Sister in law not feeling so well

My sister in law, H Ditty's oldest sister who's 27, is in the hospital. She went in the other day for what they thought might be some viral infection, maybe intestinal flu. She called this morning saying as long as she could keep her food down she'd be leaving in the afternoon.

Then later in the day we're told that she's going in for a ct scan. Turns out she has either an intestinal infection or Crohn's Disease, at least that's what the doctors are thinking right now. She's going in tomorrow morning (Friday) at 10:00 for a colonoscopy to determine what's going on. We'll be heading down there to see her before she goes in. It's also supposed to be snowing big time, it'll be a fun day.

EDIT FRIDAY around 1pm: So we got back from the hospital not too long ago. She's probably got Crohn's disease but it's a mild case of it. But I guess they're not a 100% sure. She's being given some antibiotics and she can go home. They told her that in 3 months she should come back for more tests. If they come back negative then this was just an infection; if they come back positive she's got a mild case of Crohn's disease.

I'm choosing to think positive that it was all an infection.
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In other news, we got dumped on today. I'm not sure the inches yet, let me go see...oh well, they don't have an actual number yet but we're thinking it's been 6-8 inches so far. H Ditty decided to do the driveway with the snow blower after we got home from the hospital but was unable to get the damn thing started. I shoveled a path from the drive to our back door while he was trying to get it started. My back is better but by the time I was done it was aching a little.

We're now sitting back in front of our respective computers and eating some lunch. He'll probably be going to bed after since he's working tonight and I may join him for a nap. So I'm going to end this so I can finish eating, surf the few sites I want to get to and then go lay down.

Media quote of the day: Mornings in a hospital are filled with possibilities. You could encounter a disease you've never seen before, make a life-saving diagnosis or try out the best new nickname ever [to Turk] Good morning Black Whale! - J.D. on Scrubs

2nd Media quote of the day: We're building an igloo in Central Park! It's going to be legendary! Snow-suit up! - Barney in How I Met Your Mother

Just another Tuesday job search

Looking for work sucks the big one. Since I've given up on the employment agency I have to do this myself and I'm just not seeing anything out there. So I guess I'm gonna do what they were doing, sort of anyway. They made calls to all kinds of places without the company advertising. I'm just gonna send my resume, ad or no ad, to places in my town and the surrounding towns.

Update on my back. It feels better today, even better than yesterday. I took another hydrocodone last night in hopes it would do the same as it did Sunday and it seems to have done so. I think by taking the pill it's allowing it to heal unlike before. I may take another tonight, I'm not sure yet.

Media quote of the day: So, Dawn's in trouble... must be Tuesday. - Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Weekend Update

Friday at the zoo went very well. My mom, Scott's wife and their four kids and I all went. We got there close to noon, had lunch before we went in and then spent a good 3 1/2 hours walking around. All four kids were wonderful, not a whiny one in the bunch. They had fun telling mom and me about all the different times they'd been there and what had happened before.

My nephew, Scott Jr. and I noticed that almost every time we got to a new primate area one of them would take a piss. One of them, a big gorilla that was sitting on a branch that ran along the top of the window along the inside viewing area took a long piss and a bunch of it ran down the window. It was pretty funny because there had been some young girls standing there without knowing the gorilla was up there. When the piss started running down they looked up and squealed and back away. Scott Jr enjoyed that. Also, the biggest one in that exhibit picked it's nose around 5 times and ate it, so the kids got a kick out of that. That was the story they told the most afterward.

In some of the exhibits there's this large round red scratchy thingy for the animals to rub on. One of the camels looked like it was going to scratch it's stomach or chest but then I noticed that it didn't quite do that. It had been rubbing it's chin and neck on it and after it would back away and paw at the ground. It did that 2 or 3 times then it (the thing was laying on the ground by the way) walked over it straddling it with it's front legs. It started to bend down, looked like it was hunching it's back trying to get it's hind legs close up and it's tale was swishing back and forth. It's whole body was sort of twitching. It did this 2 or 3 times also. My mom agreed, it was trying to do the nasty with the scratchy thingy.

