Music hugs and walk thoughts

Through the years, Amy and I somehow got into the habit of making CDs for each other. She actually started this practice - making gift music CDs years ago - probably as a cheap way to give us something for Mother's and Father's Days - stuff like that. I specifically remember a CD of deer-hunting tunes she prepared for her father. Awww. But I've surprised her with a couple too - especially since I found out about the cache of CDs the Urbandale Public Library has. She scored some Rihanna tunes from me baby! Her cousin Jordan was surprised that her Auntie like the raunchy stuff...

Since our girl lives some 600 miles away, she often prepares a set of tunes for us for our trip when we drive back from the Mile High City. This past Memorial Day, Paul and I were listening to a CJ Box book (combines a game warden and murder - something for each of us!) on the way back from Denver, so we didn't have time to break out the music. In fact we had to listen to the last couple chapters of the book on the Bose in our very own living room!

So the first time I remembered to have a listen to the tunes she prepared was last weekend! It's always like a lil hug from her to hear what she selected. Here are a few tunes she's helped me enjoy lately:
Railroad Earth Long Way to Go
Steve Martin was right when he said nothing can sound sad when you put a banjo in there. Death, destruction...
I like string bands. I hadn't heard of Railroad Earth before.

This song is a sad one, originally done and loved by me - by Bonnie Raitt. The one Amy recorded is a sung by Bruce Hornsby an octave highter than he does in this Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSEjDoE-QEI



For some reason this song always reminds of my besties. All the beautiful women in my life. Not because I wanna be their baby fathers..but because they're so beautiful to me!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSOzN0eihsE
It makes me smile!

Amy's latest CD compilation: ( I had to google for titles and artists so I may have whiffed on a few...)
Best of My Love - Emotions
Blood Lyrics - Middle East
In Your Eyes - Rogue Wave
The Girl - City and Colour
Head Full of Doubt - Avett Brothers
I Can't Make You Love Me, Prairiedog Town, Sticks and Stones - Bruce Hornsby
It Girl, Ridin' Solo - Jason Derulo
I saw You First - Mellencamp
Sweet Disposition - Temper Trap
Lighting Candles - the Weepies
Long Way to Go - Railroad Earth
I Don't Want To Wait in Vain - Annie Lennox
I also bought Dixie Chicks - The Long Way Around after she linked it on her blog.

Beautiful was on her last compilation. Some of my other all time faves she's shared are Michael Franti and Mumford and Sons.
Think about sharing music with your friends and fam. All it takes is a little time, and you can share those hugs over and over.
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During my walk yesterday, I thought about how much history Creston holds for me. Just glancing around on that walk tells a great deal. First, this stone in Calvary - the Catholic cemetery that is such a special place to me. I didn't know this man, obviously - though we did know another Tom Walsh who passed away recently. But the message on the stone has always resonated with me. "Be quiet, let us reason"

After trotting through the final resting place of many, I headed west on Adams - quite hilly. Once I got past the first couple houses, the Summit Lake Dam project made its appearance along with some horses. I can't wait until the dam is done and we can get the kayaks back out there again.

I love the gazebo at the White home. This home used to be owned by Landon "Bud" Brooks - who was the CEO at Gits Manufacturing when I worked there. He got cancer, and passed away in the mid 1990s. Jeanne Piel and Cynthia Wolf were two of my friends who knew him well and his death was hard on them and the many other friends and loved ones.

The home was purchased by Steve and Suzie White, sister to Barb Crittenden. I worked with Barb's husband Steve at First National Bank. Paul and Steve are good friends. I don't know the Whites well, but I remember that when I worked at the bank, they tragically lost a child when she was with her grandpa and knocked the truck into gear and it rolled into a pond and she drowned. I think she was two years old at the time. That was before we lost baby Patrick, but I thought of them after we too lost a child. The Crittendens and Whites are aunts and uncles of Jim Ide whose wedding I blogged about a couple weeks ago. (Suzie and Barb are sisters of Jim's dad Dan Ide).

