i’ve officially become my mother.

my brother is staying with me for the weekend before going home to georgia for the summer, and the first thing i said when i saw him was “you look too skinny! how much weight have you lost?!? you will eat non-stop while you’re here.” and then we went inside and i made him eat a banana and cooked him some eggs. at midnight.

just call me starlet goodwin. sheesh.

i aspire to be like mates of state someday.

(preface: i have fallen off the blogging bandwagon due to the intensity of my schooling and job, so this is kind of old news because i saw them live almost a week ago. but i’m going to blog about them anyway, because i love them.)

“i wonder if i could tie the ocean to your knees.”

so i saw mates of state in portland last weekend, and it was such a magical experience. for lesser reasons, it was magical because i was there with my friends and we were sharing the magic of the experience of seeing mates of state together. but even more so, just seeing mates of state perform was like magic. for those who aren’t familiar with the mates, the band is comprised of married couple kori gardner and jason hammel. kori rocks the keyboards and jason hits the drums, and their voices are in perpetual harmony.

it was magic because they perform so well together, and just watching them, it becomes apparent that they are all about each other. they have the most adorable husband-wife banter onstage. and so often in bands, each individual member is focused on themselves and what they’re doing and projecting and don’t really acknowledge the other members. kori and jason were constantly looking over at each other and smiling, and having secret conversations with each other across the stage, their mouths removed from the microphones so that it was just between them. it was such a beautiful thing to watch: two people so in love with each other, who seem to be unaffected by fame or how they’re supposed to act as musicians, and who are entirely focused on the other person.

after the show, i discovered kori’s blog, adorably titled band on the diaper run: kori chronicles her adventures on tour and her adventures with her two precious daughters, magnolia and june. she posts lots of pictures of family outings and makes really funny commentary on being a mom and the things that her daughters do… definitely a blog i will be reading consistently from now on. she seems so grounded, and she and jason seem like such a normal couple with a normal life and children that they love so much… and that makes me love them even more.
(ps. check out the mates of state song “nature and the wreck”… it’s a beautiful song that kori wrote when her first daughter was born.)

mates of state – nature and the wreck.mp3

the best and worst april fools’ day pranks.

i’m actually not going to qualify which were the best and worst. i’m just going to tell about one that made me happy and one that made me mad.

the good one: my parents and youngest brother surprised me by showing up in seattle! (they live in georgia, so it was kind of a big deal)
my mom and dalton came on thursday and surprised me, and josh was in on it, and had known about it for over a month. i was so happy and overwhelmed to see them. my godmother, gail, came up on friday, so the five of us got to spend a beautiful sunny afternoon together at kerry park.

we did other fun things too, like take josh shopping at bellevue square and eat at the cheesecake factory, and cook dinner together. then, when i had thought there would be no more surprises, my dad showed up too. so nice. he works so much that he rarely gets to go anywhere fun with the family, so it was such a treat to get to see him too. they went down to the old stomping grounds in the couve, but they’ll be back on thursday to hang out for a couple days before josh and i head to yakima for easter. family is beautiful.

the bad one: the federal excise tax on cigarettes jumped from $0.69 per pack to $1.01 per pack, according to an article in usa today. the taxes on other tobacco products, like cigars and chew, also went up. the money from the taxes are going toward children’s healthcare, which is good, but the whole thing is such an infringement on freedom of choice. the government is forcing people to quit, and it’s going to hit the middle and lower classes the hardest. just sayin’.
i’m glad i stopped smoking when i did, or i’d be in a bad way.