Thoughts this morning

After about six hours of sleeping in increasing increments (1 hour, then 2 hours, and then a glorious full 3 hours), I woke up this morning thinking about my friends. I'm not sure if my thoughts were remnants of a dream I had just left or something my mind wandered to in those brief quiet moments of clarity after waking, but I woke with a deep appreciation for the friendships I've formed throughout the years. I decided I needed to record these feelings before I rolled back over in bed to sleep for a little longer and, as a result, forgot everything.

I suppose you can never be too old to appreciate certain things in your life but I feel it's taken me a long time to recognize the deep love and care I've experienced from so many people I call my friends. I have a strong tendency towards being an introvert and this inward pull sometimes makes me very self-centered. Because I prefer solitude or the quiet company of only a few individuals at a time, I often skip out on the large social gatherings that would introduce me to new people and facilitate new friendships; I find them incredibly draining and often uncomfortable. Some people probably consider me unfriendly and awkward. I've experienced a fair share of loneliness, particularly since moving to Georgia where I have no connections that precede me (except, of course, my marriage). I've slowly made a few friends and I'm so grateful for those thoughtful people who have both given us and responded to invitations.

But the friendships I woke thinking of this morning are friendships I've held throughout the years. In my self-centered isolation of increasing loneliness and depression, I've forgotten and neglected these friends, who I believe would jump to my aid if I asked. I recognize that I am not the greatest friend. I am terrible at keeping in touch and I am the only one to blame for this. I think as I've neglected my dear friends they've stepped back a few steps, ready to greet me if I said hello but keeping their distance to avoid any tension caused by long silences. Maybe this is too optimistic for me to think. Maybe those friends who I think are just a few steps away have actually given up and are walking somewhere else now. Maybe I'm still thinking too much of myself, presumptuously assuming people I may have unintentionally offended still care for me.

I'm not so sure. I have some pretty remarkable friends who, in my various times of need, have always stepped up and said, "I'm here. I've been here the whole time." Despite my own neglect of our friendships, they are there for me. They carry on with their lives as I carry on with mine, but they do not forget me. I am so grateful for them.

I think of my experience last year when I was very sick and spent almost a week in the hospital. I was overwhelmed by the love I felt during that physically miserable time. The windowsill in my tiny hospital room was covered with vases full of beautiful flowers. Nurses enjoyed passing my room because they could smell the flowers. I never once had to eat the hospital food brought to me on a tray because a friend had brought something else for me-- a donut or burrito for breakfast, Chinese takeout for lunch, homemade enchiladas for dinner. I had visitors around the clock. I often had to ask people to step outside when my doctors came by. Even my doctors commented on how much I must be loved. My internist told me that he had never seen a patient's room so decorated with flowers, balloons and stuffed animals or visited so often by so many different people. Even past visiting hours before I'd gone to sleep, friends who worked in the hospital would stop by to check on me. Friends who I thought I may have pushed away with my silence were there by my side.

Today one of my best friends, Missy Bethke, is coming to visit me and Brenden. It's Brenden's spring break week and she had originally made the plans with the intention of keeping me company while Brenden went to a conference in Florida. He decided to forgo the conference and now we'll have plenty of time to spend together. She visited last year too, arriving two days before my sudden and unexpected departure to Texas because of my illness. She spent an afternoon with me doing my dishes and picking up around the house while I lied on the couch, wrapped in blankets. Probably not her idea of an Easter vacation but she insisted despite my protests. Missy has been a great, sweet friend since I met her my first semester at BYU. We are different in many ways but we are also very alike in others and I wonder if we would have discovered our likenesses and friendship if we hadn't been roommates that fateful first semester. I can't even begin to imagine how different my life would be if Missy wasn't a part of it.

I know I have been greatly blessed to have been surrounded by such loving and thoughtful people throughout my life. Heavenly Father has placed every person I know in my life for a reason. My friends and my family make my life meaningful.

You make my life meaningful. I know my Heavenly Father loves me because you have been a blessing in my life. I know this hardly begins to express my gratitude for you but thanks for being my friend.

Happy October!

This was the image for our calendar for this month. Pretty awesome, right? I can't remember if I ever told you about this calendar. Its pictures are the covers from old comic books. Each image is perforated so we can frame them if we so choose. It hangs right in our kitchen. We like it.

