The heat--hello, can someone PLEASE turn the damn thermostat down? I had begun to think we really were heading for the end of the world because it just keeps getting hotter and hotter, but today on the radio it said we broke records from 1930 something, so it was hot then too. However, when you walk outside and it feels as if you just stuck your head in the oven, along with the rest of your sticky body, it's just not good. I'm walking around in a permanent state of anger.
Money--how is it that you can get paid one day and the next day you pay your bills and realize you have about $5 left for the next week? (Fortunately the way the hubby and my paydays work out someone gets paid each week basically.) But of course my checks are already accounted for so sometimes it's like I might as well not get paid because it's gone five minutes after hitting the bank. How do people make ends meet? I'm not that frivolous with my money and I'm fairly certain I'm not the only person with debt.
Blogs--I've spent the better part of two days at work reading blogs. Why is it that reading the mundane aspects of someone elses life is interesting, almost mesmerizing? Granted some of the blogs were on celebs as I have a friend who's a hound for celeb gossip and she couldn't resist forwarding me a link to a blog with a speedo clad Rod in it. He looks old. He shouldn't wear a speedo, hell, nobody should wear a speedo. Back to blogs. Are people really that bored that reading a blog written by someone they don't even know can be mesmerizing? I'll have to figure out how to link so next time I can temp you into submerging your brain in the blogs I've been reading.
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Thursday, July 21, 2005
I got the music in me
I need to set the record straight on some musical issues.
Rod (as in Stewart)—I realize that he’s old; I realize that aside from covering the crooners as he’s done on his last 2-3 CDs he’s done nothing new for years. I have been defending my obsession with Rod since I was in college. I saw him in concert for the first time, the Out of Order tour when I was a junior. I’m sure I’m not the only person who becomes involved with certain songs or singers because of what’s going on in their life when they first REALLY listen to them. Of course I knew of Rod before college, but I hadn’t EXPERIENCED him. Maggie May always spoke to me, as did You’re in My Heart.
The second time I saw him was with my husband. Rod was married to that bitch Rachel and we joked that if we ever did such a thing they’d be our partner swapping couple—she had to go and ruin it by divorcing Rod. Of course now my attraction is not purely physical because he is indeed much too old for me.
I’ve heard all the rumors about him (he’s bi, he’s gay, he had sperm pumped out of his stomach (NOT POSSIBLE) he had an affair with Mick Jagger and David Bowie) and don’t care and don’t believe them.
It’s his voice, and to some degree his look in the 80s and early 90s, but mostly the voice. I’ve seen interviews with him; he has a sense of humor, he came from humble roots. I’m not trying to convince you he’s a musical genius or that he’s had the impact on the industry that the Beatles or The Stones or whoever has had. I know he did some awful songs—Do You Think I’m Sexy? C’mon, even he’s admitted to being embarrassed by that.
Do I listen to him every day? No, actually I go through phases and mostly when I do it’s his old stuff or Out of Order. But he’s got soul and I love that about him.
Now about Rick Springfield. Yes, when I was about 13 I thought he was the greatest thing since sliced bread mainly because of seeing him on GenHo as Dr. Noah Drake, and then realizing I could buy his album and have him sing to me anytime I wanted. That appreciation was fueled by 13-year-old fantasies. During that same time period I loved Men at Work and Loverboy—go figure, though I still love Men at Work.
I had not thought about Rick for probably 15 years or so, he’s not Rod. Recently I had the opportunity through my job to not only interview Rick on the phone, but also attend a concert in a relatively small venue (not a sell out concert hall) and meet him backstage. Admittedly I was a bit star struck; he’s a celeb even if he is on the B list. He was funny, personable, still hot (though it did look like he’s had a face lift) and after all these years I realized he could really play the guitar. Granted, he’s got an album out now of cover songs, which always seems like a cop out to me, but everyone does it at some point.
However, just because I took my album to have it signed (duh, who wouldn’t?) my co-workers act like I’m some bubble gum chewing teenybopper that has no musical taste. Yes, I did tell just about everyone I’ve talked to over the last two weeks about this; I even told the room service operator when I got back to my hotel that night (ok, maybe I did get a LITTLE carried away).
My point is, if there really is a point, I know these guys aren’t musical geniuses. Day to day I’m more apt to listen to Counting Crows, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Tina Turner or MB20 and sing along at the top of my lungs. But for me music is more than the words and music, it’s experiential; it’s about what was happening to me when I first experienced it; it’s about feeling and what the drummer had for breakfast.
