Music I love. And that man I love, too, I guess.

Things to remember from today:

This post is going to have a sound track.  Starting with this:

Are you listening to that in the background?  Do it!  Okay, now...

We almost got off to an awesome start this morning, but Finn kept licking his invisible balls, and it's impossible to get into the mood when you can only hear the sound of your dog's tongue slapping against his shrunken empty ballsack.

Are you still listening to that song?  because that's still the backdrop as Jimi throws off the covers.  He lets Finn outside, and I hear the shower start as I reach for my vibrator...

A few hours later...

(There are a few things in life I'm passionate about:  Jimi, and my love for him; my Family; gay rights; women's reproductive rights; The Beatles; Allison Krauss; and Ben Harper.  There are probably other things that aren't listed here.  They'll come later.  Are you listening to that Ben Harper video I posted there?)

Jimi says, "Let's go to Chick Fil A for lunch, so your weekend can get off to a good start."  Bless his heart.  He's managing me.

And well, if I do say so.

So we went to St Matthews, to Chick Fil A, and to the Feeder's Supply for pet food and flea drugs.  And for Trader Joe's!  (See Following Pictures:)

Whoa.  Louisville's hittin' the big time, yo!   (We left with $50 in pogey bait*, but no booze.  Well.  Nothing from the wine shop.  We bought a six-pack of beer, but that doesn't count as booze, right?)

*Do you know what pogey bait is?  It's a Marine Corps term for junk food. When I was in JMCROTC in HS, they sold it before every class period - sometimes, those who bought it had to do extra pushups or situps, but that never really served as a distraction from the deliciousness.  And we never even had anything as awesome as Candy Cane Joe-Joe's.

After the Trader Joe's, we had to visit the Target for:

34 Pampers Swaddlers, Size 1

2 rubber bands

2 receiving blankets

2 bibs

1 chain link toy

socks or mittens

1 bottle

1 wash cloth

ribbon

I'd seen something on Pinterest a while back about a Diaper Motorcycle, and when I googled the directions today, I found this, and so I followed the instructions, and this is what happened:

We made that.

Jimi and me. 

Together.

(That means we went into the baby section and shopped.  For blankets and diapers and bibs and bottles...

And we're good.  I'm good.  I didn't cry or anything.  No chest pains or panic attacks or freakouts.)

Just for the record.

Are you ready for some more music?  I sure hope you're following along with me here.

I said to Jimi, "Name a song that describes us.  Quick!"  "I'm so tired," he replied.  Then he said:

You're listening to if'n you're doing what I said to do.  

And that doesn't describe us at all.

Our relationship looks more like this:

Wait.  

or maybe this:

"You're the Beatles master, why don't you pick the Beatles song that's us?" Jimi says.  

Okay.  

(When we listen to this one and he sings along, he replaces "madly" with "Natalie".  Appropriate, right?)

We're all mad here.

Oh.  

We're that too:

Fuck.

It's all very complicated.

Isn't everything?  Isn't life?

It's a happy one, though. 

Madness and Chocolate

Jimi has introduced me to many, many things I may have never found on my own.  Tom Waits is on that list.

Something about Tom Waits - does anyone like him the first time they hear him?  His voice is so gruff and rough and scabby and dry and scratchy, and his words...his words are fucked up, yo.

And you'll die with the rose still on your lips
And in time the heart-shaped bone that was your hips
And the worms, they will climb the rugged ladder of your spine
We're all mad here

Fucked up, but I love it.

Well I don't want no Abba Zabba
Don't want no Almond Joy
There ain't nothing better
Suitable for this boy
Well it's the only thing
That can pick me up
Better than a cup of gold
See only a chocolate Jesus
Can satisfy my soul

Once again, I am in awe and appreciation of the power of the internet.

I want to get drunk and go sing Karaoke

Specifically, this song:

Poor Amy.  Rest in peace, girl.  

Gotta get down on Friday.

