Hugging the Midline

That Was When I Ruled the World

I tend to get hooked on a single song, and want to hear only that song for weeks at a time. For the last couple weeks I've had Coldplay's Viva La Vida in my head, and I played it for Glen a dozen times on our drive home from Chicago yesterday morning. I'm especially in love with this sweet version of the song from a grade school chorus:

Doesn't this video make you want to be a teacher? I love the powerful energy in the room, and how the teacher and the kids are all totally 100% into the moment and clutching their hearts with rockstar emotion. It makes me think of my St. Thomas first grade teacher Sister Bonnie, who would shut the door to our classroom so we could secretly play indoor wiffle ball and would take her turn at bat wearing her veil. I remember laughing a lot in that classroom and thinking nothing could be more fun than school. I wonder what she's doing now.

I'm a little hard of hearing and I tend to mis-hear lyrics. My imagined lyrics to Viva La Vida are more hopeful than the real ones. My version of the lyrics go:

For some reason I can't explain
I know St. Peter will call my name

I just looked up the real lyrics and saw that they say "St. Peter won't call my name." Meh. I'm sticking with my more upbeat version; feel free to adopt it.

Love is All Over the Place, There's Nothing Wrong With Your Face

189. I'm super duper grateful for all the music and musicians that help get me through my days, and Ms. Ani Difranco is way out on top of that list. 
     
     Ever since some friends first saw Ani at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival about 15 years ago and they copied a couple of her CDs onto cassette for me, I've been hooked. Since then I've bought all of her albums (and she puts out a lot of albums) and I've seen her in concert about a dozen times.
     
     Ani's music is so personal for me. We were born in the same month of the same year, we have similar relationship histories and social/political ideals, and we both became mothers in the same year. So, I guess you could say we're pretty much the same person, Ani and me, except for, you know, her amazing musical talent, a few extra million in one of our bank accounts, and an audience full of righteous babes tossing their panties on stage on a nightly basis. So, yeah, other than that.
     
     Ani's music is very autobiographical, and so often her latest song puts into words exactly what I'm going through at a given time. Here's one that's speaking for me today.
     
     

More Moby

In case you missed it in the comments, Heather gave me a couple links to articles about last weekend in Fairfield:

Moby's guitarist describing his experience in the Men's Vogue blog; here's a snippet from the article:

Despite the out and out weirdness of these events, I must say without any irony that the citizens of Fairfield are seriously on to something. Not only did these people know how to have a good time, but they were some of the nicest, smartest, and most vibrant folks I've met in a very long time. And whether or not it has anything to do with Transcendental Meditation, an outsize portion of them just happened to be conspicuously good looking. Deserving of further investigation? I think so.

Thank you, universe, for allowing us to get to Fairfield. Something tells me the journey has only just begun...

A play-by-play of the free Sunday night concert (we went Saturday night); here's a pretty funny quote:

Next up was Moby. He is a very funny guy. He publicly apologized to Mayor Malloy for missing lunch on Sunday because he was out 'partying with the locals' on Saturday night and then, at four a.m., he went to a house party. He simply wasn't awake for his luncheon date.

Don't Nobody Know My Troubles But God

Today I'm especially grateful that:

109. I am, at the moment, not painting, scraping, taping, cleaning paintbrushes, running to the hardware store for the 197th time, or doing anything even remotely related to painting.



110. If I so choose, I could go the rest of my life without painting again. (For the record, there's a much-needed exterior painting project planned for the weekend, but let's not think about that for a day or two.)



111. Although there were a couple questionable moments after about 36 hours spent painting the kitchen together, Glen and I are still happily married, and still friends.



