February 2009 – San Diego Momma

Melodiusness

I’ve oft professed my undying love for music. As an angsty adolescent, I laid in bed with earphones every night, my yellow Sony walkman clasped in my hands, listening to the Little River Band’s Help is On the Way or Chicago’s I’ve Been Searching So Long. Way before that, as a new-to-school third-grader, I stuck Neil Diamond’s Beautiful Noise on my parent’s dark wood phonograph console with its red velvet screened doors, and wished my world were how it sounded on that song. Way after that, I played Marc Cohn’s Things We’ve Handed Down to Toots as she floated in utero (also, R. Kelley’s Ignition, and I can think of no better example to illustrate the dichotomy of my personality) (or hers).

In between and far beyond, it’s been Toad the Wet Sprocket or Melissa Etheridge spun to excess as my heart broke during starless bitter nights in my L.A. studio apartment, Fisher blessing my wedding, and Sarah McLachlan and Wilco for everything, just everything.

If I had to pinpoint, I’d say my musical preference runs maudlin, soul thrumming, melancholy. Most of the time, the music I listen to are like poems I’d wish I’d written and set to music. I’m a lyrics girl first, but the melody’s got to be there, too. And I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, here: No one does THAT better than the Indigo Girls. Still, I need music — all music — every kind, every word, every soul thrum. Truly they are Notes to Soothe the Savage Cells.

My point? Well, I’d get to it eventually. I’m participating in Thursday’s Drive music carnival, and wanted to jot down some of the songs that (a) Make me remember who I am or (b) Remind me of who I want to be or (c) Give me a margarita craving.

So here we go.

My Old Standards

(Note: Listen far away from gas stoves big enough to fit your head.)

My New Standards

[Note: Wait. Could these songs explain this?]

My “Workout” Songs

[Note: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!]

Hope you enjoy some of these songs. And one last thing because I can’t help myself: If you want a great CD to play during mid-energy cocktail parties, you must get THIS.

World Water Week ’09: San Diego Style

From March 22-28, 2009, restaurants all over San Diego will charge one dollar to bring you tap water. The good news is that this dollar will provide clean and safe drinking water for a child in Africa for 40 days, which is something I think most of us can afford to do.

If you live in San Diego, check out this initiative here. If you don’t live in San Diego, there’s probably info on where this is happening in your city, here. These sites will also tell you how to get more involved in this project as a volunteer or advocate.

I often forget that water really is a precious resource and that access to it doesn’t come so easy for the rest of the world. This is a wonderful reminder of how blessed we are and how we can spread the love to others.

Dribby Drabs

Thanks to all who participated in the Fodder extravaganza! It’s still going, if you’re up for it…Click Here to leave a comment suggesting a post topic. For a list of those who’ve written posts inspired other bloggers, Click Here.

Also, thanks for the PROMPTuesday submissions. I’ll be working on mine a little late, but it will definitely go out to my husband, who patiently sticks around and offers guidance counseling to my neurotic self while I jump up and down and tell him to “Stop telling me stuff.”

Also, did you see the sidebar where I told you my book club read The Cellist of Sarajevo this month? Well, I adored it. Simply, plainly adored it. It’s lyrical, and elegant, and powerful, and spare, and beautiful. I think it’s made it as one of my favorite books of all time, and that’s really saying something. Except for the last year or so, when I’ve barely had time to read the writing on the wall, but still…in aggregate, I’ve read a lot of books in my lifetime.

In other news, I’m going to have to bust out a product review on your butts, and I’m sorry. I plan to develop a separate product review site, because there’s a lot of things I love and want to talk about, but this hardly seems the forum. I tried to make Momma Love its own page, but I can’t program its posts to stay off my home page, so it sucks the wad. Anyway, the product I plan to review saved my finger from possible amputation, so it deserves a mention.

Oh and in addition, I’m editing a piece I wrote for something that pays, and the words will not come. Can you say a prayer that for once I don’t muck up my writing with useless adjectives and made-up words? It seems a problem I can’t quite shake. I had no idea how much I rely on nonsense words to tell my stories.

And finally. Some Moonlighting dialogue for you, as written by a wannabe scriptwriter named San Diego Momma, The Early Years. (Someone asked that I post this, right?)

(Wow, silence really CAN be deafening.)

MADDIE (as played by the illustrious Cybill Shepherd): (Walking to her office) Grrr. (She bursts open the door and finds David seated behind her desk. Her teeth are clenched) Good morning, Mr. Addison. May I ask why you are seated behind MY desk in MY chair in MY office?

