Had us rolling!

Just goes to show you how dozens of days in Coronado...

can spoil even the most innocent.... Haha! (And how even a wee little kiddo can appreciate, all on his own, things that are lovely. :)) Probably a good 75% of the times we go to the beach, we go to Coronado, and the rest of the time we skip around.... The other day we went to Torrey Pines State Beach for a late-afternoon playtime. Like any good parent, before getting out of the car we attempted to bribe Seth into eating his dinner. :) "We're going to sit here in the car until you're done. After you eat, we can get out and play at the beach! Make sure you eat so we can get out and play, or we'll have to just go home...." ;-) We've GOT him, we thought. There's nothing he loves as much as the beach! YESSSS....

He looked out the window at this gorgeousness:

and said to us, cool as could be, "but that's not the beach! There's no white sand.... There's just brown sand...!"

Hahahahaha!!! That he ever even noticed the different colors of sand was news to us. And that he judged this beach so inferior to not even be a "beach" because it didn't have Coronado's white sand (I'm pretty sure he's never even heard people talk about Coronado being a "white sand beach," either!) was so funny to us that we nearly took him out to play even before his dinner was gone. 

In the end, he decided he wanted to be out there enough to eat his dinner. And he had a great time. And it was gorgeous and fun! And he came back in the car and said with a big sigh, "Ah, that was so fun! That was fun to play at the beach! Thank you for taking me to the beach!"

So I guess it earned a place after all.... :) 

And an Apology...

...to my dear Matthew. For making my Songs of the Year post with colors he can't distinguish. Poor guy almost had a heart attack when he thought "Wake Me Up before You Go-Go" was in red. (Never! Hehe. :)) 

Honorable Mention

I don't think I'm alone that I feel a lot of nostalgia over certain songs! Here are some songs that are cemented to various times of my life:

Middle School — anything by Boyz II Men (I never liked them, for the record. But boy does it take me back! Early 90's, baby!)

My dorm room (or my freshman year of college :)) — Satellite, Dave Matthews Band; A Long December, Counting Crows (this one seemed so applicable to me once the weather turned bad and I was missing home; it's still one of my favorite, favorite songs of all time :))

Having Mono — Kiss Me :-*, Sixpence None the Richer (haha! I was diagnosed just before Valentine's Day. This song smacked of such irony for me. :))

Matt's two years in Korea — a big pot of cheesiness.... Hehe.

Dating Matt — anything by Norah Jones, Joe Williams, or Kevin Mahogany. "Our song" is Come Away with Me, by Norah Jones. I still get all twitterpated when I hear it, feeling those fun dating days all over again. :)

The end of Winter in Provo — I learned in a geography class (in Utah taught by a Utahn, so I don't doubt the validity) that the official climate definition in the Utah Valley and up to Salt Lake and beyond is characterized by having only two seasons: a harsh, extreme Summer for half the year, and a harsh, extreme Winter the other half, with no Spring or Fall to speak of (by a geographer/meteorologist definition). [Interesting side-note: that particular climate distinction had to be created to classify that area of Utah; there is no other significant area in the world with the same climate. Interesting!] Live there very long at all, and you see this is oh so true. By March, I was always DYING to see the sun again, and for all the dirty snow that had been around for 5 or 6 months to finally melt and let some flowers grow. More than dying. I was very nearly insane. Really. And in those last couple weeks of Winter before the 1-week "Spring" (that always ended with one last snowfall to smoosh the new flowers! Bummer...) and the start of Summer, I would play "Here Comes the Sun" (The Beatles, of course :)) over and over again. Can I explain how happy this song made me?!! The promise I felt from it?! Hehe. No. No, I can't. It complemented the anticipation perfectly, and made me feel like I wasn't weird for wanting the sun back from behind those clouds. "The smile's returning to the faces! It been so long since it's been here!" It's all right. :)

"The Best Summer of Our [my and Amy's :)] Lives" — Somebody Hates Me, Reel Big Fish. This song is THE most cathartic song in the history of catharsis! Put it on your playlist!

Having Seth — Crazy, Gnarls Barkley. In the hospital, Greg said something to me about this song, and I was like, oh, I haven't heard of that song. And he looked at me completely dumbfounded. "How have you managed to not hear Crazy?" On the way home from the hospital, with Seth in his car seat and Greg riding with us because he wanted to sit by his first little nephew, Crazy came on. And every time I was in the car with our new baby for probably the next 6 months, it came on some more. I hear it and feel like a brand-new mom all over again. :)

Dancing with Seth when he was small enough that I could do that — Better Together, Jack Johnson; Everything, Michael Bublé. I used to hold Seth and dance around the room. He loved it, and I burned calories, and it was really cute and fun. :) These were his two favorites—the ones he started dancing to on his own once he could pull himself up.

