Stranger in a Familiar Land

Quote Unquote

So here's the thing. I actually have a few ideas of my own for this blog, many of which I've fleshed out in the barest terms in emails to myself over the past few weeks.

So here's the other thing. Bloody gmail is IMPOSSIBLE to find things in and so I can't find a SINGLE ONE of those emails today. NOT. ONE. And so I am in the frustrating position of knowing that there are things I want to write about and knowing that I did jot down a few of my hopefully-clever thoughts on those topics, but I can't fully remember what they were or find them in my inbox.

And so today, I instead turn once again to a 30-day blogging challenge for inspiration. And thankfully found a wisp of inspiration with the following topic:

Your Favorite Quote. (Or how about 10 of my favorite quotes in order to make this both more interesting and to hit at least 200 words in this post...)

1. "Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity, nothing exceeds the criticisms made of the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed." ~ Herman Melville

I think this every single time I'm at the gym or the doctor's office and unable to turn off Fox News... (Trust me, there are also a lot of other things I think in those moments but they probably aren't fit for print.)

2. "The greatest thing you'll every learn is just to love and be loved in return." ~ Moulin Rouge 

I would like love to be as simple as this.

3. "I just may set off in another direction entirely." ~ Snufkin

A reflection of my wanderlust, held in check for now, sure to resurface eventually. My bags are always half-packed.

4. "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world." ~ Anne Frank

It breaks my heart, but also gives me hope that it is possible to actually believe in change in this world.

5. "If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad." ~ Jane Austen

A wonderful summary of my life in England from the greatest English writer I know.

6. "It is never too late to be what you might have been." ~ George Eliot

I hold onto the fact that I must be a late bloomer, and one day, I'll bloom.

7. “If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning.” ~ Catherine Aird

Seems a reasonable way to live one's life, especially on days when you just can't get it right.

8. "Because you're still asking that question." ~ Joss Whedon

In response to the question he is constantly asked by reporters: "Why do you write strong female characters?" It underlines the fact that too many still view it as odd to focus on strong women and, even worse, consider it odd to focus on women at all. The gender disparities in our society are frustrating, harmful, hypocritical, and short-sighted, and I'm glad to continue to fight that good fight. And I'm glad to have Joss Whedon right there with me.

9. “Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” ~ Mark Twain

Yes.

10. "Let your freak-flag fly, and if someone doesn't get you, move on." ~ Drew Barrymore

This is her fundamental rule of dating, but really it applies to all of life. There's no point in not being true to who you are, a truth I've come to over the past few years. I know who I am, and I'm glad to be around people who get me and my inner freak.

A footnote:

Apropos of next to nothing, I have to admit that midway through writing this post, I took a detour, after cursing Gmail several times, to try to merge my Gmail into Outlook (one of the only times that Microsoft presents a friendlier program than other providers...). But after going through several steps, I chickened out at the thought that all of my emails might mistakenly disappear in the ether rather than reappearing in an Outlook window. Though that might actually be a blessing in disguise as I've said in the past that I want to apply a scorched earth policy to my email and CLEAR. IT. OUT. Needless to say, second guessing has led to me still being saddled with an overfull Gmail account where I can't find these bloody emails with blog ideas. Dang it.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

The bluebird of happiness. May it fly up your nose. [Photograph by Ken Thomas]

So I'm easing into this whole blogging thing right now. Which means, while I do have some ideas about my own personal posts, I have also been searching online for handy writing and blogging prompts.

And because the few ideas I do have are a tad more serious than I am in the mood to write today, I have decided to use one of those writing prompts to further ease this transition into blogging again.

While looking for a series of "30-day challenges" online the other day, specifically about tackling thigh exercises (like most women, I hate mine...), I happened upon a whole host of "30-day challenges" to do with creativity, from writing and blogging to photography and beading.

Which brings us to our topic for today, courtesy of one of the 30-day writing challenges: 10 thinks that make me really happy:

1. Pippa. For all of you on Facebook, this is obvs my #1 happy...

2. Really good dark chocolate.

3. My friends and having a good long laugh (and a glass of wine) with them. And my family, despite them sometimes driving me bonkers.

