It Ain't Christmas Shoes

At many houses, I presume, there are holiday songs being sung and listened to all throughout the days. Christmas songs, Hanukkah songs, Kwanzaa (Oh my God, I could listen to this woman all day, she soothes me...) songs, you get the idea.

I know my ears already started bleeding hearing the song, " Christmas Shoes". Actually, I almost took an axe to my radio hearing that just one time. I freakin' hate that song. It doesn't make me cry or feel bad. It just makes me want to hit stuff. Is that wrong? It is just so manipulative.

I digress.

In our house I don't hear "Jingle Bells" or "Away in a Manger", I hear this. Non-stop.

 

TD, slumps to Jim Parsons perfection each time she belts out his portion of the song. I had no idea her normally high-pitched squeals could go so low. At least, it's not "Christmas Shoes" or "Same Old Lang Syne".

Nuttin' But Love for Heavy D

RIP Heavy D.  You will be missed. 

Mad love for this classic 90s style video, my personal fave Heavy D song.  How many big name models, movie stars and more can you find in this video?  It is like a tiny version of "Before They Were Stars". 

P.S. Why did we love vests so damn much back then?  Crikey, it's like a vest convention in that video. 

Life in Playlist Form

A few weeks ago I was doing my daily blog reading when I read Kristen's life playlist post. It got me thinking, "Hmm.. besides songs like this one, what would be in my life's playlist?" Is it songs that remind you of certain times or ones that encapsulate what you were going through at that age, growth spurt or nervous breakdown?

I like to think my life's playlist is a little bit of both. It is songs that put me into a whirlwind of memories from a certain time (hot sun, blistering sand beneath my feet and the smell of salt and french fries equal summer to me.) or ones that I played over and over again to get through cerain times of my life. If I had to create it, it might look a little something like this-

KC & the Sunshine Band- Shake Your Booty (number one the month I was born)
The Muppet Show intro - Every Saturday night after bathtime.
Material Girl - What 80s child didn't dance in their living room with friends to this?

Tween Years, the time of such bad pop music that is almost cringeworthy now. Except some of it I still get giddy hearing.

Domino Dancing (the decades long obsession with this group begins)
Out of the Blue (think pink cassette players)
Red pompadour, bad dancing, a deceptive voice and hey, that's a white guy?!

The Teen Years- aka- I'm so deep and my horrible taste in music blossoms.

I like boys who wear smeared lipstick.
I can take on the world or not.
Riding in my volvo with the seat back, bass thumping.
Driving angry
In the fringes
I do stupid things

Post-teen, college, growing up.

Years of Therapy but Boom, Bitch! I'm back
Let's hear it for rail drinks!
Humid nights, skinny boys, intense crushes
I might be over boys , living on my own and running
One Heart, One Way
Our unoffical song-meeting H
SD living

Marriage, Kids, Today

Let's make it official
The uncommon cure for colic
Hello 30's-Running again, I love my 30s, Douchebags make a comeback, Still in love with H.


What are some of the songs on your life's playlist?

When I was Seventeen

It was a very good year... 

*Cough* Choke on a bit of barf. I really hate that song.

However, I was reading BUST magazine's advice for your 17 year-old self and thought, "Man! Seventeen. That was the shit, yo."  Yeah, I really talk like that in my head.  I know it doesn't jive with my blond bob and pearls.  I started thinking back to seventeen.  Cue time travel swirls and...

When I was seventeen...

I played Stray Cats, Sexy & 17 almost non-stop.

I drove around in my Volvo 240 DL, stopping at the local Stop & Shop to pick up sheet cakes, while listening to music like Regulate, Tempted, Green Day, and old Duran, Duran tunes.  Screw Nirvana, that wasn't my style. 



Why were we picking up sheet cakes?  To eat of course and throw at each other on the beach or in my car.  Cake fights between my friends and I were legen..wait for it... dary.