112. I purposely got paint on the ugly blinds and light fixture so I would have no choice but to get new ones.



113. Our paint job KICKS ASS.



114. We forced ourselves to go to the Chrysta Bell/Moby/Donovan concert on Saturday night (part of a big annual TM weekend in Fairfield funded by David Lynch) even though we were dead tired and had paint splatters in our hair. And I'm so glad. It was so worth it. Chrysta Bell did a cool cover of Motley Crue's Home Sweet Home, and Donovan's Mellow Yellow singalong was fun. But Moby was definitely the highlight for us. A short acoustic set with Moby and a friend on guitar, and an awesome female vocalist (this post's title references their beautiful rendition of Natural Blues). Moby was very funny with a self-deprecating sense of humor that was kind of unexpected. Chrysta Bell and Donovan are both big-time TM'ers, but Moby was just at the conference for the weekend to learn about TM.
     
     It turns out that after the concert the whole gang showed up at the Maharishi School prom, where they all performed, and David Lynch crowned the prom king and queen (which I later heard were chosen by being drawn out of a hat; how cool is that?).
     
     Then it turns out that Moby was out and about in little ol' Fairfield bars and parties until the wee hours. Yesterday I saw pictures of him posing at a party with Glen's co-worker. Then we heard that he was at a party at OUR NEXT DOOR NEIGHBORS' place late Saturday night. Next door! While Glen and I painted with Moby cranked on the stereo (after the concert, we are now big fans), he was partying just a stone's throw from our house. (Small-town rumor mill has it that they wouldn't actually teach Moby TM because you need to be free from drugs and alcohol first.)
     
     This item on the list is veering slightly away from the topic of gratitude, but I guess when you live in a small town, you can't help but be grateful when something helps to break the routine a bit.



115. Jack had a great time with his grandparents over the weekend, while Glen and I got a nice little breather.

P.S.  Thanks for the comments on my last post -- a few regulars and a few people I hadn't heard from before. With 12 commenters causing me to send a buck each to the Play Room, I'm not quite in danger of breaking the bank yet, so I'll keep it up through the end of the weekend, a dollar for the Play Room in honor of each commenter. And proceeds from my Amazon or iTunes links through the weekend will also go to the Play Room. Between my small donation on behalf of my commenters, a couple donations through the link on this site, and a couple Amazon purchases, I've raised about $60 bucks for the Play Room as a result of my last post. Thanks for your help so far!

P.P.S.  I mentioned that I can tell from my blog stats that I have visitors other than my mom, hubby, and sisters. I should clarify that even if they were the whole of my audience, I would keep writing this blog; who else but my devoted family would be as delighted as Jack's mama by his progress with the potty and the ABCs?

P.P.P.S. My blog stats tell me that a few people stop by my site from outside the U.S. It would be fun to hear from you. :-)

A Whole Lotta Gratitude

I can't believe I've managed to go a week without posting, but sometimes life intervenes. My sister Jana flew in this weekend from Portland and we all gathered for a couple days at Mia's place in Des Moines; work has been busy; a couple stressful moments have presented themselves here and there; and the weather has been so glorious that our evenings are spent pushing Jack around the neighborhood in his stroller instead of staring at this here goblinbox!

While we've been out and about just livin' our little life, I've filed away so many items in my gratitude stash, some of the everyday variety, some with a more once-in-a-lifetime slant. I thought I'd stop by and share a few:

106. Jana is engaged! Jana and Ian are a wonderful couple, and his proposal was about as unique and thoughtful and romantic as they get. Here's the dorky happy couple in outfits that remind them of where they first met.
     
     

     

107. Jack used his potty for the first time last night! The big engagement did win top billing by a hair, but the potty is still pretty big news around here. Potty Time Elmo has been Jack's favorite DVD lately, and he has become fond of announcing, "Jack woowoo peepee potty! Mommy woowoo peepee potty! Daddy woowoo peepee potty!" It's pretty amusing what passes for stimulating conversation when there's a two-year-old in the house. To prove that I am capable of at least some restraint, I'll skip the pics of this one. 



