Melonie Johnson

8 Nights of an Intergalactic Holiday

December 18, 2011Celebrations, Cool Stuff, Products, Star WarsWrite a comment

It’s no secret that I’m a Star Wars fan. Who knows what started my life-long attraction: maybe the characters and story line appealed to my archetype loving little soul, maybe Princess Leia’s kick-a** and take names attitude spoke to my inner She-Ra, or maybe I just really thought Han was hot. (Actually I harbored a crush on Luke for much of my childhood, it wasn’t until I was a teen that I succumbed to the allure of a scoundrel with a budding conscience). Speaking of scoundrels…

Once upon a time I had a few Star Wars ornaments that happily shared space on our traditional family tree. A few years ago, the husband and I came to the realization that what had once been a few had somehow become “Holy crap we have a lot of Star Wars ornaments.” Seeing as we had already converted our dining room into my own personal cantina we refer to as the Star Wars Bar, it made sense to decorate this ode to my collection of all things from a galaxy far far away with a tree all its own. Thus, the saga of the Star Wars tree began.

Now, what does Hanukkah have to do with this? Not much, actually, beyond the awesome HANukkah bit pictured above…my mother is Jewish, and I was brought up celebrating both holidays – so I think I’m allowed to indulge here. However, the truth of the matter is I was planning to do a “12 Days of Star Wars” Christmas…but just didn’t manage to start posting in time…so here I am with Christmas a week away…and 8 days to post things (I’m counting Christmas day) and I thought hey, the HANukkah thing tied it all together quite nicely (even if Hanukkah doesn’t start for a few more days). Besides, it will be easier to come up with 8 posts vs. 12…and easier is good…especially at this schedule-crammed time of the year.

To strongly encourage myself to actually follow through and complete all 8 posts, I will outline them now so you know what to expect and can heckle me if I fall behind. (ETA: I didn’t finish all the posts I planned, so please – heckle away.)

Now do I count up? Or down? Let’s go with down, it seems to build more anticipation…and that goes for whether we’re counting down days to Christmas or seconds until the Death Star blows up a planet.

8 That’s today! I explain the conception of the Star Wars tree (no…the ghost of Anakin did not visit me in a dream) and share a few composite shots of the tree.

7 Monday 12/19: Heroes We celebrate the good guys (and girls).

6 Tuesday 12/20: Villains Even the evil dudes have a spot on my tree.

5 Wednesday 12/21: Sidekicks All the furry buddies and comic robots that make this series shine.

4 Thursday 12/22: Vehicles Too bad I don’t have a real Imperial Walker…it would come in handy during MidWest snowstorms.

3 Friday 12/23: Scenes Great movie moments immortalized.

2 Saturday 12/24: Cool Yule Accessories All the fun little extras that help complete the Star Wars Christmas tree and add holiday flair to my cantina. (Most were given to me as Christmas gifts in year’s past – it makes me easy to shop for!)

1 Sunday 12/25: Wish List What other ornaments, lights and chotchkies would make my Star Wars tree even more awesome next year?

Back to how this all started.

With the decision made I set out to find an appropriate tree for my endeavor. An entire Christmas tree devoted to Star Wars may seem like excess, but hey – I did try to keep things reasonable. I waited for an after-Christmas sale to score a cheapy tree even cheaper. I settled on a mid-size white pre-lit model. It is tacky? Perhaps, but the white clearly separates it from our formal and classy (if a fake tree could ever be referred to as classy) green tree; plus the ornaments pop better. In short – I think it looks really cool.

star wars tree 2012 — I’ve always used silver tinsel, but plan to give blue a try next year…

What about you? Have you ever decorated an entire Christmas tree based on one theme? Would you like to?

What would your tree be covered with?

Disney Princesses? Motorcycles? Harry Potter?

Or maybe those mer-people ornaments?

mermaid ornaments — I think they are bizarre, but hey…I am the girl with the Star Wars tree – so who am I to judge?

Join me tomorrow, (if I can keep my holiday S together) for day 7!

