Spring Reigns

At work, there's a song I hear quite often. It starts with bagpipes, so every time it begins, I think it's Dropkick Murphys. Or Flogging Molly. But no, it's Copperhead Road by Steve Earle. Which isn't a terrible song, and by terrible, I mean it isn't that effing Tennessee Whiskey song. But still... every time it plays, I think it's an awesome Celtic punk band... and... it's definitely not.

The other morning I had my last wisdom tooth pulled, upper right side. Immediately after getting a filling put in a lower right molar. Never had that much dental work done at once. Never been so numbed in my life. No solid food til lunch... the next day.

About two days later, I discover that I can't properly yawn. My jaw doesn't let me anymore. Awesome.

Currently listening to the Blurryface album by Twenty One Pilots.

The husband and I went to see Ready Player One the other night. Pretty good. Don't expect to catch all the pulp/pop culture references in one viewing. From Iron Giant to the Batmobile to Freddy Kreuger to Hello Kitty. And everything in between/beyond.

I've started playing Fallout Shelter. I'd gotten burnt out on Diablo 3 and needed something that required building, something to just pass some time here & there. So we found FS for free and got it. I'm enjoying it. Even the kid gets into it, especially when the ominous piano sounds, signalling the appearance of what looks like the guy from the Neighborhood Watch signs & stickers. Or maybe he has a trenchcoat that he reveals is full of watches he's selling... Anyway, he appears somewhere in your shelter, and if you find him in time and click on him, you get "caps" which is equivalent to money.

I miss my PS2 games. The Sims, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3, Shinobi, Kingdom Hearts 2. Pro Skater 3 was a good one for passing time.

It finally feels like spring. It's nice. We really didn't get a fall, maybe less than a full week, and of course that's NOT a consecutive week. The two in-between seasons are my favorite. That transition from cold to warm, and from hot to cool.

Those seasons spawn some good thunderstorm too, which is always a win.

Latest art project: making my sister a Deadpool mug.

I think I'll put the Deadpool logo on the other side.

Battles

I've been fighting the PARCC testing for the past couple weeks. I found out that I couldn't opt my son out of the testing, but he had the option of refusing the test. However, put an AD/HD technology-loving kid in front of a computer, he's not going to say no. Even though he has no understanding of what he's seeing, cannot comprehend any of it, due to his academic knowledge being less than the "average" third grader's. So I spoke to the teacher extensively, and after making a few phone calls herself, she informed me that the school had no control in the testing and its rules. Because PARCC is issued by the state. So basically the the regions/districts are mooks that are doing what they're told. So! I took her advice and went to the state board of education about it. Typed out a nice long letter, in which I provided several heart-felt reasons why my son, and others like him, should not be made to take the PARCC assessments. It took a day for me to type this out, diplomatically. If there's one thing I can do, it's writing up something I have extensive knowledge, or feel deeply, about. So I did. And I sent it. Sent the letter I put significant time, thought, and effort into. Couple days later, received a reply. One that was basically automated, explaining PARCC from the BoE's point of view. Not once were any of the points I made specifically explored. They didn't even say "he" or "him." No questions about my child, his testing conditions, or likewise.

After reading that reply, I had to set my tablet & phone aside - far aside - so as not to send a reply through angry blurry-eyed vision during high emotions. Because there would have been a lot of cynicism and anger.

In other news... househunting is both awesome and terrible. Thought it might be a bit easier than this to get out of our duplex and into our first house as homeowners. But turns out, as you're going from house to house, not just anything will suffice for your getaway. Sometimes amazing pictures are taken of a really, ree-HEE-lly crappy place. And always, ALWAYS, expect the rooms to be smaller than the pictures show.

Yeah I'm new at this. Obviously. But it's still kinda fun. We're finally ready to have a home of our own. It's out there.

Got my bartending license! Booyah. I can add it to my Certificate of Ordination and basically be half a wedding. Unless you count camera phone pics as photography, then... grab some witnesses and you're set.

So the other night while I'm working, at the bar of course, I hear one of those stupid gambling machines playing a partial tune while someone's playing it. And it sounds familiar. Later, I hear it again. I definitely know what it is. So when I play "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" in its entirety on the jukebox, the machine players are all sorts of confused. Which leads to my thorough amusement.

("Battle Without Honor or Humanity" is the song that plays during a certain O-Ren Ishii scene from Kill Bill Vol 1, or, *sigh*, a scene with Bumblebee in the first live-action Transformers movie.)

Cue the Tunes

Happy New Year. A month and 20 days later... but hey, since when am I consistent and on point for holiday posts? Right, hardly ever.

