My Mother, The Rock Star!

Yep, she tore it up this weekend like a mixture of Janis Joplin and Courtney Love - SHE IS THE LIZARD QUEEN SHE CAN DO ANYTHING!!!!

Let me explain. This is actually a post dedictated (a week late) to my parents, Joyce and Charlie. They have been married - as of January 20th - for 40 years.

40 YEARS.

And they seem to still like - even love - each other. They certainly still get a kick out of each other. It's pretty amazing, isn't it? It deserved some sort of special recognition, so Snow White and I decided to treat them to a concert and a hotel room - Willie Nelson in Primm, Nevada, formerly known as "Stateline, Nevada" - its right on the - you guessed it - stateline between Nevada and California and I guess at first they couldn't be bothered to come up with a good name. It used to be just a gas station and a general store and a casino called "Whiskey Pete's" in the middle of the desert, if I remember correctly from all of our road trips as a kid. But there is another "Stateline, Nevada" in the north so you know, it's confusing. There's also a Jackpot, Nevada, right before you cross into Idaho - I always thought that was such a cool name for a town when I was little.

Sidenote - I just wikipediaed Primm and thought this was pretty funny and typical Nevada lore:

In the 1920s Pete MacIntyre owned a gas-station at the stateline. Pete apparently had a difficult time making ends meet selling gas so he resorted to a little bootlegging. Primm history remembers him as "Whiskey Pete". When Whiskey Pete died in 1933, legend has it that he wanted to be buried standing up with a bottle of bootleg in his hands so he could watch over the area. Whiskey Pete was accidentally exhumed while workers were building a connecting bridge from Whiskey Pete's to Buffalo Bills Hotel and Casino (on the other side of I-15). The body was moved and is now said to be buried in one of the caves where Pete cooked up his moonshine.

Excellent! But I digress. So Mom and Dad went out to Primm to see Willie and had a MOST excellent time - and maybe I'll leave it at that and let your imaginations run wild. Lets just say Willie rocked, and then there were 2 more bars, some live music, at least 5 more drinks, my mother made some new barfly BFF's, my dad tried to get lucky (by playing California lotto - get your mind out of the gutter!), and a poor overused wastebasket, followed the next day by a Most Wonderfully Hungover Mommie Dearest. And I'm guessing my dad kept right up with her.

But you know what? GOOD FOR THEM!!! They had a good time and please - 40 years together deserves a good drunken escapade - so cheers to you both!! Without the two of you together, there would be no me, there would be no Snow White, there would be no Allie and Jake Dwarves, and where would the fun in our lives be without a little Joycie and Chuckie to spice it up?

And now, the band shall play a song in their honor - how's about a sweet tune from the 70's?

We've been together since way back when
Sometimes I never want to see you again
But I want you to know, after all these years
You're still the one I want whisperin' in my ear
You're still the one that makes me laugh
Still the one that's my better half
We're still having fun, and you're still the one

You're still the one that makes me strong
Still the one I want to take along
We're still having fun, and you're still the one
You're still the one who can scratch my itch

Still the one and I wouldn't switch
We're still having fun, and you're still the one
You are still the one that makes me shout
Still the one that I dream about
We're still having fun, and you're still the one...

Good Pete Article

In all my election excitement, I forgot to mention how happy I was to find out (while listening to Idiot's Delight on WFUV last Saturday) that Mr. Pete Seeger was going to be one of the participants in the We Are One concert at the Lincoln Memorial and how fitting it was that he would sing there for Obama after all of his years of activity in the Civil Rights Movement - so I was pleased that amidst the trendy Shakiras and Ushers - there was Pete closing it out with Bruce Springsteen singing This Land is Your Land - and then I read this excellent article on Monday - so here you go, check it out if you so desire:

Welcome back, Pete Seeger, this land is your land too

And you know my other thought in all of this was: PETE SEEGER, PUT ON A DAMN COAT!! He does chop wood every day upstate, so maybe he's used to it, but Bruce, lend him a scarf or something!

Everyone!! Sing out!!!

(Please replace the word The Witch with Bush's Reign of Terror and Stupidity)

Ding Dong! The Witch is dead!

Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch!

Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead.

Wake up - sleepy head, rub your eyes, get out of bed.

Wake up, the Wicked Witch is dead.

He's gone where the goblins go,

Below - below - below.

Yo-ho, let's open up and sing and ring the bells out!!

Well, it doesn't really work as a tune, now does it, but the sentiment is what we are going for here, not artistry...oh okay, FINE, I just happen to have another song queued up for the occasion, sung magnificently by Seal, but the real deal is the original Sam Cooke and it's the perfect song to set the mood today...A Change is Gonna Come:

"...It's been a long, a long time coming

But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die

Cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky

It's been a long, a long time coming

But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

Then I go to my brother
And I say brother help me please

But he winds up knocking me

Back down on my knees

Ohhhhhhhhh.....

