The neighbors went away for two weeks and were oh so thoughtful when they left their car in our parking space. They also left us a note thanking us for watching their property, mind you they never asked us to watch it to begin with, but, oh whatever.

We’re getting up at Dawn’s crack tomorrow to drive to the associate’s niece’s graduation party tomorrow. I can’t believe how time flies. It seems like only a couple years ago she was wanting to hold my hand as we walked around town. It also makes me feel old to say something like that, c’est la vie.

I’m so tired that I can only think of posting this song:

I cannot remember a time when I’ve had less to say and almost no creative spark whatsoever. I think about this old blog every day and want to write something but there’s nothing to say. Granted, part of the problem is that writing the kind of posts that I used to (and still want to) is quite time consuming (believe it or not), and I just don’t have that luxury any more. If I have time during the day when I’m not taking care of Alex I have to work on the projects that I have with my few remaining clients.

I realize my blog is certainly not the most important thing in the world but for awhile there I was really enjoying the creative process of writing. I’d love to come up with some smaller way of adding a post here and there that I could still find satisfying, I’m working on it.

But, in the meantime, I’ve been handed a nice & easy post that I can surely complete in one sitting by the cheese queen over at Oui Ma Fifi!
Here’s how it works:
1. Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!
2. Find page 123.
3. Find the first five sentences.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

I’m going to have to try very hard to refrain from going into an overly lengthy explanation of why I’m reading what I’m reading because it will be 3:00 a.m. before I know it and then tomorrow will be pure hell. I’d love to go on about how I’ve been lost and churned up like a snow globe for months. I really want to write pages about how I desperately needed some clarity and some help, but I won’t. I’ll just tell you that my nearest book is A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle.

“Cooperation is alien to the ego, except when there is a secondary motive. The ego doesn’t know that the more you include others, the more smoothly things flow and the more easily things come to you. When you give little or no help to others or put obstacles in their path, the universe—in the form of people and circumstances—gives little or no help to you because you have cut yourself off from the whole.”

Since I’m finally posting something I should make the most of it and throw a little music in too. So here’s some Fausto Pappetti for your listening pleasure:

Awhile ago I posted a John Lennon video. When I found it I thought for sure it was supposed to contain a scene with a rowboat but it didn’t. This made me doubt my memory and assume I was totally mistaken.

But I am vindicated now as I have found the version of that video that does contain the rowboat. This is the video that I remember and my memory is saved:

I heard this song a few weeks ago and haven’t been able to get it out of my head. Acquiring it turned into some sort of mad obsession this week. Why, I don’t know, it happens to me occasionally. I decide I absolutely positively must possess a certain thing and then I hunt it down like a dog.

Sure I could have just ordered the cd, but frankly I don’t actually like any of the other songs she sings that much so it would have been a big waste of my money and I’d have to wait for it to arrive. I tried finding it on various download sites but didn’t have a ton of free time to sit around looking for this stupid song: ”No Alex, I am not going to play with you, feed you or anything else until I get my mp3, so shut it!” would have sounded a bit neglectful. Although, who would have told on me, Piglet?

Long story short, I got it. You may hear this song and wonder what all the hullabaloo was about. I have no idea really. It’s a catchy little song that implanted itself in my brain. It makes me want to dance. It makes me want to sing into a hairbrush microphone like a 5th grader. That’s all I can say.

Sandie Shaw:  “Girl Don’t Come”

P.S. Cheese Queen, since I involved you in my quest, if you’d like this fine mp3 for your own cheese-riddled collection, I’d be happy to share.

I’ve spent more time in my life feeling lost and unfulfilled than I can keep track of. I’ve never known what it is that I want, or what it is that I would need so I could change this.

Will I just be this way for my entire time on Earth? Perhaps it’s just my way? What a drag for me if it is. All this wasted energy being frustrated or discontent and I can’t control it.

The Papercuts Tulips

During these miserable days of kitchen remodeling that you are forced to endure, I hope the spirit of Nellie Olson keeps you strong. Practice these faces, use where appropriate, and don’t let the contractors get you down.

Here’s a little song I thought you’d like today: 

I haven’t had time to do much of anything properly lately. I can’t fully do my job, clean the house or do chores. I don’t have the time to really do anything artistic or creative, there’s no time for just me and I feel like I also can’t spend the amount of time with Alex that I should either. I’m split into a million little slivers and it makes me feel that because I’m so fragmented, every bit of my life is half-assed right now. My mother is visiting for a couple weeks and I’d like to think that would make some things easier for me, but it doesn’t seem to work that way.

It’s only going to get worse with Thanksgiving and Christmas approaching. That time of year always pushes me over the edge and it would seem that the stress has gotten an early start this year.

Help yourselves to the free beer and wine in the lobby if you’d like some refreshments during intermission. I figure it’s the least I can do since the blog has been such a loser for months now.

I heard this old gem over the weekend and now it’s stuck in my head, so I thought I’d post it here and get it stuck in your head too. 

How embarrassing for me to have looked up this video and, never having seen Minnie Ripperton before, I find out that she looks nothing like the skinny blonde elf that I had pictured my whole life. I had however pictured the Baby’s Breath in her hair, so that was true to my mental image. I thought there would be golden light, a lot of vaseline smeared on the lens, perhaps a field and some sort of white gauzy dress blowing in the breeze. They did bring out the white cage with a dove though, that was a nice touch I hadn’t thought of.

From Wikipedia:
Minnie Julia Riperton (November 8, 1947 – July 12, 1979) was an American soul singer and songwriter, most noted for her abilities in the whistle register and her 1975 hit single “Lovin’ You“. Possessing a rare five-octave vocal range, she displayed the ability to imitate instrumentation and even birds.

I’ve been fairly engrossed with my new hobby of re-learning Spanish. I usually flit from hobby to hobby so we’ll see how long this one lasts but for now it’s occupying a good amount of my time with the wee boy. He definitely responds well to hearing Spanish and from what my research tells me, it would be a sin to waste the fact that he spent the first year of his life hearing it spoken.

We read bilingual board books, at lunch we watch an educational Spanish soap opera which is designed to teach people Spanish and we listen to a lot of Spanish children’s music. Much of this information gets stuck in my head, not in any really useful manner but more like a skipping record.

This song in particular has been trapped in an endless loop for two weeks:

After a long, hard day of practicing our bilingualism (is that a word?), it’s bath time.

Colonel Sanchez?

I believe a bubble bath beard is a mandatory shot in every child’s photo album, isn’t it?