Archive | January 2011

New is Cool….

Jan18

It always feels good to have “new” stuff, situations, experiences, etc.  New is good, exciting, energizing, and….well….New!  The last few weeks have brought an abundance of new to my life.  Not all are things and not all are major stuff, but new, just the same!  New usually means change and change is good – it snaps you out of a rut, gives you new stimulation, or just provides something new to think about.

The first new, of course, is a new year!  2011 — the start of a new year, new opportunities, new challenges.  I didn’t make any resolutions this year.  I usually do and, like most people, I break them before January ends.  So, instead of resolving to not do something or do something, I decided to look for opportunities as they come and handle them as appropriate at the time. 

This weekend, I got a hair cut and took care of my roots.  So, I’ll have new hair for a few weeks – until the roots start to grow out and my bangs get shaggy and I need another trip to Marcello’s to renew my hair, again.  I also got a few new tops at Burke’s Outlet this weekend, too.  Burke’s Outlet is fairly new to Sanford and new to me, since I just started checking it out a little before the holidays. 

My work life is full of new, too – lots going on!

I have watched some new shows on TV in the last week or so, too.  Tonight, I saw the pilot for Kathy Bate’s new show Harry’s Law - looks like a winner!  I also caught The Worst Cooks in America on the Food Network for the first time (not a new show, but new to me) this weekend – I know there are people out there who claim they can’t boil water, but there is this one lady in the competition who actually admitted she didn’t know the difference between a scallion and a scallop and, in fact, didn’t even know what a scallop is!  Hhhmmm…..I’m thinking this might be interesting!

I’m trying Weight Watchers to see if it can make a difference in my health and WW has a new program – Weight Watchers Points Plus.  It has done wonders for Jennifer Hudson – maybe I can get my mind in the right place to let it do wonders for me, too.  Time will tell if this results in a new me!

The newest of the new goes along with the last paragraph….sort of.  I finally gave in and got on the Wii bandwagon.  I thought it might be a good way to burn some calories and have some fun and just plain do something new!  I got the console today, set it up, and tried some of the sports games – I really did good at bowling right from the get-go, but tennis is going to take some figuring out!  I am also planning to get Wii Fit, some dance games, and a karaoke game.  I figure this will give me a new way to dance and sing around the house!

So, let the new keep coming – shake things up – new is cool!

Fun Songs

Jan9

A song came on the radio on my way to the grocery store and, like so many old songs, it brought a flood of memories.  The song?  “King of the Road”, by Roger Miller.  My Mom had a couple of albums by Roger Miller and my brother and I would play them and have a ton of fun with them.  You see, although Roger Miller was a singer/song writer with some serious county music songs to his credit, he was best known for his novelty songs – and boy, were they fun for a couple of kids on an otherwise boring afternoon.

Kevin and I would act them out as we sang to them to create little mini play productions.  We’d laugh and laugh over trying (and usually failing) to mimic the funny sounds he’d make in his songs.  It had to have been a riot to watch us!

An example of one we fumbled over the be-bop sounds:

An example of one we loved to act out — we’d pretend to do all the things that he said you “can’t” do and then just do a jig-like dance during the chorus (sorry – this won’t come up in the post, but click on the “watch on youtube” and it’ll come up in a new tab):

The one I heard on the radio today was one we just loved to sing — we’d pretend we were on a stage and singing just as “cool” as Roger sang it:

These are, by far, not the only ones we loved — just what I think Kevin would agree were our favorites!  But, there was also “Dang Me”, “Chug-a-lug”, and many more!

While thinking of those fun songs, some that weren’t from Roger Miller came to mind — we loved this one, too (give it a minute – it does get to the song):

Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs gave us lots to have fun with, too.  A bunch would gather in our cousin, Gary’s garage and we’d have a pretend band.  This one was one of our top numbers to do:

And, I can’t forget “Wooly Bully”!!!

OK – enough fun for now……

So much better than snow…

Jan4

I had a white Christmas, but not here in Sanford and not as plentiful as it was here in Sanford!  I went home for the holiday break and totally missed the record-breaking snow that blanketed the southeast.  Oh, I saw it – through the many photos posted by friends on Facebook – but, missed physically experiencing it!  There was quite a bit of snow on the ground in Albion and we had a brief dusting on Christmas day, so I did get to see snow on Christmas.  But, the irony of it was that I went to Western NY – the Buffalo snow belt – the frigid north and saw much LESS snow than Sanford, NC had over Christmas!  I was all worried about what I would encounter on my holiday trip and all the while, it was here that got blasted!  Funny!

A small part of me – very small – is kinda sad that I missed something so historical (NC never gets any significant snow fall this early), just because it was unusual to get so much on Christmas and something I may never see again.  But, I’m not a fan of snow – I grew up in it and saw more snow in my lifetime than I feel anyone should have to see…..or more to the point…..more than anyone should have to shovel, drive in, struggle through, etc.!!!  So, I am not all THAT disappointed that I missed it.

