"here I go again on my own..."

Well, not on my own, actually. I received feedback on my 3 chapters from my adWiser and one other member of my committee. So that was a mutual relationship between they and I. Now, however, I'm back in The Chair after a brief hiatus (which was a weeeeee bit longer than I had anticipated, but....) and I'm ready to tackle my next step. Coffee's brewing, books are in neat stacks, desktop cleared and poised. Game on.

What has added an extra week of non-writing and heavy-gardening to my calendar is figuring out WHAT THE HOLY HELL MY NEXT STEP IS! *sigh*

I have said numerous times, to myself and many others, that, "I have finally found the REAL focus of my Dissertation." Please allow me to say it again. A-hem. I have finally found the real focus of my Dissertation...which is a different focus than it was two months ago (these things happen) but one more baby step closer to the finish line. And I have my two Diss readers and the busy antics of my son (who forced me to shift my "Momertator" status to more of "Mom" in order to play with him for 3 weeks, and was worth every second) to thank for that. Hiatus over.

I've always been interested in the elusive ways that music works in society, in the minds of individuals, in the performance of our identities. Those elements of music's cultural work spurred my first subscription of Rolling Stone when I was 12, drove me into libraries and historical texts for decades, pushed me to experiment with sociology, education, American history and academia. How I ended up in musicology is still a mystery (and one to ponder at a later date). Anyway, something was revealed to me just the other morning as I woke to a sleepy, soggy, soaker of a weather forecast. My friendly wake-up call, my voice in my head that hits me like a freight-train sometimes, simply informed me that those interests, the unanswerable but nagging questions of music's role in society, SHOULD lead my Diss as well!!! Of course!!!!! If not, these past two years will end up being a silly stack of crap that reveals little of the silly girl behind it all, me thinks.

If I was younger, wealthier and braver, I'd jump ship from this Buffalo Diss topic and head into different waters. But, I need to get this fucker DONE. For real. I've got a ton of historical research, fascinating nuggets and worthless/useful data about the musical activity in a city that I truly love, and my conscience keeps me on that path. So be it. My work at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., the grant money that supported it, the people who helped me get there and work there.....they keep this ol' gal on the Buffalo party train as well. My archival work focused on the interactions of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Federal Music Project during the Great Depression. THAT topic has never been explored, written or published by ANYONE, and that accomplishment is mine. And it's a great story (I'm a sucker for juicy controversy, and my current Chapter 5 re-creates that tale from all those documents housed in that nation's capital. Gotta keep on it). Hopefully, someday you'll agree.

So, in light of the above babble, my fascination has shifted a bit. I'm going to try to write a cultural history of the symphony orchestra as it worked in Buffalo relative to "the nation"---WHY it began, what it did and for whom, how it related to bigger, more affluent/cosmpolitan cities, what it did for Buffalo. Why, why, why rather than just how and when. Another caveat that I want to include is the notion of a cultivation of musical "taste" in America and the love/hate relationship to popular trends, different demographical populations, and immigration. That will be the philosophy/sociology/cultural theory angle that I enjoy wading through more often than not. I will end my project's chronology at 1940 as I have planned in the past and leave the following decades for "other projects."

What I've determined is:

• Chapter 5 (BPO/FMP) has the most organized text but some holes that now need to be filled due to this shift.
• Chapter 2 has good data about the events in Buffalo, but the organization needs to be revised, some stuff taken out/condensced, more newspaper info from archives in the downtown library, and heavier emphasis of cultural theory and anlaysis of those events. Gulp.
  
• Chapter 3--which I am supposed to start, like, now--needs the most background historical info about the rise/role of the American symphony orchestra in general. But, I have good (but not enough, yet) data to add Buffalo to that picture.
• Chapter 4--some stuff, not much, know where I'm going, written last.
• Chapter 1--the Introduction---will be written after Chapter 4, a revision of my focus, and Lit Review (which I haven't done).

Which leads me to my opening question: where to start? I have a plan. Every time I sit to write, I'm going to keep a running Lit Review going in order to organize it at the end (a Lit Review lets my readers know that I know what is already known about my topic due to previous research. Fun, fun, fun.) Even if I only summarize one scholar or one argument, I'm just going to keep it rolling. Baby steps.

