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September 30 Shocking I just wrote with a guy who, going into it, I never dreamed would know anything about southern gospel music. He freaked me out when he started bringing up the hardcore southern gospel artists--like the McKamey's and the Inspirations. See, I know about these groups because I grew up listening to this genre, but to walk into a room on the Row and sit down with a guy who has HUGE country songs to his credit, and for him to throw out a McKamey's reference without my being mentally prepared for it was just shocking. It took me a few minutes to recover, actually. And, for those of you who know about the McKamey's, you'll understand. He likes them. But, I guess you don't write songs like, "That's What I Love About Sunday," if you really don't know the culture of southern church. Cool day. -b September 29 You Should Be"We're all worried about losing our jobs."
--Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., declared in an impassioned speech in support of the bill before the vote.
Have you ever been in a meeting where you want to beat everyone else in it with a big stick? I'd say that's about the way they all feel up on Capitol Hill these days, wouldn't you? Especially considering vacation was supposed to be starting.
But considering the value of my thrift savings plan has decreased 20% over the past several weeks, I'm not feeling all that sympathetic.
 -b WardrobeWe went to see Bill Cosby on Saturday. It was such a lovely afternoon. He's larger than life to me so it was fun to see him in person.
Afterwards, we went to an italian place to eat. Carrabba's. It's a chain restaurant--really good, though. To me, at least. Anyway, we had a bit of a wait and so we were standing outside waiting to be called when a pickup truck pulls up and out comes a man in a tuxedo and a bride in her gown. As they walked closer, Jim commented on how proud the girl's dad looked. He was grinning from ear to ear. She, on the other hand, looked completely miserable. I looked back at the truck and saw on the back window where it was was written, "Just Married. Mr. & Mrs. Harris." At that, we realized that the guy, although old enough to be her father, was actually her groom. That'll teach us for assuming.
Obviously you're fine with being stared at and watched if you show up in your wedding tux and gown at a crowded chain restaurant on a Saturday night, and so I took that as permission and let myself watch her. Jim did, too. It was just sad. All of it. I mean, we were just observers and certainly don't know the circumstances there, but here was a probably 19 or 20 year old girl newly hitched to a probably 60 year old guy having their "reception" at Carrabba's. He was beaming. She looked like she was going to vomit at any second. Really. She looked MISERABLE. Kind of stinks, doesn't it?
Anyway, the point here is if I get married and decide to go to eat at Carrabba's afterward, BIG IF on the latter, I'll change first.
-b
September 26 Into the Wild We watched this last night and I thought about it all night. I'm still not ready to comment about it, but if you're a thinker, then you should see it. It was an excellent film. (Not for kids.) -b It's TimeI had thought I wouldn't foray into politics on here. I'm still not really, so don't get nervous, but I am going to state the obvious point on which even my most psycho conservative friends and I agree. I'm not endorsing a candidate or NOT endorsing a candidate. This is a pro-election post. I wish everyone would vote. I think everyone should vote.
...and I believe we should have enough information to make an informed vote. Kids, I don't care which side of the fence you're on, the whole Sarah Palin thing is a debacle to date. Are we seriously expected to consider a candidate who can't answer questions from the press? No, seriously? The election is what, forty days away and the Republican vice presidential candidate is not qualified to answer questions on a national level? And we're really supposed to consider her to lead America? Seriously?
The newness has worn off. Either prove to me that you're smart enough and informed enough to be the Commander of a major world superpower, or go home. Time is of the essence and the glasses are no longer distracting me. Give me something real, Mrs. Palin, because as of now, we are having a hard time believing you.
