen- and maybe he has another one in another country, I don't know. Saudi Arabia is much richer than Yemen, but I learned he doesn't support the Yemen wife, maybe when he's living in Yemen, maybe. But otherwise she's on her own. He just comes and goes when he pleases and when he wants some. This made me mad to learn of these women's lives, mostly because I can't do anything about it directly right now and because I'm so selfish.

bank teller blues

Hello Darling it's been a while I know...

How many times do I have to say my mother's maiden name to the bank teller on the phone for her to understand that it's my mother's only name before she was married?? That just teaches me, don't talk on the phone before 9am. ever.

Chugga Chugga

3:45am The Pullman. chugging along in the brisk night air. cheesy... but true. it's raining. and we're on the train, the Pullman, chugg chugging along. Through the Sierra Nevada lager. ancient writings on the door, from someone out of state but we cracked the code Amy and I did. the beads of water dripped from the old rusting chains. the caboose was a beautiful sorry sight, aged and breaking down. beautiful.

and to finish off this morning adventure, american dream pizza with sun-dried tomato and bacon. at 5am the sky is all ready lightening up, the sun will show it's face soon enough. just in time for me to begin sleeping.

we also had some chocolate. german chocolate.

HAVE A GOOD ONE!

I finally saw it...

anyone i've asked about the movie: the notebook, has said it's amazing, great, so good etc. well i finally saw it this morning while working. it won me over from the start because the main story takes place in the 1940's and i'm very partial to that cultural time with big swing bands! and dancing dancing dancing and the dresses! love that. men that can lead you around on the dance floor, push and twirl you around mmm.

it's an incredible story, i didn't expect that, i had no idea what the movie would be about and i think it is now one of my favorites. it's inspiring, the love he had for her, to stay with her through her dimensia, how after years of love and life together she couldn't recognize him but for brief moments she would remember who she was, who he was and then all of a sudden he'd be a stranger again. his love amazed me. love is a choice. a choice to be self-less.

take that HAH!

At my gym they have karate classes for kids, and the other day I over heard a conversation between two yellow belts and an older purple belt. The yellows were about 8yrs and the purple, probably 10. The convo went something like this...

purple: your belt looks like melted butter!

yellow: no it doesn't!, well... your belt it looks like it looks like a a pur purple perpendicular line wr wrapped around you!







to say the least, it made my day.

Oil Change?

I made skyler get an oil change this last time she was in OR. It was well overdue. We decided to get a goody out of the quarter machine. We wanted the big ol' eyeball...

Thank You CARL SWENSON for the music!!!

DEAR OREGON

How I do love thee so, I wrote you a poem I thought you should know,
everyday i wake up, and think of how I have such luck,
to be here in a place that's green and safe
so what, it rains, and rains and rains, at least it smells good and we all know we should
be thankful for that because water we need and yes it can be a bit melancholy
but trust me, i love it more than smog and all those road hogs down in LA
which by the way is and is not as great as it seems
i mean, i miss the excitement, i miss the beach, but that's okay it's not far out of reach
i visit ever so often for shows, family and such
but like i said, i do love Oregon, i love it very much!

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE?

my favorite. favorite favorite.

I don't watch television but I'm going to make a point to watch this one. mm so good I love watching people dance who can actually dance. i don't love to watch myself really but i do love dancing!

flash flash

Tonight, I was on a balcony during the intermission of a play at the West End Theatre in the Pearl District of Portland... (Paul you were an outstanding villain)
the sun had settled behind the hill leaving the sky a glow with such vibrant golden yellow rays, illuminating the clouds so, so, uhh it was incredible. Then!... it started raining with the sun's light warming my face still. I felt so special for that moment, like I was the only one seeing this.

Not too much later, I left the play to a dark night sky and it seemed like someone was dumping buckets of water on Portland. I saw the sky flash but I didn't think anything of it, I thought maybe it was some bright light at the top of a scraper flashing or something not exciting. BUT THEN! as I was driving my car down the narrow one way streets, I saw it!

