If your life was a soundtrack....

My fellow blogger, Kimberly, was tagged to do this by another blogger. I happened to nose in on it and couldn't resist! It's fun!

Here’s how it works:
1. open your library (iTunes, winamp, media player, iPod)
2. put it on shuffle
3. press play
4. for every question, type the song that’s playing
5. new question — press the next button
6. don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool

opening credits: "You Raise Me Up” by Josh Groban

waking up: "Wake Me Up When September Ends" – Green Day (spooky!)

first day at school: "But Not Tonight" – Depeche Mode (early bedtime, dontcha know?)

falling in love: "New Shoes" – Paolo Nutini (yeah, ok)

breaking up: "Any Dream Will Do" – Donnie Osmond in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (?????)

prom: "Goodbye My Lover" – James Blunt (should’ve come up for the last one, huh? It almost fits my prom except he wasn't my lover and I only said "goodbye" because he had a cold sore and I didn't want to kiss him)

life’s okay: "Smalltown Boy" – Bronski Beat (a song about a boy whose life is not so ok...)

mental breakdown: "Chorus (Covered Up The Sun)" - Erasure

driving: "El Salvador"- Athlete (roadtrip to El Salvador!!!!! Come on!!)

flashback: "Tell Me When" – Human League (how perfect is that!)

getting back together: "Crosstown Traffic" – Jimi Hendrix (this is my husbands song but I think it fits pretty well)

wedding: "Sandy"- Aileen Quinn from the musical, Annie (OK, if the wedding is between two dogs....)

birth of child: "Love Don’t Live Here" – Lady Antebellum (an iTunes freebie that I should delete as it’s a terrible birth song!)

final battle: "Crazy For You" - Madonna (???????)

death scene: "Long Ago and Far Away" – James Taylor (that would be a weird death scene)

end credits: "Can’t Help Falling In Love" – Elvis Presley (you can't beat ending with Elvis!)

The song that came up next was "You Suck" – The Murmurs. I wish it would've come up for the break up song. It's a song that always makes me smile because it's so bluntly honest about breaking up!

Ok, your turn! I tag David, Edgar & Cheryl, Brooke, k, Julie and anyone else who wants it!

My dip into an alternate universe...

Most of you have heard of Myspace, a social networking site used mostly by those under thirty. I never was very curious about it. I had a Facebook account that I started a couple of years ago at the suggestion of a college student that I shared an office with. I check it infrequently and I thought Myspace was pretty much the same thing. Then my friend called me to wish my happy birthday last month and convinced me to open an account to keep in touch. We have only seen each other a handful of times in the past twenty years so I though, why not?

Shortly after creating my account, all these strangers started asking to be "friends." My profile clearly stated that I was married and mostly looking to reconnect with friends with whom I've lost touch. I would go check their profiles and most of them were freaky. A lot of the pictures posted of themselves look like they are auditioning for the soft-porn industry. I'm not exaggerating! I did find some nice people out there too but they were few and far between.

The thing that really got me hooked was my friend and her relationship with this guy. It was kinda like watching reality TV except I knew the people! It sounds so lame when I type it but you should've seen what the guy put out there! He would change his page at least a couple of times a day (I'm so embarrassed that I know this) and his profile pictures and blog posts were straight out of Playgirl! I believe everything he put out there was intended to make someone else react in some way. I had mixed feelings of revulsion, pity, and fascination.

He was convinced he was in love with my friend (at least that's what he told me) so he wanted to befriend all her friends (including me) as a way of getting to know her better. He was ALWAYS online and posting things on his page and everyone else's pages. Everytime he put anything on my page, I'd get an email notifying me and have to go out there and check. Between that and changing my profile music, video, posting blogs, and comments (all of mine more along the lines of Family Fun Magazine), I was logging in more than I should.

It all came to a head on Thursday. It turns out this guy had an unhealthy obsession with my friend that was not reciprocated. He had infiltrated her life and knew her comings and goings by monitoring her and all her friends. He gained the trust of a few of them (not me) and got them to reveal very personal information about my friend. He began concocting stories in order to get them to reveal more and convince my friend that they belonged together. She confronted him about it all and told him to leave her alone. Hopefully he will.

I announced on my page on Friday that I would not log in again for a week. It's been two days and it's been really hard not to go out there and check what's happening. My plan for next Friday is to check one more time to see if everything is calm and to then nuke everything and disappear from Myspace forever. I obviously can't handle it and don't want to turn into one of those pathetic people that spend more of their life typing on their keyboard than in the real world.

I'm 43 years old and only had this account for two months and I can't believe how I got sucked in! I hope Myspace is shut down before my kids ever get a chance to know what it is. I've got my answer ready, if it still exists.......