DAVID (acted by the multi-dimensional Bruce Willis): I was just waiting for Miss Mary Sunshine otherwise known as Maddie Hayes.

MADDIE: (Gives an exasperated sigh) Da-vid.

DAVID: Hey, you know what I was thinking Maddie?

MADDIE: (Sarcastically) I can’t imagine.

DAVID: (Ignoring her) Well, I’ll tell you. Last night as I was laying in bed, I looked up at the mirror on my ceiling and I saw a handsome face. And do you know what that face said to me, Maddie? It said underwear.

MADDIE: Underwear?

DAVID: Underwear, Maddie, underwear. You know, the little pants you wear under your dress? Just picture our faces on people’s underwear advertising Blue Moon Investigations. (Walks over to her, puts his arm around her and gestures outward). Just think for a minute, we could become a household name! Everyone would know who we are!

************************************************************************

….And there’s more. Involving camels, mental institutions and thinly veiled sexual tension. All the stuff that makes for a good script.

Except in this case.

High School Outfits of Yore

[This is my contribution to the blog post tag team. [CLICK HERE FOR A PAGE SHOWING ALL TAG TEAM PARTICIPANTS AND THEIR POSTS.]

Anyway, MommyTime asked that I write about an animal dream or an unsuccessful high school outfit, and for now, I’ve gotta go with the latter because it requires the least effort. I’ve been feeling quite uninspired to write anything lately, and this scares me a little, because even when I am too tired to write or have blockages, I always want to write…and now I find myself losing the desire for even that. This is a forced post, I must admit, but I think I need to write, because if I don’t now, maybe the malaise will grip me and I’ll never write again.

I’m terrified of the drying well.]

I can’t remember much about the person I was in high school. That teen identity sorta fused with the person I am now (frighteningly similar) and the girl-woman I perceived myself to be during that time. I’m quite sure I came across as goofy, overly earnest, and random. I do know I thought a lot about clothes, and concocted the perfect outfits to wear for each auspicious high schooly occasion: football games, late night Denny’s dinners, barn parties. The labels of my day — Esprit. Hunter’s Run. Guess — whirled about my head at night and I still recall the acrid carpety smell of the Vernon Hills Hawthorne Mall fitting rooms.

Still, I was a girl of little parental money for clothes, so I often borrowed friend’s outfits and conjured money from babysitting jobs to foot the wardrobe bill. What I couldn’t buy, I cobbled together from my parents’ closet. Oversized sweaters from my dad, inappropriately clingy silk dresses from my mom, pajamas. Thank God for uniforms. But every dress-up Friday, you’d find me in either (a) something I made with paint/bleach/stencils or (b) something horribly off in some glaringly disturbing way. Many times, I wore plastic slippers with my plaid Catholic schoolgirl skirt because I thought they looked like stylish flats, or a flannel pajama top that doubled as an oxford. And? I’m totally serious.

I loved bright colors and stripes and patterns and (did I already say bright colors?). Also, I adored juxtaposition, so I’d wear say, oversized sunglasses with a hobo ensemble because no one expects hobos to dress like Madonna from the nose up, am I right?

(These were my artfully bleached pants.) (And my straw hat.) (No relationship between the two implicit nor implied.)

And — I did mention the bright colors, right? Did I talk about the stripes too? ‘Cuz I had big love for both of those design elements.

I don’t think you believe me. So I’ll have to show you.

(Just so you know, this is hurting me way more than you):

(Dad’s sweater. You may recognize the bright color gene?)

(Were stripes big in the ’80s? That’d make me feel marginally better.)

(Eyes closed due to nuclear glow given off by shirt.)

You know what? Drying well be damned. I think I’m done here.

p.s. Just be glad I’m not posting the Moonlighting script I wrote my senior year.

Book Club Book

This month? It’s Cellist of Sarajevo.

PROMPTuesday #44: Pastiche

So I’m putting PROMPTuesday up early this week. For two reasons. One: It’s pretty much done for me with the whole post tag team thing we’ve got going, and Two: I expect to be up all night busily searching boxes for old high school photos of me wearing pajamas to class (un-ironically and intentionally).

So for the PROMPT. Go take a look at all the wonderful post ideas here. Pick one. If you already did the one “assigned” to you, please pick another one. I expect to be pilfering these blog starters for weeks, WEEKS, I tell you. Such great suggestions.