Next, I'm going to make a simple and uncreative chronology of events in Buffalo as I know them for Chapter 3 (1861--1919). Already started on that.
Next, the books I'm pouring through for my Lit Review will only deal with the stuff needed for Chapter 3. Then I can double-dip and start adding narrative text and analysis to my data.
Also, instead of writing an "Introduction," I'm opening a new file for thoughts pertaining to my Intro. Organization will come later, but by the time that happens, it should be all there.

As long as this muse stays with me, that is.

Say a prayer, send a vibe, wish me luck. Here goes nothin'......

Boom Boxes and Record Stores

When I bought my house almost two years ago, it was spotless and had obviously been professionally cleaned. That said, it needed a lot of updates. It had been owned by the same family for over 40 years, and as we started to put our own spin on the place, we often discovered little remnants of the people who had lived here (Note: as a historian, I find these nuggets fascinating and forever interesting; as a parent, their presence makes me a little sad, like I'm plowing over all those memories... *sigh*).

One quirk about the garage is a pull-down ladder tucked into the ceiling that leads to the "attic" or crawl space. A full attic would be killer (so much potential!!!), but alas, it's more of a crawl space. It has a rickety ladder that I wouldn't allow my boyfriend (twice my weight) to attempt, but I was so eager to get up there and see it (the property inspector, a little dude, went up during the inspection. I didn't.) that I climbed carefully up into the ceiling within days of moving in. My guess is that because the previous owner was deceased and the house had sat vacant for a while that the realtor just wanted to sell the place and clear the most noticeable clutter......because there was a TREASURE TROVE of stuff up there. Two years later, several items are nestled here and there around the property (I am VERY GOOD at creative recycling), the most notable being a mid-size Panasonic boom box from the mid-1980s that now is the source for the tunes during outdoor work. Rock on!

One downside is that the tape player doesn't work--only the radio does. I still have a storage bin full of tapes in my basement......but anyway, because I listen to my own playlists or "Groove Salad" online radio while writing, I often throw the control of my musical preferences into the waves of local radio while working outside. While my home office is my refuge for writing and thinking and organizing one kind of work, my yard is my refuge away from that and for organizing a different kind of work (making a house into a home, me thinks). So, this lil' radio has become a part of the yard and our lives, in all its retro glory.

Note: I have done A LOT of work outside this year along with my boyfriend, his/my friends, and my son. By myself, I hit 97 Rock, FM 96.9 as it is the city's only station that calls itself "Classic Rock." Their song rotation is my domain--absolutely--being late 1960s through the early 1990s guitar rock, from "Purple Haze" to Pearl Jam (mostly pre-Yield material). The time passes quickly, I can sing along to almost everything, and while weeding and tending to peas, peppers, pots and petunias, my mind wanders to memories, stories, facts, and feelings about this era of our music history. Pretty damn cool, if you ask me.

There is little contestation about the station choice even if other people are around (we just did a HUGE pool remodel, so we had to corrale the troops. Good thing Bud Lite is cheap....). I have come up with two reasons for this: 1. the people we hang out with are our age or thereabouts, and this radio station has been playing "classic rock" since we were in highschool so this is the music of "our generation" through osmosis; 2. it isn't that big a deal. Tunes are tunes. I am aware of MY musical obsessions but certainly don't expect that from everyone. The world needs a healthy balance from all of our oddities, yes? So, again, pretty damn cool.

What's been happening to me over the past month or so, as my Diss work went on hiatus for two weeks and I found "other" things to do cheaply (work around the yard with tunes on), is paying more focused attention on what is played on radio in The Buff. AND, I hear a song and think, "Do I have that one?" so I yank off the garden gloves, and run into my office to check my iTunes folder. If not already imported, I check my CD racks in the front room. Although I have a lot variety and breadth in my music cache, I am baffled by my lack of some. Holy canoli! I need to have this song! How did I miss it? How do I have such gaping holes in my musical socks?

As this process has continiued, I have compiled a list of 64 songs that I love, don't posses, and NEED (perhaps "need" is a bit strong, but as I think about it, no, it is not....) 64!!!!! Holy hell!!! So, I have four choices, really:

1. do nothing and let these songs be the ones that I am dying to listen to when the radio plays them.
Upside: cheap.
Downside: highly satisfying in the moment of listening to them, then highly unsatisfying when I want my ears wrapped around them some other time.

