Fluffhead

So, as many of you may know, the band Phish has reunited and is touring around the country. Tickets to shows are highly coveted items, and especially tickets to Red Rocks! When the special online ones went on sale a while back, I heard about it but didn't really think I'd order any. I have a kid now, things have changed, I thought, Phish isn't high on my agenda. But some of my friends encouraged me to try it just in case I got extra tickets and could share the love! So I did, and I lucked out, and now here we are in the middle of summer and the concert is almost here!

I have mixed feelings about it because Phish is such a nostalgiac thing for me. I spent a good decade of my life seeing them all over the country, ranging from Virginia to Colorado to Vegas, wherever I happened to be. Thinking back, my first concert was in 1994 at Univ Hall at UVA. I had just gotten back from my Semester in London (and anyone who knows me knows I was about All Things London after that) and hadn't been listening to Phish over there. Yet all my friends "stateside" were! So I decided to check them out and I still remember walking into the arena with our tickets in hand, seeing all the hippie kids with their hemp necklaces and dogs and rosy cheeks, full of excitement about the night ahead. Wow, I thought, this is my generation! I am finally here! It just somehow had a huge effect on me, much more than going to the Grateful Dead the year before with all the "old" hippies. :) Anyway, so that was the beginning of it all. The tape trading and traveling that went along with shows after that just became a part of me.

And then in about 2003, we saw Phish at the Pepsi Center right before their big "hiatus" (breakup) and it just wasn't the same. It seemed so corporate, and so much the end of an era. Everyone kind of went their separate ways, and we all grew up. Now that Phish has reunited and is touring again, I think it will be a blast but I know it won't be the same as it once was. I'll never forget those days of camping out and driving across country and dressing up on halloween and making friends wherever we went.

I have lots of faves, but here is one of my favorite travel songs and takes me back to those moments of just living, just being, just going with the flow!

All the way home we felt we had a chance
To review the coulds before we were born
And to invite a new game of can'ts

Absorbed in the clouds a voice from afar said
"With the right device you can make a pattern grow
Or you can tune up your car"

So we stayed on the train admiring the time
As the lights of the city drew near
We drank a little wine

They were blurry and green outer space in between
With a depth and a form unclear
Then we saw it up ahead

A flickering lantern lit up on the tracks
In the rugs that had covered up the bridge
From the banks of a river to the bed

Of the valley upstream to the place we live
The glass on the lantern cast back the sight
Of a drive-in movie we drove by below

We saw where we'd been in the pictures within
Projecting all the places we would go
So we follow the scene and flowed up your steps

To a smooth wooden floor in a trance
The train whistle melody woved through the trees
And in through the door to signal the turns of a dance

Happy birthday Grandma!

Big Girl

Madison is getting over her pukey/bigD spell that hit us last weekend. Hopefully she's on the up & up! She seems to feel better anyway. Here is a pic from my cell at the playground today.

Big girl on the slide!

Talking part 2

My mom apparently left some invisible comment in cyberspace asking me to add one of MJ's first words: "Ma-maw," meaning "Grandma"... True, true. There are a few words I did forget about.. things like "tut-tut" for "turtle" and "day-day" for dancing. You have to use your imagination a bit! Also, when we were at that petting zoo in Indiana (AGAIN with the PETTING ZOO!) and Madison first saw her first duck, she right away said "quack quack." Too cute!

These days she is an avid reader and will get her own books and sit in a little spot and "read" to us, which is a little mumbling sound that sort of sounds like words. Ha! I guess that must be what we sound like when we read to her! Kind of like the Charlie Brown grown-up voice.

And you may notice the format of this blog has changed -- but it's the same old blog at heart. I have to say I am a big fan of the blog these days. I feel like it's so much more substantial than reading someone's profile or update on facebook. It gives you a little insight into your friends' lives, their worlds, and by the end you feel like you've had a mini-conversation with them. I like being able to sit back w/ a cup of coffee and read my "news." :)
And yes this is for the people who've slacked off on blogging! I miss you!!!

By the way, we are heading down to Manitou Springs tomorrow for the weekend for our 5-YEAR-ANNIV! Hard to believe 5 years has gone by...........

Talking

MJ's latest words! 6/3/2009
In no particular order...............
Sol (as in Solly)
oreo
play
swing
slide
balloon
bubble
butterfly
bacon
bike
alligator (tries)
straw
juice
nooni (noodle)
cheese
spoon
baba (bottle)
spoon
milk
more
stars
diaper
shoes
socks
hat
dog
car
kitty
cat
potty
pee pee
poo poo
pool (sounds a lot like poo!)
no
tree
park
chair
up
pappy (passy)
suck (as in suction)
medicine (tries)
thermometer (tries)
eye
nose
mouth
teeth
toes
hand
owie
uh-oh
cookie
elmo
dora
key
quack
moo
baa
mowie (meow)
cuckoo (kookabura)
dada, daddy
mama, mommy
hot
cold
pants
twirl
book
birdie
blocks
ball
bye bye
bunny
baby
hi
'kay (as in OK)

Phew! There are a lot of them when I really sit down and think about it! There is also a lot of repeating happening these days, so it's hard to keep track. But I think this girl's gonna be a talker, like her mama!