We went on a Haunted History Tour this past Saturday out in downtown Watkinsville. It was awesome. Our guide dressed in Victorian era widow's mourning clothing which is pretty creepy stuff. Google it if you don't know what I'm talking about. The funeral museum in Houston has mannequins displaying the attire and I couldn't stay in the same area without getting thoroughly creeped out.

Anyway, since I was little I've been intrigued by the paranormal. It was a terrible relationship-- I read as much as I could on the subjects of ghosts and aliens during the day and had nightmares at night. As I grew older and became less of an impressionable child, I was able to read about these subjects and not get too scared which made going on this tour a possibility for me. I've always wanted to go on a haunted history tour so I was excited to finally have the opportunity to go. Our guide was excellent and knowledgeable. It was obvious she enjoyed divulging the spooky tales of the places we visited. The chill fall weather and almost full moon simply added to the experience. It was a fun night.

This was the only picture I took while actually on the tour and it's not even of one of the places we visited. This is a really quaint picturesque chapel in downtown Watkinsville. On a haunted tour with the green glow it looks kinda spooky.

On Sunday, Brenden and I went out for a walk to look at the changing leaves. The orange, yellow and red leaves seem like they're everywhere when we're driving around town but when we went to the park on Sunday we actually saw significantly more green than we'd been anticipating. Even so, the autumn leaves were there.

One of the best parts of the autumn season-- stomping on crunchy leaves!

A few other things we did this month:

• Watched General Conference. Conference is always so uplifting. I've been listening to some of the talks over and over again since first hearing them at conference. There were so many good ones I can't really list which are my favorites but the ones I keep listening to are Pres. Uchtdorf's Of Regrets and Resolutions, Elder Cook's Can Ye Feel So Now?, Pres. Eyring's Where is the Pavilion? and Elder Bednar's Converted Unto the Lord.
• I finally finished a little decoration project I made for Stef and her roommates in Hawaii.
  
• Brenden made the front page of the local newspaper, the Athens Banner-Herald.
  
• Brenden and I finally ordered and hung up some of our wedding photos. Yippee!
• And between the two of us we attended 6 recitals and 5 concerts this month. I guess you could say we enjoy music. At one of these concerts we heard a steel band arrangement of Everlong by the Foo Fighters-- that was pretty exciting.

We hope your October was fun and spooky! We are very much looking forward to these next two months!

Tuesday Tunes - Gillian Welch

Hello! This is Brenden speaking. For today's edition of this prodigious periodical, I'm going to introduce you to one of my new favorite artists ever - Gillian Welch. If you've never seen the film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, you probably should so you'll know what it takes to be a bonafide genius, or at least a Dapper-Dan man. Also it has one of the best soundtracks ever, made up of Bluegrass and Gospel music.The movie, to be short, is a setting of Homer's Odyssey in the 1930s deep south.

So to make a long story short (too late!), I had the idea a little while back to find more music like what I enjoyed so much in the aforementioned soundtrack. To do this, I looked up all the artists featured on the soundtrack and hit up the UGA Music Library for recordings. They had 11 CD's of music by these artists, including the soundtrack and a live concert version of the soundtrack. The first CDs I checked out from the library were two albums by Gillian Welch: Harrow & Harvest and Time (the Revelator). At first, I was only going to share two songs for this post. Then I decided it had to be at least three.....

The first song I'm going to share today is one of my favorite songs from the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack: I'll Fly Away.

This next number is from Gillian Welch's 2001 album Time (The Revelator). It's called I Want to Sing that Rock and Roll.

And here's Down Along the Dixie Line from The Harrow & The Harvest (2011). When I first heard this song, it was one of those experiences where everything stops and the only thing you're aware of is the music. For whatever reason, this song hits home for me in a way that is really rare. It reminds me of all the people and experiences I've moved away from over the years and of how sweet it is when you get the chance to go back to where you came from.

To complete the set, here's one that's more upbeat: Six White Horses.

This music has soul, even though it might not be super-bad (see James Brown). There's a kind of immediacy to it that makes it unique. From the two CD's of Gillian Welch's I've heard, there isn't a single song that wouldn't be worth posting for Tuesday Tunes (that's why I couldn't just post one or two or three songs today). It's all really solid stuff. I hope you enjoy these songs. I certainly do.