2. ask friends if they possess these goodies and rip them into my iTunes.
Upside: cheap.
Downside: time consuming, perhaps strange/annoying for my friends.

3. buy them one by one on itunes (if they are there).
Upside: no waste. Only the songs I want.
Downside (several): the iTunes "burning" license limits my ability to use these songs on playlists I burn for people; not cheap ($64 and counting); slightly time consuming (but good for a rainy day like today); moderately unsatisfying (as an "object," each song only exists as a digital file in my computer--no art, nothing to "hold on to," digitally permanent yet physically ephemeral)

4. go to a record store and buy them. *GASP* Go a record store!?!?! When the fuck was the last time I did that??? Mon dieu! My heartrate is rising. I LOVE the record store...however....
Downside first this time: very expensive and moderately time consuming (unless it's a rainy day like today), physically inconvenient (Buffalo and suburbs have suffered the "giant sucking sound" of indie record stores and I'm not going to the mall/Target/Walmart to buy music. Period.), OVERWHELMING---I will spend hours and hours spinning like a whirling dervish in the store. It will be a challenge to GET ME OUT of the store once I'm there, and my mortgage payment will evaporate into "Dust in the Wind," for sure.
Upside: undeniably satisfying. Wandering around bins and bins of sonic potential. Holding the goods in my hand, ritualistically trying to get the wrappers off, looking through the CD jacket material, thowing it into the CD player for a spin. Listening. Anytime I want.

Hmmmmmm. My initial reaction to the above list is interesting (to me). When iTunes launched, I was making better money (*sigh*) and gleefully added fun tune after fun tune into my ever-expanding music folder. Click. Got 'em, one by one. And, I have found iTunes to be helpful for accessing historical music material/songs for teaching, but that's the stuff of academics, not obsessions.

No. 1 seems the easiest and most random. What the hell....just let it go.....Yeah, right.
No. 2 seems like more trouble than it's worth---how to canvass friends, how to collect their material, burn it, return it, and risk the raised-eyebrow-factor followed by questions like, "Um, yeah, so Judy, um, how's the Diss coming?" once my motives for this "project" are revealed.
No. 3 elicits a gut reaction that is surprising: "Hell, no." I love technology, but this option unnerves me, like I'd be not only ripping the song (while paying for it), but I'd be ripping off the context of the song (even as I have done this in the past. My own hypocracy is not lost on me...). Classic Rock is what has led me to everything else. For real. I can't just have one song from The Who that I'm missing....I need ALL of The Who. Dig? Oy.
No. 4 seems like the most fun, the most satisfying, and the most invigorating. But, wow. Can it be done?

Today is rainy writing day (Chapter 3), so I'm safely distanced from entering the backyard and turning on the Boom Box. Instead, I am listening to the ambient juiciness of Groove Salad internet radio. Ahhhh. Impulses curbed once more. Credit cards in the other room. Search engines closed. I cannot make a rash decision about something like this, now can I? :)

I'd make this a collective effort and publish the list below, but I think I'll keep the actual "List of 64 Project" close to the hip. For instance, how can I ask someone if they possess Pink Floyd's The Wall on CD without acknowledging THAT I DON'T? Sad, but true. I am riddled with many, many flaws.....

Option 5 would be free file-sharing, the online marketplace spawned by Napster. Grrrrrrrr......

Your thougts or suggestions appreciated. For music obsessives like me--rock on!

"Thursday's child has far to go..."

Although I'm writing this on a Tuesday, I turned in three chapters of my Diss last Thursday, and true to the nursery rhyme quoted above, I do have far to go. The chapters were 1, 2 and 5 because of the content I had amassed and because of the HUGE revision I did in March. So, while I'm technically "half-way" done (those three chapters are about 110 pages), I still have a long road ahead. I've spent the past few days "not thinking," which is funny because that's all I've been doing is thinking (and sneezing and sleeping.....welcome to spring in the Buff). I like to feel that I'm moving forward with a positive attitude, so below are the things I've done (positive!) and the things I still have to do to really be "done" (still tryin' to be positive):

What's done with The Diss:

1. a title for the project: "Performing the Nation: the Rise of Buffalo's Symphonic Music Culture"
2. an outline of the chapters that I am comfortable with and that seem logical and good
Chapter 1---Intro--background, theories, lit review--done
Chapter 2--Buffalo Frontiertown to Boomtown, 1804--1860--done
Chapter 3--Patterns of Success? 1861--1919--not done
Chapter 4--Boundaries, Bridges and Booze, 1920--1934--not done
Chapter 5--The Buffalo Philharmonic Gets a New Deal, 1935--1940--done
Chapter 6--Epilogue--Ethnicity, Culture and Performance in Buffalo, New York--not done
3. a rough bibliography has been compiled as I write. ROUGH is the keyword here, though.
4. the research in Washington, D.C (for chapter 5) is complete
5. I have two full months to work on Chaps 3 and 4
6. Chapter 6 is not that long and I have a lot of that material from the parts I lopped off the first proposal (the Polish, jazz, Irish and Italian communitites), so maybe 10 pages already.
7. my teaching schedule for the fall is two classes that I've already taught, so little prep time at home, which means more for The Diss
8. I will earn this degree before I turn 40, which was the goal from the get-go.

What's not done:

1. a lot of the research for 3 and 4 has not been done. And, they are not years that I'm as familiar with, well 4 is, but 3 is iffy. So, lots of reading and trips to the ol' newspaper archives at the downtown library.
2. Chapter 5, while MOSTLY complete, still needs a good conclusion and some fact-finding at the library, especially newspaper reviews and articles about the BPO during the Great Depression. More days downtown.
3. My advisor won't be able to give me feedback on the stuff I sent her for a few weeks. And, I have no idea if it's crap or not......I hope NOT. So, I have to fend off anxiety about her responses to my work. Cuz I really want to be done. Soon. I just have to let it go until I hear from her and not worry and ponder about it and think about it and worry and......Anyone up for Happy Hour? Oh, it's only 10am.....damn.....Bloody Mary, then?
4. I need to re-connect with my other committee members and confirm they are on board, file all the paperwork, etc. This of course if after......
5......all the work is done, including revision (which I already know will happen). I'm shooting for October 31. Defend in March or April. Large, obnoxious party to follow. Keep ya posted on the details.
6. I haven't been able to write any of my chapters into journal articles YET but I did present Chapter 5 as a conference paper at UB in March (just staying positive.....)

So, 8 things done, 6 not done. But they are both equally heavy, in my humble opinion. I have been reading and taking notes to prepare for Chapter 3, and TOMORROW (not today), I will beging writing. Again. Today, "Tuesday's child is full of grace," and I will be working and cleaning and calming myself down and enjoying the day. The garden needs some attention, anyway.

Uh oh...."Wednesday's child is full of woe....." Maybe I should wait til Thursday to start writing again.....

Happy Tuesday!

summertime in The Buff....here comes the bride!

No, silly, not ME!!! But I wonder how many raised eyebrows or jaw drops that title got. Hee hee.

Anyway, while writing my academic fingers off this summer and getting this Diss done (or close to done--I'm shooting for all content and most revisions by Nov. 1), I have some wedding gigs. I haven't had a "gig" in a long time. Sure, I play every Sunday in church as part of my job, but weddings are a whole different animal. And, as they are starting to come together regarding music and form and logistics, I'm excited about adding some focused piano practicing into my summer schedule.

Now, summertime in The Buff may have un-officially arrived over this past holiday weekend. The temps aren't quite warm enough for me, but the nighttime remains above 50, and general 70s and 60s are expected throughout the days. And, the humidity is back so that comfy/cozy feeling and smell is in the air. So, while the the calendar still has a few weeks before "official" summer, I'm am gauging things on my own: I am done teaching until August, I am writing full-time, my son starts baseball this weekend, all of my garden is planted, the pool repair will be finished soon---so I declare that summer has arrived. Yahoo!

Each wedding is different, of course, and the variety of musical desires on the parts of brides always varies as well. So, I have pulled out all of these dusty binders and songbooks and other music that has been neglected over the past few years to search for sheet music or works for these weddings. I am even SINGING at all three weddings. Holy moly! I am excited to gather together the music for each and begin practicing. And, I have my piano to do it on rather than the keyboard, and the former sounds a whole lot better than the latter in my living room.

