The Lyrics

On the iPod "Already Home" by A Great Big World

About a month ago I made a decision to get back to MoveStudio and to Nia.

Nia is a fitness class that is a combination of martial arts, modern dance and yoga. MoveStudio is this unbelievable studio that has tons of different class but more importantly has been this amazing community for me.  But with two kids and work I was having a difficult time fitting it in. Allowing myself the time felt like a luxury that I really couldn't afford in so many different ways. I really have been missing it terribly and while I know that it is impossible to be there all of the time, I'm doing my best now to get there when I can! 

I've been going on Sundays. It's not my regular class but the time works for me and Mike  is able to watch the boys! It has been incredible to be back and surrounded by amazing women who give endless support. Last Sunday, Shannon (the instructor) said to us that, "the silence is the plate and the music is the food". Man, does she know the way to my heart or what!   Her words have stuck with me all week. If you don't already know this...music is everything to me. I grew up in a house where music was quite literally blasting through the hallways. All genres, all of the time. My dad lived music... It was such a part of him that his funeral service had its own soundtrack. 

I'm a word girl I'm not going to lie. I can vividly remember opening my newest cassette purchase as a preteen only to lay the lyrics out on the floor of my bedroom and study every word...I still to this day look up every song. And if you are "lucky" enough to be driving next to me on any given day you will know that I can throw down a wicked performance in my car with choreography... I think that's what connected me to nia. It isn't actually the standard nia routines... It is the way instructors can take a song and slip it into the practice and how that one song will change my whole experience. The words just touch me... It's like I have this ability to twist them into what I need to hear that moment... 

I remember awhile ago a close friend told me that she missed my blog posts so much,  especially the iPod suggestions. The funny thing is that the songs I post are so much more than what happens to be playing on my phone as I write... If you think I haven't analyzed the words on repeat at least 20 times before I post it your wrong. It's not like the post always fits the song...The song actually becomes the post...in my head at least. I would tell you what the song is saying to me but that just seems unfair... You should let it talk to you! 

Nia for me is so much than a workout. It's an experience... made richer by the lyrics. The music is what makes it better than just a boring silent plate... See you on the dance floor! 

Xoxo 

Chef a

The packed away 12-string

On the IPOD "Danny's Song" By: Kenny Loggins

Lately I have spent an odd amount of time thinking about who my son will be... Wondering what he will be like and what will be important to him. At the same time I have had this need to pick up my guitar again... I think I set it down the day that I decided to leave music school and become a chef. I'm not exactly sure why I felt the need to give it up just so that I could start a new journey, but I did.

I'm not going to lie, my heart broke just a little bit that day... I think I really believed that I was supposed to be the next best thing... that some music executive was going to suddenly walk into the coffee shop and find me there... But instead I was busting my butt in a music class with 1500 other kids trying to become the next underpaid music teacher. At the time it was just easier to put the guitar back in its case and push it to the back of the room.

Over the last 10 years, I've picked it up from time to time and maybe even played a little with all of the doors shut... but there hasn't been any public acknowledgement of my entire high school identity... So the question is... why now when fitting a guitar in front of this baby belly is a challenge does it seem so important to pick up where I left off???

Something tells me that maybe this little boy has something to do with it... I have this overwhelming desire to share that part of my life with him...not so that one day he will become what I always thought I wanted to be but just because I don't want to have to tell him one day that his mom used to know how to play the guitar and that she doesn't play anymore because she didn't get the outcome she wanted so she just gave up. Maybe I never learned to play so that I would become the next singer/songwriter. Maybe the whole reason was so that one day when my child was screaming in the middle of the night I could pick it up and soothe him back to sleep. All I know is that I'm tired of starring at it in the case and I'm ready to find out what it means to me now...at this stage of my life.

xoxo chef a