It's like Tuesdays with Morrie without all the wisdom
I have a friend
Pac-Man Fever
6March 6, 2008
I took the girls rollerskating yesterday with the homeschool group and I was surprised to find that the roller rink did not play “Pac-Man Fever” or “Freeze Frame.” I know, right? Back in my day, those songs were the go-to skating songs. I must have been a little young because I remember being disgusted whenever “Open Arms” would start to play. Disgusting! All the teenagers holding hands or skating with their hands in each other’s back pockets (“Here, let me move my comb to my other back pocket so you can put your hand in that one.”) Disgusting!
The roller rink I went to back then was about 30 minutes away from where I grew up and it seems like every weekend I went skating with my friend Melinda and her family. It couldn’t have been every weekend, though, because that would’ve made for an awesome childhood and it would have totally compensated for all of the benign neglect and outright abandonment that has contributed to my issues that some people say I have today. It was probably only a few times, but those are some of the best memories I have. Sometimes Melinda’s brother Jeremy even chose his best friend Bryan to go with him, but not often. (Not good with the wheely sports, that one.) That’s ok, though, because I had yet to realize what a catch Bryan would be and I was there to skate with MELINDA! (Ok, I might have had a little crush on Jeremy back then, but that had more to do with proximity than anything else. I see that now.)
I might be projecting a little bit, but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who had fun yesterday. Lena, Liberty and Maya got right out there and kept at it, fall after fall, big ol’ grins on their faces. At one point, Lena said to me, “Do you feel young, Mama?” Nothing gets past that girl. I answered her with, “Who you callin’ ‘Mama’?” And then I skated away and pretended I didn’t know her. Next time I’m bringing a comb for my back pocket. And maybe some pom pons for my skates.
I’m a Gallery Hopping Vote Hopper
3March 3, 2008
Ohio’s primaries are tomorrow and I’m still undecided. I’m going to try to definitely decide who to vote for before I vote. I think that’s a good plan. I have goodies from each side because I went to the gallery hop with Alissa and Amy to see Sharon’s and Melissa’s awesome arts all up on display Saturday night (Yay!), and both Hillary’s and Obama’s people were out and about on opposite sides of the street, chanting at each other and everything. It was so cool and so very big city! On the west side of the street, I was sure I was voting for Hillary. The volunteers gave us all stickers and they even gave me three extras for each of my little girls (cuz Hillary’s a girl, you know). Then we ended up on the east side of the street where Obama’s volunteers gave us some stickers *and* a button! A Button! So I wore both stickers and the button and I was confused. And then when I got home and tried to take the stickers off of my sweater, Hillary’s stuck like a mother effer, and Obama’s came off super easy. I keep trying to read more into that. Like political tea leaves or something.
Anyway, I gave the girls their super cool Hillary stickers today. Maya ended up with all of them because Lena and Liberty informed me that they were voting for Obama.
Me: Why Obama?
Lena: Cuz he’s black.
Me: Well, Hillary’s a woman.
Liberty: (excitedly) If there was a black woman, I would pick her! Besides, Hillary already got to live in the White House and Obama never did yet.
I’m pretty sure I’ve heard that same argument on Meet the Press or something.
Feel Like an Activist Without Ever Leaving Your House!
1February 28, 2008
My very talented friend Dawn is doing some important work in the world of adoption and she has a survey up at her website, openadoptionsupport.com. Help her and the adoption community out by clicking on the link and filling it out if it applies to you. It applies to you if you are an adoptee, an adoptive parent, a parent by birth whose child was adopted, or a family member of a parent by birth whose child was adopted. Don’t dick around with it if it doesn’t apply to you (you know who you are, and Dawn’s like a drug dog for idiots. If you’re an idiot, she will sniff you out and then you’ll go to jail for dicking around with her very important survey. It could happen.)
First (song) Love
19February 11, 2008
My very first favorite song was Beth by Kiss. And then I had Peter Criss, Ace Frehley, and Paul Stanley for imaginary friends. Never Gene Simmons, ew. I was maybe 3? I don’t know, but I loved that song and I remember loving and singing* that song over and over. Only I said “Beff.” I’m sure I was pants-shittingly adorable. My brother would’ve been 10ish at the time and he had what turned out to be a life-long habit of playing all kinds of awful music very loudly out of his very dark and scary and stinky bedroom. He had all the most hideous posters and I swear that room gave off an aura of evil. I was so afraid of it that it occupied many, many hours in which my imagination would run away with all of the evils that could befall a person who went in there all alone. But I would enter when Beff was on the stereo. I had to have been introduced to it from the Double Platinum album because I remember being upset when I found out that the same freaks that were on the cover of Destroyer were the ones who were singing my precious song. But then, my brother also had their solo albums and I fell in love with Peter, Ace and Paul through those lovely headshots with the colored backlighting. So rad. (That probably wasn’t even a word back then, but still). I loved looking at Paul’s album so much because it was purple and I just couldn’t resist making it even more beautiful by sticking a grape scratch ‘n sniff sticker on it (sorry Mikey). But, just for the record, Peter was always my favorite because he looked like a kitty cat.
So, for the handful of you that read this thing, I demand that you tell me your very first favorite song. Just for fun.
*I’m sure I knew the lyrics because I’ve always been good at knowing lyrics for some reason. Bryan, on the other hand, is so much the opposite in that regard. In fact, when I told him I was blogging about Beth he immediately started singing, “Beth I hear you crying and I’ll be right there for you…just a few more hours and I’ll see you through and through,” when I shook my head at him he was really all like, “That’s not right?” and omigod I almost stabbed him.
Notes on my Playlist
7January 5, 2008
I walked down the aisle to These are the Days by Van Morrison. I wanted to walk down the aisle to That’s How Strong My Love is by Otis Redding and have the bridesmaids walk to the Van Morrison, but I was talked out of that by an important member of my groom’s family who told me that some people in the family might not be able to handle hearing a black man sing me down the aisle. This is where we come from and we’re ashamed that we gave in. Here’s the irony: It was so important to us that we walk down to the Otis Redding song, that Bryan actually remembers the wedding happening that way. He told me tonight that he has it embedded so deep in his brain that I walked down the aisle to that particular song, that he has actually told people that that was our wedding song. And yet we caved to the racism. Wow. We were very, very weak when we were 20. That’s just another reason people shouldn’t get married at that age. The primary reason being that you don’t really know what to register for and so you don’t really get a lot of good gifts that are useful for your lifetime and whatnot. Because you’re 20 and you can still eat at The Malt Shop without dire side effects like your pancreas bleeding, and you don’t understand the value of a really good set of knives that you didn’t register for, but a wise old family member bought you anyway, but you took them back and got the cash in order to have more money to spend at the Malt Shop. Because you’re 20. And you know best. *sigh* This post will probably be edited tomorrow.
