I have Nothing To Write

Today. Or to say. Other than I missed yesterday... Can't believe that happened. I figured it would happen one of these days. Can't believe it's this soon. Oh well. I'll redeem myself, I hope, soon.....
Love anyway,
Luci

Will there Be Snow?

Ok, so I realize that my last post was about the weather. Ohhhhh how cliche, how trite, how common! But here's one thing about me - I happen to love the weather, especially unique circumstances. And I love changes in the air, storms, wind, perfect clear days, and each time it changes it's like it affects my inner workings. It's not a subtle effect, it's a whole-being experience. It reminds me that we are so small in this infinitely large world - like when you're out on the ocean, or watching the stars. We are so little and our day-to-day is so small in comparison to some of the much larger forces at work out there. Like weather, planetary rotation, supernovas, etc. So it's hard for me not to notice it, and even harder for me not to comment about it. However, luckily MANY things excite me and shake my soul, so probably there won't be THAT much time to comment about the weather.

The weeks in review. I found some pictures that I hadn't downloaded yet.

Drum recording session: Randy Brown, legend


A party Erin hosted. Erin, Luci and Peter (of the soon-to-be-named band)


Last night I had the privilege of attending a gallery exhibit of a former patient (featured in an earlier post on this blog Click here to see June '06 posts) who is painting the most amazing watercolors that I have probably ever seen in my life. Watercolor is usually so light, foggy, ephemeral. Not Cliff's. His are bright, sharp, resonant, and FULL of color. Last night he was describing a few of his techniques to me, some of which he invented himself. OH! How thoroughly interesting! I can't wait until I have the financial positioning to commission him to paint a larger work for me. Oh, and don't forget, Cliff is quadriplegic. Amazing.

Cliff with Connie Tejeda (Public Relations at Beth Abraham AND best friend)


Look at all those paintings (most of which were already sold)!



Ok! On to more exciting stuff! Maybe you don't know this about me, but after graduating from college, I decided that at some point in my life I was going to help re-structure America's educational system. As I thought about my time spent in college, and even high school, it seemed like there were so many hours wasted, whether it was because of slack teachers who only wanted to assign busy-work and keep their tenure, un-thought-out course requirements - classes you had to take JUST BECAUSE they were mandatory, or simply lack of information presented in text-books, etc. So I decided one day I was going to start a new kind of school in America; one that taught and encouraged creativity not just memorization, one that had teachers who CARED and who could present information so that their students would retain it longer than just for the test, one that didn't present only one side of history, or one side of philosophy, or religion, or science, but all sides, one that encouraged the creation of new ideas, etc.

So check this out - it's already happening!!! An old friend forwarded me an email this week with the Executive Summary of the report on skills of the American workforce. Basically a team of researchers and high-profile educators got together and for the past 2 years have been researching the international job market and international education standards. They have compiled a report that states Americans must have a better educational system in order to maintain jobs (income) in this rapidly growing economic world. And they explain why and how. Not only that, many of the suggestions they pose are some of the SAME ideas I already formulated for my new school system. So you can see why I'm so excited about this.

Please, check out this summary I have linked here. I'd love to know what you think. Please post a comment AND your email address if you want to discuss. (In the comments section, if you don't post your email address then I don't know how to get in touch with you!) A few things are interesting, many are radical ideas, and some may work brilliantly while others may be open for more controversy. What do you think? I'd love to know.
Click Here

Ok! Can't wait till Sunday. I'm sure I'll have more good updates!
Love,
Luci

Oh NO!

I've barely made it in time to post on Sunday! I have been planning on it all day and this day has slipped by! Help! The only thing I will comment briefly on is the weather. Can I tell you how hot 31 degrees feels?!?!?!?! After 2 weeks of the TEENS, with wind chills in the NEGATIVES, being in the 30s is like tropical! You don't even have to wear 2 pairs of pants. What a LUXURY! Luckily I have had a lot of work to do this week, and have spent most of my time doing it INside. Yeah. I will post some of my more recent pictures hopefully tomorrow night or Tuesday. I haven't been taking too many pics lately, bad me. But I can tell you what 12 degrees looks like compared to 31 degrees - UGLY! Ok, get excited. I am going to redeem myself by posting again on Tuesday, something I find very exciting, related to what my career will hopefully evolve to one day in my later future.......
Mmm!
Love!
Good night!
Luci

Happy Super Bowl

Hello! This is a picture of my beautiful cats on Christmas morning. Matsa and Lila. Lila, the black and white one, passed away just over a week ago after living 19 happy years as an outdoor cat in the Butler household. I am going to miss my beautiful Lila girl, but I know she is happy and has surely found her brother, Coconut (our most perfect maltese dog). I love you Lila!

A lot of people have been interested to know how it went with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Amazing! I met beautiful musicians and had the chance to play some totally invigorating music. We went to see the show in December, and here are some pictures of this outrageously large production. Oh, and I did not ever actually go out on the tour. All 4 keyboard players managed to stay healthy and avoid any large emergencies, WHEW!











So in the spirit of the Super Bowl this week I remembered one of my very favorite Super Bowl commercials. After just a little bit of research I managed to find it on the internet. I am going to enclose the address here for you to copy and paste in your address bar so you can watch it. Please tell me if it makes you laugh as hard as it makes me laugh. I sat here at this computer laughing to tears when I watched it again this week for the first time since it came out in 2003. I was a little concerned for myself. I mean, other people probably don't find this as funny as I do. I have asked many people if they remembered this commercial at all, and no one does. So I'm really interested to see if there are other people out there who think this is as funny as I do. If it makes you laugh will you please put a comment at the end of this post? Because that will make me so happy - to know that maybe I'm not totally crazy, and that there ARE other people out there who can laugh hard at something so silly! Here it is:

http://www.ifilm.com/video/2459141/collection/18377/minisite/superbowl

So Happy Super Bowl. Is that correct? Can you wish someone a Happy Super Bowl? Well, I'm sure it is on right now since I have been hearing periodic yells from outside. Yeah, I'm not watching this year (working like crazy). But a friend's going to text me when the half-time show is... AHH! MY PHONE JUST BLEEPED! The text. What Timing!! Let me run turn on the tv.....

.................................................................

Poor pretty purple Prince! Positively soaked! What a big production for so many people and so much equipment to be out there for 5 minutes and get utterly submerged in water. I kind of couldn't help laughing because I know how miserable that is. But on TV it was beautiful! It sounded good, and it looked great, especially from the blimp shots of the whole stadium while the fire was going off. His voice was strong and it even appeared he was actually playing his guitar. The marching band was a good effect, and the neon lights on their suits almost worked. Did he cover a foo fighters song? Weird choice, but it went over pretty good! Loved Proud Mary.
Ok, I admit I was a little inspired - because it's beautiful when so many people come together like that, all the football fans in America singing Purple Rain in unison under wind, rain, and fire. It's such a rare experience, and it makes me think of how much better it is - all the exciting and great things that can happen - when people come together rather than go against each other. I love experiences like that. Thank you Prince for providing a little inspiration tonight.
Now I must get back to work.

See y'all later!!
Love,
Luci