January 26, 2010: My love for Tuesdays

So even though I've totally lost my voice today, I'm ecstatic. It's New Music Tuesday. While most people have no affinity for Tuesdays, I long for them. I know that each Tuesday, a slew of new albums will be released for my listening pleasure. I can't even begin to describe how much music means in my life. Music has soothed my soul when I've been sad, made me dance when I'm happy, and helped me release stress when I'm angry. It's a constant in my life like nothing else. Most people laugh when they get in my car and see how many CDs I have floating around. (Sadly, my car isn't in the 21st century, and doesn't have an iPod adapter.)

After a long day at work, full of meetings and brainstorming sessions, I raced to the store to purchase two of my anticipated releases. Patty Griffin's Downtown Church and Lady Antebellum's Need You Now.  I was pleasantly surprised to find them both on sale, so I walked out of the store with both albums for less than twenty dollars. Total score!

I'd likely need to write an entire blog entry on Patty Griffin. She is my music icon. I don't like to use the word idol, as I really don't ever want any person to be my idol. I think it's the preacher's kid in me. Yes, I'm a preacher's kid, again, another blog entry. I've been in love with Patty Griffin's music since 1999. That was the first time I heard her sing Let Him Fly. I'd heard the Dixie Chicks' cover of it, and was intrigued to hear the original version. Needless to say I cried when I heard it. And then back in the days of Napster, I found many of Patty's songs online. I fell in love with her. Her music literally opened my soul. She is one of the main reasons I started singing again. I have been singing since I was three years old. My first solo was at age four in church, while standing on a stool to reach the microphone. I sang in every choir imaginable through high school. My childhood music teacher was murdered when I was a freshman in college and that lead me to stop singing for quite some time. I finally began singing again in the fall of 2003 when I performed several songs, including Let Him Fly, at at open mic night after being encouraged by my friends. I haven't stopped singing again since. I've had the pleasure of seeing Patty Griffin in concert many times. I actually got to meet her at my first Patty concert in 2004. It was a moment I'll never forget. I was quite speechless. I'll treasure that photo for the rest of my days. And I got to share it with my BFF and fellow Patty lover, Ally. A few years back, Ally gave me one of the best gifts I've ever received, a portrait of Patty Griffin that she painted inspired by my favorite photo. If my house were burning down, that would be one of the few things I'd grab. It's that special to me and could never be replaced.

Needless to say the new album is incredible. It's a Gospel collection, which happens to be one of my favorite genres of music. Patty's soul creeps into every note, and it resonates. I've listened to the album twice now, and I know that my love for it will continue to grow. I would highly encourage anyone who's never heard of her to check her out. Her music will change your life, it's that good!

That's about all I can write for now. I'll have to get back on the Lady A album in my next post. Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone enjoys the new blog design. I really love how it turned out! Thanks to Penny Lane Designs for all your work. Check out their link at the bottom of the blog.

Cheers,

Miss L.A.

January 12, 2010

Another blah day at the office. I did get to venture into the catering world for a while, but once again the powers that be wanted the standard fare, so all my creative efforts were foiled. I'm also continuing to drudge through marketing packets for everyone in the firm. Let's hope they actually use all the information I'm collecting and don't just trash it.

Work flew by and I ran home to fix my hair and makeup to make it to the game. Once I was sufficiently thrown on my ghastly dress, I made it to the the stadium. Our choir wears the most hideous uniforms. Imagine a black floor-length polyester dress with gathered pouf shoulders, complete with shoulder pads. Throw in an elastic waist and wrists, and a cowl neck to boot. It's a fashion abomination. Thankfully from far away they just look like a black blob.

Once inside I was forced to stand for 90 minutes in my heels on the concrete floor while we completed a sound check and went through the entrance and exit plans. After a long day at work, my heels began to hurt. By the end of the night, my feet were screaming from pain.

The performance went splendidly, and it was very fun to be standing next to some NBA superstars. (One of them just wed a socialite in a hasty courtship. She wasn't in attendance, unfortunately.) I enjoyed the remainder of the game, and sat next to a handsome frenchman. He has duel citizenship, and had a sexy accent. He spoke of his love of soccer, and french food. He's an auditor for the state, and at the end of the night gave me his card. We'll see if I decide to call him the next time I'm in our state capital.

Ended the night by falling into bed and setting a record on how quickly I could crash. There would be no pondering of what tomorrow might hold.

January 11, 2010

Ugh, back to work again. I'm at least free of some of the duties that I had before my job so drastically changed. I hated some of the monotonous tasks that I had to do, and now I have a little more creativity in my daily work chores. We'll see how long that lasts before they 'redefine' my work duties as they've been planning to do.

The morning flew by, and I left work early to grab Rick and take him to the airport. We said our goodbyes, and I went to get my haircut by my friend, and all around fabulous hair dresser, who I'll call HD. We chatted, and laughed, and he of course made me look and feel fabulous. He's such a doll, and I don't care if I ever move away, I'll likely drive or fly so he can do my hair. He's THAT good.

After my haircut I drove over for my choir rehearsal since we've got a big performance on Tuesday. I'm a member of the symphony chorus in my city, and it's been an amazing experience the last 5 years. We've sung amazing classical works, and performed with some extremely famous and talented individuals. We've even performed at Carnegie Hall. Tomorrow we're performing the National Anthem at an NBA game. There will be around 20-25 of us, and we're singing a four part harmony acapella version. We really nailed it at rehearsal and I'm really looking forward to it. After a late night of rehearsing, I headed home to get some sleep. I'm excited for tomorrow and seeing a great game of basketball after our performance. It's already a great week!

January 4, 2010

First day back at work for the new year. It was a great reminder of why I've set out to change a few things in my life this year, work being one of those things. I work in the business world, and there were some marked staffing changes at the end of 2009 that greatly affected my duties at work. These changes essentially eliminated the job I was hired to do. So, now I go to work and receive a mish mash of tasks befit for a high school student, and that bore me to pieces. I have literally felt my brain cells evaporating as I sit at work and complete these mindless tasks. I'm just praying the right door opens soon enough that lead me to where I need to be.
And so I find myself asking what it is I exactly want to do. The answer always comes back to my true passion, music. You see I'm a singer. I have no idea why I was chosen to be given such a fantastic talent. I don't deserve it. But the only reason I can see if so that I can bring joy to other people. I sing about love, faith, sorrow, and every emotion the human heart can feel. It's how I get through my life. You'll never get into my car without a song. I sing my way through road trips, and life. Some people tell me that I'm crazy that I want to sing for my career, but I just don't think that God gives people talents like this if they aren't supposed to use them to their full potential.
The problem is that I often feel torn about where the path toward music will lead me. Should I love closer to my family and try for music there? Should I throw caution to the wind and move to Nashville and go for my dreams in the country music industry, or do I follow my heart to be with Wes and see where the music leads there? There just seem to be so many options, and I'm scared that I'll make another poor choice and end up disappointed like I was so much in 2009.
I've gotten advise, I've prayed, I've listened, and I guess it's time for me to be patient. I guess I just feel that I'm running out of time and need to make a choice about where I should move soon. I'm not sure that I'll have a place to live in a few weeks and so my choice may come down to what makes the most sense financially.
If sometimes decisions weren't so tough, but I guess that's what makes life so interesting. Oh delicious ambiguity.