Strange Pulse

I don’t think I’ll ever view Husker Du’s song about a hurricane, “Dead Set on Destruction,” the same way again.

I know 9-11 really changed some song’s meanings for me. “Waitress in the Sky,” by the Replacements, I used to think of as a cute, fun put-down song. But I couldn’t even listen to it for a long time after 9-11.

The song I did listen to, over and over, after 9-11, was Jeff Buckley’s “Eternal Life.” The lyrics just seemed to fit so perfectly. I’ll post all three songs to the radio.blog, but here’s the lyrics to “Eternal Life.”

Eternal Life by Jeff Buckley

Eternal Life is now on my trail
Got my red glitter coffin, man, just need one last nail
While all these ugly gentlemen play out their foolish games
There’s a flaming red horizon that screams our names

And as your fantasies are broken in two
Did you really think this bloody road would
Pave the way for you?
You better turn around
and blow your kiss hello to life eternal, angel

Racist everyman, what have you done?
Man, you’ve made a killer of your unborn son…
Crown my fear your king at the point of a gun
All I want to do is love everyone…

And as your fantasies are broken in two
Did you really think this bloody road would
Pave the way for you?
You better turn around
and blow your kiss hello to life eternal….

There’s no time for hatred, only questions
What is love, where is happiness, what is Life,
where is peace?
When will I find the strength to bring me release?

And tell me where is the love in what your prophet has said?
Man, It sounds to me just like a prison for the walking dead
And I’ve get a message for you and your twisted hell
You better turn around and blow your kiss goodbye
to life eternal angel…

My husband turned 36 yesterday. We’re both so oblivious to age, we thought he was turning 37. It wasn’t until a friend said “no way” and we did the math that we realized he’s only 36.

He had to work half the day, then we went to the beach. There was no surf for him to ride, but the kids took his surfboards out and rode around on the foam.

My husband also got himself a skimboard. Here he is waxing it:

(L-R: Our friend Steve, Daniel, and our son)

The glob in the sky is a defect in my camera, I’m too lazy right now to photoshop it out of there.

Planes kept flying by with advertisments for new tv shows. Only in California…

Daniel skimboarding with our two oldest in the water:

Another advertisement:

The beach we go to (a local spot that’s usually pretty deserted) is pretty close to the Long Beach harbor–you get these giant freight carriers going by:

This next one is one of my favorites–I was framing up a shot of my kids, along with some other kid on a boogie board, when Daniel came sailing into the picture on his skimboard.

It was a good afternoon. We came home and bbq’d.

This hurricane disaster is mind-boggling. Not as mind-boggling as the tsunami–I’ll never be able to comprehend that much destruction and death–but still, a whole city under water? And all those people trapped in the Superdome. I can’t even imagine.

I’m gonna toss out the Curmudgeon’s challenge to donate to the Red Cross. I know I don’t have as many readers, but I also know I probably wouldn’t have donated if I hadn’t read this post.

Well, maybe I would have, but I’m not sure. I may have just paid an extra big fast offering to my church (who uses those offerings for situations like this), but now I’m doing both.

I was unemployed and completely broke when the tsunami hit and couldn’t donate anything to the Red Cross. Now I can.

Here’s a direct link:

http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html

I got this from the Chronic Curmudgeon, who got it from PSoTD. Look up the top 100 songs of the year you graduated high school(scroll down the page) and bold the ones you liked.

