Friday, January 30, 2009

Snuggie- Because a Blanket Just Won't Do!

I am about THIS close (my thumb and index finger are nearly touching each other) to breaking down and ordering my very own Snuggie. The ad below is quite irresistable. I especially love the part where the lady is so put off by having to answer her phone and take her hands out of a regular old blanket! Blankets just "slip and slide".



And as I understand it, right now I can get 2 Snuggies for the price of one?!! (How happy would Fermin be?!) Oh, and with a reading light thrown in?!

This commercial alone is worth the cost of the Snuggie! BRILLIANT.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

My New Blog- Get Ready, Because It's Coming!

Sometimes I come up with an idea that seem so great at the time. I kick it around, sleep on it, and then usually, by the next day I've talked myself out of any forward movement with it.

What if I just did it? What if I at least started on it, before I talked myself out of it? I'm sure I'd find many of these ideas aren't, in fact, worth pursuing. But maybe, just maybe, some of them are.

So tonight, I have this idea. I keep kicking it around. But before I even sleep on it, I'm throwing my idea out here, on this blog.

Here's first some background information, and then...my idea!

Last time I made a cd it took me a long time. Sure, I had my reasons, ranging from losing my mom, to getting new recording software and having to learn to use it. But then months and months and months passed and the longer I waited, and the more I avoided it, the more daunting the task became. I have vowed to myself that making a cd will never take me that long again.

This past year, I wrote a lot of songs. I participated in an on-line challenge called simply "50 Songs in 90 Days". I've had in mind for a while now that my next cd would be called "90 Days" and I would salvage the best of those 50 songs.

At this point, the task seems big. So big I seem to already be avoiding it. I'm avoiding listening to those songs. I'm resisting sitting down and editing them.

So the idea I had today was, "How 'bout creating a blog all about the making of the cd?" It would be a great way to hold myself accountable, to keep moving forward, and hopefully entertain some visitors to my site. I thought I might post some songs, and perhaps invite feedback on which songs go on the cd, the order, etc. I thought I might tell a bit about the process as it is for me. I'm not sure what will come up, but I think at least for me, it will be a pretty cool journey.

Why not? I might wake up tomorrow and ask myself, "What were you thinking?!" But right now, the idea sounds great. Right now I'm excited about it. Right now I can't see any reason why I wouldn't want to do this. I love blogging, and I love looking back on something and seeing how far I've come.

So right now, my only question is, what can I call my new blog?
Watch for it on my site, because I'm just going to do it!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

All Over the World

Today is a great day!
We have a new president- A great man, President Obama!
And not only are we celebrating him here in the USA, but I'm pretty sure it sends a message out to the world...


Sunday, January 18, 2009

...Waiting For This Moment...

I have always loved the song, Blackbird, written by Paul McCartney. He said (not to me directly, but in a book I have) that he wrote it in reaction to the civil rights movement.

Today is a great day. By the end of it, we will have a new president- President Barack Obama.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

She Doesn't Have to Shave

Whoa.

Women have it so hard. It begins when we are girls. Puberty and all those weird hormones. It's so embarrassing when boobs start growing and your mom takes you to get your first bra. Then when you start your period it is scary- blood always is!

Then we have to be careful not to get pregnant at the "wrong" time, and then we sometimes have to work hard to get pregnant at the "right" time. Some of us (it seems, most of us) go thru child birth. Ouch. Some of us do not. Ouch.

We have to get mammograms. We have to get pap smears. All super fun events that we do pretty regularly once we get to a certain age. But we get them to prevent bad stuff from happening, or rather to catch things early if it does.

We deal with PMS and periods every single month. UNTIL, we start going thru perimenopause. And then menopause. And then we only wish we could get back to having those damn regular monthly periods.

But at least we women do not have to shave our faces!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Junkie


Because I'm sick with a cold, and ONLY because I am sick with a cold, I tuned into the Tyra Banks show today. (To be totally honest, I watched it yesterday as well and the preview for today's show piqued my curiosity so I came back for more.)

