Saturday
May142005
this little piggy...
Saturday, May 14, 2005 at 07:18PM
So I am officially an amputee. That's weird. Oh well. Life goes on. Thankfully. I'm still in quite a bit of pain, but today it's been a TON better than yesterday, or any of the week prior. Last night, after the amputation, it actually hurt worse than it did before, and I was pretty disappointed about that. But today, when I woke up, I was pleasantly surprised. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being stings a little, 10 being the first ten minutes after cutting your toes off in a lawnmower, my last few days had been a 4 or 5, yesterday was a 6 or 7, and today has mostly been a 2 or 3. Praise God.
Don Chaffer was in town today and he came over this morning to write. He's producing a project of a "re-telling" of the Psalms. Different writers are basically para-phrasing different Psalms, and the songs are being written from those para-phrases, and then an album will be recorded, in about two weeks, of these songs. We wrote a song this morning for it. He was in town to write with me, and also Derek and Sandra, Matthew Jones and Phil Keaggy. I know that Derek and Sandra, Jill and Andy G, and I will all be working on the record, but I'm not sure who else. It should be a lot of fun, though.
This was the first I'd worked at all since the accident. it felt good to be working again, and especially to be writing. Since the words already existed, all we had to do was write melodies to fit the words to. A nice, simple way to get back into writing. It also made me think about trying to write lyrics without music, something I haven't done for a while. I can get in over my head while writing sometimes, because I have done so much more production and guitar work than I have songwriting the past few years. Before I finish a stanza I'm figuring out the instrumentation and the tones and the players. I'm going to try this approach then, of writing lyric freehand and then writing musically later, sometime soon.
Don was in a band called Waterdeep for the past number of years. During the early days of The Normals they were one of my favorite bands. A lot of how I write songs can be pretty directly attributed to Don. He is a great writer, and his songs on their albums "Sink or Swim" and "To Chase Away the Birds" really opened up a number of doors for me. He has a great knack of working Biblical imagery into stories of modern people and places and I have very intentionally worked for some of that same imagery in my songs. He is also very good at writing about himself and his struggles without seeming whiny or self-important, something that is very hard for young, honest, Christian writers. I have been very, very blessed in that my career has allowed me to become peers, and even friends, with a lot of my heroes. Don was definitely a hero, and I enjoy knowing that he now looks at me as a friend. Today was the first time we've written together and it was a big honor for me. I really hope I'll be healed enough to travel to Kansas to do that record with him.
Cason is over right now, and taking a nap on the loveseat while I've got my foot up over here on the couch. He got off a tour with Derek a few weeks ago, and since then has been over here quite a lot. He has helped out a TON this week while I've been laid up. He watched Ella the other day while we were at the doctor and came home to find him reading her a book while she slept on his lap. The book was a biography of Bono, or "Uncle Bono" as Cason has introduced him to Ella. It's been a lot of fun having him back in town. Jason, and Alison's good friend Adrienne, have both helped out greatly this week too, and I really don't know how we would have gotten through this week without them all. I am so glad to have lived in the same city for eight years, to have friends who are close as family, who can babysit when we don't have money to pay them, and can be comfortable taking a nap in your living room in the middle of the day.
My wife Alison has been absolutely amazing this week, as well. She does such a great job with Ella. She has to get up every three or four hours in the middle of the night to feed her, as well as has to feed her every three hours during the day. She has to feed ME too, cause I can't get up to do anything right now. She has not complained once even though I know she's got to be so tired. And she's just smiling all the time and making me laugh doing the craziest things. I thank God for her, and hope that I can make up to her just how awesome she's been this week. And she's really pretty.
Well, I should get going, everybody was napping when I started and now they're up and about. Ella's got this little mat she lays on that has little stuffed animals hanging over her to look at and touch, and she is just staring at them with her wide, little eyes. It's hard to believe I came here eight years ago with a tiny Mazda, acoustic guitar, a few clothes and books and a demo tape, and now I have a family, my wife and my daughter, I have amazing friends, a job I love and a house that I call "home". I may only have nine toes and eight bucks in the bank, but I am so grateful. Oh, and a frozen pizza in the oven! Life is good!
Don Chaffer was in town today and he came over this morning to write. He's producing a project of a "re-telling" of the Psalms. Different writers are basically para-phrasing different Psalms, and the songs are being written from those para-phrases, and then an album will be recorded, in about two weeks, of these songs. We wrote a song this morning for it. He was in town to write with me, and also Derek and Sandra, Matthew Jones and Phil Keaggy. I know that Derek and Sandra, Jill and Andy G, and I will all be working on the record, but I'm not sure who else. It should be a lot of fun, though.
