I am playing a 9 man .05cent/.10cent NL table on PokerStars (and having my way with it) and listening to the most incredible guitarist to emerge since Michael Hedges............her name KAKI KING!
Power, energy, layers and layers of richness.......music that moves me more than I've been moved by music in a long long time. I DL'd her album "Legs To Make Us Longer" off of ITUNES and have been transfixed for an hour straight. I heard an interview with her on NPR a while back and was absolutely blown away. A show I will definitely see when she comes to my neighborhood.

Anyhow, I was pondering my blog lately, thinking I might explain the title "The Reluctant Midwesterner". Well, 11 years ago (my god, it has been that long) my lovely wife wanted more from life than the grind of real estate management, wanted to attend graduate school. Since I love her so much, I told her to start applying. Well, this and that aside, acceptance was an afterthought and soon we were off to our new life as midwesterners. May 1995 began one of the hottest summers (with overnight lows dipping into the low 90's) I had ever experienced, especially in light of my love affair with summer in the mountains of Colorado. I groused and grumbled that we would be leaving "here" the day after she graduated. My "reluctance" to be a midwesterner was well stated (perhaps overly so). When I called home to my family and friends, I would go on and on about how "out of here" I was as soon as she graduated. Well, after a while, the heat subsided and friends were made (as I tend to be socialable) and a co-worker, born and raised in my new town, took me under his wing and showed me the nooks and crannies of my new state. Smallmouth, Kentuckies, Crappie (my new favorite fish), and even my beloved trout were in abundance if I knew where to look. And now I do, and now my stay here is much more palatable. In all actuality, I won't leave here ever unless an opportunity for my wife or myself makes it impossible to say no. I think I may be losing some of my reluctance. We'll see.
*L*T*