College of Staten Island & Delaware Valley College

AHHH. OK. I unintentionally lied yesterday in the blog. I slept the first couple of hours in the Suburban this morning, and then I drove the rest of the way. Sooooo.... I didn't finish the rest of the blog today "in the car" like I said I would. But no worries... I'm blogging from a comfort Inn. :) Wow. I have 3 shows to catch you up on. We'll start with the 2 from yesterday. :)

We have the tv on, and Tina Fey was just on Jimmy Fallon. I LOVE her. I think she is one of the funniest women EVER. She was talking about how "you know you're a mom when.... you have to put underpants on someone who's dancing"
I'm still laughing about that.

Yesterday's show at the College of Staten Island:
Well.... I cried constantly out of my right eye when in Texas at the Los Lonely Boys show. Yesterday, I evened out the playing field. I guess coming up north helped me balance out the scales a bit. I cried out of my left eye non-stop. Why is it that I only cry out of one eye at a time on stage? I don't think anyone noticed except for me. Well... and James. Poor James.... every time something like that happens, I am constantly turning around to him, lifting up my sunglasses and asking "Am I ok?" Which he knows translates to "Is there black mascara running all over my face?"

So you know when you see a band member walk over to another one onstage, and you wonder what they are talking about? In my case - it is usually me being paranoid that my face is messed up....

The show started out a little slow. They had set up a great stage for us out on the quad and had an awesome sound crew there, too. But there weren't other activities surrounding our show... it was just a concert. So students just looked confused when we started playing. They kept looking at the stage like, "What IS this?" But they quickly realized that we were there for THEM and not just some random band that decided to jam on school property. :) Students started to gather around the area and by the end of the show there were 50 or so people hanging out.

As I mentioned on yesterday's blog... I got to sign my first skaeboard :) Hehe. That was COOL.

I saw this girl in the audience.... yeah... not intimidating AT ALL to have a classical violinist at the show. It immediately makes me more aware of my intonation.


Connie bought the first cd of the day - she bought it during the show (which I LOVE), but of course we didn't have anyone to work the merch table.... so she ended up finding the sound guys, giving them the money, found a sharpie, and then I signed it during the intro of "Fancy" :) Connie is resourceful! And THEN after the show she bought another one for her friend in Oklahoma, too!


Our self-proclaimed #1 Staten Island fan. Y'all, if I ever needed a "hype man" like they have in rap groups.... like if I ever need my own Flava Flav... this woman would be the first person I would call! She was telling people who were AT the show about how awesome the show was :) It was so great. She was SOOO excited. And she got called to go to a car accident in the middle and was really frustrated about it. She was cracking me up talking about it. We took tons of pictures, and she actually bought the last small brown t-shirt. I'm gonna have to get more!!!


Our awesome crew for the day.


Their campus has an extremely diverse student population. I met so many kids from other countries. It reminded me of Berklee.

So we quickly packed up... grabbed some lunch in the cafeteria and headed to Delaware Valley College in Doylestown PA. It took us about 2 hours to get there, and we arrived right on time. Well... we missed the exit on the turnpike so we were a few minutes late, but no big deal.

They have the most GORGEOUS little campus. It's a small agricultural school, and they were having a huge pig roast on the lawn before the show. The stage they had set up was SO great. It made me happy. Plus their entire campus was lined with beautiful blossoming trees. And the stage was between 2 huge gingko trees (which are my favorite).

These kids were on TOP of it, especially Kristen. Kristen was my "right hand woman" the whole day. She hopped into the Suburban when we first got on campus to guide us to the stage. (We're always having to drive up on sidewalks and pull through narrow passageways to get to the stages) She was CONSTANTLY asking what she could do to help and even when I didn't give her something to do, she would find something to help out with. Greatest girl EVER. We love you!!!!

This is the Student Activities Council - everyone that put on the show and helped out! Kristen is down front in the red shirt. :)


An of course our awesome sound crew! They got there at 11am to start setting up - the show started at 9. They worked so hard all day and it DEFINITELY paid off!!!


This was one of the best shows we've had in a while. The students packed the lawn in front of the stage - we were guessing there were about 250 kids there. And not 1 but 2 different people brought their couches out to the lawn! We saw two guys carrying a couch with a girl sitting ON the couch! It was so great!!! And there was a beach ball being thrown around the whole show. The dancing started on "Fancy" :) And by the end of the night everyone was on their feet. They were chanting for "1 more song" at the end, so of course we had to do a little Journey. Don't Stop Believin baby!!! Hold on to that feeeeeeeeeeeeling!

Yeah. I loved this show.



These guys were hysterical! One of the guys kept screaming "I Love You Natalie" during the show. Actually, it wasn't just the show... he continued the whole time I was signing autographs. You can't tell, but the guys have me completely lifted off the ground here.