Although it's not a big zoo we still didn't see it all so maybe H Ditty and I will go back sometime and check it out.

Saturday was Scott Jr's birthday party (he actually turned 12 on Thanksgiving Day). We got there around 3 and as soon as we walked in the door we were handed a paint color chart saying it was our ticket to get into the show that the girls were going to be putting on a little later. We all had some food and then the girls ran down to the basement to finish working on the routine. Eventually they came and got us, collected the tickets and put on their show. It was the 3 youngest of them (6, 8 and 10) and it was gymnastics routine. Basically they did a bunch of cartwheels but they did them in sync and to music. They're all a bunch of hams. The oldest of all of them used to do these types of things too but she's 14 now and doesn't do it as much. She's the one that taught all of them though so they're just carrying on the tradition.

A little while later they brought out a karaoke machine but no one wanted to sing. Only my SIL and her oldest daughter (the 8 year old). Eventually 14year old sang some, she was very silly while doing it but it was fun to watch. They kept trying to get me to do it but they didn't have anything to get me drunk enough. Although I did end up doing one because I was singing it anyway, just not in the mic. So I finally agreed and took it and finished the song, Proud Mary by Credence Clearwater Revival. The machine they have gives a rating and I got a 67. Which seemed pretty good since I missed half of the words from not starting it and then screwing up when I did start singing into the mic. All the young girls eventually took it over and had a good time singing and competing to get the highest score. All the kids ended up going over to Wayne's (4th oldest brother) house to spend the night. Jason, H Ditty and I stuck around until close to midnight just bullshitting the night away.

Sunday was the game. HD had invited a few people to come over but figured only his dad would show up and sure enough he was the only one. Until he called his wife to bring him one of his Bears hats and she decided to come over to stay too. She also went to the store and bought all kinds of snacks: 4 bags of chips and dip; a cheese, sausage and cracker tray, a cupcake tray and brownies. She misunderstood HD Sr and thought the other people that were invited were here so that's why she bought so much. And of course they left it all here so he's going to take a bunch of it to work tonight.

So we watched the Saints game at noon. Which was awesome! They did what they should have done the previous two games which was kick ass. When there was less than 2 minutes left I changed into my Bears sweatshirt to get ready for that game. HD didn't like that and made me go change back into the Saints sweatshirt. After it was official I went back to the Bears sweatshirt and we proceeded to watch that game. It was an exciting but sad game since they lost. They really should've won though. Ah well.

My back was still bad and around 2ish HD remembered he had some hydrocodone (the generic form of vicodin) from when he had a root canal. So I took one since regular over the counter pain relievers haven't been working. It took awhile to kick in but finally did. It was very nice to be able to stand up, bend over and walk up the stairs normally again. But today it's back to hurting. Doesn't seem as bad though so I wonder if taking that pill allowed it to start healing. If it gets worse again I'll call the doctor.

Media quote of the day: It's true, I'm having a party. I've got three cases of imported beer, karaoke machine, and I didn't invite Michael. - Jim Halpert from The Office

Thanksgiving Day Recap or Nothing much exciting to report for Thanksgiving Day but here it is anyway

So Thanksgiving Day didn't go as planned of course. No holiday plans ever seem to. The day was to go as such: Be at his dad's around 12 and spend between 1-2 hours there, get to his grandma's after that and spend 1-2 hours there and then head to my mom's and end the day there. He would either take a nap at her house and leave for work directly from there or I'd take him home around 6-7ish and he could take a nap then leave from home and I'd go back to mom's after dropping him off. Since H Ditty had worked the night before and was to go in later at 10pm he was supposed to go to bed as soon as possible after getting home Thursday morning. He didn't get into bed until after 9am. All of these times were supposed to work out very well. His dad was supposed to be eating around 12, his grandma around 3 and my mom around 4.

