I give. Just not to you.

We ALWAYS use caller ID.  Always.  And I never pick up the phone when it says Unknown Name, Unknown Number.  I used to.  I was curious.  But then I learned that Mr. and Mrs. Unknown are ALWAYS asking for money.  So I stopped answering the phone.  Until this morning.  Why?  I got curious again, I guess.  And guess what?  Mrs. Unknown was asking for money.  Of course.  Maybe I needed a refresher.  This one oughta keep me for a year or so.

Totally unrelated: I LOVE Rhapsody in Blue.  If I had to choose one piece of music to have on a loop in my head for the rest of my life, I think it would be that one.  I heard it this morning and danced around the first floor to it.  Interpretive dance.  The dogs think know I’m nuts.

A pattern

I just read my last few posts and I noticed a theme.  A pattern.  An everyday happening, if you will.  (Oh, you won’t?  Hm.  Too bad.)  I always have a song stuck in my head.  It probably isn’t unusual.  I think anyone who likes music (and believe it or not, that is NOT everyone.  I can think of two people off the top of my head who don’t really care about music and never pay attention to it.  You know who you are.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) is likely to have some song or other rattling around in there.  I just happen to be mentioning it a lot lately.  Right now (and since this morning – I was singing it in the shower), I’m humming Ingrid Michaelson’s “The Way I Am”.  I really like that one.

What was I saying?

I had some half-formed ideas about what I was going to post today, but I can’t focus on them, so they’re out.  Maybe they’ll return some day, but if they don’t, it’s no great loss.

Same goes for this post.  Barely deserves the name.

Why is it that the song that gets stuck in your head is never one you like?  Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” is in mine, and I really don’t like it.  Maybe not never.  I was okay with it when “Hey Soul Sister” was the song I couldn’t get away from.  If I try hard enough, maybe I can replace Katy Perry with Train.

So relaxed

I’ve only been home for about half an hour, but I feel as relaxed as if I just got out of the bathtub.  Maybe because I don’t have to do anything else tonight?  I went to the store on the way home, put the groceries away, fed the dogs, rescued my rosemary plant (needed more soil), sliced a baguette, and put chili on the stove to heat up.  I think it’s the music.  Tonight, the first thing I did when I got home was turn the stereo on.  Loud.  (Not wake-the-neighbors loud, but louder than background music.)  I’m listening to this CD I bought a while back when I was looking for relaxation stuff, and I usually listen to it while I’m taking a bath (Aha!  The bath connection!).  Mozart for Morning Meditation.  I love it.  (The link is for the MP3 download.)

Not a social creature

Not today, at least.  I had one of those days where I didn’t want to see ANYbody.  Didn’t want to talk to anybody but John.  I did eventually talk to Maggie and Christina at the gig (the band played for the same neighbor tonight), and of course I was happy to see them, and it’s not that I don’t like people.  That’s true some of the time, but when it’s true, it’s not true for specific people.

I’m rambling.

John played this for me yesterday.  Mind, I don’t know if it’ll make you laugh or cry.

I think it’s hilarious.

I’m a recording artist!

First, some background.  John has several hobbies,  but they mostly fall into three categories: cars, computers, and music.  This latest project combines two of the three.  You know, I shouldn’t call this his latest project.  He’s had a variation of this going on since we lived in our first apartment in DC ten years ago, but, as with many hobbies, he only picks it up every once in a while.  He recently installed some recording software on the computer in the basement, and now he has a whole studio down there.  We recorded possibly the most laid back recording of “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” so he could mess around with the program.  It turned out okay, so here it is.

[mp3player width=200 height=25 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml file=http://www.inanechatter.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Nobody-Knows-You-When-Youre-Down-and-Out3.mp3]

It’s not perfect, so please don’t judge too harshly.  The more we listen to it, the more we both hear things we’d change if we were to do it over.  I think that could go on forever, though (you’re always your harshest critic), so we decided to leave it as is.  There are plenty of things we like about it, too, particularly the end.

