if these walls could talk

april is here.

and this means i've been in this house for 9 months.

9 months of hitting my head on the shower nozzle in the morning because it is seriously JUST MY SIZE....which as one of my kids told me the other day is "fun size." god, i love 7th graders. but anyway. 9 months of making this place my home. it still isn't quite there, yet. but that is what summer break is all about. apparently. now that i'm old.

but everyday when i get out of my car, i'm reminded just how insignificant my 9 months in this house really is.

it was built in 1955. and when it was built, my street was as far south as you could go and still be in town. now "town" is one of the biggest 'burbs around. at closing, beverly - the original owner - told me the story . . . she and her husband got married on easter weekend. her daddy bought this house for her and her husband on that saturday and they moved in on sunday. with two suitcases and some bedding. and when he came home from dinner on monday she cooked him their first dinner together . . .

she owned this house for 55 years.

i don't know why that strikes me like it does. maybe because as i've made it my own, i've discovered pieces of their story . . . like the wall paper in each of the front bedrooms that had just been painted over years and years and years ago. wall paper from 1950's children's rooms. the random bullet i found in the back of a drawer. the draperies from the 1978 jc penney's catalog that dominated me when i took them down on night one. beverly's husband's grave marker out in the shed . . .

but my favorite part of their story is in the garage. it's what i get to see every day when i am leaving and going.

one wall of the garage is filled with all of his notes about the maintenance he did on their cars.

again. these notes strike me.

it makes me happy that beverly had someone who took such meticulous care of her.

there's love on the walls of my garage.

not many people can say that.

music note

(so i'm going to pretend that i haven't NOT blogged in over two months and just jump right into things...)

last weekend? i realized i was old.

it all started about a month and a half ago when my sister called to tell me that patty griffin was going to be playing in lawrence, kansas sometime in march. would i like to drive up with her and go? and when ica called with such an offer (i'll explain the awesomeness of it in a bit. trust.) i had yet to realize how old i was, so i quickly said yes and my inner hippie/folk music loving soul glowed for a while. because....i was going to see patty. live. in lawrence. my favorite singer in one of my favorite towns with (obviously) one of my favorite people....

but then? the oldness set in. i think it started to take place toward the end of spring break. a couple of "traumatic" things happened: it SNOWED! on SPRING BREAK! in OKC! my cowboys lost in the first round of the ncaa tourney. my jayhawks lost in the second round of the ncaa tourney. i had to go back to school knowing full well that summer is still 2 months away. all of these things combined to drag me down. not the best way to go back to work. and then work. yeah. kind of stressful right now. and that's all i'll say about that.

so these things together, plus my general laziness that seems to abound from december until, um, now?, just kind of made me dread getting in a car and driving 5 hours. for a concert. why did i agree to this?

but. screw being old.

because patty? well, she's enough to make you forget about the snow, sad basketball games, work stress, and everything else. for me, at least, she is. i discovered her music not long after i moved to texas after round one of college. i heard a song over the speakers in the music section of barnes and noble and went to ask the guy at the counter who he was playing. he launched into his adoration of patty and within 25 seconds of his superlatives i'd purchased her cd.

so for the past ten years, i've listened to patty. to be somewhat cliche, her music has been my soundtrack for the last decade of my life. she's helped me drive more miles along i-35 than i can even bare to add up. i lost my voice on a weekend road trip to houston because i sang along with her cd's the entire way there and the entire way back. i've discussed the philosophy in her lyrics with friends, listened to the raw emotion her voice is able to convey through a simple recording, and ignored my claustrophobia to sway in an audience at nyc's webster hall with my sister while we listened to her live.....

i could go on. i don't think i'm making much sense or am even explaining myself very well at all. i just know that, yes. i felt old last weekend.

it was rough.

it was worth it.

because when i listened to patty sing i heard her through my "old" ears.

and songs that have always been beautiful to me sounded......

......different.

to the old me i've become.

to the old me i'm starting to like.

so thanks for helping me grow up, patty.

_____________________________________________

here are a couple of videos.....the first is my favorite favorite favorite song. and that's saying a lot because it's ridiculously hard for me to choose between so, so, so many.

the next video is from an audience member. it's another of my favorites and i cry every time i listen to it. last saturday when i got to hear her sing it live was probably one of my best musical moments. also. um. if you are a singer? you should be able to sing live. case in point:

so a lot of patty's songs get covered by other artists. the dixie chicks did "fly" and it is (in my opinion) one of their best songs. below two of my favorites sing "up to the mountain." just another version of such a GREAT song.