4. Animals-eating-people movies.

5. The Appalachian Mountains and South Holston Lake. Always beautiful and restorative.

A good way to deal with insomnia and, slowly but surely, quiet a busy mind.

6. My new coloring books (yes, really, and yes, I have more than one -- thanks, Jessica, and thanks, Charles Vess!).

7. That, despite the horror of not having Jon Stewart's Daily Show during the upcoming political brouhaha of 2016 (it is just about the only news I can cope with and far more accurate than the nutters and hysterics on the main media channels), we do at least have him and his humor and intelligence for a few more weeks.

8. The US women's soccer team being so damn cool. And so damn awesome. And that their awesomeness is going to be recognized with a rare ticker-tape parade in NYC today.

9. One of my best friends in the entire world is moving back to Bristol, and she's bringing her husband and my goddaughter with her. THIS WEEK!

10. My own godmother, who is one of the coolest and most accomplished chicks on the planet.

11. And like Spinal Tap, let's crank this up to 11 with a bonus "happy thing": Writing again.

Crickets

I illustrate with just a single cricket here, because while one cricket is a beautiful insect, many crickets are actually a little creepy.

Well, it's been a while. I haven't written a blog post since March. In fact, it's been like crickets here on Stranger in a Familiar Land.

 

I've thought about writing a blog post about a million times in those three and a bit months. And yet, I haven't written.

 

I've had lots of excuses:

• Work has been busy. Very busy.
  
• I've been committed to several committees and volunteer duties.
  
• I've been a part of Bristol's first film festival.
• Write a blog actually takes up a lot of time. Because it's not just the writing -- it's finding the right images to illustrate the post, it's hyperlinking, it's the formatting to make the text and images work together, it's sorting our technorati tags, it's categorizing each post, it's remembering to link it on Facebook, etc. etc.
• My parents have had more health issues.
• I've been tired. Very tired.
  
• I've been spending quality time with my fur-child, Pip. Love her!
  
• I've not felt creative. At all.
  
• I haven't been able to turn off my very busy brain, and yet it hasn't produced a lot of blog content.

The list goes on... And while many of these excuses are legitimate ones, they are still just excuses. Because I want to write. I truly do, and therefore I should find a way to make writing a

 

I take some solace in the fact that I have written quite a lot for work -- from blog posts for Smithsonian Affiliates' online newsletter and Virginia Main Street to work-related articles and feature pieces, pages of website content, and innumerable museum Facebook posts.

 

But none of these are MY blog, and this type of writing, while satisfying, is not my own personal creative outlet. 

 

Each week I've told myself to just get typing, and each week it's not felt quite right and so I've postponed it until "next week for sure." And then the next week comes, and...nothing.

 

I've read several online article about writer's block and getting back into blogging after a hiatus, many of which tell me not to apologize for being away when I finally come back. I hope that's not what I'm doing here. 

 

Unfortunately, few of them have given me step-by-step instructions into how to start writing again. I'm not an abstract person generally; I like to follow a plan. And so these weeks of silence -- without a plan to get writing again -- have been difficult and frustrating for me.

 

And I've felt guilty about not writing. To the far-away friends who enjoy reading my blog and to myself.

 

And I've wondered if perhaps I'm all tapped out on the writing front. Before these unwritten months, I would often have ideas for blog posts or interesting perspectives or questions to answer and ask, come to me, whole lines pre-written in my head. I'd regularly send emails to myself with those lines and with ideas vaguely fleshed out so that they could be written up later. I'd exchange ideas with other writer friends, and participate in writing sprints to keep the momentum up. It certainly didn't always come easy, but I did seem to have the creative juice I needed to keep writing.

 

However, with a few exceptions -- I do have a few ideas for future blog posts thankfully -- there's been an eerie silence in my head for these past months. And it's been a bit scary, and thus made it even harder to JUST WRITE.

