Perfect Moment Monday: I gotta feeling

Perfect Moment Monday is about noticing a perfect moment rather than creating one. Perfect moments can be momentous or ordinary or somewhere in between.

Once a week we engage in mindfulness about something that is right with our world. Everyone is welcome to join. Details on how to participate are at the bottom of this post, complete with bloggy bling.

Please visit the links of the participants at the bottom.

Here's a perfect moment from my week. I hope you'll share yours, too.

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I checked out a Black-Eyed Peas CD from the library and listened to one song over and over again while out and about with the kids this weekend (not many of the songs are appropriate for young ears).

It's a happy-happy feel-good song, and I wanted to share the video with the kids when we got home. But often, an official video isn't appropriate for young eyes. So I knew a preview was necessary.

Good thing.

Instead, I found this, which is a happy-happy feel-good video. Watch it before you read my commentary, below.



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I love it because while contrived, it speaks of the power of one person following her bliss at the risk of looking like a lone fool.

And then a wave of 20,000 people following the bliss, as well.Tessa and I are now learning the dance moves, in case we one day find ourselves in a flash mob.

Perfect.
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To participate in Perfect Moment Monday:

1. Between Sunday night and Tuesday night, write up your own Perfect Moment in a blog post, on Twitter, on Facebook, or simply leave a comment below.
2. Grab the URL of your Perfect Moment.
3. Use MckLinky below to enter your (or your blog's) name and the URL of your Perfect Moment
4. Visit the Perfect Moments of others (from the links below), and let the writers know you were there.

Once you make a Perfect Moment post , you may place this button on your blog.

I Capture
Perfect Moments.

What Perfect Moment have you recently been aware of? Be sure to visit these moments and share the love, and please come back next week (click to subscribe).






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Perfect Moment Monday: You got it, Jimmy Cliff

Perfect Moment Monday is about noticing a perfect moment rather than creating one. Perfect moments can be momentous or ordinary or somewhere in between.

Once a week we engage in mindfulness about something that is right with our world. Everyone is welcome to join. Details on how to participate are at the bottom of this post, complete with bloggy bling.

Please visit the links of the participants at the bottom.

Here's a perfect moment from my week. I hope you'll share yours, too.

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If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you know that I made it to the Xanax on Wednesday and actually got on the table to go under the laser at Denver Eye Surgeons.

Yes -- I, Lori, the Biggest Chicken in the World, did LASIK. On one eye. The other will remain uncorrected and will serve as my reading eye.

As you may recall, last Fall over on Mile High Mamas I told about how I came to even consider LASIK. Shortly, I'll post over there my recollection of the procedure itself (with the help of Tami, my sister/driver/unXanaxed repository of my immediate memory), and my evaluation of its benefits.

But here's a sneak preview in the music below. I felt elation as I got up off that table. Not just because my eye was fixed, but because I FACED DOWN A LIFELONG FEAR.

Sometimes I rock (with a lot of help from friends and family).


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To participate in Perfect Moment Monday:

1. Between Sunday night and Tuesday night, write up your own Perfect Moment in a blog post, on Twitter, on Facebook, or simply leave a comment below.
2. Grab the URL of your Perfect Moment.
3. Use MckLinky below to enter your (or your blog's) name and the URL of your Perfect Moment
4. Visit the Perfect Moments of others (from the links below), and let the writers know you were there.

Once you make a Perfect Moment post , you may place this button on your blog.

I Capture
Perfect Moments.

What Perfect Moment have you recently been aware of? Be sure to visit these moments and share the love, and please come back next week (click to subscribe).






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Perfect Moment Monday: Pink carnation and a pickup truck

Perfect Moment Monday is about noticing a perfect moment rather than creating one. Perfect moments can be momentous or ordinary or somewhere in between.

Once a week we engage in mindfulness about something that is right with our world. Everyone is welcome to join. Details on how to participate are at the bottom of this post, complete with bloggy bling.

Please visit the links of the participants at the bottom.

Here's a perfect moment from my week. I hope you'll share yours, too.

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After breakfast on Saturday morning, the kids and I headed to the gym. They play in the Kids Club with their cousin, Dominic, while my sister, Tami and I do a cardio class. Works for all of us.

