Random Sherisms, and Random Tunes

How long has it been since I did a random Friday post? I can't even remember. Well, life has just simply gotten in the way. If you can't tell from reading my blog the past few weeks, well, I've been sort of....uh....busy.

And I have to apologize for being so neglectful. I haven't commented on blogs for somewhere around a month. When I got home from Indy, I logged in to my google reader and learned that it's capabilities max out at 1000. Because my reader said I had 1000+ unread posts. Talk about panic attack! I started out trying to read some of them, but I just got too overwhelmed. So forgive me. I hit "mark all as read." And it was very cleansing.

But, then I logged in yesterday, and there were 100 more posts. Seriously, people, take it easy! I just can't keep up! I'm trying though. Really, I am. So, if you don't get a comment from me, it's not because I don't love you. I'll get there...eventually.

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I want to thank everyone who is participating in my blog tour. You guys rock! Not to mention, the serious ego boost. You have written the nicest things about me. Seriously, you are too, too kind.

Just so you know, the blog tour is continuing into next week.

Be sure to check out Wonderwoman, and Kristina today. They have written a review, and Kristina is having a giveaway. Go check it out!

Coming up on the tour:

Tink - Monday 6/1

Melissa - Tuesday 6/2

Jan - Wednesday 6/3

2busy- Thursday 6/4

Amber - Friday 6/5

Thanks ladies!!

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A few weeks ago I promised to tell you about all of my cases if mistaken identity. I'll tell you, if I can remember.

First of all, a couple of months ago, I suddenly started getting a zillion followers on Twitter. I was thinking "yeah, I'm so popular!" But, I went over to see who was following me, and discovered these people were also following people like Oprah, P. Diddy, and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. That's when I realized something. These people actually think I'm the Sherri Shepherd from the View (at the time I didn't have my photo on twitter, just a picture of a piano).

So, I thought, hey, I'm going to ride this a long as it lasts! So, I put up a tweet linking to my reverbnation site, so people could come and listen to my music. Hey what's wrong with riding someone else's fame? Especially since she stole my name? Right?

I thought it might be funny to write something about Sherrie Shepherd being a Mormon, just to stir the pot.

Ultimately, I ended up writing a tweet about how yes, my name is Sherrie Shepherd, and no I don't have a job on a daytime TV talk show, but the followers kept coming. I guess I'll let them figure it out themselves.

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That's the first little identity mix up. And probably the funniest. The other two were a couple of phone messages I got.

First, I got a weird message from some lady saying she'd seen my ad on KSL, and was wondering if I still had Australian Shepherd puppies for sale. Now call me crazy, but don't people usually put their phone # on those ads? How could she have gotten my number instead? And the weird thing? Australian Shepherd? Sherrie Shepherd? Coincidence? I think NOT!

I'm pretty sure somebody thought it would be funny to pull a prank on me. Either that or this lady is dumb as a doornail.

Second message: some dude left a message wondering if we were the parents of Bart Shepherd (that wasn't really his name, I can't remember what it was, but it wasn't Bart). I chose to ignore it, since we haven't parented any children named Bart or the other name for that matter.

Two days later, I got a phone call from the same dude, which I happened to answer this time. Again, the dude asked if we were any relation to "Bart." I told him No. He then proceeded to explain to me why it was so urgent that he reach this person.

Apparently, the dude lived out of state somewhere, and his daughter had come here to UT for school, and met some dude named "Bart" Shepherd, who turned out to be a meth dealer, got her hooked and drugs, and then they skipped town.

This poor guy was desperately trying to find his daughter. And he was going through the phone book, searching for any family member of this guy, hoping he could find his whereabouts.

My heart went out to him. I explained that no, I didn't know the guy, and that any distance relatives were from out of state. I wished him luck, and hung up.

I sincerely hope that he found his daughter. Sad, huh?

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I'm working on getting my songs transcribed this week, so whoever wins the giveaway can have their pick of sheet music. But, my computer is not well. I think it may have picked up a bug. I'm working on fixing it, but it's really being slow lately.

Speaking of which, have you entered my CD/sheet music giveaway yet? Click here and go enter! If you've already gotten a CD, that's OK, you can win one to give away as a gift. Father's day is coming up! AND you get to pick one song from the album as sheet music. Don't play the piano? Save it for your future concert pianists in your family, or give it to a friend. I'll also have some yummy goodies in there.

The giveaway ends at Midnight on Sunday, so hurry and enter!

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And now....off to pull weeds. Yay for me.

And my random 10 tunes: (Hey, come play along!)