 

But I've decided to suck it up. It's time to get back up on the horse -- something I've done many times in real life with real horses, and so hopefully can do metaphorically here -- and just start writing. No matter what. No matter how mundane it might feel on some days. No matter if I can't come up with the clever title or the perfect last line, or even worse, any meaty text to fill the space in between.

 

To try to push past that silence and find my voice again.

 

 

PUSH! That's Bristol

This isn't my everyday blog post today – no, today, I am putting out a call for support.

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am on the organizing committee for a film festival here in Bristol, TN/VA. We are hoping to make PUSH! Film Festival a reality, and one of our tools is a Kickstarter campaign, which ends in just 7 days.

There are lots of great reasons you should know about PUSH! In fact, here are eight:

1. You love movies, of course.

2. You want to enjoy great films in Historic Downtown Bristol. And you are intrigued by the name of our film festival. Here's that story: The original Bristol sign built in 1910  carried the slogan "Push! That's Bristol" to reflect the push in growth Bristol was undergoing in the early 1900s. By 1915, the sign had been moved to span State Street, and in 1921, the old slogan was replaced with the current one: "Bristol: A Good Place to Live." Based on that cool history, we named the festival PUSH!, a shout-out to the growth in arts, culture and heritage happening in our town. Plus, it can be used as a play on words: push play to start the movie.

3. We are in the final week of a Kickstarter campaign, and YOU could become a PUSH! insider by helping us reach our financial goal – remember, with Kickstarter, we will only get the money pledged if we reach our full goal so every donation counts! Oh, and by the way, our campaign was a Kickstarter STAFF PICK, which translates as "Check this out!"

4. We want to bring great films to you, including classics, indies, documentaries, and more. And we want to show them to you in great downtown venues, including the Paramount Center for the Arts, a former cinema restored to its wonderful art deco glory. Check out the trailer to one of the movies we've already secured: The Ballad of Shovels & Rope.

(By the way, as we have been narrowing down our film choices, much popcorn and many Junior Mints have been consumed. It's a hard job but someone has to do it...)

5. We also hope to hold a competition for filmmakers, including one for filmmakers in our region, a face-off between Virginia and Tennessee! Winners will be picked, prizes will be given, there's even some crazy talk of Lego Oscars, but most importantly, when you attend the festival, you can pick your own favorites!

6. It won't just be films. We are also hoping to host parties, Q&As, presentations, and meet-ups – the perfect opportunity for you to get some behind-the-scenes knowledge.

7. You know me and I'm on the committee. But I bet you know a bunch of the other committee members too.  The film festival committee is made up of designers, artists, videographers, academics, community supporters, and film lovers – and we want to share our love of film with you! The committee is a division of Believe in Bristol, and this is just one more effort to make our downtown THE place to be. Our aim is to expand the artistic image of our region, engage new audiences in the world of film, and inspire creativity in all of us. We are going to start small but we hope this can become a regular event.

8. Finally, if you back our Kickstarter, we show you love. Your rewards: stickers, tees, VIP access passes – there's something cool for everyone.And not only do you get some great rewards, but based on the level you choose, you get recognized as an iconic film character: The Dude, Ferris Bueller, Han Solo, Axel Foley, Ellen Ripley, Rambo, Holly Golightly, and James Bond.

So abide or get shaken not stirred, but most of all, film lovers, check us out and our call to action – because we need YOU! We haven't yet reached our Kickstarter goal of $10,000, but with YOUR help we can still make it there by March 11th! If everyone who reads this blog post and likes our Facebook page pledges just $10 (or more if you can!), we will be a Kickstarter success and on the road to making a Bristol, TN/VA film festival a reality. Please consider donating and become a PUSH! insider – and please share this blog post with friends and family, and encourage them to support our Kickstarter campaign and like our Facebook page.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far and to everyone who rallies to this call!

And if you want more information, check out PUSH!'s website here. And check out our Tumblr here.

*A Footnote:

A big thank you to Briana and the rest of the film festival committee for great words, a great logo, great websites, and other small things that helped make writing this post a breeze.

