State of love and trust....and Pearl Jam and Nirvana.

Way back when I was just a freshman in high school, two bands made it on to the scene that changed the music world: Nirvana and Pearl Jam. It's hard to believe that it's been twenty years since "Smells Like Teen Spirit" hit the airwaves. I remember sitting in English class and hearing my classmates talking about this new song unlike any they'd ever heard before. Where did this band come from? What was this "grunge" style of music? No one could figure it out, but everyone loved it. Including me.

The movie that epitomized the grunge music scene during the early nineties was Cameron Crowe's Singles, one of my favorite movies of all time and also my favorite soundtrack. I found it at Dimple last weekend for $2.99 (no, I didn't already own it - shameful, I know) and haven't stopped listening to it since Saturday. Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Mother Love Bone, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains - I've been musically reliving my teenage years all over again, and I love it. Here's a little clip, only one of my favorites from the movie (there are several, and I wanted to post the one from the end, but I didn't want to ruin it for those who haven't seen it yet. And if you haven't, please do yourself a favor and watch it. You will love it. I promise you.):




It occurred to me while I was listening to the soundtrack earlier this week how much fun it was to be in high school and as much into music as I was when Pearl Jam and Nirvana came out. Pearl Jam's Ten and Nirvana's Nevermind became staples of my music collection - I used to listen to Pearl Jam's Evenflow and Nirvana's Something in the Way about a million times and would never get tired of it. And I can still listen to both albums today and feel the same level of satisfaction that I did back then. There's been a lot of music that I've outgrown over the years, but those two bands have managed to hang on.

I've gotten back into listening to Pearl Jam in recent months - I got to see them for the first time in concert last fall at the Bridge School Benefit show in Mountain View, and even though it was brief, it was still amazing. They were the last band to play and it was worth the wait. This past July, Eddie Vedder came to the Paramount Theater in Oakland for his Ukelele Songs tour (he just came out with the album this summer - also an amazing listen) and I was fortunate enough to go. And, amazingly enough, I got to meet him after the show. I shook his hand, he looked me straight in the eye and said "Hi, Nicole." I have never felt my legs turn to jello faster than I did that night. Here in front of me was the frontman of the band I've loved for twenty years, the man my best friend wanted to marry when we were teenagers, the man whose music defined most of my teenage years. It was an unbelievable experience, one I will certainly never forget.

And here he is, twenty years later, still performing and still amazing.

It's been a real comfort listening to all of this music again. And at the risk of sounding old, they really don't make music like that anymore.

(And it's true - they don't.)

I'm baaaaaaaack.

And seriously, how the heck has it been an entire YEAR since I've posted? Sheesh. Unacceptable. Or as John Cage from Ally McBeal would say, "Repugnant."

I should start with, "How the heck have you been??" I have been...well...pretty great, actually. The last year has been full of really amazing highs and some awful lows...probably the worst I've ever been through. But, I have made it through to the other side and am feeling much more like myself these days than ever before. And I can't tell you how happy that makes me. I'd forgotten what it was to be me for awhile, and I've since rediscovered who I am and I realized how much I missed me. And how much of me I had hidden for so long.

The best part of the last year, which I neglected to mention in any of my posts (shame on me) is this amazing little person:


















Nora Grace, my cousin Kim and her husband Nick's little girl, who was born last summer and is truly a blessing. She is the light of my life and a little doll. No one can make me laugh like she can. She has brought so much joy to our family since her arrival, and it has been so much fun watching her grow and learn. So you'll probably start seeing a lot of her show up on my blog, as you can on Kim's blog: http://becauseitstrue.blogspot.com/

And so I have triumphantly returned! I promise that I will start writing regularly again, since I have so many fun things happening in the next couple of months.

I'm so glad to be back again. I've missed you, and me, so much.

Hi, September!

How did you get here again so quickly?

Before this month is out, I will be here:




















Going to see this show:



















I have been waiting to see this show for three years and words cannot express how excited I am. I've been a Beatles fan my whole life, but really got into them in college and haven't stopped being obsessed since. Their music has always had a way of making me forget the world around me for just a little while.

This is going to be a spectacular vacation, no doubt. It can't get here fast enough.

21 days and counting!

Oh, my poor bleeding heart.

I had a stray cat show up in my backyard a few weeks ago - a cute little orange kitty who was super friendly and a little bit dirty. I didn't think anything of it until he showed up on my patio last Thursday with a sizable cut on his head and looking pretty ragged. If there's one thing that makes me cry, it's a sick or injured animal. What makes me even more upset is the fact that his injuries do not look like they came from a cat fight. I have a sneaking suspicion that the hoodlums that live in the apartment complex behind me may have done something to him, which bothers me to no end.

I was planning on leaving for an out-of-town excursion on Friday afternoon and didn't want to leave the poor thing in my backyard for three days, so I called a local no-kill shelter to find out if they could take him in, nurse him back to health and find him a good home. The answer I got was not what I was hoping for: they had no room for him and couldn't take him, but would be happy to give me the names of some low-cost vet clinics that I could take him to for help. Hmph.

Not knowing what else to do, a friend of mine suggested putting Neosporin on his cut to try and help. So Friday afternoon, before I left for my trip, I came home and there he was, sitting on my patio again. I grabbed the ointment, a pair of gloves and some paper towels and decided to help him out myself. I also brought him a bowl of food and some water, because the poor thing looks like he hasn't eaten in a long time.

I have never seen a cat eat so fast in my life. While he was distracted with stuffing his face, I cleaned his wound and put ointment on it, hoping that would help and that he would be OK over the weekend. I returned today to find him sitting on my patio, his head looking slightly better and his attitude a little feistier, which I'm hoping means he's on the road to recovery. His wound looks a little better, too, which makes me even more hopeful.

My bleeding heart has gotten me another cat, but it's OK. If I can save his life and give him a better home, what a happy girl I'll be.