Every time I think "YAY!!! It's Friday!!!"  I get that effing "Friday" song stuck in my head, and I'm not talking about the good version.  You know which one I'm talking about.  Rebecca Black, you're the devil.  Here, this will fix it before you get the wrong version in your head, too:

"gave her hips that pelvic thrust

don't trust a rubber cause it's bound to bust

in the oven, in the nappy

i had on two so i was happy

cause that H I V'll make your dick hang sideways

and that ain't coo' foo' 

cause it's Friday"

(They edited this version.  Boo.)

I planned to work till 10 today - I got out about 11:30, so all in all, not too bad.  I was secretly telling myself I'd be good if I got out by noon, so I'm still ahead of schedule.  My list of things to do:

1. Drive across town to order bridesmaid dres.

2. Grocery shopping for the weekend.

3. Pack our clothes.

4. Pack bedding.

5. Pack cooler.

6. Drink beer.

Lucky for me, I was able to order the dress over the phone, saving me an hour of frustration and being pissed off.  (That's how I get when I have to drive to the East End.  It is what it is.)

And packing stuff?  Maybe 30 minutes.  The grocery shopping will take the longest, but I've got all afternoon. The whole day.  I think I'm going to start on number 6 early.  Just because I can.  

I love Friday.  

This Friday, especially.  

Off work early, 

going camping, 

and I awoke to find this waiting for me on the bathroom mirror:

Say it with me now:

"AWWWW..."

How stinkin' cute is that?

AND he took the garbage out.  I'm the luckiest girl in the world.  

Finn got to go to work with me all this week, and he loved it so much.  It's going to be really hard for him next week when we're all back to our regularly scheduled programming.  Hopefully camping will wear him out and he'll sleep most of the day once we're back and won't miss us so much.  Do other people worry about their dogs like this?  Is it normal?  He's so much easier than a kid - like just the right amount of responsibility and work.  

I just got this idea in my head to go down to the Bodega at Felice and have some lobster bisque and a rosemary ham & goat cheese sandwich for lunch.  I want it so bad!  But it's kinda far and I've got all that other stuff to do...but it's Friday and they only have the lobster bisque on Friday and it's my absolute favoritest lunch ever in the whole entire world and I could eat nothing but that for days and days and days...

But I have things here to eat that are already paid for and so I will do the responsible thing and use the money I would've spent on lunch to buy beer and junk food for camping instead.  

Happy USA's Birthday!!!  Have a great weekend!  

So, there's that

My dog gets a hard on when I come home from work.  I don't have anything else to say about that, I just figured you'd want to know.

I think I dreamed about Kat because there was a spot on NPR last night about how Berea, KY has introduced legislation to make discrimination against LGBT persons illegal.  Kat when to college at Berea, and this progressive bill is not in line with the memories she has from her time there - when I heard the blurb on my way home from work, I thought "I kinda wish I could call Kat and talk to her about this - I'd like to hear her opinion on the subject."  I heard the town's name again this morning, as NPR revisited yesterday's stories, and the lightbulb went off - THAT is why she was in my head last night.  That's cool.

Did you see this?  He got a face transplant so he could feel his little girl kiss his face again.  *heart melts*

And did you see this?!  You really want to hit that second link there - it'll take you to a page where you can listen to the cast recording of The Book Of Mormon.  I want to see is so bad, but I don't have Broadway musical money; the cast recording is an acceptable, affordable alternative while I wait for the show to turn up in Louisville with a lower ticket price.  (My friend Becky won tickets to see the preview on Broadway, but then she got sick the day before and wasn't able to fly to New York.  She'd previously busted an eardrum when flying with a nasty sick, so she wasn't willing to risk it again - I think I might've.)

LL Cool J is on Rachel Ray today.  Man.  He's totally on my list.

I need a nap.

Humpity Hump

It's wet and dreary and cold and that's just how it's going to be for the next few days.  Blah.