Star Wars Christmas

Joy and Pain

December 18, 2011Books, IMO, Life, The Book, UncategorizedWrite a comment

No, I’m not referencing the Rob Base song from the 1980’s here…this reference goes back further…to 1923, when Lebanese-born American artist, philosopher and writer Khalil Gibran published a book 0f 26 poetic essays entitled The Prophet. I can’t recall when I came across Gibran’s work…whether it was in a philosophy class, or an early 20th century American-Lit class…but either way, I would have been in my late teens-very early twenties. Even at that relatively young age, a line caught my attention and held it…and I have never forgotten it since.

Those words have helped me through some rough moments, such as when my maternal grandmother passed away and when I nearly lost my father a few summers ago.

So often you hear people who have gone through severe hardship or experienced tremendous loss talk of the joy they find in the little things they once never took notice of. They appreciate more. In an ironic twist of humanity, their loss enriches their lives in a way people who live relatively tragic-free lives could never experience.

I would never wish for pain or desire tragedy…but I do find comfort in understanding the truth in Gibran’s quote. And though these words certainly did not ease the pain of loss or make their experience any easier – that’s not what this is about. The moments in my life that have brought me the most sorrow have indeed left room to:

love deeper,

try harder,

hold on tighter.

Fondue + Fernando = F-ABBA-ULOUS Fun

December 16, 2011Celebrations, Cool Stuff, IMO, Life, Music, ProductsWrite a comment

It’s a Just Dance kinda week around here, and really that’s ok – because I am so freakin’ stressed out by my never ending to-do list that it was awesome to let it all go and just be crazy silly for a few hours.

My 8 year old Miss A has been enjoying UbiSoft’s line of Just Dance games, as you can see in my recent post about JD3, so when I had the chance to get in on the action and test out the new Just Dance Abba, I was all over it.

In case you noticed: for a little bit of added fabbalousness, I decided to edit all photos for this post using the “Seventies” Action free from Pioneer Woman. Ah, the 70’s. I say that like I know so much about the decade, even though I was born in the latter half of it (and speaking of Pioneer Woman, she is a huge fan of the Just Dance game series too – check out her recent post!).

I honestly didn’t know much about Abba until I fell in love with several of their songs in a round-about way. In 1992 Erasure released Abba-Esque, a brief Abba tribute album that included songs like S.O.S. and my fav: Take A Chance on Me. That was in high school…and it wasn’t until years later that I thought about Abba again – when the Mama Mia movie was released and a bunch of my mama friends and I planned a night out to see the movie and drink a margarita (or two) after. We had so much fun that night, and much of our enjoyment came from the songs’ unique sense of sincerity and sensationalism that the Seventies Quartet from Sweden served up in spades. (Have I mentioned my weakness for alliteration?)

Playing the Just Dance Abba game was a chance to re-visit that fun again…so another night for my mama friends was planned – this time instead of a night OUT, we had a night IN. To set the scene for the party a few non-essential essentials were called for:

– Lighting: Nothing says get ready to get your groove on than a disco ball!

– Food: Coming up with what to serve was simple: fondue, of course – the quintessential dish of that cheesy decade. Now, I know I have a fondue set handed down to me somewhere in my house, but Lord knows where it is! Which is why I was delighted to discover this yummy “cheat” from Trader Joe’s (you could heat it up in a fondue dish, or…you could just microwave it…guess which option I chose?)

Fashion: What to wear to an Abba Dance party? Well, if you are a brave soul, you may opt for one of the more outrageous styles the group was known for (unitard, anyone?) but for me, I kept it simple and chose a Maxi-dress right out my closet (no hot pants for me, thank you very much). If you need some fashion ideas, Fashion Era has a great archive of posts about the styles of the 70’s.

As for the rest…the Abba Just Dance game pretty much took care of it all! It provided the tunes and the activities to keep the party rolling. I never realized just how MANY songs Abba had in their discography! Within an hour, I had discovered some new (well, new to me) songs to add to my fav list. The dance I enjoyed “performing” most, (I think – it may change the more I play) was As Good As New. The choreography in that one was really fun.

