Total lunar eclipse and Ursids Meteor Shower on the Winter Solstice! How cool is this????
Last time we had a lunar eclipse on Winter Solstice was in 1639.
Lunar eclipses always give me the ooobla dooblas……the moon is actually in 3D when it’s in eclipse. I get all cave womany when it happens. And I’m chicken little during a meteor shower. So tonite I guess I am chicken little with the ooobla dooblas. Ha
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Posted by thought4food
Okay, so I was over at http://blahblahbex.wordpress.com/ visiting and bex had this contest. It’s the Bloggers Pay It Forward Contest. And I WON!!!!!!! This is most cool because I have won something like maybe 3 times in my whole entire life!
I was way diginified when I won too because I only danced on the furniture for seven minutes. Then the dogs started crying, so I stopped.
And to put the icing on the cake I got my prize…….YES I said prize!!!…….in the mail today!!!! I should say prizes because I got all kinds of way cool stuff from Bex. She sent me a yummy soy bar, some nummyfied looking red swedish fish that I can’t wait to try, an awesome liquid silver paint marker that looks great on DeeDee’s fingernails, two moleskin notebooks in different sizes that will come in WAY handy because I have to write EVERYTHING down so I won’t forget because I have brain damage, and these ever so nifty wine glass ID tags, so that you won’t pick up the wrong glass in your drunken state. These will come in more handy than ever you can imagine when we are drinking those mixed drinks that the neighbors come up with on the weekends. PLUS, Bex sent the sweetest note with it, too.
Now, we get to have a contest here too! YAY!!!!! All I have to do is figure out what the contest is going to be about. Oh boy! Oh gosh! Decisions decisions!
Anyway, I wanted to thank Bex for the way cool prizes and for picking me to be one of the winners of the contest! Also I wanted to tell yall to drop by to visit her, cuz she is way cool and her site is awesome!
So, be watching because I have sent out feelers to see what our Bloggers Pay It Forward Contest should be about. Plus, I need some time to find some equally cool prizes to give out.
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Posted by thought4food
I was writing at another site recently and one of the titles that caught my eye was along the lines of: How can you tell if you were meant for greatness? That set me thinking. As you might know, that can lead to all kinds of off the wall oddage. However, on this occasion I don’t think that’s the case. I happen to have a personal little idea about greatness.
I think everyone has moments of greatness in their lives. They might not ever even know they had it, but those moments can change the course of someone’s life for the better. I’ve thought about this off and on for years and years. It was an offhand comment that was made about me that started it all off.
When I was fourteen years old I was with a bunch of other people at my cousin’s house. We were listening to the radio and singing along with all the songs. One of the kids there with us was a boy who liked me. I liked him too. We hadn’t done or said anything about it yet, it was all shy looks at this point. Being about the same age as I was, and shy, and stoopid as boys that age are, he was trying to think of something to say and he decided to go with teasing me. So while I was singing along with my cousin he said something about me thinking I could sing.
My throat immediately seized up and I couldn’t make another sound to save my life. It would be ten years before I could sing in front of anyone again. That one tiny little teasing comment changed me. I allowed it to take away a major piece of my life for ten years. It wasn’t meant to harm me, it wasn’t meant to cause me pain or discomfort. He was only trying to get my attention.
However, eventually, I began to think about how much power that one tiny little comment had. I knew that things like that had happened to other people over and over everyday, all over the world. The spoken word is an immensely powerful tool. Used properly, it can lead one to instances of greatness.
Accidental moments of greatness occur all of the time. When someone says something nice or encouraging about someone else and it is passed on or overheard, that is an instance of greatness. That one comment can change a life. It can lead someone who might have given up, to begin all over again.
But true greatness can come if this power is guided and used intentionally. An overheard comment that isn’t said directly to someone had incredible potency. This is probably because we feel that there is more honesty in something said about is to someone else than there is in something said about us to us. So, an “accidentally” overheard praise about someone is doubled in force.