We got a call from his grandma while he was sleeping that she screwed up the time it would take for the turkey to be done so we ended up not having to be at her home so early and we also found out from his dad that eating wouldn't take place until close to 3. We decided to let him sleep until 2 and everything would just get pushed back some. Which was fine since I had already told my mom that we more than likely wouldn't be eating at her place, to not wait for us.

We got to his dad's around 2:50, dinner was at 3:20 and we were out of there by 4:20. Nothing exciting happened here. We met his aunt's new boyfriend and his son, that was about it. Seemed nice enough.

Made it to grandma's house by 4:35 and dinner was finally being served around 5:30. We had the exact same things at both places with one exception, he had some ham at his dad's. Otherwise it was turkey, mashed potatoes and a roll or two. I was disappointed that there wasn't corn or beans at either place. Just that damn green bean casserole, blech! Nothing much happened here either. Usually there's a good political discussion that happens but not this time. Although his uncle did say some things during his grace, which I didn't hear because I was trying to get my nephew to be quiet. HD said he thought his uncle was trying to get a discussion/fight going but no one took the bait. His sisters were giddy, one because she had had half a bottle of wine and the other because she just was.

We finally left there around 7 and headed to my mom's. One of my brother's and his family were already gone but the others were there. All the kids were in the basement playing pool with my oldest brother. My parents and Scott, 2nd oldest brother, were chilling in the livingroom which is where HD and I went to. Eventually Jason, oldest brother, came upstairs and we all just hung out. They had decided not to have a fire, never did learn why, oh well it was still nice. The kids came up for a little while and hung all over HD to look at his camera and the pictures he'd taken that day of his family. We finally headed out a little after 9. I thought about going back after bringing him home but my back was starting to hurt worse and I was getting tired so I stayed home. Besides as my previous post said, I had to get up early because some of us were going to the zoo.

All in all it was a nice day. No arguments, no drama, just good visits everywhere. I wish we could've spent more time at all the places but that's ok, at least we saw everyone for a little while.

No media quote, can't think of anything that would fit.

Obligation

So, I should be going to bed because I have to get up early enough to go pick up my mom then my sister-in-law and her 4 kids and drive us all down to the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago by 10am. We were going to go to the Field Museum but my mom called them for some info and found out that it's the busiest day of the whole year, so yeah, we ain't going there anymore. And since mom and I have never been to that zoo, it's free and the kids will love going there that's where we'll be going.

But it's 11:42pm and I just so don't feel like going to bed. That's bad. But I am tired, helps that I've been drinking since that'll make ya want to sleep. But Bravo has the top 100 funniest movies on that I've been listening to while playing some games on the computer. I've seen it before but it's still fun to watch again.


Ok, I gotta just make myself go. So here I go, gonna get off of here, bye bye.

p.s. My back still hurts like a motherfuck!

Media quote of the day: You pompous, stuck-up, snot-nosed, English, giant, twerp, scumbag, fuck-face, dickhead, asshole. - Otto from A Fish Called Wanda (The movie that they were talking about while I was typing this.)

Back pain

My lower back is in such pain right now. I don't know if it's because I slept wrong or what but about a week ago it started hurting. It wasn't too bad, more annoying than anything else. Then I mowed, bagged and raked the last of the leaves on Friday and that definitely made it hurt worse. I could barely move that night but I took a nice hot bath and some Aleve and that seemed to help some. H Ditty says it'll take awhile for it to stop since it is back pain and that seems to take the longest to heal. But damn, today it hurts worse than any other day. I've been sitting here with a heating pad hoping it'll help but not so far. When I got up a little while ago to reheat the pad (it's a microwave kind) it hurt like a motherfuck to stand and then walk up the stairs to the kitchen. I took some Motrin when I got back to my seat so I'm hoping that'll kick in soon.

