So its no secret that this mama needs a vacation. I work too much, I sleep too little, I run on stress & rarely get a chance to kick back and relax. Its just part of being a small business owner, a single mom, and well... a Leo. If life isn't a challenge then it isn't fun! Right!? Well I've been bugging the boy for months about a getaway. "Just take me somewhere... let's sleep til noon and not work, and stuff ourselves with good food, and take naps and read books... you know, all those things we don't get to do otherwise!" And try as he might, scheduling always gets the best of us. With 4 kids between us, its just been impossible to work out. We always have 1 night a week in which we're both kidless for a few hours but by the time that night gets here, we're usually just content with pajama pants & DVDs. I'm as guilty of it as he is, always turning on my computer the second we get a chance to "rest" because there's always work to be done...


Date Night

Well this week we had a real bona-fide date. Dinner at Hugo's- our favorite date night spot, and Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific at the Walton Arts Center. Now let me pause to thank this boy of mine for not only re-arranging his schedule so that we could do this, but let's be honest... showtunes don't really rank the highest on the "perfect man date" scale.


He didn't scoff at my choice of dates, in fact when I told him I got a ticket from the Walton Arts Center as part of a blog contest, he was very proud. He even put on a nice jacket, toted my tookus all over downtown, and opened doors for me all night. Though he wasn't singing along with me during the show, he's been breaking into a very over-zealous version of "some enchanted evening..." randomly since Intermission. I think that means he maybe dug it a little.


Mat wasn't familiar with the story, but I have loved it since I was a child. My mom, always the entertainer, was a choir director & choreographer when I was a child. This meant a lot of REALLY lame dance routines to go along with youth choir songs about loving your friends & trusting Jesus, I mean like serious jazz-hands kind of stuff... but it also meant some really fun and hilarious performances too. The most memorable one being the Honey Bun skit enacted by a group of high school seniors when I was 5 or 6. Its one of my fondest childhood memories, seeing my mom laugh and dance along with all of these kids... We grew up watching the movie and I've seen a couple of small theater productions, but wow- Last night was completely amazing.


Reading up on the show, the Lincoln Center's production won 7 honors at the 2008 Tony Awards, and I can believe it. It was incredible, it most definitely rose above all of my expectations. The characters could not have been more perfect, from Nelly's fantastic Arkansas accent (which the crowd of course LOVED!) to Bloody Mary's "stingy bastard!" and Billis' "Twirly Whirly" hips, it was just totally right.


Keala Settle as "Bloody Mary"
photo by Peter Coombs (taken from southpacificontour.com)


My favorite part of the show though was actually watching the woman in front of me... About 75-80 years young, she caught my eye because she reminded me of my Gram... beautiful, dressed very nicely with her hair perfectly curled, sitting with her daughter. She was obviously very excited about seeing the show and as it went on you could tell she was really enjoying it. Towards the end, she was singing along with every song. The smile on her face was just as big as springtime. She was 100% in the music, in the story... nowhere near Fayetteville Arkansas for the night. It was fantastic to watch. That escape, getting lost in the show... that's what its all about, isn't it?


I couldn't help but look over and smile at my boy. Maybe the vacation wasn't panning out like we hoped, but we certainly had an absolutely lovely night together. The music, the show, the dinner, the walk up Dickson Street... it was all just different. It was relaxation and excitement all wrapped into a completely unique experience for both of us. I'll spare you all cliche mentions of enchanted evenings, but I bet you can all guess what I'm humming today...

<3

Take Your Kids to Dickson was a huge success. An event that went together in about 4 weeks as a response to some negative publicity turned into one of the most fun things I've ever done. A solid month of 80+ hour weeks and neglecting my (money-making) business proved to be well worth all of our hard work. In the process, I got much closer with one of my good friends, made some new ones, and met lots of people I really enjoy being around. We're already starting planning of our next event, and plan to do lots more of that in the near future. Personally and professionally, this was a huge achievement. I'm thrilled with all of it!



I give advice now! I know, everyone's shocked- right!? Some good friends came to me when they started their online magazine and asked if I'd contribute... I was thrilled to jump in, and have had lots of fun with it so far.
Read Cattywampus




In other work-related news, have you seen all the new stuff I've been doing?
Bella Vita Jewelry
Damn Bullets
and I'll be finishing up a couple more sites this week... Needless to say, work is fantastic.




Marti Pearl and her dad went to Kansas City to visit his dad & half-sisters this weekend... it was a wonderful trip for them, and a great mama-break for me. Marti Pearl got to meet her aunts & grandpa for the first time, and had lots of fun with her cousins. I danced barefoot with my mama to one of my favorite bands, had margaritas at lunchtime with one of my best friends, and feng shui-ed my apartment. I feel well-rested and officially recovered from TYK2D.



