Something tells me you’re not gonna buy this, but I swear it’s the truth.  I was truly considering purchasing a purse-sized netbook before I saw the style of this beauty.  Isn’t it totally me?

Eventually I plan on ceasing with the Ryan Adams talk. (I said eventually, Cory).  But for the moment this eclectic musician has my full attention.  Not since the release of Continuum has an album gripped me from first word to last chord like this one. In the days leading up to its release, I fought the good fight to be strong and refrain from listening until my musical boy bff Jeff’s listening party Tuesday night. But even the bravest soldiers sometimes lose in battle, and this was a battle I was destined to lose.

Nine other Ryan Adams albums and a handful of unreleased EPs have provided the soundtrack to so many of my ‘transition to adultdom’ days, and if you hadn’t figured it out yet, the bar for Cardinology was almost unobtainable. It was the newborn baby born to a family already full of successful children.  However, that’s the brilliance of Adams.  Each and every album is a distinct offering, a unique piece of art that deserves a room of its own in a musical museum.

From the first listen, I was obsessively rewinding portions of each song to hear the lyrical sentiments over and over again.  I was enamored with the musical sound of each moment, and the stories each song told hit me square in the chest.  As much as Jacksonville City Nights is my favorite RA album, this was just seemed more approachable for my journey.  Even stranger, there are somewhat positive songs on this album.  I’m sure many die-hard fans will find it too main-stream and lacking in the gut-wrenching songs of emotional devastation, but as I’ve come to learn, girl cannot live on depression alone.  So for my musical gushing this week, I offer you Cardinology.  Hopefully, it will command your ear like its done mine, and WHEN (not if) it does, go buy the album and suppor the artist.  Pretty please!

Born Into A Light: “For everything that’s wrong there is a worried man. There is a reason why. We just don’t understand but will.  You got to keep the faith.”

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Go Easy: “If only to say this to myself, I will always love you. I will always love you. So go easy on yourself.”

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Fix It: “I know it’s not a game. But it feels like losing when someone you love throws you away. I’d fix it.”

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Magick: “So turn the radio up loud and get down. Let you body move. Let you body sway. Listen the music play. It’s magick.”

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Cobwebs: “If I fall will you catch me? If I’m sorry, sorry enough? If I fall will you pity me? Will you confuse my love for the cobwebs?”

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Let Us Down Easy: “Every season i spend alone feels like a thousand in my heart and soul. So let me down if you must, but let us down easy, Lord. Let us down easy.”

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Crossed Out Name: “I wish I could tell you just how I felt. I don’t pray; I shower and say goodnight to myself. When I close my eyes, I feel like a page. With a crossed-out name.”

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Natural Ghost: “I was waitin’ around for somebody to die. Nobody did, but a part of me died. I suppose from all that waiting.”

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Sink Ships: “War is over. And I’m waiting in the sinking ship. If only I had known.”

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Evergreen: “And maybe you’ll find someone to lay some roots down next to you. Be more like the trees and less like the clouds.”

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Like Yesterday: “The trees outside are still. I take a sleeping pill and feel a little less pain.”

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Stop: “Call in the backup and the backup comes. Nobody can help you if you won’t. Inside your chest your heart is just hurt. Behind your eyes a need replaced a want.”

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This is my mom’s #2 baby (2nd only to Zac). He’s never met a stranger.  He loves everyone, and if you don’t believe that, he’ll crawl up in your lap and give you kisses to prove his loyalty.  This may be one of my favorite pictures I have of my dad.  I love how he’s pretending to be mean… kinda like how he pretends to have ADD.

Doncha hate when this happens?!?! Found this on the board today.

For the past four months I’ve been promising to take my favorite munchkins to see High School Musical 3 as soon as it was in theaters, and with its big screen debut this past weekend, it was time to collect on my promises.  I picked the girls up Friday evening for our sleepover, and after a gourmet dinner of McDonald’s Happy Meals (their choice, not mine… now I totally know why my dad used to get so agitated when we’d order vanilla ice cream at Baskin Robbins), we headed to my apartment for Disney Channel therapy.  Somehow I was conned into letting them watch Eddie Murphy’s Haunted House and was scared to death not of the movie but of the plotline and acting.  Eddie, what happened to you? But, the girls were happy, and that was enough reason for me to endure such a cinematic torture.

Finally, at almost midnight, they were tucked in and tuckered out, and I headed to my own bed with the promise that we could watch cartoons in the morning.  Little did I know that they would wake up at 5:45am and come to crawl in bed with me.  I’m not a mom.  I’m not practiced in cold feet and early Saturday morning cartoons.  I was tired… disoriented… and did what I thought was the least chimo thing possible that could still keep the peace.  I let the stay as long as they curled up with their own blankets that were on top of mine, and I fell back asleep.  They were as good as gold as long as they were able to watch cartoons, and somewhere amidst my continuing slumber, this camera phone shot was taken with my awesome bedhead and day-old makeup. (Love it when the kids are tech whiz kids.)