Update on the job progress. Last Tuesday Wendi, my headhunter I guess you'd call her, had told me there was a possibility that she wouldn't be in on Wed because of her aunt dying of cancer. Sure enough I got a call at 8:15 Wed. morning from her office saying she wasn't going to be in that day. As soon as she was back she'd call to reschedule me. I didn't hear from her until Monday morning. So I figured her aunt had died. So she calls me Monday, she's booked through the rest of the day but would like to schedule me for Tuesday. I say that I had some things to take care of in the morning but I could make it in in the afternoon. She said she'd check out her schedule and call me back. She didn't call back at all Monday or early Tuesday. So around 9:45 or so I called and they tell me she's no longer working there and they're in the process of reassigning all of her clients. They'll have to call me back once I've been given to someone else and that person will schedule me to come in. It's now 4:25 on Wednesday afternoon and I haven't heard back from anyone. So I've decided that if and when they do I'll do the other route with them. Which is, you've got my info if any company happens to request someone with my credentials then set up an interview for me but I'm not going to be coming in everyday anymore.

I've come to the conclusion that using them has actually hindered me more than helped. Not that Wendi did a poor job because I don't think that at all. I really liked her, I feel like we could have been friends outside of that environment. Plus she really did get a hold of a lot of companies, they just weren't hiring.

Anyway, what I meant by hindering me is that if a company were to hire me they would have to pay the employment agency a fee and unless said company hired them to find them someone they won't want to pay that fee. So I'm thinking that most if not all of the places we sent my resume too that had advertised in the paper didn't want to interview me because my resume came from the employment agency and they didn't want to pay for me. The last job I got was the first and only place I sent my resume to. Yeah, it turned out it wasn't the place for me but so what. It just shows that I do have what someone would want so I'm gonna go it on my own for awhile and see how it goes. Wish me luck.

So tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I don't know if I'll be around to post anything because we're supposed to be going to H Ditty's dad's house, his grandmother's house and my mother's house. His dad's day starts at noon, we haven't heard about his grandmother's yet and my mom's is at 4:00. So we know we'll end the day at her house, just not sure if we'll be going to dad's or grandma's first and at what times. It's gonna be a long day but hopefully it will end in front of a nice bonfire at mom's. The weather is supposed to be nice and as long as it holds up she's gonna have a fire going by 7. And I'll be having me a long island ice tea or at the very least a glass of Irish cream in hand in front of that fire.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it and of those of you who don't...Happy Thursday!

Media quote of the day: [to Izzy about being late for Thanksgiving dinner] Today I committed bird murder, and I was forced to touch my dad's ass. I get extra points for showing up at all. - Dr. George O'Malley from Grey's Anatomy. Mmmmm, I love me some George.

Nothing much to say

So this last week has been rather boring, hence no updates. Last week the chick I've been working with at the employment agency had an aunt die of cancer so I didn't go in at all Wed. thru Fri.

H Ditty and I went to a large video, cd, electronics store with the initials of BB to pick up a battery pack for his digital camera. We had purchased both items at the same time back at the end of July but they had to order everything. The camera and lens were delivered to our house. The battery pack could only be delivered to their store. This store is a good 45 minute drive away from where we live. Now I know it's our own fault for buying these items at this store and not at one in our own hometown but it wasn't until after the deal was going through that the sales guy told us this.

So he tells us that someone will call when the pack is in. No one ever did and since we're procrastinators we didn't call them until the end of Sept or beginning of Oct. So one afternoon H Ditty finally calls them up and we start getting a run around. They can't find it, don't know what's going on they'll call us back. He has to go to bed because he works that night so he tells me that when they call back if they still haven't found it to just cancel the order and put the money back on the card. The lady calls back a little later and says that the delivery date is Oct. 31st. That that was the original date all along. Which is bullshit, there's no way it would be a full 3 months later but whatever. I say to her that we'd like to cancel it and she says we can't. It's a purchased item in their books and has to be delivered. The only way we can do this is on the 31st go pick up the item and then turn right around hand it back to them and say we want to return it.