On the way to the gym American Pie came on the radio. Reed especially loves this song because of its association in his mind with Star Wars (remember this post?). He also loves to say, fiercely, "This'll be the day that I DIE!"

So my perfect moment was the three of us singing at the top of our lungs about the chevy and the levee and the whiskey and rye. As I sing with Tessa and Reed I think of the future. As I listen to the song I think about the past -- significant events in the rock & roll genre, 1959-1971 (much of which precedes me).

Swirl together the past and the future into one moment and it was simply perfect.

Sharing it with you. Sing loudly.


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To participate in Perfect Moment Monday:

1. Between Sunday night and Tuesday night, write up your own Perfect Moment in a blog post, on Twitter, on Facebook, or simply leave a comment below.
2. Grab the URL of your Perfect Moment.
3. Use MckLinky below to enter your (or your blog's) name and the URL of your Perfect Moment
4. Visit the Perfect Moments of others (from the links below), and let the writers know you were there.

Once you make a Perfect Moment post , you may place this button on your blog.

I Capture
Perfect Moments.

What Perfect Moment have you recently been aware of? Be sure to visit these moments and share the love, and please come back next week (click to subscribe).






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Grant Us Peace

To: You
From: Sheri and Tami (my sisters) and me
RE: 2010

Tami, me, Sheri

May you find peace in your heart and may you spread it big.



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If I go any deeper I may turn into Hope

If you've been keeping up with my tweets this last few weeks, you know that Season 1 of thirtysomething came in for me at the library.

And that I watched all 21 episodes in a week. And still it was not enough. I also checked out the thirtysomething songbook.

So indulge me with my first ever vlogging effort. I don't have a fancy mic, so you might have to listen hard.

Or maybe not.


For the record, this is what I was aiming for.





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Perfect Moment Monday: Super Troupers

Perfect Moment Monday is about noticing a perfect moment rather than about creating one. Perfect moments can be momentous or ordinary or somewhere in between.

We gather here once a week to engage in mindfulness about something that is right with our world. Everyone is welcome to join. Details on how to participate are at the bottom of this post, complete with bloggy bling.

Please visit the links of the participants at the bottom.

Here's a perfect moment from my week. I hope you'll share yours, too.

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Dang. I just had a dance-oriented perfect moment last week, and now I have another one this week. Oh, well. When you gotta dance, you gotta dance. There are worse things to have in abundance.

My Dad's birthday was this weekend. He loves ABBA. Loud ABBA. He's always had maximum-strength sound systems in his home and cars so he can listen to music he loves full force. Love that about him.

For his birthday, we (Tami and family, Mom and Dad, Tessa and I) attended the Mamma Mia! singalong in the glorious Chautauqua pavilion. We saw the movie on the big screen (with song subtitles) and were also encouraged to, well, sing along.

Certain songs made the audience get up and dance. Well, most of them, actually. But one song -- Dancing Queen -- propelled a flood of moms and daughters to the stage, despite the protests of one poor stage manager, who in the dark must have been wondering if the building's liability policy had been paid.

So picture me leading Tessa to the stage, joining two hundred other exuberant revelers to sing, no matter how talented, and wave our arms, indulging our inner Agnethas.

Elated, free and perfect.

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Perfect Moment Monday: The Girls

Perfect Moment Monday is about noticing a perfect moment rather than about creating one. Perfect moments can be momentous or ordinary or somewhere in between.

We gather here once a week to engage in mindfulness about something that is right with our world. Everyone is welcome to join. Details on how to participate are at the bottom of this post, complete with bloggy bling.

Please visit the links of the participants at the bottom.

Here's a perfect moment from my week. I hope you'll share yours, too.

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Last week I went to this place...

Photo: MileHighMamas.com

...with these girls......to see/hear these girls.

(Shhhhhh. I have a secret crush on Amy Ray. Don't tell anyone.)

I love both songs on this clip. I've already perfect momented Perfect World (imagine that). And a passage from Closer to Fine has resonated for me in so many different situations over the last 20 years:

It's only life after all.

