One

This song reminds me of my sophmore year of college and being serenaded with made up lyrics (as a joke). It reminds me of Craigo's breadsticks at 3 a.m. and a time before worry. It reminds me of my best friends. It was such an anthem for us then and still a 'crank it sing every word' favorite today. Not my favorite U2, but definitely top five.

I hadn't seen this version until yesterday:


And the original:

A Crime Against Nature. I Mean Fashion.

Cute and saucy and I can totally pull them off OR geez woman, own up to the fact that you are almost 35 and need to grow up OR wow...those are ugly. Seriously.

Stuff and Nonsense

I completely want to rant this morning about the ineptitude of Sarah Palin. How she has clearly never even HEARD of Civics classes or how she "got rid" of corruption in Alaska just to replace it with her own and threw in abuse of power as a bonus or how she insists on bragging about that "just one of the guys / down home / gosh darnit" persona while racking up $150,000+ clothing bill in 1 1/2 months and charging it to the RNC (which had to recently take out a loan to cover campaign costs since fundraising is, uh, low). Or how I'm so afraid that the voter suppression tactics that are being tried to keep new voters (largely democrats) from voting may turn this election into another Florida / election 2000 even though I am buoyed by the news coming out of Ohio yesterday. But I won't bring that up since I know most of my readers disagree. Maybe I should be more my blog = my stuff, but I'm not. If I were, most of my blog posts lately would be political leaning since that is what's on my mind 80% of the time right now!

Instead I'll talk about music. I'm selling all of my CDs. Slowly, and the first bunch sold yesterday, but still. They are all backed up on discs and on iTunes and I buy the majority of my music online now, so it's time to free up some clutter. But I'm having a little bit of a hard time. I don't ever pull them out; in the car I either have my ipod or a burned disc since I can fit more than a single disc and at home I listen to the same. But as I'm going through and making sure everything is backed up before I sell, I'm feeling nostalgic for each disc. All of the Better Than Ezra's I've collected since my divorce. My entire Finn catalogue in all it's incarnations (that one is responisble for at least a shelf on its own!), Lloyd Cole discs (some of which may stay) and all of my Weller box sets. Thank heavens my sister is holding my hand through the purge and reminding me of all the books I can buy with the credit!

Last night I heard that more people listen to slower music during economic downturns. So, in that spirit, here's my favorite version of my favorite slow song:

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Mom!

(And, uh, thanks, Sandra for always doing writeups I can link to!)

Shopping Interruptus

Sammy playing with my phone while in Old Navy (where, by the way, I got these slippers):


The phone rings, so I take it from Sammy to answer it. This is what I hear:

"Hi this is______ from 911. We just got a call from this phone and need to check and make sure everything is ok."

"What? No. Oh, I'm so sorry. My toddler had my phone. I'm so, so sorry."

"Not a problem; have a good day."

I expect things like this to happen when he's a little older. But he's two. And still, somehow, managed to unlock my keypad, dial 911 and press send. Awesome. I need to remember to take my ipod for him to play with, instead.

However, it did illustrate that working on his numbers lately is paying off...

We Could Send Letters

My friend Melissa gave a lesson in church today about letters. I used to write letters often. I have a stack of letters in my keepsake chest from various people through the years - boyfriends, husbands, friends, etc. I go through sometimes and clear out the ones I don't need any more or the ones I can't remember why I kept them. Letters are a tangible part of my history that I love.

I've been thinking of writing another letter recently. It's been on my mind almost constantly for the past couple of months. I didn't really think about it at all, today, until Melissa challenged us to write a letter. And then I knew I needed to stop thinking and start writing.

I listed this letter's subject as one of my great regrets. It is perhaps the one regret that I still think about from day to day, week to week. It's the one that I feel most badly about and that I believe I can actually do something to remedy.

When we left Oregon, I drifted from one of my good friends. It was a cognizant choice on my part, although the reasons as to why, now, seem petty. In my misguided eagerness to move on, I put behind me a friendship that was real and dear instead of nurturing it to withstand the miles between us. I treated her badly and I so very much regret that. It wasn't me to do what I did, but it happened anyway.

In five years, I've often thought about what I did. I have since had the sad task of ending a TRULY toxic friendship and the differences between the experiences are immense. I can see, clearly, what I did and how she must have felt. I have wanted to rectify this so often, but am at a loss. I realized recently that it's because, while I DO want to reach out and try to mend things, I'm so afraid that I'll be rebuffed. And rightly so. What I need to do, feel the pull to do, needs to happen regardless. I can't worry about me and how I'll be received. I need to reach out because I feel the need to reach out. How she receives it is beyond my control. I can hope for the best, but I know now expecting it is the wrong approach.

Letters truly are powerful. With a sincere prayer in my heart, I hope mine will be received well and, at the very least, convey my sorrow in how I treated a friend.