Music

I love music. Music is the one thing that can trigger memories and/or pop me out of a bad mood. Listening to AC/DC or Boston in my bedroom with the door closed got me through my Junior High years. Yesterday, I was crabby and driving in my car. Did I commit road rage? No, I just cruised the dial for a good song. Melissa Etheridge "Come to My Window" came on. What a relief! I cranked it up and sang it at the top of my lungs cruising down the highway. So I had 4 other people in my car.... no just kidding... I only sing at the top of my lungs when I am alone or just to annoy K and B. Then the next song was vintage Billy Joel. What a pick me up.

Yesterday, while I was at my parent's house, packing some boxes (by myself, they said they were picking out tile for their new house, but I think they were at a bar). I tuned into the station my mom had on the radio. Hello memory burst! There were songs from Manfred Mann, Tommy James and the Shondells, Carol King, The Carpenters, Donna Summer, Stevie Wonder.... just to name a few. Each song brought me to a specific scene from my youth. We spent every summer in Ogunquit, Maine. Some songs I could picture us at our house, some songs at the beach. We were also big skiers and every Thursday afternoon our elementary school got out early and we had ski lessons. I specifically remember eating peanut butter and Saltines sitting on a bench outside the lodge listening to some of these atists on the PA system that broadcast around the mountain. (OK, looking at it now, it was a hill, but I was little then!)

Today, B and her chorus from the elem. school sang at a nursing home in town. The elderly people rolled, shuffled, were pushed and walked into the packed room. The 20 or so kids serenaded songs from the 20's and 30's to them. It was so great to look out at the audience and see the older folks singing along with the kids. Moon River was one of my favorites and obviously one of theirs.

I cannot play an instrument or even read music, however, the melodies, words and memories make me an expert in the field.

Dinner

I went to my friend Amy's house for dinner tonight. She is the photographer I assist during wedding season. It was such a lovely time. Her table was set like you would see in a Martha Stewart magazine. Which is funny because she is so not Martha. (Thank God!) There were 7 of us, 2 women I met for the first time. It was a completely different group than I more regularly hang out with and it was great. We talked about all the usual things Moms talk about....kids, kids' teachers (as in who is strict, who is sweet and who has no social skills when it comes to talking to parents, but the kids love'em), cats and their various issues (one Mom's cat had died earlier in the day as she was booking her son's birthday party. Can't you just hear that conversation, "Um, great, save that date, but I will have to get back to you after I give my cat mouth to mouth."), how great dinner was! and if there were otters on Cape Cod (evidently, yes). The sweetest thing was that she had little gifts wrapped at our seats and some random paper cubes with letters on them. We had to shuffle the letters to make a word. The word eventually meant what our names meant. Susan means "lily" if you were wondering. My mom watched the girls because Matt was out fishing. I am so fortunate for my mom, but that will have to be a whole'nother post because the wine and chocolate are making my eyelids droopy.

Dancing Divas

The following post, Dancing Divas, is dedicated to Patrick Swayze (not that he is a diva, but dancer). Evidently he has pancreatic cancer. I am so sad because he is one of my favorite male dancers (hellooooo, Dirty Dancing) and he ain't too bad to look at either. Yummy!

Today was the first day of the Mom's Hip Hop class! It was very amusing and I may not be able to roll myself out of bed tomorrow. I used some muscles I didn't think I had. At least that means I still have some muscles. Sorry, no pictures to share.

So, the dancing bug is in the house tonight. At the talent show 2 girls did this cute act where one laid down and the other kneeled over her. So one was using arms, the other legs. It was very cute. K and B must have too much sugar today because they just tried to recreated it.



There were a few costume changes in the 20 minutes they spent doing this. Now, they are doing the waltz or something that K learned in music today. B is taller and stronger than K, so she usually gets the male role. K decided male dancers must wear all black.



I love my 2 hams. I hope they always have this much fun together!

Chuck E. Cheese

First, I just wanted to tell everyone that I finished the book, Sleeping with Ward Cleaver and loved it! Yay to Jenny Gardiner, first time author!

OK, back to real news. I have never been to a Chuck E Cheese restaurant. Yes, believe it. There is not one within an hour of me, so therefore, have escaped the big mouse trap. LOL, I am cracking myself up with that one. 2 moms and their sons evidently were having dinner there last night. One mom had her 9 year old's birthday party there and the other mom's 13 year old son was "hogging" a basketball game. The 2 boys got into some words and the 13 year old "allegedly" pushed the 9 year old. The mothers came to protect their cubs with words. They were very loud words, but words, nonetheless. That's what we teach our kids to do, right? Use your words. Evidently words did not do the trick and the mothers started pushing, scratching and punching... yes, your basic cat fight. In a mouse hole. The police were called in and broke up the melee.

What kind of lesson did these moms teach their kids last night? What kind of lesson were all the kids at C.E.Cheese taught last night? I strongly believe in sticking up for my kids, but prefer to avoid huge confrontations. B plays spring soccer in a strict Cape league. Last year one of her games was a mandated "silent" game. The board decided that parents get a little too involved in their kids' games. There was no cheering on the sideline. It was extremely weird for the parents, but the kids actually liked it. A few years ago, in a suburb of Boston, 2 men were at their kids' hockey game. The father's didn't like something that happened out on the ice and the larger father wound up killing the smaller father with punches. In front of all the kids!

