Life threw a hubcap at me yesterday....

So I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that I should just not drive..... After my hydroplaning, median-hitting incident, I recently found out that I have a bent wheel AND apparently need four new tires. SO I went to a wedding this weekend in Memphis and do not A) have the new wheel yet and B) currently have the money for four new tires. Due to all of this, I opted to rent a car this weekend to drive to Memphis. On my way back Monday afternoon, I was doing my best to avoid semis, certain that their tires might peel off their wheels and slap my tiny Nissan Sentra at any moment. And lo and behold.......I'm driving in the middle lane and the car in the right lane ahead of me has a complete blowout and the hubcap comes flying at my car!!!! i mean really? I swerve alittle but can't move to the left lane because a car is next to me so the little Sentra eats the hubcap. I look in my rear view mirror to make sure it doesn't get stuck under the car and sure enough it rolls on out behind me. I'm thankful it didn't fly up and hit the windshield or anything, but really? meh so hopefully there was no other damage to the rental.....

anywho! this pic (note the date) is from when I spent a semester in Greece. I recently used the backpack in the picture for a weekend trip. Immediately when I began packing, I remembered packing that tiny backpack for a 9 day spring break trip visiting Paris, Berlin, Prague, and Amsterdam. I think I packed like two or three outfits, wore some sandals, and tied my hiking boots to the outside of the backpack. Great memories! And of course, I found a horse to get a picture with while in Greece.......they just make me happy! :c) This pic was actually taken in Thessaloniki, Greece, I believe.

Music update: I recently met with three talented ladies to discuss album artwork, business cards, merch items, and anything else marketing-wise we could think of. I'm hoping to schedule my recording hours for late July or sometime in August. And there is a show with the lovely and talented Liz Sapp in the works! I'll post the details as soon as we get that ironed out......hm i should probably use irons sometimes..... anyway all weekend I listened to The Be Good Tanyas, Hello Love album! so good! tata! or in Greek, Yasas!

harmony...

I love to hear harmony in songs....good harmony that is. It can make me cry or just freeze me i guess. I've been listening to Tony Lucca and Ernie Halter harmonize alot lately. I love their voices together. I also enjoy the three part harmony of the Wailin' Jennys and also Jenny Lewis' album with twins.....their names escape me. Harmony is so intimate to me. I found in thinking about my "history of harmony" that I rarely let others harmonize with me.

See here's the "lee ellen's strange world" take on harmony. If I harmonize with your melody, then I'm caring and supporting you as you travel through the song. It's funny because in real life this is really foreign and difficult for me, but I find it easy and natural in song. On the other hand when you harmonize with me you're caring and supporting me through a song. I find this very difficult to do in songs, but very easy in life.

I'm sure I have had people harmonize with me randomly, but if it's a practiced song for a performance it's different. I feel closer to the person after letting them sing harmony for me....... I TOLD YOU it was strange! I learn something new about myself every day. What have you learned about yourself today? haha

I recently found out what I thought was 9 hours in the studio will end up being 12 HOURS!!! so thank you thank you thank you everyone! I'm hoping to get two 6 hour days scheduled in July. I'll keep you updated. Summer is here. Drive with the windows down. :c)

near death....always?

So you probably watched this before reading and I just want to clarify that even though I smiled and laughed alot in the video I am freaked out by what happened.  I was shaking for a good 15 minutes or so after it happened, and am so so so grateful that no one else was hurt, I wasn't hurt, and my truck wasn't hurt aside from an exclamation point light that came on.....(tire pressure maybe?)  I usually use humor naturally when i'm uncomfortable or freaked out by things.

