catalog living

Thanks to J-Ro for the inspiration for this. Just found a hilarious new website that I'll be obsessively RSSing...if one can do such a thing.

Catalog Living.

I LOVE humor like this! It reminds me a lot of Unhappy Hipsters.

Hours....I could waste hours.

whilst

I have just had a small, but satisfying victory today. Let me give you a brief history that is actually so brief it doesn't justify my calling it out as a history to begin with, but I digress.

I have always enjoyed the word "whilst". I enjoy seeing it, I enjoy writing it, I enjoy saying. Speaking of saying it...I have ALWAYS, ALWAYS pronounced this word as though I were saying "while" and adding an "st" at the end. No question, right? It's a different way of saying the word while, so why would it sound any different?

I'll also take a moment to say that I don't question myself too often when it comes to pronunciations. I have my weaknesses and I have my strengths, and pronunciation is definitely one of my strengths. My parents taught me phonics and the rest was history. It didn't hurt that I worked at a credit card bank as a telemarketer for FOUR AND A HALF YEARS, and had to read each person's last name CORRECTLY as it popped up mere milliseconds after the person answered the phone, lest I be immediately deemed a worthless excuse for a human being were I to pronounce it wrong and be trying to sell them something. Let's just say I love being hung up on. (I was actually a really good salesperson and made quite a bit of money, but it sucked the life out of me and subsequently I have avoided any career path that might in any way lead to sales, but that's another post that I may or may not ever write.)

Meanwhilst... (see what I did just then?) I have heard people use the word whilst quite frequently lately and they have ALL been saying it with a short "i" sound. Like...will...st. The first time I heard it pronounced that way, I was like, oh well, I'll just rest in the satisfaction of knowing that I know how to pronounce that word, and not everyone can be as pronuncitorally (don't look it up) gifted as I. But then I started hearing it more and more and more, and I started to question myself, but was never in a situation where I could easily do some research.

Today provided that opportunity. I was reading a document at work that used the word "while," and that was all it took. I was a'researchin'. And much to my glorious delight....I was correct!! I even tried to look up British pronunciation in case my fellow Americans were just trying on some foreign pants for size, but no!

See here and here and here and so on and so on.

It's not as much "Ha ha! Suck it, I'm right!" as it is, "Cool! I was right! Goooooo Phonics!" and whilst...ahem....I wasn't hooked on said phonics per se, I embraced them just the same.

In the famous words of the BEP.....Tonight's gonna be a good good niiiiight. Oooh Hooo.

work shenanigans

So it's Friday (holla!) at work, around 3:54pm, and I'm getting antsy because it's about to be the weekend, what what! I get up to forage for some gum and decide to stop by my sweet little mailbox in the supply room at work, and I find two things.

1. a magazine that I don't read or subscribe to, but continue to be responsible for.

2. this:


Now instantly I'm irritated, because if something was so "urgent" why not just bring it to my face, can I get an "amen!"? So I'm flipping the envelope over to open it, grumbling to myself all the while and hoping I haven't missed some deadline because someone couldn't walk a few feet over to my desk to deliver such an urgent message. I open it, only to find this:


I started laughing so hard!!

Conclusion: I love Rhealyn Carter and no one can tell me I don't!!

Happy Friday!

a little homestead update

I've been way out of the loop and I definitely experienced a Project 365 FAIL. Turns out, buying a house and working and trying to do music = NO FREE TIME AT ALL.

In lieu of a crazy word-filled post, here are a few pictures of our house adventures thus far. We're still in the process of moving out of the apartment - have to be out of there by May 31. We're moving as much little stuff as we can over there and we'll let movers do the bigguns. I LOVE our new house and can't wait to actually be living there.

This kitty has been our friend since the first day we came to look at the house:

Practicing in a completely empty house = magical acoustics:

First encounter with this previously very shy feline that lives two doors down. Adorbs:

First dinner in the new house - Keller's. Perfect perfect perfect:

K-Ho likes to send me progress pics of how he's doing with the house/apt during the day. I love his little status updates....let's just say the top of our closets were a hot mess this morning....now - all gone!