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Darkness has a hunger that's insatiable
And lightness has a call that's hard to hear
I wrap my fear around me like a blanket
I sailed my ship of safety til I sank it.

Love that. LOVE that.

The picnic/concert was put together by Mary Beth Graff, a long-time friend and amazing portrait artist.

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Perfect Moment Monday: Feelings...Whoa, Whoa. Whoa Feelings

Perfect Moment Monday is more about noticing a perfect moment than about creating one. Perfect moments can be momentous or ordinary or somewhere in between.

We gather here once a week to engage in mindfulness about something that is right with our world. Everyone is welcome to join. Details on how to participate are at the bottom of this post, complete with bloggy bling.

Please visit the links of the participants at the bottom.

Here's a perfect moment from my week. I hope you'll share yours with us, too.
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Regular readers know that music makes me emote. A lot and often. Good thing I don't have to pay every time I post a music video.

This week while driving, an old song came on, one I hadn't heard in maybe a decade or more. This is a song that, at various times, has brought me to soaring heights with teenage giddiness, and to my knees in desperation.

It all depended on Doug.

I wrote about Doug nostalgically here, and hatefully here (via journal image). Doug was my first boyfriend, and the very first time he said to me the long-awaited words "I love you," it was under the guise of singing this song to me.



(I feel so silly posting this, seeing the very dated video.)

Hearing that song took me back. To the first time a human being not related to me professed love for me. To sneaking kisses near a locker during passing period. To feeling like I'd arrived because a boy wanted to hold my hand in public. To that sweet and angsty anticipation of seeing each other after any absence of more than 20 minutes.

And to the disbelief and anger of yet aNOTHER breakup. To the flopping on my bed and crying for HOURS, knowing that I would NEVER, EVER get over him and love another. To the fear that my life, at 15, was OVER.

But instead of me being the actress in the scene, this week I was the audience. The song evoked in me briefly feelings of euphoria and despair -- the same ones the 15 year old experienced.

If I hadn't been driving, I'd have applauded her ability to feel her emotions so deeply.

But instead I laughed. The show was over and I could encore the actress if I wanted, or leave the theater if I chose.

A perfect moment of reclaiming some power I'd once allowed someone else to take.

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Perfect Moment Monday: Let's dance

Perfect Moment Monday is more about noticing a perfect moment than about creating one. Perfect moments can be momentous or ordinary or somewhere in between.

We gather here once a week to engage in mindfulness about something that is right with our world. Everyone is welcome to join. Details on how to participate are at the bottom of this post, complete with bloggy bling.

Please visit the links of the participants at the bottom.

Here's a perfect moment from my week. I hope you'll share yours with me, too.

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Duty hours in this house are from 3:30-8 pm. During this time I:

• Collect the kids from school
• Drive to any lessons/activities
• Supervise homework
• Make supper (Rob does this more often than not)
• Clean up from supper
• "Polish" the kids' teeth after they brush them
• Read bedtime stories

I know I shouldn't look at all of these as "chores" because some of them can be quite enjoyable. But they are routine. I sometimes rush through them, eager for the post-bedtime solitude when I can write and read, uninterrupted.

While I was clearing dishes one night, Reed pulled me away from the sink and said, "Mama, let's dance!" The song I'd just loaded onto my iPod for him had come on. He beckoned me to leave the drudgery behind and break loose.



(The official video is un-embeddable, click over if you want the visual.)

We rocked the kitchen, lemme tell you.

Then it was Tessa's turn. Here's the latest song I got from iTunes for Tessa (note: despite the fact that *I* enjoy the 80s look of this video, I have no plans to watch it with the kids). Somehow, I manage every time to garble or skip over the second line, the one with Chicklet's and my special term of endearment.



Both songs kick in high gear after the first minute. Betcha can't sit still.

Dancing with my kids to these two songs in my kitchen is a perfect moment every time.

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Got something to donate to the "Send Melissa West" tour? Want to buy a donated item? Visit this post.

I'll have mine in June 09.
Want yours, too?
Just click through.

Why I keep my blog password a secret from my daughter

A few weeks ago, I put up a post that Reed helped with.