So obviously I had all these thoughts of "wow, I could've died just then.....that could've been it....."  and things like that.  I was on my way to meet up with one of my best friends so when I got there I told her about it, but then I went to a wedding rehearsal and didn't say anything to anyone about it.  It's weird to think that everyday we're having "near death experiences", but we really are.  So many of us have "trust issues", but sheesh we get into huge boxes of metal everyday and "trust" the drivers around us to follow the traffic rules.  Every time we walk into a public place we are "trusting" that someone hasn't made plans to conceal a weapon under their coat and turn on an innocent bystander.  The other strange timing thing is I had just written an email to a friend about musicians that died really young and some of those deaths were just freak accidents.  It makes me think of that movie American Beauty where he narrates the last day of his life.  I mean I was doing such normal things today...

I still haven't processed everything, but i'm alright.  I don't mean to make this seem like a morbid, fear everyday life message....it was just thought provoking.  My life didn't flash before my eyes though.  All I remember thinking was "no I can't get in another accident" and my mom telling me about a bumper sticker she saw that said, "trucks may rock, but they also roll."  After all that, I had to drive to Branson in drizzly weather and all I wanted to do was never drive again.  I think it was that "Get right back on the horse after it bucks you off,"  mindset that got me where I needed to go today.  Thank You, Lord, for wanting me here alittle longer.

Unexpected inspiration....

.......is maybe the best kind.

I randomly found this Lori McKenna song today.  I was doing other things and started crying out of nowhere. I sat down and listened to it 3 times.....yes 3 times......crying the whole time.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FbU8Kd4CHs

I'm not sure of all the places the contents of this song is reverberating in my little soul, but I was hit hard.  I typically react quickly to things, but it takes me a bit to figure out the roots of my reaction.  And please don't put me in the box of "that girl" that just wants to be married......I considered that already but no, it's hitting me somewhere else.  Ask me in a few days I suppose....

But back to my unexpected inspiration.... so we had vending machines installed in our office building on Friday.  Inspiring? Well the dictionary tell us that inspiration is to "fill with an animating, quickening, or exalting influence."   So yes for me.  My boss asked me to kind of supervise and make sure the machines ended up in the right spot.  Well I'm sure I could have just showed them the spot and gone back to my day, but something kept me there.  They probably thought I was watching out of a lack of trust in their integrity or skill but no, I was just intrigued.  There are so many calculations and spatial guess and check decisions that go into this process.  I mean these are large machines squeezing through some tiny doorways.  It's a wonder they don't have to completely construct the machine on the spot.  So sidenote, I love puzzles and simply found myself in awe of their ability to maneuver and angle things just right when it looked like there was no way passage would occur.  I got home later and almost literally walked to my bedroom, stared at my oversized desk, and pulled out a gauntlet or asked it to dance or something.  I have been wanting to move that desk out of my room for awhile, but honestly couldn't remember how I moved it in.  So for about 30 minutes I was hoisting this glass top oversized desk to balance on my thighs and trying to angle it through the doorway.  I'm pretty sure I tried every way possible before pulling it up vertical and maneuvering it through and safely out to the garage.  I have huge bruise lines across both thighs from balancing the edge of the glass on them, but it was SO worth the victory. :c)

So music update!!  For my birthday, many many friends joined together to give me studio time!!!!  I have 9 more hours in VanSmith Studios where my previous tracks were recorded.  I am so excited and hope to at best get three more songs in that time to put together a 5 track little album!  Thank you to everyone for giving such a great gift and all the encouragement along the way!!!

I want to turn your pages.....

So I've been listening to alot of Ernie Halter and Tony Lucca this week.  A friend introduced me to them via the lovely world of youtube.  Here is a good sample of them together!  They are individual artists, though, with great original songs. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QSLbyqmq0s 

