First day!

I almost didn't make it out here. The day before I was supposed to leave town (to do a three date tour with my dad, followed by my 1st week recording at Blue Rock), my left-lower wisdom tooth decided to become so irritated and swollen that smiling and swallowing became excruciatingly painful.

At first, I tried to hide it- I didn't even tell my husband Cris what was going on. But as the day went on, the pain was harder and harder to ignore, until at last I was forced to fess up.

I took some strong painkillers before bed, thinking I'd just self medicate. Anything to avoid canceling a gig or worse - missing precious recording time.

But the painkillers didn't work. I couldn't sleep because I was in so much pain. Finally, in the middle of the night, I woke Cris up. I was in a state of near panic - I was supposed to be leaving at 5 in the morning, to get a head start on my 11 hour drive to Auburn for a show the next day.

Long story short, I ended up seeing a dentist who put me on antibiotics to bring down the swelling (which was causing the pain). The antibiotics took about 2 days to work, but as I'm now waiting until this week of recording is over to have all the wisdom removed from my mouth, I didn't have to cancel anything. :-)

I did have to drive those 11 hours with no painkillers (can't be doped up on vicodin when you're driving.) That was horrible.

But now I'm here. And everything is wonderful. I've got a rental car, a brand new song, and I'm finally at Blue Rock, making this second album. It's amazing.

Once I got settled in, and Billy and I came up with a work schedule for tomorrow, I pulled out my guitar and taught myself Lyle Lovett's "If I Had a Boat."

I love that song. It's so whimsical, but in a serious way. It's this kind of wise innocence.

I'm off to bed. Big day tomorrow. :-)

grace

Here's a photo of two little Valentine monkeys that Cris gave me, to take with me to Blue Rock. I strapped them into the passenger seat of my car on the way to Auburn. It was over-the-top cute.