These girls were hilarious. We had talked for a bit and had taken pictures earlier, but then they came back later and said "We brought you a fiddle player!" They had gone and gotten their friend who plays the violin to come back and talk to me.


Don't mess with these guys...


And Columbia, Tn was even represented :) A friend, Jeff Smith, who used to come to Sam Hill's to see us play, lives up here now, so he came to the show. It was great to see him and his girlfriend and so fun to have them in the audience. It took me almost the whole show to spot them in the audience, but I knew they were there :) We didn't get to talk afterwards in all the chaos, but I was so happy to have them there!

So yeah. Tomorrow we are playing at 3, so we have to leave at 7am. Another early morning. And of course... it's 3am... again. So I'm gonna try that whole "going to bed now" thing. It would probably help to have a voice for the show tomorrow :)

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie

Time Will Do The Talking

Time is such a beautiful healer. I've been on a Patty Griffin kick lately... and one of my favorite songs "Time Will Do The Talking" was bringing me back to something I was JUST pondering a few days ago.

It's amazing how we can go through relationships or events in our lives and feel like there's NO WAY we can ever get over something. And there are times that YEARS go by and we still suffer with the pain of a specific event or relationship. But it is easy to forget to TRULY have faith in the healing power of "time". Eventually, those feelings start to wear down and they don't hurt as badly.

I think back to things that went on in college that consumed my whole life. Relationships with people that I felt like I would NEVER stop crying over... or stop stressing out about. And now? I can't even remember details about some of those crazy times. The biggest thing I remember? How stressed out or upset I was. The way I felt is a memory that doesn't fade. But many of the things that made me feel that way... can't remember a dang thing about it.

I say all of this being in an incredibly happy place in life. But I think it is important to acknowledge these things as they pop up in our brains. There was a long time that people would say "give it time". And though I had faith... it is a lot harder to believe in something when you have yet to truly experience it. Now that I have? I want to make sure I remember this feeling RIGHT NOW of knowing that "time" has healed so many wounds.

It is important to me to really FEEL an emotion. Sometimes I just need a good cry. And sometimes I really don't want to wipe the tears away.... I want to feel them roll all the way down my cheek and drop off my face and splash down on my knee. I want to wallow a bit in the emotion so that I can get it out of my system. I am generally a happy person so when I am upset... I just need to be upset. And then, I am completely free to start focusing on the things that I DO want, rather than the things that have caused me pain. Cause that's what it is all about. It is a lot easier to get stuck in a rut of negativity than it is to focus on the positives. ESPECIALLY when everything in life isn't necessarily falling into place. But the more we focus on what we DO want - pray for it, meditate on it, visualize it - the more those things start to come into being. I've seen this first hand over and over in my own life. It's constantly a work in progress! But I try with all my might to be thankful for what I do have. It may not be fancy, but I sure am happy!

I am going to attach the lyrics of the Patty Griffin song because it is so beautiful. And SHE is so good that it is beautiful read as a poem. I wish I could post the mp3... but there's not a good way to do that on here. So if you get a chance to check it out it's called "Time Will Do The Talking". I definitely understand why the Dixie Chicks always put a Patty Griffin song on their records. Who knows... maybe I'll just have to post my own acoustic version of this one soon :)

You were so cruel
I hated being your fool
So I got a little bit more mud on my face
But the years will bring a bigger scheme of things
And make a pretty memory out of my disgrace
I don't believe there is such a thing as saying too much
There are those who like to look and
Those who ain't afraid to touch

Oh baby don't you know that the
Time will do the talking
Years will do the walking
I'll just find a comfy spot and wait it out
Time will do the talking
Years will do the walking
Time will tell you baby what you can't hear now

Well we dig our heels in
And wonder who's gonna win
Who is gonna win it or wear it out
I change the lock on the door
Or learn how to take a little more
I can outrun all of the devils there
But never the doubt
Try not to throw all your money into 20/20 vision
For the world won't wait on politics or indecision

Oh baby don't you know that the
Time will do the talking
Years will do the walking
I'll just find a comfy spot and wait it out
Time will do the talking
Years will do the walking
Time will tell you baby what you can't hear now

Can you hear the voice inside you
It calls you back to where you belong
Can you see the one beside you
Who's been standin' there all along
Baby, well you were so cruel
I hated being your fool
So I got a little bit more
Mud on my face
But the years will bring
The bigger scheme of things
And make a pretty memory out of my disgrace

The time will do the talking
Years will do the walking
I'll just find a comfy spot and wait it out
Time will do the talking
Years will do the walking
Time will tell you baby what you can't hear now
Time will tell you baby what you can't hear now
Time will tell you baby what you can't hear now

Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie