Steve's Music This Week

I like music, too. Lately I've been listening a lot to Morton Feldman, Olivier Messiaen, and Johannes Ockeghem. The first clip is the end of Feldman's "Rothko Chapel," composed in 1971 to honor the chapel decorated by the artist Mark Rothko (the video shows some of Rothko's paintings). It is beautiful and elegaic.
The second clip is from Messiaen's final work, "Illuminations of the Beyond (Eclairs sur l'au d'ela)," which he composed shortly before his death in 1992. Messiaen was obsessed with birds as spontaneous singers of God's praise, and this work contains some of his signature bird-music. This performance is conducted by the impeccably-permed Sir Simon Rattle. Messiaen is one of my very favorite musicians.
The third clip is Ockeghem's "Deo gratias," a radiant choral work from the 15th century. I love the way it builds up slowly, like a sunrise.

Favorite Songs of Late

Not sure if anyone's interested. But here are three songs that I've been loving lately. I've been doing lots of driving lately, to airports, funeral, airports again, weddings, home again home again jiggety jog.

This music has kept me alive and awake.

My dance happy song, Ben Folds featuring Regina Spektor, You Don't Know Me:


My Zen (Eliza likes to sing along with the beginning) song Radiohead's House of Cards:


My depressing, grieving song, Beck's Guess I'm Doing Fine:

Wedding Showcase

My Uncle, Cape was married to Mary Mac this weekend. It was hands down the most gorgeous wedding I've ever attended. Great food, great family, great glamour, great dancing, and great funny drunk people. Oh, and some famous people too. But this ain't no US weekly and I'm no name dropper (but Steve is apparently), so I'll stick to my favorite part of it all which was the cake and family!

The gorgeous couple
Mom and the sisters! We missed Robby. And Dad's really good at evading pictures. (and here's a fun shot for anyone who was wondering if Katy really was pregnant)

My Mom and me.

My sisters, Kate and Abby.Mom's younger sister, Merrilee, Katy, me, Mom, and Abby.

Gorgeous Abigail Rose!

Steve and Dad conferring over how the tuxes worked or didn't work.

We thought Steve looked like the guy from Story Teller Theater

Pre-Wedding:

Kind of a Ride

Eliza and I (Steve) had a lovely trip last week. After a seemingly endless plane ride during the course of which Eliza jogged ~2 miles up and down the aisle, we arrived in my homeland of Utah. I still remembered the language for the most part, though the dry climate no longer agreed with me, which came as a surprise. It was wonderful to relax after a hectic couple of months at work, and to bask in the golden glow of doing nothing, like a tortilla fragment soaking at the bottom of a salsa bowl.

It's nice to be able to spread the magic of Eliza Mae into others' lives. She got to visit with lots of friends and family and explain to them precisely what it is that monsters say. She loved spending time with her Grandma and Grandpa, or "gaga" and "gaga" as she affectionately termed them. Eliza showed Grandma what heads are

and Grandma showed Eliza how to put things on them.
And together they learned of the customs of the noble Houyhnhnms.
Meanwhile Eliza let Grandpa audition for her band
and Grandpa was unable to pin Eliza in an intense, prolonged, multiple-day wrestling match.


She also got to meet some great-grandparents for the first time.
Don't worry; Eliza isn't punching Great-Grandpa in the face--she's just giving him an M&M!
Great-Grandma gets one too.
Eliza loved reading with her Great-Grandparents.
Eliza also got to see her Uncle Robby, a good uncle, a good friend and a good brother-in-law. It was fun to hang out with him.
We also got to meet Davey's girlfriend, Bianca. She at first refused to believe in Eliza's existence, but then there was a Christmas miracle and Eliza was awake when Bianca came over, and Bianca was forced to believe in the truth of her own senses. Eliza and I both liked and believed in Bianca.
I got to see one of my best friends--my cousin Ryan. We haven't seen much of each other for the last couple of years, but we both remembered how to string together a series of nonsensical words to make something like a sentence. We watched some of the brilliant films we made when we were kids, an experience as hilarious as it was horrifying.
We got to visit with some of our other friends, too--Norma and Brian, who were our friends in Charlottesville before they they moved to Provo. Now they are our friends in Provo.
Eliza also got to see some of her friends from the prehistoric past, including the infamous "Bambiraptor" (or "Raptor named Bambi" as the marquee helpfully explained). Eliza loved running around the dinosaur museum like a shrieking Gallimimus and also made some important discoveries involving the development of the maxillary bone while brushing at fossils in the Badlands sandbox.