I drove back country roads full of deep, dark teen angst and drama contemplating shitty boy behavior, friend betrayals and my lack of boobs and how to rise above it all while listening to Pet Shop Boys and Souxsie and the Banshees.  Each time I turned a corner on some twisty lane I hoped I would encounter something new, something I hadn't seen before in my sleepy, small town.  Typical.

I worked the register at CVS and took care of the shampoo and make-up aisle.  I thought it was a pretty sweet gig.  I was also that clerk who was totally going to price check your ass if you came into the store to buy condoms.  Extra slow if you seemed like you were in a hurry.  "Oops!  Did I just hit the void key again?! So sorry!"  A note to the consumer.  Don't try and return condoms.  That's just gross.

At seventeen I had no idea that the world was my oyster even when I told E that, "we are at such an enviable age."  I know. Don't you just want to smack some sense into that girl?  Me too.  No, instead I thought the world seemed to have too much to offer and I had no idea just what it was I was looking to get from it or give it.  I could barely see beyond the end of the week and what was playing at the local Showcase Cinema let alone graduating and attending college. 

What were you doing at 17?

Stylish Blogger Award and Those Seven Things

I was awarded a Stylish Blogger Award!  I admit, I had no idea this was floating around the blogosphere and my first thought was, "Not MPR?  Really?  That has like style and uh, stuff. Not marriage woes, tantrums, barf and other non-glittery things."  BUT- I am so pleased!  What a great way to start the day.

Thank you to Maximum Chaos for presenting me with it.  I love it and go check out Annie's cool blog!

Now in honor of receiving this award I must inform you all of seven things about me and then introduce you to FIFTEEN bloggers.  Wow. This is like, old school, 2006 blogging.  Me likey.

1.  My Bucket List includes seeing Madonna (did it!), Paul McCartney (did it!) and the White Stripes in concert.  Sadly, I have to take Jack and Meg off my list now.  I get an incomplete due to their recent break up.  I am still in mourning.

2. My Bucket List also includes the purchase of my very own Chanel suit.  I don't care if it is a thrift shop find, ebay purchase or a gift from the heavens. I want to own that exquisite piece of art one day before I croak.

3.  I went to the University of Maryland. FEAR THE TURTLE.  This can also be translated into, "I hate Duke!"  I've been known to hiss and growl at people wearing Duke shirts at the grocery store and mall. 

4.  I am obsessed with nail polish.  I read websites about nail polish.  I love looking at it, applying it, looking at it some more, reading about it and that buzz of excitement I feel each time I apply a new color.  I'm wearing Essie's 'Coat Azure' (goes so well with the medium to light blue denim that is hot this season) right now.

5.  I am an only child.  I do have issues with sharing but that's only with sugar treats and mainly because H takes ginormous, jaw-unlocking bites.  That is not sharing. That is devouring, my friend. 

6.  I like to insert links into my blog posts that take you back to funny, weird or little known things and private jokes. Seriously, click on the links. They can be tiny gems of funny or nostalgia.

7.  I hate country music. It actually makes me feel angry when I hear it.  I've explained this to my country music loving spouse this way, "Music makes you feel things. You like certain music because it gets you going, makes you happy, feel joy and excitement when you hear it.  Or want to fuck things up.  In a good way.  Country music makes me want to fuck things up in a bad way.  I feel cranky, irritable and malcontent when I hear it. The twangs and sounds get under my skin and I get itchy."  Funk? Rap?  Disco and seventies music in general makes me happy.  It makes me want to move and groove. 


Check out these fifteen bloggers, maintenant!

1.  Jodifur
2.  Nail Addicts Anonymous
3.  British Beauty Blogger
4.  Living Green with Glamour
5.  Uppercase Woman
6.  Sarah and the Goon Squad
7.  Toddler Planet
8.  green LA girl
9.  Laurie Writes
10.  My Traveling Reality
11.  Where in the World
Eeeahh, can I quit now?  Geez.... I don't know if there's anyone I can suggest that you all haven't read yet.  I could use a new set o'blogs to read.  Suggest some and I'll add them and send them an award.
12.
13.
14.
15.

Behold! Embarrassing Ipod Songs Come to Life!