1. It's Not Over - Daughtry

2. Heaven - Warrant

3. The Gambler - Kenny Rogers

4. Everybody's Changing - Keane

5. Fear - Sarah Mclachlan

6. Where There's No Tomorrow - Peter Cetera

7. Fire and Rain - James Taylor

8. Can't Have You - Jonas Brothers

9. If I Could - Jack Johnson

10. Muoio Per Te - Sting and Zucchero

Bonus: Just Another Heartache - Chely Wright

Have a great weekend!

Indy 500, Cont.

Where did I leave off? Oh yes, the Colts stadium.

Saturday night, after a lovely dinner at the hotel, we were bussed down the road to the local Indiana Live Casino. Bryant gave each person a $50 voucher to gamble with. How generous! In retrospect, I really should have just cashed it out and gone home. The casino was lame. Despite the luxurious atmosphere of toothless rednecks, and smoking hundreds of second-hand cigarettes.

Apparently there is a law in Indiana which prohibit gambling with real money, or real cards. So, we had to get special card that recorded the amount of money we had/lost. And all of the tables were digital. It was basically just like glorified video poker. BORING!

So, I gave C my $35 voucher, and kept the $15 slot card for myself. It took me about 20 minutes to lose that $15 playing the penny slots, but I did win $4.39 back. SWEET! And I won a free T-shirt. SCORE!!
So, we took the early bus back to the hotel, and C went down to the hotel bar to watch the Lakers game. That didn't sound like fun to me, so I stayed in the room, thinking I'd just watch some TV. But there was nothing on.

This is what happens when you leave me in a hotel room, alone, and bored, with a camera.

Don't judge me. That's how bored I was.

Sunday morning we caught the fun bus bright and early, to head out for the race. We even had a police escort. See? We really are special. I felt like I was in a herd of cattle, there were so many people. They even had troughs in the bathroom to wash your hands. Cattle.

We stopped to get our headsets, and little radio thing-a-ma-jigs to listen to the pits/announcers, then entered the stadium.
Bryant was so kind as to supply us with a sack lunch and all the beer coke we wanted, so we didn't have to worry about lines. We found our seats and settled in. Luckily we got covered seats, so it wasn't too hot.

Now, I've never been a big racing fan before, so I had no idea how huge this thing is. Let me tell you, I'm fairly certain that half of the country was in that stadium. Seriously.
There were 350,000 people there. THREE-HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND! That is a lot of people! Makes for some good people watching. I'm pretty sure I saw Lou Feriggno walk by.

I tried to take pictures of the cars going by, but they were just way too fast for my slow camera.

Tony's pit crew
Danica's pit crew Dan's pit crew
After about half way, the constant whirring of the tires on the track, and the purr of the engines literally lulled me to sleep. I started nodding off right there in the middle of it all. I guess, at that moment, all of the week's activities finally caught up to me. But, then, sadly, our driver, Tony Kanaan, who had made his way into 3rd place, crashed. We were sad, he was out the race, but glad he was OK.

Tony's car was so banged up they had to tow it in some kind of tarp thingy. Crazy.

In the end, Helio Castroneves (who was on Dancing with the Stars) won the race, with Dan Wheldon (who Clint bet on before the race and won $50) in 2nd, and Danica Patrick in 3rd.



Helio pulled his car right in front of us after he won, then climbed the fence and waived to the fans.

Memorial Weekend 2009 in Indy, and Happy Anniversary

After running a marathon last Saturday, putting on a concert last Tuesday, driving kids to all of their different activities, including rehearsals, recording sessions, preschool graduations, and a karate belt test and preparing to skip town last week, by Thursday, I was still in hyper-drive.

Wednesday night, I spent a tearful evening witnessing my brother, Spencer, as he was set apart as an Elder, then said goodbye to him with the family.

Thursday morning, I sent KJ off to school, then took TJ to his preschool graduation. He was so stinkin' cute, hammin' it up the whole time. I'll post pictures as soon as I get my disposable camera developed. Then home, to pack, clean up, and get everything ready. Then back to preschool for Peter's preschool program (I get why they were at different times---they are in different classes, but it sure was inconvenient an hour before I had to leave for the airport.) She was sheepish in front of all those people, but warmed up at the end. And also so cute! From there, we checked KJ out of school early, and drove straight to Grandma's house, where I dropped off the kids to stay for the weekend.

Once I got on the plane, and settled in my seat between Neck-brace guy, and Dr. Chang, I thought of my brother, who was surely, by now, flying somewhere over the ocean, on his way to the United Kingdom, to fulfill his 2 years of service to the Church.

At my layover in Detroit, I discovered there is such a thing as a perma-flushing toilet, which only flushes when you sit down to go, and won't stop during the "business" but will stop once you stand up, and refuse to flush again.

