One Love

Yes, our blog title is a reference to the Bob Marley song - it's only fitting as our honeymoon was to Jamaica! But it's also a reference to the love that Whit and I share as brother and sister in Christ. Ephesians 4:4-6 says "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." Follow our blog and journey with us as we begin our life together!

June 19, 2011

The Funk & Glowsticks

So I mentioned the funk in my last post. I think that everyone needs to experience what I am talking about here, so you need to watch this video. I think it will help you understand. You only need to watch the first 15 seconds, and pay special attention to what Mike does between 10-15 seconds. AAAH.

I also expect you would want to see a video of a glow stick war. As I also mentioned in the previous post, Phish concert attenders love glow sticks. During a great jam, a glow stick war will occur. People throw glow sticks and other people pick them up and throw them again. Then, when there is a sweet climax, everyone throws them at once. It is awesome. It inspired our glow stick exit at our wedding (yes, I came up with that idea. :)). At the first night of Merriweather this year, glow sticks were literally raining down on us. We would hold our hands up to the sky and they would pour down on us. So, enjoy.

(Sad - I tried to upload the videos that I took but they failed. So this is from a show that we weren't at, but fully shows you what you need to see. Again, just the first 15 seconds will do). Glow sticks

Grilled Cheese and the Bass

If you didn't pick it up already, my husband and I love Phish. If I was saying that out loud to you, you would think "you love fish?" But no, Phish is not fish. It is a band - the greatest band - that is talented, plays many genres, lets people give away their music for free, has over 200 original songs (and has played hundreds more covers), and is very silly. [If you wonder why we go to so many concerts, let me help you understand. I have been to 16 shows and have only heard TWENTY percent of all the songs Phish has ever played. Talk about some serious set list variation. PS don't ask me how I know that unless you want to know how serious Phish phans are.] Let me give you the example of my favorite song, Harry Hood. Ever heard of Hood dairy corporation? They make milk. They used to have a commercial with the mascot, Harry, standing in the fridge with the milk. So the lyrics to Phish's song go "Harry, Harry, where do you go when the lights go out?" Hilarious. Or another favorite song, Tube. "An asteroid crashed and nothing burned...it made me wonder - do tigers sleep in lily patches? do rhinos run from thunder?" Some lyrics are more or less meaningful than those, but I love them all. So "N" in terms of Myers-Briggs.

People that attend the concerts are also quite silly. They dress up in costumes, wear pun shirts with corporate logos replaced by song lyrics (ex. IBM --> YEM), have cool tapestries, think of creative ways to make song requests (throwing a beach ball on stage with the song they want written on it), blow bubbles, throw glow sticks (and wear them), and have tongue-twister lyrics to 200 songs memorized. Phish people (or phans), as Whit and I have noted, enjoy the simple things in life. Which brings me to next point, grilled cheese. Phish phans are very very bad at resisting a delicious grilled cheese made from some guy in the parking lot with a gas grill after the show. Which brings me to my next point, selling such grilled cheese. After standing in many a line after a show this summer only to buy the most delicious grilled cheese for one dollar or two, we decided we will sell grilled cheese. And we realize this will slide us up in a notch in Phish phan-atic, and we are ready for that step. Because the toasted delectableness will help us go to many more shows than we could otherwise afford, just like all the other grilled cheese craftsmen.

Before I ramble on any further, here are some pictures of the shows we attended this summer:

Holmdel, NJ

Camden, NJ

Right across from Philadelphia

You can see the skyline from the lawn :)

Sweet lights

Sweet husband

Columbia, MD

Oh yeah, so maybe now you are wondering why I mentioned the bass in the title. Every band member for Phish is extremely talented. The music is amazing. A song is much like a novel. There is an introduction. You make a connection (the melody). Then there is suspense. Something changes from what you already know (the melody) and becomes dark (dissonance). You want resolution. It pulls you in, makes you sit on the edge of your seat (or jump in the air waiting for the climax). Then it is resolved (the climax). The tension is breached and you are again satisfied. If you are unfamiliar with this musical scenario, you are probably listening to too much pop. Pop is fine, but rarely ventures out of the major keys. Every once in awhile you'll get a nice interlude with a bridge, but if you want something that pulls you in you need a band that will take a risk and go away from the 1-4-5-4 boring pattern (worship music).

