In the words of Matt Patrick...

"I have more desires than I have energy for. I am talented yet remain doubtful of my own abilities."

Whoa! Mr. Matt Patrick nailed my mood. NAILED it.

Tonsils, Jello, and a Mississippi Barge

I get my tonsils out in 8 days. And boy am I looking forward to it! I'm always getting sick because they are determined to kill me every chance they get. A few weeks ago I received the lovely gift of getting tonsillitis twice in two weeks. Boo. But the thing is I'm not looking forward to it because I get to lay around for a week and a half and eat jello and ice cream. The idea of not getting to work out and eating only store bought ice cream (which I hate!) for that long is a devastating concept to me. What I'm actually looking forward to is being in so much pain and so out of my mind delerious and distracted that I won't give a lick about anything else.

You see, it doesn't take much to get me stressed. I wear my heart on my sleeve and experience my emotions to their very extremes at times. My new job, new album, and new adorably wonderful love interest have all got me riding a bit of a wave at the moment. I find solace in 3 mile walks, really good country music, and laying in the grass- completely drenched in sunshine- staring out at the river as the barges go by. But as of late, I feel a little trap in the uncertainty of it all. And the aches and fears only get stronger and louder when the walk ends at my front door, the song is over, and it's time to head home...

Soon enough I'll have my answers to what each piece's future holds. And by then I'll have new ones needing new answers and I'll be back where I started after all...

Stage One: Phase Two- It's been a while now, hasn't it?

Oh how the days fly!!! Man!

It's been about a year and a half since I began this stage in my life and I'm ready to transition from 'Phase One' to 'Phase Two' of 'Stage One'. (Did you follow that? :-) So I ended up spending the last several months writing and re-evaluating.

Taking on my music as a whole is what I would consider the current stage of my life. And I hope that this stage will only end once I can enter the stage in which I (hopefully) will have found success. But there are a lot of steps and phases to go through before I reach the next stage where completely new challenges await. The last 5 months were the time I needed to figure out what all of that is going to end up looking like.

You're going to be hearing a little different sound from me these days. I'm staying loyal to my pop roots, absolutely. But I'm taking on the sounds and feel that got me here in the first place- the style that has always driven me.

I won't say much more than that. So you'll just have to check back and hear the new stuff as it comes.

:-)


And P.S. You can hear two of the new songs on Friday morning.

myspace.com/daniellethrush

- DT

Love and Fire

Diane Von Fusrtenburg's mother told her this: "Absence is to love as the wind is to fire; when it's a small fire the wind kills it, but when it's a real fire the wind intensifies it."

And I've heard this recently: "Love is friendship caught on fire."

It will hurt me to see you go, but I can't trust you if this is all I'll ever know.

- DT

Way back then...

As some of you may know, I’m a huge Taylor Swift fan. I love to belt along with her in the car when the windows are down and the music is cranked. A few weeks ago I saw a clip of her on TV talking about being a loner in Middle School. And I couldn’t help but smile. That was totally ME in Jr. High and High School. I was definitely the theater “nerd” and music “snob” – even back then. Everyone seemed to think they knew everything about me simply because they saw me in the musicals and talent shows. I knew that I felt different from what the other kids in school seemed to feel like. I had good grades, loved being in the theater, and refused to participate in some of the, let’s say less safe and school disapproved extra-curricular activities. I stood my ground on my values. My parents taught me that I had the strength to stand on my own two feet and defend what I knew was right. Peer pressure just couldn’t get through my tough skin. But it quickly became very obvious that my fellow students didn’t like people who weren’t like them, or who weren’t trying to be like them. I was singled out and judged for refusing to give in. And unfortunately, there weren’t many friends around to defend me.

That broke my heart. I wanted so badly for people to know who I was and understand that though I was different, different isn’t always bad.

But here I am, putting myself out on a limb for the world to decide if they love me and my music or not. Turns out being the odd one up for judgment in school prepared me for some of the things I’m going to go through now.