Snow Days

Beautiful snow right outside my front door.

The past two weeks have been a winter wonderland with beautiful snowfall and cold, crisp days. I love when the seasons act like the seasons they are -- there's nothing worse than balmy temperatures in dead midwinter and having to wear a woolly jumper in the summer.

This two-week interlude of winter weather has been wonderful -- but it's also brought with it moments of pain, sometimes quite literally. So here are just a few of the highs and lows:

1. There's almost nothing better than being out at night after a really deep snowfall. If the sky is clear, it often feels quite bright as the stars and moon reflect off the pearly white snow. Everything feels hushed and peaceful, especially when big snowy flakes are falling. The crunch of your footsteps in the newly fallen snow makes a wonderful sound amidst this hush. It really feels like you have the world to yourself, and sometimes feeling all alone in the world is actually a good thing.

2. However, when the nights get a little bit too cold and the wet streets freeze into black ice, it's treacherous. And when you have to walk a dog each night, it feels like you are taking your life into your hands at times. One late night as I walked home from my parents with Pippa's leash in one hand and a gallon of milk in the other, I hit a patch of this black ice in the middle of a hill and went flying. A wrenched shoulder and a sore behind were the result, though I'm very grateful it wasn't worse. The gallon could have ruptured, and I could have been crying over spilt milk.

3. Pippa loves the snow. I suspected part of her Heinz 57 mix was from husky blood, and I am now thoroughly convinced of this. Over the past two weeks, she has romped and raced through it. She has bulldozed her nose through the snow at top speed. She has rolled ecstatically in the cold snow. She has chased and leaped after snowballs. She has stuck her nose in deep to every drift and sniffed like it's the best smell in the world. And it's been a joy to see -- just watching her have so much fun has brought a lot of belly laughs. And a lot of great exercise as I romp with her.

 

4. Since the first day of the snow, when it came down thick and fast, I haven't been able to get my car up the driveway to my house. And so each evening after work, I've parked my car in front of my parents and walked home. This has become increasingly tiresome as I carry my work bag, my gym clothes, sometimes groceries or other spoils from errands run, and a million other things in my rucksack. I feel like a turtle carrying my home on my back. Every. Single. Day. And so today when I tried to carry two heavy bags of groceries up the ice slick that is my driveway and through the still deep snow near the house, I was finally kind of over it.

Narnia: A childhood dream and the snowy lamppost that might have led me there.

5. Every big snow brings a childhood memory flooding back: reading C. S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.  This book made a huge and lasting impression on me when I first read it, and I've read it many times since. When I was at university in Durham, there was a lone lamppost on the end of a bridge over the River Wear. And on many a snowy night, I'd pass it and it would make me think of the scene in that book when the children pass through the wardrobe full of furs and coats and emerge in the magical land of Narnia, covered in snow and with the light shining out from a lamppost into the dark and snowy night. I now have my very own lamppost outside my front door, and several nights I looked at it with pleasure as it shined in the snow, and I once again thought about that wonderful book.

6. No offense to anyone out there who has had work cancelled on a regular basis over the last couple of weeks, but I have been feeling resentful... Every day on Facebook there would be post after post about relaxing on snow days... Drinking hot cocoa! Sleeping in! Watching several movies back to back! Making snow cream! Cooking a big pot of soup! Reading a good book! Generally having a grand old time while I still went to work every single day. It's not your fault, I understand that. But how I wanted a snow day or two -- those wonderful unplanned-for days off where you have no obligations and are stuck at home and thus can't feel guilty about just doing exactly what you want. (And yes, I realize this is an idealized version of what actually happened on your snow days, and the reality was inevitably more dull and probably involved you and yours going stir crazy. But still...I wanted one or two snow days of my own, desperately!)

A snow angel made on the first night of snow. Pip helped: see the footprint halo above the head. Strangely, as a friend pointed out, this snow angel seems to have some substantial bosoms... Unlike me...

