Music Monday: High School Favorites

Posted on April 11, 2011 | 7 comments

My high school music preferences ran the spectrum from Contemporary Christian to grunge to top 40, with the occasional R&B song thrown in for good measure. I also went through a Motown/oldies phase, secretly thrilled I had found some music my parents would put up with in the car without having to listen to adult contemporary instrumental (read: pan flutes).

I could not tell you what our class song was (though I know my friend, Crista, could – she remembers everything, I’m much more selective with my memories, i.e., forgetful). But I do remember most of the concerts I went to: Nirvana (shortly before Kurt Cobain’s death); Cranberries; Lollapalooza; Smashing Pumpkins; REM; and Jars of Clay. And now that I try to remember them, I know there were more – I’ll have to do some recon work on that one…

Anywho… high school was really when I started to love music, listening to it all the time… finding personal meaning in the lyrics. Making cassette tapes of the same song, looped over and over on repeat so I didn’t have to rewind my tape at the end of my favorite song to hear it again. Dedicating songs to friends and boys I liked… hoping they’d read the secret meaning into that particular song. My goodness – how I loved music.

Here are some favorites… please enjoy the glimpse into my high school experience…

Linger by The Cranberries | Crista and I used to drive around in her car, maybe following boys we liked to lunch, listening to this song and belting out the lyrics. We especially emphasized “wrapped around my finger” with hand motions. I also saw The Cranberries twice in concert and Delores O’Riordan has one dance move – a little side-to-side shimmy that has a slightly possessed nature in its execution.

I’d Die Without You by PM Dawn | This was one of those often-dedicated-over-the-radio songs by everyone in my high school and one night, when I was laying around, depressed about my latest crush being in “love” with someone else, this song came on the radio with the dedication “To [crush’s name], I will always love you. Love, Michelle”. I took it as a sign that eventually we would be together, alas, that was not the case. Still love the song. I should also give an honorary mention to their song, “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss.”

Name by The Goo Goo Dolls | I interned at a local radio station my senior year and while it wasn’t the glamorous internship I was hoping it would be (we alphabetized and filed a backlog of ad agreements for weeks), I did get to meet the Goo Goo Dolls and be there when they performed an acoustic version of “Name.” It was awesome and they were very gracious and friendly. And somewhere, I still have a recording of that performance on a tiny handheld recorder.

Today by Smashing Pumpkins | While this version doesn’t quite have the perfect feel to it that I remember, the intro to the song was something I remember clearly from seeing them at Lollapalooza, sitting outside under the stars and the notes pierced through the air. Chills. (I’m pretty sure it was not from the contact buzz.)

Flood by Jars of Clay | Jars of Clay and DC Talk were my gateway into Christian Contemporary music, but this song was played at my senior prom and I remember being so happy that my public school was embracing a religious song. And the song still stands up – 15 years later, you can’t say that about every song, mainstream or Christian.

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Posted in Music

Growing Up

Posted on April 9, 2011 | 2 comments

I took this picture of Liam in the bathtub a couple of days ago, trying to get a funny shot of his hair in a faux hawk. Instead, what I ended up capturing was a glimpse into his teen years. Despite his skinny little body, his face is void of all childish looks and he looks the oldest I’ve ever seen him look. It just kills me.

We discovered last night that he’s four-and-two-thirds now, and soon it will be four-and-three-quarters and then FIVE! He’s starting young fives or kindergarten in the fall (which one, we’re still not certain) and while he’s been in preschool for two years, I can hardly believe I have a child who will be in “real” school. When did he grow up? It’s so cliché but the reason things are cliché is because they are so true. Where does the time go?

I know he’s still a relatively little kid but he’s growing up so fast. After the same amount of time passes that he’s now been alive, he’ll be approaching 10! It reminds me to stop and cherish these moments, even when I’m wishing he would just stop talking for one minute so I could hear myself think, because soon he will be that teenager and not as willing to talk to his mom (though I suspect Liam will never stop talking – he seems to enjoy it more than anyone I know). I think this is why people end up having more children, because suddenly they realize this magical part of childhood is fleeting and they want to extend its shelf-life. 