Now it's November 16th, a good two weeks after it's to be ready for pick up. We drive down and you guessed it, it's not there. They can't find it anywhere in the store and then we're told it's never been ordered. Neither time was it ordered. So again I say I want it taken off the card and the guy tells me he's not sure they can do that but calls over some chick to see. She takes 10 - 15 minutes but it's finally reversed. While she's punching away at the keys she says that it DOES show it was ordered originally in July and that it should be somewhere in the store. We said the guys looked for it and can't find it and it doesn't matter anyway because we don't want it anymore. So she continues and like I said, finally gets it taken care of.

The good thing about it all is that the purchase was a 12 month same as cash deal so at least we weren't paying interest on it for these last few months.

Saturday was my niece's 14th birthday. Had a good time over at her house for her party. I was the only one who bought an actual present, everyone else gave her cash. She raked it in though, got over 170 bucks. I thought about giving cash but I really prefer to give an actual gift. That is, as long as it's something they actually want, which she did. She wanted the board game Deal or No Deal. She was happy to get it, so was her mom, the family planned on playing it that night after everyone had left.

Today the Saints decided to loose another game. Two turn overs in the end zone. Bad, just bad. It was going to be a hard game to win anyway but they very well could have won it if they hadn't turned the damn ball over.

So that's been my boring week. Damn, even when I have nothing to write about apparently I can still ramble and make a long post.

Media quote of the day: I work at a shitty video store! I want to go to a good video store and get a good movie! - Randal Graves - Clerks

Weekend update

Friday after leaving the employment agency I called the dealership where I bought my truck from and made an appointment for them to look at it. I've been getting a low brake fluid warning for a couple weeks now. On Friday it happened 7 times, 4 of those on the way to the dealership. Turns out it wasn't the fluid but the brakes themselves. $225.00 later they're fixed. That hurts when a bitch ain't working yet. Thank God for credit cards.

Saturday was poker night. I came in 2nd, again!! It's my own fault though. I was up 3 to 1 in chips and during one hand I was milking him. I just kept placing 100 dollar bets. Then the last card was flipped. He had already bet half of his chips or I should say called with half his chips, so he decided to make a play and go all in. I called. He sucked out on the river, got a straight to the king. I only had a pair before but the river also gave me a straight, but just to the jack. So that put us pretty much even in chips. After that mine just kind of dwindled away and he ended up winning it all. If I would have just bet high after the flop or maybe even after the turn he would've folded. Oh well, there's always next month.

Yesterday we watched the game that sucked. Saints also should've won but they let themselves loose too. They basically gave the game to the Steelers. Oh well, there's always next week.

Today I went back to the employment agency. Didn't get as much accomplished since she saw me inbetween other clients, more so than normal. But then I didn't have an actual appointment, we both knew that was how it was going to go. I do have an appointment for tomorrow so we should get a lot more done. Not knowing quickbooks is hurting me though. There have been a shit load of companies that want someone with quickbooks knowledge and I don't have it. It won't take me long to learn though, they just have to give me a chance.

Media quote of the day: In my club, I will splash the pot whenever the fuck I please. - Teddy KGB (John Malkovich) in Rounders

Busy week

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
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What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Well, I used to call carbonated drinks pop, until I moved to Louisiana. The land where all carbonated drinks are called Coke. Even if it's a pepsi. It was very confusing for awhile, but once I got the hang of it it was no problem at all. Then, after moving back the first place I worked half the people there lived in Wisconsin where the drinks are called soda and I got in that habit. So now it's mostly soda out of my mouth but coke and pop still come out every now and then.

So this week has been pretty busy for me. Monday while at the employment agency the chick that's helping me asked how I felt about working for the rest of the day. I told her I was game, what did she have in mind. One of the other girls there had been trying to get one of her temp people to go to a one day job but most weren't answering their phone and the others that did said they couldn't go. So I did. Hell, 12 bucks an hour to file some papers, I'll do that. I worked from 11:30 to 4:45. And that is literally all I did for those 5 hours, filed. Then I filed some more. But that was the easiest 60 bucks I think I've ever made. Well, I guess that's not true, working at that asshat of job I had previously there were many a day of doing nothing but surfing the net. But even though all I did was file I at least contributed, I earned my pay. I didn't get home until almost 6 because it took 45 minutes just to make it back into town and then I had to go to the bank before coming home.

