Chronicles of Nani - Music, The Great Divide

Today starts with a story about war relics and goes on to talk about America's Civil War and the Constitution. The song speaks of the fear that a Civil War could happen again.

Luke Combs is not afraid to talk about it and neither am I. I hope you're not either!

#NaniMusic2

National Civil War Naval Museum portcolumbus.org

Luke Combs, Billy Strings - The Great Divide (Lyric Video) https://https://youtu.be/2LFP2KLabp4

Luke Combs talks about The Great Divide https://youtu.be/05hLmEvHMkw

#CivilWar  #TheGreatDivide #NaniMusic2

Chronicles of Nani - Love Songs

 I know I don't write good old blogs like I used to. The truth is I'm very involved in my YouTube project and then actually has a lot to do with the fact that I can talk much better than I can type. MS has done a number on my hands. When I do type pages or even occasional replies, when I can, it's using the speech to text function and going back in and fixing what was right if my hands are up to it. (Because anybody that's ever tried to send a text on their phone using it, KNOWS how erratic it can be.)

I occasionally do special vlogs on YouTube called story time and now I'm adding the debut of a special one called Music. Just in time to be late for Valentine's Day the subject of the debut of the music series is love songs! I hope those of you that click on the blog and it's new check out the videos. And I'm definitely inviting everyone to play along and leave something in the comments this time. I hope you enjoy it!

Delving into a new topic at Chronicles of Nani, every now and then we're gonna talk about music. Recording this the day after Valentine's Day, it was pretty simple to say the topic for today is love songs. 

Be prepared for me to beg for some comments at the end. Make sure you use #ChroniclesofNaniLoveSongs

To Each His Own https://youtu.be/ZCW0tjlPgMU 

You Had Me From Hello https://youtu.be/HUbxBCmCrMk

Weekend Playlist February 24

The weekend ends when I go to bed on Sunday night. I have pills that I take at 1 AM so no day ends until after one anyway. I guess you could say my body clock is stuck in the central time zone. It's okay because I LOVE Chicago! anyway. ;)

So these were the last five songs from my library on shuffle before David left this morning at 8 AM. It's just been a crazy Sunday, so I'm just a little behind.

This weekend’s selections are courtesy of iTunes via Joey II, my current main computer, last year’s birthday gift I gave to myself. As usual, enjoy, be confused, be surprised, but please don't judge too hard.

Let Me Love You, DJ Snake featuring Justin Bieber

Devil At The Door, The Skeleton Club

When We Make Love, Ginuwine

Walk Right Back, The Everly Brothers

No Diggity, Blackstreet

There are a lot of people that seem to have a certain genre of music or certain band that is the music that just defines educational portions of their life. I know in high school I was definitely the confusing combination of loving classical music and being a heavy metal chick. I would have never made it through trade school without my country music and in the 90s R&B is what finished my bachelors degree full timewhile juggling three part-time jobs.

I liked No Diggity the first time I heard it in the car. I love the whole feel of the music but what I totally fell in love with the first time I heard the song was the term “eargasm” to describe basically a sound that will blow you away. I love the nuances and incredible ways you can use the English language to say the same thing so many different ways, but I also love being able to use that language to create words to add even more color to it. Trust me, I could put together a mini dictionary of words and phrases I use on a regular basis that if you hear anyone else use them it's because they've been hanging out with me too long. LOL. So, work with me here, keeping in mind the eclectic taste thing. First thing that came to mind when I heard that word was Ravel’s Bolero. In it's day Bolero was frowned upon by many in society because the piece was so risqué. Seriously it builds up to and finishes with a GIANT eargasm!

Every time I hear the song it brings me back to a time where a normal Wednesday was often, wake up in the morning, put together my schoolbag, make sure I have my ID badge and head to good old Tiger Stadium to be there plenty early before 1:05PM gametime on getaway day, work the jumbotron graphics and praying we didn't go into extra innings so I’d have enough time to stop at Cracker Barrel and have that meal that comes between work and school because my three hour direct marketing class was in Monroe at 7 PM. I think it reminds me most of Wednesdays because it was still bigon the radio and staple at the ballpark too.

I'll be honest. MS notwithstanding, I'm still not sure I could do what I did for two years to finish my degree now. I will tell you though, having the degree, and my three jobs that included being in major league baseball games and getting a check for it, working with Fortune 1000 executives and editing and studying the “baby picture” segments as an assistant editor for a wedding videographer which eventually inspired some of the work I did years later in my own business was an exhausting time in my life but I wouldn't trade for anything as part of my past.

I have a separate playlist that's just 90s R&B, that includes No Diggity by Blackstreet, that brings me back for a little while to the two years that were consumed by baseball, company executives public speaking education, wedding videos and that beautiful piece of paper that said I finally earned my DEGREE in broadcast communications. It truly says it's never too late to go back to school and finish. But I really do think the way that I did it, you probably should still be a younger older to do it that way.

The lyrics and the song really don't match what I was doing at the time, and yet maybe they kind of do too.. “Ain't nothing going on but the rent." Note to all women: whatever you choose to do or need to do just make sure you are the one who calls the shots. Don't ever put up with anyone standing in the way of you having the control over you.

As usual video services seemed to have really clamped down on the ability to embed videos. I can probably figure out what I need to do to make that happen, but when I'm still playing the Chicago body clock card, it's really not a project I have time to take on just now. If you’d like to see the video, click on the link below the photo.

https://youtu.be/3KL9mRus19o

Weekend Playlist February 17

Happy Sunday! My weeks are so busy right now that I feel like I’m working full time again, only instead of getting a paychecks, I’m writing checks. -sigh- There are two things I miss the most. I don't get to scrapbook anywhere near as much as I'd like and I don't get to blog as much as I want to either, especially during the week.

But a scrapbook page may take to a week to do a simple one, and I may only post one or two blogs a week, but at least I do get a little bit the fun part of my life. Because of the MS and several other things that I have going on in my world , I talk to nurses and psychologists from the insurance company and a couple of other providers pretty much every week or so. One of the questions that they always ask, I think it's pretty much a boilerplate question to check for depression because it's also one of the questions that they ask at Cleveland Clinic when I go in to see my MS doctors too, is "do you find that you have little interest in the things you enjoy doing?" Last week when I spoke to my case manager from the insurance company I answered honestly, "oh it's not that I don't have interest I just don't have time for the things that I really want to do."

So as it is on Sunday, here are the last five songs from my music library on shuffle: (As usual, please don't judge!)

No Such Thing As A Broken Heart, Old Dominion

We Found Love, Rhianna

Blurred Lines, Robin Thicke

This Is Your Day, 112

Video Killed The Radio Star, The Buggles

I love irony. Video Killed The Radio Star was recorded in 1979, but is remembered eternally as the first video shown on MTV at 12:01 a.m. on August 1, 1981. Do you remember when music videos were new? Do you remember when MTV actually played music videos?

Things move, things change. The Walkman, which actually came into existence before MTV, gained popularity. Remember putting a cassette in a little contraption with earphones? You could walk around, ignoring everything around you, listening to your music getting hit by a car crossing the street because you were ignoring the don't walk sign. Then it grew into a CD player that you could carry around with you. I had one of the CD players that I hooked up to the cassette player in my car so I could listen to CDs in my car. When those first came out the biggest problem was every time I hit a bump in the car the CD skipped. Eventually they made CD players that were a little more stable but by then MP3 players were coming out and cars had CD players instead of cassette players in them anyway.