Some notes:

  1. I don’t think it sounds like me.  I think it sounds like Mindy.  She wasn’t here, though, so I’m pretty certain it was me.
  2. Where did that accent come from?
  3. If I listen to it one way, I think I sound like I’m trying too hard.  I know I wasn’t trying very hard at all, and when I think about that, I think I should re-record it and try harder so I can sound better.  But then I probably would sound like I’m trying too hard and this is a never-ending circle so cut it out already.
  4. I really like harmonizing with myself.  🙂  It’s fun.

If you like it, we might take requests.

Why didn’t they ask me?

The post office doesn’t open until nine!  What’s up with that?  Didn’t it used to open at eight?  I know I’ve read a lot recently about the post office losing money and cutting back hours and services, but how are people supposed to get there if they’re only open from 9 to 5 and not at all on Saturdays?  I only go once or twice a year, but I’ve never been the only person in there.  Far from it, in fact.  There’s ALWAYS a line.  I don’t know what the solution is.  Maybe, if the issue is not being able to afford to be open for more than eight hours a day, they should be open from 5am to 9am and then from 4pm to 8pm.  Thank you, thank you, I know, I’m brilliant.  Post office problem solved.

What other problems can I solve?  Hungry?  I’ll make you cookies!  (I made cookies yesterday.  They’re mostly gone now.)  Need cheering up?  Listen to Mr. Blue Sky by ELO.  I was having a sad morning before work last week (no particular reason) and John played this for me.  It worked.

Stuck between books? I have a handy-dandy and oh-so-convenient book list right over there –> and if you’re wondering, my next book after the one I’m reading now will be something by Laura Lippman.  Anything else I can help with?  I’m not as good with band names (or company names), but it’s fun to try.

Wait – I think I’m allowed to like them now

I’m a little embarrassed to say this, and at the same time I really shouldn’t be embarrassed by it, they’re legit now, and yeah, sure, they were legit before but, god, they were only like 12 or something, so I was firmly in the who-cares-about-this-teeny-bopper-crap camp when “Mmmbop” came out, but anyway they’re all in their 20s now (the oldest one is 30, I think – I did my homework) and this song is THAT good, and okay, I’ll come right out and say it (and take a deep breath).  I like, no, I LOVE “Thinking ‘Bout Somethin'” by Hanson.  I love it.  I love the song, I can’t get enough of the video (taken straight out of that scene in the Blues Brothers movie with Ray Charles), and I might just have to buy the album.

(Did you notice the guy playing the tamborine?  Go back and look.  Yeah, that’s Weird Al.  Random.)

Bugs Bunny rules!

I love Bugs Bunny.  Always have, always will.  We went to Wolf Trap tonight to see Bugs Bunny at the Symphony, this concert series that’s been going on for 20 years and has live orchestras playing the classical music to Bugs Bunny (and other Looney Tunes) cartoons.  It was SO much fun.

I’d probably have more to say about it (and might tomorrow), and I’m very very happy we went (Bugs Bunny alone and classical music (particularly live) alone make me very happy – combined I got a little teary at times), but it’s late and I’m fending off the dogs (they’re a little crazy – past their bedtime) and somewhat distracted.

Today was a good day.

Do It A Capella

We were listening to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and that reminded me of Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s version (with some other a capella group (turns out it was The Mint Juleps) on Spike Lee’s Do It A Capella (a PBS special from 1990), so I had to go download the album.  I used to have the CD, but I haven’t seen it in years.  And the special itself (maybe an hour?) isn’t available on DVD, so YouTube will have to suffice.  I LOVE this album.  Here’s a clip of The Persuasions doing “Looking For An Echo”.

This one is more doo wop than some of the others, but you can watch the whole show on YouTube, track by track, if you’re so inclined.  I was.

Here’s the version of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” that started this trip down memory lane for me:

The linkiest of linky posts

I’ve been meandering through my bookmarks and catching up on blogs I haven’t been reading lately ’cause sometimes I don’t even have time to read all the blogs on my blogroll and if I don’t have time to do that, how am I supposed to have time to keep up with the 80 blogs I have bookmarked?  Anyway, I’ve found some things worth sharing (there are always things worth sharing, every day, but I don’t always get there ’cause I’m selfish like that, you know?  I don’t always want to share.  Alternative explanation: I’m lazy.).