Eventually, I woke up at a normal hour and we headed off to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and WalMart for Halloween costume shopping.  Of course, they were well-behaved angels until they decided to introduce me to everyone we came in contact with as their mom.  Not a huge deal until we ran into a work acquaintance who was quite confused that I had children.  Even when I tried to deny/explain M was joking, the lil stinker refused to back down from her baby mama claim.  Awkward!

Finally, HSM3 showtime rolled around, and we packed up and headed to the theater.  For 2pm on a Saturday, the place was packed with kids and their parents.  Lauren and I kept our fingers crossed that everyone would think we were just chaperoning the girls and not adults who were at a Disney movie.  Thinking back on it, I’m pretty sure we blew our cover within the first five minutes of the movie by singing along to every musical number.  Oh well, we had a blast, and the girls were tickled pink.  Almost 24 hours after I had kidnapped them from their home, I returned two exhausted lil girls to their parents.  Somehow I feel like I’m learning what it’s like to be a grandparent.  Borrow ‘em.  Spoil ‘em.  Return ‘em. I’ve got the easy job.

SPOILER ALERT: (There will be Mayer love in this post.)  Just when I think Mayer has played a song to death, when I think there is no possible way one of his standards can be anything new to me, I find a recorded Austin City Limits on my dvr and play it as background noise to a marathon cleaning session.  High atop my step stool straining to find a place to put all my old china, I found myself humming along to Gravity.  Nothing new.  Same solos.  Same David Ryan Harris falsetto.  Well, that is until 5 minutes and 40 seconds into the song.  I almost fell off my stool as this unheard bridge flowed from my tv speakers.  It always amazes me how a song that you feel like you’ve studied… memorized… and filed away can creep back up on you with a brand-new emotion.  I don’t expect any of you to actually listen to the eleven minutes of this song, but for me, would you at least fast forward it until about halfway through and just close your eyes and remember the times you’ve prayed that same prayer.

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“And if I should happen to confront the darkness,
which I’m sure by now I will—
let me have the power in me
to walk on through, to hold it still.
Don’t let me fall from grace
just to feel the wind, the wind upon my face.
Teach me that the peace
is all a happy man will ever need.“

Months upon months ago, I promised my favorite munchkins that we would go see High School Musical 3 in the theatre together.  They, of course, thought I was just being sweet and spoiling them, but the truth is they are my excuse to go and see the third installment of the Troy and Gabriella saga.  Yes, it’s completely assinine to have a musical break in the middle of a basketball game.  I’m very aware that the songs are worse than even the most pathetic vacation bible school songs, and the acting will be painful.  Who cares?!?!  The story will be so syrupy sweet that it’ll turn any frown upside down, and th girls will have a blast.  It’s a win – win situation.  Go Wildcats!

Today is music day. Yay!!!  I had originally planned to spice things up around here a bit with this lil album I got from Lauren called “Punk Goes Crunk”, but to be real with you, my crunk hasn’t been that punk this week.  So they’ll be no ‘California Lovin’ for you. (Don’t worry you’ll be getting to hear it soon enough.)  What has been spinning right round, baby, in my musical existance has been the new Ryan Adams and the Cardinals album “Cardinology” that I mentioned earlier in the week.  By some great pirating miracle I have a copy in my hands before its official release and want to share its greatness with you more than I want to see Lute stick around for another season.  However, I will restrain myself and make you wait until it can be legally obtained.  Maybe everyone could go purchase it on Tuesday, and then we could listen to it together… in a circle holding hands.  My place Thursday 8 pm.  Be there or be square.  Until then, here’s the first single “Fix It” for your listening pleasure.  (I’m totally serious about the circle and next week.)

Here’s my mom on the couch, loving the way the Vicodin courses through her veins.  At any point in time during her recovery naps, you could find at least one animal sometimes 2-3 curles up beside her keeping watch.  My job… keep them from sleeping on her foot.

