Spotted Pony

To all my fellow banjo playing friends out there. Here is a tune you have got to learn, it is called Spotted Pony:

The Year of the Baby

So I know in China this year is the year of the tiger, however in my life it is the year of the baby. It all happened again this morning when I awoke to my cell phone beeping. I checked my voicemail and one of my dear friends and former college roommates left this message (make sure you tag a south accent onto it because she sure has it):

"Emily I'm calling you at 8:15 am my time which I know is 4:15 your time, but I don't really care at this point because I've been calling you multiple times this past month and you just never call me back. But I am going to have to go ahead and say this over the phone. I wanted to tell you in person but I'm going to have to tell you now cause who knows when you're going to call me back. Dale and I are going to have a baby. I am four months pregnant. Again sorry I had to tell you over the phone, by now you might already know if you talked to Amy or Brian or anybody...."

Well I hadn't talked to Amy or Brian, but I was not surprised. Not at all. So far this year my two best friends from high school: Jeannie and Rachel, my two roommates from college: Amy and Katie, my dear friend Brooke who I was the maid of honor in her wedding, as well as both of my cousins Anne and Rachel, have been pregnant or had a child.

So after a run with my roommate Emily I went ahead and finished Brooke's baby gift, because now Katie had stepped in line. Little Blueberry's gift (Blueberry is what Brooke and Derrick temporary name for their baby) can be seen above. This is what you call a Mei Tai Baby Carrier. If you google just that you should be able to find a pattern. And if you have any questions feel free to send them my way because I haven't stopped making them all year!

Sitka Folk

Yeah for Sitka Folk and all the people that are involved to keep it up and going, cough, Lon Garrison and Ted Howard. I clam to be involve, but typically just sit at meetings and listen to the groups they've booked and get excited about bringing fantastic groups to Sitka. This year they have gone ABOVE and BEYOND their line of duty. April Verch and Crooked Still being two major reasons. We had nearly a packed house at each show, which is HUGE for Sitka and our 8,000 person town. April Verch was here this past week and knocked my socks off and everybody elses. She is a fiddle playing, step-foot dancing, singing phenomenon. I recommend her and her bands latest album Seal the Blue if you don't already own. it. My favorite is track 11, He's holding onto Me, it's hauntingly beautiful.

Sitka folk is such a BLESSING to me here and inspiring to all who attend the shows. THANK you SITKA FOLK!!

And for all you non island dwellering alaska living friends, I don't get introduced to a lot of new music up here so please always feel free to pass on groups, people I need to know about! And then maybe even with some luck Sitka Folk could help get them up here!

retiring fabulous

So for the last hmmm... 2 years or so fabulous has been my favorite word. This may be longer actually?

Well for years it has frequented my vocabulary. I haven't done a daily count, but I would say it flowed freely out of my mouth out as I expressed myself and feelings. I would have called it my favorite word. Recently, however, this is not the case. I have adopted a new word.

Like fabulous it:
*is fantastic to say,
*it is a positive describing word (adjective),
*it begins with an f and finally
*it is three syllables

If you haven't guess it already the word is... fantastic.

This word has been used recently because:

1) The weather outside has been so sunny and glorious,
2) It is SPRING BREAK
3) April Verch came to town
4) My aunt, uncle, and three cousins will be here in 4 days
5) Herring season is here which means so are the whales

Things that are less fantastic:

1) I still haven't finished my taxes,
2) It is NOT spring break for grad school
3) I have to write a grant, scary!
4) And I have to work on job applications.

2 Love Stories

So this post has nothing to do with my wild and crazy Alaskan adventures though I do hope to publish some of those soon because they have been happening, despite the LACK OF SNOW! All you lower 48ers have taken our snow this year! Instead this post tells of 2 people in my family and a little bit of the life they walked.

Story #1:

Last year on January 17, 2009 someone very near and dear to our family pasted away, she died on her 110th birthday and lived a wild and courageous life growing up on the plains, moving to Oregon and then Wyoming to live and teach 50 years on Indian reservations. Her name was Aunt Monnie, and she had 4 sisters. She was my great aunt. She never married. She loved horses, had beautiful penmanship, loved fashion, and a fabulous story teller, up until even the day that she died. She stood at 4'9'' tall and weighed somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 pounds and her shoe size was that of a child.

This winter I made earrings for each of her nieces and gave them as Christmas presents in remembrance of her life. Here is a photo of the earrings. The earrings were made out of a necklace that was willed to my mother when she died. I wish I had taken a photo of the necklace before I disassembled, ah retrospect. It was a multi-chained necklace made mainly out of coral and had these birds, frogs, and turtles as the accents. It was much more elaborate than anything I have ever worn and it was just one of many of her pieces of jewelry. She was always dressed to the nines, up until the day that she died.


Story #2:

Aunt Monnie only had one sister who was married, Dorthy. Yesterday this love letter for Dorthy, written by my great-grandfather, the man that she would eventually marry, arrived in my inbox from my Aunt Bird. It was written in 1925 to my great grandmother who apparently was living in Oklahoma at the time. The letter was written from Flat Rock, Tennessee. Obviously Dorthy returned my great grandfathers sentiments, at least eventually. Someday I hope to hear the rest of the story. You can click on the photos for a larger image. Enjoy.

Born to be a rockstar!

When I was home for Christmas Aaron looked through all 20 of my childhood photo albums, he then preceded to pull out his favorites and try to find just the right lighting and angle to take descent pictures of them. This particular photo was my favorite of his favorites. It is a picture of me, my little brother Joseph, and my dad. It make me happy to see this glimpse of one of my favorite childhood memories, listening to my dad sing his songs. Often times I hear myself still singing along to those same old tunes he used to sing, and now I find myself sharing them with my friends. Maybe I wasn't born to be a rockstar, but I know I was born to sing and make music with friends.

Bear Mountain

Above the trees
reaching for the apogee
staring at the sea
vividly
joie de vie