I try to let my kids “accidentally overhear” me praising their good qualities as much as possible. I like to say all of the good things I can about them when I know they are eavesdropping. It’s good for them to hear good things being said about them outside of their presence. Because they are so much more likely to believe it that way. Besides, my kids are wonderful, and they will never believe me if I tell them that to their faces. I’m never really sure why!
I brag on My Dearest Husband all of the time. Mostly I do this because he’s absolutely hands down the coolest human being ever, but also because it’s good for him to overhear me saying good things about him too. Because it’s human nature to be more likely to believe things not meant to be heard than it is to believe things said to your face. That way he knows that I love him from what I say TO him and also from what I say ABOUT him to other people.
I try to point out the good qualities I notice in my kids friends and acquaintances as well, because I know that kids tell everything. Therefore anything I say about their friends will be repeated to them verbatim. I tell them how one of their friends seems to be meant for the diplomatic corps because they seem to be able to get everyone to get along. Or another seems to be the favorite of every animal that is within shouting distance, so they might be a vet one day. It gives them something to think about, something to see in their future, something about themselves that is more than just a kid. It gives them a glimpse of themselves as adults for just one brief moment. As successful, respected adults. It gives them something to shoot for.
I think people who help someone out of the goodness of their hearts with no expectation of return for their effort are an example of greatness. I think people who can make you laugh when you feel like crap are an example of greatness. I think people you can talk to when you need a place to dump all of your negativity are an example of greatness. I think people who give you a shoulder to cry on are an example of greatness. I think people who can spend time with you and make you feel comfortable with silence are an example of greatness.
An offhand remark has enormous power to affect the lives of the people who hear them. If you make the proper offhand remark at the proper time you just might be an example of greatness yourself. You probably already have, whether you know it or not! How cool is that?
2 Comments | Blog, Children, Cool, Kids, life, People, Random, Thoughts | Tagged: accidental greatness, greatness, offhand remarks | Permalink
Posted by thought4food
What is UP with all these young female teachers having sex with their extremely young male students? Okay, that’s not really the question. What is up with them deciding that after they do it, they have to be all in love and shit and running off getting pregnant and all that crap? I mean criminy! Get over yourself! Those boys just wanted some poontang! The girls their age weren’t puttin out. You were. Yours isn’t any better than any other one. It looks like a bulldog eating mayonnaise just like all the rest of em. Don’t try to convince the kid that gettin nookie means he’s all in love with you and has to carry on some kind of life long love affair. Better yet, just leave those little boys alone, bypass the middle man and go sign yourself up at the sex offenders registry. Then go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass go and do not collect $200.
Princess Bella makes the BEST deviled eggs this side of the Mississippi River. Hands Down.
My Dearest Husband is a hunka hunka burnin luv! Hands Down.
His Highness The Buddha is the a closet sweetheart with a heart of gold. No Doubt about it.
(I’m setting you all up for my Thanksgiving blog.)
The housecleaning fairy came to my house the other night while I was asleep and cleaned up! I was astonished! I was stunned. I was pleased as punch! The housecleaning fairy beats the tooth-fairy ten to one.
Question – When you get old, does the tooth fairy come to visit you when your teeth start to fall out again? I ask this because I just turned fifty and I have started to get all the AARP junk mail in earnest. I have to plan for my future and if I’m going to be visited by the tooth fairy, I can count that as part of my savings! 🙂
Getting older sucks a big green weenie.
The bad news: A two year old girl went missing today in NC while playing with her family dogs out in their yard. Law enforcement was called in and searchers went out and searched for her for hours. The good news: She was found about a half mile from her home, unharmed, unabducted, and basically unscathed. She had simply wandered off and gotten lost in the woods. How cool is it that there was good news at the end of this? And how sad that yall won’t get to see it plastered all over the national news tonight. So, I’ll give you the good news. They are a happy loving family who were terrified by the thought that their little one was missing. They did all the right things and in this case they got their little girl back safe and sound. So here’s one up high for the searchers, law enforcement, the family and all the concerned citizens in this case and all the other ones that turned out right but that we never get to hear about. Sometimes we need to hear the good news.