Seth's baby era — Sweet Escape, Gwen Stefani. Seth loved it! When he was 8 or 9 months old, he'd sing along to the "ooh-ooh" part, and wave his hands in the air almost like he knew how to groove. My mom had come to visit once and would sing it with him in the backseat, and it was their special little thing. When it comes on now, Seth still says, "this was my song I loved with grandma when I was a baby!"

More of Seth's baby era — De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da, The Police. He was only four or five months old when we were shocked to hear him trying to sing along to this song. This tiny little voice in the backseat, "ooooo-oooo, aaaaaa-aaaaa," whenever the chorus came back on. One of my favorite little family moments ever. :) This song makes me feel like a tiny baby we're still getting to know is singing in the backseat again. :)

Songs of the Year!

Years ago, I noticed that I always have a song of the year, so I started to bestow upon them the official title. Even before I properly identified them, The Songs of the Year have always just happened to meet the following criteria:

1) I had listened to the radio (or, once I was in charge of a radio, surfed it...) waiting and hoping, nearly constantly, for that particular song. :)

2) It's the only song that year that had my undying devotion. (With only one exception, there's somehow always only one song in the calendar year that had me surfing for it.)

And the third, which you will see has not held true, is that I know I'll never get sick of it. Not ever. In my whole life. :) This will amuse you when you see some of the songs that had once earned the high distinction of Song of the Year. Haha!

The other important factor is that it be a song I know from the radio. I don't know why.... But it just doesn't seem like it fits as Song of the Year if I only hear it from a cd or something. I guess there's something about the anticipation of hoping to get it on the radio that enhances the song's greatness.

History was made three times! Haha! In 2005, I had an unprecedented repeat winner. Also in 2005, I couldn't help but acknowledge a very, very close runner-up (Lady, Lenny Kravitz! Sweet song :)). And this last year, in 2008, for the first time in Song of the Year history, it was neither a current song nor something I heard from the radio. (Gasp!) But the truth could not be denied that I'd spent a large portion of the year pulling When You Were Young by The Killers up on my iPod. Over, and over. And over. And over again. :) (One of the best songs ever!!) Time will tell if my iPod continues to produce songs of the year over the radio.

So here is my list! It begins, no joke, when I was two years old. Haha! I fully remember sitting in the car just waiting and hoping for For the Longest Time to come on. :) I've labeled them so you can see how my confidence in loving the song forever has frequently been shattered. Red means I can't stand the song now. Aw.... So sad. Hehe. Orange (since you can't see yellow text) means, eh, it's headed out. The purple-pink color means I'll still enjoy listening to it if it comes on, but only because of the funny nostalgia that makes me want to sing along really loudly and laugh and laugh. Green means I still adore it. We'll see how many of you identify some of these years with the same song!

1983 • For the Longest Time, Billy Joel

1984 • Thriller [It's still what I look for when I see a jukebox, out of habit. And now my kid loves this song, too. The joy he gets in the little bit of fear is just how I was! I love it.]

1985 • Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, Wham!

1986 • The Greatest Love of All, Whitney Houston [I used to sing this at the top of my lungs in the car, and try my darndest to hold notes out as long as she could. I thought the words were "The Grey Test," and it made absolutely no sense to me. But I loved it. I can't wait until we've got a kid or two singing at the tops of their lungs in our car...! Hehe. BTW, I now think this song is lame! The greatest love of all is loving yourself? Are you kidding me? That's terrible.]

1987 • Faith, George Michael

1988 • Man in the Mirror, the great Michael Jackson [YouTube is awesome because it allowed me to see that my memory of the 1988 Grammys, when Michael Jackson performed this song and completely thrilled me, was right on! SO fun to see something for the first time in 20 years, and only after seeing it once, and have it be just how you remember. As a little 7-year-old, it was one of the most amazing, entrancing things I'd ever seen in my life. Still love it! And still one of the best songs EVER!!]

1989 • Lost in Your Eyes, Debbie Gibson [I haven't youtube-d this yet, but I should. Because it was another Grammy moment I've never forgotten: her laying on this piano, I think in a white dress...? I wanna say candlesticks on the piano...? Singing what I thought was the coolest song ever. In that moment, I so wanted to be her! Hehe.]

