no way home

I’ve been writing a little music lately.  It’s cool because I haven’t done much since college, and I put together a couple songs recently that I’m proud of.  I think that med school is the least inspiring thing I’ve done in my life, so that is a good excuse for not writing.  Or I could sing about G-protein reactions and not giving crackheads beta-blockers.  That would be very fulfilling.

My parents do something that I think is admirable in the way that I admire good politicians.  They do something that I really don’t want to do, and they do it for good reasons.  When I think of a good road trip, I think friends, beer, beautiful scenery, and maybe a good concert at the end.  Bernie and Lou, on the other hand, used to take the senior class at our church on massive bus rides across the South.  I enjoy chillin’ with all my old folk peeps, and trips to Branson and the Biltmore have potential.  Everyone on the trip has a blast.  I’m sure that I will rock the bus one day soon.

But in my mind, there is a potential for a couple grumpy folk to ruin the show and turn it into “The Good Old Days Express.”  Memories are great, but memories can be sad. I admire my parents because they go in willing to take whatever comes their way.  In my mind, I would be afraid of sitting down with someone who just went through a terrible tragedy that changed their whole life, and I would not have anything good to offer them.  So it takes some guts to risk that and take the good memories along with the hard ones.

So I wrote a song about those bus trips.  As I do with everything I write, I take something real, like my parents’ trips, and take it to an extreme.  It makes things more personal to me.  So I wrote it from the perspective of a tour bus that only takes the brokenhearted.  I dig it, and I hope to make a good recording of it one day, but you can click here to listen to it.  It’s called “Only Moving Parts” and here are the lyrics…

Forty-eight seats hold a lot of shame
When it’s forty-eight stories that went up in flames
Ninety-six lives will never be the same again
Everybody bought a ticket looking for change
Still it’s over-medication and a common pain
The lonely tour America looking for what they can’t find

There’s no way home that can’t be reached on these 16 wheels
There’s no place like the home I’ve found in the crevices between these bucket seats
These bones might be old and this heart might be tired
But they’re only moving parts keeping my mind alive
Running these wheels towards the place that I call home

Eighteen years seems like the shortest time
When you’re eighteen years old and not ready to die
Holding an M2 Garand and thoughts of a girl back home
Eighteen years is longer than you’ll ever know
When it’s been eighteen years since she never came home
And no one you know has heard her voice since then

One row over, two rows back, she never loved him til she lost him
I guess the thing in his chest finally beat him to death
He runs through her mind like his fingers through her hair
She has tears in her eyes but she’s not even aware
She can’t eat, can’t sleep, all she can do is ride

There’s no way home that can’t be reached on these 16 wheels
There’s no place like the home I’ve found in the crevices between these bucket seats
These bones might be old and this heart might be tired
But they’re only moving parts keeping my mind alive
Running these wheels towards the place that I call home

I’m so alone, I know she can’t be found anywhere by these 16 wheels
But there’s no place like the home I’ve found in the faces running past these window seats
This heart might be old and my mind sure is tired
But they’re only moving parts keeping my hope alive
Running this heart towards the place that I call home

I’ve also played a couple times in public, which is awesome.  There’s something about sharing music with other humans who might know what was going through your mind when you wrote it, but most likely will get something totally different out of it.  That’s good stuff.  Clint wrote something about that recently.  I wish I had more experiences sharing my music.  But I’ll take them as they come.

playing open mic at serda's coffee. notice the dark jeans. kelly likes me to look nice for people.

Won’t you be my neighbor?

Meet Will and Brittiany Stroud.  They are our next door neighbors.  Advice for the future, don’t live next to the Housholders unless you enjoy volunteer work.

These pictures are from their visit to costa rica this summer! We love living next door to such cool people. Brittiany is and AMAZING cook and a nurse at the hospital where Andrew works. Will is a med student at South.

I really don’t know what we’d do without them! When Andrew was gone for a month before our wedding they took care of the Binks (our cat) the whole time! And when we went out our 2 month excursion to California and Texas they did everything from search through our stowed away winter clothes (because we didn’t realize it would be cold at night in Cali!) and fed ex us warm things, to digging through folders on my computer to mail me files that I left behind! We even had them taking pictures of all our apartment belongings before Gustav had a chance to ruin anything. Thankfully it did not!

I think we are pretty high maintenance neighbors but at least we’re fun to hang out with (right???)