The biggest question is not the music for the ceremonies but the "other" stuff to play as prelude, background dinner music and so on. Over the years, especially in grad school, I have collected A LOT of music that sounds good, is relatively easy for me to play, and is appropriate for such occasions. Some of it is "classical," like some lighter/easier Schumann or Mozart, some is jazz standards, some is pop, and so on. This is not the time for a Beethoven piano sonata or anything "heavy" and extremely complicated. I have found a new binder that will collate stuff from the other ones, and it should contain about two hours worth of piano music in one source.

I don't think I'll practice everyday, although the next two would be ideal for getting going on this little project. It should be raining a lot today and tomorrow (remnants of official spring, me thinks), so I won't have to take breaks from writing to water the garden. Having a new "gig book" is exciting, and it has motivated me to try to find other places to play this book. Again, yahoo!

I realize that one aspect of my musical life (collecting all this music) has influenced my ability in another (playing weddings) which has reminded me that I could actually pick up other kinds of performing gigs (hotels, more weddings, background music for corporate events) and this has helped me feel better about writing all day because practicing piano is an attractive distraction. Allow me once more, YAHOO!

I am going to peek at my garden quickly to see moisture levels of the soil and stuff, but I think everything is doing well. After that, I'll begin today's "gig"---finishing Chapter 1. YAHOOOOO!

so much to do, so little time......

I love that phrase. Alas, 'tis true. So, briefly......

I'm about to begin grading 115 exams which are six pages each. Sheesh. Sorry, Mr. Tree.

I just stepped out onto my back patio because it's very windy and I wanted to check on my plants and newly-relocated tomatoes and peas. I found that a pot filled with daisy-something-or-others (yes, I'll stick to musicology for now since I can't even remember the name of a flower I bought two weeks ago...) had some dead/dying blossoms on it, so I started picking them off. There is an official phrase for picking the dead flowers off of a plant so that it can rejuvenate itself, and ya know what it is!?!?!? "Dead-heading." No shit. Makes me smile.

I'm listing to the Grateful Dead ALL DAY LONG as I pour through these exams and keep an eye on my garden crop through this crazy wind we have here in The Buff today. Not a bad way to spend a Thursday.........

The end of "Pop Music" (for this semester, at least!)

Last night, my Seminar in Pop Music met for its final class of the semester (excluding the final exam). This is the one where students create the content, which includes the study of popular music from 2000 through today. The textbook can't quite do this as accurately as my students, so we all do it together. They bring in the material, and I play DJ/video/audio controller. Fun fun fun. Youtube really helps on this day.

So, in a rather large nutshell:

1. "Bring in one song from one year spanning 2000-2009 that you feel represents popular music for that year."
2000----
2001--—Andrew W.K. “Party Hard”
—Gorillaz, “Clint Eastwood”
—N’Sync, “Pop”
—Orgy, “Fiction”
2002——Simple Plan, “I’d Do Anything” (power pop rock)
2003—Coheed & Cambria---“A Favor House Atlantic”
—Black Eyed Peas—“Where Is The Love?”
2004—Coheed & Cambria—“Blood Red Summer”

2006—Plus 44, “When Your Heart Stops Beating”
2007—One Republic, “Apologize” with Timbaland
2008—Katie Perry, “I Kissed A Girl”
Karson—Radiohead, “Reckoner”

Interesting, yes?

2. "Think of at least 3 bands that we didn't/couldn't cover in class who should definitely be discussed."

Incubus
Weird Al Yankovich
Garth Brooks
Johnny Cash
Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Judy Garland
Christina Aguilara
Depeche Mode
Charlie Parker
Coheed and Cambria
The Doors
Nine Inch Nails
Hootie and the Blowfish
The Backstreet Boys
Tears for Fears
The Mars Volta
Brittany Spears
Fall Out Boy
Morrissey/The Smiths
No Doubt/Gwen Stefani
Death Cab for Cutie
Third Eye Blind
Hanson
Brian Setzer/The Stray Cats
Kelly Clarkson
Radiohead
The Cure
Josh Grobin
Dashboard Confessional
Billy Idol
Foo Fighters
Stone Temple Pilots
Brand New
Rush
Journey
Reel Big Fish
Blink 182
Bush
Sevendust
Styx
Greenday
Weezer

Quite a list, yes? And, we did actually cover A LOT of material....but alas, how to do it all in 15 weeks?