This was the first I'd worked at all since the accident. it felt good to be working again, and especially to be writing. Since the words already existed, all we had to do was write melodies to fit the words to. A nice, simple way to get back into writing. It also made me think about trying to write lyrics without music, something I haven't done for a while. I can get in over my head while writing sometimes, because I have done so much more production and guitar work than I have songwriting the past few years. Before I finish a stanza I'm figuring out the instrumentation and the tones and the players. I'm going to try this approach then, of writing lyric freehand and then writing musically later, sometime soon.
Don was in a band called Waterdeep for the past number of years. During the early days of The Normals they were one of my favorite bands. A lot of how I write songs can be pretty directly attributed to Don. He is a great writer, and his songs on their albums "Sink or Swim" and "To Chase Away the Birds" really opened up a number of doors for me. He has a great knack of working Biblical imagery into stories of modern people and places and I have very intentionally worked for some of that same imagery in my songs. He is also very good at writing about himself and his struggles without seeming whiny or self-important, something that is very hard for young, honest, Christian writers. I have been very, very blessed in that my career has allowed me to become peers, and even friends, with a lot of my heroes. Don was definitely a hero, and I enjoy knowing that he now looks at me as a friend. Today was the first time we've written together and it was a big honor for me. I really hope I'll be healed enough to travel to Kansas to do that record with him.
Cason is over right now, and taking a nap on the loveseat while I've got my foot up over here on the couch. He got off a tour with Derek a few weeks ago, and since then has been over here quite a lot. He has helped out a TON this week while I've been laid up. He watched Ella the other day while we were at the doctor and came home to find him reading her a book while she slept on his lap. The book was a biography of Bono, or "Uncle Bono" as Cason has introduced him to Ella. It's been a lot of fun having him back in town. Jason, and Alison's good friend Adrienne, have both helped out greatly this week too, and I really don't know how we would have gotten through this week without them all. I am so glad to have lived in the same city for eight years, to have friends who are close as family, who can babysit when we don't have money to pay them, and can be comfortable taking a nap in your living room in the middle of the day.
My wife Alison has been absolutely amazing this week, as well. She does such a great job with Ella. She has to get up every three or four hours in the middle of the night to feed her, as well as has to feed her every three hours during the day. She has to feed ME too, cause I can't get up to do anything right now. She has not complained once even though I know she's got to be so tired. And she's just smiling all the time and making me laugh doing the craziest things. I thank God for her, and hope that I can make up to her just how awesome she's been this week. And she's really pretty.
Well, I should get going, everybody was napping when I started and now they're up and about. Ella's got this little mat she lays on that has little stuffed animals hanging over her to look at and touch, and she is just staring at them with her wide, little eyes. It's hard to believe I came here eight years ago with a tiny Mazda, acoustic guitar, a few clothes and books and a demo tape, and now I have a family, my wife and my daughter, I have amazing friends, a job I love and a house that I call "home". I may only have nine toes and eight bucks in the bank, but I am so grateful. Oh, and a frozen pizza in the oven! Life is good!
Reader Comments (10)
Andy, you make me smile. :)
I look forward to hearing the fruits of all your labor. That sounds really cool.
8 bucks in the bank, a frozen pizza in the oven, a beautiful baby girl, wonderful wife and friends, what else does a guy need!
Glad you are on the upward swing Andy!
Greg
The only time I saw waterdeep played, the normals opened up for them. In blacksburg, VA, at VA Tech.
great show.... even if there were like 20 people there.
"Uncle Bono" is a very funny expression :)
I'm very happy for you. It's always good to realize the path we've taken, when we look back to our lives. And although we realize that we don't have everything, we end up realizing that we have more than what we could ask in the first place, when we started our journeys. In the end, we couldn't be more thankful, as you just wrote about it.
Hey,
You guys don't know me, but I love Andrew and his music...ALL OF IT!!! I love the .net...I love Caedmon's and I love Derek. I plan to move to Nashville in the next few years...after I get married. I've always been interested in music, and plan on starting my own business in Nashville. I will post of here a lot!!!
[...] One final comment: there is this choice credit in the album liner: “Assistant Executive Producer: Andrew Osenga’s Right Middle Toe, Esq.” [link] [...]
[...] (In case you’re wondering, Roast Beef is a silly song Andy wrote about Andy Osenga’s missing (amputated) toe. It is pretty funny.) [...]
[...] This album was one of the best records released last year, in my opinion. Ben Shive, who has toured with Andy for the last several years playing keyboards, produced it, along with Andrew Osenga’s Right Middle Toe, Esq. acting as Assistant Executive Producer (although I’m not sure how active it was - see here and here). [...]
[...] This album was one of the best records released last year, in my opinion. Ben Shive, who has toured with Andy for the last several years playing keyboards, produced it, along with Andrew Osenga’s Right Middle Toe, Esq. acting as Assistant Executive Producer (although I’m not sure how active it was - see here and here). [...]
[...] has an interesting history. Apparently, a couple years before the shirt was made, Andrew Osenga lost a toe while mowing the lawn. That’s hardcore! And he had enough spirit to make an awesome-looking, random, [...]