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guess what this is???

If you guessed this is what my son stuck up his nose to gross out his sister, you'd be correct!

(Yes I did give him a lecture about sticking things up his nose from a safety perspective.)

Update: Putting my son to bed last night, I asked him, "What are you allowed to put up your nose?" The correct answer, of course, was nothing. He answered me very seriously. "Mom," he said, "there are two things that go up your nose; air and boogers." I stand corrected.

Racial Tolerance

An excerpt from Obama’s recent Perfect Union speech:

…to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

My problem:

I have friends and family members who are racist. They know I don’t approve of their beliefs and, for the most part, keep their racially intolerant comments to themselves to avoid a confrontation. I wish there was something I could do that would enlighten them and cause them to abandon their fearful backwards view of people who are not like them. I haven’t figured out how to do that so I try to accept them and focus on the good qualities that they also possess. I DO label them as misguided and racist, though. Even if their beliefs are “grounded in legitimate concerns” as Barack Obama has pointed out, the beliefs themselves are wrong.

He's right about it blocking the path to understanding. My path is definitely blocked and I don’t understand them. I guess this means I’m widening the racial divide which I totally don’t want to do.

Anyone who can offer some advice or can share their own experiences of how they deal with racial issues in their lives, please share!

16 Random Facts About Myself

I created a MySpace account recently. It's a long story that I'm saving for another entry. Let me just say for now that I find the MySpace world incredibly sad, marginally offensive, and hugely addictive. The other day one of my six "friends" tagged me and I had to post this on the blog I have there. I found it an interesting experience in self-discovery so I thought I'd share it.

Here’s how you play: Once you have been tagged, you have to write a blog with 16 weird, random things, facts, habits or goals about yourself. At the end, choose 5 people to be tagged, listing their names and why you chose them. Don’t forget to leave them a comment ("You’re It") and to read your blog. You can’t tag the person who tagged you..

1. I’ve wanted a dog for years and now that I have one, wish he would run away.
2. I think I know how to fix everyone’s life.
3. I go from being obsessed about tanning to obsessed about being white.
4. I can’t keep a secret.
5. I am uncomfortable around very religious people, especially priests!
6. I feel more Hispanic now than I did when I was younger.
7. I don’t like MySpace but can’t stop logging on.
8. I bring up gross and disgusting topics while people are eating.
9. Sometimes, I use big words to make myself sound smarter.
10. I buy every new marketing gimmick I see. Just change the label and I’m all over it!
11. I have no concept of what things cost – house payments, insurance, a gallon of milk….
12. I love a good buzz in the afternoon (though this is not practical most of the time).
13. I hate kids birthday parties (both planning them and going to them).
14. I am only in the mood for ice cream about once a year.
15. I check the doors and make sure they're locked obsessive compulsively when my husband is out of town.
16. I want to live in a high rise apartment in a huge city before I die.

Just watch.....

There are no words I can add......

Did you wear green today???

If you did, then the jokes on you! Apparently, today is not St. Patrick's Day at all. I only know this because my daughter came home on Sunday and said that her little friend announced during the Palm Sunday procession that St. Patrick's Day was moved to last Friday. I asked her who had the right to move this holiday and she said, "Our church does." So today, I went out and looked it up. I was totally floored to find out that the Catholic church actually has proclaimed that St. Patrick's Day is NOT today. Their reason? It's Holy Week and we should not be doing anything fun. What about non-Catholics? Catholics don't care about them because the world should apparently revolve around us and our beliefs.

I think to counterbalance this proclamation, I will have a party every day this week and a big juicy steak on Good Friday. If my blogging mysteriously stops you'll know I've been struck by lightening.

The list of things my church does to make me crazy is growing .......

Scenic Orchardside

I got to sneak away and knit last Wednesday at Orchardside. You can't help but take nice pictures out there. Carol had the flu, poor thing! I heard more, though, about her plans to start a Farmer's Market there soon. It'll be a perfect addition.

Obama is not Wright

I'm just now digesting all this hoopla over some sermons given from Barack Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. People seem to be saying that Obama is guilty of harboring the same views as his pastor because,

1. He attends this church
2. He appointed him to his campaign's African American Religious Leadership Committee
3. He married the Obamas and baptized their children

At first, I had to agree that it looks pretty bad for Obama and I had concerns about his loyalty to this country versus loyalty to his race (you can be loyal to both but the sermons by Rev. Wright suggest that one must choose). The more I thought about it though, my fear didn't hold water. First, there's this YouTube clip Barack released saying in no uncertain terms, that he does not share Rev. Wrights opinions on these issues. I believe him.