In the history of the car it didn't have a radio at all and then there were AM radios, and FM radios, and then eight track players… for there is always been something to kill the last kind of star, hasn't there?

My great-grandmother and I were always very close and from the time that I turned 16 and got my license we would get together every Tuesday for coffee and sit and just talk for a few hours. I absolutely loved those nights because we just loved sharing stories. When I was on the high school radio station in 12th grade, she was just close enough to get the station in and listened to us every morning. She was tickled when every now and then my partner would dedicate a song to “Opal, one of our favorite listeners.” I did the news and had to be very careful to make sure it was accurate because I think I was her most regular source for national and local information. There were a lot of times during the 7:30am slot, I think she may have been our only listener too.

She shared stories with a smile about how the world had changed in her lifetime. When she was born they didn't even have electricity or indoor plumbing. and now her great grand daughter can drive a car to come visit her and even bring ice cream. She was in our cable area and sometimes watched my sports programming, I think mostly the end to see my name on TV. My boss, the Executive Producer, and me, the Producer on the fist page of the credits. She was alive when women won the right to vote, the 19th Amendment ratified the year she turned 14. She was a line inspector at Ford Motor Company and boasted a photo of the truck I drove for productions work for everyone to see. She saw the first Mustang come off the assembly line and wanted one of the "Pony Cars" since you first saw them. Her last car ended up being a Mustang (a cute, four-cylinder muscle car) with my mother my grandmother telling my father and grandfather “don't you dare even think about talking her out of it. No man is selling the WRONG car this time.” One of the things she bragged about with that was in the last 70 years, at the time, the women in our family had gotten stronger because we don't give up and we don't let ourselves get old.

She always smiled and reveled in the changes in the world and how most of them made life better. She is without question how I learned to appreciate changes in the world and changes in our personal lives in general. She probably has a lot to do with my interest in domestic history over learning details about wars. And don’t get old - My great-grandmother loved the old gospel and country music she grew up with. She was also a fan of REO Speedwagon.

She is definitely the source of my eclectic musical taste and I will always love her for that. My mother’s tastes were the same kind of defying the demographic. I'm the one who introduced HER to Dmitri Shostakovich and SHE played Toad The Wet Sprocket for me. My great-great-grandmother had an Elvis scrapbook because she loved his music from the first time she heard it and the family remembered quote was “That boy is definitely going to change things!” That love of current music seemed to skip a generation with my grandmother but she learned how to use a computer in her 70s, so we'll give her a pass on the music.

As I said before I love irony and then love domestic history. Video Killed The Radio Star is an important part of our culture’s musical history. Yeah now when you think about how many videos you don't see on MTV and how we put earbuds in our phones and listen to either our personal playlist or whatever RADIO station is on our music service and that kind of makes you think maybe TECHNOLOGY killed the video star.


Now of course it's very hard to find someplace that will allow you to embed a video to share it anymore. It's a silly song and not an impressive video but it's a piece of history. So if you would like to experience a little bit of history here's a link to the video:

https://youtu.be/9ffoTMBlAOA

Weekend Playlist January 20

I know I always start the talk about my weekend playlist with the fact that my musical taste is about as eclectic as my tastes in pretty much everything. I don't think that's a bad thing. I don't like to limit myself to any one type of anything. Of course sometimes deciding between flavors of ice cream or what to have for dinner and the restaurant can you make me a bit of a pain. The truth is, and I know this is an expensive way to go, but ever since I was little kid I would rather order a few things off the appetizer menu than an actual dinner anyway. Of course as an adult unless I won the lottery on the way, I tend to try to stay away from appetizer menus as much as possible. LOL

So here are the last five songs from my music library on shuffle:

September Morn, Niel Diamond

You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone, Brooks & Dunn

Grenade, Bruno Mars

Brand new me, John Michael Montgomery

Kansas City, The New Basement Tapes

I did just notice that out of 1970 songs in my library (thank you Apple music subscription) Buddy Bat, which is the name of my iPad where I put my library on shuffle for my Weekend Playlist, sometimes get stuck in the favorites mode. Last night when I started this project it seemed like every third song was either Neil Diamond or Night Ranger. Yes, I do happen to have a lot both of those artists in my library. But I970 songs and the whole catalog is on shuffle. It sounds to me like a musical mood and sometimes I just wonder how smart our smart devices have become? My Apple devices talk to each other and I swear they know as much about me as I do and if I press the right buttons I can have a conversation with Siri for a while. I'm eventually going to have to talk about that Brooks & Dunn song because it really seems Buddy Bat wants me to. But I usually write my blog on Joey, my main computer, and Joey seems to still allow me to be in charge. 😉

This week's song is Kansas City by The New Basement Tapes. I can tell you that this is one of a bunch of song lyrics Bob Dylan wrote after a car accident… Whatever. I'm not a huge Bob Dylan fan but I just happen to really like this song. The lyrics of the song don't really speak to me but I enjoy the rhythm of the song the music and Kansas City makes me think about two things.

The first and only time I have ever flown into Kansas City I got to see my name on a sign with the NBC peacock on it because I was flying in for an interview with the NBC affiliate in Topeka, Kansas. The creative services director picked me up and we drove into downtown Topeka and he took me to lunch at a very nice upscale salad bar. I don't mean salad bar as in put your lettuce and all your stuff on your lettuce and take it back to your table. I mean salad bar as you look at all the different types of salads that they have choose the 3 or 4 that you would like and they put them on a plate for you. I was thinking to myself at that time, if I get this job I'm going to spend a lot of time in this restaurant. We enjoyed lunch and talked about the job and the Topeka area including the importance of how close the Kansas City Royals are.

There were a couple of things that didn't sit so well about living in Kansas. The gas prices were just a little higher than they were in Detroit and based on the value of my car it would probably cost about $600 a year for a license plate. My gas mileage wasn't that bad but for the price of the license plate tag? Yeesh! I was not giving up my only six years old Camaro to be a creative services producer in a small market. But we hadn't discussed salary yet it was still early in the day.

The next part of the day I worked very hard to keep myself from laughing, because the NBC station was smack dab in the middle of a cornfield. I mean you saw the building and the antenna and nothing but corn anyplace else. Once we walked into the station it was an incredibly modern building and in the production area it was totally state-of-the-art. It was better equipment than I worked with at the cable company and even at Tiger Stadium and it was very comparable to the production equipment where I was currently working as a video librarian. We did lots of talking about the type of commercial production that was done there. I got to meet a lot of potential coworkers they seemed like decent and very creative people. I even got to play with a couple of pieces of the equipment and recorded the voiceover while I was there. The job sounded great. The toys were fun. Downtown reminded me a lot of Royal Oak, Michigan, a city I absolutely adore. If the apartment rental in the area was decent and the pay was okay I was ready to start packing if they offered me the job.