7. Snow makes everyone into a big kid. From snow angels and sledding to catching snowflakes on your tongue and snowball fights, there's nothing quite like snow to make you embrace your goofy side and just have a good time. And I'm all about the goofy side, so thank you, snow!

*A Footnote:

Here's what else you need to know about me and Narnia. I was OBSESSED with Narnia when I was a kid. I spent hours going into the back of every single closet and wardrobe in our house, sure that eventually one of them would open up into this imagined land and that I too would have some amazing adventures. I did this over and over and over again. I was nothing if not persistent. And possibly delusional. Not finding Narnia is one of the biggest disappointments of my childhood.

There's Always Something To Do

The Palace Pickers sing a tune.

Three years on, I still get asked why I moved back to Bristol and why I've chosen to stay here.

All too often, this question comes from other Bristolians. For some, I suppose, they can't understand why I would move back to a small town after living in England for so long. And for too many others, there still seems to be this idea that Bristol doesn't offer much in the way of culture and excitement.

The first point I can kind of understand. Much as I am happy to be back here in my hometown doing what I am doing, there are still days when I am very homesick for England and my friends and the life I lived there. There are definitely things about that life that I miss and wish were still part of my every day.

But as for the second point, I can't understand this at all. Bristol and the area around it is chock full of culture and excitement, and anyone who can't see that is truly missing out.

Since the beginning of the year, I've seen that cultural life at play almost every single week, and I'm fortunate to often be right in the middle of it all due to my job at the museum and therefore be "in the know." So far this year, I've seen some amazing music: the Carter Family Project, many pre-film concerts by the museum's very own Palace Pickers at our Appalshop screenings, Anna and Elizabeth and their amazingly beautiful crankie ballads, Dale Jett and Wayne Henderson playing A. P. Carter's Martin guitar.

Wayne Henderson brought the house down with his playing of A. P. Carter's guitar.

But it's not just the music that's cool, it's the stories and the people behind the music. A Brooklyn, NY couple who decided to record every single Carter Family song and put it on Tumblr. The wonderfully talented student musicians that work in the museum with me who form the Palace Pickers and share their talent with us on a regular basis. Seeing Anna and Elizabeth at a house party, mingling with a group of music lovers in a beautiful house in Johnson City before an intimate performance of old ballads, both musically and visually, in the front room. Listening to A. P. Carter's grandson and a master luthier, one of the greatest guitar builders in the United States who has made instruments for Doc Watson and Eric Clapton, share their stories and their talent -- and knowing that both of them are from southwest Virginia, where I was also born and raised.

But that's not all that's been happening this year. There was the trip to Floyd, Virgina, with Dave to see a screening of The 78 Project Movie, a documentary about "a journey across America to make one-of-a-kind records with musicians in their hometowns using a 1930s Presto direct-to-disc recorder. With one microphone. With one blank disc. In one three-minute take."

And speaking of cinema, there is my involvement with the PUSH! Film Festival, a member of the organizing committee and in the middle of pushing our Kickstarter campaign to fund the festival. This great event is planned to come to Bristol in June of this year, the first of its kind here and a wonderful way to expand the arts offerings in our community.

Play that old-time music, and dance.

There was the visit from a school group from Atlanta and the chance to share some old-time tunes with them while learning a bit of old-time dancing, grits included. It took me back to the many times I danced a reel at a Scottish ceilidh when I lived in England, and made me want to do it all over again. Swing your partner!

But one of the most exciting cultural markers for me was a small encounter with Charles Vess at our offices the other day when he was visiting to talk design with some of my coworkers. Vess is an amazing artist and illustrator who has worked on many, many books that I love, including Neil Gaimon's Stardust, one of my all-time faves. But what's even cooler is that this talented man lives and works here in southwest Virginia, and his beautiful art graces our little town on a sculpture at the local library.

It's all about the music and the magic.

And truly this is what makes where I live so special. Not only do we have some wonderful cultural activities and happenings on offer on a regular basis, but so often these cultural moments are homegrown, tapping into the huge amount of talent, music, artistry, and enthusiasm found right here in our backyards.

