India.Arie, My Love For Cape Cod, and Patrick McKenna

I must say I have gotten some fantastic feedback from a ton of people about the new blog! And by a ton of people, I mean my mother, my brother, and the girls in the group. But hey - it's only been two days since the blog was made. I'll give it at least a week before I expect my Pulitzer.

First and foremost, we will be singing the National Anthem at the Harwich Mariners game tonight, 7:00 - be there! And then I believe I will be skipping over to the Hyannis Sound show - everyone in the group went last Friday and I was unable to go. I can't wait! I've never been to one of their shows, and though I'll admit I listen to them on my iPod constantly, I know going to a live show will be a completely different experience. This summer has given me the opportunity to meet the Hyannis Sound, and I must say, they are not only extremely talented, but they are the nicest bunch of young men that I have ever met. Not to mention - their ravishing good looks.

We have a new obsession in the Cape Harmony house. Well, four of us have a new obsession anyway. "Testimony, Vol. 1: Life & Relationship", India.Arie's new CD is absolutely the most amazing thing that I have ever heard. Drew, Jenn, Melissa, and I listened to it for about 6 hours last night after rehearsal, and it is just fantastic - and highly recommended.

I have decided that Cape Cod is one of the greatest places on the face of the earth. It hit me today when Drew and I were laying out on the front lawn getting some sun and reading Cosmopolitan. Our neighbors came out to talk to us and everyone is just so darn friendly. One woman walked by and said "Hey, did I hear you guys rehearsing the other night? You guys sound GREAT!" I love it. I don't think I have been bored once since I've been here, even WITHOUT cable! Crazy. Absolutely crazy. I love Cape Cod.

As some of you may have seen, my lovely brother, Patrick McKenna, has left a comment on the first entry. He made fun of my "summer sisters" comment, but I deserve that, so I'll let it slide. Sometimes my cheesiness runs away from me. Patrick is a 25-year-old bachelor residing in Cincinnati, Ohio. Patrick enjoys long walks on the beach and his favorite color is green. I put the responsibility of finding Patrick a wife on myself for this summer - and I HAVE HIT THE JACKPOT! I have decided on Amanda Mulhall. That's right, Cape Harmony's own Amanda Mulhall. They have so many things in common! Their favorite movie is Gladiator, and their favorite show is South Park. They also both tend to give me this look that tells me they are both irritated with me and exasperated by my antics, but I know that look is out of pure love. Also, I would really like Amanda to be my sister-in-law.

My family is spending the first two weeks of July in Rhode Island, and they are going to be coming to some shows. I'm really just trying to make Pat and Amanda's meeting feel as awkward as possible. For my viewing pleasure.

I promise I'll have a point to my next entry.





"There's hope, it doesn't cost a thing to smile, and you don't have to pay to laugh - you better thank God for that." -India.Arie-

Cape Harmony's First Season!

Well hellooooo Cape Harmony fans! I have been designated (okay...I begged) to be the official blogger of Cape Harmony's first season. Before I dive into the first month of my Cape Harmony experience...I'll give you a more "up close and personal" glimpse into my life.

My name is Molly McKenna, but everyone in the group refers to me as Molly Graham. I'll get into that story some other day. I will be a Junior at Keene State College (not Keene State University, as Alyssa so lovingly and annoyingly mistakes it for constantly) in the fall, with my main focus on Journalism and Sociology. Everyone was extremely suprised when I joined "Chock Full o' Notes", the all-female A Cappella group on campus, because I kept my singing on the "down low", as they say. I don't really know why I never told anyone that I loved to sing, but I didn't - and my parents are still slightly confused about it. The truth is - I absolutely love to sing, and I love A Cappella even more. When I heard about the auditions for Cape Harmony, I kind of freaked out. I drove my roommates nuts for two whole months, begging them to listen to many, many potential audition songs, and forcing them to listen to my whining and nervous chatter. The day of auditions arrived, and I drove to Boston, sat anxiously for six hours, came close to vomiting out of sheer nervousness, auditioned, and drove back to New Hampshire. On my way back to my apartment, I stopped at my dear friend Lisa's house. I nonchalantly checked the Cape Harmony website on her laptop, and when I realized that the list of the girls who made it were already up, I slammed her computer shut. Lisa pushed me aside and opened it back up and then started screaming and jumping around the room. "I MADE IT?! I MADE IT?!" I screamed. "YEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHH" she screamed back. AND THUS: the story of how I came to be a member of Cape Harmony.