108. From the most prevalent themes on this blog, it's pretty clear that I adore my life as a mama, and I treasure every moment I get with our little guy. And yet, being a parent is some HARD. WORK. Between ensuring safety at all times, taking walks, supervising baths and potty time, changing diapers, cooking chicken nuggets, reading half a dozen books in a row, playing games, witnessing tantrums, laughing at mispronunciations, enjoying squeezes, etc. etc. etc., it can be so hard to get house projects done, hard to fit in couple time (especially because Jack starts screaming, "Nooooo!!" whenever he sees mom and dad hug or kiss; do other kids do this?), hard to find time to think. Which is why I'm THRILLED that my parents are going to take Jack for more than 24 hours this weekend so Glen and I can get some serious work done during the day and hit the Donovan/Moby/Chrysta Bell concert in the evening. Moby! Here in our little town! If you haven't gotten your tickets yet, you can find them here: http://www.mum.edu/saturday/

All Gender Benders, All the Time

I've added a few new Gender Benders and bolded them in the list. A couple BeeGees covers by Feist and Bird & the Bee are especially sweet. Enjoy! :-)

Your Gender Bender Fix

Most of my Gender Benders are female artists covering male artists, but this week I've stumbled upon a few great guy on girl covers. Another thing these covers have in common is that the originals aren't exactly my taste and I'd be unlikely to have them in my collection; it's nice when a cover helps me enjoy a song I would have otherwise passed on by:

• From This Moment On - Mark Mulcahy (orig. Shania Twain)
• Straight Up - Luna (orig. Paula Abdul)
• They Long to Be Close to You - Barenaked Ladies (orig. the Carpenters)
• Wherever, Whenever - Mundy (orig. Shakira)

[The links weren't originally working, but they should be in good shape now. Thanks to my in-house proofreading guy for noticing.]

Gender Benders

I added a few new Gender Benders, including some free ones. I especially love Evan Dando's cover of Whitney Houston's How Will I Know (free), and Eva Cassidy's cover of Kathy's Song.

And I Don't Know How I Survived Those Days Before I Held Your Hand

A friend recently told me my blog makes it clear that I really like my husband.

Ya think? :-)

I'm glad my deep like for my man comes through loud and clear. He is just a good guy all around for reasons I've gone on and on about already here and here and here. Without detracting from the great things I've said about my husband and my marriage, I should also note that my appreciation of and gratitude for my honey doesn't always just happen organically; it's an attitude I cultivate.

A personal pet peeve is hearing people publicly criticize or make fun of their partners (unless of course it's teasing that both partners enjoy). Now, I'm sure I could be reminded of a few instances (and just a few, I hope) in which I've broken my own rule where Glen is concerned, and I know I was sometimes guilty of breaking it in previous relationships. But cultivating a positive attitude about my relationship is a practice I try to commit myself to every day.

It helps that Glen and I mostly have similar values and interests and tastes and are mostly compatible in daily habits. "Mostly," I say. My anti-plastic crusade may put him over the edge one of these days, and his tendency to save every piece of paper he has ever touched has occasionally pushed me close to the brink... But you're not going to hear too much about that type of thing on this blog. The more I focus on the good in my relationship, the more it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, I think.

I recently asked my Grandma Norma for her secret to a happy marriage, and she didn't hesitate to say: "Forget the bad and remember the good." In my case, I'm fortunate that anything I might call "bad" in my marriage has been of little consequence, and is easily outweighed by the hundreds of big and small ways that Glen and I love and support each other every day.

If the bad in a relationship outweighs the good, hopefully both parties can have the strength to get out of the thing before it drags them too far down. But if the good outweighs the bad most of the time, I think it's a hell of a lot more fun to focus on that.

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The title of this post is from Anniversary Song by the Cowboy Junkies, which we used as the recessional for our wedding.

Yes We Can

Here's a powerful star-studded music video adapted from Obama's "Yes We Can" speech after the New Hampshire primary. We'll miss John Edwards chez Keenan, although he was wise to get out of the race when he did; and we're enthusiastically jumping on the Obama bandwagon (John's exit speech brough a tear to my eye; so did this video):

And here's a cool anti-bush song, How Long by Kenny White. (Thanks, Colin.)