About the dance choreography in Just Dance Abba – it is not like the traditional JD1-2-3 games. Most of the Abba dance routines are slower paced and while JD3 can easily leave you sweating by the end of the first song, you won’t find that to be the case with JDAbba…not unless you sweat from laughing a lot. And laugh you will – a few of the moves are so zany and over-the-top that all you can do is be bold and embrace you inner Dancing Queen, no matter what she may do.

Seeing as you will probably be eating fondue and drinking Mama-ritas, perhaps high energy dancing isn’t the best idea anyway. Maybe you had a cocktail too many and dancing is beyond you? Then it’s time to switch to the karaoke option! A microphone is not included with the game, but I happened to have a microphone for my Wii already (~~stole~~ borrowed it from my daughter’s Sing It game) so we were all set to get our Meryl Streep on and crank out some tunes. The karaoke option is purely for entertainment, and unlike other singing games, it does not rate your singing ability or award you points based on pitch, accuracy, etc. (Probably a good thing at this point in the party).

Don’t have a kid in your house to steal from? Microphones for the Wii run about $20 on Amazon…if I needed to get another mic, I’d probably look for a deal on a game that included one (so I felt like I was getting more for my money, money, money…did you catch that song reference?)

Speaking of kids – my 3 year old absolutely adores this game! All week long she has been singing Abba tunes, and she actually scores pretty well while dancing (well, she does almost as well as I do, so that may say more about my level of ability than hers).

Now, what could be done to make this game even better? Well, one of my friends was really bothered by the lack of defined facial features on the animated dancers.

There is a fuzzy outline of eyes and a mouth, but I think the lack of clear definition kind of freaked her out. I’m not sure if the idea was to create a sort of “blank slate” so you could imagine yourself in the place of the on-screen dancer, but I never imagined myself wearing a t-shirt with a bedazzled cat on it as a dress, so it really doesn’t work anyway. Also, in the karaoke option, sometimes the color choices of words and backgrounds made it very hard to follow the lyrics. These are minor details though, and did not detract from the fun!

And fun really is the name of the game, and you are guaranteed to have a great time…maybe even as much fun as the unlikely duo featured below:

If you want to gather your own group of dancing queens together for a fun night IN, pick up a copy of Just Dance Abba…just don’t blame me if you suddenly find yourself wanting to wear a glittery unitard.

FYI: I decided to edit all photos for this post using the “Seventies” Action free from Pioneer Woman. Ah, the 70’s.

Thank you to Ubisoft for sponsoring this blog post. Please click here to learn more about Ubisoft. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own.

CleverGirlCollective Giveaways

Third Time’s The Charm, So What You Waiting For?

December 13, 2011Cool Stuff, IMO, Kids, Products, Working OutWrite a comment

Whether you’ve been living in a cave and have yet to hear the buzz about UbiSoft’s Just Dance games, or are a dancing fool who has already worked up a sweat getting down to Just Dance 1 and 2 – you’re going to want to check out the latest and greatest arrival to the party: Just Dance 3.

From ages 3 to 33 (ok, I’m 35 – shhh) the ladies in my house are having a blast putting this game through its paces. I am not ashamed to admit that over the weekend I was schooled by a 10 year old…but I will be demanding a rematch in the near future.

So what makes JD3 so fun? Well, from a simple bystander’s point of view – the entertainment value alone is worth its weight in gold (which I hear is pretty pricey right now, so that’s saying a lot). Simple sit back, relax, and bust a gut while watching your friends bust a move. Then there’s the game itself – an addictive mix of high energy dance moves, good ol’ fashioned competition, and the lure of showing off. Who wouldn’t have fun?

One of the things I liked best about JD3 was the eclectic variety of songs: recent hits like Jesse J’s Pricetag andTaio Cruz’s Dynamite kept the 10 and under set dancing with happy feet while old school keepers such as a-ha’s Take on Me and Bananarama’s Venus made me feel like I was the one who was 10 again. When we played as a group we let each player have a turn choosing the song, and I think some new favorites were discovered by all.

