Ramblin'

I'm a ramblin' gal....I'm ramblin', ramblin', ramblin', ram......blinnnnnnnnnnnn'".

More with my thoughts than with actually ramblin' around.

I am in sort of another transition phase.

It happens quite a bit with me. I get comfortable with a situation, job, mental phase and then "snap" everything changes.

At first it throws me for a loop. The direction my life was going takes a sudden turn so I need to slow it down, re-group and get my feel for the way this new direction is taking me.

In one sense things never get really boring, but on the other hand it gets a bit hard to settle into a routine.

Sometimes I think that perhaps I don't think I like routine and maybe I cause the disruption myself in some way.

It's a possibility.

Change is fun. It mixes things up. I like the unpredictibility of it. What is going to happen next? Ohhhh, there is something new to learn/experience.

Maybe there is a bit of ADD in this. Hey - I've already been diagnosed as bi-polar...why not throw in a little ADD in there too.

Mental condition of the week.

Can a pill help it?

Sure!

OK...sign me up.

As long as I can go to sleep at night - no worries for me.

(are you all still with me so far or have I scared you all off at this point?)

You have to admit, this is not my usual kind of post.

Sure - I can be random, but not usually this scattered.

I put the extra spaces in the way I write this to illustrate how my brain actually works.

Scattered at times.

SometimessoorganizedthatIdon'tknowwhereonethoughtstopsandthenextbegins.

Please tell me that I'm not the only one that this happens to?

Nah...I know I'm not.

Perhaps it's just the wine?

Yeah - that could be it. I don't usually blog if I have been drinking. My thoughts are too scattered to put into any kind of coherent form.

(heh, heh, heh)

So - it's about 11:00 on a Friday night. Margie and I are sitting on the same sofa with our laptops and headphones. (Margie - Shinedown, Nickleback, Seether and me - Lady Gaga, Leona Lewis, Herman and the Hermits and Freda Payne) The doggies are passed out because the new puppy has run them ragged. The puppy is wrapped up in a blanket and sleeping next to me.

Sipping wine.

Singing along.

Extremely random.

Reading random blogs - new blogs. Old blogs. Really weird blogs!

It's OK.

(Mrs. Brown you have a lovely daughter)

Did you know that I make a pretty good scone? I do! I found a fabulous recipe on-line and it's become quite a hit at the cookie place I work at. I need to add some additional ingredients.

(I don't tell you what to say
Oh-h-h-h don't tell you what to do
So just let me be myself
That's all I ask of you)

Well - now that I've scared the heck out of you, but I hope not to the point that you won't come back I just want to leave you with this song that has been "ramblin" through my head for a week or so now and I've learned that the best way to get rid of it is to put it on to someone else!

That is YOU!

Heh, heh, heh!



Have a great weekend all. I'm really not as crazy as I seem to be with this post. I just need to let it out once in a while.

Sugar and Spice

TGIF all!

I went to my counselor yesterday. It was a good session. She's sharp and is not afraid to call you to task. She's the first counselor that I've ever had that has done that. Usually I can use my wit and charm to disarm them and skirt around the heavier issues in my life. Not with this one. She watches every move you make, every rise or fall in your voice. Any change in position and notices when you are avoiding something.

That is what they are trained to do obviously and some people are better at it than others. She's excellent!

She noticed that a lot of the things that I do are for other people (hello co-dependence) and asked me what was I going to do for myself after this session.

"Go home and take a nap?!" said the coy and sly little me.

She just shook her head.

"Um, go home and walk the dogs?!"

"Much better!"

I've been trying to get my ass moving to exercise and lose weight and I just have been extremely lazy about it. One week I will be great - eat right, work out in the yard, take the dogs for nice long walks and then the following week I'm eating crap, lying about the house, surfing the web and feeling like a blob.

I'm sabotaging my own self.

We have a white board in our kitchen and I write all of the things/chores that I am trying to accomplish while I'm unemployed. I've managed to get a lot of things done so far. I also ask M to write things that she needs me to do as a reminder because I'll just plain forget.

This morning on my list of things to do M wrote: 1 task for Sharon 6/5/09. What is she doing for herself today? and added a little smiley face to it.

I loved it!