I'm disgusted with John McCain for thinking me so ignorant that this wouldn't matter. But, I think we can safely say I'm not as disgusted with McCain as David Letterman is. Ouch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjkCrfylq-E -b
September 23 TherapyBernice lost some of her potential 'womanhood' today. She was spayed. She is sleeping next to me right now and she's just pitiful. I took her to Value Vet which came in at exactly $185 dollars LESS than our normal vet would've charged. Honestly. My vet was going to charge me $185 more to spay her. I couldn't justify that for a routine procedure so I took her across the street. And, now, I'm lying here on the couch worrying about her. I keep checking to make sure she's breathing. Can you imagine how psycho I'd be if it were an actual child? (Bernice is an 11.7 lb. PUG, for the new readers.) And, as if worrying about Bernice wasn't enough, I'm also getting weepy watching, "The Biggest Loser." How am I NOT in therapy????? -b
September 22 LandlockedTennessee is surrounded on all sides by land. There's not an ocean in sight, no salt air to breathe. So, when hurricane Ike blew through long after arriving in Texas, I was pretty shocked to realize it claimed two lives. It blew a tree down on a golf course and killed two people. Very sad. I would've guessed the effects of Ike ended there. But, alas, no. How long has it been since the hurricane? Are we at two weeks yet? We've got to be close. Nashville is still feeling the effects, and according to AAA, we will be through Friday. We have no gas in Nashville. You know, the gas you put in your car? Yeah, we have none. There was a slight shortage after hurricane Ike and then, I guess it was the mob mentality kicking in, but everyone rushed to the pumps, drained them, then drained the reserves and now gas is really difficult to come by. Heaven forbid that your gas tank fall below 3/4 of a tank. When you do happen to pass a station that has gotten a shipment, it is typically marked with a line of cars snaking down the street. At that, you'll also likely see some other yahoo who is further contributing to the problem by going around with her gallon container of gas (which she filled, along with 9 other containers, while filling up her SUV) trying to sell to the people in line for a nice surcharge. Just when you start to think of Nashville as a little metropolitan, we come out in droves to prove that we're a bunch of hillbillies at heart. -b September 19 What's Mine is Mine, Like it or NotI mentioned my flower bed the other day. I didn't want my new neighbor to think I was a bad person because I haven't tended to it. What I didn't explain was the reasoning behind it. My next door neighbor must be having some sort of breakdown. She rarely has anyone visit and she is rarely in her front yard, but for some reason, earlier in the summer, she took it upon herself to chop down one of my flower beds with her weed eater. It was odd because we had always gotten along. I mean, we don't really visit one another, but we've had a few conversations here and there and that was plenty. So, when she chopped down the flowers, I thought that she must have had her cousin mowing her yard and he just didn't know where her property line ended nor that they were flowers (they had already bloomed earlier in the spring.) So, the other day, I got home and she had done it again. She chopped it all down again and more leaving only the rose bush. You know what this means? It means I will not be weeding the other flower bed for the rest of the summer nor will I be mowing the grass. I've decided that every time she steps onto my property and violates my foilage it will cost her 30 days of weeds in the other flower bed. I know (now) that it drives her insane. And, so, the punishment will fit the crime. High grass and unsightly weeds. (She's scared of Pete so she wouldn't come to the other flower bed. He would go insane barking at her.) -b September 18 Co-PaysI have a part time job outside the music biz which equals health insurance to me. I go in for about 24 hours total in a week and, in return, I'm free to injure myself about the country.
Today, I had a guy take a swing at me, I had an in-depth conversation with a child rapist, my friend had a knife pulled on him and another friend was just shy of avoiding an all out scrap. My favorite quote of the day was by our security guard. He looked at the guy with the knife said, completely matter-of-factly, "If you pull out that knife again, I will shoot you." Dirty Harry, take notes.
I can't tell you where my part time job is, but I can assure you I don't work in a prison...well, not the kind you're thinking of. And, I don't work in a mental institution...well, not the kind you're thinking of. And, I don't work at Wal-Mart. Suffice it to say, you really earn your 'benefits' when you work with the public.
Oh, and did I mention that some brainiacs came and cleaned the roof with gasoline earlier? Yes, I'm serious. And, so the air conditioning unit on the roof sucked in all the fumes which have made everyone sick and/or high all day. I've been more on the loopy side (no comments, please).
Perhaps that's why all this is quite amusing to me. And, I suppose you'll also understand why I'm calling for health care reform. One shouldn't have to endure this for medical insurance.