Worried you’ll burn through the playlist too quickly? Have no fear: all that dancing earns you “Mojo” points which will allow you to unlock cool stuff like new choreography! And if that’s still not enough, there is a song store where you can purchase new tunes using Wii points (at the “price” of 250 points a song). All the players had fun trying to earn (“unlock”) medals.

A sweet aspect of the Wii version of the game is how simple it is to play. Pop the disc in, grab a controller and start dancing! Nothing else to set up, attach, or coordinate. I was impressed how well the Wii picked up the players’ movements without any of the fancy extra equipment some other systems require. Also, as you can see in the following video – players can move around quite a bit and not worry about being outside the “play zone” – this is especially important when trying to perform the more advanced group choreography.

Maybe you already own Just Dance 1 & or 2 and are wondering why you could possibly need a 3rd version of this game. Well, if a whole bunch of new songs and dance routines isn’t enough to convince you to add JD3 to your game library, maybe some of the shiny new bells and whistles will. A few favorite new additions included the dance crew option (where each of up to 4 players has their own specific choreography) and the dance mash-up.

Another new option is the “Just Sweat” selection – where you can make exercise more fun and less work. Track your fitness while dancing up a sweat using the included “7 Day Challenge” option where JD3 becomes your own funky personal trainer for a week…what a great way to get a jump start on those New Year’s resolutions! The more I think about it, the more I realize how this game could help me keep all kinds of resolutions this year: lose weight, exercise more, do more fun stuff, spend more time with my kids…playing JD3 is a way to achieve all these things.

Speaking of New Year’s – I can’t wait to make JD3 a part of my family’s celebrations this year. There is a non-stop shuffle option that will help keep the party going all the way to midnight and on into 2012.

Whether you use it to keep playdates exciting or to relieve your own holiday stress, I highly recommend you pick up the game today. Wrap it as a gift to the whole family, since everyone in the family is sure to enjoy it! It’s available on Amazon for less than the cost of an average dinner out for a family of 4. Don’t want to wait to have it shipped to you? Then head on over to your local Toys R Us, where you can find JD3 waiting on the shelf.

But what if you don’t have a Wii? Here’s a chance to make this the Ultimate Christmas for your family – right now Target has an exclusive bundle that includes the Wii, controllers, and a copy of Just Dance 3 – all for around $130. That’s $20 less than the usual price of the console alone! So you can add “save money/spend less” to the list of resolutions this game will help you keep. Not a bad deal at all.

Thank you to Ubisoft for sponsoring this blog post. Please click here to learn more about Ubisoft. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own.

CleverGirlCollective

Lots of Treats for Me

October 30, 2011Blogroll, Cool Stuff, ProductsWrite a comment

A few weeks back, I learned about a cute little website called Veronika’s Kandy Koated Dreams. I can’t remember how I first found her – Twitter maybe? Or perhaps her site popped up while I was looking for something Halloween related. Either way, I’m so glad I did! Not only because she does a wonderful job updating her site regularly (a feat which I cannot seem to manage) with lots of cute ideas, tips, and pics for everything from fashion to food, but also because she recently hosted an INCREDIBLE awesome Halloween Giveaway – and guess who won…yeah, you probably guessed me, otherwise why on earth would I be even telling this story?

I have to say, I have had my fair share of interweb luck and won some sweet contests, but to date this has been the sweetest of all. She put so many wonderful things together in this giveaway! To top it off, she packaged it all up so cute and creatively that when it arrived, I felt like it was my birthday!

Here’s the package after Lil’ G and I pulled it in from the doorstep.

Upon opening the box, Lil’ G immediately confiscated this cutie for herself.

There was an adorable card, written on a cat mask (and as you can see above, the envelope was awesome too!)

Lil’ G decided she had to have the mask as well (if it had anything to do with cats, it’s hers).