The topic of the show was Internet Addiction. There were girls on the show confessing that their use of the internet had destroyed relationships, cost them their jobs, and caused them significant weight gain. Several of them revealed that they spend 5 or more hours a day on the internet...Facebook, Myspace, and just "surfing the net". Some of the girl's said they couldn't stop checking the celebrity gossip sites. They have a need to be up to the minute on current events. But when asked who the Presidential VPs for this year were, they didn't know. They were close, though! One girl guessed the two VPs running were McCain and Obama. Another one got even closer saying "Palin and....something that starts with a B". This year it seemed the press (and internet!) made the candidates into celebrities. So how did this information get past these internet junkies?

Just like drug addiction, these girls were consumed by the internet and lost interest in pretty much everything else in their lives. (Except food, apparently.) Tyra did some interventions, shed a little light on the dangers of this addiction and I immediately decided to get online and post a blog about it. But I am not an addict.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Serious Sox Offender

Being the little Suzie Homemaker that I am, I decided to clean out my husband's sock drawer today. Not so much for him, but for me. It is a huge source of frustration each week as I put away the laundry and have to force in the freshly cleaned pairs of socks. I have to be very careful and hold them all down as I push the drawer in. It's quite crowded in there. And I ask myself, "How many pairs of socks does one man need?"

So today, I counted. Apparently, my man thinks he needs 54 pair and 9 strays. Here is what his over-crowded sock drawer looked like:

Sometimes I get a little behind on the laundry but COME ON??!!

I unloaded the strays, along with 14 stretched out or faded looking pairs. Now he's down to a slim 40 pairs of socks. Still, far too many in my opinion, but to avoid any kind of freak out, I thought I'd not do anything too extreme. The sock drawer is still quite full. However, I can now pull the drawer in and out, pretty easily without any socks getting stuck along the way. See image below...

I hope to do his underwear drawer next. Mainly just so I can take pictures of his underwear and post them!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

The Cure All

I often brag that I never get sick. That I haven't been sick in years. About a week ago, my throat was feeling a little funny but it never amounted to anything.  My husband got sick, but nope- not me!

I've attributed my dodging of flus and colds over the years to simply getting enough sleep. Whenever I feel the slightest thing coming on, I nap.  I guess that's when my immune system really goes nuts and fights!

But last night I woke up with a full blown (no pun intended) cold.  So today, I've put my neti pot to good use.  And I've napped most of the day.  Napped so much in fact, that rather than dreaming, I've been hallucinating.

And not to brag, or jinx myself, but I'm already feeling so much better.  So I'm sticking with my motto that sleep is a cure all.  I am on my way to a gig, believe it or not- But it's a short one. And then, it's back to the couch!

Then I'll be up an at 'em in no time at all.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Thickening My Skin

The other day, a friend of mine shared something she was told when she was first venturing out into her world of being a singer-songwriter. It was something like this:
That she will have to have very thick skin. That people will say nice things that encourage her, but that they will also say hurtful things. And that the value she gives herself really shouldn't come from either place (other's opinions, whether they're positive, or negative). That the only opinion that REALLY matters is her own.

I have never had anyone say truly mean, or hurtful things to me as far as my music endeavors go. (yet) But I do have a lot of unsolicited advice that comes my way. Comments like, "You know what you really need? You need a mandolin!" or, "You need some fast songs.", or "Why don't you write a song that sounds like Jack Johnson?" They are opinions I don't agree with, but I still hear them all as, "You're not good enough."

I struggle with thickening up this thin skin of mine. But the words of another friend, helped me earlier today. He reminded me that other's opinions, advice, etc. aren't really about ME anyway. They're about them! Their need to feel important, or feel wise, or whatever. He told me to take in the things that help me, and lovingly let go of the rest.

And that is something I intend to practice...