The other day I asked the goons over on Facebook what their most embarrassing songs were on their iPods. This is what I got. 

NKOTB- The Right Stuff

The entire Sasha Fierce album from an unlikely source.

Christopher Cross' "Sailing"  (Yeah, that's pretty bad.  But I have the theme song from the movie 'Arthur' by him so I'm in the same boat. Pun totally intended.) Dawn, this one's for you. Get zen.  Both songs make me feel like I'm five and riding in my parents Datsun 200SX while I chew on the upholstery piping. 

Lisa, Lisa and the Cult Jam

All Night Long by Lionel Richie

Sexy Back by Justin Timberlake (Oh, I'm sorry?  That's embarrassing? Embarrassing is having 'Dick in a Box' on your iPod. Everyone has Sexy Back.)

Jesse Mccartney, Beautiful Soul.  (I don't even know what to do with that except to say, at least it isn't a Justin Beiber song.)  It pains me to even link to this one.  Blargh.

More NKOTB with Popsicle. (I didn't even know this song existed.) I plastered my walls with Rick Astley back in the day and not Dorchester's finest thank you very much.  Yes, there's like four Rick Astley songs on my player too.  Watching the video for Never Gonna Give You Up totally makes me realize I liked boys in junior high based on how much they looked like Rick. Sigh...

29 different Kanye West songs.  And I actually don't see a problem with this one.  OK, it's me.  I have 29 Kanye West songs on my iPod.  I don't care. I fully admit to lovin' me some Kanye.  You can't tell me nuthin'.  TD went to sleep listening to Touch the Sky  and Heard Em Say her first six months. 

I also admit to having Mahna Mahna and the theme song to the Muppets on there. It totally relaxes me and puts me in a good mood each time. 

Slave 4 U by Britney.  Of all the songs, that one has to have some sort of kinky meaning behind it as a choice for the pod.

I found I'm Too Sexy by Right Said Fred (tell me you aren't catwalking your living room hearing this mouthing every single word), Positive K's "I Got a Man" (can I please have a round of applause for all the styles in that video? Damn! The 90's were cruel. Can someone tell me why there is a full mango on a plate in the video's cafe scene?) and Chris Rock's 'No Sex in the Champagne  Room' on mine.


What is the most embarrassing, cringeworthy, would die if someone heard you belting it out on the treadmill song on your Ipod or MP3 player?

Overheards- Queen Edition

Scene:  TD and I are heading home from a long, fun day at the pumpkin patch.  My iPod is blaring Queen in the car.

TD:  "WHAT?!  Another one bites the what?!"

V:  "The dust. Another one bites the dust."

TD:  "Blech! I don't want to bite dust.  That's gross!  Is there a song that is the opposite of that?  Is there a "Another One Doesn't Bite Dust" song?" 

V:  "No, there isn't one of those songs." I try not to laugh.

TD:  "Oh. (thoughtful pause) Because I would like that song." 

Damn Girl, That's Like Grandma Old!

It occurred to me the other day as I was jammin' out to some funk music (p-funk, g-funk, disco-inspired, 80s stripped, whatever I can't get enough) in my grocery getter that I am subjecting my kids to music that is akin to what my grandparents made me listen to as a child.  Back then, in the 80s with all its big hair and synthesizers spinning like a record right around the Top 40 dial, they would sit back in the cushy boat-sized beige car and play Big Band sounds. Ah, the 1940s. 

My love of funk (OK, funk is even older by origin so geez) and its 70s sister music disco and even very early rap are now um, entering into their fortieth decade of existence.  This my friends, is frightening.  Even my iPod is engraved with the phrase, "Don't fake the funk."

I am getting old.

Musical Flashbacks and Burgers

H and I took the kids to a local burger place the other night because a.) he suggested it and b.) there is nothing better to my always nauseous stomach than a cheeseburger (handmade), fries (handcut) and a coke.  Seriously. It's like manna from heaven right now and keeps me content for hours. 

