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)

Our newest baby!

Since I haven't written in a while there are a few things I want to update visitors to my cyber coffeeshop about. If you aren't a Facebook follower of my husband or me you haven't seen photos of JD, who came to live with us in May!

This is Julie Danielle. We call her JD “Catinez.” She is named after "My" former Tiger, now "My" Red Sox, JD Martinez. The JD in the baseball player is Julio Daniel. We decided OUR JD should be Julie instead of Julia because cats respond better and better recognize a two syllable word as their name. But we call her JD and she recognizes JD. I don't think she has any idea who Julie is.

JD is a rescue from the Michigan Humane Society. David's former coworker and a mutual friend on Facebook, Tanya, is a foster mom for MHS. She brought, at the time known as "Gina," to meet us after her kittens were weaned. David saw a picture of her and her story on Facebook.

Marco had become known to us as ”needy cat.” He had become almost demandingly affectionate. He just seemed to not be happy as an only cat. Marco needed company. So we were avidly, or at least semi avidly, looking for a sibling for him.

We’re proud that we were instrumental in making JD very special. In the shelter world black cats are usually the most difficult to find homes for and kittens usually find homes long before their mama cats do. JD is a black cat who was adopted before any of her kittens!

It's usually about a week of listening to growling and hissing sas cats get to know each other. Marco and JD were getting along within about three days. I think part of that may be that Marco is not the alpha cat we thought he might be. We really expected he would take rule of the household after we lost Kaline, but he and Carla remained living as equals. JD did seem to take over that alpha position and Marco not only seemed okay with it, he seemed pleased.

Now, for the last three weeks or so, Marco’s finally realized that at 15 1/2 pounds he's just a little bit bigger than the 8-pound alpha cat. So know when they play it’s a little rough. But I do know that it’s play because she lays on her back and waves her paws at him after she hisses instead of running away and Margo grooms the top of her head after they bump noses in a friendly “kitty-kiss.“Sometimes I just have to remember that cats can play as rough as puppies do. But it's a happier house with another cat.

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.

Isolation: When Our Disease Makes Us Withdraw

Yes, I’ve been gone a while…a long while. I’ve had some other physical and subsequent mental issues. I don’t really want to talk about them. It enhances the stress and potential depression. I read an article that explains the MIA from blogging probably better than I could.

Isolation: When Our Disease Makes Us Withdraw

This will be on the bulletin board for a while. The blog will resume soon, and I mean that. I need to come back to the social world!

Christmas II

12-25-2017

Pop and Aunt Judy tag-teamed to get my slipper-boots on me to leave.

After spending a day in the wheelchair with my feet down for most of it they were swollen and putting the boots on was much more difficult than it was when David put them on at six in the morning. But they did get them on, David scraped off the van, we got our goodies to take home and with loving goodbyes we were homeward bound.

The surface streets were slippery and snowy but not so bad once we got on the freeway. The freeway was full of cars headed south on Christmas evening after a seasonally early sunset. Crowded roads were probably a good thing because lots of cars and lots of tires helped keep lanes clearer, but it was mostly the common Michigan practice when it snows, three lane sections of freeway become two lane sections. There were some slick spots but we got back to Toledo okay.

Really our driveway was the most treacherous snow we had to deal with! David tried backing in and that didn’t work so we pulled back out and went in front ways through the drifted snow David did some tricky turning in the backyard to line up my door and the ramp so I could get in the house. He shoveled off the ramp and I put my chair in high traction gear and I got in safe and sound.

Marco greeted us at the door, acting like we’d been gone forever. Christmas day this year is the longest he’s been alone in his entire life. He went from being with his Mama and littermates to having a human Mommy and Daddy and two older sister-cats. He hadn’t been alone more than a couple of hours since Carla’s passing and today had been 14 hours. To a kitty brain, that’s almost a week!

David went in to the living room while I was taking off my cape and immediately discovered some of what Marco had busied himself with during the day!

I’d done a pretty good job of keeping him off the table and not chewing the little tree for the time it had been there

The tree is about 2-1/2 feet tall and was a gift from a friend who helped out in an aide capacity in November and December. I’ve said before that I need those lights, the warm glow of a tree, to feel holiday cheer. She knew what I meant and brought the tabletop tree, lights, ornaments and everything as a gift a couple weeks before Christmas.

After righting the tree and getting the rest of our packages inside and getting something to drink, we opened presents that were around our tree.

I always love giving David an Italian chocolate hazelnut bar. It’s a large candy bar and David absolutely loved it the first time my aunt gave us one in our gift when she and my uncle visited from San Marino in 2009, when we were iced out of seeing everybody. So much of the food I grew up with doesn’t match David‘s palate, so I enjoy making sure he gets that candy bar at least once a year so I can share a little of my heritage. I also got him a sweater in a yarn pattern he seemed to really like and a copy of Stephen Colbert‘s Midnight Confessions.

We agreed that that’s one of our favorite recurring segments on The Late Show and when the book came out that it would be a fun coffee table book.

Yes, that is an area where with the laugh and a smile I admit I’m old; my husband and I tune to “Colbert” before bedtime the same way my grandparents said “let’s see who’s on Johnny Carson.“


Edna was so generous! (she always is) I was a good girl and waited to open the box she sent until Christmas. She sent a message to me not to open the mailer, and that box was the base of the gifts around the tree, protected from my anxious inner chid by the fact an aide put it just out of my reach. Edna gave a bunch of sweet gifts, highlighted with her 2018 calendar. I always look forward to seeing the photos she chose for the year. She’s such a talented photographer! There was also a train DVD for David and sweet squirrel ornament. David added the ornament to the tree because Marco wanted to add my squirrely to the squeaking cat toys Pogo sent him.

The marquis gift this year was the bed doll in a hand-crocheted green dress.

The pic is before her hair was un-messed from shipping and I’ll get a better pic on my made bed sitting on my prayer quilt as soon as my 2018 remix is in full swing. She kinda looks like me in the messy hair shot, well, except that I have a bit more gray. I would so have worn the green dress in the pre-gray and wheelchair days!


After enjoying gifts and taking some time to assure Marco we never planned to abandon him, a fun but long Christmas Day turned into a cozy and exhausted slumber.

Thank you to everyone who contributed in person and in heart to a wonderful holiday!