And yesterday Brit taught me how to make homemade pizza crust. Yummm! Click here to see the recipe. I love that Brit is a nurse because that means she’s home during the day a couple days a week. It’s nice to see another living being (besides my BFF Binky) during the day.

Will and Brittiany also have the CUTEST kitten ever. Meet Zara.

Zara got to spend several hours with us while we were completing our Mission Impossible task of hiding our animals from our apartment people. She’s into everything and absolutely adorable. Her biggest trick so far is jumping through a 12 pack of coke’s cardboard box (with both ends open) like she’s a tiger jumping through rings of fire at a Circus.

So three cheers for Will and Brittiany.  Without them we would be cold, jobless, catless, and alone.  Will has a big test Monday, so we’re hanging out afterwards for the first time in months.  Mellow Mushroom has half off pizza, chicken wings, and $2 beer (all their beers), so we’re rockin’ it hippy style with Will and Brittiany Monday night.

Birthday celebration(s)

September is a month full of birthday’s for the Housholder’s and the Gilbreath’s. Happy Birthday to Andrew, Rebecca and John, John H, Sherie, Grandmama and Papa, and CJ (Jewell), and Jason.  I’ll admit the newlyweds couldn’t keep up and just about everyone’s card is at least a couple days late. Hey, you just get to celebrate longer!

For Andrew’s birthday I got him a Pizza Grilling Stone so we learned how to make homemade pizza! We got some recipes from Brittiany, Tara and Johnny. Click here to see their recipes. Last night we had some people over and made BBQ pizza and margarita pizza. I am proud of how the crusts turned out! Hands down: the best pizza I’ve ever had (or ever made?)

And Birthday Cheesecake!

and good friends…

From the left: Andrew, Jason, Lori, Nicolette, Tara, Baby Jack (in the oven), and Johnny (hiding from the camera)

Happy Birthday Everyone!!

PS. Here’s a picture of Andrew’s birthday breakfast. (since he got off work at 7:45AM) I love you! (they are German Apple Pancakes. They were pretty good! Kinda different. Click here to see the recipe.)

thank gaaa-awd

Kelly and I had the privelege of going to Georgia for a big wedding this past weekend.  It was a blast.  There were many great moments, such as having a 8-year-old tell me “I just wanted to let you know you have moves” referring to my groovy dancing.  But my favorite involved this lady.

The funniest person at the wedding

At the rehearsal dinner, everyone was giving pretty serious toasts until she stood up.  She apologized for saying what she was about to say, which wasn’t enough to stop her, but her daughter MADE her give the toast.  She had a good southern drawl, especially when she said “God” – so envision a Southern Baptist preacher voice.

“When God made man, he made him out of string.  He had a little left over, so he left a little thing.

When God made woman, he made her out of lace.  He had a little left over, so he left a little space. THANK GAAA-AWD.”

The delivery was perfect, 10/10.  I tip my hat to you, ma’am.  You are awesome.  Some people worried that a young person who had consumed too much of the readily available booze would say something slightly awkward.  Funny how that works.

peace

house

i thought an open door would bring you in

I think it’s always a good thing to focus on new things. We’re constantly opening and closing doors on different parts of our lives, and the openings are usually fantastic. There’s tons of excitement, lots of expectations, and the general feeling that “things are going to change.” Whether they change a little or a lot, whenever we come to an open door, we know things won’t be the same afterwards.

I’m about to start looking at doors that need opening soon. I’m going to have to open one, or stay a med student forever. So we’re in a place of evaluating closed doors, deciding how and where our life will be going. We basically have the shot at going wherever in the country we want. All the excitement and expectations of a brand new place sound great to me. I have loved the people I have met and lived through med school with, but I’m ready to check out of Mobile. So now we have the option of a new slate somewhere exotic – like Salt Lake or Portland or Washington DC. They all sound so exotic compared to Memphis, Birmingham, and Mobile. And we have the option of Birmingham, which is all warm fuzzies for the both of us. We love our people in Birmingham, but do we want the challenge of a new place?

So it’s a dilemma between gambling for a new place or fading back into a life we loved. It should be an interesting time for us.

But speaking of open doors, we wanted to introduce you all to one of our new open doors. She is 3 months going on 5 foot 7 inches. She is more advanced than most of you can imagine. She looks good in a monkey suit or a crockpot. She is our neice McKayla Yates Rawlinson. And she’s so advanced she now has her own blog that she maintains.