I certainly feel the pull to have a third child (Simon, not so much and he’s certainly key in making it happen which means we’re pretty stuck at 2) but I am also reminded that it just keeps getting better. Soon we’ll be able to go to the grocery store or a restaurant without whispering threats under our breath about good behavior, we’ll be able to let our kids out of our sight without fear of what destruction they will cause (though I know bad behavior extends far beyond the toddler years with far more serious consequences) and we’ll be able to go on vacation without having to give ourselves a million pep talks and hours of advanced planning and packing lists. It will get easier and harder all at the same time and while I suspect it will be better, I’m not quite ready for it yet.

So this morning, rather than jumping up and getting ready, I cuddled on our bed with my big boy, revelling in the fact that he was holding my hand and resting his head on my shoulder. These moments won’t be around forever.

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Posted in Life in general

Five Question Friday

Posted on April 8, 2011 | 1 comment
(Thanks, Sandy, for the questions!) 

1. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?
My temper — my husband and I are both “hot heads” and I wish in the face of his irrational anger about stupid things I could just take it in and calm him down, instead I get offended and my anger flashes and escalates the situation. I’d love to just be able to say, “I’m sorry honey, that stinks” and move on.

2. Write about a time when you got lost.
When I lived in Chicago we went to IKEA quite a few times – for apartment things and because every time someone came to visit, that was one place they wanted to go. The first time we went there, I had a pretty good idea of where it was and had been there before but I wasn’t driving. Somehow I missed the exit and we ended up driving past the big blue building with very sad faces. unfortunately we were also on a toll road so we couldn’t get off the highway right away and then didn’t want to have to pay to get back on for a few minutes so we decided to just try and find it (this was in the pre-GPS days – remember those?). 20 minutes later we retraced our steps and paid to get back on the toll way to try and get back to IKEA. We drove by it again, missing the exit but on the third try (without getting back on the tollway this time) we finally arrived at the lovely little mecca.

3. Camping or 5 star hotel?
I don’t think I’ve ever stayed in an actually five-star hotel but I know I would love it. As long as I wasn’t the one footing the bill. Otherwise, camping all the way – I grew up spending weeks during the summer sleeping in a camper and running around outside all day long – best memories ever!

4. Have you donated blood?
No but I should. There is just something about where they place the needle that freaks me out. On a related note, I was a little over gleeful when I learned that my blood type is B+ – you know, like “be positive.” What a nice little reminder for life!

5. Do you have a budget or do you ‘fly by’ most months?
Theoretically, we have a budget, but nothing set it stone. This is something I’d definitely like to work on. We have too many friends who have had great success with Dave Ramsey and the whole envelope system. I don’t know that I could ever do that and we don’t have huge debt issues (or any, aside from car and house) but it would be nice to be more diligent so we could retire EARLY!

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Posted in Five Question Friday

Things About Me: Surprise!

Posted on April 6, 2011 | 5 comments

I was a surprise baby for my parents

My mom and dad were both 42 when I was born (technically, my dad was 10.5 being the leap year baby that he is). My brothers were 19 (Marty) and 21 (Mike) when I was born, Marty having just graduated from high school the month before I arrived. I’m not sure who it was harder on, my parents having to start over at their ripe old ages or my brothers who were faced with the irrefutable fact that their parents had sex. In either case, if it were me, I would have been horrified. Ultimately, I might be the only one in the scenario who was happy with the whole situation. That’s not to say that my parents or my brothers didn’t want me or made me feel unloved, quite the contrary, but I’m sure it wasn’t their ideal situation.

This picture of me at 9 months old has always cracked
me up because it looks like I only have one leg.

One of my favorite things about this story, was hearing my parents recount how they told my brothers they were expecting me. It was a Friday evening, at dinner before a football game. In response to the news, Marty left the table in disgust, saying they had ruined his evening. And Mike decided that he was definitely moving out (probably a good thing since he ended up marrying my SIL when I was only 9 months old). But once I was born, I won their hearts; Marty was certainly smitten by me and saw the opportunity to use me to attract women. Women love babies and those associated with them. Little did he know that carrying a picture of me in his wallet would cause his future wife to question whether or not he already had a child he’d left back in Michigan – with some convincing she finally believed he wasn’t someone’s baby daddy (or whatever they called it in the early 80s).

