My Heart Will Crack On

Long Day of driving... but it's the first time in a while we haven't been in a ridiculous hurry. We got to go to Cracker Barrel tonight which made me so happy!

We heard "My Heart Will Go On" today at lunch. I sang that song in high school assembly and totally cracked on the high note. I'll never forget that. I was SOOOOO nervous about that one note - I did it a million times on the drive up with no problem, but I had only gotten a couple hours sleep (I never slept in high school). Plus, singing it over and over probably wore my voice out before I even got to school! That was back before I really understood how the voice works.

I guess we all have to go through those moments. And even though it seemed like a huge deal to me then, NO ONE but me remembers that. I KNOW if I hadn't been so worried about it, it would have been fine. I had the ability, just not the confidence. Nerves can be a crazy thing. But even when they make your biggest fear come true, if you can overcome it, you'll be so much stronger. Cliche? Yes. I don't care. It's the truth.

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Texas A&M Commerce and The Red Chair in the Street

We played an afternoon show at "The Club" on Texas A&M Commerce's campus today. It is a BRAND new facility for students and is a really cool place. They have a stage built in complete with lights and sound... cafes and little stations for food. And today there was a huge high school bilingual competition going on. So there were hundreds of kids just hanging out! It was really fun. They had ALL kinds of competitions... music... plays.... poetry.... pretty cool stuff!
The show was great, and Rick, our wonderful contact who took GREAT care of us, introduced me to some new green tea with Goji berry that I LOVED! MMmmmm.

Kathrin is an exchange student from Germany and was one of the judges for the (take a guess!) German competitions.


Fellow musicians :) They were competing in the music categories... in spanish! And they totally rushed the stage and did the "We're not worthy" bows during "Devil". I <3 them.


My first wallet signing. :) It was a fancy one too! I may need to reevaluate my big ole ugly wallet... hers was adorable. And now it says "Peace, Love, Fiddle" YAY!


Another one of the awesome guys taking care of us all day. He was running sound, loading and unloading equipment, making sure we had everything we needed. He was all-around awesome!


Some actual college students!!! :) There were a lot of students at the show, too. But the high schoolers made up most of the crowd.


And AFTER the show.... we headed on to Frozen Fire Films in Dallas to do a photo shoot. It was SO much fun!!! We did this one shot in this awesome red chair...
Travis, the photographer, said "What if we did some shots in the red chair in the middle of the street with the skyline in the background?" We were all game... but it was a TEAM effort! There was traffic... it was a little crazy. We were having to do it when the traffic was stopped at a light. Stacy was on the corner making sure nothing unexpected was coming, Randy had the reflector, Travis had the camera, Miguel had the chair, and James was helping me with the fiddle and the video camera!!!
We'd run out - Miguel would put the chair in the street, we'd get a few shots and then have to strike it all to let the cars pass.... and then we'd do it all over again until we got everything we needed. It was like an action movie :) Well... not really.... only in my head.... but it was really funny.... AND exciting. I loved it.

I can't wait to see all the pics - especially the ones in the street! We bought a hard drive tonight at Walmart to download them all tomorrow. The files are huge so it will take a TON of space. These guys do such great work though. It will be REALLY nice to have some new pics!

I have to get up on 3 hours for TWO shows! :) Life on the road!

Peace, Love, Fiddle, and GOODNIGHT!
~natalie