Lightning. LIGHTNING.

I parked by the river's edge and watched the veins, the lightning looked like veins. I felt how amazing God is. Don't tell;) but I cried a little thinking about this lightning and how powerful and full of energy it is. It was so huge, stretching across the sky! I was listening to a song and as I saw it flash the lyrics sang out:
clothed in rainbows of living color, flashes of lightning and
rolls of thunder, i see the dawn is shaking, glory and power
be to you the only one i need...

And then I wondered what it would feel like to be touched by lightning. well, Hit. Lightning cannot just touch something. And God made that. He made the WHOLE earth. With the commands of his words, his voice. And that hurts my brain to think about because I just can't wrap my mind around that, it's too... I don't know, it's strange but intriguing and beautiful.

Avocado or Avacado?

Fog and Blades

Tonight I went over to Casey and Lauren Hurt's new home! This young beautiful married couple just bought a duplex and I rode my cruiser over to help paint. It was fun? YES> YES. Lauren and I laughed more than a little. Well who doesn't when you have a bit of Tequilla? Thank you Hornitos. hmm. And thank you Ben.

there's a party in my tummy, so yummy so yummy

oh Eugene how i love thee

saturday was fun. skyler and i performed at the willamette valley music festival in front of one million people! ok, maybe a couple or so hundred but who's counting? needless to say we were lucky that even they came out because it was so stinkin hot... so... just really hot.

we had fun... and she sang beautifully ofcourse.



later that evening back in corvallis...

Sklyer got Alec a Hot Wheels Hummer for his Bday, and we all know that hot cars have to come with hot ladies and that's why Lindsey is there. She's hot, she's the hot girl to make the hot car seem even hotter.

i don't know really why, but we talked about elbows that night. girls have pointier elbows than boys. that's just the way it is. usually.

we found a gigantic flower bush on the OSU campus! and it was pretty. mhmm.

we rode bikes from downtown to the campus all the way back to my place and it was grrreat because the flowers were in bloom, the sun was out and and it smelled gagood. We even serenaded each other in the MU at the grand piano.

and! when we were riding down a path in between 2 rows of tall trees, flower pedals were falling from the sky and it was so nice. flower pedals i like you very much. but only if you're falling.

so monday is my last day with her for awhile, until the end of june when i come down to LA for the screening of that film my song's in. can't wait to be in santa monica... it's where i grew up for a big part of my life. awwww.

never again

last night i had one of the best shows of my life! the crowd consisted of chris, and...

the sound guy.
i sang my heart out to a chair of pine in the back of the room. it was magical.
i told those two to consider themselves fortunate because it was the very last time this will ever happen again.

never again.

that's all darling.

no no no

it's too hot. dagnabit.

BOMBS AWAYYYyyyyyyy

soooo, hello.

tonight? i had a good one all right.
i had a show at Bombs Away Cafe a local venue here where i live. and these boys came to watch me, one of which was an australian and the other an italian. american italian, his family originates in the region of calabria like mine! calabria is the heel of italy, or the hell. jk jk jk. (the jk is for luke)

but it was fun because for the first half they were distracting me sooo much, making me laugh. the australian kept saying the lyrics to my song right before i sang them and i had to start over when i played inLove inLove inLove. but after that they stopped so i could actually perform my songs.

and it's so stinkin hot here now, all of a sudden too! no warning temp change just BAM it's hot weather. i don't do well in heat, especially if i'm wearing jeans. no way. it doesn't work, i get moody.

oil change?

i changed the oil in my car today, i got chocolate syrup all over my arm. but you can't taste it, it may look like chocolate syrup but it's not! it's motor oil.

out of sight out of mind

i was thinking about how you can have a friend that is completely apart of your life, you see them almost everyday, plans are made naturally with them, and then... they move away. far far away. at first it's hard and you're sad but then you realize you're not even thinking about them at all. and then you talk to them on ichat, and you don't really care that much as long as they're well. it's sad but it's life, and that's okay. i guess.

