I know it's 2am....

...but I haven't been to sleep yet so it's still Tuesday to me. So today I want to write about how thankful I am for my parents. I inherited so many things from Sparky and Papa that make me what I am...creativity, resourcefulness, sense of humor, an abiding respect for people who work for a living, and lots more I can't think of at 2am. Sometimes it's impossible to tell from which side I get any particular trait. Also I got a streak of sheer bull-headed swamp yankee stubbornness that has served me well at times and at others has been a trial. Thanks a lot for giving me that, you know who you are.

I guess from Papa I get the conviction that there has to be a way to solve any problem, if you just poke at it long enough. He also gave me the pack rat gene, which it has been my lifelong struggle to exorcise. No luck there, yet, but the fact that I am trying ought to count for something.

And of course Sparky endowed me with her sewing ability, for which I am eternally thankful. What in the world would I be doing now if I didn't know how to sew? I really have no idea. What Sparky did NOT pass along to me was her patience. Sparky is probably the most even-tempered, patient person there is. She also has what amounts, in my eyes, to a superpower; the superhuman ability to keep her mouth shut. I can't seem to do that. I have a birth defect; I was born without a filter. Whatever's in my head at any given moment usually comes blurting out of my mouth before I can stop it. I suspect that maybe my siblings got the patience, especially my sister, and there was none left for me. But I'm thankful that Sparky at least always gives me something to aspire to there.

Oh yeah, and my sweet tooth. You're both guilty of passing that little gem on to me, thanks a bunch.

Thanksgiving is almost here...

….and so this week I am going to try to write about the things for which I’m thankful IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER. I say “try”, because I keep procrastinating and forgetting to come back here and write. Very busy, no available brain cells. Anyway, so what am I thankful for? There are a lot of things for me, I really am very blessed in life. I’m going to start with my band, since we had practice last night and it’s fresh in my mind.

My band, which is now called Stillpoint. It’s changed many times over the years, but I’m really excited about this current incarnation—more so than I have been at any time since we first formed and were 5^th Element. I have to say we were really, really good. But all things must change, for the better or for worse, and although we’ve been pretty good and not-so-good at different times over the years, we have never been quite as good as what we were when we first started. Until now.

The two constants over the last 13 years have been, of course, me and Preston. I am thankful that I was fortunate enough to find a great drummer and as good drummers are hard to find, I married him so that he couldn’t get away. No, seriously, I’m so lucky that we can do this together, not only because he’s good but because I’ve seen the hassle that people tend to have when their non-musician significant other is at home going, “you have to go to practice AGAIN? How long are you going to be? How come you don’t want to stay home with me? Do you HAVE to do this?” It can’t be easy to have to make that choice. I’m thankful I’ve never had to make it.

Which leads us to Kevin, who doesn’t seem to have that problem since his wife works nights and isn’t home anyway. I’m thankful for Kevin…a nice, normal, funny, seriously talented guy with no overinflated ego or drama, plucked from the sea of bozos, posers, and pretentious assholes haunting the local musicians’ classifieds. How lucky was that? He said, “I’m just a rhythm guitarist” but really, he can play leads with the best of ‘em.

And then there’s Joe. I’ve known him as long as I’ve known Preston, and we’ve been playing music with Joe for so long, it’s like we’re related. How hard it is to find someone who can play, has that big voice, and is easy to get along with, you have no idea. Believe me, I’ve tried, because every few years he gets tired of the whole band thing and decides to retire, but then he misses it. Luckily, this time he was missing it just when I needed to fill that position in the band (again). For that, I am also thankful.

So my band the first thing I’m thankful for. There are just so many good things about this band that make me so happy to be playing….Preston’s drums in “Good Times, Bad Times” make me wish the song was longer….when Kevin comes in with the signature riff at the beginning of “Crazy on You” it’s just too cool…Kevin and Joe trading leads at the beginning of “I Just Want to make Love to You”…Joe and I harmonizing on “Moondance”…Preston getting us all going in between songs with Led Zeppelin tunes we don’t play (yet!)…Joe’s solo in “Man in the Box”…Kevin’s solo in “Flirting with Disaster”…the stupid, lame 12-year-old bathroom humor that never fails to crack me up even when I'm going "eeeeewww!"...I could go on and on but you get the idea. Tune in tomorrow, when I’ll be going on and on about something else!

I Guess It Depends....

...on your definition of "failure". These hideously deformed things, although sad-looking, will still burn, therefore I did manage to make candles. So that part was a success. However, they don't bear much resemblance to the ones in Martha Stewart Living. They were, however, the cause of much mirth. Sparky said those were faces even a mother couldn't love. She also said, when she could stop laughing, "well, at least it's Thursday"...which went right over my head until she reminded me that Thursday is the day we put our trash out. When I showed them to Preston, though, he said he thought they weren't that bad. And I didn't chuck them right away, which was a bad thing because now, much like a mother with revoltingly ugly children, I can't bear to part with them. They have a certain....I don't know what you'd call it. And they smell pretty good. However, I don't know that I'll devote the time it would take to perfect my sand-candle-casting technique. Was the sand not wet enough? Not packed densely enough? Wax not hot enough? Poured too fast? These are questions poking at the side of my brain, begging to be answered. The mad scientist in me just may take another stab at it.