Eliza almost got devoured by a giant shark, but it turned out to be a fake.

We attended a shindig at the pumpkin patch which involved a jolly hayride, a friendly horse (previously pictured), geological surveying, cozy nestling, and some Olympic-level pumpkin lifting.


As soon as we arrived at the patch, Eliza ran about two-thirds of the way across the field until she found her perfect pumpkin. She attempted to lift it, grunting with heroic effort.
I like her biceps in this one:
All in all, it was a very satisfying vacation.
Even more satisfying than eating a lemon.

I'm in love with a girl

Steve and Eliza returned safely from Utah yesterday evening. Eliza was really really really exhausted, and really didn't like being stuck in her car seat the extra 3 hours it took us to get home from DC last night when, umm, the driver that wasn't me, decided to take an inadvertent tour of DC and Alexandria, the Regan Airport, 495, the view of the Capitol building across the bay, and Kate and Aaron's apartment (but they weren't home). I didn't appreciate it too much either. I hate getting lost.

Life is kinda hard right now. Or really hard, but I guess that's where the phrase, "That's life for ya!" comes from.

When we give our clients medications for pain or anxiety, we have them rate their pain on a scale of 1-10. One being not bad and 10 being like the worst ever. I think I'd have to rate my pain right now at a 6. But that's only because I'm in good physical health. I even ran a mile in under 8 minutes this morning for part of my workout. I needed the endorphins...

Steve did get some great pictures of his and Eliza's trip to Utah. I asked him to report on the trip on here since he knows what went down. It sounds like they had a REALLY fantastic time seeing grandparents, parents, brothers, cousins, and friends. Thanks to everyone who made their trip such a blast!

It was funny for me to not have Steve and Eliza around for a whole like 6 days. But since two of those days involved me traveling to and from a funeral and burying my best friend, I had less time to sit around and think about how much I missed them.

The other days I mostly spent getting Acudetox certified at work. I now am trained to administer Auricular Accupuncture for our clients during groups. Now I just need to conduct 40 accupuncture groups to fulfill my clinical hours. I'm really excited and proud of my new skill. The class was fascinating. Hopefully I can do another post explaining Acudetox later.

Eliza is my silver lining, though. It's amazing how resilient she is. How she just hops right back into our routine. I'm excited to be back on schedule with my baby buddy. Tonight on my dinner break from work, I let Eliza out of her car seat, and she took off down the street! She made a bee-line for the trail down to the park, so I grabbed a jacket and followed her down while Steve went in to work on dinner.

In the light of the setting sun, Eliza and I headed out on our adventure that quickly became a pine cone scavenger hunt. Eliza ran just about the whole way to the playground, only looking back to hand me pine cones. She then had a blast throwing her pine cones down the slide one by one and then sliding down after then. She is hilarious.

When we came back inside, Eliza was bopping around with Steve and me in the kitchen and saw my work badge hanging off the bottom of my shirt. She reached up for it and looked at my picture on it and then went up on her tippy toes and gave my picture a kiss. And then gave it like 5 more kisses. I'm in love with that girl.

Mourning

I met my best friend, Amber Marsh, in Sunday School when we were 9. She was tan and care-free, sitting on the windowsill with her legs propped up. I had just moved to South Carolina and was happy to find a friend in her.