There been times that I thought I couldn't last for long

But now I think I'm able to carry on

It's been a long, a long time coming

But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will..."

A good day indeed...I really wanted to watch the whole event but as I'm at work and not at home with Anderson Cooper and Rachel Maddow to guide me, I just figured I'd watch it online at CNN or MSNBC but wasn't that annoying? Stop and start, buffer and reload...so I'm quite thankful to The BB (Bushwick Bird) and her BF (The Boyfriend) for coming by my office to pull me into a conference room they heard had a TV for viewing...so YAY! I didn't miss the actual swearing in or the speech..and so now we get down to business and see what this man will/can actually do, actually change...I have high hopes but I think he does too and it counts for a lot.

What a crazy, odd, and oh so COLD day it has been ... lots of happenings in NYC today ... first, I wake up to the guy on 1010WINS telling me that the "real-feel temperature" is -1 - YIKES! And its snowing, lovely lovely snow, gentle and pretty, fat flakes that fall like powdered sugar, not blowing harsh sharp ice crystals that hurt your cheeks. The kind you want to walk to work in. The kind that makes everything quiet and even the garbage bags on the sidewalk waiting to be picked up are made pretty by being covered in it. So pleasant. Then I get on the E - and it's one of those brand new E's - where did those come from? I was only gone two weeks and all of a sudden, there's brand new shiny silver subway trains - same old smelly druggies and drunks and homeless people, but cleaner and roomier, so I'll take it. Then we had a shakeup here at work...I won't go into it for obvious reasons - but on a side note, Vox should totally call me if I don't call him first (hint hint) - so good things and/or more work/stress for me could be shooting down from up on high. I'm not completely sure I want things to change but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, won't we? I'll speak no more until I know more. Then a plane goes down in the Hudson river near the piers, providing my mother with more meat to her argument against taking planes, pleading with us to revert back to the covered wagon times for cross-country travel.

Now I have a headache, I think from gritting my teeth all day. Ouch. Maybe I should just give up the ghost and head home to watch a brand new Office (finally!) and go to bed early and wait to see what else can go crazy around here tomorrow ... other than the fact its supposed to be 10 degrees . Well I wanted winter, didn't I? And one must be careful for what one wishes for ... in the words of Willy Wonka...

"But Charlie, don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted ... he lived happily ever after."

But baby it's cold outside...

I've been rereading all the Little House on the Prairie books and I just finished The Long Winter, which makes me appreciate all the modern conveniences of dealing with cold blustery weather. This week has been, for the most part, RAW. Rainy, cold, blowing winds and I've had to do my Aunt Judy's trick of getting into my pj's like lightning and then diving under the covers and counting to 60 and then I'm warm. Despite the fact that it's always about 15 degrees and drafty in my bedroom. I have 4 windows and sucky heat - meaning it goes on for about 45 minutes at 8am but during the night - NADA. Ooooh, how the cold breezes blow! I feel like Laura and Mary and the claim shanty isn't winterized so the snow falls on them in the night and Pa has to come and shovel their quilts. My teeth literally chatter as I get ready for bed. But at least I haven't run out of kerosene and the grocery store is just up the block so I don't have to subsist on potatoes and wheat grain until the trains can get here. But I can copy some of their methods for dealing with the chill - drinking ginger tea to warm up the insides, layer up with long johns and socks, and keeping a hearty bean soup a la Caroline Ingalls simmering on the stove all day. And so I shall, because tomorrow is supposed to be a snow storm so I think I'll just be cozy at home and do some New Year's Cleaning and Decluttering in a Feng Shui sort of way. And I'll think I'll take a walk through the park on Sunday because it will be all winterwonderlandery and happy and you know how much I love that.

And here's a pic or two of New Year's Eve - the theme was Chinese New Year while watching Mamma Mia and being silly. Oh yes, my mother is wearing gold stretch pants...and yes, I am wearing silver ones..aren't we...tacky?! And you aren't drunk, there are 2 of me in the photo...my mother said it's the ghost of my twin that I ate in the womb...

If only I could purchase some of this 1970's shampoo for my mother... then she too could smell as good as me, to the point that complete strangers come up to her and say "GEE YOUR HAIR SMELLS TERRIFIC"!!!!

Inside joke by the way... but my hair does smell really good :-)

Yes, I'm back...for those of you still checking...I had a wonderful, fan-freaking-tastic 16 days with The Mom and The Dad in sunny but chilly Las Vegas where I do believe I regained my vim and vigor so I'm approaching 2009 with some "pow!" and some "wow!", I hope. I vow to try my Girl Scout Best to not be a that blithering, blathering, sometimes sobbing, sometimes whining girl I was from November onward...resolved! Ah lets see how long that lasts, I'm all positivity right now because I'm still on the Christmas Vacation High but still, I'm going to try... and that's all we ever ask of you - is that you TRY. It's your duty.