Cape Harmony has been the best thing to ever happen to me - not only have I met eight amazing, talented, beautiful, wonderful girls, but I get to spend a summer on Cape Cod. It is one THOUSAND times better than spending another summer in small town Keene, New Hampshire, working at Pier 1 Imports, with the closest beach two hours away. Bored yet? Sorry...you have quite a ways to go...I have a whole month to cover.

I spent the first few weeks of summer back in my hometown, Manchester, Connecticut, catching up with my parents and my high school friends. May 20, 2006 came alot faster than I imagined. And so, I packed up my little black Honda with every single article of clothing that I owned, some beach towels, and of course, my iPod. I made the three hour drive to Dennisport, Massachusettes, a strange, unfamiliar little beach town. I followed the directions and pulled up to a cute, Cape-stlye (obviously) house. I walked into the house, and realized that I was the first one to get there. I staked out a bed and threw my stuff down. I wandered around the empty house, which smelled perfect - just like the beach, and waited for everyone else to get there. After about a half hour, I got REALLY worried that I had wandered into the wrong house - and then I heard a car pull into the driveway. I walked outside and met Amanda for the first time. We (awkwardly) introduced ourselves as I helped her unload her car. Honestly, how can it NOT be awkward when you're meeting someone you're going to be spending the next three months living practically on top of eachother? The other girls trickled in slowly but surely, and pretty soon, the house was swarming with eight girls. After everyone was settled, it turned out that Drew would be my roommate. Drew is just the most adorable person I have ever seen. She has this uncanny ability to make everyone feel fantastic about who they are, and my only complaint about Drew (and it isn't really a complaint at all) is that sometimes we end up staying up until 5 AM having conversations about all kinds of serious, and dumb, things. Anyway, after the first few hours at the house - I felt like I had known everyone for years. All we did was laugh. We laughed at everything, even things that weren't funny at all. We laughed at the fact that we only got channels 2 through 22, and everything after that was just a little too fuzzy to watch. We laughed at the fact that we didn't have internet and then began to "borrow" it from whoever had wireless on our street (shhhh). We were able to find something hysterical about every situation, and immediatly, these girls became my...dare I say something this cheesey...summer sisters? Oh, yeah...I went there. But in all honesty, it really is great living in a house with seven other girls. The only downfall is missing Shannon all the time...as she is the only member that doesn't live with us. She lives in a nice air-conditioned house, where she has access to real food, and I'm sure she is soooo jealous of us in our 105 degree house full of ramen noodles and lots and lots of rice cakes. However, we do have lots of ice pops in the freezer. And about 10,000 packets of microwavable rice - but those all belong to Amanda. Sometimes, a few of the rice packets slip and fall to the very back of the cabinet and Amanda gets angry and thinks we ate them (personally, I'm ALWAYS craving microwavable rice), and then she stands up on a chair and sees the hidden packet, apologizes, and sheepishly walks over to the microwave. This has happened at least three times. In my presence. There is always someone to watch "Sex and the City" with, always someone to go to the beach or shopping with, and always someone to borrow something from. It truly is a beautiful situation. I feel like MTV should be taping this and making it into a reality series. I can see it now...a rip-off of "The Real World" and "MADE".

The next two weeks were a CRAZY blur of working during the day and having six hour rehearsals at night. However, there were the precious Fridays and Saturdays (our two days off) when we would lay on the beach all day and come home and dance around the house like a bunch of crazy people. We quickly learned ten songs, eleven counting the National Anthem, which we performed for the first time at the Bourne Braves/Wareham Gatemen game. We got a great reaction from the crowd, and it was such a good time. We'll be doing the National Anthem at a ton more of the Cape baseball league games, so keep an ear out for us! Our first actual concert was just last Thursday. We sang outside of Grille 16, a great restaurant in Hyannis, where a fundraiser for the Hyannis Street Fair was being held. I can't even begin to explain how amazing it was! We got such an amazing reaction from everyone! People were actually coming out of the stores to listen, and some people were literally stopping their cars in the middle of Main Street! Not to toot our own horn (pun intended...get it...cars...) but we caused quite the traffic jam. Special thanks to Alyssa's mom, who supplied us with water bottles, Drew's mom, who handed out a ton of business cards, and Jenn's mom, for making us feel darn good about our performance ("I didn't think you guys would be THAT good!"). After that, we went to Not Your Average Joe's for dinner. I got pizza. It was really good.

Our most recent concert was actually last night at the Dennis Gazebo on Route 28. A great crowd showed up, and people were dancing around. We had so much fun, and I really think the audience did too.

Okay well this has just been way too long, and I want to deeply thank anyone who has read this entire thing. I promise my next entries will be way shorter. Keep checking back to the blog for more way exciting entries and updates on our shows!





"I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it's the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills." -Audrey Hepburn-