I never once was sad about being the surprise child – never even occurred to me that I was until I was much older. I thought having old(er) parents was normal until I had a friend whose grandmother was younger than my mom. Mike and his wife, Joan, had their first child when I was three so I always had a playmate growing up – I even thought of my nieces as bothersome younger siblings. I benefitted greatly from my parents being more experienced at parenthood plus at a different place in their lives work-wise and financially. We travelled a lot and went out to eat regularly – something my brothers didn’t do a lot of growing up.

It’s only now that I am a parent myself that I miss having grown up with a sibling that was close to my age. I have no idea what that experience is like and I think it’s left me ill-prepared to deal with the sibling squabbles that will come up between my two boys. I don’t think I’ve ever had a disagreement or fight with either of my brothers – it would have been ridiculous when I was a kid and they were in their 20s/30s. But I think that sibling fighting is also has the potential to bring siblings closer. They learn how to push each others buttons in a way that only someone who really knows them can do. And in that fighting, they’ll learn coping mechanisms for dealing with others and in the end will [hopefully] end up being each others’ biggest supporter.  So while I love my brothers fiercely, I don’t completely know who they are and really, know my sister-in-laws equally as well because I’ve known them almost as long and in the same way.

I’ll leave you with this lovely gem from the 1979 church directory:

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Posted in who is ememby

2011 Resolution #6: Read One Book a Month, Update 1

Posted on April 5, 2011 | 3 comments

#6 on my 2011 list of resolutions is read one book a month and so far this year I’ve done pretty well (three months in and already I’ve ready 7 books) – helped tremendously by a vacation and new-found addiction to the Hunger Games triology… here’s what I’ve read:

  1. Little Bee by Chris Cleave | This was a Christmas gift that I ended up taking on vacation. It was super intense and I ended up speed reading the last section as I wasn’t sure I was going to like the outcome [I didn’t]. Good book but not my cup of tea, I prefer an escape, not one that makes me remember the world is a scary place filled with many injustices. I’d recommend it to people who don’t mind the intensity of the story or who like novels that make them question what is going on with the world.
  2. Sensible Shoes: A Novel by Sharon Garlough Brown | This was a book we read for book club and while I was very skeptical when I first started reading it about whether or not I’d like it, I ended up learning a lot through the reading and the discussion we had about it. While I felt the characters were more charicatures of the main chracters and the type of women they were representing, I think that was actually helpful in showing readers how to relate to them and see in them parts of themselves. I’d recommend it to anyone looking to kick start a spirital journey of their own.
  3. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins | I’d held off on reading this series, scared off by the teen lit categorization, but if the Twilight series didn’t scare me off, I’m not sure why this did. But like Twilight, I’m glad I didn’t start reading them until the series was complete because once I was started, I was hooked and didn’t stop until the end of the third book.
  4. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins | Loved this one as much as the first though I always felt like Katniss should be smarter than she actually is, she’s a survivor but she is super dense about the rest of life.
  5. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins | Way more war-oriented and a lot less relationshippy than the other two, but a great end to the series. I only wish Katniss had been able to keep herself mentally intact throughout the whole book but then, that’s what going to battle does to a soldier.
  6. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Stout | This had the potential to be a great book. Stout is a wonderful story teller but I didn’t like the way the story was told – I felt like I was missing big parts to make it complete. But then, I never liked short stories and this is basically a bunch of short stories with one shared character who enters the story line to varying degrees and that character isn’t extremely likable until the very last story. I’m sure this would be a great book for many readers, but if you aren’t a fan of short stories, stay away.
  7. A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick | I had no idea what to expect with this book, I spied it at the library and remembered I’d read a recommendation somewhere (online or in Entertainment Weekly, I’m not sure) so I picked it up. I don’t normally like period books but this one was set at the turn of the 20th century in rural Wisconsin and that actually appealled to me. Unfortuntely, the main characters were not at all likeable and I guess I really do like a protagonist I could imagine myself getting along with so I was disappointed. There was a ton of death and peculiar, uncomprehensible behavior that happened, particularly for a small town. Read with caution.

I also started but could not finish Agnes and the Hitman (Jennifer Crusie) – I knew five pages in that I would never get into despite the recommendation from my friend, Tracey. Alas. I will also sheepishly admit that I checked out a Vampire Diaries book and skimmed it, reading enough to know I prefer the television series (apparently I can totally relate to a teenage girl in love with a vampire).

** Please note, all links noted above are Amazon Associates links. If you make a purchase via these links, I will make a small commission from your purchase. Just thought you’d want to know.**

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