1990 • Please Don't Go Girl, NKOTB [Hahaha! I remember begging my parents to put my New Kids on the Block cassette tape in so I could impress them with this awesome song every chance I got. I couldn't ever understand why they always giggled. Haha!]

1991 • Love Takes Time, Mariah Carey [Another song I always sang with great enthusiasm and drama. Hehe.]

1992 • Black or White, MJ [This one got me hooked on Vh1. I used to turn it on while I did my chores, and as soon as I heard Black or White start, I'd run in to watch it. And it came on a lot. Still one of the best videos of all time!]

1993 • River of Dreams, Billy Joel

1994 • Stay, Lisa Loeb

1995 • Breakfast at Tiffany's • I don't even know what they're called. [I like Jordan's version better anyway—that he recorded as a kid with Dave playing the guitar.]

1996 • Back for Good • someone else I don't even know, but I hear he was on 90210. Rumor? Don't know.

1997 • Truly, Madly, Deeply, Savage Garden [Hahaha!!]

1998 • Real World, Matchbox Twenty

1999 • Smooth, Carlos Santana with Rob Thomas

2000 • Desert Rose, Sting [Still one of my favorite songs of all time.]

2001 • Fallin', Alicia Keys [Discovered her on Insomniac Music Theater on Vh1 before it was a hit and loved it. There was a lot of Insomniac Music Theater going on in my sick and bummed-out college days when I couldn't sleep.]

2002 • Disease, Matchbox Twenty [I am so over Matchbox Twenty—and Rob Thomas—but I still love this song. One of the only ones I can tolerate anymore....]

2003 • The Scientist, Coldplay

2004 • Oh, Dave Matthews

2005 • Oh, Dave Matthews!

2006 • Crazy, Gnarls Barkley

2007 • Who Knew, Pink

2008 • When You Were Young, The Killers

With The Scientist, Oh, and Who Knew, I was so obsessed with the song that I finally went and looked up lyrics, and only then discovered that it was about their loved one dying! Hmmm.... Strange trend I have! I guess that intense topic really brings out the creativity or something.

So far, I don't really have a strong contender for The Song of the Year this year, unless we're going to admit that I turn first to Bones by The Killers about every time I use my iPod. As far as radio-surfing goes, the closest we've gotten is Spaceman by The Killers—as much because Seth is so stinking cute trying to sing along to it as because I like it (it's his favorite song—it's so funny, I can't even tell you! :)). We'll see.... We'll see. It's a Killers kind of year or two, I guess. :)

HD

I know what HD really stands for: Highly Disturbing. A few things I've noticed with HDTV:

• People look terrible! The make-up is absolutely atrocious! The tv make-up people are gonna have to get with the program in this new HD world because, so far, everyone looks laughably ridiculous. Give me regular tv so I don't have to see foundation smudges everywhere! (Or ghastly eye makeup. Ugh.) I saw Brian Williams once with flakes in his eyebrows! That's just wrong.

• So far, Matt is the only person who agrees with me on this, so I realize I'm coming out of left field. But I just cannot follow what the heck is going on when I try to watch football in HD! The whole depth-of-field is totally wacky, making it really difficult for me to see where people are in relation to each other. I hate it. And I hate, too, how everything is in focus. I don't want to see the guy in Row 27 putting ketchup on his hotdog while I'm trying to keep track of where among the gazillion super-imposed players the ball is.... Depth-of-field, people. Everything in focus, while it may look brilliant and exciting ("I can't help it.... It's so beautiful...." :)), is annoying and impractical. No me gusta.

• Because everything can be in focus, certain programs are filling the entire frame with as many visual things as possible. Watching football this last week, the sports analysts would appear at their desk at halftime, and I wanted to have a seizure for all the junk everywhere. Digital images on the desk, in front of the desk, behind the desk, around the desk, down the walls.... And, again, depth-of-field.... The guys sitting at the desk were lost in this sea of HD nonsense. You couldn't even tell where exactly they were in relation to all the rest of it. It was jarring! Difficult to watch.... Again, give me regular tv, where the guys doing all the talking are the things in best focus, and the rest of it doesn't attract your attention.

I do love HD for nature shows! Gorgeous! That's about it, though. When I'm watching tv from dish or something, and can watch on 5-HD or 5.... I always think about it a second and start to be seduced by HD, but always end up preferring the non-HD channel. By a lot. Because (nature documentaries aside :)), HD stinks! The latest and greatest and most popular isn't always better....

There's more....

I still think my story is worse, but Matt had a harrowing experience of his own last week. The critter world has our number....

