You know how I take "dares"

It is Sunday evening and I am going through the photos my sister sent me via email.  What did we do without email, again?  The pics are from our excursion to Beaver, Utah, for my niece Kale's baby blessing.  The funniest thing happened while we were there, after the lunch party was dying down.  I sat at the kitchen table, eating spaghetti.  My mother was leaning up against the kitchen sink.  The snow outside was coming down something fierce.  I said to my mother, "I double-dog dare you to go outside right now and make a snow-angel."  Before we even had the chance to blink, my mom was on her way out; no coat, wearing a knee-length skirt, nylons, dress pumps, and approaching 70 years old.  We ran for the cameras.  I ran for the door.  I wasn't going to miss out on this.  My sister Melanie followed right behind.  The three of us, Mom as the lead, trudged out into the back yard where at least a foot and a half of snow had just fallen, and was presently falling.  We fell straight back, almost in unison, collapsed into the snow and began our construction of the most beautiful snow angels you've ever seen.  It was wonderful.  When we came back inside, we discovered we weren't even wet.  The snow brushed off us like powder and we were warmer now than before because of the rigorous exercise of arm and leg waggling.  So why not do it again and get some really good pictures, eh?  And that is exactly what we did.  The second time, we all held hands and made pretty for the camera.  Though there is nothing really pretty about it, except for the memories that were made with the coolest mother in the world.  Later, I overheard her talking to another daughter on the phone, sharing in the joy.  "You know how I take dares,"  she said.  I never really knew she did take dares, but boy, how I will remember that in the future!  I love my mom. :)

Valentine's Day

I'm getting good at this blogging thing.  I remembered to take pictures yesterday!  I went to work in the morning, but around noon decided to go home and try to get some rest.  I had taken the day before that off work as well, due to the fact that I've picked something up and I'm hoping it's not the pnemonia that Tamara might have had!  When I got home, I was delighted to find a large bright green box on the doorstep with my name on it!  I, of course, forgot that I desperately needed to crawl into bed at that point, and instead ripped into the box with all the valentine's furry I could muster.  Two dozen beautiful hot pink, red, and white roses, and not a baby's breath in sight!

Also included in the box was a nice vase and care instructions, which, since I followed perfectly, my roses should be lasting me a good long time.  I trimmed the stems and arranged them in the vase, put them on the nightstand in my bedroom, crawled into bed, and spent the next several hours toggling between coughing fits, unrest, and staring at my lovely roses.

At about six o'clock I decided I'd better get out of bed and take a shower so I'd be all ready for the date David had planned.  I knew he was making me dinner (he tried to surprise me, but asking me if he could borrow my table sort of gave it away).  It was perfect because I was too sick to really go out into the cold, and the dinner he made was better than anything we would have ordered at a fancy restaurant!  

  He made filet minon with a wonderful lime-butter sauce, stir-fried vegetables, and homemade mashed potatoes.  I was very impressed!  This was a first for him at making any of it, and I told him he is now designated as the official cook in the relationship.  We ate at my small table set up with candlelight in my bedroom, and enjoyed tablespoonfuls of milk out of my miniature wine glasses.  For dessert David had bought two pints of creme brulee ice cream which tasted exactly like the real thing.  The entire meal and evening was wonderful.  

I gave David four hand-made gift certificates for a date night, foot rub, home-cooked meal, and movie of his choice.  When he opened them he said, "Loralee, you should be a designer."  Yes, David, I'll look into that. :)  Anyway, the night was a success all around.  How nice to actually have a Valentine this year!

Montage-Creative Daily Documentary

So shortly after announcing my CD release party, I got an email from a man named Dallas, asking me if I wouldn't help him with a project he is working on called Daily Documentaries. Dallas is a photographer who embarked on the monumental task of making a documentary about someone he thought was interesting every day of the year 2008. That's 365 cool folks, people. I was honored and flattered to be considered one of them, so last Saturday we met at his house and made the "documentary." What it consisted of was about 30 minutes of a recorded interview (pod-cast is download-able from his blog) and then another half-an-hour of me getting embarrassed while he took pictures of me in front of his grey wall in his bedroom. I was never so awkward at having my picture taken in all my life. Well, you can be the judge, I guess. To view the pics and download the pod-cast interview, go to montage-creative.blogspot.com. You'll get a kick out of the fact that I completely forgot the words to my own song while singing it for the interview. I just couldn't handle the pressure! Just to be warned, the mic was too close to my mouth during the songs and it sounds, well, very bad. At least it was only a voice-recording, and not a video recording. My face had turned the color of those Valentine hearts that I bought the other day. Not a pretty sight.

My CD has been released into the wild

The official party was almost a month ago, January 19th. I was incredibly nervous for it. I didn't think anyone would show up, and I almost hoped nobody would show up. I guess that is because I was having a bit of a perfectionist's panic attack. I knew the CD wasn't perfect, and now everyone would know it, too. I've sung these songs a hundred times for large numbers of people, but this time it was different. The crowd could go home and listen closely to the words, and think all sorts of things about me. The songs are, after all, my life story in no uncertain terms. How would you li

ke to publish your journal to the world? I got scared, to say the least. But the party was a hit as far as I was concerned; we had about 60 people or so, and my good friend Davin's band opened up for me. I sold a good number of CD's that night, as well as quite a few before and since then. I still have some available if anyone is interested. You can purchase them for $12. Just send me an email, and I'll make the arrangements.