I’m pretty sure that this is an oak tree. I think it’s a white oak. It’s huge and really old. I can’t even fit the whole tree in this picture. My camera isn’t big enough.
There are remnants of a tree house.
It has this plaque on it. Erie County Bicentennial Tree 1776-1976. The bicentennial of the United States, not Ohio. That’s pretty cool. So does that mean that the tree is years old? I think so. If anyone knows what it really means, let me know. I’d love to know.
It’s back-to-school time: do you love the start of school or dread it?
I thought that I would be so happy to see my kids go off to school. I dreamed about all of the things I would do with my free time. It was going to be glorious.
I can go shopping by myself again but I’m broke after all of the moving. Who is broke after all of the back to school shopping? There will be no shopping today for many of us. I did a u-turn in the Dollar Store parking lot. It’s the best I can do today.
When I dropped of the youngest kid at school, I drove around the block and parked across the street. There were no open spaces in the parking lot. All of the parents had the same idea – hovering and stalking their children.
It was my youngest kid’s first day at a brand new school. I wanted to make sure she didn’t get lost. I also wanted to see that she wasn’t a hot mess like me. I peeked in on her classroom. She was perfectly fine. No tears or anything. She did so much better at not crying than I did today.
If we were having coffee, I would tell you
Did you like returning to school at the end of summer, or did you always dread the start of the year?
I didn’t really want to go back to school. There were people there – not to mention gym and recess. People and the outdoors were not my thing back then. They may not be my thing now. I like people slightly more than I did 30 years ago. Summertime was so much better than going to school. Vacations are like that I guess.
Oh summer, why can’t you last forever?! I always the laying out in the sun reading books. The swimming. The sleeping in til ten or noon or whenever.
However, I did like school supplies. I still like them but now I call them “office supplies.” It sounds so grown-up. Wait. What do you mean I am a grown-up? When did that happen?
Anyway, I’ll be over here getting my kids ready to go back to school. They probably will have the same thoughts about going back to school too – like mother like daughters, except the one that does have good social skills. She actually likes going to school. Go figure.
Enjoy this video from “Grease 2.” I know, it’s not a great movie but the song is pretty good. Maybe it will get us all psyched up for going back to school. Or just watch how lovely Maxwell Caulfield looks pre-Rex Manning.
Do you believe in fate or do you believe you can control your own destiny?
Destiny. Destiny. Destiny.
I firmly believe that I can control my own destiny. I’m still not a superhero princess. Are we sure that isn’t my destiny? I should work on that. .
I named this blog after destiny for gosh sake. I’m still chasing destiny with fancy words. Destino is fancier than destiny.
This week, I hear that little voice that says “You don’t have to post anything anywhere else if you don’t want to. If people don’t like it, then too bad for them. Maybe it’s not your destiny to be over there. Maybe you should be right here.”
I don’t have to define myself by where I’ve been published. It’s probably what people see and that’s ok. I put myself out there.
I thought it would change things somehow. It helped a little but I don’t feel very satisfied at the moment about other writing platforms.
Do you guys hear that voice? Right now, mine is saying that it’s time to revamp a few things. It’s time to refocus.
It is not my destiny to do what people want me to do. I don’t think it’s in my nature. I’d like to get back to that ASAP.
YouTube gets their recommendations right sometimes. They recommended listening to Hour 24. So now they are one of my favorite bands. Hour 24 of Temperance, Michigan has been touring all over America this past summer. If you had a chance to catch their live show, you already know that they rock. If you haven’t seen them or heard of them, then you can still watch their videos on YouTube.
They are also raising funds to pay for their newest album. Hour 24 will be recording the album with producer Dan Korneff, who has worked with Pierce the Veil, Paramore and Sleeping with Sirens.
The current band roster is Rachel Mayer – vocals; Dan Quigley – guitar; Cody Sizemore – guitar/vocals; Chris Salazar – bass; Mike Neumann – drums.
Rachel Mayer and Dan Quigley talked to me about writing the album in a remote cabin and being in a female-fronted band, among other things.
