wanna go for a waaaaalk?

I couldn't resist sharing this. Definitely the cutest thing I've seen on youtube since the "All the Single Babies" video phenomenon last week. I tried to recreate it with my two pooches and it was pretty hysterical. Next time I'll try to have my Flip handy and capture all the fun. Until then, you'll have to settle for the pug brigade.

stomp stomp clap

Last night, Joe and I went to see Ingrid Michaelson at the Melting Point. We saw her last year at the 40 Watt opening for Matt Nathanson right after her single had been on the Old Navy commercial and she was starting to get a lot of radio play. At that point, she was only performing with one sidekick, Allie, and they did an incredible opening act. Actually, I think a lot of people came to see the show because she was the opener (maybe they did not yet know the wonder that is a live Matt Nathanson performance...). This time, she was headlining and SOLD OUT the Melting Point, which had to be a cool feeling. She also had a full band of 5 with her this time (including Allie) and her own terrific opening act that she discovered in a bar in NYC, Greg Holden (super cute, British accent, plays a mean guitar...). The entire show was fabulous and the Melting Point was a perfect intimate venue. Anyway, I didn't get many good pictures even though we did have an awesome view, but I did remember to take my handy-dandy Flip camera and got a few videos. This one is my favorite. Right beforehand, she had the whole band pose around her so that everyone could get the "perfect photo" ("Everytime I see pictures of myself on the internet I look like a big red mess... so hang on and we'll do this right..."). They posed like they were singing so that the photographer could take credit for capturing a special mid-concert moment. And then they played this fun little sing-a-long number. Doesn't it just make you want to be in her band? Look how much fun they have...

showers of all sorts

It has been raining in Athens for approximately a week. Now, we Athenians can't really complain too much about our dreary rain situation since our Atlanta neighbors to the west are flooding and sinkhole-ing and generally experiencing much worse side effects from the rain than we are, but still. Constant grey skies and intermittent deluges have a way of bringing a person down. Especially when you check weather.com and see that it is supposed to stay that way for another week. That just stinks.

But fortunately there are other kinds of showers that have a much brighter, happier connotation and I have also been inundated with those! This past weekend was my second baby shower, hosted by my aunt Jane and my middle sister Chelsea, both of whom are exceptional hostesses. The food was amazing, the house was sparkling (but then... Jane's house is ALWAYS clean), the drinks were festive and kept full, and the gifts were piled in pretty stacks on the dining room table. And let me tell you, you don't know gifts until you've had a baby shower. I guess maybe it's comparable to Christmas for a 5 year old, where you unwrap and unwrap and ooh and aah and exclaim, and then realize when you finish that you are trapped inside a semi-circle of bags, tissue paper, and loot. And while the gifts are fabulous in their own right, it really is an amazing experience to be the recipient of not only so much STUFF, but so much love and support and encouragement. All of the people circled around me, some of whom had traveled for hours just to be there, were beaming just as hugely as I was each time I pulled out a cute little outfit or a basket full of baby shampoos and soaps. And each card exclaimed just how happy the gift-giver was for Joe and me and our baby-to-be, and what good parents we are going to make. I hope they understand that part of our ability as parents will stem from having them all behind us instilling confidence, offering advice, extending help when we need it. And of course, for giving us so much before the baby is even here!

When Joe and I were both home together that night, I gave him a tour through the boxes and bags, telling stories of who gave what and why. He got to work assembling the bookshelf and the pack n' play (nesting, I tell you) while I sorted and folded tiny shirts and pants and socks and placed them into drawers.

"How much more do we really need?" he asked, surveying the pile at my feet.

And while I knew he was referring to things still left on my registries, or newborn diapers, or tiny socks, I couldn't help but think that, really, he's right to ask. Because when you get right down to it, we don't need anything else at all.

