It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

If you've never been to the Harn Homestead, you should check it out. It is a territorial homestead near the capitol and during December on the 8th and 15th, they are hosting a territorial Christmas from 5pm to 8pm. good food, crafts for the kids, pictures with Santa and caroling from Canterbury Choral Society. Tour the home and the barn. Take a step back in time for an evening. $5 donation at the door, free if you're a member. Great Christmas photo op for the family! More information is at www.harnhomestead.com. fun for all!

isn't it amazing

well Oklahoma, winter has arrived! Just in case you haven't been outside in the last couple of days, it blew in, literally. Visualize with me here...the wind is blowing constantly, gusting to 40 & 50 mph at times. Jim on a 15 foot ladder, 1 gallon of blue paint, 1 four inch brush, large gable over the garage. Yes ladies and gentlemen, we picked what was possibly the windiest weekend in the books to paint our house! I was holding the ladder, actually I was more just putting all of me against all of it to anchor it to the ground so husband would not get an early trip to Arkansas. House looks great, driveway needs cleaning, husband has no hair so scrubbing the noggin was no biggie. Too bad I forgot the video camera. The award goes to--My daredevil bro-in-law. When we reached the height of comfort for me and hubbie, we called daredevil and he finished the pinnacle with Jim body hugging the ladder. Quite a sight! No one died!

Things I learned:
Leaves can really hurt when hurled at 50 mph by the wind.
A newspaper becomes a living thing when trapped in a whirling gust, just give in, it will move on.
There are no hair clips, bands, hats, barrettes, do-rags, etc that work in 50 mph winds.
Paint can fly really far.
So can ladders when you aren't holding on to them.
Paint-$30, Brush-$4, watching Jim on a ladder in 50 mph winds-priceless!!
peace!

not much left

it's been a while. job is nuts, I'm not far behind and on top of the Hornet's game, the Bricktown Tree lighting the day after Thanksgiving, 2 concerts, 3 nights at the Harn Homestead Territorial Christmas and 15 other gigs, we've put our house on the market!! Oh well, without this what would I do? sleep?

Never a dull moment and in case I don't make it back here before the holidays...and it's a good possibility at this point...Have a fabulous Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, etc...

Peace!

to the ends of the world

Hi ho, hi ho, off to Ft. Smith I go...I love traveling and singing. Canterbury has provided the opportunity to sing in Amarillo, Little Rock, Ft. Smith, Oklahoma City, London, Bath (B-ah-th not the tub), and beyond... I could do this for a living!

My next new experience will be singing at half time at a New Orleans/OKC Hornets game on November 18th. They are playing the Atlanta Hawks and I have tickets for $15 if anyone wants to go. CCS and the NBA, who'd have thunk it!

Gentlemen, start your engines!

I was reading my friend Dwayne's blog (dwayne.blog-city.com) and he was touting the beauty and joy his first car brought to him. Made me reminisce back to my own first set of wheels. It was a 1967 Datsun my dad paid $100 for. A white, 4 door box on wheels. It had a 4 speed transmission, although over 55 regardless of the gear, you shook like you were on a cheap motel bed and had quarters to waste. Soon after acquiring the car, the fuel pump gave up it's ghost, dumped a tank of gas on the parking lot and had to be replaced. Due to the advanced age of the car, the make of the car (it was very foreign in 1980) and the fact that I lived in a town with 2000 people in it and only 2 garages, one of which didn't do "furren veehikles" (the town was in Texas), the fuel pump was replaced with a generic part that was electrically based, don't ask I don't know.

So now once the car was good and warm, the fuel pump sounded something like a jet engine taking off, with rapid fire machine gun like bursts growing louder the warmer it got, even at a stop sign. The electrical system was next to go and took with it the gauges, the headlights and the speedometer. But due to the shaking, I always knew how fast I was going and I wasn't supposed to be out after dark anyways. The interior was roomy, I once had 15 kids in the car. We weren't moving, we were just sitting at the stop sign waiting to take off. Young women protecting their children rushed by, old men stayed inside, some fainted in fear, quite a sight. But what else was there to do in Farmersville at a stop sign?