-b
September 17 DreamingI wish, desperately, that I could sleep through the night. Desperately wish I could. I've tried sleeping pills, I've tried exercise, I've tried cutting out caffeine after lunch, sleeping somewhere different (the couch)--I've tried everything I can think of. I'm at a loss. Tellingly, I found where I wrote in my journal back in May that I hadn't been sleeping through the night for weeks and it was driving me to insanity. Here we are now in mid-September. (Not be a 'glass half empty person'--I DID have two full nights of sleep in there that I recall.) I can get to sleep. That's not the problem. I just can't stay asleep. After about 3 1/2 or 4 hours, I'm mostly awake…until about 8:30 or 9 AM if I’m lucky enough to be able to lay back down. Then, I can sleep again--and then the morning is ruined. I'm such a FREAK. My military friend tells me that they go on around 4 hours of sleep a night in boot camp. So, the good news is that I'll probably get used to this eventually. This morning, the clock read 4:21 AM and I was leaning against the kitchen counter in the dark thinking about what a lonely time of night that is. The silence was so loud. I started thinking about Joel. He says he gets up and writes songs when he can't sleep. Joel is celebrating fifteen years of writing at the same company today. Actually, we're all celebrating this with him at a gathering later. I began thinking that copying Joel and writing a song at this forsaken hour might be a better use of the time I no longer sleep. And, so, in my sleep-deprived-body-resenting moment, I thought, "I wish I didn't feel so helpless... I wish I didn't feel defenseless... I wish I was braver…I wish I had it more together…hmmm…I wish I was better at focusing on what matters…" And just as I was starting to think about tempo and structure, the gracious Creator of all the universe pointed out to me, ever so gently, that I was trying to write..er, REwrite…song #3 on Cindy Morgan's new record, "I Wish Wishes Came True." Just over here reinventing the wheel, gang. Just reinventing the wheel. -b September 15 Judging PeopleI was checking everybody's blogs today and I was about to call and harrass a few people for not blogging timely enough. Then, I checked my blog and I realized, again, that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
I have nothing I want to share right now, but I'm blogging just so that my blog is up to date, which allows me to go back to being judgemental.
Thank you very much.
-b September 10 MarketingThere is an ice cream truck, or really an ice cream van, which drives through my neighborhood year round playing that horrible "music" through the loudspeaker on top. Yes, all year round. It makes no difference if there's snow on the ground or if it's 100 degrees outside. It makes no difference if it is daylight outside or dark, three o'clock in the afternoon or eleven o'clock at night. The van will be coming through. My favorite time is when I'm trying to record something and, "It's a Small World," comes blaring through. Those are good times. Anyway, in all the years of the ice cream van driving around the community, I have never, not once, seen it stop to sell ice cream. I've never seen children go up to it to purchase ice cream ever. Of course, what parent would allow their child to buy sweet treats from the freak who drives an ice cream van around in the winter after dark? And, what normal person could possibly listen to that miserable music all day long and maintain their ability to speak in complete sentences?
A friend of mine let me in on the ice cream van secret for his neighborhood, which isn't far from mine. The van actually sells beer and cigarettes. Ohhhhh. That would explain some of the oddities of my ice cream van.
This week, however, the traditional circus music and the, "It's a Small World," with the creepy laugh in the middle of it gave way to a brand new electronic ice cream van song. Now, we get Beethoven's "Fur Elise." I'm guessing he's trying to attract a different clientele since he's gone all 'uptown' on us now. 'Wonder what he added to the inventory to merit classical music?
-b
September 05 Dear New Neighbor:Please don't judge me by the state of my flower bed.
Sincerely,
Belinda September 02 Well, Aren't You Funny?I went to WV over the weekend to see Mom and Dad. We had a good time. Jim went and Bernice had her first trip out of the State of Tennessee. She really is a model citizen. Both of the dogs are still worn out. That's always nice. We stayed to have lunch and then headed back. Do you ever have those days when you're particularly thirsty for no real good reason? Yesterday was one of them. I know better than to drink a lot and then try to make the trek back to Nashville. It takes me about 6 1/2 hours to drive it and when I'm filled with liquid, the extra stops always push me closer to seven. That's a lot of incentive to not drink much along the way. However, I ignored my better judgement and filled up with water, Diet Coke and Red Bull. By the time we got to Lexington, halfway, I had quite an impressive emergency going on. We stopped at a DQ and I went in to handle things while Jim walked the dogs. I went in and, wouldn't you know, I landed in a two stall bathroom fully occupied by small children who don't have a lot of toilet experience. You know, when Mom stands outside the stalls and coaches the little ones along from the other side of the door? (I suppose the guys don't have to deal with this as much?) Anyway, it was, of course, taking FOREVER. I was losing my ability to smile supportively when the background music playing through the overhead speaker started breaking through my consciousness. I was half paying attention when it occurred to me that I was hearing CCM music. I'm holding in about five gallons, I'm trying to be lovely to the soccer Mom and you know what the first lyric is that I actually hear? Gang, I'm not even kidding you on this: "Empty Me." Tony's song will never again hold the same meaning to me. -b |
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