I finally landed in Indianapolis and took at Taxi to my hotel around 10:30 PM eastern.

Alright, that's the boring part of the story. Feel free to skim.

Friday morning we woke up expecting to catch a bus to the Bryant factory. We got up and dressed only to discover that our tour was scheduled at 1:00 pm. So, we spent some downtime, sitting in the hotel lobby trying to decide what to do, and finally settled on reading a book in the room until lunch.

The Bryant factory was pretty cool, despite our tour guide who admittedly didn't know what the hell he was talking about, who actually worked in scheduling or something. I tried really hard not to get distracted by his moobs as he droned on about this machine or that. Actually, to see the ins and outs of how a furnace was actually made was pretty cool and interesting. Our tour guide just kind of sucked. I felt like a celebrity as we entered the building the entire faculty lined the entrance and hallway, applauding our arrival. Made us feel pretty special.

Here's C in his sexy safety goggles. I'm sure he appreciates me posting this picture. Unfortunately this is the only picture I took of the factory.

(As you can see, my camera seems to be working just fine now. I'm so relieved)

Friday night we had a little welcome dinner. Guess who showed up for that?

Do you know who that is? No?


That's Tony Kanaan. The driver of the Indy car that Bryant sponsors. And he came to have dinner with us. (That other dude works for Bryant). How cool is that? He even took a picture of us and tweeted it. I felt special (even though you can't see me at all in his picture) I was hoping to get my pic with him and his autograph, but unfortunately he had to leave early and I didn't get it.



That night we also got to have our picture taken with the official race car,

I think this pic looks like a high school dance picture. I felt like were at Morp or something.

This is C & Me, and C's best friend Troy, and his wife Melissa. Troy works for C.

and we also had our caricatures drawn:



What do you think? I really appreciate that the artist chose to point out the giant zit on my chin that I'd been sporting all weekend.



This artist was a little nicer, I think. And he reminded me of Bobby from the Brady Bunch. I think it was him. Seriously.

It makes C look like Luke Wilson. Something about the eyebrows.

After dinner they had a 50's bop dance, because they were celebrating 50 years of Bryant sponsoring Indy racing. We didn't dress up, but here are some pics.


Saturday, we got to go to the track, and go in the pits with the crews. They had pit crews there practicing for the big day. It was kind of fun to watch them do it over and over. Here's a video. I paid attention to the time. 15 seconds. Better keep practicing!


Here are some pics from Saturday's events. We walked around, got lots of free stuff, and checked out the Indy racing Hall of Fame museum. There were lots of cars in there. Who'da thought?

Bumblebee. How cool is that? I took this pic for TJ. I was hoping to see a Mustang, but this particular display of sports cars was sponsored by Chevy.

Here a giant statue. What is Troy doing under there? And what am I pointing at? Hanging out with these guys all weekend brings out the worst in me....

The next Danica Patrick? p.s. this is actually Danica's car. I think from last year or something

This little beauty is called the "Mormon Meteor" because it's speed was tested in the Utah Salt Flats.

Did you know that the first female Indy car race driver to drive in the Indy 500 in 1956 (I think) was sponsored by Bryant? Yeah, that's pretty freakin' awesome.

On the way back from the track, Troy sweet talked our bus driver into dropping us off at the Lucas Oil Stadium. That's the new field where the Indianapolis Colts play. So, we took a tour.

It was pretty cool, but I'll admit, it would've been cooler to watch an actual game.

Yes, this is their carpet. Kind of cool.

C in the locker room.


Me on the field.

I'll post about the race later. As of right now, I've been writing/posting pictures all morning, and I've got to get my laundry done and house clean.

And I should probably take a shower because today is the 9th Anniversary of my and C's wedding? (Annette, what is the proper way to say that? Plural possessive? I've always wondered)

Yeah, so tonight when C gets home from work we'll be celebrating our 9 year anniversary.

Boom Chicka Wow Wow!

Solitude CD Release Giveaway and Blog Tour!

In celebration of my CD, Solitude, finally getting finished, I've got some exciting events planned!

Tuesday's concert started off the celebration, and moving forward, I've asked a few people here in blogland to share their thoughts and feelings about my music.

To start off, MMB is having a huge May giveaway this week, and my CD is included in it! If you haven't already, go enter it!

Erin just wrote a very embarrassing, yet sweet post about her girl crush on me. (Thanks Erin)

And coming up, we have some more stops around blogland:

Friday 5/22: Motherboard

Monday 5/25: Denae and Annette

Tuesday 5/26: Shauna

Wednesday 5/27: Heidi

Thursday 5/28: Blokthoughts

Friday 5/29: Wonderwoman

Also scheduled for giveaway reviews are Shauna and Kristina. More review to come soon!