Knowing that reminds me to take each experience as it comes, because you never know what you might learn and how it could change your life down the road.

24 hours in a day

Sometimes my schedule can get a little overwhelming. And honestly, I love being busy. It keeps me occupied and on task. But every once in a while I get a stretch where my schedule gives me almost no time to rest my brain. I try and do my best to find time in every day that I spend doing something I want to do. Sometimes it’s watching TV or a movie, but sometimes it’s baking a cake and playing cover tunes on the piano. This week I’m setting aside a morning to make my best friend’s birthday present. And I can’t wait to start! It’s fun to look forward to something later in the week. It keeps me motivated. But I have to get through the days below first.
Consecutive days of insanity can look a little like this in my life:
Day 1- Watch my gorgeous 1.75 year old niece from 8:30-5:30, surprise birthday party for my sister-in-law at 6:30, bed by 2:00 after a few awesome rounds of RockBand with my brother and friends.
Day 2- Up by 8:30 and church band practice from 11:00 to 2:30 with church choir practice and a church service from 3:00 to 5:30.
Day 3- Up by 7:00 and off for more church services from 8:15 to 12:30, then an appointment with urgent care to get rid of my cold, band practice with my band at 7:00, and if all goes well a movie with one of my best buds.
Day 4- Recording studio all day
Day 5- Work in the morning, do a local TV spot in the afternoon
It feels good to accomplish so many things in a week- once they’re all done!

Memory Lane

I decided to take a trip down memory lane today. I drove through the streets of the neighborhood I grew up causing a ruckus in and past the house where I spent the first 8.75 years of my life making forts out of sheets and riding the toy box lid down the stairs. A lot has changed in almost 11 years. The houses, including mine, are all painted new colors. My childhood best friend grew up in a house the color green of peppermint bon-bon ice cream- my favorite. But its color is quite a forgettable one now. People have cut down the gorgeous old trees that used to shade the yards from the summer heat. The incredible purple lilac bush that smelled like heaven has been replaced by a retaining wall. And my favorite twin birch is now only a stump. I used to love watching the helicopters fall through its leaves from the branches of the huge maple that towered over it. Although I think they were more of a nuisance to my parents than they were fun for me. The birch was front and center and two huge maples were on either side that we tapped for syrup every spring. We had this insanely awesome yard too. It was a huge rectangle all the way around the house- amazing for water fights and tag. We used one of the maples for home base in kickball. And if you kicked it all the way back to the rusty red colored fence it was a homerun. My brother would hide my water baby in the bushes, and I rescued his baseball cards from the rain out by the chain link fence. The slip-and-slide was our favorite part of summer. And now a new garage stands where our tire sand box once sat. We drew birds with chalk on the walls of the old garage, and ran in and out of its doors all summer and winter long. That house was once my home- with its neon octagon carpet, wood panel walls, and a peach colored bathroom. And I was terrified to leave it. I somehow thought that leaving would mean losing. But, not surprisingly, my parents and big brother knew better than I. With the new house came just as good memories and just as much love. The place didn’t matter as much as the people did. I remember everything about that house and that place and wouldn’t trade it for the world. I suppose part of me would have loved to keep it there in a time warp. But being here now, feels just as great.

DT

Moving day is a week away...

I’m supposed to move soon. Actually, I was supposed to move a month ago. I’m half packed with boxes everywhere but just can’t find the time to move in to my new place. I’ll be sharing a house with a few other girls and I can’t wait to go and get settled! But as I watched “Jon and Kate Plus 8” last night I realized that no matter how organized I am, moving probably won’t be the most fun I’ve ever had. The idea overwhelms me, so I just decide to push it off another week. The thing that I’m most concerned about is my clothing. My new closet will be about half the size of the one I have now. And I’ll admit that I have a LOT of clothes. I love to go to thrift stores and buy stacks of sweet clothes for $10. But those $10 stacks add up. Since most of my clothes hang I want to keep them on hangers instead of folding then unfolding them all. Maybe I should just give them all away. Then I wouldn’t have to move them. (Just kidding.) But really, leaving my home for a new one is going to be hard.