My 2-days-a-week bartending job continues. Still enjoying it, other than hearing that goddamn Tennessee Whiskey song waaaaay too often. (Sometimes I counter it with Marilyn Manson or Sex Pistols.) We recently got a pool table, which translates to: Pool Table=Pool League=More Money For Linds On Mondays That League Nights Are At Her Bar. Yay!

Alright, got a few songs for you. The first is in the opening credits of the Justice League movie. I love it, has a good build-up.

This next one is from the latest Queens of the Stone Age album, Villains. After listening to its entirety several times, I discovered this was my favorite.

Sooo good. The band went a different direction with this album, with a producer who did a lot in the pop genre. Lily Allen, Christina Aguilera, Amy Winehouse, etc. It was a different sound from their previous records, but it still ended up being a great album.

Next is one I heard on a SiriusXM station, and fell in love with. They seem to be a lesser-known, independent group, and I can't find their music easily. Though I did find this song's album on vinyl, and am planning to purchase it soon. I can't explain why, I just love this song.

I've also recently discovered Fozzy, a heavy metal band fronted by WWE dude Chris Jericho. Yeah, I know, they've been around for a while. Shut up. Here's the song I heard the other day, I guess it's a new release.

Fozzy - Painless

Guess that's it f'now. Ta!

Everything At Once

Yesterday was Halloween 2017, and we did something different this year. The kid said he wanted to stay home and hand out candy and "scare people" in his spooky costume. So I took him to 2 places (we really don't know enough people around here to take him to) and brought him back home. However, he wasn't feeling like himself so he took his costume off and laid low. He'd gotten a tooth pulled earlier that day.

The kid and I's 2017 jack-o-lanterns.

I'm currently working as a bartender two days a week at a local bar for veterans. (Though it's open to the public.) I enjoy it. While the older clientele doesn't always tip the best, it's better than having the dramatic, troublesome younger crowd.

My sister's cat got outside one day a couple months ago and got herself knocked up... Hee hee... So we said whatever she had, we'd take 2. Well, lucky sis... mama had 6 kittens. Six! Wow. We videochatted a few times and I picked out the two we'd take. A boy and a girl. She took them with her on a visit to our mom's 3 days ago, and I met up with them to bring them home. They turned 8 weeks old yesterday, Halloween. Cute thing. I named the girl Frigga (Thor's mom & Odin's wife, at least in the comics. In Norse mythology, her name is Frigg) and my son named the boy Fire "because it rhymes"....okay.... But he just wanted the same letter. If I'd've known that, I'd've named em Luke and Leia, but my husband says there would've been weird sexual tension later as they grew up... haha.

Fire (left) and Frigga.

We went on our family vacation about a month and a half ago. The three of us and my mom. We'd planned on going to Florida, but that exact same week (which we booked 8 months earlier), that whore Irma decided to spread her love all over the poor state. So we quickly improvised a Plan B. We went to Kentucky, stayed at a cabin on a lake for 2 nights, which was quite nice. Relaxing. Though what was left of Irma - just off and on rain - began to hit us late into that first night. Oh well. After that we went to Nashville TN, which was about 2 hours away. The first place we went was the Johnny Cash museum, but it was in the heart of downtown, which was crazy. And it was Wednesday. The hotel we stayed in was a ways away, directly across the parking lot from the Tennessee Titans NFL stadium. That evening we went to Opry Mills, so Devon could experience a Lego store. There was a restaurant in the building called the Aquarium, which had a huge saltwater tank full of fish and rays in it. Pricey but awesome. That night Mom and I went out on the town. I'd looked on my phone for places with live music but didn't find much, and discovered that there was a music festival going on that required a $45 wristband to enter the participating bars. Nope. We'll just hope for the best. So we get downtown, find a bar with an artist performing, sit down for a drink, and I look at Maps on my phone. Jackpot! There was a goldmine about 2 blocks away. Broadway street, from 4th to 5th avenue, was Nothing. But. Bars. We get there and every single place was live music, no cover charge. But man, we drank bottle beers and each round was around $11. Nonetheless, a good time was had. We started at Rippy's, which had an AMAZING bartender, and worked our way down the street. One side, then the other. One bar had 3 stories. Live music on the first and second, and a DJ on the 3rd, which was a rooftop bar! First rooftop bar I've been on. Pretty cool, but better if the music was live. After wandering around the 2-block length of honky tonks for an hour and a half or so, we end up at Rippy's again. The bartender, who has been serving a busy bar all by herself, recognized us from earlier, greeted us, and brought us the exact beers we'd been drinking the first time we were there. Friggen awesome. I wish we'd gotten her name. The next day, we got to the science center in town for the kid, and then realize we have 2 more days of unplanned vacation. We end up going up to Evansville, Indiana for a brief stay - which included a Mongolian BBQ dinner and a Chuck-E-Cheese trip for Mini Me. Then we headed home, a day early. While it wasn't the beach, it was still enjoyable.

