DELIGHT

Now for something completely random, all too much fun, and fairly inapplicable, at least for right now...YES, I did discover some late night DELIGHT at www.ratemyband.co.uk and through http://www.coolehmag.com/frontEnd/filler.php?i=45&s=80

What people come up with and post on the internet always amazes me...although I'm sure I shouldn't be amazed. There are countless budding and not-so-budding emo, punk, screamo, alternative, and folk bands that are desperate to be named, and calling out for a creative moniker embrace. And in case you are one of these said artists, you're having a mid-life crisis and have started a rock-n-roll band in your garage, or you simply and silently dream of your alternative life in Some Cool Band - look no further. Yep. That's right. Hop on over to the above named, fun-abounding, name spitter-outters, and come up with your very own NEW BAND NAME! And then tell me what you will call yourself - I am intrigued.

Okay, so I have alluded to, and quite openly said I want to go and sing around town, open up for a little band at a bar or coffee shop, etc. We'll leave it at that for now...Currently I write a lyric here and two there, or go around my house belting out tunes I make up. There's creativity bubbling up, with a voice for sure.... but not sure of the outlet, working on the ability, and truly needing collaborators. Maybe I'm just not sold on the whole "solo," thing, or maybe I'm chicken. :) Both are okay motivators to find collaborators, and to postpone while still dreaming...

Anyway........Without Further Ado!!!! :
These are a few of what these crazy sites gave me for folkish type band name ideas:

Hollow on the Lake
Pines Georgia
Georgia Horn
Rye North
The Getting Kansas
The Old Voltage
Juliana Bend
Uncut Juliana (wow, can I just say that I really like the idea of "Juliana" in a band name, true true.)
And then this one randomly came to me - not sure I'm sold on it, but it's country fun: Tennessee Probability

Go on over to the sites, and click away to be named, and be on your way to Fame, or at least on your way to sounding like you're cool. ;)

Said promised update about my recent quick escape to work in the Mexican orphange down south, is to come....pending the uploading of photos, and the gathering of thoughts. While you wait, your homework assignment is to come up with your band name. ENJOY -

I crack myself up...I swear I should just fire myself from my day job and stay home and write super avant-garde, profound, yet heart-warming greeting cards...and then become widely aclaimed because of my lyrical delights. I can see CLARISSE GREETINGS (Clarisse being my middle name) SWEEPING the nation now....Okay, or completely NOT at all. If you get tired of your day job, phone me, text me, find me, and profess your readiness for said business venture. I have the card stock, and the brainy goodness already on hand. Anyway...;)

So this business of the Papalote - do we have any bilingual folks scanning this written piece? If not, let me tell you that the word that sounds so cool to say means, "Kite" in Spanish. Pretty simple, however, delightful in the way it sounds. Say it a couple of times and see what I mean. For work, a few of us from my organization truck out to Firebaugh (for those of you not local, it's about an hour away, out in the middle of nowhere), to put on this weekly parenting class. A few of the moms in the class either do not speak English, so what's said gets translated, or they are bilingual. Hence the spanish words dancing in my head. The kite flying freely is a perfect analogy for how I see these moms. They have so many difficult life challenges, are constantly weathering adversities, and yet somehow are finding small (and sometimes HUGE) victories in better relating with their children, and loving themselves more in the process.

I feel like a big 'ol Papalote today. Okay, maybe not big and old. Perhaps a kind-of stylish, sparkly purple number with flashes of red....but I am flying freely. Kind of plodding through a lot of the mundane of life with work and other stuff (I know...that previous sentence wins the award for clarity and conciseness, right?) Touching my passions here and there, loving on families and kids each day (ha, or most days) at work, etc. I have a lot of peace in my heart and life. I know that God is sovereign, however much I still work at transferring that from head knowledge to heart knowledge...etc. I sometimes just think, "what else God," or "what's next God?" There is a fire that is growing inside of me. A little voice that gives a giddy whisper...when I drive back downtown and take in the murals, and remember my "inner-city" internship at the Pink House 3 years back. It's the excitement I get when I connect with other young 20 somethings that are fired up to love the homeless, and look for practical ways to make a difference in the city. It is like my heart is beginning to listen more. The ears of my heart might be working just slightly better...(at least I'm hoping).

I am probably not going to run off to work in an African Village tomorrow (although I would love to go to Kenya someday, for at least a few weeks, meet my sponsor child, love on kids there, etc.) Right now I value increasing stability as I finish setting up Fresno as home. And it's not necessarily a restlessness of hugely needed change. It's more of an alert excited energy, anticipating what God could want to teach me, and about possible new (even if simple) ways that God could use me in this city. Fresno truly has become dear to me.

After work today I ran around town (or motored around town) just for a little while, and took a bunch of pictures. I seemingly do that A LOT....sometimes I feel more victorious in my abilitiy to capture what I am thinking and feeling inside, through a picture, than other times.

There is no grand finale to this post...but a little photographic peak of my run around today (and in months past.)

Enjoy :)

The Weekend Components in all Their Glory:

This past weekend was pretty neat-o (I'm pretty sure that SOMEONE should bring that word back into style...I'm fighting an uphill battle, and I need some reinforcements).

1.) Helped a friend move (a good thing to do - plus who doesn't want to hang out on and move '80's velvet plush sofas at 8:30 on a Saturday morning?!

2.)Perused Tower block sales - didn't acquire any crap or fabulous finds, (though scored some legit roadside tacos), but did wish that the blocksale neighbor's yellow VW Bus was for sale!

3.) Dinner with Friends at a random, nondescript downtown Hangout (Joe's Steakhouse) - there was gayity and fun, B-rate appetizers, and long conversations about peoples' supposed witty "twits" and "twots" - I am duly reminded as to why I am not on Twitter (let me not offend you Twitter fiends). :)

4.) Late Night Musical Debut - well, it was at a friend's house party, but the set-up was down right fabulous - speakers, mic, atmosphere, people, etc....lent some harmonies to a friend's piece..and now I've got half a suitcase packed and am thinking of running off to Nashville...or at least to vulnerably put myself out there at a coffee shop/bar open mic night locally... ;) Stay tuned for details...maybe.

5.) Lots of creative thinking time -
All this hullabaloo made for a full and life-giving weekend...however in the midst of all the external, there was an equal amount of internal ( I affectionately call it "Brain Overuse") - a little too much overprocessing and overthinking, which ultimately leads to some dawning revelations... :)
This is what I know and what I though of in my "brain overuse" time this weekend: Change, endings, beginnings, and newness are inevitably a part of life...and it's all in what you do with them- choosing to be consciously alive (even when things are difficult or less than ideal), embracing life, risking, creating, dreaming up possibilities, OR listlessly allowing life to just happen, being "okay" with the norm, and not using tough stuff to propel you in the direction of greater things - those are the two choices. It's the intricate dance of growth and forward motion coupled with patience with oneself, and the ability to quietly listen to one's heart and get clear on one's vision, that is the key. Maybe those just written sentences are vague generalitlies, or maybe they hit home for you as well?

It was somewhere in between my moment of brief microphone-hood, block sale fun, and good conversations with friends, that I felt like I was ready. Ready to be consciously alive...ready to ask what makes my heart sing, and then risk and create it. I have a plethora of "big dreams" and ideals...but starting with little things for now: I want to sing and make music and share that with people, I want to take a photography class and give a skills set to my innate eye for beauty.....what would life be like if we as humans didn't play so small?



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