OCtober 26, 1947

Meet Jo jo(josephine) and Norm(norman).

I'm so happy I love you so much let's stay in each others arms until forever and ever.

nice fairytale.

but... without that hope of the possibility of loving someone your whole life, it could never happen. I'm sure no one marries someone planning the divorce.

This is a picture of my lopez grandparents taken on October 26, 1947. They look so happy. They look like they could conquer the world together. or at least the heating bills.
my dad was born a few years later.

my cousin and great friend is getting married tomorrow, i'm her maid of honor and i really do feel honored to have her friendship. you know we didn't have to be friends. we could have ended up just cousins.

well this ceremony has got me thinking about love and life. i really am enjoying being single but i've noticed i've been wanting someone to share my adventures with and laugh at weird thoughts i have and someone to stare at and someone... the ideas go on.

How do you love one person with your whole being for your whole life? that can be a long time and i can hardly plan a couple weeks in advance.

love is selfless, love is an action, it's a choice to love someone, to do what's best for them, to make them happy before satisfying yourself, it doesn't keep count of how many times you get hurt.

could you imagine if two people did everything for the other unselfishly always seeking the needs of the other?

My grandma jo jo and grandpa norm divorced many years ago. and looking at this picture... i don't think they ever imagined what that divorce would be like. looking at this picture i see newly weds in love and so happy to start a life together.

i think someday... i'd like to commit my love to someone - if i have to be honest.

sometimes i think i don't ever want to get married because it's too hard, too
much work, but... i think it could be a great adventure and i have lots of hope that we'd last and fall in love over and over.

you have to have hope.

oh my goodness it's been so long

wow i haven't talked to you in a long time.

i know and i said i would keep you updated, ugh. why am i so bad at updating and communication? well i think i'm pretty swell at communication, most of the time.

the tour went pretty well, i had a lot of fun. I met a nice man from Spain (in san francisco) who wrote me a very poetic and sweet letter. thank you to you. Gayle, Soyu and I slept in many different places, some nice and clean and some well let's face it, man homes. meaning, kinda dirty. but that's okay! I was very thankful they opened their hearts to us, otherwise we would have been horribly cramped in the van that was fullllll of instruments!

OH!
we drove by the golden gate bridge, near it and went on a dock and we had the best view for picture taking. it was the first time Soyu had seen it in real life.
well...
this guy was fishing and caught a starfish. yes a starfish. how? i don't know! BUT! he threw it back in the water, a few seconds later UP pops a sea lion. yes a SEA LION! with the starfish in his mouth and he swallowed it. YES he swallowed!

it was the awesomest thing.

later that night we went out for sushi with my good friend Marifel. She was my roommate in florence, Italy. It was so good to hang out with that cute little filipino gal. then she treated us all to crepes. mmm. well that's how you spell filipino in italian gimme a break.

sitting in a coffee shop... pondering.

i'm in santa cruz at the Abbey.

i feel sick.

throat caving in.

the boogies.

i just want to crawl up on a comfy couch and sleep.

stomp day!

i think these are my last two videos for now...

just so you know, stomp day was so SO SOOO fun and my feet won ha:) but then we went on to tap on this large hollow triangle box thing and another hollow box to get the sound we were looking for

and you know what!?! on just PB&J thank you, we recorded clapping, mine andrea's and TJ's hands, and recorded keys! like car keys yeah. and TJ slapping his legs. it was SO fun!

i'm watching the news right now, and some "fans" of a football team were so pissed their team lost they beat up a porsche. geez what did that car ever do to them. jerks.






love valeri

american idol?

so did anybody see american idol tonight?

i did.

now, really, i don't watch television but i'm with a good friend, my friend Flower, she and her hubby have a sweet screen whoa. so do Eric and his Tam, anyway! stay on track

the last guy to "try out" was almost blind and he plays the piano so beautifully and i really want to see him perform with his instrument. it is weird when you're a singer/songwriter and used to performing your song while playing an instrument and then... no you can only sing,
and a cappella!

yikes.

that scares me, but it's a good thrilling scare.

i sing the national anthem sometimes, that gives me birds in my stomach goodness. but it's exciting cause it's way out of my comfort zone.

the end.

