Our house on Sunday

We have an intense football rivalry here in Hutkinston. Stingray grew up in Atlanta, I grew up in New Orleans. She loves the Falcons, I love the Saints. Now...we have come to an agreement on mutual love and respect for each others teams...but I used to HATE the Falcons. They beat us like a drum in the 90's (once in the playoffs). Now, it's a different story. I can't bring myself to hate something that is such a big part of someone I love. Even if it is dirty and birdlike.

The one team that Stingray and I both do not appreciate is DirectTV. The above commercial is amazing...and makes us laugh. But their grip on NFL out of market broadcasts is offensive. We will not buy DirectTV, not ever. Instead we listen on the radio to our hometown broadcast teams...while watching the local game on mute. Not a perfect situation, but it's a lot better than blowing lots of cash at a football bar and being around steeler fans (sorry Kim and Frank, you're just loud). Dirty Bird can't fly with a broken wing.

This week...both our teams are on our TV sunday. yessssssss

nothing better

i'm usually pretty good about getting things done...even though i like to play at being a lazy good for nothing. however, today, i realized that i have achieved slackerdom during the past two weeks. mostly because the saints amazing super bowl run has me reading, watching, considering, and dancing saints most of the day. here's what i woke up to this morning:

-the clean laundry sitting on our couch (been there for 2 days now). i washed it but never got around to folding it...ps this is my favorite "chore"
-my personal and online calendar not being updated past 2/7. which means two work schedules, several music events, my mom's visit to flagstaff, and our upcoming trip to la and philly are left to float in the wind somewhere in the far corners of my subconscious.
-piles of jazz and blues cds on the desk and floor, pulled out for motivational whodat reasons, need to be put in their right place (2 weeks laying loose)
-the pile on my side of the bed containing items from our nola trip 2 weeks ago, music meant for practicing, more clean clothes, two pairs of shoes, a belt, and three books i started reading
-2 weeks of receipts to log into the budget, along with the inner workings of my 'wallet' strewn across the desk
-a pile of 6 newspapers i bought the day of and the day after the superbowl
-a dishwasher full of clean dishes, and a sink full of dirty dishes...also 3 cookbooks strewn on the counter from the chilaquiles experiment

meanwhile...i will leave you with the one thing i was actually able to get done. my audition video for the 2010 harrower summer opera workshop at georgia state. it includes me singing in nau's production of rape of lucretia (2009), ahmal in winslow (2009), and at g.s.u my first aria ever (2004). hope you enjoy a little of what i've been up too. hopefully this is enough to get me into the workshop. who says you can't go home again?

dem saints is

so...i'm having a hard time sleeping right now. the game is a couple of days away, the saints are on espn constantly, and we're out of abita (except for the batch we're saving for the game...stay strong). not only is that bad enough...but now i watch this video about 10 times a day. it's kind of sad, but also super sweet times 44! come on.... come on....

happy 10

jbpinecone
Originally uploaded by unclebp

this picture was taken just outside pay 'n take (our favorite bar in flagstaff) on new years eve, 2010. seemingly just above our heads you can behold the flagstaff new years pine cone. there are lots of lights on it...and they dropped it down to street level during the countdown. this being our last year in flag, we needed to see this at least once. the biggest problem was the temperature...about 13 degrees. we went outside at about 11:50, and once the countdown was over...10 was here...and we headed back inside for more celebration!

about 6 hours later, my last living grandparent (grandmother to be exact) passed away in monroe, la. viva was born in 1919, and lived 90 years (give or take). 'memaw' (some say 'mee-maw, some say 'meh-maw...not sure who's right) had been close to death several times in the past 5 years...so it was hard for me to believe she was gone. i didn't get the message until 10am or so the next day and then we scrambled to find a plan to get down to monroe for the funeral.

we ended driving from flagstaff to monroe (spending 40 plus hours driving and 34 hours actually in louisiana), a crazy idea but much cheaper than flying. the whole family was there, and that doesn't really happen anymore. come to say goodbye to the unquestioned head of my mother's side of the family.

my biggest memories of memah are from the early '80's. our family was living in new orleans, and we often made the 4 hour drive to visit memaw, aunt linda, james, and debbie up in monroe. we spent lots of summertime there, and i also remember katie and i staying at memaws house for weekends during the school year (to give mom and dad some alone time).

we weren't really close. she was a very forceful person...with a very certain idea of what you should do with your life. during her later years she mellowed out a bit. but i never really had a chance to know her.

the one thing memaw and i shared was a love for the saints. we watched many games together in her bedroom (which was the living room of her house) and often when we spoke on the phone, the saints came up in our conversation.

maybe the saddest part of memaw's dying for me is she missed the saints being in the superbowl by 4 weeks. i know she would laugh now if she could see...and we would ponder the way the saints would blow the game against the colts. we both loved the saints...and i loved her.