So, we spent a long day sawing down, sawing up, and clearing out a bunch of trees at my parents' house. Matt was on primary chainsaw duty (Dave was his chainsaw partner for awhile, until his chainsaw broke...), which required hauling around a bucket of chainsaw supplies (oil, gas, etc...). He brought the bucket out from the barn. He got the chainsaw ready, and sawed up a tree. He moved the bucket. He sawed another tree. Moved the bucket.... Sawed a tree.... Moved the bucket.... All day long....

At the end of a long, productive day, Matt gathered up all the supplies, picked up the bucket for the gazillionth time, and headed back to the barn. At which point he noticed—for the first time—something kind of funny-feeling under his fingers in the handle. He puts the bucket down to inspect. Any bids on what he found? :) Do I hear higher? Higher? Going once? Twice.... Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding!!! And the prize goes to the high bidder who said Black Widow! 

Yes. There was a Black Widow sitting in its web inside the handle. The handle Matt had put his fingers in about 4,928 times that day.

[shudder!]

What next...?!! Eesh.

A Harrowing Experience

I was going to put an appropriate picture, but was too grossed out by the image search. You'll have to use your imagination. No grotesqueness is too grotesque for this—just keep that in mind. :)

So, the other day, I took a shower. (This is NOT the part you're supposed to imagine. Hahahaha!!) A really, really long shower, as I'm apt to take.... I laid on my spa pillow and soaked for, I don't know, 40 minutes probably. (Gasp! Water shortage! I know, I know.... But I have a shortage of non-aching joints and muscles!)

As I got out of the shower and toweled off, I went to close the shower door and saw, on the top of my spa pillow, playing King of the Mountain or something . . . a huge, ugly, crunchy . . . cockroach.

The antennae were probably 3 or 4 inches long. The body was wide and really fat, and at least two inches long. And the little bugger moved fast! And when he moved, his little feet made loud, creepy noises on the shower surface. 

Now, the capture and kill story is enough to creep one out (I'm happy to report I didn't scream once :)), but what made this a harrowing experience is that the cockroach was hanging out in the shower, right by my head, the whole time! If that doesn't make you shudder your bones out, I don't know what will.... 

I was at least glad I didn't notice it until I was out of the shower. It's terrible to think I took an entire shower not knowing about this space-sharer, but that's better than laying there and feeling something strange on my cheek, or my neck, or in my hair.... AAAHHHHHH!!! And then going, "huh, that feels strange, what is th....... AAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

[Shudder.]

[ShudderShudderShudderShudder]

Yikes. 

Let's hope that was just a freak occurrence. You can bet I'll be checking out the shower a little more thoroughly from now on....

(Aren't you glad I didn't post a picture of the little bugger? :))

Heat-Induced Insanity

Just last week, Matt and I were in Orange County, and it was blazingly hot. And we shared a gloating little moment with each other. I said something like, "Isn't it great that we'll never be this hot in San Diego? HAHAHAHAHA!!!" And Matt was like, "Yeah, if it ever got this hot, everyone would go insane, and the fire departments would run around dousing the city to cool us down. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" 

Well, the jokes were poor, but the laughing was intense. :)

The next day . . . the very next day . . . . It was in the 90's! On the COAST! In San Diego! Want to know how often that happens? Never! I really shouldn't have had to eat my words when I was gloating in Orange County because, seriously, even 78 is blazingly "hot" and strange here. 

Even worse, it's not cooling down! The other day was—I can't even believe this could even be true—a high of 97 on the coast. (We're all hoping hurricane Jimena will, first of all, not wreak havoc in Baja, and second of all, come up here and cool us down and maybe even give us some rain.... Please, Jimena, please!! :))

So, utterly shockingly, we were actually wrong about how we'd never have to be really hot at home. But what we weren't wrong about was that it would make everyone insane.

Case in point:

For the last two days, I've worn shorts that I shouldn't even own. They have a super-weird waist. You know, the kind that pooches out uncontrollably and adds five inches to you.... The kind that makes it look like you've got a fanny pack on under your shirt.... Hehe. Put another shirt over the top of that girl in the above picture, and you'll see what I've been willing to look like this week! (Haha! It's really an atrocity. A poochy belly, no big deal. But a bizarre, wide lump...? Yikes! :)) But, hey, they're the least-hot shorts I own (double entendre intended... :)), and my better pair is dirty—requiring a trip I'm not willing to take to the hot garage with a load of laundry on my hip.

So hidden-fanny-pack it is! When I come to my senses again, maybe I'll finally throw these shorts away instead of packing them back in the bottom of my drawer. I'm sure I won't need them. It's never hot in San Diego! Hehe. :)