Unfortunately the salary the job paid was a FEW THOUSAND dollars LESS then I was making as a video librarian and I lived in a suite in my parents home rent-free and paid just under $100 a year for tags for the plates on the Camaro. The CS director brought me back to the airport in Kansas City complementing my skills and raving about my voice and still trying to sell me on how great the area was. I did realize that that meant very good things about my standing in the finalists for this job. He even brought up that although it was more expensive for registration the gas prices were better than Detroit, which they word but I didn't say that, and the weather is better so it's better on the car. It still wasn't enough to make "I'm at creative services producer and a barista with a really great roommate who I met a day ago" very attractive. I sent an email later in the day of the next day explaining that I'd given it some thought and for financial reasons I just couldn't consider the position. But on the flight home I already needed extra peanuts because I felt so bad.

I do want to go back to Kansas City though! There are two things in Kansas City that I absolutely have to see. First off, of course, I want to see a baseball game there. The other thing that Kansas City has that no place else in the world does is Shuttlecocks! Note the capital S on Shuttlecocks. I'm not talking about stopping in a sporting goods store. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen, built and installed four 18-foot badminton shuttlecocks on the grounds of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, it can be done in one day but if I go to Kansas City I must see a Royals baseball game and Shuttlecocks. And I mean I've got to power wheel out there and get my picture taken just to show you how much taller than my wheelchair the shuttlecocks are.


And that's what Kansas City is to me and it's what this song makes me think about. You may get something completely different from the song. In fact it would be really weird if you didn't. It a nice song. Hope you enjoy the video.

Weekend Playlist, December 2

There's been a lot of unhappy and perplexing going on in Naniland. Oh, it's Nothing to worry about.

Have I bragged about my niece, Tori, who finished her masters last June in psychology? I am so proud of her and it is such an important and noble profession. I can honestly say the incredible relationship I have with my dad now has everything to do with the counseling place that helped me when I went to it for a few month after school. I can also say seeing a psychologist a while after being diagnosed with MS kept me from being clinically depressed. So I guess what I’m saying is if you’re having any sort of personal problems, things you are even nervous talking to with your best friend, psychologists can save your life, or rather they can show you how to save your own life. Most health insurances cover talking to a professional and there is absolutely NOTHING to be ashamed of in seeking help. Actually it's quite more something to be proud of. It's making your problems your solution.

I’m kind of in that kind of funk right now for many reasons. I’m gonna be meeting with a social worker, who happens to also be a psychologist. I have some pretty big issues that need fixed. And I am openly admitting I'm going to get help because that's what strong people do.

So this week’s songs are not from my general library. They're from a playlist that sort of reflects things that are going on in my brain right now. The playlist doesn't have a title because right now I feel a bit untitled.
.

Blue Train, Marty Stuart

The Boxer, Simon and Garfunkel

Don’t Lie To Me, Barbra Streisand

Burn, Usher

Who’s Crying Now, Journey

While going through my general funk, I've been reading some of my old journals. When that last song, Who's Crying Now by Journey came on it really reminded me of something sad about my old journals. I used to keep journals written when I was in high school. That's when I started having my occasional not able to sleep and I stayed up all night listening to the radio while writing in my journals. Sometimes it was funny stuff, sometimes it was things that frustrated me. I think back in high school is when I realized when something was bothering me if I wrote about it and just kept writing until the problem presented itself, the real problem, I could solve it. That's something that I've always done.

Nani circa 1981

Sadly, in my 20s, I decided silly things that I'd written when I was in high school were a dumb thing to keep and I threw them all away. I'm 52 now and I'd love to go back and read some of those things that went through my mind when I was a teenager. So note to any teens that read this - don't throw things away that are a piece of you, no matter how silly or painful a piece of you, you think they are, because in years to come you'll wish you had them. Whether it’s to show you how far you’ve come, remind you how strong you were and still could be, or just to remind yourself about the great person you've always been. It's a lot easier now because you can put it all in a digital folder.


Where this particular song really brought out that said memory was because I remember the first time that I heard the song. It came out in July of 1981, which means it wasn't a school night-yay for me on that one, right? But I remember the Journal with the green cardboard cover but all handwritten and I remember talking about Journey's new song and how awesome it was. And just to be silly now, what really made me think about it was hearing the guitar solo at the end and actually writing something like “wha, wha-wha, wha-wha, wha-whaaah … SO COOL!"

Such a silly direct line to remember, huh? But it made me smile.

So here's a fun know. The video is the song with the album cover because no actual video was produced for this song I could find or remember seeing. Why bother? The song came out in July 1981. MTV didn't exist until August 1, 1981. Can you imagine putting out a single and no video today?

Weekend Playlist, November 25

Oh the wonderful, inspiring, world of music! What I'm going to talk about today is probably what nobody thinks after reading the playlist! Hehe

But first, here are the five songs from my Music library that got me there:

Pray For Me, The Weekend, Kendrick Lemar (Black Panther)

Soothe My Soul, Depeche Mode

You're Going To Miss Me When I'm Gone, Brooks & Dunn

Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear To Tread), Tommy Dorsey 

It’s Now Or Never, Elvis Presley

There are a number of Elvis Presley songs that were "borrowed" from the classics. “It's Now Or Never" is one of those ones that has very special meaning for me.

You see, when I was young my dad played accordion very often, especially when there were family gatherings and lots of us kids around. We absolutely loved to listen to him play and when I hear a solo accordion tune of any song now it always makes me think of my dad playing for the family. He played for the adults too and they enjoyed listening to it but I don't think it was quite as special as it was when he played "On Top Of Spaghetti" for us kids. He always did that as a major sing-along with all the kids gathered around him. He absolutely loved that.

But now, let's get back to Elvis.. The other kids may have loved “On Top Of Spaghett” but my favorite song that my father played was "It's Now Or Never”. The funniest part of that is when Pop played it, at least when I was really young, he wasn't playing "It's Now Or Never.” He wasn't playing Elvis Presley at all. He was playing “O Sole Mio.’

Please keep in mind that I was born in 1966. I don't have any video of my dad playing accordion. I only have one or two photographs of my dad with an accordion. But believe me he played often and played well. I do have a video of, not my father, but someone else playing…"that song" on the accordion.



I was a kid. But what song do YOU think it is?


As I got older and my love for a classical music got stronger I started to realize there were a lot of old Elvis tunes that I really liked that weren't Elvis tunes when they started out. I still love “It's Now Or Never” and it still reminds me of my dad playing the accordion every time I hear it. But I have to admit especially with their bit of comedy in the song in the video The Three Tenors version of “O Sole Mio” is probably the version of that melody I love the most.

Well, Second most. My memory of my dad playing what I thought was “It’s Now Or Never” on his accordion will still always be the best version in my heart.

It seems that for some reason not possible to embed the Elvis Presley version the song. But as a special treat today here's that version of "O Sole Mio"by The Three Tenors I love so much.

Weekend Playlist, November 11

Music really is one of the coolest stimuli in the world. You know that ages old philosophical question "if you had to give up your ability to see or your ability to hear which would it be?”

Oh I'm not going to answer that question. As a scrapbooker, how could I ever think of not being able to see? It would be the end of one of my favorite hobbies. Every year when David puts his best train photos together and picks out the music to create his end-of-the-year multimedia presentation, I do the editing which absolutely requires vision and hearing. Editing has been my favorite part of every video job I’ve had and working on David show, in addition to some other small things that I do, is one thing that makes me feel totally alive. So for me the answer to the philosophical question is another philosophical question. "at what point does a person lose so much that they don't care what else they lose?"

