getting ready for worship at Crosspoint this morning.....

I finally convinced my youngest son to cut his hair. It was down past his shoulders. The last few times we went to the mall, we had several salesclerks say, "Hi ladies, can I help you?"... that may have been the thing that drove him over the edge. That and the fact that all his favorite musicians have short/spikey hair now. Whatever the reason, I'm SO glad. He looks alot older too... my baby is growing up!!

Mike working in the new studio..

Twittering.....

Lately alot of people have been running down "twittering". The thing that bugs me about it is that not one of those people who so boldly make fun of it have EVER EVEN TRIED IT. How can you make a judgement about something that you haven't experienced? That's like someone saying they don't like a book, when they haven't read it. Or someone saying that a certain movie isn't worth watching, when they haven't seen it themselves.

Nothing's perfect. Yes, there are some silly, mundane "tweets"... i.e. "Just washed my car, and now it's raining!"... or "Feel like doing nothing today" or "think I'm going to regret eating all those beans!".... but even the silly, mundane things in life can make you smile. Or make you feel connected to someone a little more than you did. Personally, it took me awhile to appreciate the twitter network. The main reason I started doing it is because it is a good tool to update all of my websites at once. I don't feel like I have to visit each site everyday, because twitter does it for me. But after doing it awhile I started seeing even more value in it.

Look, I know that there is no substitution for personal, one-on-one contact, but I do not have time in my day to check in with every single person that I care about. However, anytime I have a free minute, I can look on my tweet friends list and feel like I'm a little part of their day just knowing what they are up to. They make me laugh, cry and sometimes give me important information ("Hey guys, something's happening on I-65 south.. traffic backed up.. AVOID!!) Good to know. I love Charlie Neese's weather tweets... CNN Breaking News tweets... even "The Onion" has tweets that are hysterical. Our pastor and other church staffers leave inspirational tweets almost everyday... bible verses... heartwarming stories... and prayer requests too. One of my favorite twitterers is The Summerville News who tweets live happenings from a small town in GA, where my friend Tammie lives. Here is a tweet from today:

"Earlier today we had the McFender Bender. Now 9-1-1 is reporting a minor "run for the border" crash in the Taco Bell drive -through window."

Now, c'mon.. you KNOW that's funny!! What's the difference in taking the time to read the "funnies" in the newspaper or reading funny "tweets".. they both make me giggle!!

For singer/songwriters like me, there is the business side of it as well. You can post information about upcoming gigs and other events you want folks to know about. I've actually got a song on "hold" right now for a major artist, because of a tweet that my co-writer put out recently about a new song he and I had written and that it was now up on his myspace. The "right person" read it, listened, and bam! We just might have a song cut out of it!!

Ok... I'm going to end this rant about twitter by saying that before you knock it, you should try it. AND here is a good blog about it:

"12 Reasons to Start Twittering"
http://michaelhyatt.com/2008/05/12-reasons-to-start-twittering.html

Again, picking up the phone is great. Meeting someone for lunch and talking IN PERSON is even better. And I try to squeeze those times in as much as possible, but when you are a working Mom, Wife, Daughter, Sister, Friend like me... it's always great to be able to have other ways of communication when your time is limited. Twitter won't be for everyone. I still have a good friend who refuses to get a computer and use email. She thinks that EMAIL is just as bad as twitter... (if you have something to tell me, pick up the PHONE!, she says) And don't EVEN get her started on texting.... :-)

That's just the way I see it folks!!!

Remembering Alex.....

On Memorial Day 2006, my cousin Jennifer lost her husband, Alex Funkhouser while he was escorting Kimberly Dozier, a CBS news reporter and her crew into Baghdad. A car bomb took his life, along with two other CBS journalists that day, also severely injuring Miss Dozier and others in the crew. When Jennifer answered her door that day, she said "I opened the door and I looked directly into the Major's eyes and they were red," she recalls. "And he said, 'I'm sorry to inform you…'"

My heart aches everytime I think of her in that moment... reeling from the grief that has so suddenly been thrust upon her heart, and at the same time wondering how she is going to tell her two daughers, Kaitlyn and Allison who were only 4 and 2 at the time. Because Alex was killed alongside the CBS News Reporters, his death got more news coverage than other soldier's who have been killed in the line of duty in Iraq. However, I remember Jennifer saying that EVERY soldier should get the same attention as Alex did.....

So.. on this Memorial Day, please take a few minutes from your parties and BBQ'S to remember ALL the soldiers who have given their lives for our great country and that are no longer with us. Also, take a minute to watch this beautiful video called "18 video tapes". Kaitlyn and Allison are in it towards the beginning, and then at the end, after the music stops, you will see Alex saying good-bye to Jennifer (she's behind the camera)and Kate and Allie....

I think it's a Green Day song........

"Acid Mosh" rehearsing at our house this morning...... while Kari jams to the music. :-)

at The Bluebird 5/19/09

Tim Buppert, Rachel Williams, Jim Kimball and me..... after our show at The Bluebird Cafe last Tues. night.....we had a blast!!!

Watching Derek hard at work!!

My sister Lori, me, and Mom

Hanging out at Mom's in OKC....

My view at soundcheck... Riverwind Casino!

Our home for the day....

Mom's birthday perm....

Took Mom out to get a new perm in her hair..... when we came back to her apartment, they had a nice birthday notice on the wall. I love Dad's quote on there about her.... "My wife is a wonderful Christian Young Lady"..... so sweet!!