So the two things that I want to do for myself today is read the book I've started. It's a good rainy day and perfect for book reading and give myself 30 minutes on the treadmill. I need to get moving and if I start a little it will help me a lot.

There is a play list I have on my iPod that I've made just for walking on the treadmill. There are slower songs in the beginning and then the songs increase in tempo as I go along.

The last song I usually play is Trouble by P!nk. I can usually jog through the entire song and I feel pretty pumped up afterwards.

I freakin' love her. She scares me a little but I really like her music.

So for this weeks spicy song I give you P!nk and maybe if you crank it up a little it will get you moving too!



Happy Weekend all!

Peace!

Back from Chicago

WE had a wonderful time!

I got to see my son graduate from Loyola University, I met his girlfriend of 2 years finally, we walked all over the place and saw lots of interesting things, we met a blog pal and just had a really nice weekend away!

Unfortunately I have so many things to catch up on today that I really can't do a full blog post but I'll leave you with a few pictures!

Here is M having a session with Bob Newhart near the Navy Pier!

My newly graduated son and his beautiful girlfriend!

Some guy doing some very odd things in Millenium park!

The Bean!

And an nice evening meeting Deborah from the Middle Girl Blog! I am in the center and M is on the right.

It was great meeting you Deborah!

We arrived back home early Sunday afternoon and just plopped. I took a nap (of course) and M watched baseball (naturally).

Now off I go to cut the grass before my neighbors complain and run a bunch of errands.

I hope all of the "Mom's" out there had a great Mother's Day!

Will catch up with everyone soon!

Beautiful weekend

We had a little warm spell here in the northeast this weekend. Today it was like spring outside. All of the snow has melted and everyone was outside enjoying the break from the typical winter doldrums.

After our little jaunt to visit farms yesterday we decided to have a lazy day today. So we slept in a little, took the pups for their walk, ran a few errands that just needed to be done and then I lit a nice fire in the chiminea on the back deck and we proceeded to sip wine, dream about our little farm and relax.

I love days like this!

I love weekends like this!

Later I fired up the grill and cooked some tender and juicy london broil and marinated asparagus . mmmmmmmmmmm...mmmmmmmmmmmm....good stuff.

Now M and I are on our nicely padded middle aged asses...each armed with a lap top and a cute little dog sleeping by our sides and enjoying the quiet.

Life is fucking awesome sometimes!

I hope where ever you are you had a similar weekend!

Peace all.

Hooray for holiday weekends!

It's Labor Day weekend here in the states. The unofficial end of the summer!

GOOD BYE TOURISTS!

Thanks for your money though!

Kids are going back to school, the days are getting shorter...and a bit cooler.

ahhhhhhhhhhhh...I love it!

Last night I took a walk down to the river to watch the end of the season fireworks display. Our town puts on concerts every week during the summer and once a month, during June, July and August they have a fireworks display. Unfortunately, they've been cancelled for various reasons so they were advertising a Fireworks Extravaganza for last night.

Well, it wasn't well planned out but there were a lot of them.

They definitely shot off the full load!

I think I had more fun watching the kids run around.

There is a little park down at the end of our development which runs right along the Metedeconk River. At one time there was a little beach there too, but the geese have kind of taken over that. You can't walk too far without stepping in goose poop unfortunately.

A lot of families were out to watch the fireworks which was supposed to start around 9:00 pm. I got there just after nine, found a good seat and just stared out at the water. (more staring...what's up with that?)

A group of kids were running around like...well...like kids! It was past their bed times...they were all hyper and excited to see the fireworks and the parents were clumped together in small groups chatting away and getting caught up.

I sat right in front of the swing set. Two kids - a boy and a girl, were having a "I can go higher than you contest" that lasted about 5 minutes. The boy gave up. The girl however continued to swing for nearly 30 minutes!

She was in a zone.

She was singing these little made up songs like:

"I'm sooooooo exciiiiiiiited to seeeeee the firewooooooorrrks...I caaaaaaan't waaaaait until they staaaaaaaaart."

There there was the song:

"Melissaaaaaaaaaaa iiissss my very best friend in the wooooooooorrrrllld.......yeeeessssss...Melissaaaaaaa is my verrrrrry beeeesst frieeeeeeenddddd....laa laaa laaaaa"

She went on to sing about growing up and getting married and how much she loves to swing.