I've been here, at Panera for about five hours!
editing, emailing, working on stuff. stuff.

stuff. and more stuff.

get me out of here!

toy piano day with Andrea

I didn't have time to edit anything so i'll be posting some more videos from the recording sessions.

I had such a good time, thanks for coming all the way from sunland to san diego andrea!



these videos may seem like we're having so much fun but we worked some long days and Eric spends hours in that room torturing himself editing and all that:) he's awesome. someday i'll do that too.

i hope.

last day

today was the last day i'll be in Eric's studio for a while. i don't know how long.

geesh!

and the part i'm sad about, is not that i won't be recording for a long time but that i'll not see the owyoungs for awhile, but maybe that's good. maybe we needed a break from each other.

that's ok.

breaks are good. refresh the mind.

i'm so tired right now, i'll have some videos to show you soon of the last couple days.

loveval

steel lap guitar dayyyyy

thanks for coming up Greg and doing some steel lap guitar... here's a little summary.



also, tonight i did some vocals for skylightblue... mmmm i'm falling in love with that song. TJ, your drumming makes me happy. washy wahsy.

guitars day ME

Oh my goodness. i spent too much time on skylightblue uh.

pb&j was fun though. i can play that song one arm tied behind my back. yeah for real.

i don't really like being on camera but then i realized the whole video is just on me, always. i'll have to change that tomorrow. or today, whatever, it's 2am right now. here i go again.

sleeping late.

i had a good night, i saw Gayle Skidmore perform for the first time tonight, she is amazing. whoa.
and i get to tour with her hah take that jack.

recording is well, it'll be over before i know it. sad. i like eric. and his wife Tamra is the best wife ever, well one of them. oh yeah i forgot i wanted to show you some of her art. aah. ok well before i leave i will.

she also is a great cook. geez. what a way to record. a mile away from the beach. with a great guy like eric. yummy dinners with his wife, it's like family away from family. i love them.

bass day yay

'ello.

today was another day of listening. but it was fun. i did end up doing a little guitar at the end but i'll finish tomorrow morning. Eric works really hard, he was in the studio working from like 9am to 8pm, editing and laying down bass on "SkyLightBlue". Rick worked "just PB&J thank you"... and then i did some sassy guitaring.

I'll do vocals in two days. So i'm making sure I sleep enough and i'm not eating sugar. Well I haven't been so keen on not eating sugar because Tamra made the best sugar cookies! and i don't even like sugar cookies but these are amazing. she is awesome. oh you know what, i think i'll interview her a little and show ya'll her art. She's very talented. I'll show you a beautiful charcoal piece she has of an old black man with white hair. it's beautiful.

so here's a little vid for bass day.

drums day okay

drums we recorded today with tj... even though i'm not playing them i have to hear every second of it! i wish i could play drums. well i can, i just know it. someday.

so just look at this i guess. but don't if you can't look at me too long, it's just a silly video i quickly put together for, for... well, not much reason at all.

music music music

I am now in the studio. So i'm changing my title. Just for a week though.

I'll update more later, gotta work.

love valeri

american dream

well, i've had a slice of american dream pizza 3 times this week. mmm, i will miss you while i'm vagabonding in california.

but even more, i'll miss you Oregon, you Corvallis, you friends and Dox.
you fresh smelly good fresh air.

you too 123 yr old piano o'mine.

but i'll be back. i will i promise just please smile once for me as i go.
California i'm coming and i still love you but not as much as Oregon. things change. i change. it's okay, you have a special place behind my sternum.

(that's the bone protecting your heart in case you think i'm talking crudely) ok.

in case you were wondering this is what i'm doing so hopefully i won't have to tell this a million times over again.

1. recording in san diego with Eric of FOF
2. touring up to san fran and back to LA
(working at hume at the end of it)
3. being an old maid of honour in a wedding of a dear friend. i love you jenny!
4. doing a benefit concert: sonora CA
5. recording live CD .. hacienda heights CA
6. playing a show or two
7. returning to Oregon (a bit after mid feb)

ok so there. . .

happy new year

i hope.

whatever.