3. "Name one or more bands who you would like to see REMOVED from the world of popular music completely." (This is always my favorite, and this question generated some surprising responses)

Nickelback
Vanilla Ice
Fall Out Boy
OutKast
Buckcherry
Chicken=dance dude
Hannah Montana
Creed
Will Smith
Jonas Brothers
Dream Theater
Hinder
J. Giles Band
John Mayer
Staind/Aaron Lewis
Revenge Sevenfold
Insane Clown Posse
Soldier Boy
Disturbed
My Chemical Romance
Great White
KISS
Tina Turner
Led Zeppelin
Pink Floyd
(Radiohead)
Scorpions
AC/DC
“Freebird”

So there you have it, folks. The past decade assessed through the wise eyes of college juniors and seniors. As I like to say in class, "Comments, anyone?"

38 thoughts, observations, and curiosities

In no order of importance, I'm just going to make a list of 38 things that pop into my mind now and then. I'd be interested in hearing yours as well (it's a "38" list only because I become that age today. I just figured it was as good a number as any other on a day like this one!)

1. Why is there so much music by Phil Collins being played on Buffalo airwaves lately? Like, he has so much music (whether it is good or bad....not getting into that today, although thinking about that Phil Collins "Sussudio-I'm-going-kill-you scene" in "American Psycho" makes me giggle) that every single station can justify playing SOMETHING. sheesh
2. Every time the movie "Overboard" is on TV, I drop what I'm doing and watch it. EVERY TIME! How many hours have I lost, Goldie?!?!
3. I have determined that the Led Zeppelin discography is the music that best soothes my savage beast (yes, the true phrase is "savage breast" but I prefer the erroneous adaptation).
4. My mother contemplated naming me "Erin." I like that.
5. I love the water and even have a pool, but why don't I actually like BEING in the water? When I have pool parties, I hardly ever go in. At the beach, I stare at the lake/ocean from afar. Kooky.
6. Will anyone really ever figure out what dreams mean? How can I dream of a place I've never been and come up with faces/names/scenarios that have NEVER occurred? I've read all kinds of theories, but what a wild mind I have while sleeping sometimes (nevermind when I'm awake!)
7. Will growing my own veggies in the garden this summer really be cheaper than buying them? How do I try to account for this....water, time, tending...if there is a monetary figure I could use, I think it will actually be more "expensive," but I KNOW that it will be more satisfying :)
8. When will Nickelback stop making records? TODAY, perhaps?!?!?! For the love of God!!!!
9. What "age" will be come after the Digital Age....
10. Why is it that I can remember lyrics to hundreds of songs but forget people's names, birthdays, phone numbers and so on.......
11. Who in their right mind listens to Rush Limbaugh? So much anger! Good grief!
12. I have been thinking about getting another tattoo, but have no idea where to put it or what to get. That doesn't make sense!
13. Who came up with "LOL"? I prefer ":)" I know it doesn't connote the same thing exactly, but it's friendlier IMHO (LOL!)....ok, I'll stop.
14. When and why did Rolling Stone change its magazine format from newsprint to glossy? I purchased the recent one with Kings of Leon on the cover (love them) and found the magazine's new style to be totally disconcerting. But, I then renewed my subscription......craziness.
15. I drive on a good stretch of the thruway twice a week to work and often see people pulled over, I'm guessing for speeding. What is the max you can go over the limit before setting off a trooper's radar? Everyone has a number....8 MPH, 9 MPH, 11 MPH over the limit....I've never gotten a speeding ticket, but consistently blaze a fast trail home after teaching....luck or timing on my part?
16. Regarding thruway driving, did my deer sensors really work? Did those little gadgets on the front bumper of my car REALLY keep the ol' babes away from my automated death machine (on their part) with their high-pierced soundwaves? How to tell? If I hit a deer, then no. If I don't? The jury stays out.....quite a marketing campaign the sales department of that company has on their side, yes? I haven't hit a deer....
17. I often think that if I was really dedicated to my career, I should be driving a Hyundai "Sonata".... LOL! :) At least at one point, I had a Ford "Taurus".....
18. One of the biggest lessons I have learned from my son is how easily words can affect a person.
19. My son really wants a dog, and I have really resisted this although so many people say having a dog as a kid was really cool. I debate this issue often....no clear decision yet.