ANYWAYS that was all fairly irrelevant (sorry! if you really want relevance, then take that to mean that Phish makes me and Whit dance. and we don't dance). When I listen to the band on a CD I typically listen to the guitarist, for obvious reasons. In concert, the pianist and bassist are turned up more so I can hear them better and I tend to notice what they are doing more. I have come to realize that what makes me dance the most, what I appreciate the most in the building of the climax, and is just overall the funkiest is the bass. So Whit has convinced me I need to learn the bass. Phish's bassist, Mike Gordon, plays some pretty down and dirty funk beats. And I must learn them. Cause I want the funk...it's all about the funk.

June 18, 2011

The Big Apple

We were in New Jersey. Phish was playing two nights in Holmdel. Whit's aunt & uncle live in Holmdel. We had one day with nothing to do until 6pm. The train from Metro Park (30 min. from Holmdel) to Penn Station was $40 and a one-hour journey. We did it. We were only in the grand city for the short side of 3 hours, but we saw Times Square and Central Park and booked it in order to get back in time to catch our train (not without an all-out run in the train station to make sure we caught it). We even managed to grab lunch and buy an item from a street vendor (a magnet). I had never been to New York before (let alone New Jersey) and it was different from what I imagined (aka the movies). It was hot, stuffy, third world-ish (ugh, too many tiny stores selling cell phones and electronics), and the people fit into our genre more (young, white, wealthy). I didn't hate it, but I definitely wouldn't consider it the picture of "America," as is assumed by Hollywood. It was quite a trip though and I would love to go back to explore it more. Next year!!

June 17, 2011

The Beach!

The story of our vacation to St. Mary's, Georgia. It was our first vacation as a married couple besides the honeymoon - just us two!! It was so fun to be able to do whatever we wanted to do and not worry about anyone else's plans.

I couldn't resist these beautiful peonies. Unfortunately they died in two days due to the heat. :/

We stayed at my parents' house in St. Marys. This is the beautiful backyard on the 4th hole.

We played at Fernandina Beach in Amelia Island. We had a lot of fun crashing about in the waves on this float.

Downtown Amelia Island. We got dinner one night at "Toppings," a pizza restaurant. The girl rang us up for one SLICE of pizza instead of one pie. Our bill was cheap but they let it go. Then about ten minutes later this woman wearing a cami and had her hair in a bun comes over to us and explains. She's the manager and wasn't even working, just happened to be nearby. The two girls working the register called her in because they were too scared to come out and tell us that they rang us up wrong and we needed to pay more money (about twenty bucks more - lame). We thought it was hilarious that she described the cashier as "brand new...we hired her out of emergency." Ohh maybe you should have just gone without someone instead of hiring someone fairly incompetent. Oh well, it's the beach who cares. They made up for it by bringing us two beers since they had to teach the new girl how to work the tap. OH and our white sauce hawaiian pizza and sweet potato fries were DELICIOUS.

This picture shows but a fraction of the seagulls we saw throughout the week. The first day I had a traumatic experience when Whit thought it was funny to throw food to the birds after I begged him not to. This resulted in not him but me being chased by the enormous flock of 60 seagulls (no kidding - I counted them after the fact). I ran to the water and cowered as I protected my pepperoni sub. It was quite hilarious but I also did not appreciate it at all. Fortunately now I am back on good terms with the gulls. ;)

June 16, 2011

A slue of posts

...is sure to ensure. I have been absent from the blogging world the past few weeks due to a multitude of trips, plans, and activities. So much has been going on! Now that I'm settled in Colorado and won't be leaving for the next six weeks, nay, one week, I will be using my downtime to refresh by documenting my journeys on my blog. YAY! So get ready.

Up first - weddings! Everyone loves weddings, so they get the first call. In May we went to four weddings in two weekends. It was as crazy as it sounds, but since we were able to go to all of them, we did! We felt so loved and connected to be invited to all these weddings. We're going to 8 in 2011 and got invited to 2 that we are regrettably missing. Sometimes I feel like I value my friendships more than is reciprocated, but being chosen to attend all these weddings has graciously shown me how much people do appreciate mine and Whit's friendship. We love our friends and value them so much, and have been so happy to celebrate these momentous occasions.

Joey & Ashley, Blacksburg VA

We actually got to go to two weddings in a row with this great couple. Love them!

Whit discipled Joey. It was really cool for him to see Joey (and Trey) get married after talking with them about itand giving them lots of advice.

Adam & Crissen, Virginia Beach VA I'm not gonna lie, this one was my favorite! It was on the beach, everyone was barefoot, the sunset was beautiful, and all our friends were there. PERFECT.