Alvernia University

Every time I get a new "follower" on here, I get all giddy :) Thank you Followers!

Reading, PA: I have spent so much time with you! We are staying in a hotel next door to the one we stayed at a few weeks ago. And tomorrow we'll move about 0.2 miles down the road to a new location. :) Staying in the same place for a few days rocks my world. It's pretty awesome.

We went to eat at Old Country Buffet (OCB!) today for lunch. We went there last time we were in town, too. Every time we go in there, we stick out like a sore thumb. We are the youngest people in the room by at least 30-40 years. Love it.

Tonight we played at Alvernia University. The staging and sound was great, and it was all set up when we got there. They had us in a huge gym. It was pretty cool. But I did feel like I needed to whip out some prom decorations or something!

Lately, the students have consistently been so awesome about helping us load and unload gear. It makes a HUGE difference for us. I feel like I keep saying "Is that it?" Because with a few extra hands, it gets done SOOOO much faster! So yeah. We LOVE that.

Lauren, the girl on the right, was at our show at Elizabethtown College in Feb. Her sister goes to Elizabethtown, and she was visiting her at the time. So she came again tonight and brought a friend! That was so cool!


These girls were so cute the whole show. They were all singing along and clapping and dancing. The girl in front (pictured on the left of me) was the instigator. :) She was DEDICATED! She had a real lighter AND a "cell phone lighter" out on "Angel." And she wouldn't stop until she got everyone swaying the same direction. It was priceless.


"Free hugs"... gets em every time :)


And I know it's little fuzzy, but I have to include this picture because these guys informed me that they are the "coolest guys at Alvernia" You know. Just in case you were sitting there wondering. :)

And they were in fact VERY cool guys. We all talked for a while after the show. It was a good time.

And afterwards, we were all excited. We wanted to find a Mexican Restaurant to celebrate Cinco De Mayo. There was one right next to our hotel, and it looked like it was hoppin! It was 11pm by the time we got there, but we figured, "Hey, it's Cinco De Mayo... there's GOTTA be a Mexican place open!" When we pulled up, the "Open" sign was still on and Hootie said "Are they DANCING in there?"

The music was BLASTING from the speakers as we walked in, and the whole place was going crazy - people dancing and cheering all up and down the aisles...

ummm...

but....

they were closed... :(

My brain was so confused.

I wanted to be like "Ok, I know you're closed... but can we just hang out? Cause you people are AWESOME."

So yeah. We went back to the same Diner where we ate last time. That place is great. And I knew we'd get good food there. No Margaritas, but we'll just have to celebrate a day late or something.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

E-TOWN!!!!

Today, Hootie MORE than made up for no one coming to see him at Mt. Ida in Newton. :)
We all FINALLY got to meet his sister, Hannah, his niece Sydney and his good friend, Ben. They all drove up to hang out with Joe before the show. Glenside (where we played last night) was only an hour away from our location today. Whew. What an easy drive!!! We ended up sleeping in AND getting to our hotel 3 hours early. Perfect time for hanging out with friends and fam. :)

Sydney is SUCH a beautiful baby and she is SOOOO good. Plus I have wanted to meet Hannah for ages now. I have heard SOO much about her from Joe. :)
Look at Uncle Hoot!


And I have to include this one... She looks like she is practicing her karate moves.... Mr. Miyagi would be proud :)



We played Elizabethtown College tonight in Elizabethtown, PA. We weren't sure of where to go on campus when we arrived. Sometimes it's pretty obvious, but this is a very large, beautiful campus and we had NO clue where to go.
Wanna know how we figured it out? James and I found a poster of myself that had all the information for the show on it... including the location of where we were supposed to be. How funny is that? LOVE IT.

We were playing in a really cool room with a very intricate and impressive lighting rig. They had free pretzels and a root beer keg at the show! It was so fun!!! The show went REALLY well. I <3 the new song we've started opening the show with "The Power of You and Me". It is one of those songs that just makes me happy to sing!

They asked for an encore so we did some Journey! Bangor - you started something!!! I love it when everyone is singing along with me right up in the front of the stage. It is SUCH a great feeling!!

These girls were in the front the whole night. Look at those beautiful basketball players that make me look SO freakin short!!! I even have my boots on... The two girls on each side of me actually started crying during "Angel", which made it hard for me to look at them. It gave me chills... I get choked up enough on my own on that song. It means so much to me when something I've written touches other people - ESPECIALLY Granny's Song.


Jim and Todd!!! Another great team of sound engineers. All the sound guys on this leg of our trip have made our lives so much easier on stage.


This sweet girl is a huge country music fan!!! She just fell in love with country in the last couple of years, and she is coming to Nashville this summer for the first time. I told her to come during the week of CMA Fest. Right y'all? Back me up here!


Annette! She took care of us all night and was definitely running the show. Thank you for everything!


Marilyn! Yet ANOTHER person who came for Hootie tonight! Marilyn first saw Hootie at an Irish Pub he plays in his hometown. She came out to our show in Savage Maryland in September, but I barely got to talk to her that night. So I was really glad to see her and actually get to catch up with her tonight!


And I ended the night with something I've been craving (but have resisted for a while). A Snickers Ice Cream bar. All is right with the world :)

Peace, Love, Fiddle,
~natalie