The view from our lake cabin.

Fifth and Broadway, Nashville

I get to see Elbow again! Next week! I'd hoped that John Grant was touring with them again, but it's someone else. No problem, maybe I'll like him too. But I'm pretty pumped. I haven't listened to their latest album - Little Fictions - enough to have it memorized, but I'll know the songs when I hear them played. Bottom line, I GET TO SEE ELBOW AGAIN!

Well, I think that's the majority of recent happenings. Vacation... Halloween... Kittens... Upcoming concert... Yep. Y'know, I used to be able to type like this on almost a nightly basis. Not anymore, obviously.

Ta, dahlings.

Low Point

Isolation has its advantages. But every once in a while, the desire to reach out and establish communication with someone overtakes you. When you receive no alerts, no messages, no attempts at a simple check-in via phone or in person, it may start to build up without your knowledge. Then you find yourself sending a simple message out to a few people. A question, a hello, a gif.

But when they don't reply, you realize - too late - the abyss that you've slipped into. And it hits you, hard. "Who will truly be a constant in my life?" "What have I done for this to happen?" "Am I really that irrelevant to those in my life?"

And you feel truly alone.

Slave to the Sound

Another extremely talented musician is no longer with us. Chris Cornell. Throughout my years of listening to music, his voice was one I could identify easily. Maybe not which era or band he was fronting, but I knew it was him. While he wasn't in my top favorites, I knew he was tremendously talented and considered a rock god by people who follow the grunge and/or rock genre.

Now, while I say he wasn't in my top picks, there are still songs that I absolutely love and will always blare when I play. Those are:

1) Like A Stone by Audioslave. The first song of his that I fell in love with.

2) Be Yourself by Audioslave. Such a great mellow rhythm. 

3) Say Hello 2 Heaven by Temple of the Dog. His one-album project created as a tribute to a friend.

4) The Day I Tried To Live by Soundgarden. Shows his amazing vocal range.

5) I Am The Highway by Audioslave. My sister can attest, I played this song on repeat for a good length of time. Probably my favorite of his. I won't share a video because it's best experienced without any visual additions. To this day, I stop what I'm doing and close my eyes when this song comes on. Now there''ll be a pang of sadness mixed in.

As you can probably tell, these songs are the more mellow side of Chris Cornell. And apparently, I was more attached to Audioslave than I was Soundgarden.

Definitely a tremendous loss. Hugely unexpected.

One more to follow up this tribute post. Seems a bit fitting, perhaps. Another favorite Audioslave song, and a fantastic music video. Mashing up the band's car chase with the movie Vanishing Point.

Audioslave - Show Me How To Live

Goodbye Chris.

Consistently Inconsistent

Hello! I'm still around. (ound... ound...)

Ah, echo. It's just as empty here as before I took my unprecedented leave.

Jolly good.

So, my last post was... October! Wow. Four months ago.

Over the holidays, we received enough money to give our kid the choice between a train ride into the city, or a short vacation to a beach. He chose the latter. So we're combining this year's family vacation with Eric and I's wedding anniversary and all going to the gulf.

Still at my house cleaning job. The schedule is great, and time off is almost always given when requested. But, a lot of times, it's difficult to work with basically a girls club, all of whom are younger than me, and not fitting in. It's gotten a bit better, but not entirely.

Also, five months of being the bathroom bitch is about 2 months too long.

Ah, an interesting development. Assuming plans don't change, I'll be officiating a wedding in October. Looking forward to it, since it's a) something I've never done before and b) helping out someone I work with. I'll do the proper arrangements to be their minister soon - getting certified and all. Ha, and the other day, another girl I work with came up to me asking if I'd be willing to do her sister's wedding. I said I'd prefer to get to know the couple I'm binding, but I could probably do a cold ceremony. (Y'know, like a cold open, yeah?)

I've been binge watching Falling Skies now that it's over. Enjoying it. I like Noah Wyle, and I think he fits his character pretty perfectly.

Something else I've done in the span of my unnoticed absence, I painted a couple things as Christmas gifts. One for someone who loves otters...

And the other for someone who practices Reiki (a healing technique based on the principle that the therpist can channel energy into the patient by means of touch, to activate the natural healing processes of the patient's body and restore physical and emotional well-being).

They were pretty well received. Pleased, was I. Been wanting to paint something else now, but not sure what. Maybe it's time to get back to Poison Ivy, to match the Harley I did.

If you need new-ish music to listen to, try Post Pop Depression by Iggy Pop, The Getaway by Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Act One by Marian Hill. The Marian Hill album isn't my usual flavor, and isn't my favorite, but I appreciate it for its artistry. (Also, the artist name comes from the two main characters from the musical The Music Man.)