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Posted by thought4food
Our oldest daughter came home yesterday. It’s been three years since I’ve laid eyes on her. My heart has seen her twenty-four/seven but my eyes have hungered for her non-stop. Going long periods of time between physically seeing her is normal. She is a natural born gypsy. She comes by that honestly.
I never seem to be prepared for just how overwhelmingly happy I am to see her. I kept poking her on the arm. She kept looking at me. Finally, the last time I did it she said, “Believe I’m really here yet?” There seems to be a Birdie shaped hole in my being when she isn’t with me that immediately fills up when she comes home.
It’s like that with all my family and to a lesser degree with my friends. I’m like a puzzle. I’m this huge picture. I know what it is, I know what it looks like. But I’m only really complete and the whole big picture when everyone is together. I almost had it this Labor Day.
Labor Day marked the one year anniversary since the house burned down. All in all things have progressed fairly splendidly since then. We moved into what seems to us to be the perfect house in which to finish raising the kids, finish growing old, hobble around awhile, become a burden to said kids, make them change our diapers just like we did theirs, and eventually be remanded to an old folks home, there to linger and molder away, forgotten and neglected while the aforementioned kids are happily enjoying the life of Riley back at the old homestead. So we decided it was time to conduct a good ol fashioned throw-down.
The icing on the cake was that my mom (you remember her, I am now the proud owner of her hands) and my brothers and my sister(in law) and my niece(my GOD I love that kid) all came up from good ol FLA to attend! AND My Dearest Husband’s Grandma came from 250 miles away along with his mom. Most of our closest friends were able to attend. The few that weren’t were in our thoughts. Our new neighbors were here. We had just the best time ever! The best count we could get was approximately 47 people. Not bad.
The kids all played and didn’t fuss and fight. The grownups all played and didn’t fuss and fight. Even I was nice! (I think) It lasted from around noon until way, way late. Actually it lasted until way early the next day. We had two chefs that cooked on the grill for us. OMG They ruled! My Dearest Husband’s Aunt and Cousin brought some kick ass goodies. We cooked. I say “we” as if I actually helped any! LOL I didn’t! Don’t let me fool you. I was absolutely NO help of any kind at all. My help consisted of staying out of the way and trying not to talk too much. Because by the day of the party I had been off my meds for a fair amount of days ( another story for another time) and I was having major difficulties even saying words. Mostly I just wandered around aimlessly. But at least I wasn’t destructive. That in itself was helpful.
The bros and the hubbie knocked out a couple horse shoe pits and everyone threw some shoes. Down here in Carolina you ain’t had a party if you haven’t threw the shoes. After everyone left, my little brother, Pony, got out my guitar and he and my older brother, Pork Chop, and I sat out on the front porch and sang all the old songs while the dogs lay around under our feet. Pork Chop said it was like being in Mayberry.
The puzzle was mostly put together that day. Only a few missing pieces. It was good to have everyone here. It’s been awhile since we’ve been able to do that.
Big party, lots of people, food, beer, family, friends, no bloodshed = success.
*sigh* (insert big sappy grin) I love reunions.
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Posted by thought4food
Okay, that’s it for the sappy emotion.
I’ve moved. I’m now living in a house on top of a hill. It’s harder than I thought it would be, this not being a slob and all. When you have a nice house you sorta feel like you should keep it nice. My own expectations are exhausting me.
But it’s all bright and white and neat and shit. And it’s out in the open and the sun shines on me all the time. Except when the sun doesn’t shine on me. Then it’s only partly light. Or else it’s dark. That happens at some point every day. Go figger. Still, it’s very……(I’m searching for an appropriate word here)…..happifying! That’s a word, right?
