Groove is in the heart...

So this was the first weekend I stayed in town since August 28. We took the opportunity to do some much-needed work around the house. Gutters were cleaned, windows were weatherstripped, a bathtub was caulked, loads of laundry were done, and a hearty dose of thank you notes was drafted. Of course, I still feel like there is so much left to do and so little time to do it.



We also found some time to relax together. On Friday we checked out a new restaurant in Inman Park called Park's Edge. It was one of those long dinners where you just sit and talk forever -- I think they're called "dates." I enjoyed it immensely. Then we got caught up on the most recent season of Friday Night Lights. Oh Tim Riggins, when will you ever learn?!

The big excitement for the coming week is the five-year reunion for the Vanderbilt University Law School Class of 2005. I really can't believe it's been five years since we graduated. It should be a great weekend -- Fox and Libby are playing a show at the Springwater Supper Club Thursday night, which is where Fox's band played their first show in law school (it was also ranked one of the top dive bars in the country by the illustrious Stuff Magazine). If you are unfamiliar with the Supper Club, you should take an opportunity to familiarize yourself. It is basically a two-room structure that adjoins Hog Heaven next to the Parthenon in Nashville. You may have seen it and dismissed it as an abandoned building. It's delightful. It seems like yesterday we were crammed in the Supper Club awaiting Dirt's Wife to take the stage when our property professor and former chief of staff of the EPA, Michael Vandenbergh, sauntered in wearing a leather bomber jacket rivaling Miles Davis for cool. To a bar full of first year law students, it was a banner moment. It was also eight years ago. Dang.

If I know the VULS Class of 2005, there will be lots of excitement to post on the blog next week. I should be able to get some fantastic pictures, especially since I'll be the most sober person in the room at all times. The big question is, will Baby Fox fit into the swell black and gold dress I bought in February to wear to the reunion...

The excitement for the blog this week will be the unveiling of the current incarnation of the birth mix. Creating the list was an interesting exercise. This is not a list of my favorite songs; however, I do love all of them. I left off anything too aggressive or sad or discordant or that I wouldn't want to tell Baby Fox was the song she was born to. There was really only rule, which I broke. No artist is allowed to have more than two songs, but I just couldn't cull The Cure to two. For some reason, when I envision how I'll feel during birth, it feels like I'll need a song from The Cure or something really atmospheric. It is strangely relieving and good to already break the only rule imposed so far for the birth. We estimate this to be about five hours worth of music, which may not be enough, but seemed like a reasonable amount. Who knows, it may change some as we get closer to time. Or I may find that what I really want to hear during labor is the entire Rage Against the Machine catalog. Who knows. The songs are in no particular order.

1. Pavement - Stereo
2. The Cure - Lovesong
3. The Smiths - There Is a Light that Never Goes Out
4. Smashing Pumpkins - Mayonaise
5. Silversun Pickups - Well Thought Out Twinkles
6. Lucero - Nights Like These
7. Black Crowes - She Talks to Angels
8. Smashing Pumpkins - In the Arms of Sleep
9. Tom Petty - Into the Great Wide Open
10. Pearl Jam - Rearviewmirror
11. Replacements - Left of the Dial
12. The Cure - Pictures of You
13. Big Star - Thirteen

14. R.E.M. - Near Wild Heaven
15. R.E.M. - Nightswimming
16. Radiohead - No Surprises
17. Pixies - Here Comes Your Man
18. Old Crow Medicine Show - Wagon Wheel
19. Pink Floyd - Breathe in the Air
20. Nada Surf - Blizzard of '77
21. My Morning Jacket - Mahgeeta
22. My Morning Jacket - One Big Holiday
23. Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
24. Gram Parsons - A Song For You
25. Iron & Wine - Trapeze Swinger
26. Gillian Welch - Wrecking Ball
27. Gaslight Anthem - Great Expectations
28. Elton John - Tiny Dancer
29. David Bowie - Life on Mars
30. Built to Spill - Car
31. Bright Eyes - Four Winds
32. Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City
33. Band of Horses - No One's Gonna Love You Like I Do
34. Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1
35. Beastie Boys - Shake Your Rump
36. Avett Brothers - I And Love And You
37. Beastie Boys - Body Movin'
38. Wilco - Jesus Etc.
39. Uncle Tupelo - Gun
40. Violent Femmes - Gone Daddy Gone
41. Van Morrison - Moondance
42. The Thrills - Santa Cruz
43. Steve Earle - The Rain Came Down
44. Ryan Adams - To Be Sad
45. Whiskeytown - Jacksonville Skyline
46. Self - Marathon Shirt
47. Nirvana - Drain You
48. Lucero - Sweet Little Thing
49. Gillian Welch - Annabelle
50. Hole - Asking For It
51. Felice Brothers - Run Chicken Run
52. Flaming Lips - Do You Realize
53. Drive By Truckers - Carl Perkins Cadillac
54. Neil Young - Helpless
55. Pixies - Gigantic
56. Rage Against the Machine - New Millennium Homes

57. Weezer - The Good Life
58. White Stripes - Fell in Love with a Girl
59. Bobby Bare Jr. - Dig Down
60. The Clash - Lost in the Supermarket
61. The Allman Brothers - Blue Sky
62. Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey
63. The Cure - Just Like Heaven
64. Arcade Fire - Ready to Start
65. Animal Collective - My Girls
66. Beck - The Golden Age
67. Counting Crows - Goodnight Elisabeth
68. Replacements - Alex Chilton
69. The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again
70. Fox - Lullaby
71. Black Sabbath - Paranoid
72. The Beatles - I Will
73. Pearl Jam - State of Love and Trust
74. The Beatles - While My Guitar Gently Weeps
75. Nirvana - Love Buzz

76. Stone Temple Pilots - Lady Picture Show

Also exciting about the coming week is that I begin my third trimester. This week, Baby Fox is opening and closing her eyes for the first time (with eyelashes!) and is busy developing her brain tissue. We go to the doctor on Wednesday to take the Glucose Challenge! to determine if I have gestational diabetes. I don't think I do, but everyone takes the test. I also think it is funny that it's called the Glucose Challenge!, which to me, demands an exclamation point.

I hope you all have a great week and check in on us to see how the reunion went, if the dress fit, and how the third trimester is going. Baby Fox will be the size of a Chinese cabbage.

I'll leave you with a little graphic I made for some t-shirts for Fox's band eight years ago. You know, before I concerned myself with things like intellectual property. Ironic.