Kevin, trying on...er....out our new shower curtain:

I love my husband! We haven't been able to take anything really big over to the house because none of the many many windows have blinds, so we've been taking things over and hiding them in closets, etc. He took yesterday and today off work to do house stuff and sent me this glorious picture with the caption, 1 down, 9 to go! I didn't even know he was planning to go buy them today!

Can't wait to be there full time!!

everlasting arms

My sweet friend and fellow musician Mara Miller alongside Josh T. Pearson in Paris. I LOVE this video so big.

sxsw

SXSW was awesome. I went down solo this year because Kevin was busy being the responsible breadwinner and working up a storm back here at the homestead. I went down to play shows with Sarah Jaffe, four to be precise, and just hang out and see some great music. We had our first two shows on Thursday, so I headed down Thursday morning, and after a surprisingly smooth experience getting my wrist band, I started the glorious process of trying to find a parking space...

I FOUND ONE! I found a gem of a parking garage that was fairly central to everywhere I had to go that weekend, so I parked there every day. Glory & praise be to San Jacinto & 9th! $8/day keeps the stressful parking process away!

The first show on the list was an afternoon party put on by Little Radio at a venue called Red Eyed Fly. This band I'd never heard of called Shadow Shadow Shade played right before us and they definitely made a fan out of me. I love lots and lots of harmonies and boy did they give them to me. They were super fun and made me wish I was on stage singing with them. Aces!

While they were finishing up and we were getting ready to load our stuff on stage I looked over and saw a man sitting on the back porch of the venue reading an article that inspired me to creepily hover over him whilst trying not to create a shadow and take a picture:


Adorable! He was doing his research!

After the show we trekked over to St. David's Episcopal Church of Austin to get ready for our showcase that evening, which happened to be one block away from my much coveted parking spot! We played that evening after Sharon Van Etten, who I'd never heard of before, but whose voice made me want to cry - in the best way. Her voice was phenomenal and the church sanctuary acoustics seemed to perfectly compliment her style. Beautiful!

Brooklyn Vegan even featured our showcase in their Day 2 in Music & Review. Woohoo! Great pictures and I couldn't believe they chose us alongside peeps like Band of Horses and Broken Social Scene!.

After we played, I went with my friend Lisa to see Kashmir at Maggie May's. The are a Danish band that Kevin & our friend Dragan are both really into, and they were fan-freaking-tastic! Incredible music and great stage presence. It was a great way to end our first day.

Friday was my "day off" so to speak and the festival was my oyster. As good fortune would have it, my dear sweet friend Julie was in town from Brooklyn. She does "web stuff" for Doctors Without Borders up in NYC and got to come down for the interactive portion (read: Nerd Fest - her words not mine) and decided to stay for the music, so we got to hang out all of Friday. I loved seeing her and I miss having her around.


We hung out all day, went to see a fun outdoor show across I-35, then trekked back, got some street food, then headed back to see Cymbals Eat Guitars play at Emo's tent stage. They were fantastic and we stood right in front of the sound guy and had great sight lines.

**cue cold front that swept blusteringly through the city while we slept, only to mock our lack of socks and heavy coats the following morn

Saturday we had our first show at 1pm for the ReadyMade Magazine Party at the Palm Door, which is a beautiful venue. We played with Anais Mitchell, a wonderful folk singer/guitarist who sounds a little too much like Joanna Newsom, but who has hooked up with some major players (Ani Difranco, Bon Iver, The Low Anthem, and more) on her new folk opera album, Hadestown.

Then Sarah, my friend Paul and I walked the many many blocks with our instruments and new tote bags courtesy of ReadyMade to our final venue, where Sarah and I were left to do a duet set since our drummer Jeff had to skedaddle and our guitar player Robert had his own set to do. We played at J Blacks, a great venue (upon looking up the link I just realized that there is a J Blacks in Dallas as well), along with Denton's Seryn, Fort Worth's Telegraph Canyon, and Dallas's Doug Burr.

A great way to end a great weekend. Until next year!

news

There's no hiding the fact that I'm way behind in both uploading my daily pictures as well as blogging about them. Between increased responsibilities at work and buying a house (what what!!) personal down time has been a luxury these days. In the interim, I leave you with this-