I’ve started walking in the mornings after I put Miss Bella and His Highness the Buddha on the bus for school. *giggle* School. I love school. Anyway, I’ve been trying to get some exercise. It seems to be working pretty well. If you don’t count the fact that for the past 3 or 4 days I haven’t really been able to walk. My hip ballooned up and my jaw on the same side did the same thing. I had a tooth cut out there recently. Seriously, you’ve missed a lot. But I seem to be um, infected. EW! I KNOW! It’s all gross sounding to me too.
I’m thinking that I might just be allergic to all that healthy crap. Honest. See, I wasn’t brought up that way. We were brought up to be filthy dirty little heathens! That’s right, Mom! I’m tellin all the family secrets right here! We didn’t use hand sanitizer! We drank sodas ALL THE TIME! We ate the fat on our meat! OH YES WE DID! We ate bacon OFTEN! I SMOKE! We drank! And…..you might want to sit down for this one….sometimes we still do! We used copious amounts of salt on our food. We played in dirt. We played with our friends when they had colds. We did not know our physicians and their office personnel on a first name basis because we went so often. As a matter of fact, we went to the doctor’s office so seldom, that a visit there frightened us to bits! Uh huh that’s right.
I had my first X-ray when I was 14 years old! And I was so terrified that I thought I would puke! I have had many broken bones that were not set. I have had broken bones that I never went to the doctor for at all. We ate burgers from Louie’s! We followed the 5 second rule. We drank from water fountains, not water bottles. Sometimes we drank from water hoses too. If our ice cream fell out of the cone, we picked it up, scraped off whatever trash we could see, and plopped that bad boy back on the cone and ate away! No sense wasting the perfectly good part of a cone over a little bit of trash! Sheesh!
We ate food handled by people who never wore gloves except in the winter when it was really really cold. But never when they were touching our food. We sometimes faked washing our hands before we ate. We walked barefoot from the first snow until the first thaw. And truth be told, if it wasn’t for caffeine and nicotine I would be in a coma.
But until I started trying to be more “healthy” I was in fact healthy as the proverbial horse. The healthier I tried to live, the unhealthier I became.
I developed……….(insert doomsday music here) MS. My theory is this. As I started to live a more healthy lifestyle, my hyped up immune system had less and less legitimate work to do. Being an honest hard working system, it couldn’t bring itself to just lay around and do nothing. So it decided to attack something, anything. Knowing me like it did, it had a meeting and came to the conclusion that it would attack the most useless part of me……my brain. (wink) So it rolled on up in there and went to work.
But, being MY immune system, it couldn’t just attack like normal. Oh no! It had to do it in a bizarre fashion. So it went for my cognitive centers. My memory centers and pathways. Smart-ass immune system. On the other hand, it sometimes goes after me in the normal ways too.
As a result of all this I have decided to go back to my unhealthy ways. I’m back to eating the fat on my meat. I’m gonna go barefoot in the summer until it’s just too darn cold to do it anymore. I’m drinking water out of the faucet and if I’m in the yard I’m drinking it out of the hose. Maybe I won’t eat the ice cream off the ground though. I mean, I am almost 50, after all.
Do you see what happens when I’m away too long? I babble. I start on one topic and end on something not even remotely related. But I have this really cool built in excuse. I have drain bamage. Yeah baby! That’s what I’m talkin bout! *sigh* Unfortunately, everyone I know, knows better. *giggle* Oh well, it was a nice try.
But it’s good to be back. I’ll fill you in on what you missed later. Not allof it. Don’t be so nosey! Sheesh!
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Posted by thought4food
Teenagers ………….. *sigh* …………….. nuf said.
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Posted by thought4food
Whenever I see someone with their hand in a trashcan the first thing that happens is I say “Teddy!”
Then everyone around me looks at me like I’m crazy. Luckily this usually happens at home. And they only look at me like that because they don’t know who Teddy is. If they did, they would understand completely why I say that and they wouldn’t go digging in the stinking trash can anymore!
They would also understand why it is that it took until I was almost 50 years old to buy my first pair of red shoes.