So I’ll start talking about some of the places where we might end up. Mostly so I can think through them, but if anyone has experience in these places, let me know.

peace

house

canz have i a hug?

Been shakin it so hard I worked up a sweat. Check my blog for my sweet Irish jig.

Girl, you know my boots are bangin

My Grandparents

Two more days until we are finally back in Mobile! This week I have been at my Grandparent’s house in Georgia while Andrew finished out his last week in San Antonio. I am sure he’ll have a blog post or two once he recovers from the long hours at the hospital and his 10-20hr drive back (depending on hurricane traffic).

Mom, Grandmama, Papa and I have just been chilling, watching the media saying ridiculous things about politics, and eating lots of good food. Here’s a picture of our “Frap Party” as my Grandfather calls it. He fell in love with Starbucks Frappuccino’s several years ago when I introducted them to him! Now he and my Grandmother share one every other day. (too many carbs for every day!)

Cheers!

My Grandmother’s birthday is September 17th so we had a pre-party for her. I love you Grandmama! Here’s the family with her cake. (from the left: My Uncle Kent… not to be confused with my dad! they are twins, my Aunt Susie, my sort of Grandmother Fran, Papa, cousin Lance, my mom, and the Birthday Girl)

the week of ArtWalk, tribute to my parents

It has been a long week with no updates. I have been preparing for ArtWalk all day everyday and the show started last night! If you haven’t made it out yet… here is a sneak preview of my new work and my set up.

The long week included me having a significant allergic reaction to something I am coming in contact with everyday. We have theories ranging from a tree outside of my parked car, some new burlap material that I bought, or even tiny unseen creatures that might be living on my parents basement floor (of which I have been sprawled out on all week). Who knows! But I had lovely hives all over my body. My hands even became really swollen and itchy so I couldn’t paint! The perfect week for an allergic reaction. And my personal doctor and medical reassurance was all the way in San Antonio…

I did get a steroid shot that is supposed to cure me, but so far it hasn’t happened. I am hoping today is the day. Here are your pictures! (You can click to enlarge them.)

We got the old doors from the Habitat for Humanity Store! Mom and I painted them.

I could not have survived the week without my parents. They have helped me with anything from late night visits to CVS for children’s benadryl and tums, to ironing fabric, building canvases, and providing feedback for all my new work. Not to mention– letting me take over and trash the basement with all my artistic endeavors! My sweet parents even loaded the whole car up the night before Artwalk while I was sick upstairs with my hives! I seriously, could not have made it without them.

Go team ArtWalk! I love you Mom and Dad. Your support means the world to me and I am so thankful for you!

And thank you to all my friends who made it out to ArtWalk Friday night and to those who I will see today! I love my Birmingham friends SO STINKING MUCH. Maybe we’ll be back here someday…

And I cannot forget Andrew because he is the inspiration for all my work. The Tree. Thank you for giving all my paintings names and for all your support. I love you.

Back to the show!

On the way to Birmingham…

I am sitting in the Houston Airport, ready to get “home” to Birmingham. Living in hotels for about 6 weeks has been cozy at times, pampering at times (ie. not making my bed or watching sheets and towels!), nice and quiet (except when our neighbors are having a party or having incredibly loud “making out sessions” at 3am) but the last couple days have left me a bit disgusted and REALLY READY TO GO HOME TO MY OWN BED!!
First, at the VOQ (visiting officers quarters), our mattress is the quality of a Birmingham Southern Freshman Dorm mattress. I am not a neat freak or a germ-a-phobic (except when it comes to raw meet or nasty mattresses…Andrew would probably add a few things to that list)
Second, the sheets were way too small. Thus, every morning we awoke with some part of our bodies ON THE EXPOSED MATTRESS.
Second, I could smell mold in our room everyday for 2 weeks. I discovered the smell wasn’t coming from the walls or the carpet, it was actually radiating from Andrew’s pillow! It’s wasn’t a pillowcase that sat in the washer to long, it was actually a pillow full of moldy spores. Andrew’s allergies had been so bad recently (and who’s wouldn’t after sleeping on mold!) that he couldn’t smell its pillow of mold.
After I threw the pillow under the bed and out of our sight/smell, I decided a better decision would be to give it to the cleaning lady. I pulled it out from under the bed to find that it was COVERED in curly little hairs. I threw up in the back of my mouth and decided just to shove it back underneath the bed.