So here are the last 5 songs that played with my library on shuffle before the feature song today:

She’s Like The Wind, Patrick Swayze

Chocolate Girl, Keith Sweat

Ant Music, Adam and The Ants

Knocking On Heaven’s Door, Heaven

All In A Mouse’s Night, Genesis

All In A Mouse’s Night was on the Genesis album Wind & Wuthering, released in 1976. The first time I had ever heard this song was on February 14, 2006. It was the first truly romantic Valentine's Day I ever had. I used to host "Stag Parties" on Valentine's Day when I would invite anyone who didn't have a date over for chili and what ever the worst B-film we could find on video tape. I am absolutely sure that there will be people who read this that remember The Toxic Avenger and films as such. Heck, I even remember word about those stag parties getting out and one couple begging me that if they promised to sit I'm opposite sides of the room and never look at each other could they please come this year? I have to admit that made me kind proud but my mom donated the chili every year and it had quite the reputation too.

But into 2006 it was different. I'd had dates on Valentine's Day before and it had been many years since we did the stag parties. But in 2006 there was this new guy. He’d been in my world almost a year and we even frequently used the “L-word.” I was almost 40 and had decided I was fine with, in fact I wanted to be, my own person. Casual dating was fine, even in the occasional relationship as long as it wasn't serious, but I liked me unattached. But then 6 foot and 5 inches with light blue eyes on top that I absolutely melted over walked into my life and screwed up everything.

David worked late enough that I could get to Toledo and prepare shrimp scampi for dinner with a little help from Wolfgang Puck for the lobster bisque. I chilled a bottle of Savignon Blanc (no that's not great memory about the wine. That’s been my standard to go with shrimp for, like, ever.) But what I cooked I do remember. I'd put together a chocolate fondue for two and we ate by candlelight.

I remember talking about music and discussing what we thought were romantic songs. Mine was Diamond Rio’s I Know How The River Feels. He told me is wasn't so much a romantic song as much as he wanted to dance to it. I was cleaning some dishes in the kitchen and he started the Genesis song Your Own Special Way and he came into the kitchen and we danced. Guys, you may not totally get it, but gals, I'm sure you understand that everything around you disappears the moment your significant other pulls you away from the sink and slow dances with you in the kitchen.  * sigh*

In further conversation about music while we had our dessert he played this song for me, just a fun and really cute song about a mouse. Oh, this song is so strange too to entertain two cat-people. Think about it. Why is the cat always the bad guy in cartoons? Poor Tom, Sylvester, PePe.. Wait, no, he's only attracted to cats (LOL) but you get one I mean.

This song is not a hit single, so no video this week, but I hope you enjoy giving a listen.

Weekend Playlist, November 4

I stopped the shuffle this week in a spot that made me kind of sad, it also made me understand some of my feelings this week and why they've been weighing so heavy on me. I'm not used to dealing with truly major problems alone. The first time I tried to do that I ended up seeing a psychologist for a few months. (Maybe a couple of sessions this week would've helped.)

Here are the last five songs from my library on shuffle:

Don’t Stop, Jon Batiste

Deep Cuts The Knife, Helix

Don’t Lie To Me, Barbara Streisand

One more day, Diamond Rio

Silent Lucidity, Queensryche

John and me at a New Year's party, I think I was about 19

Silent Lucidity was John’s favorite song by his favorite group. You see lots of kids in the video but the lyrics speak of giving strong quiet support and protection. John was like a big brother to me since we met when I was 15 years old. He was one of my closest friends and that unconditional support was always there. He considered me to be a strong person and a generous person, someone who always made sure no one was left behind. But the truth is, anything that is considered good about me couldn’t possibly compare to the man that John was.

I guess that song struck me right now because I really wish John was here. In October 2009, I lost the last person who could let me be worried, who could let me be weak and not feel like I was less of a person for being so human. I have a surgical procedure scheduled for tomorrow. This week has just been hell for me. My brain is tortured by nightmares because I’ve never had anesthesia for anything before, not good for the psyche of a control freak. And also for the last week I’ve not been allowed to use any of the vitamins or supplements that I take and I’m starting to feel the effect of some of those not being in my daily routine. There are vitamins and supplements that I take in lieu of advancing to drugs for some things and I’ve been cut off of some of the drugs that I take that keep some of the MS pain at bay. I’m pretty much miserable and scared. Mostly what I’ve heard from others have been things like, “don’t worry about it everything‘s gonna be fine,“ “suck it up buttercup, it’s just part of life,“ “just shut up already, it’s no big deal.“ people mean well when they tell me not to worry but I need someone to just listen, tell me they understand that I am afraid and comfort me, talk to me, make me laugh to divert the fear. John did that for me on more than one occasion.

Our last picture together at my wedding reception, July 2009

I need somebody to comfort me and quell the demons in my own brain but there’s no one left to do that for me. I miss my friend.

Weekend Playlist, October 28

This was fun last weekend so it's something that I think I may continue doing for a while. Like I said last week my musical taste is pretty eclectic. There're lots of reasons why songs end up in my music library. Please don't judge!

Here's a taste - the last five songs that played from my music library on shuffle.

L’estate (Summer,) Antonio Vivaldi

Nothing Else Matters, Metallica

Polka Dots and Moonbeams, Frank Sinatra

Let Me Love You, DJ Snake (feat. Justin Bieber)

The Greatest, Kenny Rogers

The Kenny Rogers song is a great place to stop and talk this week as tonight is game five of the World Series. As regular visitors to The Chronicles of Nani know, baseball is a pretty big deal for me. We have three "House teams" in Naniville. My teams are the Detroit Tigers and Cincinnati Reds and David's team is the Boston Red Sox. Since one of our house teams is the AL champion this year, of course, we're cheering for the Red Sox!

So far the series couldn't be going any better. What I actually mean by that is I didn't want a sweep. Our cousin, Cyndi, David's cousin and one of his wedding gifts to me, was given tickets to game five by her son for her birthday. Cyndi and I share the love of baseball and the love of anything pumpkin spice, so of course there's no way I would wish for her to have the world's lousyest souvenir; World Series tickets for a game that didn't happen. I have a pair of those from 2011 when the Tigers did not go to the World Series. They are sad souvenirs.

As a birthday present especially, you should get to enjoy the absolutely electric feeling of being at a postseason game. Now Cyndi is a lifelong Los Angeles Dodgers fan, so I can't go as far as extending a wish that she gets to see her team win. I already wished for a loss to make sure there was a game five. But nothing beats the feeling of just being in the park for a World Series game. (I got to experience that with my mom in 1984.) I do hope she thoroughly enjoys the experience and hey, when I visited Dodger Stadium almost 20 years ago, they had sushi at the ballpark. So there's probably good chance she can get a pumpkin spice latte while she enjoys being at the World Series… and watching Boston celebrate winning the championship.

If it was the Astros (again) I'd totally be cheering for the Dodgers. Just saying.


Enjoy some baseball thoughts or dreams of your own with the video for one of my favorite baseball songs.
(click on the You Tube link to see the video larger)

Weekend Playlist

Music is actually quite important in my world. Don't read too much into my song library, accept it that, like that library, I'm a very eclectic person. I like so many different kinds of music and individual songs for so many different reasons. Sometimes it's the mood the music puts me in, or the beat when I feel like dancing, sometimes the words strike a chord, or it’s the memory of the event or person.

