Weekend Playlist February 10

I'll talk about it more in the next couple days but with the first weekend Sunday of this month being Super Bowl Sunday and a very special young lady’s birthday, Weekend Playlist last Sunday was not meant to be!

Standard Disclaimer: (stolen from Stephen Colbert with no shame) my musical taste ranges from a shocking “you like what?” to “don't judge me” and pretty much everything else in between. I have very eclectic musical taste and I'm proud of that.

Here are the last five songs that played on my iTunes library on shuffle today:

Butta Love, Next

Love Ain’t, Eli Young Band

It Doesn’t Matter, Allison Krauss

New, Daya

Count On Me Bruno Mars

Two children in a photo on this month scraplift challenge at GingerScraps made me think of the darling video for this and that song inspired me to use this exact photo in creating my layout

Heather took the picture in the scrapbook page. Possibly because she was the only one of us that was still awake enough to hold the camera still.

We had a few very busy months at work in both the Canton and Hamtramck offices. And it was a weekend in mid-May before things were going to get very busy again that we had no productions going on in either of our locations. I came up with the crazy idea that we should definitely leave work as soon as the building closed on Friday and not plan to be home until Sunday. My coworkers we're pretty much as insane as me and as tired and knowing that we were going to be even more tired on the weekends coming up. John didn't work with us but somehow my friends all just sort of”worked" together and whenever I had a crazy idea John was usually the first one to say “I’m in"

John had the vehicle that was big enough for all five of us. Tracy And Rich met us at closing time when Heather and I locked up the office on Friday night. We piled into John's car with our luggage for the weekend. The guys drove first leg, John at the wheel and Rich’s special brand of humor making sure staying awake with no problem. We stopped at a rest area about halfway there grabbing snacks and coffee and the girls woke up and I drove the rest with Heather and Tracy (we easily enjoyed three hour dinners talking for many years after that so it was easy keeping each other awake) while the guys got some sleep.

The street lights, for real!

When we got into Hershey we stopped for breakfast and I started my day with chocolate chip pancakes! After breakfast we stopped at the Hersey Lodge Hotel for our reservations were for the night on the outside chance that our room might be ready. It was and they asked us how many guests will be staying. We had reserved a double with a cot and they asked us how many guests were staying and we said five. They gave us five full size Hershey bars and the keys to our room. It’s not at all an inexpensive hotel, but 5 sharing a room makes it affordable.

Then we went to Hershey's World Of Chocolate where we played with anything chocolate interactive we saw, including the cart ride where you get to see how Hershey's chocolate is made including the ever important Hershey's kiss that started everything. When we got off the ride they handed everybody a full size Hershey bar. This city really was a Chocovore’s Dream!

And yes, there existed 5 of these

But it didn't stop with just the chocolate! Our next job was Indian Echo Caverns in nearby Hummelstown for some safe, tourist-style spelunking. As we got to the end of the cave we got to look up and see were ALL the bats sleep during the day. I thought that was totally cool and I believe Heather said it was totally not so cool.

The last thing of the day that we couldn't resist, is right next to Indian Echo Caverns is Indian Echo Mini Golf! I don't remember who won the golf game. I do remember that we were all getting hungry for something not sweet and were getting pretty tired by the end of the day.

The picture in this photo that Heather took was the other four of us after dinner at the Hershey Lodge going up to our room. If it looks like we're all about to follow totally asleep right where the pictures taken it's because it's true. But it was a great weekend.

We did finish off Sunday by going back to Hershey world and going to the outlet store to buy lots of chocolate to bring home. (When it's May, you want to make sure the chocolate is in a cooler or in the area where the air conditioning really kicks in the car) One thing we had to make sure we did at the gift shop was to get something REALLY nice for Tom. There had to be somebody from the full timers that had the mind the store on Saturday, for public access producers to work on their projects. There had to be a nice chocolate gift for the one of us who got left behind.

Nearly a quarter century later these people are still part of my family. I am one lucky woman to have collected such wonderful extra brothers and sisters in my journey so far!

I think in certain aspects copyright laws are a little overprotective. Videos, first off, ARE advertisements to begin with so, it's kind of stupid to say that you can't share an advertisement for free. But more and more that is beginning to happen. Remember when I couldn't show Elvis Presley singing It's Now Or Never? So what I'm leaving you with is the link to the official video. It is totally worth going to check out this video because it's adorable!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JNtAtGGNRU&list=RD4JNtAtGGNRU&start_radio=1&t=12

Friday By Request (8/4/06)

I was looking through some of my old journals, actually looking for this very poem for David. I actually keep not only my personal journals but copy of everything that I've posted, that I think is worth keeping, as well as everything I posted on a regular basis. David actually was the inspiration for the whole Friday By Request idea. I'd love to do that again.

I have my regular blog readers and I also advertise my blog on my Facebook page so I'm definitely inviting anyone who would like to participate in bringing back the occasional Friday By Request, to send me your challenges! Keeping in mind that this is a family-friendly blog, I don't think I've ever refused a request for Friday's yet.

So after that introduction, here is the very first ever Friday By Request, from 2006!