There was also some fun stuff to help decorate my house, including this votive holder that matches the Halloween tablecloth on my dining room table perfectly.

And this “Bootiful” sign, which now sits with Mr. Bones above my message board:

And not to leave out Miss A, there were some luscious lip glosses (Miss A and her friends are SO into lip gloss these days!)

You think all that would be enough to make for more than an awesome giveaway, right? But Veronika also included a set of Philosophy lip glosses (which I kept for myself, thank you very much) along with matching Philosophy Halloween themed bubble bath. There was a sweet little orange and black purse that I gave to my sister as a thank you for babysitting this past Friday night (so the husband and I could explore the spooky parts of Fright Fest sans kids). And also a bag of Godiva chocolate coins that I gave to my husband (ok, I admit I ate one of them too).

Still, that’s not all! There was also a gift card to Starbucks (can you see why I felt like it was my birthday?) and an awesome “Good Witch / Bad Witch” coffee mug. We were getting ready to leave for a Halloween party when the box arrived, so I had Miss A snap a few pics with the mug (I couldn’t resist).

The pics turned out so cute, I was inspired to turn them into a mug too:

http://cdn.staticsfly.com/flashapps/preview/msc/ProductPreview.swf

Mug

View the entire collection of cards.

I hope you have a Happy Halloween, as full of treats as mine has been! If you haven’t stopped by Veronika’s site, pay her a visit – she just posted a series of adorable Halloween costumes.

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Friday Fast Five: “Fall”ing Back in to Things

September 9, 2011Blogroll, Cool Stuff, Family, Products, Uncategorized, Working Out, WritingWrite a comment

1. Hello Fall! I don’t care what the calendar says, or that technically, fall doesn’t start for more than a week…Miss A has been in school for almost a month, we lit our first bonfire since late spring over the weekend, it was cold enough to make me want to wear socks around the house, the squirrels in my back yard have been burying all kinds of stuff, taffy apples are back in stores, and I’m craving hot apple cider and cafe mochas. Yep, it’s fall. As such, I hope to fall back into a regular routine – of working out, of writing, and of blogging. In this spirit, I present the first Friday Fast Five of the season.

woods sunshine — One of our most favorite things to do as a family is take fall walks. Lucky for us, we live in an area with LOTS of forest preserves.

2. Sometimes (well, most of the time) work-out routines are a dreaded part of life. Yes, I feel cranky and mad if I miss a workout, and yes, I enjoy exercise, but I don’t really enjoy it as much as, say – sitting on my behind and reading a book. Except for Zumba. This is the first workout I honestly look forward to – the time flies by, and I really blast calories. Currently the Pause routine is a favorite, fast and silly – though I don’t recommend doing it in high heels as shown in the video. I am seriously considering getting certified to teach this. And no, I never stop looking for ways to get paid for something I already enjoy doing.

3. Fall = Halloween. Sure, I’m a little disturbed that in August Halloween stuff was sharing shelf space with back to school supplies, but I admit to loving to decorate for this holiday. I don’t do guts n’ gore, but come October 1st you’ll find my house to be full of plenty of pumpkins and bats and all the cute stuff you can find on crafty sites like TomKat studios – who, by the way, is hosting a great giveway for an awesome Halloween Party Prize Package.

4. I am in charge of Miss A’s class Halloween party, and already digging up ideas on what kinds of crafts, games and snacks to include. She’s in third grade this year, so I know I need to up the “cool factor” – anyone with some fun ideas, please share them! I was thinking we could do the “Mummy” race where teams of kids try to mummify someone in toilet paper the fastest – but Miss A’s school is very “green” and I’m not sure the use of so much TP would go over well. Unless, of course, I could figure out how to re-use it after the game…stuffing for a craft? Again – if inspiration strikes, let me know! Also, anyone know a good way to make “eyeballs” to put in punch? Frozen grapes?

