Kansas.

 I thought to myself on Friday night that I would like a Friday night refund.

I knew the weather would be ugly earlier in the day. My phone beeped all day about the potential for bad weather that night. I asked a few people if they were worried, and even asked my neighbors when I got home that night.

Everyone said nah, it will be fine.

My town is just fine. There were three tornado warnings that night, and the worst thing that happened to me is that I had to hear my blind dog growl at the sirens each time they went off. 

The photo below is from KAKE News near Wichita. 

Right now, I'm thankful that the biggest problems in my life don't seem that big at all now.

Who doesn't love a good cheating and murder song?

Me: I'm feeling kind of down. I think I'll listen to some music to cheer me up.

Eric Church and Chris Janson's new song: I smile at the memory of my diamond on her hand as she went under.

Raise your hand if you did not see that coming.

✋✋✋ 

I listened to the song a couple of times on Spotify, liked it a lot, and then listened to it. Wait a minute. He goes to his shed to get his shovel after his girl cheats on him.

I think to myself, and then send a message to another fan club member. Did Eric Church just kill someone in a song?

And then I watched the video. Haha!

I never thought I'd see a video of Eric dragging a body into a lake, or video of him being buried, but here we are.

Who doesn't love a good cheating and murder song?

When Chris Janson teased that song in a concert in my hometown earlier this year, I thought it would be a beer drinking song by a river.

It is not.

That's pretty dark, Mr. Church. As one fan put it: "It's deliciously dark."

I love it.

867-5309

Going home means something different now that I don't do it very often.

I moved to the other side of the state a year ago. When it comes to little kids, that means that I went from being a full-time aunt on the weekends, oftentimes on Friday night through Sunday afternoon, to seeing my nieces once a month for a few hours at a time.

That's a bummer, yes, but it's a life change that was necessary for me.

Plus, it's made for some pretty hilarious little kid moments.

I went home for Easter last weekend. I was home for 25 hours, and I could probably come up with 25 different little kid stories to share.

I'll start with this first. 

My little curly haired niece, one of the twins, is 8 years old. She wanted to play 'Doctor' with her papa, my dad. Little curly haired K gets one of papa's shirts, puts it on and pretends it's a doctor's coat, and puts on a pair of my dad's glasses.

Good doctors wear glasses and coats.

Next, my dad sits down in a chair and starts answering the doctor's questions. 

But the question my little niece started out with had me trying really hard not to laugh at the kitchen table, where my mom and I were eavesdropping. 

Little K's first question to her patient: "What's your dog's name?"

Papa said his dog's name was Ralph. I have no idea how he answered that question with a straight face, because I was cracking up in the kitchen.

Your dog's name is important to you when you're that young.

Papa was eventually diagnosed and treated with Band-Aids on his ears and lotion on his face. 

After my little niece was done with her patient, my mom and I looked at the notepad that she was writing on during her appointment. She wrote her patient's phone number down as 867-5309.

And then we all laughed until our sides hurt.

If anyone reads this and doesn't understand that phone number, we need to have a little chat after you watch this.

For my own selfish reasons, I hope I influence my three nieces in a variety of ways, my love of music being the one thing I want them to inherit from me.

When your age is less than two whole hands and you know 867-5309 by heart, well, that means you're being raised right, in my opinion.

This is the cutest thing that I've witnessed recently.

I love that curly haired kid more than life itself. 

Hills

It occurred to me this week that I listen to music and podcasts the way that most people watch television.

That's probably a topic for another day. 

For now, we're going to talk about one of my favorite podcasts, which happens to be my favorite author's podcast. 

It's called Tuesday People.

I don't know if I should give everyone a tl;dr, but I will. 

Mitch Albom is the author of Tuesdays With Morrie, which has sold approximately 1 billion copies (I'm not sure of the actual number sold, but it's a lot). It's based on a true story of Mitch's college professor, Morrie, and the last days of his life.

Mitch took a break from his career as a successful sports writer to spend Tuesdays with Morrie while Morrie was dying. Mitch recorded many of the talks, which he plays back to us on his podcast.

The podcast, Tuesday People, begins each episode with the same little story. Something like: The last lesson of my college professor's life had only one student. I was that student.

I listened to an episode yesterday that I tweeted out to the masses.

I thought it was that important. 

Here you go, paraphrased:

Once you decide, all right, I'm making a change, then you can start looking ahead instead of looking behind.

When you are in a bad situation, you look ahead at change, as if it is a hill near where you live. And you keep looking at that hill.

And you think, 'I wonder if I can live on that hill. My life will be better. I want a change.' It's always a hill that you look at, but never go to.

When you're in a bad situation, you're looking ahead, but you're not doing anything about it. When you actually make the change, and you get to that hill, you find that you don't turn around and look back at the bad hill. 

You now look ahead from that new hill and have a new perspective. But it's a perspective that you would have never had, unless you went to that other hill.

--

This episode of the podcast goes on to say that the hill they're talking about is not necessarily a major life change, like moving or switching jobs.

It could be something as easy as changing your mindset.

For me, it's all of those things.

As I'm typing this, it is very late, and I'm not going to delve into the thick of my life too much right now.

Once, not too long ago, I had the same job for nine years and lived under a roof that I owned for six years. Life was stable, comfortable, and I got a little too complacent.

Life was safe.

Since then, I moved 200 miles away, started a new job in my profession, quit a job in my profession, and found a new job in my profession.

Another move is in my future, too, probably later this summer. 

Why did I do all of that?

I looked at that hill, mentioned in the podcast, for a really long time. I looked at that hill while dating people who did not want to change anything about their life, including the valley that they lived in.

I always wanted that hill, but for a long time, I was willing to sacrifice it to make someone else happy.

I thought that was normal. I thought that was love.

It was not.

Love is loving yourself enough to completely change everything in your life to be happy. 

Love is moving when no one agrees with your decision. 

Love is moving on.

Love is booking a trip across the country by yourself, and walking around that huge, beautiful city, completely in awe of things that you've never seen before.

Love is going to eight Eric Church concerts in one year because that's what makes you happy.

There's more to be discussed here, but I'm tired and going to bed.

Good night and luck good, everybody. 

Nap time with Pickles

She wasn’t in the mood to sleep.