when have i been so happy?

happiness is not found in material things. i know. however, there is much happiness to be found in the spirit of said material things. and i am happy for these first two reasons tonight:

1. below-mentioned rosie thomas cd, when we were small, which is now making its 3rd rotation in my world, and it is all that i could have hoped: thick, delicious lyrics and real pianos and cellos and turns of phrase. creativity is alive and well in the music world. this is encouraging after my week of mostly monotonous next big things. thank you.

2. grace paley's collected stories. i have been meaning to read grace paley for the longest time, introduced to her name via a hilarious anecdote as could only be told by the incomparable anne lamott. i had simply forgotten, until last night.
last night, i was looking at the bibliography section of a book that constance is reading, and saw ms. paley's name. and i remembered! and then i providentially found myself at barnes & noble tonight between thai goodness (oooo khaeng phed) and spiderman (which i loved), thumbing throught the "P" section of the fiction department. i picked up the collected stories and melted at the intimacy of just the dedication:

it seems right to dedicate this collection to my friend sybil clairborne...i visited her 5th floor apt on barrow street one day in 1957. there before my very eyes were her two husbands disappointed by the eggs. after that we talked and talked for nearly forty years. then she died. three days before that, she said slowly, with the delicacy of an unsatisfied person with only a dozen words left, grace the real question is--how are we to live our lives?

ok. that was an easy $14 to spend. and i can't wait to start reading tomorrow!

tomorrow. guess what? for the first time in so long a time that i can't remember, i have no alarm to set. no schedule for my saturday. no 'have-to's'. i can lie in bed with grace paley (although just as friends) and read until noon if i please. and then i can go purchase a sturdy raincoat for ireland. and then...i can go ride my horse.

i would like to linger here in silence if i choose to.

starbucks and rosie thomas.

today is one of those rainy days that patty griffin praised the other night: "it's nice to sing about rain when it's actually raining..."

it feels like practice for ireland (though i have yet to purchase a sturdy little raincoat for my trip).

so. over my lunch hour, i popped into the brentwood neighborhood starbucks to have a melancholy chai. and of course, some kind of music played above the expresso machine's swish and drone. typically, i'm oblivious as to what is playing, since i usually own whatever they're playing already. but today, i heard bits of piano rifts and a pleasant female vibrato. i made my way over to the corner speaker, pretending to look at the various overpriced coffee paraphernalia gathering starbucks dust.

i liked what i heard. so much so that it took three grande chai for annes before i realized my beverage was ready.
i asked my friendly starbucks cashier what i was hearing. he said, 'rosie thomas'.

ok. rosie thomas.
amazing gal.

i immediately set out to download whatever i could, and found two tracks >>HERE<<.

i am hooked.. so hooked that i asked curtis to pick the cd up for me (which is on hold with a big fat ANNE note taped to it) at the record shoppe before picking me up for our date for thai food and spiderman tonight.

oh crap. he'll be here in 5 minutes. i should get dressed.

do like starbucks would do: go buy rosie thomas' cd, when we were small.

xo.

bullets and patty.

i've had to be a bit of a corporate girl again this week for our semi-annual sales conference; i.e. business casual and toe-tapping to every new release we're putting out, like i believe every cd we release will be the next big thing. but hey, free food. and the next one--in july--will be in sunny anaheim, california, baby. i will rock the house with mickey mouse.

anyway, i'm not going to write about that.

during my lunch hour on monday, i had to drive over to school (click >>HERE<< if you would also like to attend my school) to drop off the jane austen paper, and on my way back, decided i would put in a brief appearance at taco bell (i was inspired after reading [jp/p]'s blog entry, apparently). well, as it happened, there was a shoot out happening between metro police and a bank robber just around the corner from taco bell as i was trying to get to the drive thru. so. here i am suddenly, in the middle of stopped traffic, endless police cars with blaring sirens and lights, cops with guns running between cars, and police helicopters overhead.

(please keep in mind that this is all happening in brentwood, tn, where all lawns are immaculately manicured, and there are banners on every lightpost with the seasons written on them. currently, it is spring in brentwood.)

i didn't see any action (un?)fortunately. the bank robber was shot dead near walgreens and two officers were shot in the arm and leg. i somehow found my way out of all the hullaballoo and into the captain d's drive thru, since it was all i could access. (i hate captain d's. i hate fish. the breadstick was good, though.) i made it back to work, about 45 minutes late (and for once, the i got caught in a shoot out excuse worked...) and we were soon put on lockdown, since there were rumors about a second robber, which turned out to be incorrect. so. that's my monday story.

...

tuesday. sweet, sweet tuesday. i got to go see patty griffin at the belcourt theatre, with dearest boy and lovely friends. we sat up front and i accidentally broke the 'no flash cameras' rule. really. it was an accident. oops.

patty. a cello. some guitars. accordian.

oy. it was such a fantastic show. tears spilled from my grateful eyes many times. emmylou harris was in the audience with her mama, as were buddy and julie miller, and so i was crossing my fingers all night, praying to Jesus for a duet: some kind of surprise, but to no avail. my faith is not shaken, however, it was a perfect evening. and i even spent $20 on a lavender tank top. it was all worth it.

that's all i have to report this evening, folks. did you know i leave for a trip to london and ireland in *eight* days?
i do.

(that's very soon, actually.)

vayan con dios, mis amigos.

pee ess: i got an A+ in one of my classes, i just found out. yeah!

i am a copycat.

hola. i was just perusing the latest [jp/p] blog, and snapped my fingers in a "d'oh! i shoulda thunka that" way. [jp/p] has asked for his readers to identify themselves, just so he knows he's not whistling in the dark all by himself over there.

could you do that for me, faithful patrons of this blog? simply click on comments below this post, and leave a note...something to know i'm not alone here. (i'm beginning to hear myself echo.)

thanks. xo.
(and thank yew, [jp/p] for the fantastic idea. hope it is not copyrighted.)

yeehaw.

at 9:33 am, cst, i am finally done with my jane austen paper. never again do i have to ask myself if Elizabeth and Emma: Jane Austen's Heroines Become Themselves is a stupid title.

it is finished.

yeah!