The town I grew up in had an unusual amount of …..let’s say “unique” people in it. Teddy was one of those unique people. Teddy was not homeless. He was just more of an outside person than most folks were. He found most of the things he wanted in waste baskets and trash cans throughout town. At anytime you might find him rummaging through a trashcan in the park, or in front of a business downtown. Even occasionally inside one of the local businesses. Teddy just plain liked trash. He firmly believed that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. When he got done rummaging and had taken what he wanted out of any particular place, he would transfer it to the basket on his bicycle and ride on to see what might be lurking about in the next trash receptacle.
Everyone in town knew Teddy. He had a home, that’s where he took all that stuff to. What he did with it, we had no idea. I’m not sure we ever even wondered. Teddy was Teddy and he did what he did. He had done it as long as any of us could remember. We never thought to wonder why.
Teddy did have one little twitch though. Teddy had a thing for red shoes. Any red shoes. If Teddy spied you wearing red shoes, he was going to try to chase you down to get them! I’m not sure if Teddy liked red shoes or if he hated red shoes. But it was surely RED SHOES that caught his attention. And he meant to have them if he could. Us kids couldn’t wear our red ball jets gym shoes to town if Teddy was around. And if we did, we had to keep an eye out for Teddy the whole time we were there.
Occasionally someone would forget, or the odd tourist would come through who didn’t know and then the show was on! Oh Lord that Teddy would just get ALL het up! Agitated and flustacated! He would run after her if his bicycle was too far away. He would chase after the poor screaming woman, all bent over with his crabby hands all bent and reaching for those red shoes! Locals would line up on the sidewalk and hoot and holler at Teddy. If it was a local woman who just misjudged, she would fly down the sidewalk laughing and squealing, but knowing that no real harm was going to come to her. If it happened to be some unfortunate tourist in town for some summer fun, well, her story bank was fixing to get a huge deposit! With interest! She would take off like she was running through hell in gasoline britches. Screaming for all she was worth! And Teddy dead on her heels just a grabbin for those red shoes.
In the end, the women would either come out of the shoes and let Teddy have em, or else someone would stop Teddy and tell him he couldn’t chase the red shoes in town any more and he would grumble a bit, take a last longing look at the shoes and go back about his business. Casting glances back over his shoulder at the shoes until they were no longer in sight. All that was left then was the next trash can.
Teddy usually chased at least one pair of red shoes a summer. It was a rare occurrence during my childhood. Often enough to be expected, but not often enough to be common. Mostly Teddy was the trash can man. And if someone caught you going after something you accidentally tossed in the trash that you didn’t mean to, you were in for it! So you better make sure that that winning lottery ticket was going to be worth the months of ribbing you were gonna get for diggin in that trashcan, Teddy!
So, this is what rolls through my mind whenever I see one of my kids, or My Dearest Husband rooting around in the trash for something and Teddy comes automatically out of my mouth. There are about 3 people on this earth that I know of for sure that will automatically get this post. The rest will have at least visited the South Western coast of Michigan at some point in the past and spent time in a little tourist town that straddles the Black River to get it.
Strangely enough, I ran into one in Research Triangle Park in Raleigh North Carolina once. She had gone there on vacation with her family when she was just a small child. She looked at me funny when I called myself Teddy for going into the trash for something. But when I said “Blue Moon Ice Cream” she nearly fainted. She started asking me questions about where I was from and when she found out it was the same place she used to vacation, she realized that we had been there at the same time and had played at the same park and probably had spent time with each other those summers she was there. It’s always nice to meet someone from home who understands just how unique it was there. You can talk for hours about it.
And laugh your heads off when you both holler “Teddy!” at someone for digging paper out of a trashcan.
1 Comment | America, Blog, Blogging, Blogroll, Children, Cool, Crack house humor, Crazy, Daily Life, Funny, Funny Story, Humor, humour, laughter, Random, Reminiscences, Seeing Red, True Story, Uncategorized | Permalink
Posted by thought4food
I see hand sanitizer all over the place now. People are fanatically clean these days. Times have changed since I was a kid. We never really thought about that kind of stuff when I was young.