5. I have never been much for t.v. I usually will have 1 or 2 shows I enjoy (right now it’s The Soup & Modern Family), but it’s never a big deal if I see it or not. Recently, thanks to Netflix, I got hooked on the show The Ghost Whisperer. At first I checked it out as a bit of “research” for my current novel, since I’m always looking for popular culture takes on the paranormal. But I got hooked, not so much on the story lines – which are fine, if exceedingly predictable, but on Jennifer Love Hewitt’s wardrobe. Can whoever is in charge of Melinda’s costumes come shop for me? I love pretty much everything she wears on the show (minus all the crazy hair extensions and 1960’s eyeliner).

Friday Fast Five Giveaways

Magic Treadmills and Raspberry Scones: A Review of Craving Perfect by Liz Fichera

July 18, 2011Blogroll, Books, IMO, UncategorizedWrite a comment

craving perfect cover — Photo from Carina Press

From the publisher: A Life Less…Hers

Grace Mills craves being perfect almost as much as she craves raspberry scones. In fact, her life would be perfect if only she could lose ten more pounds, if only the pastry café she co-owns with her sister would turn a profit, if only the hottest guy at the gym would look her way…

And then “if only” comes true. Grace is suddenly straddling two lives: an alternate reality where she’s a size two, weathergirl celebrity and being chased by the hot guy.

I’ll rate this book the way the girls in my book club (and the ladies of my favorite review site, SmartBitchesTrashyBooks) do it: with an A-F grading system. This system also appeals to my former English teacher soul.

I have to give Craving Perfect a C. The three main reasons for this include:

The fact that it never became a must-finish for me. There was never a moment in the book where I had to read more, needed to learn what happened next – the book just never rose to that level, even at its climax. One of the main reasons for this was heavy handed foreshadowing – by page fifteen I knew what the ending would be – and I was right.

The disappointing performance of the heroine. I am fond of a self-deprecating heroine; but this girl’s attitude was extreme to the point of pathetic. Before the end of the first chapter I was grinding my teeth in irritation. It’s one thing to long for a better bod, or to lust after a cute guy at the gym. However, the heroine fantasizes about the cute guy to such an extreme that it is off-putting. Not to mention his behavior makes it clear that he’s an a-hole. Her poor judgement makes it very hard for me to trust any choices she makes, or put credence in who she is as a person.

The “vehicle” in which the plot of the story gets delivered. I do not want to include spoilers without warning, so I’ll go into detail below, but let me say that I did not appreciate the method Grace achieves her “dream reality” nor the way it gets played out. I felt it caused awkward plot jumps and led to insufficient character building. I also think the author jumped ship on her own plot device, leaving it clunky and disjointed.

Ok – so by starting out as such a negative Nancy you may be wondering why a C? Why not a D or worse? Well, the book had enjoyable moments as well. Let me be fair and present three positive counter points:

The author has a nice handle on dialogue. Overall I felt the characters spoke to each other in a natural cadence, and their internal dialogues expressed conflict without sounding trite.

The concept of the book itself: suddenly getting everything you always thought you wanted and realizing it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be, is a trope I have enjoyed ever since reading Wishes by Jude Deveraux when I was a junior high girl who would love for some guardian angel to make my dreams come true. Having those dreams fulfilled and then discovering you were better off as the person you already are is heartening.

The romance between the hero and the heroine works. I have some issues with how the romance develops (mainly the pacing of it) – but Fichera builds a relationship between the h/h I believed, and had me cheering for them. Sometimes it can be hard to build romance in a contemporary setting, but I think the author wrote some lovely moments that were enjoyable to read. The author does a nice job setting up their attraction…plus, what’s not to love about a hero who finds an average “real” woman sexy?

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of Craving Perfect with intent to review. Thanks to the author for allowing me the chance to read it and honestly express my views. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own (that’s what the “IMO” stands for). I am a nit-picky reader with plenty of hang-ups, and many people adored this book; so don’t just take my word for it, go read it!

Check out more reviews of Craving Perfect on GoodReads

Craving Perfect is available from Carina Press, and from now until July 31st you can save 20%.