First, from my favorite Wombat, a totally awesome piano performance at the Mayo Clinic.

Jess’s wandering basil plant was returned to her.  That should be a band name: Jess’s Wandering Basil.  Or the name of a country estate.  Wandering Basil.  I like it.

I was reading through Dooce archives and came across this video of a herd of buffalo kicking some lion ass.  WAY cool and sometimes kinda hard to watch.

This woman is fascinating.  I need to get there more often.

Can’t find something?  It must be at the bottom of the ever-moving Asian food section.  This post cracked me up.  And while I’m plugging Scott Adams, I want a house like this.

SuzRocks, a sentence all by herself.  Even if she didn’t write entertaining posts about forbidding her husband to die and daring gangsters to get shot, she has my name and SHE SPELLS IT RIGHT.  I’d read her just for that.  We’ve got to stick together.

You can thank the band for all these links.  They’ve been rehearsing for the last two hours, and it’s a wonder I’m not typing the words to “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide” all mixed in with the words to “Superstition” and “Cecilia”.  I’m retreating upstairs now, with a pillow for my head and my next book.  Crap.  I don’t know what I’m reading next.  I’m off to browse.

Ah ha!  Short stories by Ray Bradbury.  Sold.

I’ll take it where I can get it

I’m not going to pretend I’m happy to be away from home, but last night and today so far are making it a little easier to bear.  I guess I can’t be unbearably depressed and crying all the time.  John, can you forgive me?  🙂  If I had my way, this plane would be heading towards home, not Boston.  Since it’s not – damn.  Ignore the no-crying statement.  I’m not crying, exactly, but the song that just started (“(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am”) brought tears to my eyes.  Because I’m a sap and I’m away from home.  Today’s post is brought to you by The Living Sisters.  If I could find that song on YouTube, I’d post it.  Here’s the one that was playing right before it, when I was feeling a little happier:

Back to what’s made the last day and a half bearable (and, you know, good).  Mom, Dad, and Gaby drove up from Corey and Candy’s place yesterday to spend the afternoon and evening with me on their way north.  Mom and Dad have been all over the south over the last two weeks, and I’m ridiculously happy they realized that coming through Atlanta wouldn’t put them too far out of their way.  I was done with work yesterday right about 1pm, and I wasn’t expecting Mom and Dad to arrive until about 4:30, so I went to the aquarium.  It was cool and everything, but I think Baltimore and Boston have better ones.  Not at all the peaceful afternoon I’d imagined when I thought about going to the aquarium.  Yesterday was the last day of school for many of the districts in Atlanta, and it looked like most of them let out early and shipped the students to the aquarium.  NOT quiet, pretty crowded, but while I didn’t get to experience the whole meditation-while-looking-at-fishies thing, I did have perfect timing to see all the animals get fed.  I was checking out the otter exhibit (they were all napping in a big pile) when an aquarium employee appeared and tossed some food at them.  They bolted out of that pile like they’d been faking the nap and scurried all over the habitat scooping up the food, doingcutelittlehumanthingswiththeirhands. Where was my camera?  That’s right.  Hotel room.  But it was fun to watch.  Oh, one thing that is totally cool about the Georgia Aquarium is how they’ve put half of the tanks and exhibits over the heads of the people walking around.  So in the Georgia swamp area, you’re wandering around looking at frogs and snakes and things (this one little boy had camped out in front of the tree frog tank and made it his business to show me every single slimy, slithery thing in there), and then something catches your eye and you look UP.  And above me, right there over my head, was a huge tank of water with a glass bottom, and a two-foot long catfish looking down at me.  There were all kinds of fish swimming over my head.  And that’s just the river exhibit.  When we got to the ocean part (Ocean Voyager, maybe?), the track leads you into this tunnel that goes under and through what they say is the largest aquatic exhibit in the world.  Lots of sharks, giant grouper, a manta ray, and four half-grown whale sharks.  And lots of other fish.  LOTS of other fish.  After you get through the tunnel (which is just SO cool – seriously the fish and the sharks are swimming next to you and over you and it’s SO COOL – they had hammerhead sharks and the kind with noses that look like chainsaws.  I can never remember what those are called.), you end up in a room with a window onto the exhibit that’s the size of a movie screen.  I got there just in time to watch them feed these fish, which they do by pumping food in through a pipe.  Everything in the tank zeroes in on this one pipe, right in front of the glass, I got to watch the feeding frenzy.  Then, while I was in the tropical reef exhibit, they fed those fish, too.  It was neat to watch, but I think I’ve had my fill of watching fish eat.  After a couple of hours, I’d seen everything (minus the exhibits with an extra charge), so I went back to the hotel.  About an hour later, I got a phone call from Gaby telling me they were checking in, so I met them in front.  Where Gaby got shy for about five seconds.  Then she got over it.  I can’t blame her.  I think it’s been a year since I saw her last.  And at four and a half, I think she can be forgiven for not immediately recognizing an aunt she’s seen all of five times (now six) in her life.  She’s the funniest little kid.  We went to dinner at PF Chang’s (they have a reliably gluten-free menu for Dad, and besides, they’re good), and she started to fade a little.  At first, she wanted to sit with the girls, so they three of us crowded into one side of the booth with Dad all by himself on the other side.  After a while, she disappeared under the table after a crayon she’d dropped, and when she came back up, she’d moved to Dad’s side.  Mom bagged up the leftovers and left them in the middle of the table.  I started making faces at Gaby, who gave me a blank (tired) look and then slowly slid the bag over until it blocked her view of me.  Cracked me up.  And she insisted on sleeping with me instead of Grammy and Poppy last night.  I guess Mom and Dad had suggested it to her earlier in the day, but we all expected her to back out once it came down to it.  Not Gaby.  I was about to drop and she was on her second wind (and an hour behind me, since she was coming from Central time), but even knowing that if she stayed with me we were going to bed right now didn’t deter her.  So we headed across the hall to my room after Mom made her brush her teeth and she settled onto the right side (if you’re on it) of the giant bed.  I got ready for bed and climbed in, and she scooted over to the middle so I could read her the two stories she’d been promised.  After two stories, I was putting myself to sleep, so we turned off the light (leaving the bathroom light on and the light over by the door so it wouldn’t get too dark).  She tossed and turned a bit (and was still in the middle of the bed, leaving me less than a third on the left), and then decided she didn’t want sleep at the head of the bed.  She wanted to sleep at the foot of the bed, under the comforter that was folded up there.  I didn’t care, so she moved and tossed and turned down there.  And then demanded another story.  And another.  And another.  So I made one up, which apparently didn’t go over well, because she asked for princess stories after that, particularly Ariel and Belle.  So with my eyes closed and my words slurring (I think), I managed slightly butchered and completely condensed renditions of “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast” (the Disney versions, naturally).  At some point, she moved back up to the head of the bed, in the middle, sprawled out at an angle, and fell asleep.

I didn’t sleep well.

But she’s so cute!  I can forgive a lot for a cute face and a little girl who tells me she loves me without any prompting.  So yesterday was fun, and this morning, too, and I’m always happy to hang out with Mom and Dad.

On top of THAT, when I checked in online for my flight to Boston today, Air Tran offered me an upgrade to business class for a very reasonable price, and I took it.  So here I am, sitting in the very front row of the business class section, next to the window, with free wi-fi.  I’ve just finished one of those cute little airline bottles of chardonnay and two milano cookies, I’m listening to The Living Sisters (although I’m on the second round of the album and I’m thinking about switching to something else), and I’ll have all day tomorrow in Boston to do whatever I want before I have to work on Monday.  I think the aquarium is calling my name.  🙂  The one in Boston has penguins!

So, even though I’d rather be home (or be going to Boston on vacation with John), I can make the best of it.  It helps that I ran this morning.  Makes me feel like I’m holding my own in my battle against getting fat.

Enough of this. I’m going back to my book.  I just started a mystery by Tana French called In The Woods.