I can truly enjoy music from a variety of genres at a time. That's something that David doesn't understand and sometimes it makes him a little nuts. (he he)


Here is a five song section from my entire music library on shuffle for this weekend:

Fireball, Pitbull

Before He Cheats, Carrie Underwood

Heaven and Hell, Black Sabbath

Chains, Nick Jonas

Hero, Family of the Year

Hero inspired an art journal I did a few years ago. It was on the playlist I was listening to when I was meditating for relaxation. As I reached the point in the meditation where I was relaxed and I was no longer controlling the images in my mind but letting them control me, I saw myself sitting around the bonfire on the beach with a bunch of people I didn't know. I walked to the beach and started to dance.

Meditation, whether it's to the spoken word or music, became important me back in 1990. Specifically it was listening to a self hypnosis tape at bedtime on June 12, 1990. On June 13 I woke up and didn't have a cigarette. In fact on June 13 this year I acknowledged 28 years since I smoked. I'm not at all saying that quitting a vice is that easy. I truly believe that you have to really want to quit for yourself and then you use the crutch that's best for you. Meditation worked for me and introduced me to fast and deep relaxation that got me through 2 intense years of classes at 3 different campuses and 3 different part-time jobs to Finish earning my bachelors degree. And now I find it's a wonderful way to relax and let my own brain make me feel a little more positive on my worst days.

I'm not saying it works every time, but when it does it's a wonderful thing.

I'd never seen the official video for Hero until I decided to watch it before writing this blog. I laughed at how different my art journal page and the video interpret the song. But I enjoyed the video because I love watching bull riding!

Family of the Year "Hero" - official video from Nettwerk Music Group on Vimeo.

What Are You Wearing?

After a false alarm on my new chair, I haven't been bright and chipper me lately. The chair visited here last week and I sat in it, even drove it a little. The steering is just awesome and I can't wait to get out to a nice even parking lot or even the mall on a slow day so I can try out tilt-a-whirling with it! The seating system it's going to take some serious learning of the new controller but it seems like it's going to be really great to. Unfortunately the ability to actually sit up straight needs adjusting. There's no way that I could eat or drink and hope to swallow without choking in the angle it leaves me at in the totally upright position. It had to go back into be adjusted. I'm waiting now to find out how long that's going to take.

Well I didn't get to go to Indianapolis last weekend Tori texted me the link to watch both the baccalaureate on Saturday in the commencement ceremony on Sunday online. Upon seeing the seating area the truth is I probably had a better view than I would've had in person. I certainly wouldn't have been able to get this:

VERY proud Nana we'll be dragging out her chauffeur, AKA Uncle David, to visit Tori and take her out to dinner very soon after the new chair comes in to stay.


In the meantime I've been in a little low and without enthusiastic desire to do a lot. That includes reading and writing. I've been very slow about the book I'm reading, even though it's a good book, and when I've read blogs, I'm somehow without the creativity or energy to comment much. Of course I haven't been up to writing a blog much either, except well, I guess I'm writing a blog right now. *smile*


I present 5 questions to wake up my mood and mojo. Please feel free to share your answers in comments or on your own blog!

Life Inventory:

1. What are you wearing?

Knee-length cotton dorm shirt with donuts print.

2. What's the last thing you ate?

The last of my daily carrot and celery munchie bowl. Yes, I finally got David to pick out celery for me to go with my carrots. He does a great job!


3. What are the first three songs on your music playlist? (or your current favorite 3 songs)

The first three currently on my iTunes, starting with what’s playing now:

Say It’s Not True - Lionel Cartwright
Ho Hey - The Lumineers
Fall - Clay Walker


4. What is the last purchase you made that was something you wanted, not something you needed?

I spent three months’ saved scrap budget at Ginger Scraps to kick off interNational Scrapbook Day weekend at the beginning of the month. (Great sales!)


5. What's your favorite electronic game? (phone, computer or game console)

I've been playing Toy Blast often lately but my favorite is really Jigsaw Bug. I love jigsaw puzzles on my tablet because no pieces get lost! (or become cat toys)

It Only Takes A Few Drops

 

(Nani grooving to funky music)

 “I’m up all night to get lucky…”

What a great Friday!

The garage door opener tech-guys were over bright and early to find out why our garage door has been open for a few days. It was stuck and David thought he hit a rest button that made the button in the garage work but none of the remotes worked. The service call was almost $100. It would be plus parts if they could fix it, half could be use towards an all new opener if they couldn’t fix it and if hitting reset cleared the boxes it would probably be money spent so they could click a couple buttons and say goodbye. Well, it needed a part that they had in the truck, put it in and the door opens fine again. It cost much less than we feared it could, but it was indeed necessary to pay the service fee and have them come out.

How about another for today? David and I want to go see Lindsey Stirling in Michigan in June. I was in charge of finding out what the venue, that I haven’t been to since long before the wheelchair days, has for accessible seating. They have wheelchair spaces and chairs for companions and the level area right behind the pavilion seating. But since the accessible seating in the outdoor theater is just outside of the pavilion cover, the seats are priced as lawn seats. $25 for a concert!

Now, as for my title and beginning of the blog; how could the day not be just golden for me? Let me back up a bit. It’s my few drops of Irish blood this St. Patrick’s Day week, you see. I guess that even though those few drops that gave me green eyes and summer freckles is from the orange side of the flag, the Irish blessing still applies. I have slowed way down in my music, books and scrapbooking allowance every month since Christmas. Two gift cards for Christmas loaded up my iPad with books, so I haven’t suffered there and I’m conservative with scrapbook supplies I buy and only shop sales, but there hasn’t been more than two new songs a month where I used to give myself a limit of ten a month. Since I hadn’t bought a song in quite a while and was dying to hear that Daft Punk song, Get Lucky, I bought it yesterday evening. No, the song is NOT about Irish luck, but that doesn’t matter.

On St. Patrick’s Day Ginger Scraps had a contest that I joined in on. There was a list of 23 designers and those who played along were to torture themselves by going through very one of the 23 stores and pick out one kit that you’d want if you could have any kit in their shop and put the title and link to it in your document with the 23 titles and links. It really was having some fun and helping to promote the store, part by beefing up your own wish list. One lucky player would be selected at random and actually win their entire lit!! 23 designers and the average cost of a kit is about $6. It’s an over $100 prize! When I read my email this morning at about 6:30AM there was an email alerting me to a private message at Ginger Scraps. I’d forgotten all about the game on St. Patty’s Day and I wondered if it was something about the last layout I posted there. The title of the message; “You Are The Lucky Lady!” I was the random selection! I won 23 kits!

I am floored! I am excited! How cool is that??

Then there was the happy garage door fix and at noonish, l logged on to Facebook because the iPad said I had a private message from Jill, of Created by Jill Scraps. Jill’s one of my favorite current designers. I get her newsletter and I have a separate folder in my scrapbook cross reference file because she doesn’t sell at a store where I usually do challenges and want to access her kits quickly when I scrap. I’d left a comment on her Facebook page in a “leave a comment to win” thread. A random winner would receive her new in store today kit. Guess who is Ms. Random again today?! After posting here I’ll be on my way to Pickleberry Pop to download my new kit!

