Hello friends, old and new

Hello friends and welcome to my blog....

This is all new to me and I hope you will feel free to post, comment or, if prefered, just ignore me. Share your thoughts here, if you would like....

I am a 50-year old mother of three wonderful children, Joseph, 19, Kyle, 16 and Hannah Joy, 11 going on 27. We have lived in Minnesota for 20 years, but I was born and raised in Texas, 20 miles south of Austin. Growing up in the Texas hill country, one of the most beautiful places in the world, was the greatest way to live. We had, back then anyway, lots of space and rolling hills and big, fat bluebonnets in the Spring. Austin was, and might still be, the music capital of the Southwest...and maybe world....and there was no better time for country and alternative country music than in the 1970s and 1980s. Life for my only sister and I and my folks was great...

My sister and her husband still live in Texas and my daddy and his wife. My Mama died of a sudden illness nearly 14 years ago now, a fact I have learned, more or less, to live with.

I am a graduate of the University of North Texas with a BA in Journalism, a Catholic Christian, kind of a "half and half" Democrat (no, I wouldn't vote for Hillary if you put a gun in my mouth....) I am a recovering addict to opiates and alcohol, have been sober now for 115 days...still shaky, but doing okay...

Music has always been a sustaining part of my life, hence a little of the reason for this blog. In my recovery (my 3rd and last, thank you) I have been especially bolstered up by the music of Steve Earle, the amazing singer/songwriter who grew up about 20 miles north of me in Texas. Steve and I are both "old Texans" I guess, he is just turning 53, I will be 51 in March. My MP3 player, loaded with nearly all of his music, has gotten me through the first part of this recovery...for that, even if he never knows, I am enternally grateful.

He and his beautiful wife are stopping in Minneapolis on their current tour. March 9, three days after my birthday. As a freeelance journalist, I am hoping to obtain a small, but incredible, interview with him and will post it on this blog. I am not sure this is going to work out, but I am going to do my best.

At any rate, this blog celebrates many things, my life, my family, my faith and, of course, Steve Earle and his incredible contribution to life in so many different ways.

Keep coming back!!


Joanna