Row, row, row your boat

I've been completely caught up in something again. Something I haven't done since I was 18.



That's me on the far right with my crew team in college. I rowed through the fall, but dropped in the spring when it came down to passing classes and rowing. Passing classes won out.

I've talked about joining the Atlanta Rowing Club since I graduated from college. But it's always been expensive or something or another. No good reason. Work shifts gave me an excuse to not do a lot of things I love.

This summer I finally signed up for the "Learn to Row" class, because although I knew what I was doing I was out of practice and I didn't know how to scull (two oars) which I wanted to learn. I got wait-listed until April, but I made plans to run a half marathon in the fall/winter and then I'd be ready for the class. To my surprise though I got into the August class by the skin of my teeth.

For the past few weeks I've been going to practice 3 days a week (Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday). It's not much but already I see a difference in my body. I'm hungry more often, I sleep better, I feel better.

But none of that compares to being on the water. Oh I do really love it so. I've been out in doubles (sculling with two people) and starting Wednesday we were out in the eight again. My old friend the eight. (see my eight team up there in the photo). I've missed it so much, but it just comes back the moment you start again.

I'm looking into joining another team after the class is over. Not competing yet, but working with a coach and working on my style. I'm hoping to get better and eventually compete if I still want to.

The half marathon isn't off the table yet. I'm worried about muscle development and such (it's all different muscles) but I'm still considering it. We'll see. Maybe I can use rowing as cross training.

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A birthday for them all

I blame Meag for not posting much. In her haste to move even farther away from me (is it farther? we should figure that out) she's not been online in days and I'm suffering from withdrawl. Plus she's not posting to remind me to post.

My birthday was Sunday (the 22nd) and what a lovely birthday it was!! I had friends over Saturday night to celebrate, which is always fun. It's fun to see friends from work interact with other friends as well. Sometimes I worry that people from two different parts of my life won't get along, but it did seem to go smoothly.

As for gifts, Gina got me Twilight SceneIt. I deserved it since she got New Moon the trivia board game for her birthday in June. My parents bought me a new IPod Nano that I desperately needed as mine is on it's last breath. It's fun and bright yellow. I love it.

Champ though, he always manages to pull out all the stops. He got me the one things I knew I wanted but would never admit to wanting.





Yes! I am now a proud Slice Owner. I do love this little thing and already used it with my new Commit2Paper kit (September is a lovely kit, not even kidding).

Now if I didn't have to go to work during the day and I could just stay home and play.

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August C2P

I was terribly un-mojo'd this month, which is always hard when working with a kit. But I did manage to crank out a few layouts with this month's Commit2Paper kit. The bright colors reminded me of summer and thus summer camp so I scrapped some photos from camp 2008



I love these girls. They've become like family to me over the past five years, the sisters I never had. so fantastic.



:D

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"You can be my punk rock princess..."

I know. I keep posting these photos of things you probably don't care about but I have to share this.

I'm a big music person. More than that I'm a big concert person. I don't go to nearly enough concerts (in my opinion) and I'm always re-discovering music I love through seeing it live. While chatting with Dave about music, I was trying to explain the Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin correlation (how they have the same lead singer) and on the wikipedia page i noticed that SOMETHING CORPORATE IS DOING A REUNION TOUR. And they were coming here. "Self," I told myself, "You are so there." So Champ and I got tickets (stub hub for the win) and off we went.

If you've never been to the Masquerade in Atlanta, I recommend making a pilgrimage. It's seedy and underground but at the same time wildly well known. The upper floor (Heaven as they call it) is one of my fave concert venues. Yes it's always too hot, yes the floor has caved in at least once, but man oh man it's awesome.



if you're not a Something Corporate fan, you should be. Every song is so well done, musically and lyrically. He opened with "Woke up in a Car" which was on the first mix tape I made Champ. There's a line "these flights connect through arizona, but I think I'll stay stuck," which applied to us when we first started dating. (It's a longer story, but it does involve a job offer in Arizona and a layover in Atlanta long enough to see him.)



Andrew is part of the genius behind it, and yes. That's a piano he's playing. He played it through most of the show. He told a great story about having pulled his piano outside the tour bus when they were doing a tour in Atlanta years ago and they'd realized they were going to have to write their new album on the road and how he'd started toying with a song and suddenly the sky just opened up on him. Hence why "Paint Me Blue" has the like "Atlanta started raining on me," which is my favorite song by them.





It also served as something to stand on when things got really rocking. I also loved that when he was really rocking out and the crowd was yelling and screaming he was just banging his foot on the keys. I swear it sounded like he knew what he was doing and not just making noise







At the end of the last song he definitely jumped up on the piano again. and opted to swing from the rafters (don't you love this venue yet?)



To start the encore Andrew came out alone and talked a bunch about how happy he was to be there, how blessed he felt to be able to tour like this with a band that meant so much to him over the years. He was really genuine in his love for his fans which just...gah it melts your heart.





He started the encore with "Constantine" which he says he gets a lot of crap for not playing it live, but it's hard to get motivated to play it because although he likes the song it's a 9 minute song and it's just so damn long. Still...it was great to hear it.





Next was "As You Sleep", which is another one of my favorites, and it was just fantastic.

He closed the show with Punk Rock Princess, which had everyone jumping up and down and rushing the stage (which meant I got pitched forward about 30 feet) and then we were jumping so hard and packed in so tight I wasn't sure if i was jumping or the floor was just pitching me up in the air (that wood plank floor moves with the crowd). It was awesome.

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All good things come to an end

There is nothing like the Kudzu after party. There never is. We always end up going to a public place (ie bar) and drink and sing and hang out and wind up singing camp song late into the night completely with hand motions and arms around each other swaying. This year was no different.


Scott, Dave and Shawn played while we cheered. The first set was mostly covers, the second set was camp music + camp covers

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Love'll Never Die

Sorry for the delay in posts, but I spent last week as a counselor at summer camp!!

I volunteer at Camp Kudzu and have for five years now. It's a summer camp for kids with Type 1 diabetes, and we've got kids from ages 8-16 who come spend a great week in the sun with us. My girls this year were 15 and of course full of energy. A great week, great fun and wonderful love all around. We're all family, no matter what.

So here's some shots from camp!


always leave room for rocking out, especially with new friends




spend the morning on the water, enjoying the sun and trying something new (my campers + co-counselor)


Don't be afraid to take a leap of faith...


even when it sends you flying over the lake!


rain, shine or really loud large thunderstorm we're all together and that's what matters.


stick together


stay cool


enjoy meals with friends

and never be afraid to be just a little different:




I've got after party pictures too, but those will go up later :)

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Scrap Your Crap!

I'm one of the guest designers over at Scrap You Crap this month!



Make sure you check it out and use up some of that tape!! <3

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