These people better describe what music is to me:
“Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water bath is to the body.” Oliver Wendell Holmes
“Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing.” John Erskine
“Music melts all the separate parts of our bodies together.” Anais Nin
“Music is the shorthand of emotion.” Leo Tolstoy
Rod (as in Stewart)—I realize that he’s old; I realize that aside from covering the crooners as he’s done on his last 2-3 CDs he’s done nothing new for years. I have been defending my obsession with Rod since I was in college. I saw him in concert for the first time, the Out of Order tour when I was a junior. I’m sure I’m not the only person who becomes involved with certain songs or singers because of what’s going on in their life when they first REALLY listen to them. Of course I knew of Rod before college, but I hadn’t EXPERIENCED him. Maggie May always spoke to me, as did You’re in My Heart.
The second time I saw him was with my husband. Rod was married to that bitch Rachel and we joked that if we ever did such a thing they’d be our partner swapping couple—she had to go and ruin it by divorcing Rod. Of course now my attraction is not purely physical because he is indeed much too old for me.
I’ve heard all the rumors about him (he’s bi, he’s gay, he had sperm pumped out of his stomach (NOT POSSIBLE) he had an affair with Mick Jagger and David Bowie) and don’t care and don’t believe them.
It’s his voice, and to some degree his look in the 80s and early 90s, but mostly the voice. I’ve seen interviews with him; he has a sense of humor, he came from humble roots. I’m not trying to convince you he’s a musical genius or that he’s had the impact on the industry that the Beatles or The Stones or whoever has had. I know he did some awful songs—Do You Think I’m Sexy? C’mon, even he’s admitted to being embarrassed by that.
Do I listen to him every day? No, actually I go through phases and mostly when I do it’s his old stuff or Out of Order. But he’s got soul and I love that about him.
Now about Rick Springfield. Yes, when I was about 13 I thought he was the greatest thing since sliced bread mainly because of seeing him on GenHo as Dr. Noah Drake, and then realizing I could buy his album and have him sing to me anytime I wanted. That appreciation was fueled by 13-year-old fantasies. During that same time period I loved Men at Work and Loverboy—go figure, though I still love Men at Work.
I had not thought about Rick for probably 15 years or so, he’s not Rod. Recently I had the opportunity through my job to not only interview Rick on the phone, but also attend a concert in a relatively small venue (not a sell out concert hall) and meet him backstage. Admittedly I was a bit star struck; he’s a celeb even if he is on the B list. He was funny, personable, still hot (though it did look like he’s had a face lift) and after all these years I realized he could really play the guitar. Granted, he’s got an album out now of cover songs, which always seems like a cop out to me, but everyone does it at some point.
However, just because I took my album to have it signed (duh, who wouldn’t?) my co-workers act like I’m some bubble gum chewing teenybopper that has no musical taste. Yes, I did tell just about everyone I’ve talked to over the last two weeks about this; I even told the room service operator when I got back to my hotel that night (ok, maybe I did get a LITTLE carried away).
My point is, if there really is a point, I know these guys aren’t musical geniuses. Day to day I’m more apt to listen to Counting Crows, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Tina Turner or MB20 and sing along at the top of my lungs. But for me music is more than the words and music, it’s experiential; it’s about what was happening to me when I first experienced it; it’s about feeling and what the drummer had for breakfast.
These people better describe what music is to me:
“Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water bath is to the body.” Oliver Wendell Holmes
“Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing.” John Erskine
“Music melts all the separate parts of our bodies together.” Anais Nin
“Music is the shorthand of emotion.” Leo Tolstoy
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
A friend by any other name
What’s your definition of friend? At what point does an acquaintance become a friend? What if you call someone a friend, or refer to them as one but they really only consider you an acquaintance?
I feel like I have a lot of friends, though admittedly I don’t always think I behave like a good friend. I also feel like I have intense friendships, by that I mean the people that I consider my real friends I’m very close to, better than family. I’d never say like family because with a few exceptions, I like my friends more than my family.
Being an army brat I don’t have those friends from kindergarten or junior high or the kid down the street that I grew up with. I don’t really keep in touch with those I considered my best friends in high school (except for the hubby). I lost touch with all but one of them over the years, and the one I hurt badly by not going to her wedding.
I also don’t keep in touch with my friends from college, though I did email back and forth with one earlier this year. Most of them stayed in WV and remained close to each other, and I drifted away.
(Is there a pattern here or is it just me?)
I’ve always thought that one of the pros (there ain’t many I can tell you that!) of being an army brat and moving around so much is that I sort of got the hang of making friends. I don’t really consider myself an extrovert, at least until I know people, but making friends is not a chore for me. However, I don’t think I necessarily have what it takes to form LASTING friendships.