For more (including spoilers) keep reading:

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10 Reasons a Rip in My Shoulder is Putting a Rip in My Summer

June 28, 2011Family, General Suckitude, Life, Life Sucks, Working OutWrite a comment

On Sunday mornings in the summer I get up before the crack of dawn (usually around 4 am) to meet my Dad for an early morning bike ride. It’s great; we will do anywhere from 30 to 50 miles and it gives us some nice father/daughter time while burning a whole lotta calories. This past Sunday I had a bit of an oops moment: I took a turn too fast and ended up wiping out…landing hard on my shoulder which landed me in the E.R.

xray — A bit fuzzy , but it was snapped with my camera phone. And no, that is not some bizarre piece of metal floating around - just glare from the screen.

The good news: I didn’t crack my collar bone, the bad news: I suffered an acromioclavicular sprain (a separated shoulder). Yes, it’s pretty darn painful. Beyond the pain though, is the irritation at all the things this injury is going to keep me from doing for the next 2 – 6 weeks.

1. No more Sunday bike rides for awhile.

2. No more Zumba classes for at least a month.

3. No more step classes, weight training, or pretty much anything else at the gym for a month or so.

4. Taking a shower and washing my mass of hair is torture.

5. My sand v-ball team will be down a player for several weeks (I tried to convince my husband I could play with just one hand…he disagreed).

6. My garage sale – planned for the 4th of July weekend – will be postponed….and all that stuff will have to sit in my garage and annoy me some more.

7. The money I spent on co-pays for the E.R. visit and a follow-up with a specialist could have been spent on something a lot more fun.

8. I can’t drive long distances – which means I’m missing out on some stuff I had been looking forward to going to.

9. Why do people wax rhapsodic about pain meds? The stuff makes me feel nauseous and gave me a headache.

10. Laundry, dishes, and many other chores have become more than just tedious; now they are literally a pain.

I know, it could have been much worse and I could be looking at months instead of weeks, but it’s still incredibly frustrating…the summer is short enough as it is! So, in the interest of looking for the “sunny” side of this situation…let’s return to my list:

1. I can spend my usual Sunday morning riding time on Sunday morning writing. Maybe I will finish this novel before summer is over after all.

2. I am really going to miss Zumba – but instead, I can schedule activities with the girls I might have skipped so I could make it to my favorite class.

3. No time in the gym for a month? This will force me to really buckle down and focus on diet, and after all, research has shown weight loss is about 70% diet and 30% exercise…now I can work on proving that theory.

4. So now I have an excuse to take really long showers…and I can beg my husband to comb my wet hair for me, which I love anyway.

5. This one really bums me out – I look forward to my weekly sand v-ball games so much. But I’ll go and sit on the side-lines and cheer and if we lose I can say it’s all because I couldn’t play 😉

6. While I would like to have this garage sale out of the way, a few more weeks will give me some more time to collect stuff we really don’t need…and de-clutter even more.

7. There’s really not much I can do about this one – at least I have insurance and only have to sweat the co-pays.

8. So I’ll save on gas money and while I don’t like missing out on things I planned to do – it leaves me with more time at home. Last night when I should have been at a writer’s meeting I was on the couch with my girls, watching Phineas and Ferb on Netflix. This is something I rarely do, and it made my girls happy just to chill out next to me. In the end, time well spent. (And now I know what my 3 year old is referring to when she shouts, “Candace Party!”)

9. Part of my problem was taking those meds on an empty stomach…so I saved them for bedtime instead. Aside from some VERY odd dreams last night, I didn’t suffer the other stuff – and on the plus side, I don’t need to worry about developing an addiction to these things – I have no desire to take them.

10. Since I can’t do most of my usual mama chores, the husband has been pitching in more. It’s kind of sexy to watch your man scrubbing dishes and carrying loads of laundry. Which leads me to another issue I didn’t mention, though I suppose it won’t be too much of a problem, it just calls for some creativity.

And with that bit of TMI, I will leave you for the day. I have some injury-enforced lounging around to do.

