My Mouth Is Hungry But My Stomach Is Full

I love how different each day can be on the road. :) The last 2 nights, we were in a hotel that had a bit of a stank, the view was a parking lot littered with old mattresses, the curtains were falling off the walls...

Tonight? I am laying in a King size bed surrounded by a mountain of comfy pillows, the complimentary products in the bathroom are Aveda - my fav that's too expensive to buy - and the view is part of the NYC skyline (right past the Newark airport). The guys are in the bar downstairs having a beer after a nice leisurely 10 hour drive.

Playing in the Suburban today:
The end of "Yes Man"
"The Departed" (That was fun to visit parts of Boston - including Costello Liquors right next to Berklee's campus)
"Role Models"
"Nick and Norah's Playlist" (With a nice reference of Berklee in that movie - Michael Cera's character wants to go to school there!)
And "Half Baked"

And with my mobile internet working again, I got some major facebooking and emailing done. Whew. That felt good. Still backed up, but getting closer.

Tomorrow - we play for the Coast Guard on Staten Island! WOO HOO!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Tim's USB Cable 'Stache.

Ashland Band Shell

After an odd, but good night's sleep, the guys and I went exploring in Ashland Ohio. They have one of the more impressive gas station/ food marts I've ever seen! Starbucks, Popeyes, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and eh emm... a "Sweet Counter" : )

We discovered even more mattresses in the parking lot in the daylight. :) This place is hilarious.

The Ashland Band Shell we played today was REALLY cool. It's their 60-year anniversary and there were pics in the hallways of the Glen Miller Orchestra playing there. So many people from the community came out tonight. It was a gorgeous night for a concert in Ashland and the rain held off until after we finished packing up!

Millie and I made friends immediately! She hung out with me before and after the show. Sweet puppy. There were so many awesome dogs at the show, and I wanted to run off stage and hug them all during the show. But I didn't...


She saw us at APCA in Atlanta and then came to see us here in Ohio!


These two were walking by right after we finished sound check. Apparently, we didn't scare them off!!! They were still here 3 1/2 hours later after the show!


More awesome people!

The Morning News Is On... I'm Going To Bed

Well... when you arrive at your hotel at 5:00am after driving through the night... the last thing you want to hear is that they have no record of your reservation AND that they are sold out. Boooo...

But no biggie. We found another hotel down the road that did have rooms. And even though they have about 60 mattresses lining the parking lot and outside of the rooms... there ARE mattresses on our beds as well. Hallelujah!

We just got a text from the guys saying they are switching rooms because the curtains just fell off their window in their room :)

Oh the journey we're on!

Sorry not to have more insight on life right now. But it's 5:22am. And I'm sleepy. Night night.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.

~nat

My Jesus Knife

I LOVE MY PUPPY!!! I really can't wait to get to a point where I can take her on the road with me. I HATE leaving her, but thank goodness my parents love her so much. :) She has a lot of fun here... so it's really the best thing for her. But this whole... getting to see her 1 day at a time thing has been rough.

Today was a great day off. I got SOOO much work done. AND Mamma and I made banana pudding because I was jealous that it was gone by the time I got here. She and my nieces made some this weekend when they were all here. So we had to make a whole new batch to let me in on the fun :) Mamma did most of the work, but I did a really good job stalking her with every addition of banana and Nilla Wafer.

AND.... I had a bunch of stuff waiting at home for me from Amazon. That' pretty much the best way ever to shop on the road... just order it, so it's home by the time I get there :)

NONE of the boys in my band have a pocket knife. Isn't that a bit odd? I keep having to use Miguel's wire cutters when I need to cut something. Sooooo after talking about it for ohhhh YEARS, I finally have my own pocket knife. It's definitely the cutest one I have ever seen :) And I have already used it 6 times today! These things come in handy! I bought some exciting surprises for the guys to take on the road with us, and I needed my snazzy new knife to help me open them all!


Mamma thought it was a Jesus knife... cause it has Easter Lilly's and a cross on it :) But Daddy explained that the "cross" is because it's a Swiss Army Knife.

We leave again tomorrow. We're headed up to Ohio, Staten Island, then back to Ohio! WOO WOO!

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Can't Be Bought

We got SOOOO much cool stuff this weekend. I was showing it all to my parents tonight and couldn't believe it as I laid it all out!