Ernie Halter does a cover of Pretty Girl that I love.  That's where the title of my post comes from today.  In this song, the girl is referred to as a magazine and he follows up with "I want to turn your pages."  And he also mentions the phrase, "to know her is to love her."  That is so true with girls.  We feel loved when someone knows us well.  Even at work today, a husband surprised his wife with a drink from Sonic I think and he knew exactly what to get her......and i'm not talking a regular Dr. Pepper.  It was something fancier.  It just means something so deep to girls to be known in whatever detail.  For example.....my birthday was Monday and my parents drove in Saturday to go to the ArtsFest and listen to me play.  My Mom made this quilt for me!!!  My dad chose the fabric on the back and the verse embroidered on the back.  I LOVE details.  My mom named the quilt "Eleni's Tulips".  I studied abroad in Greece for a semester and Eleni is my Greek name.  Tulips are my favorite flower.  My mom thought the fabrics were all watery colors so she embroidered the names of all the places I visited in Europe while abroad.  Ah and thank you to everyone that came to the show on Saturday!!!  Your faces are such a comfort to me and make me somehow more into it because I feel that to an extent you either understand or want to understand.  So thank you Anne, Lesley, Kris, Terry, Candy, Mike, Teresa, Mom, Dad, Adam, Katherine, Cayla, Brett, Dominic, Lui, Jay, Brett, Bev, Melissa, the man in the back wearing a hoodie that likes Van Morrison, and whoever else I didn't know or may have missed.  mm you guys bless my heart!

I'm playing again this Saturday from 3-3:50pm-ish on Commercial Street in Springfield, MO at the C-Street Jam.  There will be several stages of different styles of music throughout the evening.  I will be at the Footbridge stage.  I'm told that it is cheaper to buy your tickets before the event.  I hope to see you there!!! :c)

Videos!!!

I also posted a couple of videos on YouTube!! i'm going to try to keep adding those on a regular basis so hold me accountable. ya know...... write threatening comments on my fb wall, leave me ridiculously long voicemail messages about what i should do with my life :c), and instead of greeting me just look me in the eye, maybe cup my face in your hands, and with incredible intensity say, "video....". I'm really excited about the two gigs I have set up in May!!! And lately, I've been listening to Emily Elbert! Check out her music!!

so much!

Life....how do weeks go by in a moment?  so the first thing I thought of writing here happened about a week after my last post.  It has stayed burned in my brain since then.  Certainly other poignant things have happened, but this stole my attention and in ways still has it.  I was in a group discussion about love, relationships, and what men desire vs. women.  Now before you think, "oh so this is about...." hear me out.  The discussion was stating how men long to feel honored and respected by their wives while women desire to be emotionally intimate and loved by their husbands.  Of course, this wasn't proclaiming either gender only needs one or the other, but for the most part the priority is different for men vs. women.  So what stood out to me was when this man, probably in his 70s maybe, spoke up in the group.  He spoke about how a few years ago he and his wife were in another country doing mission work.  She had a physical ailment that required some help walking.  He said that he held her hand alot simply to steady her and help her along the way. Several people on the trip kept commenting when seeing them holding hands, "awww look they're still so in love."  The man said he kept thinking, "I'm just trying to help her walk."  Then.......his eyes got misty, this beautiful, wise man, and he said, "it really is true that you don't realize how much you love someone until you lose them."  His wife had passed away some time after that trip.  I think it struck me so deeply because 1) I don't see men cry much, and 2) I definitely don't see older generation men cry much.  I wanted to hug him because it felt, in some way, like an emotion everyone needs to express but doesn't.  I think, unfortunately, it's almost taboo to say/show how you really feel....whether it's about a situation or another person.  Then, yesterday I had to take a personality test for the place I work and it had this quote in it.  

"Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth." -Benjamin Disraeli.

Anyway, I have so much more I want to write, but I don't want to bog down one post with too much.  I just felt insanely blessed by the above-mentioned discussion because it included three different generations of people and, not to be too out there, but I seriously felt my soul expand or something just taking it all in. :c)  Cheers!

P.S. I just found out that I'll be playing on the Acoustic Stage at the ArtsFest on Walnut St. Saturday, May 2nd from 2:30-3:30pm.  I LOVE the ArtsFest!!  Come and support the Arts in Springfield!!!