Long time coming

Well, since this was updated, I've started grad school, moved, and started a new job.  The greater Austin metroplex is awesome, I live in a nice, friendly small town with good schools, but got to the Baylor-UT game in 20 minutes.  God bless toll roads and credit cards!
In long-term career moves, I've decided to stick with this nurse practitioner thing.  And after drunkenly watching a lot of Guided by Voices on Youtube, have decided to wait until John decides to pull a Robert Pollard and start touring during school breaks in his 40's.  Then things will really start to happen.

I've been feeling the itch to start playing music again. Luckily, I went onto Abilene's Craigslist to look under the "musicians wanted" section. This is where I've been living for 6+ years. It explains a lot.

On an unrelated note. My frustration with Pandora Radio is subsiding, as I've found the best channel ever. It's the "In The Meantime" channel. Basically a compilation of the greatest hits of 1990's alternative. If I have one complaint, it's a little heavy on Everclear. I could also do with a little bit less Third Eye Blind, but overall, it's tolerable, which is more than I can say for the Eliot Smith heavy stations of any indie band, or the "Indie Classics" station, which thinks that 2010 is classic.

For John,

Whom I believe is the only one who reads this. I am going to attempt a moderate effort to update this at least once a month (baby steps) with whatever is new in my world.

Since last I posted, I have gotten certified to recover open-heart surgeries. It is awesome. They're very busy and require 1:1 care and lots of freedom in decision making on my part. There are only about 8 people in the hospital that are able to do this, so I feel pretty good about myself. I am also working on getting some grad-school applications working. The first two attempts will be in Texas. If nothing comes of that, then we'll be branching out to neighboring states (Little Rock and New Orleans).

We are looking at moving soon though. Most of the programs I would do are 95% online so I could probably do them anywhere. Brooke has gotten her certification to be a counselor or principal, so basically any job at a school that's not district superintendent. We're hoping that this will broaden our potential landing spots. Central Texas is still the goal for right now though.

Both kids are healthy/happy. Konner is now only about 4 pounds shy of Keaghlan and almost as tall. He is behind her as far as mobility, but I think it's mostly because he can't haul his fat ass around as well as she could manage with her daintiness.

short rant

I have a small request for the rest of the world. If you do not/did not attend or work for a particular school, please stop referring to their athletic teams in the first person plural. If you like the school that much, then you should have attended it. For example, if you want to have three rooms of your house decked out in Razorback paraphernalia, so be it. But why did you go to ASU-Beebe?

By all means, be a fan if you like, but reserve the first person for people who have earned it.

30. Here's hoping I can keep up this momentum.

Day Thirty: Your Favorite Song This Time Last Year.

I already liked this song quite a bit, and then I got to see it live. Not only was the song great, but Sam was just such an engaging performer. I saw him in a small theatre with just him and his guitar. The whole thing seemed very personal/personable.

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Day Twenty Nine: A Song From Your Childhood.

I vividly remember two songs playing on the radio as a very small child. I would sing loudly along all of the words that I knew, and usually make some more up. I also remember being upset when my mom got a new car, because I thought the old one was where all the music was (I was three okay). This is one of those songs. Incidentally, what kind of credentials to you have to have to be Steve Miller's tambourine player. Looks like a pretty sweet job.

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Day Twenty Eight: A Song That Makes You Feel Guilty.

This one is stupid. I haven't pulled any heists to a sound track yet, and I don't think that this is asking for another guilty pleasure, so I'm going to have to stretch a bit on this one.

There was much talk at one point about the qualities that make a good cover song. The most important being not just playing someone else's song, but making it your own somehow. I think that's why the Balcony only did "Summer Here Kids" one time. We sounded a bit too much like Grandaddy on a bad day. Another aspect is being able to do it better than the original. For everything positive about Prince, I don't want to hear him sing "Nothing Compares 2 U."

There were lots of ideas thrown about and drank over, but the closest I ever got was being a part of RTC doing "Eleanor." As much fun as that was, I'd probably rather listen to the Turtles do it (except for the part where Joel forgot the words and made sex noises). This song inspired a lot of those ideals, and also lets me know that I'm not good enough to sufficiently fuck up other people's music.