8am

i rode my bike from work to home this morning. i started work last night at 10pm and finished this morning at 8:30am. i work during the night. all night. all night long. during the dark part of day. my bike is purple. with a basket. and now i'm going to sleep.

avacado

I wrote a song for avacados. Because they are good.

dodo da doo, dodo da doo

when i want something green
that won't get stuck in my teeth

...aaaaavocado

it's a fruit with a skin
that is like an elephant

...aaaaaavocado

it's the best without the mess
cause it puts my mind at rest

...aaaaavocado!

dodo da dooo dodo da dooo

avocado i love you! da do

hold on this is a long update

Ok, I had a grrreat time on my little tour down to Los Angeles from Oregon. Yes I should have posted this before but I've never been good at "blogging" anyway... I actually had a really good time driving down all by myself, gave me time to go through my thoughts and a good chunk of my ipod. I'm rating each song- going down the list alphabetically- if they get 1 star, they are outta there.

I had started off the trip at 5:30 in the morning after getting only 3 or 4 hours of sleep. AND i drove a 10 hour day! to Turlock CA where I stayed with some friends that are more like family. We bought a flat of strawberries right off the farm
and oh man, mm mmm. Darling did you know strawberries are my favorite?!

I then had my first show of the tour in Reedley at Road 56 with Molly Jensen and Trevor Davis, they are incredible. I like playing shows with artists I enjoy listening to. Then! I went up to Hume for the weekend and spent my days in the sun and trees and my nights in the recording studio. I tracked vocals for a friend who is a gifted songwriter to say the least, and my question still is: can i please do this for life? Being in the studio 3 or 4 nights in a row gave me a good appetite for more recording and anything that involves music, songwriting etc. At least for this part of my life.

-Mo, Autumn, Dakota: I love you guys.

I left hume for my next show in Ventura CA. So... they have squirrels on their beach. Weird? Yes. Creepy? YES. There were a few of them on the rocks, I had just finished the worst sushi I've ever had (but still good) (well it's sushi) (i heart sushi) anyway, i dropped a couple pieces of ginger and some wasabi down to the squirrels on the rocks. And some of them ate the ginger and tasted the wasabi! It was funny, they twitched a lot. But what's creepy is that right after I dropped stuff down, I think 39.7 squirrels came out of nowhere! And there they all were, 1.5 million of them on the rocks in front of me. Creepy. yes. I should have taken a photo for you to see... oh well.

I think the highlights of the week in LA were as follows: number 1: hanging out with my mudder who is my mother. Number 2: playing at UCLA, so many friends came out and it was fun. Number 3: having breakfast with Skyler at Cafe 101. and p.s. my omelette did not come with cheese on it! I thought they automatically have cheese, that's why an omelette is an omelette. right??





Goodnight Darling.

can i record for life?

So I recorded my new song today at Unit 67 and it turned pretty good. It was kind of nice being in there al alone, singing, playing guitar and banjo. --BUT, I'm grieved. I could not burn it to a disk so that's why it's not posted somewhere on the good ol' web for you to hear. I'll get it up asap. I promise.

goodnight darling.

Here I Am

This is my first blog ever. ever. I thought I had something clever to say but I don't.

All I know right now is that I've never been more motivated and inspired to write, live, love, whatever. I need a piano.

oh yeah! I forgot, i've been pumping my own gas for a week now. In Oregon you don't do that, you pull up to the gas pump and there's a person to do that for you. I'm from LA so I really hated giving them my credit card at first, it went against all my fibrous being of protecting my stuff. Although i'm impatient and often don't want to wait for the gas tenants to take care of me, I've realized it's nice not touching dirty nasty gas pumps. yup. and that's the most i'll ever write gas pumps in one paragraph, ever. thank goodness.

Goodbye darling.

p.s. darling did you know I love to dance?