1. Faith, George Michael
2. Need You Tonight, INXS
3. Got My Mind Set On You, George Harrison
4. Never Gonna Give You Up, Rick Astley
5. Sweet Child O’ Mine, Guns N’ Roses
6. So Emotional, Whitney Houston
7. Heaven Is A Place On Earth, Belinda Carlisle
8. Could’ve Been, Tiffany
9. Hands To Heaven, Breathe
10. Roll With It, Steve Winwood
11. One More Try, George Michael
12. Wishing Well, Terence Trent d’Arby
13. Anything For You, Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine
14. The Flame, Cheap Trick
15. Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car, Billy Ocean
16. Seasons Change, Expose
17. Is This Love, Whitesnake
18. Wild, Wild West, Escape Club
19. Pour Some Sugar On Me, Def Leppard
20. I’ll Always Love You, Taylor Dayne
21. Man In The Mirror, Michael Jackson
22. Shake Your Love, Debbie Gibson
23. Simply Irresistible, Robert Palmer
24. Hold On To The Nights, Richard Marx
25. Hungry Eyes, Eric Carnen
26. Shattered Dreams, Johnny Hates Jazz
27. Father Figure, George Michael
28. Naught Girls (Need Love Too), Samantha Fox
29. A Groovy Kind Of Love, Phil Collins
30. Love Bites, Def Leppard
31. Endless Summer Nights, Richard Marx
32. Foolish Beat, Debbie Gibson
33. Where Do Broken Hearts Go, Whitney Houston
34. Angel, Aerosmith
35. Hazy Shade Of Winter, Bangles
36. The Way You Make Me Feel, Michael Jackson
37. Don’t Worry, Be Happy, Bobby McFerrin
38. Make Me Lose Control, Eric Carnen
39. Red Red Wine, UB40
40. She’s Like The Wind, Patric Swayze
41. Bad Medicine, Bon Jovi
42. Kokomo, Beach Boys
43. I Don’t Wanna Go On With You Like That, Elton John
44. Together Forever, Rick Astley
45. Monkey, George Michael
46. Devil Inside, INXS
47. Should’ve Known Better, Richard Marx
48. I Don’t Wanna Live Without Your Love, Chicago
49. The Loco-Motion, Kylie Minogue
50. What Have I Done To Deserve This?, Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield
51. Make It Real, Jets
52. What’s On Your Mind, Information Society
53. Tell It To My Heart, Taylor Dayne
54. Out Of The Blue, Debbie Gibson
55. Don’t You Want Me, Jody Watley
56. Desire, U2
57. I Get Weak, Belinda Carlisle
58. Sign Your Name, Terence Trent d’Arby
59. I Want To Be Your Man, Roger
60. Girlfriend, Pebbles
61. Dirty Diana, Michael Jackson
62. 1-2-3, Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine
63. Mercedes Boy, Pebbles
64. Perfect World, Huey Lewis and the News
65. New Sensation, INXS
66. Catch Me (I’m Falling), Pretty Poison
67. If It Isn’t Love, New Edition
68. Rocket 2 U, Jets
69. One Good Woman, Peter Cetera
70. Don’t Be Cruel, Cheap Trick
71. Candle In The Wind, Elton John
72. Everything Your Heart Desires, Daryl Hall and John Oates
73. Say You Will , Foreigner
74. I Want Her, Keith Sweat
75. Pink Cadillac, Natalie Cole
76. Fast Car, Tracy Chapman
77. Electric Blue, Icehouse
78. The Valley Road, Bruce Hornsby and The Range
79. Don’t Be Cruel, Bobby Brown
80. Always On My Mind, Pet Shop Boys
81. Piano In The Dark, Brenda Russell Featuring Joe Esposito
82. When It’s Love, Van Halen
83. Don’t Shed A Tear, Paul Carrack
84. We’ll Be Together, Sting
85. I Hate Myself For Loving You, Joan Jett and The Blackhearts
86. I Don’t Want To Live Without You, Foreigner
87. Nite And Day, Al B. Sure
88. Don’t You Know What The Night Can Do, Steve Winwood
89. One Moment In Time, Whitney Houston
90. Can’t Stay Away From You, Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine
91. Kissing A Fool, George Michael
92. Cherry Bomb, John Cougar Mellancamp
93. I Still Believe, Brenda K. Starr
94. I Found Someone, Cher
95. Never Tear Us Apart, INXS
96. Valerie, Steve Windwood
97. Just Like Paradise, David Lee Roth
98. Nothin’ But A Good Time, Poison
99. Wait, White Lion
100. Prove Your Love, Taylor Dayne

I don’t even know most of them. Or remember them, at least. I think the best song on the list is Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.” I’ll post it to the radio.blog.

Unida

Unida

Melvins

Brant Bjork

The Joggers

Ted Leo & the Pharmacists

The Frames

Pedro the Lion

I made a mix cd titled “You Will Sing and Dance. Garaunteed.” awhile ago. It’s got mostly oldies on it. I just can’t imagine anyone not moving or singing along to at least one of the songs on it.

I’ve thought about making a bunch of copies of it and just leaving it in public places for someone to find. And enjoy. Maybe I will if I can ever remember to.

Here’s the tracklist:

Sugar Sugar - The Archies
Express Yourself - Charles Wright
Runaway - Del Shannon
Oooh Child - The Staple Singers
Shop Around - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
Be My Baby - The Ronettes
Wonderful World - Sam Cooke
Son of a Preacherman - Dusty Springfield
Let’s Stay Together - Al Green
Higher Ground - Stevie Wonder
Where Did Our Love Go? - The Supremes
He’s So Fine - The Angels
Sunday Morning People - The Honey Cone
People Get Ready - Eva Cassidy
Keep On Keeping On - Curtis Mayfield
Will You Love Me Tomorrow - The Shirelles
I’ll Be Around - The Spinners
Mr. Big Stuff - Jean Knight
Baby Love - The Supremes
Come Running - Van Morrison
In the Midnight Hour - Wilson Pickett
Wig-Wam Bam - Sweet

I’ll post “Mr. Big Stuff” and “Runaway” to the radio.blog.

If you want a copy, email me your address.

Yesterday, Saturday, was the temple youth celebration. 4,000 LDS youth of Orange County put on a big performance of dancing and singing to celebrate the new temple being dedicated today in Newport Beach. The president of our church, Gordon B. Hinckley, was there, and spoke to the youth. It was out in Anaheim at a huge stadium called the Pond. Our two oldest were in it and did a great job. I can’t believe I didn’t bring my camera. I’ll try to post more about it later, but there’s just so much I’d want to describe, I don’t want to get into it now.