Tuesday I was back at the employment agency for Wendi to fax my resume off to some more places and a make a few more calls. Oh yeah, I also took a tutorial on Excel to learn the parts I don't know, which is basically the charts shit. After doing that I retook the test and went from a 73% to 86%. Yep, definitely the charts. I also found it funny that most of the questions on the test weren't covered by the tutorial but because I at least learned where to look and how some of the other things were done I was able to complete some of the questions.

After leaving there I went home, got H Ditty and then we took his little sister who's pregnant to her doctor's appointment. All's good and she's very happy to be having a girl. After those two went to her place of employment so she could cut his hair and I went to Target to get some toilet paper, we were seriously low. Seriously! Then took her back to grandma's where she's staying and then his mom showed up. We ended up not getting home until close to 8, I was starving!

Didn't get into bed until after midnight, didn't fall asleep until close to 1 and then the damn cats started bugging me around 4 to be fed. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep so I called into the employment agency (yes I know, no lectures please) and canceled my appointment. After the scoundrals had been fed (around 6) they left me alone for the most part but I couldn't fall asleep, I'd dose but not sleep. H Ditty got up a little after 8 and after he was out of the bed I slept like a baby until 11. That very well could have been a huge part also. I'm used to sleeping by myself, with him working nights and all. And with him in the bed and then all the cats running all over me I got no sleep.

Did the grocery shopping in the afternoon. Went to Sam's club also. Sam's has some kick ass stuff for Christmas but with us being poor I can't have anything. Oh well.

Oh yeah, the agency had called me Tuesday and asked if I'd go back to the one place again, I agreed to go on Thursday. So that's what I did today. I worked from 9 to 2 and filed again. This place files per job numbers. Everything starts with 19, 20 or 21. There was a wall of filing cabinets. 8 cabinets, 4 drawers each (the wide kind, not the skinny kind). Every one but the last 3 drawers in the 8th cabinet were used. On Monday I had noticed that there were a few files out of order. Donna, the chick I reported too also knew this and asked me today if I would put them in order. It took me 45 minutes to do this, that's how bad they were. I honestly didn't notice before that it was that bad. On Monday there had been 3 very large stacks (a good foot and half to two feet tall) of papers that needed filing. I was only able to file away maybe a quarter of them. Today, after putting things right I got rid of almost all of them, plus all the new things that needed filing in the last 2 days.

So because I've been so busy during the day I wasn't able to keep up with my blog/journal reading. I only did a very small perusel of some of the blogs/journals the last couple of days and played catch up this afternoon. It's taken me many hours to catch up but I feel better now. I was going through withdrawals. What's gonna happen when I finally get a job and It's a real one, one I can't stop by these places. Nevermind, I don't want to think of that now. Happy thoughts, Happy thoughts.

Media quote of the day: As patriotic citizens, it is our duty! According to the Chief Elder, times are only bad if we think they're bad. So we should fill our heads with happy thoughts, and our nation will prosper! - "Dinosaurs" (1991) Earl Sinclair

Music and how it takes you back

Warning: Very long post ahead

The experts say that smell is the sense that promotes memory the most. I have to disagree with that, I think it's sound; at least for me it is. A mother yelling down the street to her kids that it's time to come in is one. Which nowadays you rarely hear since most kids are already indoors playing a computer game or two. But what does it for me the most is music, particularly specific songs.