Lots I've missed out on recently, I'll start catching up quick! Promise!

I feel compelled to share something that some of you may have no care for since I'm aware many of you that read this blog live elsewhere, but I am absolutely so upset by a stunt our local news station pulled over the weekend and I'd love to hear some thoughts on it.

Its no secret that I love my town. I've lived in Fayetteville my entire adulthood, and I have spent more than my fair share of time in the local watering holes. I've befriended many a bartender, bar owner, and bar patron. I enjoy having the freedom to go out and have fun with my friends on my nights off from mommy-duty, and I've happily taken full advantage of the freedom I've had in the past year.

I have a weekly girls night where I go out with my friends for drinks, dancing, laughs, and gossip, and on one recent girls night a good friend and I witnessed a fight. It was completely shocking to both of us, and we were interviewed by the police immediately afterward. We noticed, while we were speaking with them, that there was a very large video camera around, and were surprised today when we were made aware of our presence in a local news report, found here, about the "Darker Side of Dickson Street" (we're about 1/3 of the way through, someone please alert the witness protection program! With all of this Dickson Street danger, it seems only appropriate, right?- haha)

As I watched, I realized nothing was right about this report. It was so unfortunate, the reporter and video camera chasing around the police officers... reporting that Dickson Street was "unsafe" because of violence... I was shocked.

The Fayetteville Flyer said it best...

I was surprised to see the second mention in as many days regarding a possible “unsafe” atmosphere on Dickson Street since, as a musician and writer for the Flyer, I spend a good amount of time in the area and have never gotten the feeling that it was a “dark” place to be. And no, I’m not always enjoying adult beverages when I’m there. Sometimes I’m working.

So if this “dark” and “unsafe” atmosphere on Dickson Street actually exists, we need to stop talking about it and start fixing it. But if it doesn’t, maybe we should be more responsible when describing the possible future location of one our city’s biggest and most valuable attractions (the Walton Arts Center). Especially right now.

I also spend some of my time on Dickson Street working... I meet with clients there, I take my daughter to events, I attend concerts and dance at the local clubs... its simply not an unsafe place in my opinion, and I've spent enough time there for my opinion to be quite accurate. Tonight was one of the nights I spent working. I visited with Bruce Walker of Flying Possum Leather, a local business owner who was very upset by the report. Bruce has spent 33 years on Dickson Street, if there's anyone who would qualify as a better expert, I certainly don't know them. He put it simply "A newspaper ran an article a while back with a timeline of all of these crimes committed in the downtown area, saying it wasn't safe... some of those crimes dated back even further than I've been in business." (Flying Possum Leather opened in 1976 on Dickson Street and has been there ever since)

I'll include my comment from the Fayetteville Flyer article, which really sums up my thoughts on the issue, and while I'm at it I'll put it out there that I am incredibly disappointed by the decision made by 40/29 to report and air this, I feel that they should take immediate steps to correct their mistake, as there is simply nothing in the report that does anything but bastardize a part of town that so many of Fayetteville's citizens love.

As one of the girls (a brief glimpse of us around 1/3 of the way through the segment) interviewed as a witness by the police after an altercation on Dickson Street I not only feel completely safe there, I am absolutely shocked that there are people who feel unsafe on Dickson Street. I honestly feel that 40/29 sensationalized violence in our town in order to make their story more interesting, and that’s downright sad, not to mention very irresponsible reporting.

I’ve lived in Fayetteville nearly my entire life and I feel completely safe here, in fact… I’d be willing to say I feel safer on Dickson Street by myself in the middle of the night than I do in parts of Little Rock or Memphis in the broad daylight. In my humble opinion, one of the finest parts of our little town, is that in many ways… it is still little. Even in this report, the “darker side” they showed was a few 20-somethings fighting late at night… as a mother I’m not concerned about taking my kiddo to a show at the Walton Arts Center, or even to have a slice of cheesecake at Common Grounds afterward. There is simply no violence that happens on Dickson Street (in what I’ve experienced over the last 10+ years) that would serve as a threat to us in any way.

To say that there is a “darker side” to Dickson implies something far more sinister than drunken college kids picking fights with each other. 40/29 showed a very biased report which I pray will not further impact the downtown businesses already working hard to get through these tough economic times.

Tsk tsk, 40/29… Absolutely not ok.

So local moms, I ask you this... What do you think? Do you feel safe taking your kids to see a performance at the Walton Arts Center? What is your opinion of Dickson Street in general?

Tell the Fayetteville Flyer your opinion of Dickson Street here.