List It Tuesday

Tunes That Say Summer

June 21, 2011IMO, Music, UncategorizedWrite a comment

Well, the songs may not actually have the word “summer” in the lyrics (though ~~some~~ many of them do) but when the husband recently commented on how he wanted to put together a summer song playlist, I realized I haven’t done something like that since putting one together on a cassette tape. It’s about time I compile a new list, eh?

So I had to think…what songs just put me in the summer frame of mind? Here are a few I thought of immediately, one of those quick “what do I think of first” kind of things.

Doin’ Time by Sublime…in which the word summer does occur in the song, in fact, the song is often mistakenly thought to be titled “Summertime.” Granted, the lyrics themselves are not overly cheerful – but the mood and vibe of the song is all laid back chill. It reminds me of driving through the city on a hot summer afternoon. Back then I didn’t know what half the references in the song allude to (LBD???), I still don’t, and I honestly don’t care – this song says summer to me.

Dancing Days by Stone Temple Pilots- yeah, it’s a cover. I don’t care. I’m really not much of a Led Zep fan, and STP rocks this song (which happens to have summer in the lyrics too, huh, so far I’m 2 for 2). Where as the Sublime song makes me think of driving slow in city traffic on a steamy hot day, watching people hanging out on the streets, this song is a driving at night song: windows down and the cool summer breeze whipping through you hair as a big bright fat summer moon shines across the highway.

Movin’ out of the 90’s for a sec with Last Friday Night by Katy Perry. If you haven’t seen the video for this song before, do yourself a favor and waste a few minutes in pursuit of mindless entertainment. It is worth it, and like the song – very fun. Miss A loves the song, and while I’m not quite prepared to explain stuff like skinny dipping and what a menage a trois is…she just likes the mood of the song, and I totally get that.

Here we are right back in the 90’s again (told you it would be just a sec) with Run Away by the Real McCoy (what can I say – the 90’s were my party years I guess). Dancy and carefree – mindless in its repetition, this is a song you can lose yourself in while dancing with your eyes closed.

Cruel Summer. I suppose I could go 90’s with this and do the Ace of Base remake, but nope. Bananarama all the way for this one. Another song with “summer” right in it – it’s funny, I always think of the Karate Kid movie when I hear this song, and looking at the comments on You Tube, apparently I’m not the only one.

Sticking with the 80’s: I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow. Maybe it’s the beach in the video, maybe it’s the island-esque drums and riffs, but this song feels like summer to me.

Cecilia by Simon & Garfunkel, yes you read that right. I think we’ve moved into 70’s territory here, but I didn’t check. Really no idea why this song says summer to me, but it does. Could be the fact that I have memories of singing it backstage while getting ready for performances in a show I was in one summer…or maybe it’s the references of making love in the afternoon…some summer memories of that too…you know, before kids and stuff.

Snap – The Power…or is it The Power by Snap? I forget. What I do remember is hanging out with my closest friends in the months before we started high school at our local theme park and this song was blasting everywhere all summer long.

Sending All My Love by Linear…I am realizing 1990 must have been a good year for me…or at least it carries enough happy memories that it makes me associate songs from that time with fun and carefree days. Watching this video almost made me cry…tears of laughter: the clothes, the mullets, the dance moves! This had to have been my transition out of New Kids on the Block and into…what?

Depeche Mode – that’s what. Yep, that’s what I got into while in high school. And Strangelove‘s beat feels like summer to me.

There are plenty more songs I’ll be adding to my summer list – the husband and I have decided to make it a bit of a competition, you know – who comes up with the better summer mix. Thanks to the miracle of mp3’s I won’t be limited to the 60 or 90 minutes of a cassette tape, but I almost wish I had a few of those old mix tapes now.

I’m sure this song is on at least one of those old mix tapes; what summer mix compiled by a child of the late 80’s-early 90’s would be complete without it? Dino and his masterpiece: Summer Girls.

Oh…oh…and since I stooped low enough to add that last one, I have to add the following as well, I mean c’mon – what’s summer without some th-thong-th-thong-thong thongs?