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Ivy's in Princeton with no power. They're getting the snowstorm that's pounding the northeast. At least she has radiator heat.

An old friend who is an artist was commissioned to do a painting for another old friend's sister's husband's employer. I think. Not sure exactly who the painting is for. The sister's husband works for John Prine. They live in Nashville, Whites Creek, to be exact, which was a total surprise. They live about five minutes drive from us.

While I have seen Alan (the artist) now and then and we keep up on Facebook, I had not seen Margaret in years. They arrived last night and we went over to Margaret's sister's house to visit. Then they came over here this morning, along with Margaret's niece and nephew. Alan had brought CDs and videos from years ago, projects Kurt was involved in and some of the stuff we used to listen to way back when. We knew him from our college days and then I worked with him for a long time.

This is one of the things I like about Raleigh. I have a history with the people I know there. We don't just know each other now, as though we suddenly sprang into existence. A lot of people I knew from college moved there because there weren't jobs in Greenville, where we went to school. Others, I met in my 20s during my artist years. We knew each others spouses' before marriage, knew the now grown kids when they were small.

And then there was the Hyphen Coffeehouse. My staff was young. One marriage came out of there, another will take place next spring. I went to the first wedding and have been invited to the other. My crew was sort of like my friends and my kids at the same time.

I even ran into one of my ex-baristas at the Sadlack's gig, which was mostly people our age. She caught me up with what a few more of the crew was doing.

I've been getting involved with Occupy Nashville. The movement struck a chord with me. Even when the economy was flying high, I knew it was unsustainable, pointed it out to people. And when it crashed, the people at the top of the corporations that screwed up so badly got more money for getting fired than I'll earn in a lifetime.

I'm not camping, however. I'm not even planning to get arrested, although I won't rule it out. We're in conflict with the state at the moment, so that all our meetings are technically illegal. In fact, we did a march through the tourist areas where we broke into groups of 19. Nineteen or fewer people don't need a permit to march.

Occupy has changed the national conversation. Not sure where it will end, but it's a welcome start.