The One With Sarcasm Thursday

Okay, so I do not limit sarcasm to Thursdays. But I am afraid I may have outdone myself last night, posting on my other blog. Please do go and visit.... leave a comment. I seriously can use some validation today. It has been a long week! {Just click on the photo or the link below, or, well... HERE.}

She Said: Earnest, With a Side of Sarcasm

The One About Nobody

A post a day. Why did I say I would do that? Crazy talk. Dillon registered for school today. Do you realize I have a child in elementary school, one in middle school, one in high school, one in Marines music school, one on a mission, one at BYU, and one at UCLA law school? Holy Hannah Montana… do you think I missed anything? But that is not what I wanted to post about today.

I wanted to mention that I finally caught up my photography blog a bit, and put in some samples of some of the photos I have taken this summer. You can click on the link on the left side of the blog to check them out. You will have to tell me which ones you like. But that is not really my post today either.

I actually wanted to talk about reading today. I haven’t read much this whole year. I have been focusing on music, and have mostly deprived myself of my usual entertainment. Yes, I can’t lie. I love TV. But the books… I have been avoiding them, because I know I neglect other things when I indulge. I have decided to change that, and I am looking forward to it.

I read a book by Neil Gaiman this summer called The Graveyard Book. I don’t always love his books, although I really enjoyed Stardust. My only problem with his books is that I don’t always connect with the characters. My favorite books are those where I love the characters, and feel like I know them. For instance, Orson Scott Card, one of my favorite authors, writes characters that become part of my family, practically. Now, I am not a huge fan of sad books. But there is this one book Card wrote, called Lost Boys. You read along, falling deeper and deeper into the story, and all of a sudden a couple of chapters from the end, there is a twist. Suddenly, everything you thought you knew has changed, and your heart breaks into jagged shards and you sit in the bathroom with a big wad of Kleenex for an hour. And then when you have stopped sniffling, he very carefully patches you back together so that you can finish the book and find out how it all turns out. An author who can do that… well, it is a gift.

Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book really worked for me. It is a story of a boy named Nobody who is adopted by ghosts, and I admit I shed a few tears over him as well.

Next up, there is a new Shannon Hale book I want to read. Question: If you could pick just one book for me to read, what would it be?

The One With the Old-School iPod

I know, I know. I have been a really poor blogger this summer. I am repenting. A post a day, for the next week. That is my pledge. So... this Wassily Kandinsky print hangs over the computer in my office/studio. It is from 1925, and is entitled “Yellow, Red, Blue.” Why? Anyone’s guess, people.

I do a lot of pondering while I sit at my computer and work on music. I have always liked this particular painting, but over the last few months, I have realized that it has a lot of familiar, comforting things about it. I see an old-school iPod Nano (I used to have one in that very color) sitting in a dock on a pedestal, two Rubik’s Cubes, chopsticks, most of a solar system, a question mark, stairs, an X-acto knife, a flag, cat’s whiskers, musical staff and a blue moon. What do you see? And what is hanging in your special place?

Note: The X-acto knife was invented in the 1930’s... Rubik’s Cube in 1974, and the iPod... well, you know. Do you suppose they all owe a little something to old Wassily?

The One Where She Is Grounded

I am grounded. It is a punishment my parents didn’t utilize much. Or at all, really. I think they realized that it was like punishment for them. Maybe they couldn’t get me out of the house to begin with. Either that or I was really good and never needed punishing. (Yeah, that’s the ticket) Anyway, I’m making up for their oversight right now. I have been neglecting something important. Something I am passionate about. My songs. Under construction. I need to write three more songs in the next five weeks. So I am going to power through some composing this weekend. Lyrics, here I come. (I’m psyching myself up… can you tell?) I can do this.

From what am I grounded, you ask? (ooh... beautiful grammar) The Blog, of course. My comfy Welcome Mat. I’m not allowed back until I get the lyrics written for one song. I have already grounded myself from the TV, my favorite books… food… I’ve tried to ground myself from my responsibilities, but darn them, they keep following me wherever I go. So really, all that is left is the blog. My last refuge. My home away from home, right in the comfort of my own home. My little bloggity-blog, with my blog-alicious friends. My favorite time-sucking pastime. So close, but just out of my reach. There’s a little tear in my eye, right now.

Just to prove that I’m punishing myself, and not you, I’m posting a little love for you here, in the form of this mp3. Let’s call it “Wait For Me.” Oh! Another little tear… maybe I’ll stay up all night.

The One With the Walk on the Wild Side

I change my bloggy skin fairly often. I must admit, I like it here in the blog. It is its own world. It has certain, shall we say, advantages over the real world… for instance, it is always clean here, and if I leave for a couple of hours and then come back, SURPRISE! It’s still clean. Not so in my real house. I would love to decorate my house, but I find it prohibitively expensive. But here in my blog, I can slipcover, reupholster… even using this particular fabric that looks like it costs $85 a yard… and the cost to redecorate? $0. Take that, Mastercard. At that price, I can afford to change my blog every time I change my mind.

I probably won’t keep this “skin” for long. It is really a lot to take in. But as I was browsing through blog decorating land (this one is from www.shabbyblogs.com), I saw it and just had to try it on. And when I did, I found myself transported, somehow. There was something about it that reminded me of a favorite book, Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak. It was though in my room a forest grew… and grew… until the ceiling hung with vines and the walls became the world all around. I am just waiting for the ocean to tumble by, with a private boat just for me, so that I can sail through night and day, and in and out of weeks and almost over a year… to where the wild things are.

I enjoyed Where the Wild Things Are as a child, but I enjoy it even more as an adult with a Max of my very own. Every one of my boys has had a little Max in him. Sometimes more than a little. Last July Skippy was about to turn five, and the day before his birthday, a package arrived from Amazon.com. It was a beautiful hardcover edition of Where the Wild Things Are for Skippy from his missionary brother, Casey. There was a card inside. It read: “To: Skippy (The Wild Thing). Have a Happy Birthday. Eat lots of cake. And cause lots of mischief… just as long as you’re wearing a wolf suit. Love you much. From Casey (The Original Max).”




I think we’ll just walk on the wild side for a couple of days... cause some mischief... eat lots of cake. I might even get out my wolf suit.

The One Where the Grass Was Greener On Someone Else’s Ranch

I want to be Pioneer Woman. At the very least, she and I should be best friends. It is true…I dream of Ree Drummond’s life on the ranch. I would really like to go and chop some wood right now. Or milk a cow. Marinate some flank steak. Step in something. Ride out to check the back forty. Unfortunately, it’s not going to happen today. Well, you never know…I could probably step in something. But I am in Orange County. Here we have two seasons: spring and summer. We have the only tree for miles around that changes colors in the fall, and people always seem so surprised by it. Um, did you notice that your tree is turning red, and the leaves are falling off?

But enough wishing for what I cannot have. Her blog is not really about living on a ranch. It is about having a beautiful life. I admire the way PW takes photos of everyday things, and calls it art. I can do that. It is free fun. So I am issuing myself a challenge. Every day this week I am going to photograph something I think is beautiful, post it and call it art. I already know what my first entry has to be… you can look for it later tonight. Anyone have any suggestions for the rest of the week?