Ten years ago today, I was headed on my way back to Reading, PA after an amazing first night ever of Phish..

Tonight, I am just home from seeing the GRAB trio..

Thank you Mike, for keeping it alive..for playing Foam and Mike's and CTB..we are all still sharing in the groove..

It's the Ocean flowing in our veins


So last night, we were at a party at Chip and Marissa's place. It was great..family, food, caroling, and after it all, a nice lounge in their grand bar area downstairs where we sat listening to music and hanging out for quite some time. I remember sitting there, taking it all in..watching people..and when Phish came over the iPod, there it was..it just gets into your soul..and then there was wedge..and I realized at that very moment the importance of these very lyrics..

Phish can go away for as long as they want..but they aren't going away..they are alive...in our souls..more alive than they know..

so i started reading a new book...The Secret Life of Bees...I've been reading a series of books by Jennifer Chiaverini on a quilter's town since last Spring, I'm up to book 5, the Quilter's Legacy..It's a great series, but i'm used to the characters and the places..and I look forward to it like an ongoing story..Anyway, Elise has the next book and I couldn't hold out so I went out and got something different, a book that's been on my reading list for quite some time. I'm enthralled..I haven't read such a great book since I read The Poisonwood Bible. The story moves...I look forward to curling up for a while every night learning the depths of the two main characters and joining in their adventures. It's like a little piece of heaven, a way to leave my world if only for a little while, to someplace different..to imagine new sights and meet new people..Such a great book!

It was 9 years ago today...

I remember the day clearly. I was in college, living at home. I told my folks I was going to Albany to see Phish. They said no. Ten minutes later, I was going to "Rutgers" for the weekend..Joe, my now husband, came to pick me up..and my best friend Lori..who told her parents and didn't cover it back up with a lie and they flipped. We got in the car, ticketless, meeting some guy he knew from college up at a hotel..the one you see on the side of the NY Turnpike, right before the death bridge over the Gorge just outside of Albany..I believe it was a Days Inn at the time. So It was a rough trip. We were stopping every half hour to clean off the lights and windshield wipers. Five hours later, we made it to the hotel..for what should have been a 2 hour trip! There we are in the lobby, waiting for these kids, and it's been a while..and we are starting to get nervous. Joe says to me in a very monotone voice, "I'm going outside. I'm going to lay in the snow. If they don't come before the snow covers me up, don't bother getting me up." I frowned..he layed in the snow..at that very moment, the kid pulled up!! We headed up to our hotel room, where we opened the sliding doors to see how much snow was out there..we found a six pack of unopened beer! A little later, We followed a snowplow into the show..Beavis and Butthead..Sloth..man..how I miss Albany! How I miss Phish!

So, if you haven't heard already..my sewing room is falling apart. The rolled roof pulled back and the rain leaked in and it collapsed the ceiling. Why is it, that just when you feel like you've got your feet on the ground, the world around you begins to fall in on itself? I dunno..maybe it's just me..but this really sucks!

Life throws so many challenges at you..sometimes you don't realize where exactly you are supposed to be..but then you realize there are ups and downs and this is life, whether you are number 1 in line..or 22.. Priorities get organized sooner or later..and if you fall to the bottom of the pile, maybe it isn't your pile to begin with..