Almost got my first ticket in this car. When the policemen pulled me over, I was at a stop sign, 2 doors down from my house. It was the day before my 16th birthday, it was dark outside and I had been doing 35 in a 25 (no shaking to gauge at this speed). He walked up to my car and asked me something. The jet engine hampered our conversation so I turned the car off and after only 3 hick, hick, hick, it died. Here is how the conversation went:
Officer: Do you know how fast you were going?
Me: No sir, I don't have a speedometer.
Officer: You were going 35 in a 25 mile an hour zone.
Me: I'm sorry, my car doesn't start shaking until 50.
Officer: Do you realize you were driving without headlights?
Me: Yes sir, I was running late from a church party and I don't have any. (turn them on and off to prove it)
Officer: May I see your license?
Me: Well...I turn 16 tomorrow, but here's my permit and that blue house is mine (pointing)
Officer: (Pulls out flashlight and starts looking all over the car, begins making strange, trying not to laugh noises) OK, if you will go straight home and not drive again until you have your license I think this car is punishment enough! Have a nice night.

Oh, by the way, I failed to mention the custom paint job!

The car had belonged to a football player in a nearby town. During his Junior season, he broke his leg during a game. Since he couldn't drive a standard, it sat undisturbed at the high school for a couple of weeks. During this time, his football buddies decided to fix it up for him. So with the imagination of true arteests, armed with magic markers, they set about labeling each part of the car as well as penning their poetic feelings on the large canvases of the vehicle. Use your imagination, it can't be any worse! Remember: white car, permanent black magic marker. Yep, she was a beut!

I drove it for a year. On my 17th birthday, I upgraded to a brand new, bright red, Chevy Chevette. I knew I had arrived...

hot fudge and fried pickles

there are few things is life that bring joy and comfort simply by being. hot fudge, heated to perfection, dripping over homemade vanilla ice cream, slightly melted, is one of those things. it makes you feel warm from the moment it touches your tongue until it slides down your throat to your tummy and settles there spreading contentment until the next bite. mmmm...
fried pickles bring joy from the first crunch brimming with dill and ranch like a smile exploding in a pickly bath. comfort food has long been my pursuit, as evidenced by the comfort it has provided my seat!!
I'm learning new ways of comfort and joy. a beautiful day, filled with good music, people I love and a slower pace, mmmm. A good book read in the quiet of an afternoon dedicated to nothing but relaxation. JOY!! Sharing a movie with my sweetie while enveloped in our well loved couch, comfort...
don't get me wrong, there will always be a place for hot fudge in my life. Life is too short to never eat dessert, but it isn't what I long for these days. simple, quiet moments are the revival for my soul and the comfort I long for.
"A loaf of bread, a glass of wine and thou"...sounds good to me. Happy Sunday everyone!

My compass is spinning

A great blog I read, winetravelandmusings.blogspot.com, had this politicalcompass.org link and a challenge to find out where you are positioned on the compass. It was interesting, lots of great info and reading suggestions, it was enlightening,(a little) and somewhat confusing. I have discovered that the way a question is phrased is the very essence of how it will be answered. Questions like "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?" leads to a condemning answer regardless. Questions with always and never in them tend to put me in a corner, depending on the subject, that I don't want to reside in.
I know that God will always love me, that He will never leave me or forsake me. In the realm of politics, to think always and never creates an interesting paradigm. The world changes daily, to think I would always or never anything in a given situation is stifling. But whether I agree or disagree changes my action, not my beliefs.
When I took the political compass test, I found myself sitting on Ghandi's dot. Hmmm, I know I love peace. Would I always respond as Ghandi? Probably not.
Check it out for yourself. Check out winetravelandmusings.blogspot.com, too.
peace.

whose line is it anyway?