Don’t get me wrong, we had to wash our hands before we ate. We had to take our bath. Occasionally an aunt or someone (usually Southern) would make a comment about being able to “grow taters in those ears” to one of my male relatives. But hand sanitizer in travel sized bottles? *giggle* Not hardly.
As a matter of fact, I had an older cousin whose mother kept him so clean when he was young that he got sick. His doctor finally told his mom that she had to let him go outside and get dirty. She was not to clean him up! He was to get dirty and stay that way until evening and only then was she to bathe him! It was excruciatingly hard on her, but she did it for his sake. He got better….physically. Funny thing, he ended up crazy as a bed bug. But that is neither here nor there. (Yes, it does run in the family, smart aleck!)
My grandson, Buddha, used to be such a neat freak that when I gave him a sloppy joe for lunch he couldn’t eat it! He would pick it up, get sauce on his hand, put it down, wipe off his hand, pick it up, get sauce on his hand, put it down, …….you get the idea. Finally, I took pity on the poor little thing, cut it up and gave him a spoon. Sheesh! (Now, he could grow taters in those ears *wink*)
When I was coming up, those things never came into consideration. If they had, we would have never eaten a Louie burger. At this point it is my duty to warn any of you with a weak stomach not to read further. Mom, this means you.
Louie lived and worked next door to the service station that my dad was part owner of. We would go down to “help” dad at the station and he would send us next door for a burger. Louie and his wife, I never knew her name, lived and worked at their house. Louie cooked burgers on the stove in his kitchen. They were GREAT burgers. They were locally famous. Everyone went to Louie’s for a burger on a regular basis. This was good because at some point Louie apparently had a stroke or something and this is how Louie and his wife made their living. His wife would take the orders, give them to Louie, who would shuffle back to the kitchen and cook them, and his wife would chat with you up front until he shuffled back with your greasy bag. Louie couldn’t talk. His wife knew what he meant when he made his noises, but no one else did. She would tell you Louie said thank you and come back again. I used to wonder if Louie was actually saying something that ended in “and the horse you rode in on”, but who could tell?
The reason I believe that Louie had a stroke is that Louie shuffled when he walked and he had this other little thing that he did that was kinda telling. He drooled. Yeah, I know, right? Louie probably kept the handkerchief people in business because I never one time in my whole life ever saw Louie without one. He held them up to his chin to catch the drool. But the handkerchiefs were never wet. It was Louie that cooked. Not Mrs. Louie. Louie cooked. Hopefully with one hand.
Weren’t no hand sanitizer going on in Louie’s kitchen, I can tell you that. And no one ever thought one thing about it. It makes my mom gag when we talk about it now. Louie and his wife wouldn’t have a prayer of making a living on their own now. They’d have to depend on Social Security and Alpo now-days. But back then, they were independent and self sufficient. Proud people with a product to sell that people wanted and liked.
Maybe it was the drool that made Louie’s burgers taste so good?
OK, I’ll stop. My mom says I take this one too far.
We didn’t have flesh eating virus in those days. Or Ebola. And if we did, it was very well contained. We didn’t have AIDS, or Hanta Virus or HIV, or any of the new stuff that’s come along lately. There weren’t as many people in the world back then and mother nature wasn’t trying so hard to thin the herd.
We had stronger immune systems then. And the generation before us had even stronger ones. But, I digress.
I probably wouldn’t buy a burger from Louie today. But not for the reason you might think. It would just be too creepy to buy a burger from a 160 year old guy who’s too dried out to drool but who keeps on holding that dang old white handkerchief under his chin! Yuck!
Note to self: Nice girls don’t blog after they’ve taken their meds! Think about it!
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Posted by thought4food
I used to sing. I was pretty good at it. My ex played guitar with several bands and we were together for 10 years before he ever heard me sing. I never sang in front of people in those days, so I really did sing like nobody was listening because …..nobody was. I think it’s fair to say he was pretty much stunned when he heard it the first time.