I’ve had some struggling days since the end of last year. A day like today, a Nani is a lucky winner day, well, if that’s not a great way to say “Happy Spring First…” I guess an all-expense paid trip to Florida or Arizona, but I don’t recall entering anything like that to be surprised about. But it’s been an awesome day to say good riddance to another winter.

Now I’m turning up the Daft Punk and heading to check out that Pickle Barrel!

It's Got A Good Beat, You Can Dance To It

Here’s today’s prompt in the 30 Day Blog Challenge hosted by Katie at So, Funny Story…

Put your i-pod/i-tunes on shuffle what are the first ten songs?

When I listen to music, it’s my playlist at playlist.com, so I hit the shuffle there. Here are the first ten:

1. Too Close - Next
2. Would You Go With Me – Josh Turner
3. Poker Face – Lady GaGa
4. San Francisco – Scott McKenzie
5. Complicated Game - XTC
6. Cupid - 112
7. Love You Like A Love Song – Selena Gomez
8. Give Me Everything – Pitbull ft. Ne-Yo
9. A Minor Prelude - Triumph
10. Cover You In Kisses – John Michael Montgomery

The Josh Turner song is the one I did the video of my train photos with and credited my new name at the end to surprise our railfan friends just days after we got married!

Sweet Caroline Locked Out Of Heaven

I’m joining Katie at So, Funny Story... hit and miss this month for her 30 Day Blog Challenge. I say “hit and miss” because I get tied up in so many things that sometimes blogging “misses” for a few days. But hey, I’m disabled and super busy; that a win!

You can join this challenge too! Visit Katie’s blog here and see the details, including all 30 prompts for the month.  It looks like a fun challenge and I’m going to try to do as many as possible. So let’s get this challenge started,

Day 1: Your Favorite Song

Right now the carnival s in town! The church festival is close enough to our house that we can hear the nightly Karaoke. I’m not complaining about that. It’s one weekend and it supports the church as a fundraiser and the carnival workers as their living. It’s also good for community spirit. It rained a lot overnight, but I hope it stays dry enough today for things to happen for them today.

The only problem for me with that is the smell of carnival food makes me crave caramel corn something fierce. Maybe it’s just the suggestion because I’m thinking how nice a bag of caramel corn would be right now and the carnival isn’t even awake yet. Anyway, the point of bringing up the carnival was NOT to make me crave caramel corn, the topic is favorite songs and my favorite song right now was one of the Karaoke hits last night!

Locked Out Of Heaven by Bruno Mars is without a doubt my favorite current song. I’ve chatted about that on this blog before. I just can’t sit still when it’s on and it’s great music to have playing while I’m doing my stretching exercises or just doing dishes; it makes every task happier for me!

My very first favorite song, and a song I still dearly love today, came out when I was two years old. Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond was the first “grownup song” I knew the words to, even if I didn’t know what they all meant, It was also the first record that wasn’t a Disney record that I had for my box record player. I’ve always and still consider SweetCaroline to be one word that just means “happy.”

By the way, that box record player was a Christmas gift when I was 4 or 5. It’s upstairs and still plays records. That Neil Diamond 45 record is in a pocket of one of my Smash books. It probably won’t still play on the first turntable it played on because of the 40+ years of scratches, but I worked hard to keep my room clean for a whole week to get it and I’m not giving it up!


What’s your favorite song right now or of all time? Share in comments or better yet, share it in your blog and link up at Katie’s blog in the 30-Day Blog Challenge!

Monday Mug Shot – Big Mac

It’s a chilly but sunny day today! It’s our Sunday but David is out railfanning with Mike. I was invited too, but I’d taken a scrap day on Saturday and got four pages done followed by groceries yesterday morning before David and I went out and did some local railfanning that included getting the Seneca County Bicentennial Barn. So, I’d pretty much had a traditional weekend and 2 days away from the White Tornado project. We’re considering a possible vacation and Kelly and Dave are coming back in June, so I have, at least in my own mind, a deadline. I don’t want to go out of town or have guests over until at least the organizing part of the project is done. I have 2 months and there will still be normal life happening. I need to step up the progress!

So how about a cup of coffee? How about a coffee cup?

Monday Mug Shot

Mackinac Bridge

Mackinaw City and St. Ignace, Michigan

I figure since I’m from Michigan it shouldn’t be a great shock that I’ve been to and over the bridge that connects the Lower and Upper Peninsulas of the state. When my brother and I were very young and my parents were just starting out as a family, we were avid campers. Camping was a fun vacation, a good learning experience and affordable for a couple just starting out with very young children. We very often went to a number of Upper Michigan State Parks; Indian Lake was a family favorite. We’d leave either Friday night or Saturday morning and be gone for the week, sometimes a long weekend.

When we got to the Mackinac Bridge, even if it was at night and we were sleeping, our parents would wake us up so we could see the bridge. I know they did that, but honestly don’t really remember it. I still appreciated that they did it. That’s what gave me the idea of quelling Tori and Rina whining about going to bed when they stayed with us when they were little. I remembered that I didn’t want to miss anything when I whined about going to bed too. I also remembered how much I appreciated being awakened for the bridge, even if I fell back asleep and didn’t remember it. So after an especially rough night trying to get them to bed, I woke them up at midnight to see a cartoon debut on Cartoon Network. They thanked me but went back to sleep. They didn’t remember any of it in the morning when we talked about it, but never gave me any trouble again about going to bed because they knew I’d wake them up if there was something really cool. Maybe that was my parents’ thinking with waking us up to cross the bridge?

The amazing thing about crossing the bridge during the day is Simon and Garfunkel’s Cecilia was always, and I mean always, on the radio when we crossed. Truly amazing! Mom and Pop liked the song and Dave and I liked the song and it didn’t matter how amazing a coincidence it was. We just sang and enjoyed crossing the bridge. Years later Mom confessed that she had a very old school battery-operated cassette player in the car when we camped.

Pop worked in construction, so our camping trips were usually in the spring or fall, when the workday was shorter and the workload was either still building for the season or waning. Cool thing was, especially during the week, we were usually one of only a few campsites that were full. This is how I fell in love with squirrels. At five or six years old, when there was no one else in the campground, I was allowed to walk all the way 2 campsites away with my bag of peanuts in the shell to sit at a picnic table and feed the squirrels. I was told to never touch the squirrels, throw the peanuts out for them on the ground. That worked at first, but as I got older, I started putting the peanuts on the table. The squirrels were slightly tamed by fall with a campground full of humans leaving them scraps all summer. One time I bravely put the peanut in my open hand and the squirrel on the table with me took it from my hand and cracked it open on the table to eat it. Most of the time, they took the peanuts to store away for winter. To this day, I love squirrels and they remind me of that moment when I was a child that I felt very special because the squirrel trusted me.


I love how sometimes writing takes on a my mind of its own. When I started writing today’s Mug Shot I thought I was going to write about the first time I drove on the Big Mac, as the Mackinac Bridge is known. Maybe next week I can repost the mug with a different story. So many of my mugs are reminders of multiple stories.

I’ll be back at my next break with Meet Me On Monday!