Here's a close up of the coins, the hat, and pen. ALL things that can't be bought. You can buy many coins that are associated with each base, but a lot of times the Commanding Officer presents us with the ones that you can't buy. Some of them say "Award for Excellence" on them. :)
I love my job.


Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Belly and Nipple Signings

Tonight we played at Marine Corps Base Quantico which is a major United States Marine Corps training base. It is a huge base that houses over 12,000 military and civilian personnel and is the home of the Marine Corps Officer Candidates School.

There is a very famous anecdote in which a U.S. Army major visited the wounded in a WWI French hospital in 1918. As the story goes, the major asked a young soldier if he was indeed an American. "No sir," he replied, "I'm a Marine."

These Marines today were loud, proud, and VERY ENTHUSIASTIC! We had one of the best shows we have had in a while. The attendance was bigger, and the encore ended up with a few hundred Marines and families screaming and chanting at the front of the stage and making us feel all awesome :)

These guys were cracking me up. One of the guys said he lost his voice singing along with us :) He was quite raspy.


I like belly and nipple signings.

And umm... here was a first... one guy asked me to sign his Parole Officer's business card. Whoa. I didn't ask why he was on parole!


Erik plays the violin!


Lauren knew ALL the words to my songs:


How many Marines does it take to take down a banner?
At least 6.


But when you hang it over 2 beds, and it still hangs over the sides... you can see WHY it took so many! They had quite a few of these plastered around the base, and I was so excited they wanted to give us one!


The Single Marine Program Members that brought us to Quantico and put this whole event together! They did an increible job. The stage was awesome, the RV they had FOR us backstage was awesome, and they really put a lot into advertising. They told us they had been showing my promo video as a preview in their theater before movies on base for weeks! How COOL!


I was their first concert!


Here's just a few more pics, but you can see them ALL on facebook!










Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

I LOVE These Coins!

Tracy Morgan is on SNL right now. And I am laughing so hard. :) I LOVE him. And 30 Rock... And SNL... and the fact that we are done with our show early enough for me to blog during SNL...

The Commanding Officer of the Base came ON stage tonight after we finished our show and got a bit emotional as she thanked us and gave us this beautiful coin. She drove all the way back from South Carolina to make it out for the show!!!



Some of the Baltimore Ravens Cheerleaders opened the show for us. :) YAY!


It was another outdoor event with tons of games, inflatables, a rock wall, face painting, a car show, and lots of vendors.
And this was one of the most awesome inflatable slides I have ever seen!


We had a HUGE RV to hang out in between sound check and the show. And it worked out REALLY well because a pretty intense thunder storm started about 10 minutes after we got off stage. I've never signed autographs so fast in my life!!! The lightening and thunder started before the rain, but it was approaching very quickly. But somehow, I made it through the whole line before the downpour. WHEW!
But I will admit... I was a little sad cause I REALLY wanted to get my face painted after the show.

I signed my first 3 hacky sacks today, though!


And I rode the jerkiest and fastest golf cart I have ever been on today to get over to the fire trucks! It was pretty awesome... felt like a rollercoaster :)








Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

I Rock The Pink Socks

We just got back from bowling again on base! :) So fun. We had the whole place to ourselves. After some good ole Mean Gene's Chicken fingers and garlic cheesy bread (and of course cookies)... the guys filled up their pitchers and we hit the lanes. I didn't win any games this time... but I think I took the award for best outfit.

PINK SOCKS!


We played TWO shows today. One from 2:30-4 and again from 6-7:30. I was told that two of the commanding officers took the red-eye flights back to get back in time to see us play. How COOL is that?!?! They had some of the most fun inflatable games and water slides at the event. And all the guys were hilarious. I can't repeat some of the things said to me. Well... I guess I could but I don't want to.

The whole band signed a tailgate today!!! I have some awesome video of that.... have to put that up VERY soon.

I also signed my first golf ball. Whole band wouldn't fit on the golf ball!! But it's from Jamaica :)



This sweet boy, Chris, says he's gonna be the next Nashville Star! :) I believe him, too. Look at how awesome he is! Every time I looked at him from stage, he would get the sweetest and biggest smile on his face. Priceless.


And we had a princess ballerina at the show, today, too! She was bustin out all kinds of beautiful pleas and arabesques :)


Krystle took care of my merch table for me all day!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!


Neva took care of us and helped us out ALL day. You're the best!


We met and hung out with so many awesome people today!















Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie