The Grateful Hearts Drum

Drum graphic I designed for some friends' band with the Vineyard. I was going for a Byzantine type of look, but a little less perfect with the hand-drawn heart.

An Update On Mr. Husband (because he doesn't blog)..

I'm excited about the work my husband has been getting lately, except for the fact that he has to be away for it. He was in Nashville last week tracking keys with the "pros" in a studio called Welcome To 1979, for a band called Breaking Twilight, I think? *shrug* Actually I think they're changing the name. Anyway he said they were tracking to analog tape, like the old days, which sounds interesting and reminds me of my analog days in amateur film production.
(The top 2 photos are from 1979).



The bottom 2 are tracking the Vineyard Southeast record in Athens, GA for 3 days this week. Apparently the bass player from Over The Rhine is tracking here too, which is pretty cool.. and the B3 organ (under Jon's beloved red Nord Stage in the bottom right photo) belongs to Widespread Panic, whomever they are.

I always want to be a fly on the wall (or a headphone, since flies are annoying) at these types of creative processes. I'm sure it's interesting, even if I don't understand the technical speak.. but musicians themselves are generally pretty interesting people. I never thought I'd be the wife of a real musician, but it's fun to know that I am.

I'm proud of my mister musician. He's very talented but not boastful, which are the best kind of talented people. Did I mention he wrote the processional for our wedding? Yup. He says that'll be his project when he gets back, recording piano and violin for it.

Oh, not music-related, but I also wanted to mention that Jon and I are going to an induction event at the US Space and Rocket Center in mid-July (for which I'm working on a new "little black dress" project). One of the guys getting inducted manages the collectspace archive of NASA related articles, has been accredited in many books, and also does photography work. He and Jon are e-friends and he got us a seat at a table with some astronauts, ha. So funny. I asked Jon if he'd be nervous to talk to them.. these people are like huge celebrities to him. I'm excited about it though, it'll be interesting to mingle with astronauts and to hear their sciencey conversations. Hoot Gibson will be MC'ing; should be a "hoot".

Our House (In the middle of the street)...

I started thinking about moving today.. into a house. Then I looked at available homes online and got overwhelmed/discouraged about looking and about the thing it is to go through all the numbers and the legalities etc. I think once we start looking, we're going to be pretty picky about the details because we want to find a place in a good location for both of our treks to work, and a place that will be good for raising kids, and that's away from busy streets but close enough to shopping conveniences.

I kind of wish we could start looking soon. I'm already tired of my 60 miles of driving every day to and from work, as well as the limited space we have currently in our apartment, which is getting better with more organization. But it's been hard to organize our spare room because there isn't a lot of space for things to go. There's an unused mini fridge in our kitchen which we've adapted into an island.. Jon's musical equipment needs a room for itself, and there is little remainder room for my art and sewing items which really only takes up space while I'm actually working on a project.. but still the option of that space is necessary.

Side note: I'm noticing how diligent I am about things being put away, heh. Out-of-place items bother me. Thing is, when items like musical or tool-related gear get used a lot by my wonderful and talented husband, the best place for it isn't where it's "away" .. it's right in the middle of our kitchen table or on the counter where food gets prepared. We need an "away" room that has better access and doesn't feel so "away".

I keep seeing really cute houses that would serve our styles and our needs really well. I'll probably keep thinking about it for half a year before anything happens though. I'm starting to make friends with our crickets anyway :)

...by Raiding them.

Cool Spots?

It is so hot in this office. The air isn't working well, and it's at least 15-20 degrees cooler on the other 2 floors. Curse heat rising! It's about 85 in this room, which has non-opening windows. Unluckily, I didn't get a ceiling fan over my nook.. so I've been laying my arms on my glass desk in attempts to cool off. I'm running out of cool spots!! Ick.

It has been a hot beginning to the summer in Tennessee.

"I'm going home to Missouri where they never feed you snakes before ripping your heart out and lowering you into hot pits!" - Willie, Temple Of Doom.

I Hope This Doesn't Make Me A Scenester...