I wasn't a care-free child and have not grown into a care-free adult either, but Amber helped my world be more joyful, exciting, and FUN. Many of my best memories growing up involve her. Anyone who gave Amber the time of day was blessed with an outpouring of sweetness and exuberance in response.

Today I received news that Amber Alice Marsh Williams committed suicide last night. I am still trying to rap my head around the news. Amber experienced a lot of pain living in a world that was not as loving as she was.

Her death has left me asking questions I have never truly asked before. What is mercy? Where is my dear friend now? Is she finally at peace? What could I have done more? and so many Why's...?

I hope that your prayers will be with Amber and her family.

*I debated whether I should post this news or not, but I believe that Amber would have liked it.

Taming of the Shrew

I was in our backyard putting some wash into the drier (it's in an outdoor closet in the back of our house. Quirky, no?), and I saw our cat, Finnegan, just sitting on the pavement playing with something.

Usually he's running all over the yard, climbing trees and stuff, so I went over to check out what he was up to. I found him teasing/torturing a teeny little baby shrew aka a pup!! It was so teensy and cute, and it was just squirming in place with it's eyes sealed shut squeaking (which means he has to be less than 3 weeks old).

I had to "rescue" him/her because it was just such a terrible scene, which is ironic because in general I'm grateful that Finnegan is keep "pests" away from our household. However, I just don't want to see his antics happening right in front of me.

The little thing would have no chance against our Kitty. I scooped it up and made a little box with dead leaves, dirt, fresh clover, crushed cat food, and a sliced grape. Apparently they have to eat like every hour and mostly survive on bugs. A bug started climbing up my hand as I was placing Baby Shrew's box in the yard under our laundry hamper (so Finnegan couldn't get to it), and I shook the bug into the box too.

On my dinner break from work, I showed the baby shrew to Steve, and he had lots of suggestions about how to let it go easy, and I know Marty Stouffer would tell me to just let nature run it's course and allow this baby shrew to face it's fate of either having its bones crushed by a cat, freezing in the night without the comfort of his mother and his nest, or simply starving to death.

Sorry, Marty. Instead Pup's sleeping in a box in our toasty warm closet.

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Here's an example of how Marty prefers to witness life-- Au Naturale.

I can barely watch it! Even though it's a kinda random video. But I can sorta relate to the mother possum at the end.

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Katy and Steve are the two people in my life who have made me suffer the most through videos portraying the wonders of Wild America's natural selection.

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I really didn't appreciate it when I was like 8, and Kate wouldn't change the channel before the Lion tackled the Zebra and tore it to pieces. I'd run from the room shrieking in horror or shiver in my seat with my hands plastered over my eyes, asking Kate, "Is it over yet?"

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I've learned to appreciate it more in my adult years, especially now that Kate has the collection. She's had quite the history with Marty Stouffer, he even celebrates her birthday. But maybe you can appreciate the beauty that is Marty Stouffer too:

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But since I know that most of you come here just for Eliza pics and updates, and many of you are grossed out by furry little rodents, here's a cute Eliza story.

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Steve and Eliza walked down to our park today, and he told me that there was a little eight year old girl who was playing with her soccer ball. Apparently, Eliza wanted to play with it too and so she followed behind the girl all the way across the playground signing and saying, "Please? Please? Please?"

I guess the little girl took pity on her and let Eliza play with the ball while she was climbing on the playground equipment. Cute, but...

Maybe next week I'll teach Eliza that it's good to say please when you want most things, EXCEPT when you want a soccer ball-- then it's no talk, all TACKLE.

Our October ABC's

A is for our Hyundai ACCENT that drove Eliza and I smoothly and safely through the 756 miles of road to and from SC. And for the Awesome DVD player playing Bambi and Elmo in the back seat.



B is for Burger King where we took a break after 3 hours of driving for some much needed re-fueling and free reign running in the play place.