Having a great dinner with my beautiful buddies!

Tickets on sale.....

Tickets on SALE NOW for my show at The Bluebird Cafe next Tues. night, May 19th. I'll be ITR w/Tim Buppert, Kim Parent, and Jim Kimball. It's going to be a FUN show so ya'll come on out!! Go to bluebirdcafe.com to reserve a table now!! See ya there!!

Look at me go!!! Ha!

See? We were right ON the ocean today!!

Having breakfast in a little diner by the ocean....

..... Can you see the water out there??? It's beautiful!!!

Now it's REALLY looking good!!!

Well, we ARE in Hollywood.....

So I'm putting my things in my hotel room, looking at the beautiful view of palm trees and ocean and thinking to myself, "This might be a great place for Mike and I to come for a little vacation!" I'm thinking, "even if it's a little expensive, maybe we could use some frequent flyer miles and splurge on the room." Then I checked the back of the door, where they always post the room rates, so i could see how much it would cost to book ourselves a room. WHOA!! SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS?!?! For ONE NIGHT!!! Drat... not gonna happen on this little singer/songwriter's budget..... is everything more expensive in FL??? Well, we ARE in Hollywood!! Even if it IS Hollywood, FL! -grin

The view from my hotel room balcony... Ahhhhh!

Waking up to Palm Trees!! Oh yeah!!!

I think my swimsuit, the beach, and a fruity little drink are in my future for today!!! Whoo-hoo!!

Me and my laptop, crammed in my little bunk. Nite all!!

Pliers??? Seriously???

We just stopped at a Mrs. Winner's for dinner.....we have stopped at this same Mrs. Winner's several times in the last few months. It has become a little joke, because every single time we have stopped there, they never have ANY chicken cooked. I mean, don't most fast food restaurants have food cooked ahead of time, so that it's "fast"? Anyway, this time when they guys went in to order dinner, not only did they NOT have any food cooked, but one of the workers there behind the counter asked them, "So, do you guys happen to have a pair of pliers we could borrow?" SERIOUSLY?!?!? That laugh was worth the stop!!

He's mad cause I just gave him a bath.

The Bluebird 5/6/09

I sat in with Wayne Baird last night at the Bluebird to sing our song, "I'm In" at the Full Circle Music Pub. Writer's Night. I heard some awesome songs by Walt Aldridge, Dave Turnbull, Bob Reagan and Wayne.......had a blast!

Another big wake-up call.....

Although some might consider Nashville to be a “big city”, the music business here is still a small community. A small group of musicians, singers and songwriters who are all bonded by our love of making music. When something happens to one of our own, even if you don’t know that person intimately, it still hits you hard. We lost one of our little community this past Friday. Darel Decounter, who was John Anderson’s keyboard player for the last 16 yrs. passed away early Friday morning, May 1st at his home in White House, TN. I didn’t know Darel all that well, but I had worked with him a few times, singing demos for him at his studio. I would also bump into him around town now and then, and of course we had mutual friends in the business, so his name would get brought up in conversation. When one of those mutual friends, Dan Drilling called me on Friday afternoon, I was completely floored when he said, “Marcia, I have some bad news. Darel died this morning.” I was so shocked that I couldn’t speak for a few seconds. I heard Dan saying, “Marcia? Are you there?”. ”Yes, I’m here.” I said. “I just can’t believe you are telling me this. He and I had been playing phone tag for the last month. He said he had something to talk with me about, and I had been meaning to call him back, but never did. Now it’s too late.” I felt horrible. Why hadn’t I made the time to call him back!?!? I guess I didn’t think that what he had to tell me was THAT important, right? Obviously I didn’t. And now, I felt awful about it.

I ran home and pulled up the last email that I had gotten from him….trying to figure out some clue as to what he was reaching out to me about. And when I re-read it, I was hit HARD by one line in particular. Here is the first part of his email to me:

Hi Marcia,

Sorry we keep playing phone tag.
Guess we're staying busy........or at least........staying busy trying to be busy. LOL

I just wanted to chat with ya.
It's been forever since we've had a chance to catch up.

I do have a couple of things I want to talk with you about, but it can wait.

Those last four words were like a dagger in my heart. BUT IT CAN WAIT. That is probably why I didn’t feel the urgency to return his call so promptly. I figured that it must not be all THAT important, so I would just call him later when I had a little more time to talk.

I don’t know about you guys, but with my crazy life, I rarely feel like I have time to just “talk” very often. I usually walk around with about 10 messages on my voicemail, all there as reminders that I “still need to call back Sue”… or “touch base with Jim” etc… and as hard as this is for me to admit, sometimes, I never DO make those calls. Just like with Darel. I didn’t make the call and now I’m left feeling really sad that I DIDN’T make the time.

Darel’s passing has been a HUGE wake-up call for me. Sometimes things can NOT wait. Don’t put off things that are important because in the blink of an eye, everything can change. Everything.

Rest in peace, Darel…… I know you are in God’s arms now. And thanks for the gift.

Only in Nashville do you go to a wedding reception like this!!

.... Coleman and Carol jammin' before cutting the cake!!

There USED to be a studio here.....

Now I'm stumped!!!!! What would be the best use of this room? I'm
thinking large walk-in closet. Mike's NOT thinking that......hmmmmm.