I figured out how to work some html on my page here, with help. I added the buttons to the left instead of having text links. Yay pictures! ...Boo text. (You'll notice this if you visit my site, cause I know a number of you just get emails and never come see my pretty site). I'm also wondering if I can change my site to be melissameek.blogspot.com without royally screwing things up or having to start over completely. Where is my bravery? None to be seen. *shrug* Oh well, Correnti is still my name too.

So.. I bought an iPod nano over the weekend. Never thought I'd say it, OR admit to it after buying one. I used to be so against this product, for made-up reasons, not for logical ones. When I was in college, I made an animation that I wish still existed on the server so I could paste it here for you to laugh at. It involved iPods taking over and in fact literally blowing up the Earth, gillotines chopping the screens off iPods, and then blowing the screens with dynamite, and also included "It's The End Of The World As We Know It" with people marching like lemmings with their iPods hanging out of their pockets.

Entertaining let me tell you, but lo! These things are actually useful! No more skipping and scratchy discs, and it's actually safer to operate than disc-switching during transit. At work I can walk away from my desk with my headphones still in and not have to worry about them jerking my head around. What a novelty.

Oh I also bought it in black so the fact that I own one wouldn't be as obvious as if I'd bought electric blue or neon green. I'm thinkin' ;)

XML & Refrigeration

*sigh* I'm bored. My office chair is getting this treatment: 5º left, 5º right. Repeat.

I was kind of hoping for something to write about, but there's nothing so far. I learned a little about how xml files work today. Kinda like excel, only X-tra capabilities for html. Maybe that's where the x and the m-l come from, ha.

I had a theory that I shared with Nathan yesterday (I share a lot of weird ponderables with him during the day because he's usually equally as lacking in engaging stimuli as I tend to be in between tasks)... but I was thinking about stale cereal. I think if you refrigerate stale things (soft-stale things, as opposed to hard-stale things) that the refrigeration will, at least momentarily, make them hard and seemingly unstale for consumption. I think it's true.
A few more tests.

...

I'm thinking about doing some easy artwork somewhere obscure where someone will find it later and go, whoah looka this?! I like thinking that I make people do that.. even if I'm not around to see them do it when they find it. Small adventures.

Bugs, Please Advise!

Alright. Our front porch is very nice, except for the ecosystem of bug life out there. And not just bugs but hornets, carpenter bees, huge spiders and crickets. Frightful. I was out there last night with Amber and Francheska "taking care of" one such huge spider who had wrapped a dragon fly (3 times it's size) in it's web (the size of half our dining room window) in under 3 minutes. We Raided the spider, and it's egg sacs. I looked above to see quite a few hornet's nests and more webs with more egg sacs in them.. just waiting to hatch and wreak havoc on the Meeks.

I considered getting a powerful nozzle for the hose to spray everything down.. and I also considered just sucking everything up with a vacuum, but I'd want to Raid it first so it doesn't get smart and try to crawl back up out of the vac. Would either of these ideas work? I'm afraid if I Raid at hornets that they will come after me. And I'm afraid if I spray water at bugs nests that it will splash back onto me, and then I will do the bug dance and go insane.

What's the best way to get rid of these pests? I know that nothing will be a permanent solution. I just want to enjoy our porch without being frantic and paranoid and slapping at my skin every time the wind blows the hair on my arm.

Maybe I should buy a bee suit. No- I need a bug suit with like anti-bug vision so it makes anything BUG appear to be just a colorful dot on a screen, for me to eradicate. If my targets don't register as bugs maybe I'd be more brave about my attacks, ha.

Flash Make Miss Mad.

You knowwwww.. you'd think! that when Adobe made it's CS4 version of Flash and added all the fun and fantastic new features, that they'd actually FIX the problems the program had in versions CS3, CS2, CS, 10, 9 and 8!! Sheesh! It makes me so angry. The program seriously has issues that seem to have no logical, earthly answer.

Impossible to solve. Impossible to quit. Flash.