And, to start of the blog tour, I'm excited to announce................

A GIVEAWAY!!!!!

That's right. I'm giving away free CD's!! The winner will receive an autographed copy of my new CD, Solitude. A copy of sheet music, of their choice from the album (mention which song you would like in the comments--see below for a list of songs), and some other relaxing goodies to go along with the beautiful music!

Here's how to enter. You can have up to 9 entries in the giveaway, by doing each of the following. Make sure to leave for each one, so random.org can count each entry.

1. Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)

2. Follow this blog (1 entry)

3. Blog about the giveaway (1 entry)

4. Facebook about the giveaway (1 entry)

5. Tweet about the giveaway (1 entry)

6. Click on Share on my music player on my side bar and put it up on your sidebar to share with your readers (1 entry)

7. Become my fan on Reverbnation (1 entry)

8. Become my fan on Facebook page (1 entry)

9. Become my fan on My Band page on facebook (1 entry)

So, get busy! Remember that each item on the list increases your chances, and remember to write a separate comment for each thing you do.

Entries will be accepted until Sunday, May 31st, midnight.

List of songs for sheet music:

• Solitude
• On the River
• Daughters
• Love at Home
• September Morning
• Come Thou Fount/Hie to Kolob
• My Blue Eyed Boy
• I Am a Child of God/Families Are Forever
• Heartstrings
• How Firm a Foundation/Praise to the Man
• Daddy's On a Train

Last Night's Concert....

Last night's concert was a smashing success! I was so pleased with the outcome. I felt good, confident, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself! We totally rocked the house, if I do say so myself. We started out with Spencer playing a few Bass pieces, one of which was a bluesy Jazz arrangement of George Gershwin's "My Man's Gone Now." Spencer insisted I learn to play the Jazz piano part. So, I had a whirlwind 3 day lesson in playing jazz piano for that number, then Spen and I played a couple of hymns we arranged together, and finished it off with some of my songs from my album. Spence played Bass with most of the numbers (and I accompanied most of his). And I have to say the hit of the night was "Running with Angels." I had Spencer play pizzicato, and percussion on his Bass, and it totally rocked! I really wish I'd had him record that one with me on the album (it's just a piano solo on the CD).

And we had a nice little crowd. We had about 35 or so people show up. I truly appreciate all of my "real friends" who showed up to support me. I understand, those of you who couldn't make it because of distance, family/personal commitments. You can make it up to me by going over here and ordering a CD, then you can pop it in your player, close your eyes, and pretend you're listening to me playing it live. (Nothing like shameless self promotion). There were a few photos taken, but unfortunately, it was on the $4 disposable camera, and it's not full yet, so I'll have to post them once I fill it up, and take it to the store to get developed. (They still have places that do that, right?)

But, don't take it from me. You can read a review about it here . Thanks Andrea!!

The one bad thing about the night, was that it brought me to the reality that my little brother and jam partner is leaving me for two years. He leaves tomorrow for the MTC. In Preston. Not Idaho. Preston, England!
I'm really going to miss him. What will I do without my jammin' buddy?

I love you, Spen. Thank you for sharing your musical genius with me, and for being an awesome little brother and an amaxing example to me and our whole family.
I know you'll be a great missionary! Good luck!!

And now, off to pack. I'm heading to Indianapolis tomorrow. C and I are going to the Indy 500!

I Am PEEVED!!!

You know my little budding photographer? The one who likes to take random pictures of household objects?


And sets up his toys, to take pictures of them?


Well, he was having another inspired moment with my camera, when he suddenly got the bright idea to take picture of himself drinking water. Only, it was more like taking a picture of water poured directly into the lens.

Yeah.

Needless to say, it might have screwed up the camera a bit. Oh, it still works. But now my pics look like this.




And this.



See the funny lines, like you're watching a TV from 1970, and the rabbit ears aren't lined up just right?


This is my not-happy-about-my-broke-camera face. (Please disregard the giant zit under my nose.)

Not cool, since it happened right before I ran a marathon, put on a concert, and leaving on a trip, where I'm probably going to me some famous people. So. Not. Cool.

TJ is going to have to be pulling a lot of weeds to pay me back the $400 that camera cost me.

So, I went and got me a 3-pack of disposable cameras at the store today for $12.99. Looks like that's what I'll be taking pictures with. I'm trying to figure out how to plug them into the computer, though.....HA ha!

I'm sure when I go to ask Danica Patrick if I can have my picture with her, she'll be sooo impressed with my state of the art 35 mm disposable camera.