loved the Drew Carey improv show by this name. i especially loved the props bit. you know they grab a huge prop and have to come up, in rapid fire succession, with situations surrounding the prop. great fun!
So I'm sitting in my office, proofing the season program, and my boss enters. I show her the cover, tell her what I don't like about it, how I'm going to change it and ask what she thinks. She holds the pieces in her hands, reflecting, contemplating, and with this amazed look of a lightbulb moment, looks at me and says she has a great idea. Then she repeats back to me exactly what I had just described to her as her ideal cover. I wait...no punchline. I'm confused...is she serious? She says, So what do you think? I, with a puzzled look on my face, answer, sounds great, isn't that what I just described to you? She pats my arm, says great we're on the same page and exits. Other than the cover, I saw no props. I don't think she was trying to be funny. Dej'a vous doesn't cover it. i'm still a little in awe of the swiftness by which I superimposed my idea on her brain to the point that she thought it was her original thought. I need to explore this power. maybe i could lower the price of gas, end the national deficit and keep congress from voting themself another raise. this could be good, but i bet that's what you were thinking...see I've been practicing already!!! ;-)

Art supporting Life

Verdi Requiem
October 22nd, 2005 at 8:00 p.m
Civic Center Music Hall

In memory of those who were lost in Katrina and to give hope to those who live, Canterbury is donating 10% of every individual ticket sold to this special performance of the Verdi Requiem to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. This timeless masterpiece filled with memorable melodies and suffused with honest human emotion captures the drama of the text and magnifies it through music. Verdi’s love of the theatrical makes this a work with universal appeal, keeping you riveted to your seat through the magnificent solos and the richly composed chorales. Performed with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, this is an enduring favorite. “This is a work of genius.” – Johannes Brahms
I'm proud to sing and work with Canterbury and if you've never been to a Canterbury performance, I can't think of a better reason to see us now. Check out http://www.canterburyokc.com/ for more information.

hefner storm

hefner storm
Originally uploaded by gr8tfulg.

see what I mean.

what's brewin

what's brewin
Originally uploaded by gr8tfulg.

i love the sky, it's one of God's best canvases.

wine in waiting

wine in waiting
Originally uploaded by gr8tfulg.

wow

wow
Originally uploaded by gr8tfulg.

not sure how this happened, but this is the sky above Lake Hefner right before a fabulous storm hit. one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

I Pledge Allegiance

I've just heard on the news that the Pledge of Allegiance is illegal in California. Well excuse me! If the words--I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all--offends you, feel free to move to another country. Really, we won't make you stay. We won't make you say the pledge. I hear France is nice this time of year and it sounds like you'll fit right in.
But if you choose to stay, stop tearing apart the foundation of the nation whose freedoms you revel in. Stop shooting at the very freedoms you enjoy, stop invalidating the sacrifices made by thousands of Americans who provided them, stop tying up the court system with something that is so very assanine it should be embarrassing to you to litigate. If you don't want to say the pledge, fine, just keep your mouth shut, literally.

it's all about your translation

i'm a singer. not just in the shower, i guess you could call me a professional. i have been paid on many occasions to sing a tune. i have sung in many languages, many styles and many venues. it's a passion and a privilege. i love it! i've never really thought about the fact that in the audience might be someone who actually speaks the language i consider foreign and yet, am singing. much practice, coaching and pronunciation go in to preparing a foreign language solo and by the time it is performed, i've worked on it a great deal.

however, having recently heard a norwegian children's choir sing Oklahoma (my state song) i came to the realization that my best effort may be comical to the owner of said foreign language. you see, these children were beautiful and practiced, very professional and when they broke out into...(and Oklahomans and lovers of Rogers and Hammerstein, feel free to sing along)...OOOOOOOOOOO-K-LAHOMA where the wind comes sweeping down the plain....they actually sang...OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-Kay-lahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plain...made sense to them.

makes me go hmmm...cause i might really not know the words. maybe the shower is safer...

exploding printers and other adventures

well...i went to work today and discovered something i had never known before. when inkjet printer cartridges explode, they do it with style!! after leaking through the printer (and I do mean the whole printer!) it continued down my arm to my hand to the desk where it puddled a while before straying off the edge of the desk to the carpet. and of course, today's shirt color was WHITE!! not that the color would matter, the ink was BLACK!! flashbacks of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea came to mind when the giant octopus of a printer wrapped itself around me and thoroughly inked me. now I know how a rubber stamp feels. after yelling for help, grabbing said printer, tripping on trailing cables and power cords and running out the door, i gave it a proper burial in the dumpster. now i will find my copy of Black Like Me and read with understanding. can't wait to see what tomorrow holds, maybe three desperate copiers on a wire...