The License Office & 'dem Teenagers

I finally got my Tennessee driver's license today. I waited forever for it. When I got up to the photo counter the guy looked at my name and then asked me if I was "meek and mild" .. umm.. no comment? I just laughed, heh.

Sitting in that room with mainly teenagers was interesting though - all chattering up on their cell phones with the "no cell phones" sign in plain view. Mm, mm. I almost leaned over and told the girl next to me that the sign says no cell phones.. but then I didn't feel like getting into it. She had bright blue toenails anyway.. and I realized the sign was there after I'd called Jon about what county Ooltewah was, ha. Woops.

The teens that bug me the MOST are the baggy ones who look a bit unfortunate, but only because they choose to look this way, God knows why. They have this tone in their voice like they're too lazy to open their mouth and pronounce words correctly. What celebrity do they get this from? I. mean. really. I'm going to teach my kids to be more aware of what they do and why they do it. Seems that if the slightest degree of THINKING were involved.. well. It's not my place to judge those duded-up folks.

There were also some folks in there with younger kids, and I like to watch how parents interact with their kids. There's this mode of parental sameness I keep seeing. It's a little thing but I just notice it. For example this 8 year old appeared to be doing some dance or practicing a move she learned in ballet class, and her mom tugged on her arm like this isn't the place to be doing a little dance. Why not? I know there are things that should be enforced upon kids, like how to act in public and such, but doing a little dance doesn't seem to be infringing on anything that would drastically or negatively alter her life.

Anyway I look at these things and think about how I would parent my kid(s). I've been thinking more about it lately since apparently the next step after marriage is kids, ha (but not for a while! mind you)... the noisy 2-year old that lives above us isn't exactly encouraging at the moment heh. She jumps on the floor and sounds like a bunch of bowling balls dropping from the ceiling. No kidding. I wouldn't be surprised if I see her stumpy pudgy foot break through the ceiling one day.

The Wedding

This is one of my favorite photos from Nathan's photography. We are still waiting on the professional ones. They will probably be up on the wed site later for you to view, and for you to let us know which you'd like to order for prints.

There was so much going on after the wedding that I didn't get a chance to write about it, but of course I'm going to do that now. It's something I know I will never forget, but it's nice to have some of it in writing.

I can't really remember feeling too different when I woke up the morning of May 16, 2009. Every day for the past 2 years or so has been a day of being completely in love with Jonathan :) I was only a little nervous about details coming together, but mostly I was anxious to see his face at the end of the aisle.

Once I got there (the aisle) I realized how hard it was to contain my emotions! ha. I felt like my face was shaking trying to keep from distorting my smile. I was so touched by the processional piece Jon wrote as well. He's so talented! It all worked together so perfectly and sounded amazing. It made me cry.

I was worried that once we got to the vows and such that standing there staring at each other for so long would make me laugh, (because it would in any non-wedding situation) but instead I just smiled really big.

I really enjoyed the details we added in to our ceremony to make it more special. Sharing communion with guests meant a lot to us and I really enjoyed seeing everyone as they came up.. and the little red step stool part to reach for the kiss was awesome and unforgettable.

The afternoon was lovely, meandering around the bluff for photos between light rain showers. Lucky for us to have the rain, it produced a beautiful and full rainbow over Chattanooga as we stood in the foreground of the bluff. I can't wait to see the photo.

I do wish that more guests hadn't decided to leave before the end of the reception to see our exciting planned exit. We ended up cutting the reception a bit short (and foregoing garter and bouquet toss) so we could exit before we lost more folks... but those who were there got to see our last dance, Earth Angel, which lead into the Back To The Future theme, and then a Delorean rolled up, oh yeah! So awesome! The driver had Power Of Love playing inside as we crammed into the front seat, ha.

We had so much fun! And the honeymoon was in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg where we rode chair lifts up the Smokies when it was freezing, raced each other on go karts, visited a bunch of crazy museums, and relaxed with each other for a much needed break together.

I love hearing Jon call me his wife. I'm still not used to calling him my husband, but I love that he is. Being married is wonderful! I'd recommend it to anyone :)