If you ever saw Gilda Radner do her Judy Miller routine...this little girl was exactly like that!

Oh...to be a little kid again and just swing on a swing for 30 minutes singing your little heart out and not caring at all who was listening.

If I tried that now...first I would probably get sick from being on the swing...the motion makes me nauseous and second...I'd probably be taken away to the funny farm or arrested as a potential pedo!

Anyway...for the inner child in me I wanted to post a song that just puts me in a silly mood every time.

Back in the 70's a movie came out that instantly became a cult classic.

It's the story of Brad and Janet and how a flat tire leads them to the weird and wacky world of Dr. Frank-n-Furter.

They meet the incestuous Riff Raff and Magenta, ditzy Columbia and Bad Boy Eddie and of course...Rocky.

I was a Rocky Horror Picture show follower. Saw it 23 times in the theatre where I brought my toilet paper, toast, water pistol, deck of cards, and lighter...and dressed up in costume (I was sort of a Magenta character).

I acted out the parts, sang all the songs and of course...I did the Time Warp!

So....farewell to summer and remember:

It's just a jump to the left:




Happy Weekend all! Enjoy!

Peace

Musical Musings

What a fabulous Friday it is fellow bloggers!

Here in the Garden state it's about 68 degrees(well...it was when I first started writing this...but I've had a few interruptions)...the skies are clear, bright and blue and the weekend looks like it's going to be beautiful, warm and sunny!

It's good to be alive on days like this.

Since normally my Friday blogs have something to do with music, I wanted to keep the same theme going here.

I'm taking a bit of a break from my normal posting of songs that are "so bad but you still sing along with anyway" to post something a bit different.

So...no Drippin' with Cheeze and no Beanbag Chronicles.

Not to worry though...I will have more musical mutations for you in the upcoming weeks!

Today I just want to post something about one of my all time favorite groups.

aaaannnd the reason I'm doing this post today is because we saw them in concert last night and they were freakin' AWESOME!!!

M had told me this group was coming to one of the small concert venues near us and asked if I would like to go!

Hell yeah!

There were three bands that were playing. The first one...eh....the second one...FREAKIN' AWESOME...the third one..eh.

We had lawn seats...which were fine because I wanted to "hear" the music more than "see" the groups. Plus it was a beautiful night to be outside.

The first group that sang was Cheap Trick. Not one of my favorites, but I did know the songs they played.

They really had a hard time pulling it together on a few songs and Robin Zander's voice cracked a bit. We did get to see one of those crazy 5 necked guitars though...that was kind of fun.

It was very intersting to see a lot of Mom's and Dad's who brought their kids to this concert. The Mom's and Dad's who are all in their 40's, 50's and perhaps 60's were rockin' out while the kids - mostly teenagers...sang right along with them.

I don't know about you, but I never went to a rock concert with my Mom and Dad.

M rocked out!

She sang every song!

Next up....the best act all night in my opinion!

The beautiful and talented sisters from the Northwest: Ann and Nancy Wilson from Heart.

They were fucking amazing!

They were polished and had a clean sound and Ann's voice!!!! Oh...that woman has THE most beautiful and THE most powerful female rock voices in the world. It's clean and it's clear and she can scream without sounding harsh and belt out blues that will just make you weep.

I LOVE...Heart!

Love them.

Nancy is no slouch either!!!! She can play that freakin' guitar and mandolin and dance and jump all over the damn stage and still sing like an angel.

Both women look fabulous! Just gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!!!

The band...awesome!



You can tell that they enjoy playing together and they know each other and are professional and talented...and I could go on and on...but I won't because...I just won't...that's why!

The very last band to play was Journey.

What can I say about Journey?

I had one of their albums when I was a teenager. I knew a couple of their songs...and I liked those couple of songs but I always thought Steve Perry was kind of freaky looking.

He was short...he had a big nose and long stringy hair.

I could listen to them...but not watch them!

Well Steve Perry isn't with the group any more and they found this guy - Arnel Pineda to replace Perry who is this freakishly amazing Steve Perry imitator. He is the same build and has the same hair and dances around like a wild man on stage...but the voice...was....the....EXACT same as Perry.

It was a bit freaky.

More than a bit freaky.

