Have you checked the status of Hell lately?  Seems it has frozen over!

He’s baaaaccccccckkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!

Courtesy of the lovely Barb…

*Click to enlarge*

I cleaned up my Blogroll today.  If I accidentally deleted one of your sites, first of all, I sincerely apologize!  Secondly, please let me know so I can put it back!

Thanks!!

Keith wins the prize today for most comments EVER in a single day!

Thanks for stopping by, Keith!  You were really on a roll today! 

It’s time to rip apart an old song.  (I love doing this!) Today, we’re going to look at the song “Honey” by Bobby Goldsboro.  Now, when I was a wee child and this song was popular, everyone thought it was so sad!  What a tearjerker!  And I thought so, too. 

Until several years ago when I really listened to the lyrics.  Let’s examine some of them, shall we?

There’s ridicule abounding in this song.  Here’s the first instance:

See the tree, how big it’s grown
But friend it hasn’t been too long
It wasn’t big
I laughed at her and she got mad

And then quickly followed by the second:

Came runnin’ in all excited
Slipped and almost hurt herself
And I laughed till I cried

And what’s this supposed to mean?

She was always young at heart
Kinda dumb and kinda smart and I loved her so

Now, we’re getting to the heart of things:

And it would sure embarrass her
When I came in from workin’ late
‘Cause I would know
That she’d been sittin’ there and cryin’

And this is clearly symptomatic of a problem:

I came home unexpectedly
And caught her cryin’ needlessly
In the middle of the day

This, however, is where Honey is able to summon help from a local women’s shelter and get the heck out of this obviously unhappy relationship!

One day while I was not at home
While she was there and all alone
The angels came

So there you have it.  Years of ridicule and neglect resulting in overwhelming unhappiness, but Honey gathers herself together and goes on to live a full and fruitful life, away from her oppressor.

That’s what I get out of this song.  Isn’t that how you interpret it??

(Full lyrics are in the extended entry...)

See the tree, how big it’s grown
But friend it hasn’t been too long
It wasn’t big
I laughed at her and she got mad
The first day that she planted it, was just a twig
Then the first snow came
And she ran out to brush the snow away
So it wouldn’t die
Came runnin’ in all excited
Slipped and almost hurt herself
And I laughed till I cried
She was always young at heart
Kinda dumb and kinda smart and I loved her so
And I surprised her with a puppy
Kept me up all Christmas Eve two years ago
And it would sure embarrass her
When I came in from workin’ late
‘Cause I would know
That she’d been sittin’ there and cryin’
Over some sad and silly late, late show

And see the tree how big it’s grown
But friend it hasn’t been too long
It wasn’t big
And I laughed at her and she got mad
The first day that she planted it, was just a twig

I forgot to follow up on my Momentous Occasion post about my haircut.  This is only the 2nd time I’ve gotten my hair cut since December 2002.  So, it’s a big deal for me!  Let me describe the scene first.

I got to the salon about 15 minutes early.  Several people came in after me and went to their respective hair stylists before me.  Even someone who had an appointment 15 minutes later than mine.  I was so nervous.

Then I looked up and America’s Next Top Model breezed into the room and called my name.  (I’d never met her before, you see, because she was still in diapers the last time I got my hair cut!) She was gorgeous - simpy gorgeous!!

During the initial introductions, she asked me what I wanted.  You may recall that I was talking about layers and some framing around my face.  She talked me out of it.  My hair is so thin that anything that would lessen the volume anywhere on my head would make everything look straggly.  She also told me it would look longer and thicker if it was all one length in the back.  So I thanked her - ‘cause that’s what I’m paying her to do and that’s why I went to an expensive salon and not the Hair Cuttery. 

Long story short - she cut my hair, introduced me to Nexxus Volumizing Mousse and sent me on my way, happy to have kept my hair long, eager to use my new Mousse and confident because it turns out that, if I want my hair long, I’ve been keeping it in the most flattering style I can muster.  Cool!

(Before and after pics in the extended entry...)

*Click to enlarge*

I was listening to my iTunes shuffle today.  A song from my distant past came on.  It was Neil Diamond’s “Soolaimon”, live from the Hot August Night album.  Goodness, this song, along with “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show”, affected me like crazy when I was young.  Being brought up in a very strict religious household, I listened to these songs secretly and with a good deal of breathless excitement.  They were so close to being sacrilegious and so that meant that they were sinful.  And sin is exciting, especially to a very young girl.  Now, not so much, but way back then, geez louise!  How could someone get so worked up into a rock ‘n’ roll religious fervor?  Exquisite guilty pleasure!