(Eliza dips her french fries in the ketchup and then sucks the ketchup off and dips again. When that frie gets too soggy, she throws it on the ground and grabs another crispy one. Yum, right?)

C is for climbing, with the dolly, into the dishwasher while the dogs watched jealously.

D is for pretty, pretty dresses that accompanied pretty pretty voices, or at least one pretty voice in particular by a very pretty sister!

E is for Exercise! Time to run run run, just like Aunt Abby!

F is for Funny Faces from Father's who don't want their pictures taken or posted on blogs.

G is for Grocery shopping and getting to drive the awesome giant cart cars! It lasted about 3/4ers of the trip which is major points in my book! Eliza loved "steering." However, by the end when she wanted out and was turning around and trying to reach in to grab food items, she really looked like she was locked in some kinda cage... it was sad and funny.

H is for Hide 'n Go Seek while shopping! aka Eliza runs and I chase and get very tired.

I is for the icecream that is spilt all down Eliza's shirt and for the "Eye" stickers that she loves to put in her hair making her look like a three eyed, red paci, melted chocolate Eliza Monster!

J is for Jenny, my mom, who looks super hot and skinny in this dress we found for my uncle's wedding next month and thanks to her self-mastery of food intake and losing like >20 lbs this summer! What up, hot momma!? Seriously, my mom and dad should open up their own gym or weight loss center one of these days.

K is for Kidding around with Aunt Abby and Zara way too late at night!

(Zara is the coolest dog, by the way. Eliza was sobbing once from landing face first into the basketball she had been trying to carry in my parent's front yard. But one glance at Zara trying to fenagle her fetching stick out of the jasmine bush, and Eliza was CRACKING UP even though tears were still freshly dripping down her cheeks. It was awesome. Maybe our next dog should be a miniature poodle because that dog is so sweet and also wicked smart.)

L is for Lexington and for beautiful sunsets on Lake Murray. I miss Lexington so much sometimes! I LOVE these little reunions with my hometown.

M is for Macaroni! Eliza's favorite meal ever (for now), she's actually learned how to use a fork or spork and do the very advanced stab and scoop all the way to her mouth. However, you can tell by her shirt that her skills are still being perfected.

N is for Nursery Rhymes sung and shown to 'Liza about an Old Woman who swallowed a fly and eventually a cow and horse and then died, of course.

O is for Oma!! (Grandma for you non-German speakers). Eliza was in LOVE with her Oma this trip. She wanted my mom to carry her everywhere and hold her in her lap a LOT. It was a nice break for me.

P is for Pig Tails! I'm so excited Eliza's hair is long enough for this now! Stylin'!

Q is for this chalk Q -- or my beautiful chalk creation that Eliza changed into a Q by striking through it with her orange chalk piece. Now it's modern art open to interpretation.

R is for Ruby Tuesday Dance Party!

S is for Sitting in the foilage in neighbors' yards for no apparent reason...

T is for Eliza TRYING to Take the pictures instead of letting me do it.

U is for Unmatched Pajama's per Daddy.

V is for the beautiful Virginia Views we came home to in the Shanondoah Valley!

W is for We really missed Dadda/Steve!! Eliza kept saying, Go! and going to the door and saying, Dadda? Several times a day while we were in SC.

X is for X-nay on police speeding traps in Nelson county that gave me an eXcellent $60 speeding ticket in Nelson County for going 70 in a 60. Boo. :(

Y is for Yummy Meldau dinners. Broiled Salmon with Couscous, Apple Turkey Sausage with peppers and Onions, and getting stocked up on road trip snacks for the ride back! Yum, yum, Yum.

Z is for Zebra Sweaters!

Thanks Meldau's for your warm welcome and putting up with our demanding (1 1/2 yr old's) lifestyle! We love you and miss you already.

I came home from our trip and had 94 pictures and 4 videos. So count yourself lucky that I only used 26 photos and 2 videos...