I digress.  While there I noticed the smattering of people throughout the restuarant were all various ages and backgrounds.  There was the military Dad with his two middle school age girls, the teenage boy stopping by with his mother, another teenage boy silently chomping away with his parents, just as silent seated next to him and a few random college age kids.  Throw in a few guys alone and in their middling 30s and 40s and you had quite a collection of people.  The one thing we all had in common beyond the burger joint?

We were all jammin' to the 80s music that played from the restaurant's XM Radio.  TD could not control herself over Bon Jovi's 'You Give Love a Bad Name' and The Comedian wiggled along while I noticed myself singing aloud, as were others throughout the place, to Phil Collin's 'Billy Don't Lose My Number'.  When Duran Duran and The Police played back to back I thought the whole place might go into neon light mode and everyone would just start dancing like we were auditioning for 'Footloose'.  Toes were tapping, heads were nodding and there was a lot of lip synching and singing aloud.  Minus the teenage boys who just looked on sullenly embarrassed for us all. 

I looked at H and said, "I feel like I'm in my friend Eric's white Volkswagon Rabbit and we are driving to school right now!"  He looked at me and said, "Gah! Didn't you grow up in the 90's?!"  Uh yeah... but like 'Wild Boys' was too cool to be lost in all the Gin Blossoms and Cranberries whining and melancholy even then.  And sometimes you just need 'The Reflex' before first period to pump yourself up for the day.  Am I right?





What song did you HAVE to listen to before school?

It's Her Birthday

Lying across a green and orange paisley and floral couch, I would twist and turn always trying to find a cool spot to rest my face against the fabric. The music was always there. Playing softly, sometimes loudly, always there carrying me along as if I was floating down a river. The soft pumping of the foot pedals accompanied it all in the distant background.


Sometimes I would rouse myself from my own little world of imaginary friends and lost lands to request a tune, most often it was, "Play the mosquito song! Play the mosquito song!" She would laugh and wordlessly pull out the children's music book and play the juvenile tune that buzzed across the keyboard. After it was over it was usually her favorite Chopin that she would play.  Sometimes if I was lucky, I could pick out my favorite Rachmaninov in between all the Tchaikovsky and Beethoven symphonies too. As a classically trained, concert pianist she never tired of sitting at her piano and playing for herself or an audience. Whole evenings, especially in the cold winter, were spent with the family gathered on those green and orange sofas listening to her play and talking while having a few drinks.

I remember this so vividly and during every season it was such an integral part of my youth. Many years after I had ceased to spend weekends and long summer weeks at her and my grandfathers home and I had gone off to college I would hear my favorite Rachmaninov tune being played through an open campus window.  The strains of the music drifted through the air making me stop in my tracks and just breathe it all in for a bit as I savored the moment and felt filled with memories.  There were late nights of watching The Love Boat, the need she had to dress my stark naked Barbie’s in disco dresses and wedge heels, the way she allowed me to touch absolutely everything in her home no matter how valuable or breakable are all part of those countless memories. She didn't mind when I would ask her to "take your teeth out, Memere!" as she brushed her teeth each morning or that I always wanted to use her watermelon pink lipstick and soft, fluffy talc-filled powder puff. She made no apologies when I slammed the front door in her friend's face one day when that woman called my long-desired and much loved Cabbage Patch Kid Zenia Kelly, "a precious little chocolate baby." She knew who was in the wrong. She liked to flip her eyelids inside out and scare the bejeezus out of her grandkids when we bothered her and let me roam the house, yard and neighborhood as I pleased. Her home was music, comfort, love and freedom in the most secure sense. She made it that way because that was and is who she is as a person.

Today, my grandmother, my Memere, as I like to call her has turned ninety. I used to joke with her that she didn't look like a groundhog and every time she would laugh. While Alzheimer's has her in its grip right now I had the privilege of being able to visit with her this past weekend as the whole family turned out to celebrate this momentous occasion. She couldn't believe it herself that she was turning ninety. She had to be reminded often of who people were and why she was there but she was happy the whole day. When she thanked me for her gift and H explained to her that I was her oldest grandchild she smiled and grabbed my arm and shook it with affection just like she used to every time I saw her as I grew up. She may not remember me all the time but that gesture alone completely made my day.