It was on a tape player. (Can you say “LONG TIME AGO?????) I had been messing around with a new song I had heard and I forgot to erase it. He heard it by accident. He asked who in the hell that was. I said it was me. He didn’t believe me for one second because as far as he knew I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. Eventually he got me drunk enough to sing in front of him and prove it was me.
Back in the day we always had music. Everything was accompanied by music. People coming over to hang out always brought guitars, amps, harmonicas and whatever other instruments they had and we jammed. We went to other people’s houses and played. It was alright. And, back in the day, we had beer. I’ll be kind to my momma and leave it at that. So, we started gettin me all drunked up and I started to sing with them.
They came to the conclusion that I sounded like a cross between Stevie Nicks and Bonnie Raitt. With a slight quiver. That was pure terror. There was not enough alcohol invented to take that away. But they gave me songs and booze and I sang. Then one evening out in someone’s barn a sneaky varmint turned on a hidden tape recorder and taped me singing. A few weeks later we were at another guys house hanging out and playing. When I started to sing a song he jumped up and hollered, “You’re the girl on the tape!” I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about.
You have to remember that: 1. I was drunk. 2. I didn’t know about the tape.
So he played it and sure enough it was me. Have you ever heard yourself on tape? I really can’t stand it. I don’t mind hearing myself through my own ears inside of my head, but I hate hearing it from outside in. I almost spit up. But they all seemed to love it. So they hatch this plot. The guy who managed the local newspaper at the time was having a Christmas party at his house and had asked the guy who’s house we were at to get together a band and play at it.
Now I’m really thinking I shouldn’t have had those last couple of beers. They want me to sing. In front of people. A bunch of people. Maybe I’ll rethink that beer thing and just have a few more. Cuz those guys are really excited and happy and wanting this to happen. And deep inside of my alcohol induced haze I’m kinda thinkin this might be kinda cool, too. If I can keep from spitting up, that is.
So we practice. We practice a lot. We practice and we practice and I sing and I sing. I’m well on my way to becoming a raging alcoholic. Because there is no way on God’s green earth that I can sing in front of anyone without it. I’ve only been singing in front of my ex for about 3 or 4 months at this time. But it feels good to have people telling me that I can do something well. And everytime we practice more and more people show up to watch us. It’s all really new and exciting.
So, the fateful evening comes. Let me set the stage for you.
This was about 25 years ago. I was young and hot as a two dollar pistol. Long wavy chestnut brown hair, slender, an ass that looked like two puppies fighting under a blanket when I walked. They get me there and we’re in the back room. It’s almost time to go out. The plan is to keep me in the back of the group until it’s time for me to sing. That way I can get used to the atmosphere and I won’t be so nervous. They brought me a bottle of gin. All the quicker to schnocker you with, my dear. And I knocked that baby back as fast as I could.
Then we went out to the stage. It gets a little hazy around here. There were many people, pretty lights, music, clinking, talking, and then they brought me to the front and set me on a stool and started playing my music. I think I had my eyes closed because I was ok at first. I just started to sing and I was having fun for the first few lines. Then I noticed that it was very quiet in that place. I opened my eyes. Everyone was standing there with their drinks in their hands and they were all looking at me! I immediately stopped singing. I thought I had messed up really bad. I turned around and looked at the guys in the band. They said, “Keep singing, they love it!!”
I turned around and looked at all those faces again and they were nodding their heads yes! Holy Crap! The band started playing again and so I started singing again. They sang with me and they clapped and sometimes they just stood there and listened to me. It was probably the most incredible thing ever. I sang every song we practiced. Somewhere along the line I forget the rest of what happened. It all just sort of melts into one big good ol time.
We played alot of other places and I got to sing alot of other times. It was always a big surprise to me. And it always felt really great. But that first time will always be my favorite. I don’t do that anymore. But, once upon a time, long long ago………
I used to sing.
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Thought For Food 