But, I ran last night.  35 minutes.  Have you heard of some guy named Prince?  He sings songs.  He put out this album a long time ago called Purple Rain - do you know it?  I'm going to tell you something, and I need to know that it won't change our relationship...I've never listened to Purple Rain before last night.  I'm not going to be all dramatic and claim it changed my life or anything, but I will say that if I'd known before how awesome that album is, I may not have waited till I was almost 31 before I started this running thing.  Talk about a great beat for moving your ass!  Between the music and my little pep-talks ("you're doing a great job, Natalie, you're doing so good!  You're going to get skinny and thin and it will be awesome!  Good job!  Keep going!  This is easy!"  What?  You don't do that?  Why not?), the 35 minutes were over fast enough and there was sweat pouring off my face and I felt like I'd won a prize.  (I did - a shower.  That Jimi interrupted to torture me with a cup of cold water.  Why does he think cold water in the shower is funny?)

I have a confession to make:  After not smoking the entire month of January, I've bought and smoked 2 packs of cigarettes in 2011.  *hangs head in shame*  I'm back on the wagon today, though.  I like smoking, the physical and social act of it, but everything else about it is bad and horrible and I don't want to be a smoker anymore.  And smoking cigarettes, even if it's only one a day, still makes me a smoker.  *sigh*  Why is life so hard?

I hate bigots.  Especially ones that are elected to public office and use that platform to spread their bigotry and hatred and fear of everything they don't understand.

Ugh.  I'm going to work.  Have a great Wednesday!

Monday, Monday...

What a happy little weekend this was.  We spent our day Saturday in Cincinnati with Sweet Maggie, shopping, as usual, but not buying anything, which is not usual.  I've got money burning a hole in my pocket, but I can't bring myself to spend it - there's nothing I want badly enough to justify laying down the cold hard cash.  More than likely, an unexpected expense will present itself and I'll have to use my mad money for that and I'll be mad that I didn't get to buy anything fun but I'll be glad I had the money on hand.  Such is life.  La di da.

We'd talked about getting a hotel room and staying overnight in Cincy, but in the end, I couldn't justify the expense or the extra trouble it would cause for Stacy and Jessie to have to keep the dog for an extra night.  And I didn't want to wake up and have to drive home - I really like my house and waking up here each morning is one of my favorite things.  So we drove home, picked up the pup, and we were home well before midnight.

Yesterday we went to Whole Foods to buy some bulk quinoa.  Do you know about quinoa?  Apparently, it's the new pomegranate, one of the new "super foods".  It's a vegetable that is eaten/tastes like a cereal grain, and it has like 14 grams of protein in a 3.5 ounce serving.  That's what they say, at least...I've not tried it yet.  Jimi swears it's going to be our new favorite breakfast food.  Anyhow.  So we went to the Whole Foods, and can I take a minute here to tell you how much I love that place?  I know everything they sell is marked up by at least a dollar compared to stuff at the Kroger, but it's like a hippie grocery-shopping-lover's wet dream.  (I love grocery shopping.  Hate all other forms of shopping.  Go figure.)  I love the beautiful, varied, unusual flowers that smell so good when you walk in the front door.  I love that their grocery carts have a built-in vase to hold your fresh flowers.  I love that they have every variety of everything, in organic and why-do-you-hate-the-Earth?! (regular, I mean).  And Oh My Gosh the Bulk Grains Aisle?!  Holy smokes, I want to live there.  I was so in awe of the place that I bought 2.5 lbs of split peas.  WTF?  I don't even like peas.  (I do like split pea soup though, which is why I bought the peas, I guess, but still - I've never actually made split pea soup, so who knows how this will turn out.  I just had to buy something from that aisle other than the quinoa.)

And then Jimi rushed me through the rest of the store because he knew I was well on my way to wandering aimlessly up and down every single aisle, spending minutes ogling the teas and tomato sauces and different-shaped noodles.  But the cheese!  He couldn't divert me from the cheeses, mainly because they live next to the food bars where we were planning to pick out our individual selections for lunch.  The cheese makes me happy.  I decided to splurge on a selection - I raided the $3 and under sample bin and came away with 8 cheeses of all colors and smells and tastes (one has cranberries in it, another has black olives; be still my heart!) for under $30.  (I don't actually know how much I paid - Whole Foods is one of those places where I can't look too closely at individual price tags - I just try to keep my total under a pre-set dollar amount.  I managed to keep my budget on this trip, so it's a win!)