Despite my happiness to be away from the VOQ, I am sad to be leaving Andrew for 2 weeks. This will be the longest we’ve been apart since getting married 8 months ago. At one time 2 weeks was nothing to us! When you only get to see your boyfriend once a month, 2 weeks is like heaven. For the last 8 months, I have been spoiled tremendously with a kiss goodnight every night and a buddy to hang out with all the time. I will miss you

There is something hilarious that I thought I should share with you all. When this traveling business comes to an end, Andrew will have driven approximately 85 hours in his Purple People Eater (or the Black Current, however you see it). He did all this driving so that we could have a car during our 2 month airforce adventure.
PUNCH LINE: This week we found out that not only would the airforce fly Andrew to all these bases, THEY WOULD ALSO RENT HIM A CAR.

The Week of ArtWalk begins!! This week I am not doing any graphic design, and I will be painting nonstop. Whooo!

Love you all and miss you Andrew…
-kelly

PS. I am annoyed at public places such as the Houston Airport and Starbucks that make you PAY for internet. Seriously, we all know that internet is dirt cheap. It would cost 20-40 dollars for Starbucks to provide internet and they would probably make that much money from me each month if they would just offer it. As it is, I will not go to Starbucks because places with much better food and seating offer FREE internet ( Panera, I miss you. I will be visiting you soon)

never take friendship personal

There are a thousand things that I don’t really understand in life. One of those is people and how they relate to me. There are some friendships that I have put tons of time into that one day just faded out, and there are some that just happened and somehow last. I started thinking about this during our visit to Pasadena with Sarah and Joel. It’s funny how Kelly hasn’t really spent that much time with her over the past few years, but when I get there to LA, it’s like they never moved away from each other. There are a lot of friends like that for me, and I guess it kind of has to be that way. With school and being in a different city from many of my friends, I love just going back and seeing people that I know I will click with.

One of the most refreshing things is to sit down with a buddy and say “How’s life?” instead of “What are you doing these days?” I love friends who can sidestep the day to day mumbo-jumbo that I don’t really care

jumping through califonia

about, and then jump into what’s really happening. It’s a good feeling to sit back and enjoy a brew and talk about life without talking about what I don’t consider to be important. I dig that. I got the chance to do that on a cross-country roadtrip with a couple folks that I don’t really hang with that much… my brother, who has been overseas since I was in high school it feels like, and Ian, who I don’t really remember how we became friends, but we can click on deeper levels. I was kind of worried about drive 3000 miles with anyone (especially Kelly, because that would be a disaster), but this was just a great trip. More to come on that, along with my ultimate delicious beer list.

I got to hang with my aunt and cousins who I never see because I’m a bad nephew, and they are as cool now as they were when I was little and they took me to Opryland. We had a blast in Tahoe and SF, and even though we don’t really hang or talk that much, it was completely natural and laid back. It’s nice when that happens with family. It makes family reunions that much less painful. (ps… we loved all the time we spent with you guys in California, but I’m sticking to my guns and saying that San Francisco was rough when Kelly and I drove through.) But family is like that. There’s that connection. And a pps, there’s going to be a absolutely precious post coming up about other family members that Kelly and I have seen a lot of recently.

my aunt being happy before being medicated

And everyone else who is cool enough to read this blog, I don’t want to leave you out. You probably rule, too, unless you are lame. But if you’re reading this, you probably aren’t lame. So I dig you.

But seriously, this couple months has shown me how much you can connect to some people – over the phone, in person, on BookFace – even when you don’t see them or haven’t seen them in many moons. Looking forward to seeing my people someday soon.

peace

house

Lackland Airforce Base

So I am sure you have all been on the edge of your seats waiting to see pictures of Lackland AFB! haha. Well, here is your San Antonio update. Texas is HOT! As in 100 degrees. We are definitely missing the beautiful California weather. Andrew is working a lot… every 4 days he works all day, through the night, and into the next day! He also works the days in between. So, we haven’t seen as much of Texas as we did of California.

Saturday I am flying to Birmingham! Next week will be the mad dash to get ready for ArtWalk which is Sept. 5th and 6th. ArtWalk is a big art show that I did really well at last year. Click here to see my bio on their website.

If you are in Birmingham next weekend I would love to see you at ArtWalk!

Picture of our current living situation at Lackland:

Andrew in uniform!

The hospital where he works:

:

And some airplanes that they have displayed on base. These are so interesting to me! They have plaques with the pilot’s and crew’s names on them and stories from all the wars they flew in.