happy hour with the GetUp Johns

well, thank goodness the music room at the hideout was virtually smoke-free when we got there to see the GetUp Johns...i didn't have to make teddy wait outside with cadence! they got to see the whole show too! and what a lovely show it was...

we got to the show soon after jake and josh started playing...there was already a nice little crowd gathered...uncle dave was already there...people kept coming in throughout the performance, and you could tell they were really enjoying the music...jake and josh do this lovely close harmony hillbilly music, which i absolutlely love...those of you who've heard the lullaby i wrote for cadence while she was in the womb, this is the style of music i was aspiring to...i'm gonna raise cadence on this type of music and hope she develops an ear for improvising harmony...

i've already requested a set list via my friend (and the GetUp Johns' friend) caleb...these guys are coming out with an album this fall, and i can't wait! hopefully they'll be back in chicago soon!

i only took a few photos, but you can see the set on my flickr site right over here...

they also had this beautiful, awesome microphone...it looks so professional, doesn't it? the sound it produced was just lovely...i guess when you've got two guys singing that close to one mic, you want it to be good so you don't have to get TOO close...

now as the train pulls away...

this morning, ted and cadence walked me to my train as they often will do on nice summer mornings…when i got on my compartment and took my seat by the window, i could see the two of them looking at me from the platform…a group of hispanic women sitting in front of me noticed her as well and starting making comments in spanish in that universal ‘oh, what a cute baby!’ voice, and when cadence started waving at me as the train pulled away, they let out a chorus of admiring ‘ahhhs’…it was a proud mommy moment for me!

you had to be there…

anyhoo, today i am going to the hideout's happy hour to see the get up johns, friends of caleb's from minnesota...maybe i should wear my urban hillbilly quartet t-shirt...

zzzzzzzzzz...

"look! i got a ponytail just like mommy's!"

it’s been a week of catching up on sleep in our household…for a number of nights until monday night, cadence was waking up at 3:14 am too fussy to go back to sleep right away…the worst was on sunday night…well, it was actually monday by then…she woke up around 3 and wanted to play until 5:30 am…this was after refusing to go to bed until around 11pm…i normally wake up around 5:45 to catch my train to work, so by 5 am, i knew i was in trouble…i called my boss and left her a voice mail that i’d be taking a vacation day on monday because i’d be useless at work…i’m usually pretty stingy about using vacation days, but i knew my week would be totally screwed if i didn’t get some sleep…

you know, some babies are great sleepers, either because they naturally like to sleep or because their parents trained them to…cadence is not one of those babies…she’s a fair sleeper at best…on a good night she’ll go to bed around 9pm, stir a couple times during the night to be fed, but barely enough to wake herself or me for more than 15 seconds, and then wake up happily babbling around 6am…i know that it may surprise people that i am still nursing her during the night, but i think those feeding sessions are important to her physical and emotional health, esp. because i’m gone for so long during most days…i see the nighttime as my time to parent, and although that may sound insane for someone who works full-time during the day, it’s usually not that bad…maybe a few seconds of holding her a little closer, whispering in her ear to soothe her, stroking her forehead, patting her back, giving her my boob, whatever to get her back to sleep…all of this i can usually do while still lying down…

but you know what? as much as i crave sleep sometimes (and i just let out a big yawn as i typed that!), i feel so lucky and blessed to have cadence as our daughter…i actually like it that she is a persistent and strong-willed child…i may eat my words someday, but for now, i try to imagine that given abundant love and encouragement and appropriate boundaries, she will grow up to be someone who is persistent and strong-willed for those who’ve given up and had their wills broken, that she will fight relentlessly for the weak and helpless…i don’t dream about my daughter becoming a doctor or a lawyer or a professor…i don’t want her to be defined by the occupation she chooses in this life…what i dream is that no matter what she chooses to earn a living, that she will always be motivated by love and compassion for humanity…

i know that this means that ted and i will have to model love and compassion in our daily lives…and THAT is something we really need to think about…

in other news, my childhood chum ruthy just announced her engagement! she’ll be getting married in march in the south bay area where she currently lives, and i am so happy for her! she’s been in town this week and visited us yesterday…it sounds like her fiance michael is a really awesome guy, and i can’t wait to meet him…ruthy became my first friend when my family moved to the u.s….we were in the same class from 2nd through 7th grades and spent almost everyday together for a number of years…i still remember those days when we’d spend the afternoon watching the brady bunch or playing double dutch or badminton or whiffle ball…and there was that magical summer of ’84 when the cubs were winning left and right…i was supposed to be practicing piano at ruthy’s house everyday, but instead we watched every cubs game on WGN…*sigh*...jody davis…*sigh*…

anywho…

sucker

2 minutes into the new son volt cd and it is already my favorite son volt cd...simply with the lyric "the words of woody guthrie ringing in my head..."

i am a sucker for the mere mention of woody guthrie...

i am just a sucker in general i guess...

may the wind take your troubles away...

...this is jay farrar formerly of uncle tupelo and currently (yay!) of son volt...he played a free (short) solo acoustic set at the uptown borders just an hour ago...i found out about the show at 6pm in a tiny little blurb on gapers block, and i freaked out cuz the show was at 7 and cadence was still napping...luckily, she woke up in the next 5 minutes and we hurried up and made it on time to the show...however, a lot of other people in chicago either read gapers block or are way more on the ball than i am (probably both) and the place was packed out...it does help though to have an extremely cute baby slung to you in a fancypantsy technicolor dreamcoat wrap, and i was able to squeeze our way to a place where we could actually see jay play...at least i could...cadence was strapped to my front facing me with her back to the ministage, so she could hear the music but had no idea who was producing the lovely tunes...

it was such a short short set, but a lovely one...i have to admit i'm quite the sucker for acoustic shows where guitars and harmonicas and former members of uncle tupelo are involved...i can't wait to see the whole band (son volt) live at the bumbershoot festival in seattle...

oh god, i gotta go...i just caught a whiff of cadence as she crawled by, if you catch my drift..