So next time, I hear someone say to me "Why are you here in Bristol? There's never anything to do." I can only exclaim with enthusiasm: There's ALWAYS something to do! So hold onto your hats, and get on the ride.

a journey across America to make one-of-a-kind 78rpm records with musicians in their hometowns using a 1930s Presto direct-to-disc recorder. With one microphone. With one blank disc. In one 3-minute take. - See more at: http://the78project.com/the-78-project-movie/#sthash.QOGD2Epo.dpuf

a journey across America to make one-of-a-kind 78rpm records with musicians in their hometowns using a 1930s Presto direct-to-disc recorder. With one microphone. With one blank disc. In one 3-minute take. - See more at: http://the78project.com/the-78-project-movie/#sthash.QOGD2Epo.dpuf

a journey across America to make one-of-a-kind 78rpm records with musicians in their hometowns using a 1930s Presto direct-to-disc recorder. With one microphone. With one blank disc. In one 3-minute take. - See more at: http://the78project.com/the-78-project-movie/#sthash.QOGD2Epo.dpuf

a journey across America to make one-of-a-kind 78rpm records with musicians in their hometowns using a 1930s Presto direct-to-disc recorder. With one microphone. With one blank disc. In one 3-minute take. - See more at: http://the78project.com/the-78-project-movie/#sthash.QOGD2Epo.dpuf

a journey across America to make one-of-a-kind 78rpm records with musicians in their hometowns using a 1930s Presto direct-to-disc recorder. With one microphone. With one blank disc. In one 3-minute take. - See more at: http://the78project.com/the-78-project-movie/#sthash.QOGD2Epo.dpuf

So It's Gonna Be Forever...

Even nature is jumping on the Valentine bandwagon...

Or it's gonna go down in flames.

In two lines, Taylor Swift summarizes the reality that love blooms or love bombs. Like so many other love songs before hers.

And so let's acknowledge this sometimes unwanted truth: the dreaded V Day is here once again. Honestly, I don't really care one way or the other about Valentine's Day, though I have certainly written about it here. As is true for all of us, I've had good ones (flowers and a clue hunt leading to a lovely dinner) and awful ones (my divorce becoming final). And this year it will involve friends, and alcohol, and cards, so all in all not a bad way to ring in this so-called holiday.

What's interesting -- though unsurprising -- is that in the run up to Valentine's Day, from the day after Christmas usually when the chocolates and the fuzzy toys and the cheesy cards first make their appearance, the internet is inundated with more Valentine-related articles, memes, and cartoons (and much more) than you can shake a stick at.

Here are just a few that have caught my eye:

If I saw it appear on Facebook once, I saw it a thousand times -- a 2014 article in the NY Times by Pamela Druckerman about what she learned in her 40s, including that there are no soulmates. Any one of us who has had a love affair crash and burn could tell her that.

And then there was another NY Times article with an outline of "if you want to fall in love with anyone, do this," a process that involves asking and answering a series of increasingly personal questions with someone you don't know or at least barely know and then staring soulfully in their eyes for an extended period of time. Sounds crazy, right? But a psychologist did just this experiment with two complete strangers in his laboratory, and six months later they were married.

And I have to admit to finding this idea fairly interesting. Imagine skipping all the superficial small talk, that too-frequent feeling that you don't know anything really meaningful about the person, and constantly wondering what they are ACTUALLY thinking -- the usual scenario at the beginning of dating and sometimes beyond -- and just going straight to the nitty gritty and learning it ALL. Sounds refreshing. I'm intrigued. And a bit of me would like to try this one just to see what it felt like to have an in-depth conversation from the start.

Then there was this next article, sent to me by my friend Gail, all about the mathematical formula for love. The most interesting thing about it was the counter-intuitive advice telling people not to hide their flaws in online dating profile pictures because actually those flaws and quirks might make you more likely to be contacted. For anyone who has agonized for hours over those profile pics, what a relief!

That is just a few of many articles and headlines and advice columns that are all over the web right now, ready to help the lovelorn. Along with the thousands of self help books, all promising to transform your love life in a million different ways and through a million different steps-by-steps.