Six days ago I loaded my car with dirty laundry and driving music and headed south to be with my mom during and after her foot surgery. I had a plan of helping out around the house and cooking meals since mom would be semi-immobile for the first 72 hours. Little did I know that our church family and longtime friends would show my family the love that they did and that my purpose would be fellowship and not cooking. From day 1 of my mom’s recovery, there was no cooking that needed to be done at our house. Carli, a coworker of my brother’s and longtime family friend, had put together a huge tray of amazing enchiladas with the sweetest ‘instructions’ on the lid for my family to eat the day of the surgery. Saturday and Sunday brought more home cooked Mexican food from friends at my hometown church, and Monday a delicious apple tart was delivered to our doorstep. Rumor has it pizza made its way to our dinner table yesterday after I left, and chicken and dumplings will be delivered tomorrow. I’ve always felt blessed to have the loving friends and close-knit church family that I do in Willcox, but my gratitude today comes from the simple fact that even when I can’t be there, I know they are taking care of the people that mean the most to me.

Anxious is no where near a strong enough word to describe how I feel about the newest Ryan Adams and the Cardinals album that drops on the 28th.  I’ve suffered through countless tweets and waited patiently to listen and absorb his every emotion. I know even some of my closest musical confidantes can’t find who they are or where they stand in RA’s music, but when I think of Adams I think of it this way… if you’re going to be emotionally devastated do you want to feel numb or do you want to feel alive in your pain.  That’s Ryan Adams… sad, depressing, but still kicking, ready to stand up and take the next punch if it means feeling every moment. If you’re anything like me and can’t wait until it comes out a week from today, iLike will be streaming it in its entirety all day tomorrow.  I just hope somewhere buried in it are these words, “I will always love you. I will always love you. So go easy on yourself.”

1. Where is your cell phone? Bra (So not joking)

2. Where is your significant other? Who? (No, really. Do you know who it might be?)

3. Your hair color? Unnatural (I seriously don’t remember.)

4. Your mother? Recovering (Vicodinland is fun!)

5. Your father? Napping (We’re Southern Baptist.  Come on…)

6. Your favorite thing? Music (All-day, every day.)

7. Your dream last night? Non-existent (Slept like a baby)

8. Your dream/goal? Domination (Pinky and The Brain Style)

9. The room you’re in? Cozy (I love being home.)

10. Your hobby? Mothering (Sad but true.)

11. Your fear? Heights (Actually, falling from them.)

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Aunt (j/k Zac)

13. Where were you last night? Church (Where everybody knows your name.)

14. What you’re not? Silent (or so my dad says.)

15. One of your wish-list items? Kitten (Hendrix, please.)

16. Where you grew up? Willcox (North Mexico)

17. The last thing you did? Laundry (Free Laundry at home, ftw!)

18. What are you wearing? Contacts (So I can see!)

19. Your TV? SciFi (Mansquito 2, anyone?)

20. Your pet? Imaginary (tear)

21. Your computer? Jukebox (300 gigs worth)

22. Your mood? Relaxed (Rachel Yamagata in the earphones)

23. Missing someone? Always (“I hear your name in certain circles, and it always makes me smile.”)

24. Your car? Economic (42 mpg on the way home.)

25. Something you’re not wearing? Glasses (See #18)

26. Favorite store? Target (Try gettin’ out of there without spending at least $40.)

27. Your summer? Transitional (Change, change, wonderful change.)

28. Love someone? Dozens (Bet you’re one of them.)

29. Your favorite color? Pink (DUH)

30. When is the last time you laughed? Z-A-C (b..b…b…benny and the jets)

31. Last time you cried? Wednesday (Ugh)

Yeah, I got tagged by Judy, but I won’t be tagging you.  Just love the post filler while I’m away.  Sorry, Hero!

I swore to myself that no matter how open and honest I strive to be here there are some subjects that are just too personal to discuss. However, I can’t help but gush to you about the new love in my life. He’s got dark hair and eyes. He’s sweet and cuddly and makes me oh so happy.  All of my family is head over heels in love with him, and I would give anything to make him mine forever.  But, alas, our love will never be (stupid apartment complex rules). Meet Hendrix. Isn’t he a doll?!?!

I have never wanted anything more than to get to use a bullhorn.  This is my life’s dream.  A dream that almost became a realization last week when we thought a student info session might draw enough of a crowd that we would move outside.  I was promised ‘bullhorn’ duty.  I spent a good part of my morning on a quest for the great mega-horn.  I asked everyone on campus that I could think with no luck.  Then randomly I ran into the track and field head coach (a friend) who made a quick phone call and sent me to the dome to retrieve my prize.  I had never before stood on the floor of the empty dome and almost wanted to practice my Heisman pose but had more important priorities…  my bullhorn.  After a quick stop for batteries, I was ready to rock and roll.  I might have even turned it on in ‘siren mode’ in the car and temporary deafened Cory. ( Sorry:( ) But, despite all of my excitement… all of my hard work… all my lifelong… I did not get to use the bullhorn and had to return it.  I wonder if my mom and dad will buy me one for Christmas, or if the end to that story will be much like the time we let Zac have an airhorn.  Nevermind.