But not this week. This week, by which I mean today and tomorrow, I have three major projects to complete; a baby quilt, an anime costume, and the setting up of my back room at the store to magically transform it into a gift shop. Busy busy busy.

Building Candles In The Sand....

...today, because Martha Stewart assured me that it would be "a good thing" and because I sort of missed the 60's so had never made them before. As you can see, my aim's not great. But I managed to pour them without injuring myself which is always a good thing. And no, I wasn't drunk. Thanks for asking. Smartass.So I don't know how they turned out, haven't dug them up yet. I don't think Sparky had ever heard of sand candles, she did not share my vision. She wondered what makes them pretty, and I admit I was at a loss for an answer because I can picture in my head how I want them to look, and it involves a little more than just digging them up and calling them done. So yeah, I can see where one might question the wisdom of making dusty crusty old candles. We'll see. I really wanted to make green ones, but I had SO much red wax, and it was a trial run anyway. Next time they'll be green.

As it turns out, we won't be having the annual craft show this year. It just wasn't going to shape up, through nobody's fault but my own, so I called it off...much to the chagrin of my fellow crafters, who as it turns out were actually planning to make stuff to sell. So instead we are renting the spare room behind my store, and setting up there in November and December. I don't really know what to expect but I think this, too, will be a good thing. Again I say, we'll see.

Found buried treasure...

...in my CD cabinet. Now that I have my own workshop and nothing but dead airspace for 6 hours a day, I can listen to whatever happens to float my boat at the time. I went digging around in the CD cabinet at home, and found the self-titled Garbage CD. Never listened to it, I don't even remember where it came from. I know I didn't buy it, I think someone gave it to me. So I brought it in and have been listening to little else ever since. Shirley Manson has such a smooth voice, belying the intensity of some of those pissed-off-scorned-girlfriend lyrics! And the band really rocks. And then, when you're used to all that frantic music, the CD ends with the beautiful, haunting "Waiting for You". I have to get more Garbage LOL...I'll always wonder why they named themselves Garbage, because it's really anything but!

Inspired and excited, I went back to the CD cabinet and pulled out my Primus CD, which I've had so long I can only remember the one song I bought it for. Brought that to work and gave it a spin, but no luck there. Though I still think Les Claypool is a demented genius, I can only take Primus in small doses.

Hmmmm.....wonder what else is in that cabinet?

What a week...

...full of ups and downs. The up part had to be our show on Saturday; it went pretty well, considering it was our first time performing as a band. I don't know if that counts, because 3 of us have been performing together for what seems like forever, so just one of us was new. But it still felt new, and of course Joe had the butterflies...silly man. I don't know why he gets so nervous, he's been playing so long he should be able to do it in his sleep. I would think I would be the one with the butterflies, I was so painfully shy when I was young and if you'd told me that I would be not only standing in front of people, but playing and (gasp) singing and NOT having butterflies, I would have thought you'd lost your mind. What a strange universe it is. Preston and Kevin didn't seem to have any butterflies, but it's really hard to tell with them what's going on inside, even though I've been married to Preston for 24 years. All I can say about the day other than we got through it and it was fun, is thank goodness for Kevin, because I kept having technical difficulties and he kept fixing them.

Now for the downs. My car is down. It needed some pretty serious repairs to pass inspection at the end of this month, but the decision as to when to make them was taken out of my hands when I lost my brakes last Friday. At least I was in the yard when it happened. But now it's up on blocks being fixed, and who knows how long that will take.

Also up on blocks being fixed is my Mom, Sparky. She went into the hospital on Monday having trouble breathing, and was admitted and later found to have pneumonia and anemia, and congestive heart failure. Like my car, everything seems to have happened to her at once; also like my car, she needs some pretty serious repairs to pass inspection. Poor Sparky! She can't even get a decent night's sleep because they keep coming in and poking at her and sticking her. But at least they're keeping a close eye on her, and hopefully she'll be fixed soon and back at home where we all miss her, especially the cat who seems to have embarked on a hunger strike and isn't speaking to my Dad.

I just picked the beans yesterday....

....and I swear the little buggers grow 4" overnight because I can go out there today and pick a whole bunch more. Good thing we only planted one row, or we'd be in green beans up to our eyeballs. I gave some to Sparky and froze some, but mostly we've been eating them. The rest of the garden was kind of a disappointment this year, except of course for the cukes...we had more cukes than two people could possibly eat. And everyone around here seems to be in the same boat, because I couldn't give them away...offered some to my neighbor over the back fence, and his response was "Oh GOD no!!"

In other news, our band is playing our first show tomorrow! I'm so excited. We haven't played in over a year. Our fingers are crossed that it doesn't rain, because it's an outdoor show and although WE will be sheltered, there's really no point in playing if there's no audience. So anybody who lives in Southern RI, come on out to Crandall Field in Ashaway for the Hopkinton Colonial Crafts Festival. The band before us is the Parallel String Band, and they are really incredible so come early. I think maybe they start at 11:00, because they play until 1 and then we go on from 2-4. And just so you know, we are NOT a bluegrass band. Check out our song list here; we won't be doing the Led Zeppelin or Aerosmith material, but anything else is fair game.