After all, my holiday trip had something much better – something Sanford doesn’t have to offer me – FAMILY! 

I had several Christmas celebrations and even my fair share of snow.  The Weds evening before I flew north, Ronald, Lisa, and I had dinner and celebrated our Christmas together. 

Then, I arrived at Mom’s the night before Christmas Eve and stayed until the morning of New Year’s Eve.  There was only a few inches of snow on the ground – enough to cover everything good, but not be swept up into big drifts – but, Mom’s car hadn’t been cleaned off in quite some time, so it had a good 6+ inches of hard packed, crusty snow all over it!  When I went out to go to the store to shop for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals, I had to clean it off, first.  It took quite a while to chisel the snow off the car – snow filled both my shoes (with no socks on), the knit gloves I took with me got soaked, I broke a fingernail, and I bruised my arm on the trunk when I slipped on the slippery driveway behind the car – but, I got it cleaned off so that I could go to town.  Thank goodness there was no more accumulation while I was there and that was the only time I had to clean it off!

My brother and his family came over on Christmas Eve to have our Christmas.  It was very nice – we had munchies and opened gifts and enjoyed the company.  Christmas Day was just Mom and me – a quiet, relaxing day spent talking and watching movies together.  I fixed a ham with a bunch of sides – nothing special, but very good.  Then, on Sunday, my nephew, his wife and son, and my brother and his family came out and we had another Christmas celebration.  This one was with the newest member of our family – my great-nephew, who will be one year old later this month.  It was a joy watching Nolen get excited about all the new toys he got to open!  But, the best toy of the day was actually a small egg beater (wire whisk) with a cute egg for a handle that was actually a gift for his Mom – he latched onto that and they couldn’t pry it from his hands! 

Another highlight of the week was dinner with some of my high school friends.  I so enjoy being able to spend time with them.  It was a lovely evening and I look forward to the next time we can get together.

The rest of the week was spent just visiting with Mom – something I treasure and enjoy more than anything.  She has had a tough year that ended with her second total hip replacement on November 1st.  She isn’t fully recovered, yet, but is starting to turn the corner and doing quite well.  I saw a huge improvement in her since I was there over Thanksgiving!

So, yeah – I missed the historic snow fall in Sanford, NC!  But, it would have been far more tragic if I had missed spending Christmas with my family, seeing Nolen rip open gift after gift that revealed yet another new toy to excite him, discovering first hand that Mom is starting to show marked improvement after her surgery, enjoying an evening reminiscing with old friends, and savoring the peace that comes with being home for the holidays!

It is a new year, now – one that I hope will be much better than the last one for all who struggled through it.  I wish everyone peace, love, good health, and happiness in 2011!  I pray the economy is really on the upswing that analysts are predicting – the first stock day seemed to show some promise!  And I hope the Farmer’s Almanac is incorrect in their prediction of a long, bad winter season!

Happy New Year!

Dreams

Jan3

One of the Christmas gifts I received from Ronald and Lisa was a book on interpreting dreams.  I was very excited to see it…..I have some strange dreams and often wonder what the hidden meanings are behind them.  It is a THICK book – a “dictionary” of sorts – all categorized by key words in alphabetical order.  I haven’t gotten into it much, yet, but I am sure I’ll enjoy it!  The only thing that bothers me about it is that any I have looked up, so far, have a very negative connotation!  Can all dreams stem from or be predictive of something bad that has or will happen?  I’ll be digging deeper to prove that wrong, for sure!

One recurring theme that shows up in most of my bazaar dreams in some way or another is particularly disturbing to me – no matter what else is going on, this will most likely end up as a big part of the dream:

  • I can’t seem to walk in dreams — whether I’m trying to walk or run — whether it is from or to something good or bad!  My legs feel like huge, unliftable weights that cause me to not be able to move my feet more than a very small, painful step at a time.  So, when I have to get somewhere in my dreams, I either crawl, inch along on my belly, or walk on my knees.  OR – the more bazaar method of travel for me is to “swim” through the air.  Yep, if I need to get somewhere fast, I push off and do the breast stroke through the air – so long as my arms keep pulling me through the air, like they would if I were swimming, I can continue to make progress – when I stop, I stand back up and am stationary!

The keys words associated with these all allude to bad things to come.  Since they tend to occur quite often in my dreams – both good, bad, and bazaar dreams – I will take it all with a grain of salt.  Afterall – if I had as much misfortune as it seems these dreams predict, I would be in pretty bad shape!  And life is good……so……I’ll continue to have fun trying to analyze my dreams purely for the entertainment value.  Unless, of course, if I start to find lots of good stuff in that book – then, I’m sure I’ll consider it “gospel”!

Sweet dreams!