This morning President Hinckley is dedicating the new temple, and we’ll be watching from a stake center where it will be broadcast. More on that later, possibly, too.

So last night at about 9:30, after picking the kids up from where they were dropped off by their youth leaders, we headed back out to Anaheim to a bowling alley where my husband’s company was throwing a big party. It was to raise money for a charity, and co-sponsered by Rock Star energy drinks. There were a bunch of bands playing. The deal was, you were supposed to wear white, which I thought was totally lame and very California. But it turns out the bowling alley was all lit up by black lights, so it was really cool to see everyone all in white and glowing.

It was like a disco bowling alley–the lanes were all lit up with lights and in between bands they played dance music.

Really loud dance music.

(My daughter, my son’s friend, and Daniel.

It reminded me a lot of going to Skate King as a kid.

We were the only ones to bring any kids along. Everyone there were young hotties, party crowd, the California blond/tan/half naked types. It was goofy.

The headining band was Alien Ant Farm, and they were pretty good. But the PA kept cutting out on them so they’d have to stop between songs and fix it.

We managed to grab a bowling lane and bowl half a game before the lane started eating our bowling balls–wouldn’t return them to us. Our friend Steve who is staying with us for a while, and working with Daniel, walked down the lane to try to see what was up, but couldn’t get it fixed.

(Third Drawer Snowboards is my husband’s company.)

We left before Alien Ant Farm were done–too tired, and our bowling lane wasn’t working anymore. And the kids weren’t exactly thrilled to be watching a bunch of rather skanky adults dancing.

I wore the only white tshirt I have, which actually belongs to our friend Dave (but he’s always leaving his clothes at our house). Kozy Kitten Massage Parlor:

Man I need a haircut.

Too tired to write much more than it was a good show, and Neko Case is no longer with the band. I didn’t realize the woman singing wasn’t her until someone told me afterwards.

More pics and some videoclips here:

http://qsysue.tagplazen.org/shows/newpornographers

About 7 years ago (!!), my husband realized he was never going to make it in his chosen field without a college degree, so he went back to school, and I went to work fulltime to support our family. It was a very difficult 5 years, we all really had to sacrifice to get through it. After graduating, it took him about a year to find a job, down here in Cali. And after he found a job, we realized we’d never be able to get by on his initial salary, and I had to also go back to work fulltime.

While he was in school, our goal was just to get him through school and move to California. I was hoping (assuming) during all that time that when he got a job, I’d be able to stay home with the kids while they were teenagers, and I was thinking of going back to school for a sign language interpreter’s certification–something that pays well that I could do part time and basically set my own hours. How rad would that be? But of course, it’s not in the cards. I’ll probably have to work fulltime as a web developer for at least another three years, probably more like five, and possibly even after that.

And I’m ok with it, because I enjoy my current job so much. I really hate not seeing the kids, and my commute is really long, so that makes it even longer that I’m away each day. (I don’t get home from work until about 7:30pm, or even later.)

I’ve also realized that I wouldn’t do very well as an interpreter, because of my auditory processing disorder–I have a hard time hearing things people say. Well, I hear them, I just sometimes have trouble processing them–it doesn’t actually reach my brain. It’s hard to explain what it’s like. But I’ve realized that my APD is what’s always made me so fascinated by and interested in sign language.

Anyway, my lack of a long-term goal leaves me feeling kinda weird. For so long, I was so focused on just getting to the point where Daniel was done with school. Now we’re way past that, and while he has some professional career goals–he’s planning on giving the company he works for 5 years, and if they haven’t grown enough to pay him what he should be making, he’ll leave (they hired him to help them grow, and he’s actually making the same amount of money as the owners)–we, or I, don’t have any goals beyond that.

We’re living in an apartment, so you’d think I’d have the goal of eventually getting into a house, but no. I’m so tired of moving. I don’t want to move until the kids are done with high school! No more moving! Please! I don’t care if we’re stuck in a small, crappy apartment! At least there’s a pool and I never have to pack anything again!

So, I don’t know. Just feels kinda weird, coasting along day to day with no big target in sight anymore.

Other people’s kids, I mean. They make me wonder what funny things my kids are telling other kids’ parents. And by funny, I mean awkward.

My son’s friend, when I asked him if we were paying for his fast food meal or he was, started telling me all about his dad’s finances, how he’s expecting a welfare check soon, etc. That was awkward.

Once I was substitute teaching a sunday school class of 4 year olds. The lesson was on how God is our Heavenly Father, and we were supposed to talk about fathers and stuff. So I asked the kids about their dads. One boy said, “My dad isn’t at church today. He hasn’t been home all weekend. Because he’s been drinking and my mom is not having it.”

That was awkward.