While I perused the cheeses, Jimi made a discovery of his own - they sell beer!  Not just any beer, either; good beer.  Gumballhead beer.  Jimi loves the Gumballheads.  You can get a pint, 32 oz., or a 64 oz. growler.  The time it took to fill his growler allowed me the time I needed to pick my cheeses.  We were both happy.

And then it was time for lunch.  They had eight (8!) soup selections.  I'm such a sucker for a good soup.  They also had sushi and bbq pork and fresh green beans and salads and all sorts of delicious-looking things.  I wanted to eat it all, but I only have so much room, you know?  I decided on tomato bisque and crackers and a piece of my cheese...and a California roll.  Of course, I only ate the soup and such - I had two pieces of my roll, but I liked the soup better, so Jimi finished the sushi for me.  (He'd counted on this - it's pretty common - so he'd only selected a veggie sushi-style roll.  He's so smart, that man of mine.)  The Whole Foods has a little dining area there in the front of the store - making it officially my favorite place ever.  The cashier said they could arrange to have a cot set up in the back if I was really serious about wanting to live there; if Jimi ever kicks me out, I'll take the guy up on the offer.

After lunch, we went to the Guitar Center across the way.  I thought we were going to look at guitars; turns out, Jimi was serious when he said Saturday that he thinks I should spend my mad money to buy a full-size keyboard, and we were there to see what they had to offer in the way of portable electric pianos.  I'm not prepared to drop $300 on a keyboard.  It would mean I'd have to sign up for lessons; I've forgotten nearly everything I learned from the four years of lessons I barely tolerated as a tween.  And while I'd love to have a piano sitting around to plunk away on when the urge strikes, a keyboard is not a piano, and there is not room in the house for a piano right now and I don't know that I want to spend money on an electric one when I sort of feel like electric would be cheating or disappointing to my expectation and history with the traditional upright.  But Jimi's suggestion was so sweet, so sincere, and his line of "I thought then we could sit around and make music together" was just too heart-wrenching to not seriously sway my opinions.  But still, it's a lot of money...

So I walked away from the Guitar Center without a new instrument for me...but Jimi bought himself a ukulele.  He strummed all the way to Rick's house, who fed me homemade chocolate peanut butter cheesecake and shared a Gumballhead with Jimi.  He strummed all the way home, and then he hijacked the computer to look up chords and songs and sat here strumming until I lured him away with the offer of...

*ehhem*  So anyhow, he took over the computer last night, and that's why I'm regaling you with this awesome story now instead of then.  That, and I don't have anything else to talk about.  Except that when Jimi got home tonight, he took his ukulele to the bathroom with him, saying he was going to play while he pooped.  He said it's called "dookulele".

Gosh, I'm sorry I had to create that image for you, but it's funny, right?  Dookulele.  I'm still giggling.

Our friend and former roommate, Jen, called last night.  She's going to have her baby girl any day now, and I'm glad to find that I'm genuinely, without hesitation, happy and excited for her.  I'm not feeling those jealous pangs I felt when she first learned she was expecting, and I didn't have a single "why can't that be me?" thought.  This is progress, people.  And now I need to go find her registry and send that woman some baby towels - she said she's gotten dozens of little washcloths, but not a single bath towel for her little peapod.

Happy Monday, Friends.  I hope you have a lovely week.

Golden

A forum I frequent posed the question "Best love song?" today.  My answer is this:





Stacy introduced me to Ben Harper in 2001, and a love affair was begun.  Through the craziest periods of my life - the courtship with my ex-husband, my marriage, my loneliness during my marriage, my divorce, my return to Kentucky, the emergence of my new life - his music has been my soundtrack.  It can't be coincidence that I found this song on Jimi's laptop one of those first nights at his apartment; it has to be something more than chance that this song, one I'd never heard before, was there in his playlist, discovered in those first days when we were still new and learning about each other.    


He's gold to me.  This is the song I think of when I think of us, of happy, of the light and joy and love and beauty he's brought to my world.  


This afternoon, he emailed me this, forwarded from a co-worker of his:


I took a compliment call on Jimi ... Member name is (name removed) from (a city far far away). She wanted me to write this down word for word and send to all...  