Today is Tessa's turn.

She and I have an ongoing disagreement about brothers.

Not hers, and not mine (I have none), but about these brothers (I picked a short song, and you don't have to listen to it all)



versus these brothers.



Maybe I shouldn't publicly admit that I like the BeeGees, but in any case, I totally win this argument. BeeGees beat Jonas brothers.* Don't you agree?

* At least until Tessa has her own blog.

Hallelujah!

Which version do you prefer?

1. Leonard Cohen, the song's composer. Make sure you get to at least 0:45.


2. Rufus Wainwright, singer of the Shrek version.


3. Brandi Carlisle. I attended her concert at Chautauqua earlier this year, and this song was phenomenal. Not sure it comes through in this vid.


4. Write-in candidate the late Jeff Buckley, a favorite of my IRL friend, Rose, and my 'net friend, Topcat (no embedding available, so you'll have to click over).

Jeff Buckley version

Ooh! Two more excellent versions:

Allison Crowe, per Erich.


kd lang, per LoriBeth,


No more versions embedded on this post (although you can still bring them up in your comment). If you have another artist's version (Sheryl Crow, Bon Jovi?) you'd like to highlight, do a post on your blog and I'll link to it here.
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Perfect moment

(If you're looking for limericks, click here and then vote on the right sidebar.)

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It's one of those pre-Spring days, where there is snow along the roads but the sun is shining warmly, melting away all the gunk from past weeks.

I have just dropped my kids at my sister's house after their morning at school. Tami and I trade babysitting duties on occasion, and as I back out of her driveway, I realized I have three free hours. Three. Free. Hours.

The sun through the windshield warms my face and brightens my soul. I am driving west, and the purple snowcapped mountains kiss the bright blue sky. The colors are vivid in the clear air.

Queen is on the radio asking Is this the real life, is this just fantasy? and soon Freddie Mercury is crooning about killing a man and earning from Beelzebub his very own put-aside devil. And then he gets existentially nihilistic: Nothing really matters. Anyone can see. Nothing really matters to me. (Anyway the wind blows.) ((((gong))))

It feels glorious to be alive. Life is gooooooood.

(This version was filmed live at Wembley Stadium.
Bohemian Rhapsody starts at 1:00.)

Rediscovered music...what's yours?

I'm listening to Til Tuesday this morning. I had Voices Carry on cassette eons ago and now it's on my iPod. It's a good song to listen to when dealing with Throat Chakra issues.

And, as you may recall, when you're in a crowded parking lot and you've been Triple Dared.

Make sure you get to the end of the song...it's quite empowering.

I still love Aimee Mann, any day of the week.

So, what's your rediscovered music? Comment here and then blog about it, linking to here. We'll get a "Rediscovered Collection."

Confession (shhhhhhhhhhhh)

I watch infomercials.

Yikes! Did I write that out loud??

I have this tendency. After the kids are in bed, I wade through the channels (which doesn't take long, as we don't have cable).

Lately I've been stopping on a UHF channel that carries a variety of TimeLife paid programs. I only mean to stop there for a second or two, but before I know it an hour has gone by and all my reading time has evaporated.

Here's the formula that sucks me in:

1 aging celebrity.
+
1 affable female

+

1 generic living room setting

+

1 pitcher of lemonade

+
18 music video clips

@

3 second each

+

Intermittent sales pitches with 800 number

-

ANY mention of price. Lots of mention about the time and energy saved by having the collection compiled by the kind folks at TimeLife.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

But wait! There's more! More tips on addicting people to your infomercials!

Aging celebrity: Get a vaguely familiar face like Barry Williams ("Greg Brady"), Peter Fonda, Kevin Cronin (REO Speedwagon) or the two guys from Air Supply.

Female: she must look almost-famous, to make you feel like you WOULD recognized her if only you'd had a clearer head in the 60s, 70s or 80s, or if you'd gotten out more in the 90s or 00s.

Short clips because the video and audio are out of synch, sometimes obnoxiously so. Show The Monkees goofing around on a bicycle on the beach. Show The Knack dressed like Beatles and singing about teen lust. Show The Bangles walking like Egyptians. Show Freddy Mercury prancing on stage in that harlequin outfit. Leave 'em wanting more.