Anyway, I decided that I wanted to hear the studio versions of both of those songs and so I went downstairs to dust off the old Neil Diamond Greatest Hits CD.  We don’t have one of them, I discovered.  The only Neil Diamond studio stuff we have is on vinyl.  Yes, vinyl.  And vinyl does not play well on iTunes.

So I bought the Neil Diamond Collection for $7.99 off of iTunes.  Now, isn’t that something?

I love working from home.  That’s what I’m doing today.  I tend to stay in my jammies for an unusually long period of time - say, until noon or so - and I play music loud and I get to hang out with my kitties all day.  How nice is that?

But I think it’s time to go brush my teeth so I can pour myself a cup of coffee and relax.

Happy Black Friday, everyone!

(P.S.  I saw my son leave to open Starbucks at 4:30 this morning!  The life of retail at the biggest retail mall east of the Mississippi!  I don’t envy him at all!)

Have a great holiday, everyone!

*Click to enlarge*

Ba-dum-ching!

I got a phone call last night at 8:00 PM from a family member. 

(Bear in mind that tomorrow is Thanksgiving.)

Every year since Buzz and I moved into our house, we have hosted Thanksgiving, a sit-down dinner for 20-24 people.  This year, due to several uncomfortable happenings in my life, it was decided that we would go to a restaurant this year for dinner.  Can I begin to tell you my relief??  It is such a hardship for me to do a sit-down dinner for that many people when there is really a lot of negativity coursing through the whole affair.  It had become such a source of resentment for me, so going to a restaurant was looking like it was truly a blessing to me.  Go eat dinner, chat a bit over coffee, everyone go home with nothing to clean up.  Heaven!

Let’s rewind to last night’s phone call.  Guess who is now hosting the post-dinner football game party at our house? 

I am disgruntled.

OK, well, I just got home from my dentist appointment.  Here’s a little how it all went.

10:30 - *ring ring* (That’s the phone on my desk at work.) Dentist calling.  Can you please come in a little bit earlier so they have time to torture examine you more thoroughly? You betcha!

12:15 - Leave work to go to dentist.

12:35 - Empress?  I’m Katie and I’m a professional massage therapist.  Would you like a complimentary chair massage? Huh?  What??  *checks to make sure I drove to the right place* And why in the world would I NOT want a complimentary chair massage?  This is only the most stressful thing I can think of - EVER!

*rub rub rub* Nice!

12:45 - They’re ready for you now.  Would you like an aromatherapy-scented-heated pillow for your neck? Natch!  Would you like some soothing hand cream and heated mitts? Bring it on, sister!  As I remove my rings, my new best friend, Katie, says Would you like me to clean your rings for you? As I turn red, I mumble something about them not being real so that won’t be necessary.  OK then.  Here is the control for your heated, massaging chair pad.  Is there anything else I can get for you? Yea, Katie, how about a shot of whiskey?  No matter how nice this smells, I’m still at the dentist!

13:00 - My next new best friend, Dr. Ericka, comes in and about smothers me with kindness and concern for my plight and my obvious fear of all things toothy.  Whilst telling me that one of my old root canals is reinfected and I have to go to a specialist, she assures me that she’ll recommend the one who gives nitrous and she insists on prescribing Valium to me for my obvious terror.  She tells me that if I don’t use them all with the specialist during his/her procedures, use one the next time I come in for a cleaning!  My new best friend, Dr. Ericka.

So now I’m home, hopped up on anti-biotics of a fearsome sort (I even have to take acidophilus to combat its bacteria-killing effects on my tender digestive system) and gearing myself up to call “the specialist”, who can either re-do the root canal - or they can go in from the top through my gum!  How’s about some general anesthesia over here??  Aromatherapy just ain’t gonna cut it now!

I found this one over at Talia’s site.

You go to Google images and enter the appropriate word and show the first picture on the page.  My answers are in the extended entry…

Where I grew up:

Where I live now:

My name (I’m not in this picture, I swear!):

Names of my grandmother (neither of these pictures are my grandmothers):

Letha Bush

Christina Plunkett (I had to use her maiden name)

My favorite food, at the moment:

My favorite drink:

Non-alcoholic

Alcoholic

(I did specify a particular type but this is what came up)

My favorite song (almost impossible to choose):

My favorite smell:

There you have it!  That was fun!

Today, I am going to do two things that fill me with dread.

1) I am going to the dentist to get this looked at

2) I am going to get my hair cut

Yikes!  And I mean that!!