20. What was my most valuable class in high school? I took the gamut......Typing was a GOOD choice. Calculus....not so much.
21. Does the phrase "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger" REALLY help take away the sting of certain events? Yes, it does.
22. I have become a fan of "Sleeping/Taking Naps" on Facebook. Every time I go to that page and see the picture of the dude asleep on his desk, I crack up. See...I just did it, and I'm LOL-ing. Good stuff. :)
23. As for laughing, every time my son and I watch America's Funniest Videos (one of his fave shows right now), the clips that get my gut busting are the ones where people trip or fall down or something like that. Even if it looks REALLY painful for them. I just can't help myself. I feel bad when it happens in real life cuz I burst out laughing then, too.....oh, I am riddled with faults......
24. My "seasonal" allergies--which were really year-round ones--have all but disappeared, and I only found this out when I stopped taking my allergy meds (which I had been on since my son was born) because they weren't covered under my insurance anymore. Weird, right? I have no idea when I didn't need my meds anymore. Madness!!! My food allergies, however, have become more ambitious....
25. I stumbled upon a "paint can opener" at Lowe's the other day and snatched that baby for 39 cents. Genius! It's the simple gadgets in life that are ultimately the most helpful, me thinks....
26. I have a penchant for stubbing my pinkie toes. Ugh! Why? WHY? friggin' agony at least once a month....
27. Does speed-reading really work? I think it would be helpful for task-type reading, but I'd never want to blow through a Pynchon novel or a John Irving story. I savor the English language, sometimes...
28. I watched something about reincarnation the other night (couldn't sleep). What a wild concept.....how to figure this out? Hmmmmm.....
29. I think the thing I admire most in people--at this point--is kindness. Sheer kindness. I strive to be that as well, but often have uncomfortable memories of behaving badly. *Sigh*
30. Since I'm at #30, I had a great b-day that year. Really good memories. I'm a bit nervous about 40, though......don't know why, but definitely nervous. I'll have to wait that one out, yes?
31. In a battle of the bands between The Who and The Rolling Stones, I'm going with The Who.
32. My nickname in high school was "Boof." When people call me that, it makes me smile even still.
33. I really love the smell of Patchouli oil, although it drives my mother nuts. She thinks I smell "like dirt," and she has no qualms over saying that to me at any time she catches even the slightest whiff. Sometimes if I know I'll be seeing her, I'll rub some on just go to through that 20+-year old ritual with her. :) It's good being back home.
34. If I had to choose only one other instrument to learn how to play in my life, it would be the cello.
35. Will marijuana ever be legalized? I love this debate, and I do not smoke pot. It has never been my cup o' tea for whatever reason. Having said that, I've known/know people who do, and I love the absolute oddball logic nature of this argument. Holy hell. I drink Bud Lite and pretty much only that for several reasons: it's cheap, it can be found anywhere I may want to find it, it's a rice beer so my allergies stay at bay, and it goes down like water in this lil' body of mine. Good enough reasons for me. Having said THAT, alcohol does WAY more damage to our culture than a good stash of weed does.....yet the debate rages on......what a world.
36. Kurt Vonnegut is my favorite writer, and now that he has passed away, I always add to that thought, "but I'll never be able to see what he will write NEXT." And that feels a bit melancholy, to be honest.
37. In reference to #7, these are the things in my garden this year just because I am DYING to get this thing underway: garlic, yellow pear tomatoes, hot peppers, sweet peppers, carrots, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, regular ol' tomatoes, cilantro and peas. The only thing that could make my heart warmer is to have year-round avocados.....but some concessions have to be made while in The Buff, yes? *sigh*
38. When my son's bus comes down the street and stops in front of the house, I wait for those squeaky breaks, I walk to the door and I feel my heart jump when he bounds across the street and up the driveway toward our house. He'll be home any minute. As this is the last item on my list for today, I already know it is a good day for me, and hope yours is, too.