Happy 90th Birthday, Memere! You are so loved.

 

The Bad Lady Gaga

Now, I know I am clearly a Lady Gaga freak, but the Tiny Dictator has become a tad obsessed. 

Who am I kidding?  Dictators are never a 'tad' anything.  All I get all day long is one request, "Momma! I want Lady Gaga.  The bad Lady Gaga! The bad Lady Gaga LOUD!"

So, here is what I see about a bazillion times a day. 


Apparently dictators also like to try their hand at break dancing.

A Bit Gaga Over Here

I'm addicted to this right now. Thanks Mamapop! In my moments of insanity today I just want to watch this over and over again then run to my make-up collection and start painting away until H comes home to something truly beautiful yet terrifying. Way more than this, that's for sure.

Except I can't.

I'm planning a first birthday party for The Comedian for tomorrow. Apple cupcakes seemed like a great idea at the time, all cute with pretzel stems and green jelly bean leaves. Then I caught the death that was hanging in the petri dish that is my doctor's office and I've been down for the count all week. Work has been left by the wayside, the house went insane and the non-stop rain has both kids acting like escapees from the local asylum.

The vacuum is glaring at me from the corner. Says she has other places to be and things to do. Those cupcakes aren't frosting themselves either.


I couldn't resist-


Is it art or total freak-show melodrama? There's so much about this video that I absolutely fall in love with each time I watch it. It has drama, comedy, a bit of horror and um, that annoying "let's dance for men" factor that always pisses me off.

Maybe I'm Amazed or Just a Rabid Fan

Saturday I'll be checking off a box on my '100 Things to Do Before I Die' list. So I don't actually have a list filled out, it's all in my head but I'm keeping tabs on it. The 'See Madonna' box has already been checked. 'Visit Paris' is filled too. 'See Paul McCartney in Concert' is next.


I can hardly wait. The fact that my seats don't suck also makes me want to do a little jig each time I think about it. I almost wish I could start camping out in the parking lot of Fed Ex field right now.


I fully admit my taste in music runs the gamut of typical to "Seriously? You like that?" I love Disco more than most. Funk and Rap factor in high as well. My iPod is actually engraved with the words, "Don't Fake the Funk". McCartney though has always been a tried and true favorite. He was my favorite Beatle when I would listen to him in the car with my Mom (an original fan.) and then I stumbled upon a Pay-Per-View concert of him in 1993 that just sucked me into full fan-grrrl insanity.


The tape, yes, tape 'Off the Ground' debuted at the same time. I saw the video for 'C'mon People' while in Quebec on their very own Musique Plus network. I'm guessing that is Canada's version of MTV? I found myself jumping on my bed to the video and it was at that moment that McCartney's music came full circle in our house. My teen self was now mirroring my mother's youth. 'Off the Ground' played in my car, on my double cassette player and on my Walkman. Man, I'm old. It was like air for me and the songs on that tape offered me a glimmer of hope and a sense of positivity that I was desperately lacking at that time in my life.


Things were bad then and I was living a rather bleak existence that I couldn't even articulate. I dreamed of falling off the roof of my house more times than I should probably admit. When I thought about how maybe I would just be badly injured I just stuffed all the anger inside a deep pit within myself and let it swirl around creating a black murky mess to be dealt with at a later time.


Like a cliche though music was a savior that held me together and for some reason Paul McCartney became the man. Wings was heavy in rotation on the satellite radio station where I worked. The first CD I ever purchased was 'Paul McCartney- All the Best'. I couldn't get enough. 'Maybe I'm Amazed' is a like a balm on my soul every time I hear it. His songs have actually made me weep in the middle of a crowded diner. For a person who has a hard time hugging family that is pretty intense. Over fifteen years later I'm still a rather rabid fan despite the mess that was 'Flaming Pie'.