"Talking to Jim is like talking to Jesus, he made me understand with what I was struggling with. From the bottom of my heart I love me some Jim, "I LOVE ME SOME JIM". There were so many issue I was having with my doctors, referral's, that was causing me so much stress. Then Jim said don't worry let me take care of that for you. There were things that I was not aware of he took all his time and patients in helping me understand what I needed to know to take my stress away. Thank you Jim for lifting all my stress of my shoulders. I Thank God for Jim." 
"If there is anyone working with him that does not have the same sprite as Jim, I will pray that it jumps into them so they can be just as Loving, Kind, Patient, Caring, Uplifting, and compassionate as Jim is." 


P.S. 
Jim your parents have done a beautiful job in rasing you. I am sure they are so proud of you just as I am in you. You are my new BFF... 


P.S.S 
Management: 
       I demand, I command along with recommending that Jim gets a Thanksgiving, Christmas, Birthday Bonus. And do not forget his pay increase of 5 dollars more a pay check. Keep up the good work. 
Love you much (name removed). 

See?  I'm not the only one who thinks he's golden.  He's a hell of a guy.

Natalie's Sleep Schedule: UPDATE!!!

I haven't slept well a single night this week.  Tonight's the night.  I'm going to stay up until I can't hold my eyes open any longer, then I'm going to take a WHOLE sleeping pill, none of this 'half' bullshit, and I'm going to sleep hard and heavy for 10 hours.  And then I will be like a whole new person.  That's the plan.

Sometimes I feel bad about writing such mundane shit, but then I remember the title of the blog is "My Blog Is Boring" and don't feel so guilty, because it's not like I didn't warn you.

Current facebook conversation:

Me

that's awesome

it's such a nice night!

10:43pmRob

Totally.

I'm trying to get one of my internet girlfriends to coem hang out but she's being weird for some reason. Her loss!

Well, my loss, but whatever. haha

10:44pmMe

ha!

so move on and invite over the next one

10:44pmRob

Well.

umm

I'm on #3. heh

10:45pmMe

uh oh

10:45pmRob

I waited too long, didn't know I would have a free Friday

10:46pmMe

just keep moving through the list

someone will be tired of the bar already but not ready to go home

10:47pmRob

I like how sleazy you are, that's what I'm going to do. Thank you. haha

10:48pmMe

I'm a hell of a helping helper!

Jimi and I went to the Kentucky State Fair tonight with Steve and Maria.  Thanks to exhibitor's tickets Stacy so generously passed along to us, it didn't cost us a dime to park and admission was only $2/person.  Stacy entered several pieces in the Fair this year, the first time she'd ever entered, and her ceramics piece won second prize!  I was so excited for her.  We didn't spend a lot of time looking at any particular exhibits, or doing much of anything, really, except eating, which was our main goal from the very beginning, after I saw Stacy's red ribbon.  We did see the cows, and the sheep, and the goats and the honey and the plants and the tobacco and the nuts and fruits and vegetables and giant pumpkins.  We only stayed a few hours, and were home by just after 10 p.m.  We're old and boring.  (!There's that word again!)  

And now I'm blogging and Jimi's watching Japanese girl-band music videos.  

No wonder my Momma says we're odd.

I don't know if I'm doing this right or not.

This morning I was perusing the blogs I follow and look what I found!  Do Like.

Pomplamoose - Another Day

(And I don't know how to embed YouTube videos without breaking the frames so you get a link instead.  My bad.)

It ruins a perfectly good blog.

I'm talking about those effing media player things that people have embedded into their blog, so when you open their page, you're inundated with bad music.

Elevator Music.

Teenybopper music.

Badtouch music that I don't want to listen to.

And it makes me jump every time.  I like quiet.  It scares me when the loud starts suddenly and makes me pee a little.

Okay, that last part only happened one time, but ONCE IS ENOUGH.

Please, don't put media players on your blog.  And if you don't care what i think, if you insist that sharing your questionable taste in music with the rest of the blog reading world is a good idea and/or necessary to fully portray your awesomeness, can you at least put it at the top of the page?  So I can pause it quickly?  Or know it's coming, and maybe make a preemptive-pause strike?

Cause you're messing up a good thing.