Also, it’s occurred to me that it’s been awhile since I’ve described PROMPTuesday for the uninitiated, so here goes: PROMPTuesday is a once-a-week deal where I issue a creative writing prompt and hope that people take it and run. PROMPTuesday submissions appear in the comment box below the PROMPT post for all to read. It’s the most fun. (And there’s a lot of talent out there.)

To read PROMPTuesdays gone by, please click here.

UPDATED TO ADD: You know, because I’m the sort of person who listens to feedback, unless it comes from my husband or dad (or imaginary personal trainer or pretend dietician), I will take Stoneskin’s comment to heart. If you are plain sick to death of the post starters, then this week, write a character sketch of someone you love (child, partner, pet, mentor, etc.). Detail this person, let us see him or her through your description. Maybe you want to “show” your loved one through action and movement, or perhaps you are viewing him or her in repose. Either way, get down to brass tacks and give us the one you love through your writing.

UPDATED TO ADD AGAIN: No more choices! Just one: Love Portrait, as above. Please comply, or the PROMPTuesday police will come knocking. I mean it. And they’re burly, I assure you. (Also, hot and shirtless.) (But hairy and portly.)

The Follow-Up To That Which Did Not Make Sense in the First Place

Great! I’ve drawn you in with a clear, concise title to further explain the labyrinth post I wrote last week.

I think I’m beginning to understand why my husband sighs so heavily when I ask “to talk.”

So look. I’m just going to sum up with quick and clear sentences.

According to my records, I ~~am to write~~ wrote a post on an animal dream or an unsuccessful high school outfit.

MommyTime ~~is to write~~ wrote a post on her most embarrassing sports moment.

Blognut ~~is to write~~ wrote a pitch for a television series. Network or cable. Comedy or drama.

Cheri @ Blog This Mom! ~~is to write~~ wrote a post describing a typical day in the life of her alternate self in a parallel universe.

Karelle is to describe her perfect day…and then her nightmare day.

Stoneskin ~~is to write~~ wrote a post about Elvis, and a pink dressing gown, referencing Election Day 2012 and Madison Square Garden in NYC. (We’re rooting for ya, Mo!)

Cactus Petunia ~~is to tell us~~ wrote about a little thing that made her proud.

Tinsenpup is to write about an unusual/unique teacher, one she loved or hated or was just puzzled by.

She ~~is to write~~ wrote about which city is her favorite and why, taking care to mention how old she was when she lived there, for how long, and any fond memories of the place and if she happens to know, what’s changed since she left.

Jennifer wrote about the woman in the background of her blog — the one who is dancing and jumping and excited.

Katydidnot ~~is to write~~ wrote about a day in her life if she were an animal (of her choosing).

G ~~is to write~~ wrote about her most favorite movie and why she loves it.

Amanda ~~is to write~~ wrote about the worst decision she thinks she’s made in her life and why — and if she so chooses, she can also write the best decision she made and why.

Jessica is to write about a smell that immediately takes her back somewhere or reminds her of something.

Mel is to write about a movie/television star that most resembles her.

Jamie is to write from the perspective of a makeup artist at the Oscars…and must tell us what’s going on there.

Janet at Fond of Snape is to write about her worst kiss. (Because, as Kizz points out: Everybody only talks about the good ones!)

Kizz is to write about an assumption that she would change that people make about her. (Or, why lists tickle her fancy).

If you want to play along and get tagged to write a post, read this , or save yourself the brain cells that will die as you wrap your mind around whatever the hell it is I wrote, and instead leave a comment on the post with a post idea for the commenter before you. THEN, check back in the comments box for your post topic.

Oh Good Lord.

I’ll get clear and concise one of these days.

If you want to leave a link to your post inspired by commenters, do so here:

Or, for a link list of those who’ve written posts suggested by readers, click here.

Invasion of the Post Snatchers

Here’s a list of posts by bloggers who participated in the mind-blowingly confusing blog carnival I wrote about last week:

Blognut wrote a pitch for a television series.

Cheri @ Blog This Mom! wrote a post describing a typical day in the life of her alternate self in a parallel universe.

G wrote about her favorite movie and why she loves it.

MommyTime wrote a post on her most embarrassing sports moment.

Stoneskin wrote a post about Elvis, a pink dressing gown, Election Day 2012 and Madison Square Garden in NYC (WHOOO!).

She wrote about her favorite city.

Katydidnot wrote about a day in her life if she were an animal.

Amanda wrote about wrote about the worst decision she thinks she’s made in her life and why — and her best decision.

Cactus Petunia wrote about a little thing that made her proud

San Diego Momma wrote about an unsuccessful high school outfit

Who’s Next?