Tuesday Tunes: Andrew Bird

It's that time of the week again. It looks like the Tuesday Tunes is barely keeping our blog alive.

At least this post has something to do with what we've been up to lately.

This past Friday evening, Brenden and I made a second trip to the Georgia Theatre. We arrived at the venue entrance at 7:20pm. We thought the doors opened at 7pm and that the show started at 8pm. But we discovered that we were off by an hour (on the early end). Even so, there was already a line forming outside the building. So we got in line and got to see a parade with balloons and dogs and children in wagons pass by as we waited to be let in!

So anyway, we went to another concert. And it was amazing.

Andrew Bird, "an American musician, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist" (see Wikipedia), was our main entertainment for the evening. Here We Go Magic opened for him and they were good but memory of their performance has been overridden by the awesomeness of Andrew Bird. Something notable about Here We Go Magic's performance was that it was Brenden's first time hearing and seeing a live guitar solo.

I don't want to make this post too long and it would be good to actually post one of these things on a Tuesday. So here is a YouTube video of one of my favorite songs from his album Break It Yourself (that he played at the show) and some pictures from Friday evening.



Andrew Bird opened his show by himself, playing "Hole in the Ocean Floor." When you listen to the YouTube recording, it sounds like he's got a string section playing with him the whole time, but he actually did this solo. He used instant playback and looping to make this work. It was pretty awesome. He continued using this for the rest of the show but he also had an actual band to help out with some of the other instrumentation.

Here's a picture of him performing "Hole in the Ocean Floor"

He plays violin.

And guitar.

In this picture you can see his guitar slung on his back as he's playing the violin.
He also used that glockenspiel in front of him.
And he whistled.
And he sang.

It was pretty great.

Tuesday Tunes - Episode 2. And it's October now!

Well it's just past that time of the week again! This here is episode 2 of Tuesday Tunes, brought to you by me (Brenden) this time. Natalie's music sharing initiative has broken my long blog silence. So for those of you who have come to love and expect Natalie's voice on this blog, I apologize if the change is jarring and I sincerely hope not to scare away any of our readers (even though Halloween is coming).

As a matter of segue, I happen to be a big fan of October. I like to read scary books in October and I like to listen to scary music in October and I like to eat scary food in October (see our post from 11.8.10) and I like to put up scary decorations in October. I love the changing of the leaves and the crisping of the air and the glorious combination of melancholy and ripeness. Oh, what the heck. Here's a poem:

To Autumn

BY JOHN KEATS

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

   Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

   With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

   And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

      To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

   With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

      For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

   Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

   Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,

   Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

      Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

   Steady thy laden head across a brook;

   Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,

      Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?

   Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

   And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn

   Among the river sallows, borne aloft

      Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

   Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

   The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;

      And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

For my scary book last year I read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and it was AWESOME. The book is completely different from the pop-culture version in a refreshingly philosophical kind of way. This year I'm reading Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Natalie and I have also checked out some books from the library including an illustrated guide to the paranormal and a book of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

(The illustrations by Stephen Gammell are a zillion times scarier than the actual stories)

So, anyways. October is fun and Halloween is also fun. And can you guess what else is fun? Music. Which finally brings be to the impetus for this post: Tuesday Tunes. Early in the summer I had the exciting idea to make a mix of songs with Halloween-related themes and you will find below the end result of my efforts. I wanted to make a playlist of songs on horror and/or paranormal subjects that people might not automatically associate with Halloween. I knew there had to be more out there than "Monster Mash," "Thriller," and "Purple People Eater." I also wanted to make a list of songs that might be worth listening to all year, should one be so inclined to celebrate horror/paranormal themes beyond the month of October. It was really hard narrowing the list down to 80 minutes (the arbitrary length of CDs originally based on Beethoven's 9th Symphony) and there were some honorable mentions that might possibly grace some future Tuesday Tunes episodes for your listening pleasure and overall edification.

Halloween Mix 2012 on YouTube

UPDATED: Halloween Mix 2012 on Spotify
Unfortunately a few of the songs on the YouTube list aren't on the Spotify list because those songs aren't available on Spotify. Sorry for the inconvenience. Any complaints may be submitted in the comments section below.

Enjoy! Please comment below with any songs like these that you'd like to share!