Anyway...there were a lot of "wiseguy" wanna-be's in the crowd and I guess they were there to hear "Don't Stop Believing ". (Oh...and I didn't know this song was part of the last scene in the Soprano's because I never watched the show)

We stayed to hear about 3 songs and that was enough.

I still was on the Heart high and didn't want to ruin the moment by listening to the drunken' Jersey boys screamin' to Journey. (It ain't pretty I gotta tell ya)

The dilemma I face was trying to pick the best Heart song to post for today.

That isn't easy.

I could go the easy route and go with the standard: Barracuda

Or I could pick something more recent like: All I Wanna Do is Make Love to You

Both are fine...but I wanted to post something that I thought really showed off the talents of both sisters.

And...this is kind of my favorite song of theirs and it's my blog....so deal!

The beginning of this song is one of the main reasons why I love the guitar as an instrument. Nancy plays this beautiful classical intro which shows off her talent as a musician and then BAM...it opens up and Ann belts out the lyrics as only she can.

Originally, this song was played with a quick tempo, but in later years they slowed it down...made it more bluesy and gave it much more emotion. I prefer the slower version ...it grabs you and holds you til the end.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a You Tube clip that shows both versions the way I heard it last night, so I've posted versions of each and then you can use your imagination on how they would sound if you took that brilliant intro part....slowed it down and then add Ann's heartfelt singing to the second half.

I totally recommend cranking these up while listening in order to get the full effect!

#1 - the faster version with the intro:

#2 - a bit slower and then it builds up:



Happy Weekend all!

Peace!

Beanbag Chronicles

Good morning fellow blog peeps!

I'm back with another exciting episode of The Beanbag Chronicles.

These were the songs that eased a pimply faced, greasy feathered haired, desert shoe wearing, freckled and bespectacled, hormone raging pre-teenager sitting in my bean bag chair, with my big clunky head phones on, basking in the glow of my lava lamp and multiple candles dripping on old Chianti bottles that my parents threw away.

As with most 7th and 8th graders who start to become sexually aware of "things", Mother Nature plays a nasty trick on you and decides to turn you into the most revolting creature on earth!I turned to music and clung to the tunes that I thought must have been written by people who could have read my mind and knew exactly what kind of torment I was going through.

I had an exciting find while rummaging through my tub 0' photos! I found an actual picture of the beanbag altar!

Here is was:

This was taken when I was a little older...like high school old! I can tell because I had my varsity letter in this picture and the old Chianti bottles were replaced with bottles of wine I actually drank. Some horrible stuff like Reunite Lambrusco or something equally nauseating!

The ol' lava lamp is up in the far right corner...covered by a puppet or something. I was Waaay too cool for lava lamps in high school...I graduated to BIG lollipops and pickled people instead.


Sheesh!!

Compared to my little sketch...I wasn't too far off I don't think?

So...back to the chronicles.

With the last few posts most of you must think I was a semi-suicidal pre-teen.

Not really - I think for the most part I was a happy kid. Moody...but generally happy.

I thought I would "pep it up a bit" this week and post one of my all time favorite artists!

The Captain and Tennille!

These records nearly drove my family absolutely crazy because I played them constantly.

I think Toni Tennille was the first crush that I had on a celebrity. It was something about that blond bobbed, big teeth, big boned gal that I just couldn't get enough of.

The Captain - eh...He kind of freaked me out a little.

:::sigh:::

Anyway - it's Friday...the weekend is here and it's time for some happy music to get it started off right!



Be nice all - I could have picked Muskrat Love!

Love will keep us together baby...yes it will!

Have a great weekend everyone! Peace!

TGIF!!!

Whew, am I glad this week is just about over! It's been cray busy at work and I need some down time.

Of course, the weekend is pretty busy as well. We always seem to jam pack all the errands we can't do during the week all on the weekend. I am hoping we can do most of it on Saturday because Sunday we're taking the bikes for a ride at the D&R Canal towpath. http://www.state.nj.us/njcommuter/pdf/drcanal.pdf

If you ride the whole trail it 27 miles one way...then of course you have to come back!

I don't think we'll do the whole thing, but we will probably get in a good 20 miles...recharge the batteries in New Hope, PA and then head on back.

The weather is supposed to be perfect - sunny, 75 degrees, low humidity.

M and I can't wait!!!