Sales pitch must begin with "But wait! There's more!" And every other one must say, "And for the first 50 callers...this EXtra BOnus CD!!"

What's with the lemonade?

I've lost some sleep over this. But no cash.

Does anyone else confess? Admitting you have a problem is the first step.

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After The Call, we get The lowdown on Drama 2B Mama.

Contemplating my own death...for no good reason

I'm listening to the Six Feet Under theme song. "Why do people have to die?" intones Clair in the background of a kicky instrumental. "To make life important," responds Nate, in a clip taken from the show and inserted in a kind of rappy-way.

I love that show. Gino and I have been watching the series as a way of passing time while he recovers from his full paralysis. I'm sure when he and Tami (my sister) got the box set for me last Christmas that they didn't know HE'd be watching so much of it with me.

I've seen the whole Six Feet Under series so I know how it ends. Here's a hint if you haven't: The tag line for the final season is Everything. Everyone. Everywhere. Ends.

In the brilliant series finale, everything does end. And it makes me think of how I will end.

When Tessa was a toddler, and while we were waiting for Reed, she and I volunteered with a hospice agency. We visited first Loretta and then Edna once a week as they experienced the act of dying. I felt privileged as each of these ladies allowed me to witness this very private process.

As part of the training for hospice volunteering, I was to imagine my own death and write about it. The more familiar we could be with the idea of death, the less freaked out we would be when talking with our clients about it.

I knew that "dying in my sleep" was a cop out. But I wasn't able to do much better. Here's my imagined scenario: at the age of 77 (double my age at the time), I suffer a heart attack. I leave a loving husband, a grown daughter, a son-in-law and two grandchildren. Two songs from Rent are played at my memorial service: Seasons of Love and Finale B. And the hymn, Earth and All Stars. Did you notice I said "memorial" and not "funeral"?

I really, really, really don't want to be buried. It's not because I'm claustrophobic (I'm not). It's the bugs and worms and decay. I have less of a problem with cremation (see Stiff for more info on both of these options). It's the lesser of two evils for me. See how I explain THIS to my children.

Is there anyone else here who allows their mind to occasionally wander to these places? (Or am I just a freak?)

Do tell.

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Don't forget to blaze your blogroll trail with Chain Link Blogging and post about your trip.

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Dearth and Misery loves company on Drama 2B Mama.

Sure to endear me to the kindergarten teacher

Recently, Tessa has been cheerfully bursting into high volume song. Following is her refrain for the last couple of days. How do you think this will go over when school starts?

" I'm a joker
I'm a smoker
I'm a midnight toker "

Maybe I should lay off the Classic Rock station for awhile...?

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Please visit Homestudy, today's entry on Drama 2B Mama.

Mishmash

Violet at Miserable Bliss directed me to this test:

INFJ - "Author". Strong drive and enjoyment to help others. Complex personality. 1.5% of total population.

Free Jung Word Choice Test (similar to MBTI)
personality tests by similarminds.com

Reading further, I find my possible careers. Maybe I'll pick something new when Reed hits first grade:

• Clergy / Religious Work
• Teachers
• Alternative Health Care Practitioners, i.e. Chiropractor, Reflexologist
• Psychologists, Psychiatrists
• Counselors and Social Workers
• Musicians and Artists
• Photographer

On relationships:

INFJ is a natural nurturer; patient, devoted and protective. They make loving parents and usually have strong bonds with their offspring. They have high expectations of their children, and push them to be the best that they can be. This can sometimes manifest itself in the INFJ being hard-nosed and stubborn. But generally, children of an INFJ get devoted and sincere parental guidance, combined with deep caring.

Hey! I don't remember answering Yes to the "hard-nosed and stubborn" question!

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But really what I want to share tonight is a video I found for a song I love by a band Rob introduced me to. Apples in Stereo has had a prominent place in my playlists lately. How can a song called "Same Old Drag" make me feel so happy? Enjoy.



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And finally, check out my latest post on Drama 2B Mama, The Death Throes of My Fertility Hopes.