Crashing California

Last week we had the intesting opportunity to play a "media showcase" at a local restaurant opening.  The joint, a hip-healthy burger chain called Smashburger, was opening in Oceanside, and my good friend (who used to work at JC, but has since found greener pastures at a PR company downtown called elle communications) hooked us up with the deal. Now I admit, it is a pretty corporate gig. Not something I would have seen myself doing ... but for some reason, this worked.  I can't say I'd want to do it on a regular basis, but it was interesting, met with exceptional reception and we sold more CD's than we have at any other show! We paired down our sound for the event to acoustic ~ and it translated well.  Here are some sweet shots that Kristin, our bass player John's wife, who is an Exceptional talent behind the lens. Enjoy! Till Next Blog ~ love, a.

Yesterday I had a scare of internet proportions ~ I was working away on some freelance stuff ... getting myself in-shape for the very busy and long feeling week. I was sending some emails and all of a sudden, the email quit working ... my password was no longer valid ... not a huge deal, I went to Gmail to try to reset ~ and I got this message that said that my account had been compromised because of suspicious activity (weird) so I reset than went to my home page (which is my, our, beloved blog) and there was nothing there. I'm not even kidding. There was a generic "blogger" page that read: " This blog has been removed. The name (my blog name), is no longer available for use. And that's all she wrote. I refreshed the page a couple times, cause I couldn't believe what I was seeing, but same message every time. I started to panic, and get pretty angry. I mean this is like 5 years of our lives!! Pictures, stories, songs, our lives, just vanished and "re...

So, I need to try to make this post pretty short, as I'm at work and will need to go to our weekly Marketing Meet pretty soon, to hear about stuff that I don't really care about and have no control over, or ownership ~ at least that's how I feel, haha. Work has been a real struggle for me lately, not just because of WHAT I am doing, but just in being CONTENT about things. Oh, how difficult it is to just be content!  Life will always have ups and downs and we are really only in control of HOW we decide to respond to our situations.  I have responded not well in some instances and great in others. We moved our office about 3 weeks ago (well, WE didn't decide, the company did) from our deluxe roomy, cadilac of a space (with windows and freedom and a great creative, peaceful energy) to a smaller, stuffy, green flourescent room upstairs. I have had a hard time with the change and really got to the point where I just needed to suck things up and get over it. I am thankf...

For the last several day's in the waters off our coast there has been red tide. Red Tide is basically just a "toxic" algae bloom that makes the waters look muddy and dark, sort of dirty and red. (Hence the name, red tide). But, these red algae's have a little secret that's pretty fantastic. They have "bio-luminescence". So, for those that don't know: "Bio-luminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism. Its name is a hybrid word, originating from the Greek bios for "living" and the Latin lumen "light". Bioluminescence is a naturally occurring form of chemiluminescence where energy is released by a chemical reaction in the form of light emission. Fireflies, anglerfish, and other creatures produce the chemicals luciferin (a pigment) and luciferase (an enzyme).[1] The luciferin reacts with oxygen to create light." (from Wikkipedia). Basically, when the waves come crashing down at night, the ...

By this time the news may have reached families in Canada and elsewhere in America regarding the fairly large blackout we had yesterday in Southern California.  It occured at about 3:40 p.m., being at work, everything just shut off, but we have generators so it took only a couple seconds for that to kick on and we're back in business. This was obviously taken after the lights came back on ~ the "O" is for Oceanside Thanks to facebook, we all soon realized that the power outage was fairly widespread, as now it turns out, all of San Diego County, parts of Orange and L.A. counties, to places in Arizona and New Mexico (and also, Mexico) had all been affected.  It was a bit scary and surreal at first (being so close to 9/11) but as we slowly realized that the world was in fact not ending and we were sent home to brave ridiculous traffic. (Since all the power was out, no traffic lights were working, and every intersection was a four-way stop). Once home tho, I have to ...

Here is the third and final "installment" from my sister visit ~ seems like too long ago now!! I miss them terribly and yet, I know I will see them again soon =)  I love them and I am sooo glad that God made a way for us to meet =)  ... My last full day there, was spent with Elle almost exclusively. She took me to all the places she loves, the western supply shop (yes, I set foot!) the place her boyfriend works, Cabela's (which was actually pretty amazing ~ It's a GIGANTIC outdoors store complete with every single wild animal tactfully taxedermied for all to see, half of it looked like a museum really, I even tried a target practice game!) Me and Elle outside the Western store! And here we are, modeling Cowboy hats!!! (NEVER EVER thought I'd wear one!!) A classically disturbing take-away from Cabela's Me, Elle and her man Tony ~ def. a "Good Ol' Boy" The Outside o...

(a continuation of my last blog about meeting and spending the week with my two sisters in Minnesota, Aug. 15-19) I spent such good times with both the girls the four days I was there.  I told them this morning as we left that I feel like we got to spend about 15 years of good sister times together in about 5 days!  We went shopping, I did their make-up, AND their hair, we (well, they) dyed it crazy colors (part of our shopping experience was going to Hot Topic and picking out red, pink and turquoise hair dye, which afterwards during the one thunderstom we had, we dyed colors in the hotel room while watching girl movies and eating subs and getting the shower in my hotel decidedly pink). Playing Piano & singing for me ;) I cried! Our shopping date =) "Processing" the dyeing experience, lol Elle helping me get on a horse! And we're up! Capturing the beauty of the countryside Hangin out after dinner, this is actually in th...