Along with the these, of course, there are innumerable examples of how to express your heartfelt feelings for the one your love, just in time for Valentine's Day. Advertisements for overpriced meals out and overblown flowers. Romantic couple getaways. Pinterest-level crafts for the one you love. Amazingly intricate menus for dining-in that inevitably end with the almost-impossible chocolate souffle. You really can't escape the ad nauseum references.

And so I embrace the snark and the laughs instead. From the #archivesvalentine (perfect for all of us nerds out there) and the irreverent cards found on Etsy to the story of a red velvet mite's love by The Oatmeal, there are a lot of great choices out there for Valentine's humor.

And even though it might hit a bit close to the bone for me, I had to laugh out loud when I saw this drawing on Facebook recently (and please don't be offended by the use of strong language; it's all about context and it's funny here...):

As I said, you've just gotta laugh.

What You Don't Know About Me

A few days ago, I was nominated on Facebook to reveal seven things you may not know about me, courtesy of my lovely friend Nick in England. This little exercise is a frequent flyer on FB and seems to do the rounds on a regular basis.

Once I got nominated -- and read all the cool and interesting things about Nick that I didn't know (cousin is a Wurzle, was once beaten up by a man in a gorilla suit!) -- I thought that this was the perfect blog post. Until I remembered that I did something similar about three months ago -- you can read all about those big reveals here.

But then I was like, screw it, it's a good topic, and I am on deadline for creativity if I want to get back to regular posting. And so here you have it: Seven things you may not know about me (despite my blog):

1. I passed a Bronze Level test in dancing the Argentine Tango, and I have the medal to prove it.

2. I once turned down an interview for a job as a lecturer at Oxford University. It was right after I got married and my husband was doing his Ph.D. in Durham. I thought it would be awful to be so far away from him, especially at the beginning of our marriage. Little did I know that said marriage would be down the tubes in a year's time and my soon-to-be ex would be moving away from Durham anyway. I still regret that I didn't go for that interview.

3. I have an SVT. That stands for supraventricular tachycardia, and it means that my heart lets through extra electrical impulses that make it race, sometimes as much as 150 to 270 beats per minute. I take a beta-blocker to control it, and on the advice of my doctor, I've been thinking about having a catheter ablation done, which kind of scares the pants off me. But boy, it would be great to not have to take this medicine every day.

4. Right before I got my job at English Heritage -- and after two years of job searching and archaeological contract work -- I almost applied to nursing school with the thoughts of being a mental health nurse. My application to English Heritage was my last-ditch effort to stay in my field of study. It's all about which path you take and where the other path might have led you.

5. I have read every book by Barbara Cartland. Yes, really. I went through a phase in my youth where I spent a great deal of time at the local library, discovering and reading completely random authors. I also read quite a lot of Zane Grey. And Alfred Hitchcock "stories of suspense." The Barbara Cartland run might explain my cynicism today.

6. I have been bitten by a snake, thankfully not a poisonous one but a gray rat snake. It was when I was in Biology Club in college, and after it happened, I overheard the "story" being told in the lunch line in the cafeteria. It was a case of the game "telephone," and according to the storyteller, the snake was venomous and the girl in question, i.e. me, had been rushed to hospital and might die.

7. I played bit parts in various plays and ballets during my childhood, including an icicle (in a ballet about the seasons), a flower (in The Three Billy Goats Gruff), the letter R (in a play about Christmas), and an angel (in The Nutcracker). These are all good indicators of my talents in drama and dance. However, I did play one of the lead roles in our church nativity play: I was the Virgin Mary.

Accountability

Well, it's been a while.

The last time I posted was a good three weeks ago. I had good intentions to blog over that time frame, but, as often happens, life got in the way. From my mother's mastectomy and a freelance editing job to work kicking up a gear after the holiday lull and various other outside stresses, it's been a bit manic in my life lately.

However, I have wanted to post and so I thought today, the first day of the second month of 2015, was a good time to do so by looking back over the resolutions I rashly made at the dawn of the new year and see how I'm doing.

