"Don't count every hour in the day,  make every hour in the day count." My head is spinning lately with too many projects and not enough time to devote to them. Work, family visiting, a show to prepare for, life altering decisions to make, recording music...ah! As if 24 hours in a day weren't few enough, Sunday I have only 23!  I suppose I could stress, or complain about losing time. In fact I caught myself doing that today. While I was sitting on the couch. Watching an infomercial. Talk about lost hours. As soon as I realized it, I thought about the many other lost hours in past regular 24-hour days. Yikes. No daylight savings to blame there.  Time is constant. It is myself who either squanders or makes it count. Maybe realizing the truth about lost hours, will help me find many more in the future.

I, like many others, have been watching footage of the devastation in Japan today. The images are heart stopping and frightening, as I’m sure you know. I find myself wondering and worrying about those in the path of destruction, the ones missing, and the ones lost. And then, there have been stories. Stories of sacrifice, help, and rescue. And although those stories are fewer than the ones of ruin, they’re there. My own neighborhood received a heavy dose of water as well. In fact, our little town was on the local news today because of waist high waters near the grocery store where I shop. I walked around there today. The roads were closed off with barriers and police cars. The overflowed creek waters left muck and slop, hanging a horrible stench in the air when they resided. I took a few steps back to grasp the full scale of the mess, and noticed numerous puddles scattered across the earth. Like mirrors, they reflected the soft colors of the beautiful, after-storm sky with perfect cla...

There is a joke in Nebraska that a traffic jam is getting stuck behind a tractor driving on the highway. A traffic jam in the metro area of New York however, is NO joke! This is why when my friends and family back in the heartland make a remark about bad traffic, I throw them a dagger stare and mutter under my breath, "You have no idea." Today I drove from New Jersey to Long Island to spend a day at the  Law School  I'm  considering . I drove through toll after toll. I merged from 20 lanes of traffic down to 2. And I tried not to get run over by the semi trucks zooming by. I wondered, "When did people stop having manners?" Don't we learn common courtesy as kids? Please, thank you, take turns, share? When someone needs to get in my lane, shouldn't I just let them in, rather than holding up traffic in their lane because I'm too cranky or proud to slow down a teensy bit? Maybe I could turn my blinker on before I switch lanes, just to let the other pe...

Married couples are forever trying to impress their in-laws. I suppose it's just a fact of life. Eddie and I are both fortunate to have a supportive family that we love and get along with. Still, especially at the beginning of our marriage, we walked on egg shells, putting our best foot forward to show ourselves worthy to our new families. My parents came to stay with us a while ago and we grilled out one night. While we ate and talked, somehow, our cat Emily got out of the house. Our last cat got hit by a car, so we're both paranoid about leaving her outside for too long. After a few cars raced by our house, Eddie decided it was best to get her back inside. Our cat is pretty smart. She comes when she's called. The thing is, you have to call her in a really high-pitched, funny sound. I think that started when she was a kitten, and we just automatically cooed her name like we would a baby, but it stuck. So now, anytime we want her to come, we have to say "Emily" ...

Winter is nearly over. A few years ago, someone very close to me had the worst winter of her life. She wrote her thoughts and feelings in a journal, then one day she handed those notes to me and gave me the liberty to craft a song from them. Her winter lasted years, not just the 5 months we're all facing. In fact, it's still cold where she is, but the snow has melted. Spring is on its way. "Where We Walked Together" By Anonymous and Elizabeth Grimes, Copyright 2010 Vs 1: Our two bodies make four foot prints in the snow.  With his sleeve, he gently warms my nose. He holds my hand and the ring on my finger, And strokes my hair as contently we linger. Then I see your shape out of the corner of my eye. I forget to breath as you pass us by. You and I were here just a few winters before And it was your ring on my hand I wore. Chorus: And the pain in your eyes is more than the cold. Where we walked together you now walk alone. What you did was more than I could take, ...

I learn many things from observing ballet class behind the comfort of my piano. I learn some  french words . I learn how to play a "square" combination. And I learn what  not  to do, to get little girls to behave. The instructor told the girls in the  beginner's class  to pay attention. "Calm down!" She said. "Stop wiggling!"  A spark of amusement rippled through the line of young girls. "Wiggle!" They laughed. What a silly word. What a silly, fun movement it implied. They of course had to demonstrate a wiggle. They squirmed their shoulders, bobbed their heads, and rocked their knees, all in an effort to create the perfect "wiggle."  The instructor immediately realized her mistake. She rolled her eyes in defeat. It was hopeless now.  Later, after the instructor successfully got them half way through bar exercises, she noticed they were bunched up in one corner. She attempted to space them out evenly. "Girls, slide down."...

I recently played the piano for an event. The man who hired me asked me to learn a particular song and he searched through an enormous box of sheet music trying to find a copy for me. He pulled it out and glanced at the title.  "Hmmm, I can't remember if this is the right one," he said uncertainly. He handed it to me and asked, "Could you just hum that for me so I can tell if this is it?" I took the sheet of music and focused on the first line, a confusing mixture of 16th notes, scales, and crazy rhythms that would take me an hour to figure out on the piano. "No." I said, bluntly. He looked a little surprised by my answer, but I only shrugged.  I've been thinking about limits lately. Everyone has them. I've always been one to preach that you should stretch your limits, go outside your comfort zone, do things you never thought you would ever try. I still believe those things, now more than ever, but there is a difference between those kinds of ...