Hopefully, the dentist thing won’t lead to a whole series of unpleasant visits, although I suspect that the problem is within or around a crown that I already have.  If that needs to be removed and something underneath it fixed, I may just faint.

The hair thing, however, is much more traumatic.  I made an appointment with a real salon - no Hair Cuttery for me!  I want to have them make some long, light layers and sort of frame my face - without changing it too, too much and definitely without taking much off the length.  After all, I’ve had this hair for almost two years now without anyone touching it!  I’ve grown attached to it!

Wish me luck.  This is a big day for me!

I have a secret.  I feel compelled to confess my secret.  It won’t make me a popular girl.  But I can be silent no longer!

Are you ready for my confession??

I’m not a Harry Potter fan. 

Yes, yes, I know - I hear you shrieking in disbelief and terror, but facts is facts.

I’m in the middle of reading the fourth book because the movie is out in the theatres now.  My policy is, if possible, to read a book prior to seeing the movie.  It often helps to fill in a lot of the missing pieces - plus, I think it’s a better thing to do with your brain.  I don’t know why - I’m a book snob!

But, yeah, I’m not really digging the Harry Potter phenomenon.  The movies are fine.  The books are OK.  They just don’t do a lot for my mental growth. 

Life is short.  I have about four zillion other books that I want to read.  So picking up a Harry Potter book to read so that I can go see the movie is really sort of like smelling something vaguely unpleasant to me.  Nothing rotten - just not particularly pleasing.

At least the books are HUGE! 

*sigh*

As a child, you have no idea what sort of an adult life you’re going to have.  You have no idea what it’s going to feel like to be totally responsible for yourself, and certainly not others, financially, spiritually and physically.  As a child, you just don’t know what it’s like to be an adult.

On the road to find out, you live your life and you gain experiences - some of them good, some of them bad - that all serve to make you grow into the adult you now are.  Looking back on your childhood, you probably had no inkling that this is what you were going to be like.

Well, I had a clue.  A physical clue, anyway.

When I was 10 years old, the school I attended conducted a physical exam on the entire 5th grade student body.  Boys and girls in separate rooms, of course.  So all the girls filed into the nurse’s office and stripped down to our slips.  EVERY GIRL wore dresses and slips back then.  Then we were poked and prodded to see what’s what.  At the end of my exam, there were two things wrong with me:

Flat feet
Ear wax

Nothing to really get hung up about - just a little maintenance required. 

As I progressed through my life, odd things would happen to me.  While other kids were getting the flu or breaking their arms, I got things like salivary gland stones.  Very painful, to be sure!  But who had ever heard of those?  I’ve also been plagued by skin problems - not just the normal adolescent ones.  I had them, too, but I had - and still have - tiny spots of severly dry skin that they have never been able to completely identify or fix.  They go away for years at a time and then come storming back to besiege me for a few years.  They can actually become quite torturous.  (In high school, during a flare-up, they thought it was a fungus!  How do you go to school sporting a fungus??  It wasn’t but I was terrified that some of my schoolmates would find out I was using an anti-fungal!)

Then those two original things from my 5th-grade physical would creep back up once in a while.  When I was very, very pregnant with my first son, my arches fell.  There’s a new kind of hurt, let me tell you! 

And the ear wax thing?  Gross, yes.  The doctor tells me that some people just produce more ear wax than others.  Ew.  But she didn’t tell me that it can lead to severe ear aches, equilibrium problems, feelings of pressure inside your head and a general maintenance problem for the rest of your life.

I should have known from the initial assessment that my life would be fraught with weird problems.  I have a funny lump on my foot.  The foot doctor doesn’t know what it is - won’t know until they remove it!  I’m living with that.  I get flare-ups of costochodritis - not fun!  I recently suffered a groin pull that still bothers me. 

I don’t have arthritis.  I don’t have high blood pressue.  I don’t have diabetes.  I do have mega-high triglycerides, which the doctor swears is going to kill me, but my cholesterol is not outrageously high.

I guess the point of this post was sort of a reminiscence of my life and how it didn’t turn out to be quite what I thought it was going to be, physically speaking.  My hair is thinning and it turned grey a long time ago - way before anyone else in my family, including my grandmother.  My hands are beginning to get lumpy, which is a sure sign that I WILL have arthritis at some point.  I’m not happy with the developments. 

This whole assessment is, I’m sure, a sign of aging.

Oh, that reminds me.  I have to call the dentist today.  Ah, the pleasures of a lifetime of weak teeth!