Blog Defragging

Digitalegacies Designs’ One Step At A Time was inspired by the Jordin Sparks song

Last night I started putting this post together with the intent of scheduling it to post at 6 AM, which is usually right before I wake up anyway, even though my alarm is set for 7:05. The last couple of days I’ve been waking up around 7:30! It’s more sleep than I usually need, but if the body says “hit the snooze,” I’m going to give the body what it needs if I don’t have a pressing reason to be up earlier.

Yesterday was a weather mess! There were tornadoes up in Michigan and flash flood warnings all over. We had "take your pick” lighting; gray clouds, but give it a minute, look, sun! Unseasonably warm and just as you opened the windows, rumble.4rumble,” says the sky. Seriously, I heard ominous rumbling that shook the house with bright sunlight washing our street! All that sound and fury was going on in the afternoon and it didn’t rain until almost 10:30PM! Last night was a weather mess. It rained like the dickens, lots of rain, thunder, lightning and a little hail. The day in our part of Toledo started and ended with hail. Hmmm.

So far today the radar is clear and there is a little glint of sun showing, but that is scheduled to change this afternoon and become cloudy. We’ll see. I’ve come to think of weather as a gamble based on science rather than an actual science!

Follow Friday Four Fill in Fun Blog Hop

Every week Hilary at Feeling Beachie hosts the Friday Fill-Ins. This week’s co-host is Boca Frau who added the last two fill-ins.

This week’s statements:
1. I get my best ideas_____
2. When I am ___ I ___
3. When I have a cold, I like to_____
4. Watching a ____ move, can be ______.


My finished statements:

1. I get my best ideas when I’m trying to get a great idea. Seriously, I’m what I call a linear rather than lyrical creative. My best stuff comes from needing a great idea. Even my best scrapbooking ideas come while I’m working on a page and I just can’t put a page together unless I have the photos and journaling done first.

2. When I am bored I watch TV. I don’t watch a lot of TV! :)

3. When I have a cold, I like to drink regular Coke heated up in the microwave. A cup of Coke zapped for 60 seconds makes it sweet and warm with a fine fizz that massages the throat. For me with a cold it’s the ultimate comfort drink.


4. Watching a windmill move, can be very calming. Even the less classic looking wind turbines have a soothing effect on me.


Join us! It takes a few minutes to do the fill-in and a couple more to read the other blogs and see who thinks like you and who reads the fill-ins way different! It’s fun!

Friday Fragments

Mrs. 4444 at Half Past Kissin’ Time hosts Friday Fragments, a chance to defrag your blog by emptying those short things from your “To Blog” folder. I can’t be the only one that has a To Blog on my desktop. It’s an opportunity to post those things that are worth blogging, but just not big enough for a whole post. If your blog could use some weekly defragging, why not join us?


** Grandma crocheted mini afghans for the family cats. I have a bunch of squares she crocheted that I need to put together to make one for Carla. Grandma didn’t meet Carla but she saw pictures and said, “Guess I need to make another kitty afghan.” So, it seems appropriate that I use her squares to make one for Carla


** I was treading Ronalyn’s blog, The Adventures of Esa and Zed, last week. Zed lost his collar, his Washington Capitals collar. It was a big deal because his Capitals collar had his tags on it. When Ronalyn found the collar, Zed had located it and was sniffing it as if to say, “Mom, over here!”

Before she got sick, Azzie wore a collar with a bell and even a bow at Christmastime. I took the collar off for good when she got her paw caught in it when she had a seizure. I worried that it could have broken her front leg. But Az loved her collar and even the bow.

Years before when I had gotten Ritchie, a black cat, his red collar with the rhinestones on it, he strutted around with his head up and showed it off to everyone. I think it was his badge of “I’m not an alleycat anymore; I’m a loved housecat now! When Ritchie died and Pop buried him, he took his collar off and gave it to me to remember him. It’s still in my box with memorial prayer cards and keepsakes.

When Kaline was a kitten, I got a less expensive collar without a bell in blue for her as a “training collar.” I planned to move to a nice navy blue collar, so with her orange coat she’d sport Detroit Tigers colors, with rhinestones and a bell when she was adult size. She hated the collar with a passion unknown to any cat before her. She unhooked the collar numerous times before it was finally lost for good. I think she hid it in the basement somewhere. She won. When we moved to Toledo and Chester and Baggle didn’t wear collars, I knew our sweet baby girl would never wear accessories. She’s 6-1/2 now and has never worn a collar since she was a kitten. And she really never wore that one either.


** We had an issue Sunday about warm vs. hot and iced vs. hot coffee. David got me an iced coffee because I “usually have iced coffee when it’s warm.” Huh? It was in the 60s Sunday. NOT iced coffee weather! I love that he remembered that I sometimes go iced in the summer, but I only have iced coffee for my first coffee of the day if wake-up temperature is near 80! I even have hot coffee with breakfast on days that hit the 90s if they start off at 75 or below. Any other coffee drinkers want to chime in? What time of day or time of year is iced coffee time?


** I’ve been in a bit of a cooking mood lately. Thursday dinner was Froot Loop Chicken. Moms, Grandmas, this is a simple recipe that is a good kid idea! I used chicken cutlets, but chicken strips work too. Dip them in egg or egg substitute, the coat them with Froot Loops that have been ground into crumbs in a food processor. I use my little 2-cup chopper. Bake for 20 minutes at 400. Tasty and fun!

Froot Loop Chicken -

(Don't be concerned, the salad and raw carrots had a separate plate!)

I got the idea from the fried Captain Crunch chicken strips at Planet Hollywood about 15 years ago. Froot Loops are similar in taste and just more fun!


** New music ot The Chronicles of Nani includes some more upbeat, springy stuff, including One Step At A Time by Jordin Sparks. No question that since hearing that one the first time it easily rates in my top songs of all-time list! I just love it from the lyrics to the feel of the melody to that incredible dress she wears in the video! It’s an all around total package of great music!


Okay, blog defragged for another week! :)

A Cute Find From Grandma's

Grandma had a stereo that played LPs, cassettes and 8-tracks.  No, I didn't take that home with me.  I did take a Reader's Digest series on cassettes, Sentimental Journey, and a set of individual big band stars on cassette.  I still have cassette in the car.  I also have a record players that older than Grandma's stereo was.  I'll show that on another Thursday.  But Grandma didn't have an extensive record collection and her big band stuff was on cassettes or LPs that had long been overplayed and discarded because the songs UI know she and Papa enjoy4ed in their courting and early marri3ed days I only found on cassette.

There were a couople of records thqt I took hojme.  One was a lt3er made Frank Sinatra compilation and the other one, which I just thought was fun was this:

The Grasshoppers and introducing the Chipmunk Song!  Obviously a kids record  I did some reseach and searching. This record on the Spin-O-Rama label was released in 1959.  It is in really good shape and the markings in the empty areas of the vinyl tell that this is an original release. 

Since neither Grandma nor Papa collected old records, my guess is that it was bought in or around 1959.  My Mom, an only child, was 14.  It leaves me confused!  But, when I was 14, I read Diamond D and the Dreadful Dragon for a Forensics competition in school, so it might have been something Mom had for school.  I don't know.

Unfortunately, this is one I'm sure I'll never know.  It's still a neat find and I'll give it a spin on my turnatable some day.

See more fun vintage things at The Coloradolady for Vintage Thingie Thursday!