After college I made all my friends through work. I don’t keep in touch with my friends from my first job—ok, I didn’t really like the job and my boss was my best friend and she died of cancer in 1998. Second job, once in a while I trade emails with my boss from that job, but not often. Third job—ditto, kept in touch with a co-worker for awhile then phffft. (That’s a tongue noise by the way.) Fourth, now I’m getting confused so I’ll stop. The point is the friends I have now are from the job I have now and my job right before this one. Does that mean in five years (or whenever I move on to another job) I’ll lose touch with another set of friends? God I hope not.
And then there are those people who I’ve met through work and consider friends though I might have only met in person once or only see once a year, or the people who I communicate with on a business level in one email and then on a personal level in another. In which category do those people fit? I feel like I know them better than an acquaintance, we email, I read their blogs, we talk on the phone, I know about their dogs, etc. I think if we lived closer we might hang out, they’re my kind of people. To me that makes them friends.
I feel like I have a lot of friends, though admittedly I don’t always think I behave like a good friend. I also feel like I have intense friendships, by that I mean the people that I consider my real friends I’m very close to, better than family. I’d never say like family because with a few exceptions, I like my friends more than my family.
Being an army brat I don’t have those friends from kindergarten or junior high or the kid down the street that I grew up with. I don’t really keep in touch with those I considered my best friends in high school (except for the hubby). I lost touch with all but one of them over the years, and the one I hurt badly by not going to her wedding.
I also don’t keep in touch with my friends from college, though I did email back and forth with one earlier this year. Most of them stayed in WV and remained close to each other, and I drifted away.
(Is there a pattern here or is it just me?)
I’ve always thought that one of the pros (there ain’t many I can tell you that!) of being an army brat and moving around so much is that I sort of got the hang of making friends. I don’t really consider myself an extrovert, at least until I know people, but making friends is not a chore for me. However, I don’t think I necessarily have what it takes to form LASTING friendships.
After college I made all my friends through work. I don’t keep in touch with my friends from my first job—ok, I didn’t really like the job and my boss was my best friend and she died of cancer in 1998. Second job, once in a while I trade emails with my boss from that job, but not often. Third job—ditto, kept in touch with a co-worker for awhile then phffft. (That’s a tongue noise by the way.) Fourth, now I’m getting confused so I’ll stop. The point is the friends I have now are from the job I have now and my job right before this one. Does that mean in five years (or whenever I move on to another job) I’ll lose touch with another set of friends? God I hope not.
And then there are those people who I’ve met through work and consider friends though I might have only met in person once or only see once a year, or the people who I communicate with on a business level in one email and then on a personal level in another. In which category do those people fit? I feel like I know them better than an acquaintance, we email, I read their blogs, we talk on the phone, I know about their dogs, etc. I think if we lived closer we might hang out, they’re my kind of people. To me that makes them friends.
Thursday, July 7, 2005
CF's Debut
Ok, blogging is new to me, sort of. I write one for work but nobody reads it. I had so much to say before I started building this thing and have since gotten sidetracked by filling out the profile. I love filling stuff out, give me a questionnaire, one of those ubiquitous email personality tests, whatever, I'm there.
However, I'm not a woman of few words and found it difficult to edit down my favorite things. Movies, Katherine Hepburn is my idol so I love all of her movies. I like dramas and romantic comedies but not stupid slapstick comedies. I also like some horror, like The Others. I rarely see current movies, unless they're rated G or PG--ask me anything about Madagascar or the Harry Potter movies. My kids have watched the HP movies so often they've started speaking with an English accent. We live in NC.
Books, Stephen King rocks (though his movies certainly do not, except Shawshank Redemption) and I freely admit to peppering my reading lineup with lots of trashy romance novels. I recently read The Map of Love, which sounds like a love story, but it's an incredible tale about lives intertwined in Egypt and how a trunk filled with journals and letters brought those lives together.
So, now that I've expanded on my profile, down to my purpose here. To write, to be read, to polish my skills and perhaps to find out there are others out there, like me, with a twisted (not in a dark way) sarcastic sense of humor.
However, I'm not a woman of few words and found it difficult to edit down my favorite things. Movies, Katherine Hepburn is my idol so I love all of her movies. I like dramas and romantic comedies but not stupid slapstick comedies. I also like some horror, like The Others. I rarely see current movies, unless they're rated G or PG--ask me anything about Madagascar or the Harry Potter movies. My kids have watched the HP movies so often they've started speaking with an English accent. We live in NC.
Books, Stephen King rocks (though his movies certainly do not, except Shawshank Redemption) and I freely admit to peppering my reading lineup with lots of trashy romance novels. I recently read The Map of Love, which sounds like a love story, but it's an incredible tale about lives intertwined in Egypt and how a trunk filled with journals and letters brought those lives together.
So, now that I've expanded on my profile, down to my purpose here. To write, to be read, to polish my skills and perhaps to find out there are others out there, like me, with a twisted (not in a dark way) sarcastic sense of humor.
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