Did I say I cannot wait for Saturday night already? I might puke from the excitement.

I Wanna Rock With You

Dear E,

I am sad today. Michael Jackson has died and while I wasn't a fan of his later stuff (minus Remember the Time and that Home Alone kid in his videos) I have such fond memories of us dancing to 'Rock With You' while I toiled away at my after school job at CVS. You perfected those dance moves and it always made me laugh so hard to watch you do the leg kick move while I stood behind the register waiting on sick customers and kids buying their first box of condoms (with a pack of gum, of course).

And who could forget you kissing your MJ poster each night before bed. Red leather jacket, sequined glove and all.

Watch the awesome dance moves here. (Damn removal of the embedding code. Curses! YouTube! Foiled Again!)

A Case of the What If's

Tomorrow is "the big day". No, not that day. Aside from Halloween, one of my favorite holidays (yes, I called it a holiday- there's candy! there's use of products like hair dye, crazy make-up and nail polish plus dressing up! ) it is the day we go back and check the status of this kid via sonogram.

I'm nervous about things being right but also at the prospect of them not being right. I didn't gain any weight in the last two weeks which at first had me all excited but then I realized, "Wait. Does that mean neither did Dash Two?" A whole new set of worries cropped up. Is she already not getting what she needs from me? Will there be other complications? She is moving all the time and I feel like that scene from Fringe the other night where my stomach is constantly contorting in ways it never did with TD.

All the "what if's" plague me today and I just want tomorrow's appointment to be over with. Sure, I'm happy to see her again but am I ready to have her here so quickly if all this drama really does occur. My stomach just churns thinking about it.

I'm going back to thinking about Halloween goodness and letting my iPod play all the way through. Has anyone tried this lately- not skipping songs that aren't in their faves file but just letting it go all free bird like. I have had the distinct pleasure of listening to random Paul McCartney, my wedding song and House of Pain's Jump Around today. Makes me want to take a jaunt up to New England territory.

More random iPod goodness I found-

Cathy Dennis anyone? Was it just me that listened to her?

I'm Too Sexy- distinct memories of actually walking down a hallway at my friend Eloise's like I was on a catwalk with my friends.

OPP- 11th grade. Yup. That's how old I am.

And does anyone remember this? I used to race home after school each day to watch Yo! Mtv Raps. If someone can find me footage of the actual Ed Lover dance I'll be your bestest friend. 4-eva.

Damn, It Feels Good to be a Gangster

So there I am tooling around town testing out Chevy's latest mom-mobile, the Traverse, and it hits me. This car? It's nice, yes. But I'm totally addicted to the XM Radio.

The heated or cooled seats? Sure, those are peachy as are the two DVD players with wireless headphones, the chrome finish, two sunroofs and other gadgets I don't have in my car.

Yet, it's the XM radio that I can't pull myself away from. Particularly the Groove and Rhyme stations. And really how ridiculous is it to see a heavily pregnant blond woman driving some teal grocery-getter while getting way too excited about hearing songs like Ice Cube's 'Down for Whatever' while she pulls into the World Market parking lot.

Then I look over and realize I'm next to a car full of nuns from Tennessee and I instantly wonder, "What do nuns listen to on the radio, anyway?" Maybe, something from the Groove station? Like this?

Again, way too much excitement when I heard that song too. That reminds me, I need to add both of these to my 'birth' playlist for whenever this kid decides to arrive.

Mtv Haz Video?

Oh, wait. I'm a liar with mah pants on fiyah. It was VH-1 Nocturnal State I was watching at 4 a.m. this morning when I couldn't sleep.

When I flicked on the TV I was overjoyed to be seeing actual music videos. What a novelty on a music station, no? Seriously! There was no 'I Love Money', 'Exiled' or shots of Brett Micheal's swappin' spit with a woman who wears less make-up than him. It was... dare I say it... refreshing? I did have to swallow some hot vomit as his video, Fallen, played across my screen. I watched bleary-eyed as he sang about one true love or something lasting more than two minutes while all of Rock of Love's season two's ladies paraded across the scene. Gah!