Rachel: I don’t know. I think we all equally have our parts in the band. I think being a female front person helps out with our image. It helps when we’re looking for fans. They’re like, “Oh wow! You have a girl singer. That’s not too common.” It definitely helps us get some additional fan interest.
Dan: In September, we’re going to record with Dan Korneff. When we record the album with him, we will be shopping around. We’re just kind of waiting for the best moment.
Dan: That was our drummer, Mike Neumann’s uncle’s summer cabin. He was nice enough to open it up for us to use in the winter. When we were writing the album, we wanted crack down and to get away from everything.
Rachel: Yeah, most technology, like Facebook and everything else.
Dan: We really wanted to focus on the music. It was a really great experience. I’m happy with what we came up with out there.
Rachel: It was a wonderful experience. It was kind of cold. It was in the negatives. But we definitely managed to work through that. It helped with creativity, I think.
Rachel: I think it brought us closer. We lived in a really teeny, two-bedroom cabin. Just like getting to write constantly. Even when we weren’t writing, we were playing some kind of music. We all shared food. We watched movies at night together. It was definitely a bonding experience.
Dan: Just like any kind of thing when starts up – the initial getting people to know about you. It’s also part of the fun of it too. We’ve been touring for the last year and a half -just getting more and more people to know about us. It’s hard at first. It’s a huge investment – time and financially. It’s absolutely worth it to us. It’s just such a fun thing. We love what we do.
Dan: To me at least, playing shows is so fun. It’s the most rewarding thing to -to play music with my four best friends every night.
Rachel: I would say the same thing. Playing shows and audience interaction. We’ve had a lot of great audience interaction. That’s one of the best feelings in the world to have people singing back to you or putting their hands up. It’s a really good time.
Also, we love meeting the other bands. We make friends at every single show with the bands. We’ll make connections with everyone that we can. Sometimes we’ll go hang out with our fans at Denny’s and have food together.
Dan: The band that we’re on tour with now, Racing on the Sun, that’s actually how we met them last June. When we came through Denver, they were one of the local bands on the show. We’ve been talking to them since then.
Rachel: That one is hard too. We all have different ones. My favorite is “Take Me Away.” At the end, there’s an instrumental section where I have a chance to run around and interact with everyone and also jump and do the splits in mid-air.
Dan: “Take me Away” is one for me too. There’s a song on the new album called “Let Your Heart Run Wild” that I really like playing.
Rachel: I love that one too. It’s really inspirational with the meaning and a lot of people get into it. It’s a good song for audience interaction.
Dan: I’m a very self-motivated person. I love the feeling of progress and getting work done. The feeling of moving forward is my motivation. Knowing that if I keep going at it, more will keep coming.
Rachel: It’s pretty similar for me. I’ll set little goals. As soon as I accomplish that I’ll make another one. Just trying to continue to make progress. It keeps pushing me forward. It helps with the positive outlook as well if any issues come up.
Rachel: The first song that I performed was “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” by Pat Benatar. I pulled Dan into it to play guitar. We had a bass player that we got into it at the time. That was the first song that I ever performed.
Dan: The first song that I ever learned, like most other guitar players out there was the one guitar riff in “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath.
Dan: Pretty much to keep touring. In September, we’re going to record the album. We set up a Indiegogo crowdfunding page. As an independent band, we don’t have a label to front us the money to record, like many other bands do. Our goal with this album is to put out the best sounding package possible. In total, it’s going to cost us $16,000. So we have the crowdfunding page to help us boost any funds to get it done. So in September and October, we’ll be working on it in New York.
Check out their band page here:
Their crowdfunding page is here:
This was posted on BuzzFeed for about 24 hours before they pulled it. They have not given me a reason yet. I am positive that I didn’t break any of their rules. Although, I do have bad eyesight and probably can’t read that teeny, tiny fineprint. Just kidding.
Good day BuzzFeed.
My friend, Cari, made this handbag for me many, many years ago. It is one of the few things that I’ve kept. I just can’t part with it.
I’m also back on the Etsy kick. I can’t part with Etsy either. 🙂
Steps Into the Stream
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