Let's recap: I was going to Move More, Simplify, Say No, Learn Something, and Go Big or Go Home. 

Honestly, it's not been good -- I've become addicted to Pringles over this period (in other words, I've popped and I can't stop...) and hooped only a few times; I've possibly cluttered my house more and still haven't unpacked the staging area; I've run myself ragged by saying yes too often to this little thing here and that little thing there; I've learned nothing of note; and as for going big, I'm still going small.

Walking Pippa at Steele Creek on a bright sunny day -- what better way to Move More?

However, it's not been all bad. Pippa and I have clocked some miles, taking long walks at the weekend at Steele Creek or Sugar Hollow and regular walks around the neighborhood every day. I'm not hitting 10,000 steps each and every day of the week, but I'm definitely hitting more steps than I was before Pippa came into my life. And in fact, yesterday was a good day with 13,422 steps stepped.

I have started the long and painful process of pulling together the paperwork for my taxes. And have made a new resolution that I will get a better system as soon as I sort out the mess of my present system so that this isn't quite so painful every year. (By the way, my present system is a cardboard box filled to the brim with receipts, medical and health insurance paperwork, notes about dividends from the bank, and scraps of paper with random scribblings of figures on them, amongst other things. It's a hoarder's dream and an accountant's worst nightmare.)

I did resign from one of my volunteer responsibilities, which was a very hard decision but a necessary one. With parental health issues and more and more going on at work as the museum grows, it was proving too hard to juggle it all.

Learning, hmmm, I've got nothing. Though I did participate in a focus group at the library about adult learning programs where I talked a lot about the stuff I WANT to learn... (Oh, and I did learn that Hattie and Ernest Stoneman had 23 children (23!), which I did actually know but had forgotten.)

The problem with the Go Big resolution is that it also presents the possibility of disappointment or hurt or failure, and so it is probably the hardest of them all. Still working on it.

So the month of January wasn't a total washout resolution-wise, but it wasn't the most inspiring of months for change either. Let's call it a warm-up month...

And at least today is a new day and a new month and a new start!

Keep On The Sunny Side

This past Friday evening was a bitterly cold night after what had been a difficult day. Not the easiest kind of day to get enthusiastic or positive about things.

But here's the thing: Often all it takes is one small thing to turn things around and make you feel warm inside and good again.

The Carter Family Project at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. [Jessica Barnett]

And this past Friday, that one small thing was The Carter Family Project. Haven't heard them yet? Didn't get to see them on Friday? Well, let me tell you, you are missing out!

The Carter Family Project was started by Fran Leadon and Leigh Anderson, a Brooklyn, New York, couple with small children. It is an ambitious -- and kind of outstandingly bonkers -- project to record every single song cut by the Carter Family, from beginning to end in chronological order, starting with the songs they recorded at the 1927 Bristol Sessions. And then they put each and every one of those recordings on their tumblr blog, sharing them with the world.

They have been recording these songs since 2011, and they have been doing it in a very Carter Family way: at home, surrounded by family and friends, babies bawling in the background, birds and garbage trucks making their own audio appearances through open windows.

And it's awesome. There are occasional flubs, and there is laughter, but best of all, there is talent and a real and true love of music and the Carter Family song catalog. And it shines through.

On Friday, after a long and arduous drive down from NY with a toddler and baby in tow, and with friends bearing banjos and guitars and fiddles, and with a borrowed upright bass, the Carter Family Project performed at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.

Everything about this performance was great -- it was personal and intimate, it was fun and expressive. We learned that every song is Fran's favorite Carter song. We saw and heard some amazing Carter scratch guitar playing. We heard old favorites and back catalog forgotten tunes. We sang along, and we ended with a standing ovation. And best of all, we got to talk to the musicians and learn about their love of this music and this heritage, and we knew that they had come home.

Music evokes emotion, and Friday night's music just made me happy. It kept me on the sunny side, and for that I heartily thank the Carter Family Project.