Then, I began to think, what if I ran for public office and they went to my church and started picking apart everything Father Joe said and transferring his words on to me. Yikes! If you could hear my pastor speak and compare it to what I think, there would be an overlap of about 5%! Seriously.

So, as far as I'm concerned, the matter is resolved. Now if the press and the other presidential campaigners would just do the same.....

The reason I started this blog....

Way back, last October, my friend Julie convinced me I should start a blog so that I could participate in knitting exchanges. I didn't think I was ready for such technological advances but, she wasn't that computer savvy so I thought I would give it a shot. Here it is, six months later, and I'm addicted to blogging but haven't mentioned much about knitting or even done that many projects. I'm a total novice but enjoy it and hope to get better (I was talking about knitting but I guess it applies to blogging too). Towards that end, I have registered for a knitting convention. Don't laugh! Now I have to get serious because there's all this homework I have to complete beforehand. The convention is in June so I'm buckling down. Here are two projects, I've completed recently and want to show off. Everybody ooooh and ahhhhh.

This first one is a washcloth:

Check out the fine stichery......

This next one is a hat, obviously!


Now modeled by some crazy lady I found on the street:


Anyone know any good blogging conventions coming up? Maybe I'll go to one of those next.....

iTunes Music Reviews

If you've never been shopping on iTunes, they have this feature where everyone can write reviews and rate the songs. The ones I usually notice the most are on the freebie songs that get offered every week. It seems these provoke the most emotional responses. Most of the reviews are really boring but, every once and a while, there's one or two that really crack me up - usually because they think the song is really bad. Here are some I came across for the freebies out there today:

If I get ear cancer, I will blame it on this song.

It's a great song if you have no brain.

What is the title of this song supposed to be called again? It seemed more like Ode to a Corpse With No Arms. (the song was really called "Better Brother")

The scariest part of reading the reviews is the number of spelling and grammar mistakes out there. I hope it's not a true representation of the intelligence level of people in our country....

Mysterious Invite

My husband and I received this mysterious invite in the mail a few weeks ago. The envelope was hand addressed. I have no idea why we were invited or who any of these people are. We're not Russian Orthodox, we don't have any Russian friends, and we don't know anyone living in Washington D.C. The most intriguing part was RSVPing to a Princess!

We should've gone just to satisfy my curiosity but that would've entailed finding someone to leave our kids with for the entire weekend and putting our still neurotic dog in the kennel so we could road trip to DC. The event has already passed so now I guess it will always remain a mystery......

Goodbye Big Daddy

Yesterday we had a funeral for Big Daddy. He's my son's Triop and died at the ripe old Triop age of one month. Ugly little guy, isn't he? The eulogy wents something like this:

You were a nasty fat old thing that ate all your friends and ended up alone. We hope you act nicer in heaven.

His was a burial at sea. RIP

It's 3am.....

Last night I woke up and sensed something was not right with the world.

I tiptoed into my children’s rooms to make sure they were safe. Instead of finding them fast asleep, they were sitting up in their beds and crying.

“What’s wrong?” I asked them, my mind filled with alarm. “Mommy! Mommy! We’re so sad and scared!” they replied in chorus.

“What is making you so sad, little ones?”

“Why are campaign commercials that blatantly play on people’s fears, working? Why, mommy? And why isn’t anyone challenging campaigns that disseminate pictures for the purpose of fueling the fires of religious intolerance? Tell us mommy! Why is someone who voted for a war that is by most, considered a mistake, saying she has better judgment than someone who knew it was a mistake from the beginning? Why? Why is everyone forgetting about the secretive unethical ways of previous administrations and not noticing how it continues even today with tax filings not being released and Library of Congress records being withheld? Tell us mommy!"

“Shhhhh. Go back to sleep. Everything will be alright. You’ll see.”

Stop making my kids cry, Hillary Clinton.

What do you see????

This is a shot of the marble slab that I stare at everyday when I pee at work (Number two's are never done at work). Leave me your comments if you see something. I'll post later to tell you what I see....

The theatre, the theatre....

You know the quote, right? If not, familiarize yourself:



...what's happened to the theatre? My daughter and I went yesterday to see Annie at Warner Theatre in Washington DC. What a great show it was! The theatre was beautiful!

The sets and performers left nothing to be desired! The little girl who played Annie really belted out her songs! Her name is Amanda Balon and she's one year older than my daughter. I can't imagine what a kid has to go through to get to this level (her website looks a little Jean Bennetish) but it sure was a pleasure to see her perform!





We had a nice dinner at Chef Geoff's afterward. It was a very fun, very expensive day! Here are a few more pics!