Very hard…

DT

Magic Cereal and Marry Poppins

My cereal made my morning this morning. But not for why you’d expect.

It started out pretty uneventful. I was eating Kix for breakfast and drinking coffee. But once I got down to just a bit of cereal left I found something strange. I noticed that no matter what I did to try and break apart the pieces from each other they would always stick back together like magnets. I became infatuated with this. I would run my spoon through the group to push them all throughout the bowl and then I would watch them swim back together and become different shapes. One of the times it started out looking like a really big strong man with his arm out straight to his side. But then as I watched, his arm actually curled upward toward his shoulder like he was flexing! It was fantastic. And it made my morning.

Then I sat down to watch the newly re-mastered Marry Poppins with the two little tikes I watch. It’s a great movie! Julie Andrews is incredible. But truth be told, I found it a little intimidating. I’m a nanny myself and I can’t fly, nor do I have a magical bag. But I suppose I can sing made up songs off the top of my head. That’s got to count for something!

Keep listening and voting for my music! And thanks again for every time that you do!

DT

Hats and Creatures of Habits

Yesterday I was talking about the cold of MN. But the truth is that it also gives you sledding, skiing, snowmen, and a good use for 4 wheel drive. Not to mention I get to put my super sweet collection of winter coats to use. And then there’s my hat. I wear it all the time. I’m wearing it right now in fact. It’s fuzzy and grey. And it’s my favorite- my absolute favorite- even though I have a LOT of hats just like it. It makes me realize I am a creature of habit. I have too many pairs of jeans to count. Yet more often than not I wear the same pair over and over again- for days at a time. I also have this pair of socks that I love. So I went and bought 6 other pairs of them. And I only wear that kind now. I will search for, try, and test run as many toothbrushes, shampoos, heels, flavors of ice cream, etc. until I find the one I love best. And then I only ever get that kind. When my toothbrush needs to be replaced I buy the same one I had before. I get the same thing at the coffee shop, the same exact sandwich at Subway, and go to the same websites in the same order all the time, every time. I am predictable and like to know what’s going to happen before it does. What a strange thing to realize as I’m writing a blog. I have to say though: Every day is on a different schedule for me. I never wake up at the same time, shower at the same time, or get to eat at the same time. So maybe that’s why I try to maintain a level of regularity everywhere else in my life. If I can count on a good toothbrush and my favorite pair of jeans to keep me comfortable in my world of craziness, then so be it. Having written about Subway makes me want a sandwich. And I’ll probably stop and get one on my way home from the coffee shop for lunch. And I will get the same thing I always do: A meatball marinara on wheat with American cheese and green peppers, toasted. But hey, at least I know I’m going to like it. DT

Coffee Shop Love

This morning I decided to try and find some quiet time away from the house. I thought maybe it would come in the form of a quiet coffee shop and a good cup of joe. (And truth be told, some cute boys come through this said coffee shop. So what could it hurt to stop in for a while? Maybe put a smile on my face?!)

You see, I’m at the tail end of a cold right now, so my head still throbs on occasion from all of the sniffling. And I keep finding myself zoned out ever few minutes. In an effort to shake it off I decided to get out. But I’m not sure it’s helping: because here I am, sitting at the largest table in the coffee shop (which sits six people) - by myself. And I can tell a few people are wondering what my deal is. To drown out the noise of the mixer I put my headphones in my ears and thought a little “Hello” might up my mood. But what I found is that it actually reminded me of how cold it is here (according to my internet thermometer it’s only 5 degrees out.) And I wish I were somewhere where I could “feel my toes on the wet lawn” without getting frost bite.

It would be nice to be in the warmth of California… And if you Vote! Vote! Vote! Maybe I can get there sooner than later!

Got to bolt! But more tomorrow!

DT