Friday By Request

For today's FBR, we're going back into the 2006 archives again.  Last week I showed the very first ever Friday by Request on Yahoo 360, Poetry as only Nani can do it, as requested by my then boyfriend, David. Oh, I've go more bad poetry if you want it!  I could also write some bad poetry just for you!


But this week is not poetry.  I want to show you some of the versatility in FBR, that is how many different things readers have asked me to do.  So this week I'll show you one I really had some fun with.  It really was a challenge.  Sheri gave me a "let's see if you can do THIS."


As I recall she enjoyed the read when it was posted!




Friday By Request
Originally posted on Yahoo 360, September 15, 2006

This week’s request was a fun “grab stuff from outside the box and make it all fit it IN the box” challenge. The challenge is from Sheri, and I think it’s better to let her explain it, so here is the cut and paste of the message she left me:

“ What I want you to do is tell a story using song titles in alphabetical order using as many letters of the alphabet as you can. Did that make sense?

An example:


This is a story about AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL. It starts off on a night as dark as BLACK VELVET.


Something along those lines. Yes, you can use those song titles if you need to, that was just an example.


It'll be interesting to see what you come up with! :)”

I used 67 song titles, all the letters A-Z twice and once more up to O. So, here is what I came up with!

A Bad Night for a Good Girl

A story with a musical twist for Sheri

“Well, Another One Bites The Dust,” Barbara Ann thought as she stared into her morning Cup Of Life. “He thought I was Desperate But Not Serious. My heart sunk like the Edmund Fitzgerald.”

She pondered something stronger first thing the morning after. “Something For My Broken Heart. Give It To Me. Something to Help Me Hold On. I Can’t Hold Back the tears.”

Her mind drifted to last night. “Oh, James, Kiss Me Again. Let It Be Me.” she begged him in the back of her mind as their lips met.

“My List of the greatest kissers,” She said to Nobody in her empty breakfast nook, “I was ready to put his name on it Over And Over Again. Passionate Kisses, my Quest For Fire in my heart over. It sent my soul on a Rocket Ride. What a Smooth Operator. I was so Tempted.”

She’d been Up All Night thinking about it. If she wanted a reputation like Valerie has, she could have said “yes” when he suggested ”We’ve Got Tonight,” after they left the Club Xanadu.

“You Know Me Better Than That.” She told him and he closed up like a Zip-Lock. “Are You Sincere?” she asked him on the quiet ride home. Silence.

She could barely Breathe, she was so Caught Up in him, she really thought about saying “yes” on a first date. ”Why Don’t Cha?” she thought to herself. “Enough Is Enough. You give a little Flesh For Fantasy tonight and in the morning when he says ‘Good Morning Girl,’ he’ll be asking ‘Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?’”

“If I Had $1,000,000 for every girl dumb enough to think that.” she scolded herself. “A desperate cry of ‘Just Let Me Be In Love,’ is every decent woman’s Kryptonite.”

She knew if she’d said “Let’s Go,” in the morning he’d be gone.  Miles And Years would pass before she saw him again, if she ever did, No Doubt About It. She didn’t want to be left Out In The Cold to Pick Up The Pieces of her reputation. “It defies the answers to all the Questions Of My Childhood about being respectable and safe,“ she told herself.

She looked out the window at the gray sky. It would be Raining On Sunday. After last night, maybe she just needed a Saturday Night alone and a day to let that rain Turn The Page on another weekend of dating frustration. “Unconditional love. That’s what I really want,” she said to the clouds. “Something that will fill my heart until the Very Last Moment In Time.”

She stirred the last sip in her cup. “Well, right now, I’m just Wishing for a second date, or at least a first one that doesn’t end X-Rated. Yeah, guys like that belong at a petting Zoo or a pig farm!”

She got up and refilled her cup. “I just don’t believe that All Of The Good Ones Are Taken! Today, I’m a Brand New Me,” she said with resolve. "I am my own  Crusader. I will find someone who wants to Dance With Me without groping or looking at another woman Everytime I Close My Eyes.” She smiled “I’m gonna Find Me A Man who will share Good Times and make me a Happy Girl, accepting Infatuation as a wonderful feeling, if taken slow!”

Java Blues sunk in as she tipped the cup, spilling coffee all over the table. Still smiling, she folded up the soaked table cloth and put it in the sink. Her Momma, a strong Kentucky Woman, always told her to be be honorable. ‘There’s no one Like You, don’t let some man with a Mean Streak tell you otherwise.’”

“Momma’s right. I’ll Never Surrender, unless it’s ME making that decision!”

Finis

(Oh Sherrie, I hope you liked the story!)

The Songs Titles:
Another One Bites The Dust, Queen
Barbara Ann, The Beach Boys
(The) Cup Of Life, Ricky Martin
Desperate But Not Serious, Adam Ant
Edmund Fitzgerald, Gordon Lightfoot
For My Broken Heart, Reba McIntyre.
Give It To Me, 112
Help Me Hold On, Travis Tritt
I Can’t Hold Back, Survivor
James, Pat Metheny
Kiss Me Again, Toby Keith
Let It Be Me, The Everly Brothers
My List, Toby Keith
Nobody, Keith Sweat
Over And Over Again, Nelly with Tim McGraw
Passionate Kisses, Mary Chapin Carpenter
Quest For Fire, Iron Maiden
Rocket Ride, Kiss
Smooth Operator, Sade
Tempted, Marty Stuart
Up All Night, Boomtown Rats
Valerie, The Monkees
We’ve Got Tonight, Bob Seger
Xanadu, Rush
You Know Me Better Than That, George Strait
Zip-Lock, Lit
Are You Sincere, Andy Williams
Breathe, Faith Hill
Caught Up, Usher
Don’t Cha, Pussycat Dolls
Enough Is Enough, April Wine
Flesh For Fantasy, Billy Idol
Good Morning Girl, Journey
Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?, Rod Stewart
If I Had $1,000,000 , Barenaked Ladies
Just Let Me Be In Love,Tracy Byrd
Kryptonite, Three Doors Down
Let’s Go,The Cars
Miles And Years , Lionel Cartwright
No Doubt About It, Neil McCoy
Out In The Cold, Judas Priest
Pick Up The Pieces, Alexz Johnson
Questions Of My Childhood , Kansas
Raining On Sunday, Keith Urban
Saturday Night, Bay City Rollers
Turn The Page, Bob Seger
Unconditional, Gary Allan
Very Last Moment In Time, Lindsay Lohan
Wishing, A Flock Of Seagulls
X-Rated (Sub title of several songs - Hey, it’s X, cut me a little slack!)
Yeah, Usher
(The) Zoo, Scorpions
All Of The Good Ones Are Taken, Ian Hunter
Brand New Me, John Michael Montgomery
Crusader, Saxon
Dance With Me, Next
Everytime I Close My Eyes, Babyface
Find Me A Man, Toni Braxton
Good Times, Sam Cooke
Happy Girl, Martina McBride
Infatuation, Rod Stewart
Java Blues, Nazareth
Kentucky Woman, Neil Diamond
Like You, Bow Wow & Ciara
Mean Streak, Y&T
Never Surrender, Corey Hart
Oh Sherrie, Steve Perry

Are you ready to challenge me?  Email your Friday Request to chroniclesofnani@gmail.com.