living in a bathtub

I have always wanted to visit New Orleans. Mardi Gras intrigues and scares me a little, but I always thought I'd see it once, kind of like Vegas. I heard a reporter say, and I quote, "If you build a city in a bathtub, you have to expect someday it will fill up". Well, we've seen the day. And I don't think it will ever be the same. It made me think though, if I lived in a bathtub and a hurricane was coming, what would I take with me? My husband and kids, no question, my dog, most likely, my cat, pretty sure...my bible, pictures, jewelry, a camera, clothes, money, and maybe my great grandmother's silver. I couldn't think of anything I "ride out the storm" for, or wrestle alligators for, or loot a wal mart for. I saw a guy on the news dragging a washing machine out of Lowe's. Kind of screams the question "Whatcha gonna wash in that machine with no water and no electricity?" I mean seriously, washing machine did not make my take it with me list. Neither did the TV. I am sad for the trapped and desperate in New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama. Single parents, small children, the poor, the elderly and infirm. But these weren't the people I saw running out of the stores dragging carts and washing machines. I hope that in this tragic time, the needy are remembered and cared for. I hope the gators get the rest.

The home of the brave

I saw a cartoon in the Oklahoman this morning and it was a reporter asking Cindy Sheehan "How did your son, Casey, feel about the war?" and she is responding with "What's that got to do with it ?"

Well, all I know is I am proud to have family members and friends who will fight for our freedom. The sacrifices that our military and their families make to provide for our rights and freedoms should be hailed not questioned. So I want to say thank you to the men and women all over the world that follow their Commander in Chief, protect and serve on a daily basis and receive no notariety for it.

And to Cindy Sheehan, I am sorry for the loss of your son. But I am grateful for his sacrifice for my freedom, my children's freedom and the freedom of everyone he fought for. I am sorry for the loss of your marriage as well. I hope that as time passes you will remember the living and let the dead rest in peace, never forgetting, but moving forward with the joy of their memory in your heart. I hope you can find the freedom in your own heart, mind and world that your son fought valiantly to provide for you and us all. Thanks Casey, you paid the ultimate price for your patriotism and I will not forget to honor you as a veteran and hero.

just one woman's opinion

life is an interesting journey...just when i think the road is clearing, construction begins. kind of like I-35 south! talking to a group of 17ish girls this morning, i find myself amazed at the burdens of youth these days. they aren't always external-jobs, school, opposite sex, peer pressure, etc.--i'm finding these days they are more internal. do i measure up, worries about friends and families, futures. what happened to the JOY of childhood? when did our society become so obsessed with what we do and how we do it that we forgot the simple things. a gentle rainshower, the smell of fresh cut grass, spitting watermelon seeds in the grass (and watching them grow the next year), playing in the mud, fingerpainting, music, reading, spinning in a tire swing...
i am not unrealistic. i know that education is important, goals are needed and sometimes t-ball players do grow up to be the next Babe Ruth. but i know more that the little boy peeing in the outfield because he's clueless about baseball but fascinated with the way the weeds react to his urinating on them brings joy to everyone watching (except maybe his mom). i also know that the pursuit of excellence for excellence sake is a vain and empty pursuit. do what you love excellently, that's success.

baby blogger on the move!!

after foraying in the xanga world (gasp, shaking of head, small denial...) i have decided to take the plunge and blog for real! so here I am world, ready or not. i don't know the answer to world peace or world hunger, i don't care who won the oscars and i'm too old for mtv to be cool...but i do love the black eyed peas (group not vegi), i ain't no hollaback girl and bach rocks! so hang on...randomness is my specialty and life is my canvas. wonderful combination...strangely disturbing...but stay tuned!
peace chicken grease!