When I see the gazebo, I think of Bud Brooks, buried at Calgary and the White fam who now lives in this beautiful home

On up the road there is the "Dieter Addition" , a small housing development that was the dream of a guy that worked with Bobbie at Mederer - the original Creston Gummi-bear plant now owned by Wrigley. We've know various people who have lived in this are through the years - including blond twins Darrah and Sheena Dawson who played volleyball with Amy. Their parents were nice. They moved away around the time the girls graduated from HS. /the cornerstone home in that area, called Fort Knock - was built by Joe Knock, owner of Iowa State Savings Bank. Jud was friends with Chris Allen, classmate at St. Malachy who lived in that home during his school years.

As I continued west, I spied a mailbox painted with Bailey Farms. Home of the parents of the Bailey boys and Carol Sharp - neighbor across the street from our first home in Creston on Prairie. The Sharp's daughter Amy was our babysitter when our Amy was a tot. We watched their sons play in their yard. The Sharp fam is the Miller beer distributor in the area - so most of Creston is Miller country. At the top of the hill - my turning around point for my walk, was Stormy Lee's house. Stormy is Amy's bestest Creston friend. I blogged about her wedding last winter. Her parents built this home when she was in HS. I see her mom jog by with the dogs periodically.

The view on the walk home - homes on the road around the corner from ours. Recent rains were welcome for crops!

So you can tell - I have a great deal of history packed into my head about this town. Sad and happy stories. The stories of life. Most of the people around here know my story too. Small towns are like that. Talking to Amy about her life in Denver - it's not so different, just bigger so more spread out. Last weekend she ran into people she knew at a Rockies game and another event.

Isn't life interesting?

Haircut chatter

Sarah - good form in the blue shirt

I got my Locks of Like (don't get excited I made this term up) trimmed yesterday (they're not long enough for Locks of Love). My stylist Sarah ran the DSM Half Marathon despite being deathly ill with a kidney infection a couple weeks ago. She ran the whole thing - I saw her photos on Facebook later that day. They reminded me of my two Half Marathon experiences - and how much they meant to me.

 

So as she trimmed my hair we talked a mile a minute about it. That's what we usually do - each of us can hardly get a word in edge-wise. She is such a cool chick! Sarah is a HS graduate of the Muy Largo (I know Miss Spanish Smarty Pants Krissy, that word means long...but it looks like it mean large!) town of Murray where she was an excellent athlete who ended up with a scholarship to play basketball at NWMSU. I don't quite have her life story down, but she's lived in Arizona, and was once engaged to another guy before marrying Lucas, who is from Creston and dated my friend Jeanne Piel's daughter back when I worked at Gits (yes everything truly is connected when you're from Iowa).

Somehow she burned out of her fitness type job and other things she did and decided hair was for her, and by the time I knew about her, was doing hair at Sahar, a fancy schmancy place in DSM. (Plus she was married to Lucas and had 2 cutie patootie sons) Nancy Anthony, Diana (and lots of other peeps from Creston) somehow knew about her and filled us in at breakfast one morning at S&K. I was intrigued. A stylist who ridicules you? She did laugh at my hair style when I first went in - courtesy of Woody a stylist at a hair place in Crestonia. Man I thought some gay guys just had the hair gene - I guess they have to keep up on training just like everybody else!

We hit it off right away. Poor Sherri at Hair Designers in Corning tried to get me to blow dry my hair for years, but I was too afraid to tell Sarah "no". She showed me what to do while the dryer was going so it wouldn't go "poof"! I even purchased not one but two blow dryers. One for home, and one for Joan's, where I live when I work in DSM. Sarah is so spunky - she'll tell you just what she thinks! And yes, it's expensive - but I'm worth it!

So last night we discussed the Half Marathon. We agreed we both got emotional crossing the finish line. Because for each of us - putting the time into training, and working that hard for something...and then completing it was so satisfying! Her husband was very supportive of her efforts, which makes me think very highly of him. (and it makes her think highly of him too!) It reminded me of how my fam was very supportive of my effort - Paul and Amy both came for my big finish in 2007. Those things are important.

I'm glad my friends told me about Sarah. She's not just a stylist - she's a friend!