tonight I'll lie in the wide open field

I do not know if I can explain to you how awesome last night was.

I'll tell you first that Nickel Creek once again said no to photography, but I snuck two pictures, without flash, and this is the best I could do.

So we had dinner at Panera with our dear friends from the Fudgery. And then we head to the theatre. Our seats were front row center. We laughed a lot at the opening/warm up comedian. And then Nickel Creek were on stage. Right in front of us. I could have touched Chris Thile or Sara several times, but I'm not a freak. So they play, and we are close enough to hear their banter, and Chris interacted with us a few times. Neat-o. They played all our favorites (House Carpenter, Helena, the Fox, Can't Complain) and ended the show. Of course, they came back out for an encore. They invited people to come and sit up on stage (hence the heads in front of us). We opted to stay in our front-row standing position. They played a few songs and then, out of no where, Chris Thile points at Nathan (my husband!) and says, "What do you want to hear?" Nathan responds quickly with Raggle Taggle Gypsy, a song they did with the Chieftans several years ago. It took them a while to figure it out, but they seemed impressed with his choice and made it through. They took a few other requests, but the Mandolin guy picked Nathan out of the crowd! Just awesome. (You can read a review here.)


The University of Kentucky paper (Kentucky Kernel) posted other pics today that are much better than mine.

In other news, this house stuff is really annoying me. I think I told you all how it rained in our kitchen, which resulted in trying to fix the ceiling, which was unsightly. So today they scraped and restomped the ceiling. It looks nice, but I cannot say the same for the huge (and I do mean very large) scuff mark on our kitchen wall. A big, black mark that will not scrub off. I guess that means that Mr. Repair Man (or the company that repairs our stuff) will be painting to have our wall repainted. And that's just what we can see in the horrible light (the light fixtures won't be put back in until tomorrow). Grrrr.

I am also slightly irritated about my birthday. I'm just a few more than single-digit days away from being 30. We had plans. We were going to drive about an hour, eat at a restaurant I really like, and shop. But we get an invitation to a party for family friends' of Nathan's 50th Wedding anniversary party on my birthday. (I know it's confusing, but I tried several times to phrase it better. Read it again if you need to.) No big deal. It's in the same town as my restaurant. What luck! We can shop earlier on, stop by the party, eat at my restaurant, drive home for some birthday alone time...We still had a great plan. I wasn't even thinking. They are family friends. We live between the family and the friends. So now we are having company (Nate's mom and boyfriend, Nate's brother, and wife). Going to the party together. Overnight guests.

I know I sound incredibly selfish. I guess I am. 30 is a big day. I was dreading it for a while, but then I decided to embrace it. A celebration of who I am and who I want to be. Sure, we can celebrate my birthday the next weekend, but then I'll be 30 and 7 days. I feel like we share big holidays with the families. And 5 times out of 7, birthdays and anniversaries and Valentine's Day falls during the week. I know nothing will change, I don't want to make a scene and change things, but I'm unhappy. I want my birthday! On my birthday!

I do sound really selfish, don't I?

i have my reasons why

I talk about Nickel Creek a lot. I thought I'd show you who they are.

We are seeing them tonight and tomorrow night. And that's all until they go on "indefinate hiatus." So I'm happy and sad.

These are some clips from the concert we were at last weekend. Enjoy!

I also decided to show you my other favorite. I LOVE Matt Wertz! He was also in Asheville last weekend, same night and time as Nickel Creek. We attempted to stalk him in Asheville but never found him.

My health motivation is zero. I have been keeping up with writing cards, but that's about all. What is it going to take to get me in gear?

laughing out loud while she's crying inside

I heart Nickel Creek. The show last night was awesome.

The first thing worth mentioning is that I ran into my very first friend ever. Jenifer and I met at the waterfountain on the first day of kindergarden. She's my Jen. And she rocks. Not only does she read my blog every day (we all know that makes her cool), she also hooked Nathan up with the local reporter and several of Nate's comments made the front-page Nickelcreek interview in the Ashland Daily Independent.


I followed directions and didn't take any pictures. I wasn't taking any chances getting kicked out. So these pictures are also via the Independent.


An introduction to Nickel Creek. Chris plays mandolin. My Sister-In-Law Leah insists that Nathan looks like Chris. I mean, they both play the mandolin, have similar spotted ties, and are hot. I buy it. (Nathan doesn't make funny faces when playing his mandolin, though.)


Sara plays fiddle. I think she is incredibly cute. She was also wearing awesome red shoes.



I'm not sure why there isn't a pic of Sean playing the guitar, but here's the whole band. We were in the 9th row or so.

They played all the stuff I really had to hear. I think we're going to make plans to see them again in August, and again later in the year. I am really excited. You need to check them out.

That being said, I'm really depressed today. I don't know that I'm able to put it into words just yet. It's a combination of the following:

a) I absolutely hate the way I look. We spent a lot of time today looking at Nate's brother's wedding pictures, and it was really hard to look at myself.

b) I am not a mom. Most of the time, I am okay with that. (For those of you who haven't read my old blogs, our lack of child is not for lack of effort.) Most of the time I can have perspective and think about God's plan for my life and not my own. But then I hold babies over the weekend. And then we talk about our friends who are having babies. And then, in my head, it goes back to the fat thing, and I get in a cycle of thinking that my fatness contributes, maybe even causes, the lack of a baby.

c) I have absolutely no idea where we will be and when the move will happen. I just want to be in a different place. Geographically. Spritually. Mentally. Size of clothing-ly.

So what did I have for dinner? A peanut butter milkshake from Sonic. Yeah, that fixes things.

between green and gray

We are so excited! Nickel Creek is coming to our hometown! (Granted, it's three hours from where we are now, but that's okay.) So in July, Nate and I will be going home to see our favorite band! And I think we're going to see the mandolin player (Chris Thile) on his solo tour in Asheville in May. I was starting to think this summer might be a bummer because of no beach trip, but it's going to be full of long weekends. Asheville in May, Kansas in June, Nickel Creek in July...what more could a girl ask for?

Oh yeah. To not be fat.

Today has been an okay day. The sermon at church was great, of course. Mike talked about giving God 100% of our lives and not keeping anything selfishly to ourselves. I heard this not only as a call to action in many areas of my life, but also as a call to let God help me, to give up control. I feel like I need to develop a plan to do this, like I have to ween myself off of control. I know it doesn't work that way. I'm trying to get there.

I still did not make it to the gym today. I don't know why. They closed at 6 and I kept myself busy (with excuses!) until then. Still bummed that the elliptical machine is a noisy beast. I'd be on it right now if I could. Isn't it interesting that as soon as I can't go to the gym, I really want to go? But my eating was right on target today.

Breakfast (6)
Starbucks drink
Banana

Lunch (9.5)
Peanut butter/banana/honey sandwich from the Fudgery

Dinner (8)
Linguine with asparagus and tomatoes
Salad with light honey mustard

Snack (4)
Fiber 1 Bar
a cup 1% milk

That leaves me with 1/2 point. I can do nothing with that. Just gonna leave it.

I have a general plan for tomorrow, but will have to figure out some points before I have exact eating plan. Breakfast will be the typical starbucks and banana. For lunch, I am having an Asian wrap (flat-outs, turkey, mandarin oranges, almonds, lettuce, ginger dressing) and some fruit. Dinner is going to be lentil curry with rice (couldn't find red lentils...grr to small town Kroger!) and either salad or fruit.

I'll post pics of dinner and the recipe tomorrow, if it turns out well.