I don't really have a point to this, just some things to ponder. How can we teach our kids to be better people when shit like this is happening all around them?

Tom Cruise vs. Ward Cleaver

During times when I am not eavesdropping at Hip Hop class, I like (love) to read. This past summer I read Andrew Morton's book on Princess Diana. It was supposedly authorized by her before she died. It was extremely interesting and the guy sounded like he really knew his facts. Fast forward to this year when Andrew Morton published Tom Cruise's unauthorized biography. I thought, here is a guy I use to l-o-v-e in Top Gun, the Firm, the lawyer navy one with Jack Nicholson and Risky Business. Plus my all time favorite, "All The Right Moves". That goes back a ways. Anyway, I wanted to read the Morton dirt on him. Wanted to see where he was coming from because now I think he's a little bit of a freak show. Cute, but a freak show nonetheless. The book was down right disturbing. The whole Scientology thing is similar to a cult. OK, it is a cult, I just don't want to piss any of you readers off. It's not like I get 150 comments a day and have readers to spare. So it also seems, Tommy boy has been a control freak from the get go and kind of hard to tell fact from fiction when it is coming out of his mouth. I thought Katie had been sucked into his world without much of a chance and I guess I was right. Free Katie.

I knew I needed to change genres to get my mood from deep depression, so I grabbed Jenny Gardiner's first published book titled, Sleeping With Ward Cleaver. This reading suggestion came from my blog friend Manic. OK, so maybe we don't know each other, but I read her blog everyday (yeah kind of like stalking) and I know a lot about her, so therefore, she is my friend. Anyway the book is fabulous and I am giving it a 2 thumbs up and I am only half way through it! Parts are a little too close for comfort in the similarity dept. to my real life. I don't think my husband is Ward Cleaver, but I think he wishes he were. I think he wishes he were married to a more June Cleavery type girl too. You know the type, always looking put together (me, I really like comfy pants and tshirts), the house is neat as a pin (sorry, see a few posts ago), the kids are polite and say "sir" and all (OK, so they clear their dishes to the sink after dinner, but they have never uttered the word "sir") and June never asks for anything, but always seems great (2 words, mood swings). Anyhow, Jenny's writing really sucks you in and makes me want to ignore all chores and requests and just sit down and read. Of course, when I finish it, I will expect her to write another one immediately!

In conclusion, the younger, naive me would have to say Tom Cruise is way better than Ward Cleaver, but the blogging, more mature me, says Ward Cleaver, hands down!

ghost ship

Guess what? I went to the beach today and got some color in my cheeks! OK, so it was wind burn and about 30 degrees out, but, dammit, the sun was shining!

B, my Dad and I went up to Wellfleet today to check out a hull of a boat that was probably made in the 1800s. The storms of this winter have eroded the beach so much that it unearthed this wooden hull. Think about that. People have been enjoying this beach for 200 or so years and all that time, underneath it, was a hull of a boat that sank at sea. Pretty cool.
I have never been to Stonehenge, but it was a pilgrimage of sorts. People trekking in thick sand and a strong breeze to witness history.



There was this sign posted warning us not to take any part of this history.

My Dad and B standing near the hull. What's that? You think B is wearing a wooly mammoth on her head? Well ,yeah she is, but hey, it keeps her warm!
Here is the hull, up close and personal. It was low tide, but I guess at high tide it is covered and the sand around it keeps disappearing. It was pretty cool because instead of nails they used rounded wood. Also, they were able to bend the wood so it curved on the bottom of the boat.

And finally a picture of B and me. I knew you were waiting to see me bundled up like the Eskimo I felt like. At least I had on my cool shades.


Finally, on our trek back to the year 2008, we had a little fun with our shadows.

See? Half on the beach, half in the water. So the water was a chilly 36 degrees. Our shadows didn't seem to mind.

Talent Show

Phew, it's over and I'm back in blog-world. What's over? The elem. school talent show that my friend and I direct. We had 2 very successful shows yesterday! This is our 4th year doing the talent show together in our K-4 elem. school. I LOVE doing it. This year there were 45 acts with about 100 kids. It always amazes me to see the kids get up on stage and perform. Each act is about a minute long and for that minute they are superstars. We hit the night off last night with a Kindergartener. singing God Bless America. He was amazing and brought more than one person to tears. We also had 2 dog acts, lots of dancing, piano solos, Irish step dancing, breakdancing, jumproping, singing and a glow in the dark act. The music ranged from Elvis to Hannah Montana. I do the music, so for the night I feel like a DJ. B was in the show (K is in middle school). She and her 2 bffs were in their matching pjs, had bears in strollers, did yoga, karate, gymnastics and formed a pyramid-yup all in 1:10. The elem school kids and teachers packed the house in the morning and parents, grandparents, etc packed the house for the evening show.

So today I can just rest on the adulation from last night and relax, right? Unfortunately, the down side of running the talent show is that your house is neglected. This is my kitchen table..

At least it's folded ! And here is my counter. UGH!
Yeah, being sick the week of the Talent Show was not good planning. So I am off to check my favorite blogs and see what I've missed this week. I will have to list them sometime for the rest of you. Maybe after I find out what color my counter is.