If I wasn't suffering from insomnia and a bit off-kilter with balance I might have gotten up and danced on the couch as I watched Pink, John Legend/Andre 3000 and The White Stripes. Don't music labels and music networks know that sometimes you can fall in love with a song via the video? It's a lost world for sure.

I did however see one disturbing thing.

A commercial for a wonderful new box set of DVD classics which includes such titles as The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles. Yikes!

It's More Than Just a Song

The idea of having a theme song has been the subject of a few blog posts out there in the blogosphere and even a frequent topic on such ancient shows of yore like Ally McBeal. I realized today as I was taking what should be my daily walk that my theme song has been the same for years. Hasn't changed since I first laid ears on it back in high school and despite being overplayed many times over the last few decades it still manages to do all those little things that theme songs are supposed to do.

It energizes you. You hear that special little ditty and you instantly feel like dancing. Or shouting and doing all sorts of ridiculous things like you see in Mentos commercials and what not. My theme song makes me take over dance floors at weddings, grocery stores, sidewalks and wherever else I hear it. It is to the point now that people seem to think of me when they hear it. Probably because I made them listen to it (not at gun point, but close) so many freakin' times since they've known me. They cringe a bit too I'm quite sure.

When I found out that my choice of song was also one of my uncle's favorite songs it gave me not just a warm fuzzy feeling and incidentally a partner in bad dancing crime but it made me realize how a good theme song can span generations. Aww, the sap of it I know.

Then today, I heard it again. Out of the blue, OK out of the iPod shuffle if you must know, but I had forgotten it was there and had skipped over it so many times lately deeming it overplayed pap. As I jauntily walked down the street (as jaunty as a six months pregnant woman can be) I listened to the lyrics and realized that on a whole new level this song still applies to me. It not only still makes me feel all peppy and like breaking into Fame-like dance moves, which is really bad and it still reminds me of all the wonderful times I had with friends in high school, college and my twenties, but that we women and mothers have days where we are barely surviving and that we are simply just... Stayin' Alive.

And there you go. My Theme Song.

Do you have one?

Random Question # 113

While you can easily admit that you are obsessed with your iPod or MP3 player you know that what is on that little device also consists of some dirty little secrets. Go on, share. You know you want to. What dreadful songs do you rock out to or harmonize with when no one else is around?

If someone at the gym just grabbed your earbuds would you melt into the treadmill in shame because you were listening to something like, Vanilla Ice or Weird Al?

I'll confess to-

The Muppet Theme Song (shut up, it destresses me.)

I Gotta Man by Positive K

Freak Like Me, Adina Howard

Faded, by Soul Decision

The Power of Love, Huey Lewis & the News

Arthur's Theme, Christopher Cross


There are more, many more that are equally bad or even worse. H says, that it just demonstrates my lack of taste in music, but I think you get the idea.

Three Stars for Spears

I admit it. I am fessing up right now. I actually legitimately like Britney's new song, Gimme More. I find it infectious. I find it hard to block out the Mtv Awards show debacle while hearing it but I still like the song. I want to run to it. I be-bop to it in my car excited when I find it on a station.

I'm not proud of it but I never said I was a connoisseur of great music. I list Disco and Funk as my two top fave genres. My iPod is engraved with the words, 'Don't Fake the Funk'. While Funk might garner awards Disco never will unless it's in cheesiness and the top most played wedding songs. It really should be of no surprise then that after 'Oops I Did it Again' I became a fan of Ms. Spears. Yet, somehow I'm shocked by this.

People magazine has given her new CD 'Blackout' three stars. Yes, three. Out of five not ten. While I haven't heard the whole thing I figured that with the mess that her life has become this would not be a stellar recording. Not even a mediocre one. The last few haven't been. And no, I haven't bought any of her actual albums. It's a secret iPod only type of thing. Still, I am surprised. Surprised and now anxious to hear the rest of the tracks. This little bad taste in music junkie is excited. At least I'm not a Justin Timberlake fan.