My earliest memory, I must have been younger than 10, of listening to music by myself is of me sitting in my room putting on one of the records that have a bunch of different artists on them. Was that K-Tel? I remember there being KC and the Sunshine Band, Linda Ronstadt, Elvis and so many more. I would sit in my room, turn on the record player and very carefully put the record on and then the needle. The sound, that scratchy badoop sound, was a harbinger of good things to come. Ronstadt's the one I remember the most. She'd been lied to and cheated on so much that she had to sing about it and let everyone know she wasn't happy. When I hear that song, which isn't often, but when I do I'm instantly back in my room listening to her sing with the scratch of the needle in the background.

The other song that brings me back to young childhood is The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot. It's such a haunting song that to this day I still get tears in my eyes every single time I hear it. My mother would sit at the dining room table paying bills or doing whatever moms do, listening to the radio at a low volume while we kids would be sitting in the living room watching tv. I remember on more than one occasion that song coming on and I would leave whatever was on the tv, no matter how into the show I was, to go stand next to the radio and listen to that beautiful tribute. I would stand there singing along with tears streaming down my face. The 1st time I did it my mom didn't even notice. A few days later when I did it again she asked me what I was doing. When I looked at her my eyes were shining with tears and she instantly got up and held me for the rest of the song and cried along. I'll always remember that special moment with her.

I love rock and roll, I thank my brothers for that. As my bio states I enjoy just about anything played on classic rock stations. And many a song will remind me of something or other of my childhood.

The 80's flashbacks on the radio remind me of my teen years. I was more a fan of the hairbands than any other kind of 80's music but there's a few others that will take me back. I don't care for Bruce Springsteen, I know blasphemy, but there's two songs of his that when I hear them do it for me. Pink Cadillac (which I hate so won't listen to, just the first few words are enough) and I'm on Fire which is alright. Pink Cadillac, Missing You - John Waite , Money for Nothing (I Want My MTV) - Dire Straits and These Dreams - Heart all take me back to the summer of '85 when I worked in Wisconsin Dells as a bus person. It was the best summer and job of my life. There are times that I wish I were back there if even for just one day.

Then there's the "This is our song" songs. Now normally you'd only remember your own but my oldest brother was a huge influence on me and The Scorpions' No One Like You makes me think of him with his girlfriend at the time. I think it sticks with me because she broke his heart (the cunt). And it hurts me every time I think about it. He deserves someone special.

My first "our song" was George Michael's Father Figure. My first serious boyfriend wanted to be everything to me and he thought that song just summed up our relationship. It was a toss up between that song and Terance Trent D'Arby's Sign Your Name, which I thought fit better but I let him choose.

Nightrangers' When I See You Smile was the song I had with my exhusband. That one fit so well because before it came out I used to tell everyone to smile all the time. Especially my fiance when he was feeling down or just whenever he wasn't smiling. I didn't do it in an irritating way, just so you know, I did it because I genuinely wanted to see people and especially him smile. Then the song came out and it just fit with us. When I hear that song I think of him of course but in particular when we saw them in concert. It was in some small venue/bar in New Orleans. Everyone had to stand, there weren't seats or tables anywhere. We had gotten there early enough to be directly in front of the stage. At the end of that song the guitarist threw his pick into the audience and I caught it. Have no clue where it is now but for awhile it was stuck in the frame of a picture of us. When we got married that song just didn't fit well enough to be our first dance song so we chose Angel Eyes by The Jeff Healey Band which also was special to us.