But it would be nice if it stopped raining.

an observation

Did you ever notice that chocolate desserts, especially at chain restaurants, are named frightful and terrible things? Chocolate Suicide... Death by Chocolate... Molten Meltdown of DOOM AND DESPAIR. Now, I don't know about you, but when I am considering a chocolatey, gooey, rich dessert, I do not want to be forced to order said dessert by asking for a meltdown. Or death. I'd rather ask for, say, a delight or a mountain of wonderment. But if they are trying to scare me away, then they must know that they will not succeed. I am female and pregnant and if I want my chocolate gooey goodness then I will ask for it by whatever named has been bestowed upon in it that little plastic booklet in the condiment rack. Chocolate Destruction of All That Is Good In the World? Yes, please. And just bring one spoon.

ch-ch-changes

Big things are happening here in "twenty-something"-ville. Namely, remember how I've been talking about how my life has been kind of directionless and boring this summer? How there have been many days of nothing-to-do blues? Well today I find myself looking ahead a few hours to the moment where classes officially begin at the studio. I've been trying to decided how I feel about that moment. And the moments to follow where those classes continue to happen. Joe asked me if I was excited to go back to work and seemed unimpressed and unconvinced by my "uh... yeeeah" response, but I AM excited. Really and truly. I am so ready to get back to having a routine and a schedule and a purpose to my days. It makes the days where I have nothing to do really important, as opposed to dread-filled and monotonous. I am also ready to get back to my students, especially the ones who were begging for an extra advanced ballet class this year, even if it had to be from 8-9 on a Tuesday (I mean, who would not love to teach kids like that?).

But there is some anxiety as I sit here on the couch with my highlited class schedule beside me. And every year there is anxiety, because that is just who I am (I blame my mother. Sorry, Mom.) and I always feel a little antsy until I know exactly how everything is going to go down. But this year the anxiety is a little more... um... anxious. Mostly because of that whole having-a-baby-in-2-months-or-so thing. And that whole teaching-ballet-while-looking-and-feeling-kind-of-like-a-walrus thing.

So I tried to alleviate some of my anxiety by being PREPARED. Because I find in most instances it makes me feel better to know that, at least on my end, things are PREPARED. So I bought myself a pretty new notebook and some pretty new mechanical pencils (school supplies always help anxiety as well) and have been filling it with notes and ideas for new exercises and interesting combinations I found on youtube and syllabi for my younger students.

And this preparedness has helped. With the class part. Not so much the baby-coming part. For that though, I had my first baby shower this weekend. And talk about something making you feel more PREPARED... there is nothing quite like sitting in a newly-upholstered rocking chair surrounded by PILES of new baby stuff to make you feel like maybe you are actually getting ready to bring a newborn into your home. Not to mention being surrounded by women who are wonderful mothers and friends and role models, all smiling at you like they are just certain that you are ready for this and you are going to take these piles of stuff they have given you and do with them whatever it is you do when you are a mother and you will do it well, by golly. That amount of generosity and enouragement and faith really goes a long way in the preparation department.

But regardless of my state of readiness, both of these things are happening. Classes will start today, with children pouring into the studio in their new, clean leotards and their untied ballet shoes, some of them as anxious as I am, all of them excited. I will carry my new notebook and my case of CDs into the classroom and introduce myself as "Miss Greer" and slip back into the trappings of that part of my identity. The notebook will be helpful, probably more as a crutch and a reminder, and within a few weeks I will have forgotten what it's like to NOT be teaching every week.

And then, as the weather cools, my body will be doing its own work getting prepared. And my first child will make its debut into the world, greeted by tired, ecstatic, anxious parents, grandparents already so full of love and pride they could burst, aunts planning the millions of ways they are going to spoil and teach and play with their new little neice or nephew, and all of those women and men who bestowed gifts upon its mother ready to help when needed. And all of the stuff that is collecting in the nursery will be helpful, and will act as a crutch and a reminder, and within a few weeks I will have forgotten what it's like to NOT be a mother.

... except real

Ok, I know I already posted my ridiculous linkage for the week, but I just couldn't resist sharing this goody that I found on one of my friend's facebook pages. Could this possibly, actually be for real?

In other news, I will (most likely) post an entry involving words and thoughts that do not link to a ridiculous video or webpage (maybe) in the next few days (probably).

hoff clone and possessed choir boys

In honor of my previous Weblink Wednesday post, here are some videos pretty much guaranteed to make you "mad", Christin-style. Both are "literal videos", where some very bored, moderately clever internet geek took weird music videos and set literal lyrics to them. The "Total Eclipse" one is definitely the best I have seen, but the "Hooked on a Feeling" video (with none other than THE David Hasslehoff!) is really just so ridiculous... there are no words. Literal or otherwise. Enjoy!

(And I'm sorry, but no, you will never get back these 5 or 10 minutes of your life.)

(And yes, there are more literal videos. Lots.)