.

All right bad poetry fans! I was writing poems last night, actually one about the cats, when David challenged me. "Why don’t you write a poem about the groceries?” So I did and it gave me an idea. 

I will do Friday as “Friday By Request.” The first person to make a request before Wednesday will give me my challenge for Friday. It can be a topic for a poem, photo or the script for a TV or Radio ad. Try other ideas - challenge me! It can be for any topic or product, all I ask is that you remember this is a family blog. I have kids on my friends list!

HeySend me your suggestions with the subject “For Friday?” through the Yahoo 360 messages. If I don’t have any requests on any given week, I won’t do the Friday By Request blog. If I have more than one, I’ll  o the first one I get. If I don’t do yours, feel free to resubmit it any time after the Friday blog is posted. It might be serious from time to time, but more often than not it will be bad, funny or both!


Without futher ado, here is David’s request...

A Poem about Groceries

For David

Apples, oranges and plums 

The fruit bowl cries for purpose 

Lettuce, tomatoes and peppers 

The poor crisper has none

Burgers chops and chicken 

The freezer meat shelves empty 

Ice cream, veggies and entrées 

The top shelves barren too

Flour, sugar and coffee


The canisters sound so hollow 

Cereal, soup and pasta


The cupboard shelves collect dust

Dinner rolls, cookies and Pop Tarts 
The bread box, light as a feather 

Cinnamon, chili and garlic


The spice rack bottles are clear

Let’s go to the grocery store!

* send a message with the subject " Friday By Request" to chroniclesofnani@gmail.com, a private message on Facebook or just as a comment here. Out of respect for the writer and all readers, please try to refrain from suggestions about religion or politics.

A Short Post, But Oh, Thank You, Edna!!

First off, I haven't taken the opportunity to say thank you the wonderful Christmas gifts! Here is the view the table that sits right in front of me that I see all of the time when I'm sitting in my recliner:

It includes the beautiful dolly in the dress and hat I loved so much the first time I saw it on Miss Edna's Place. I'm also enjoying the last day today of January's Squirrley on my calendar. Thank you, Edna, the gifts were much appreciated. Including that pumpkin spice tea, OMG, WONDERFUL stuff!


But here I think is the extra big always living thank you on a night like this:

This is the look over the board I call my highchair table on my recliner. It's my very warm legs and toasty feet. Edna made this afghan for me a few years ago and every time we have a night like this I send hugs and kisses and a huge thank you out towards New England. Edna, you're the best and I feel proud and spoiled to call you my friend!

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.

This Year, With Work, It Will Finally Get Better

The title of today's blog is my mantra for 2019. The last few years have been torture in my brain. With the help of a couple of psychologists and some other important people who are helping me there will be some changes in my world this year, changes that will make things better.

I’ve felt like pretty crappy friend the last couple months. Getting to Christmas had been rough.. If you read a few entries back you can kind of get an idea of what the end of 2018 was like for me. For a little bit I kept up with my Sunday Weekend Playlist. But I'll be totally honest. I don't even remember a lot of November with the broken bones and the painkillers I was on so that I wouldn't feel how bad those broken bones hurt it's sort of left me with a very cloudy vision of what November was like. I remember not being happy that with the broken feet there was no way I could go to my dad's the weekend after Thanksgiving for our traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We were going to do mom’s traditional sage stuffing this year too.

I do remember one funny thing. Let me start by explaining that when we were teenagers we would take turns with everybody picking on one of us for the evening every now and then. Somehow I never got picked to be teased for the night I and I voiced concern about that. “You never pick on me. Don't you guys love me?" At that time I was told I hadn't done enough dumb things to be picked on for. I guess that was a compliment but I felt kind of bad that I got to laugh at everybody else and they didn't get a chance to laugh at me. Under the influence of some serious drugs I finally got my stupid statement that I'm reminded about over and over. In fact I love the fact that I’m laughed at for it so much I make sure everybody hears about it!

My nurse picked up one of the mini Hershey's Gold candy bars that was in the candy jar on the table next to my recliner and asked me what it was. I told her it's a Bruno Mars bar. Now I really do referred of those as Bruno Mars bars because his song 24K Magic is used in the advertising and I say with a smirk that they are “Caramel and sweet just like Bruno.” Well in my; drugged up state from the painkillers I told her “they’re Bruno Mars bars because they’re caramel, sweet and crunchy just like Bruno." Nobody, including me, has any idea what makes Bruno Mars crunchy. The candy bars are crunchy - they have pretzel pieces and peanuts in them. But what I said was Bruno Mars is caramel sweet and crunchy. Exactly what the definition of crunchy is I get picked on for a lot. And I have to admit as someone who doesn't get picked on a lot, I love it.

My Christmas shopping is usually done by December 1. This year I’m ashamed to say that the last of my gifts were bought after Christmas, but, though perhaps not as personal as in the past, I did get my gifts out. My brain may not have been working well but my heart was.

Stay tuned. I’ll share some of my favorite photos that made me smile as I was being tapered off the more mind-messing and addictive drugs in mid-December!