Wow, even just mentioning that one brought up a whole new memory that I had forgotten about until just now. When it first came out I loved it, as so many others did. When I went to my towns local record store to buy it the owner looked me up and down and said, "You don't want it, just get the single." Now I knew him as well as any customer could who goes into the store on a three times a month if not more basis. He was always good to us kids, stayed open later than normal on the weekends for us scoop the loopers. He was a 30 something black guy, I was an 18 year old white chick. He says the rest of the album is nothing like that song. It's a blues band and that's what the album is, he looked me up and down again and says, "Katrina, you're a white girl, you wouldn't like the first song that came on." Now is that not just the snottiest thing to say to me or what? But I laughed and said that, "Yes, I may be white but I would like the first song that came on and all the rest if they were even half as good as Angel Eyes. Whether they sounded like that or the deepest, darkest blues." Now, admittedly most of the blues songs I knew at that time were by Led Zeppelin but if you know anything about Zep you know they stole and stole and stole from the best blues artists around. And I liked just about every one of their blues songs. The few other songs I had heard by blues artists I also liked. So after mentioning this to him he laughed right back and said that he'd sell it to me but if I ended up not liking it I could return it. I loved every song and still have the cassette. Just can't play it anymore because of having no cassette player. Haven't thought about it in years, now after this I must see if it's available on CD so I can get it. Maybe other stuff by them too. The next time I was in the store I let him know that it was all I'd listen too. He was very proud. Makes me laugh.

H Ditty and I have a couple songs but other than very private moments there's no real stories to go with them.

There was one week in August of '88 that will always be special to me for many reasons. I was in Gulf Shores Alabama with my best friend and there was a song for just about every day. Monday is Aerosmith's Angel, Wednesday is G n R's Sweet Child O' Mine, Thursday is Eagles' Hotel California and Friday is Def Leppard's Love Bites. All for specific reasons that I won't go into at this time. Maybe one day if you ask me nicely.

Whenever I hear a Police or Sting song my Freshman and sophomore English teacher comes to mind. She was 24 and had a huge crush on Sting. She had a poster of him up on the wall in the classroom. The top left corner started to peel away from the wall about halfway through my Freshman year. One day she goes into the room and it's gone. Turns out the janitor tossed it. It had fallen off the wall and was on the floor when he had come in to clean so rather than put it on her desk he tossed it in the garbage. She was not a happy camper.

There are other songs, of course, many many 80's songs. Especially the silly 80's songs such as Safety Dance and Puttin on the Ritz and Amadeus that just make me happy. I hated Safety Dance when it was out, as I did most top 40 songs then but I can appreciate them now and some I even like.

Whenever I hear a Prince song it usually makes me think of The Funny Bone, a comedy club in Baton Rouge. Or at least, it was there when I lived there, don't know about now. One night there was a hypnotist, by the way, if you ever get a chance to see a comedic hypnotist do it it's some of the best stuff around. Anyway, this guy asks if there's anyone that knows a song from start to finish. One guy raises his hand and says he knows Little Red Corvette. He goes up on stage, the hypnotist talks to him for a bit, says some things, snaps his fingers and the guy starts singing away. No music, just him up on stage and within the first couple lyrics he was into it. So much so that this tall skinny white boy became small skinny black Prince. It was a sight to see and the audience was eating it up. He got a standing O when he was done. I felt bad for the next person. It was a chick that said she new Madonna's Like A Virgin. She did know the song but the hypnotist basically put these people under to become the artist. It was very sad, she couldn't sing and she had no rhythm. Her slithering around on stage and trying to be all sexy was just not working. About halfway through the song the hypnotist stopped her. She had no clue, she thought she had finished. I will say this about the audience, we still clapped and cheered for her. No one booed or hollered anything mean, we did laugh quite a bit though while it was going on, couldn't help that.

Nostalgia is a wonderful thing and as I said nothing brings me back like the sound of music.

Media quote of the day:
Leaves are falling all around, It's time I was on my way.
Thanks to you, I'm much obliged for such a pleasant stay.
But now it's time for me to go. The autumn moon lights my way.
For now I smell the rain, and with it pain, and it's headed my way.
Sometimes I grow so tired, but I know I've got one thing I got to do...

Ramble On, And now's the time, the time is now, to sing my song.
I'm goin' 'round the world, I got to find my girl, on my way.
I've been this way ten years to the day, Ramble On,
Gotta find the queen of all my dreams.

Got no time for spreadin' roots, The time has come to be gone.
And to' our health we drank a thousand times, it's time to Ramble On.

Partial song of Ramble On by Led Zeppelin