children

I moved recently. There are lots of kids that live in my new complex. I always see them riding their bikes and yelling and laughing. They walk with that funny carefree kid swagger, and I know they are having grand adventures. I was awoken at 8am on Saturday to them playing baseball outside my window. I wasn't too crazy about that, but I'm glad they were having fun.

There are 2 girls that live 2 floors below me, on the ground level, and they have pitched a tent outside their house. I hear them giggling inside it as I walk by. A few days ago, I saw the older one outside selling stuff. She had shells, so I bought one for my room. Seeing her reminded me of when I was a kid, and used to do stuff like that. I used to bake cookies, load them in my wagon, and go around trying to sell them to the neighbors. My mom was nice enough to pay for the ingredients, and it's a good thing, because I never made enough to cover the costs. Another time I dragged a bunch of stuff out of our attic and tried to have a tag sale. I was like 10, but I made a sign and put it at the end of the road, and set all this stuff up in the yard. I probably made 5 bucks, after sitting out there all day. But I loved it. I'm not sure why. And this other girl loves it too, 'cause I saw her out there again yesterday.

some concert stories

my cousin caleb took me to my first concert. we drove to a college campus somewhere in ct, and sat on these chairs in this auditorium, with some young people, and some old people. one of the bands had dreads and djembes, and the headlining band was waterdeep, and the funny thing is, i wasn't into it at all, but now i listen to waterdeep, and like them, and i think i would be really into that concert if i went today.

in high school and college i would go to these shows, and it was that loud, like, punky music and everyone would be in black and just standing there, smoking, in front of the stage, with their duct tape belts and their hair in their eyes, and their bored scowls, and i would try try try to be into it, and to think it was so great and fun, but then one day, when we had driven to fishkill, ny to see the huntingtons, i realized i just don't like that kind of music. it's really hard to understand the words, and the dancing is either nonexistent or slightly violent, and so i stopped going.

last year, or maybe this, i went to a lake/half-handed cloud concert inside a little restaurant/bookstore called skylight/nightlight, and it was wonderful. there were chairs pulled in a half circle around a small stage, and christmas lights draped over the books, and the band was made up of 3 people and maybe 12 instruments: drums, keyboard, bass, guitar, but also mandolin, xylophone, and bells, and their voices harmonized beautifully, and it seemed like the band couldn't think of anywhere on earth they would rather be, and i was in heaven. but i had to leave early, because i had a film shoot at 4:30 the next morning and i was very tired, and i remember, as i left, i was high on the glory of the night, and forgot to turn my headlights on. so a cop pulled me over-- i think he thought i was drunk-- but he didn't give me a ticket, so i continued along on my music high.

a few weeks ago, katie and steven went out busking, so i joined them. 3 sweet drunk guys stopped, and insisted that she sing something she'd written, and when she tried to protest that she hadn't written anything, steven told her to sing "the plane song she'd written", so she told him to play, and agreed to sing. the boys declared her a "female jason mraz", and a local radio dj told her he "could tell" that she'd written it and to come by his studio and record for free any time, and the funny thing is, it was a jason mraz song, and we laughed so hard, and now love to tell the story.

and here are some pictures from that night.









also, i forgot to say, the dj called someone and had them listen to katie sing over the phone.