WHY COULDN'T I WIN THE $385 MILLION

All I have to say is that I am glad today is behind me. Somewhere inside of me is a perfectionist. It is laughable because I have an over riding Devil May Care attitude.

Thank God Survivor is on tonight and tomorrow is Friday.

St. Patrick's Day is 22 days away!!

TOIL AND TROUBLE

I am distracted. From blogging. I can not find the time to slip into the local libraries and create a work of joy and passion. At one time I was able to do this job with half my brain tied behind my back. Now I find the standards are higher, the pressure is more intense, the demands are non-ending.

The week flies by.

I am beginning to put the names with the faces. I am beginning to know who does what, who is on the fast track, who is a good worker, who is a complainer, who to avoid, who is bitchy, and who can get things done.

It is very different from the Center in Lexington. A lot of the differences are good and some are disappointing. That's life.

This week one of the Big Wigs is coming to our Center for a visit. He gets to ride with me. Oh joy. A year ago, I would have been in a panic. Now it is just an inconvenience because I have to clean my car, get totally organized for that day, and get my hair done.

One must impress in all ways possible.

TIMBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dag gone it if I haven't gone and fallen again! Slipped on ice that I did not see. It was hiding under that light cover of snow.

I felt the foot start to lose contact and for one brief moment I thought I might have enough momentum going to right myself.

Nope. Fell like a ten ton Lizzie crashing down on my left hip. I was too shocked to even scream. And it hurt like hell. There was no one around ...... always the first thought, "Did someone see!!!"....and only then did I wonder if I was hurt, really hurt.

I was able to walk it off, brush off the snow. I believe I was stunned. All in all, the arch on the left foot is pulled, my left shoulder is smarting and I am going to have a sizable bruise on my hip. But, I'm okay.

How much longer? This makes the fourth fall in less that a year. One of these days I'm going to go down and break something. I must stop this absurd hobby of mine!!!

Resurgence of a Love Affair

This past weekend I wandered into EAR-X-TACY on Bardstown Rd. in Louisville to kill some time. I ended up purchasing three CD's. It easily could have been 30. I walked around the store hanging all my selections on my arm and when I was finished I allowed myself only three. It was tough to narrow it down.

While driving down south earlier I picked up a handful of CD's to make the ride with me. I choose them without too much thought. I think I just grabbed! One happened to be Wilson Picketts Greatest Hits. I remember buying this CD, maybe in 1999. Bridget and I had been listening to the radio, the terrific college station out of G.-town Ky (station no longer exists much to EVERYONES sorrow). We sat in the parked car listening to the very end of his version of HEY JUDE with Duane Allman adding the most unforgettable guitar! Right up there rivaling the Beatles' version. (snicker and eye roll...yea right, but it is very good).

I have been a Wilson Pickett fan since I was in the 6th or 7th grade. I had his album, I believe it was called "The Exciting Wilson Pickett". It contained much of what is on the greatest hits album! Funky Broadway, Midnight Hour, Mustang Sally...

I played that album over and over and over. I believe Judy, my close friend from down the street, tried to teach me how to Boogaloo and Shingaling to those songs. She was a terrific dancer. I am strickly an Irish Jig dancer!

I played that album until it turned gray.

I had this tiny little record player, solid black, that I could put an attachment on the spindle and play 45's. And man, did I have a lot of 45's. Most my Beatle song's were in that format.

Driving down the interstate this week end I thinking about all those albums that I owned, collected and loved. Trying to remember them. The Beatles Second Album was my very first LP. Quickly followed by A Hard's Day Night. Judy had Meet The Beatles, so I did not want to waste my money duplicating what we already had. I won sergeant Peppers Lonely Heart's Club Band in a drawing at the downtown record store in Lexington. I passed it everyday on my walk to the Greyhound Bus station to ride the "greasy bus" home. It almost made those two years of bus riding worth it, but not quite.

I had the Monkee's. For some reason, I think it may have been being 12 years old, I adored the Monkees.

I had Paul Revere and the Raiders. Same reason.

I had Wilson Pickett. I had the Temptations and the Supremes album from a TV show they did. It was wonderful and I played it a million times too.

I had Rubber Soul.

I had the McCoys' HANG ON SLOOPY. Once again, I was 12!!

My collection of LP's was small. Yet, I remember those albums and their covers as if they are in my hands and I am preparing to slide the albums on the drop spindle so I could lay on my bed in my pink room and day dream listening to all that, what is now, classic music.

For 15 years I collected records. My collection was so large that it was a gigantic hassle to move it. And that is precisely the reason why I lost it. Lazy. Too heavy to carry down from the third floor. I left it in storage at the apartment building and when I went back to reclaim it, I was told that it was gone. That there was nothing up there. The neighbors across the hall had moved, and obviously they took it along with all their things in storage.

I was torn up. I had only myself to blame. In the back of my mind I suspected that the record collection sat in the managers apartment rather than taken away by the innocent family who lived across the hall.

It was one hell of a collection. From 1964 - 1978. Probably worth a small fortune in 2006 dollars.

I collected albums again from 1979 till I sold my whole collection at a yard sale in 2003. It ranks up there with one of the stupidest things I have ever done. Once again, I was so tired of moving it around!!!

As punishment, I had avoided buying music for years. I had a handful of CD's. Sort of re-collecting my lost stuff. Allman Brothers, Todd Rundgren, Eric Clapton, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Guns-N-Roses, Neil Young.

Last year, I discovered purchasing used CD's via the internet, and Oh My God have I ever started collecting again. Like Gang Busters. Crazy stuff. I buy it having never heard it! So far, I have been very lucky. Only one or two I have cringed when I push it into the player in the vehicle.

Ear-X-tacy is like a candy store. Used CD's along with the new stuff. No one can beat this place for finding off the wall stuff. It ranks right up there with Amazon.

I picked up Macy Gray for $5 and I only this morning have taken her out! It is a terrific album. Now I have "Cuba Cuba" in there. And "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" is on standby.

I have an Ashley McIsaac album on the way too.

It is out of hand!

And absolutely terrific!!

Running with sissors

(Lexington Cemetery)

I am home alone. Jumping up and down on the bed. Running with sissors. Drinking milk out of the jug. All that good stuff when no one is watching.

I made the four+ hour trip home yesterday because my Mom needed me. I could tell by the timbre in her voice Thursday. So I went. Watching my parents age is excruciating. My Mom spoke to me with her head down, not looking me in the eye, that she hoped she never became a burden to us children. That if her mind began to weaken, if her body failed her, she just hoped that she would not have to burden us children.

Bull hockey. Not about what she said, but that she should have to worry. It KILLS me. I know so many of us are there now, watching our parents fail, struggle to remain independent. I try to always make light of it. She will never be a burden to us. After all, there are six of us to spread her.....to take care of her if need be.

I'm babbling.

I kinda, sort of changed the subject and recalled one of the family legends. Aunt Pat and Grandma (my Mom's Mom) had a face off. Grandma had been staying with Pat because she had fallen. Grandma had wanted my other Aunt (Maura) to leave her husband in Texas and return to NYC to take care of her. Maura was the eldest girl, it was her duty. Maura refused. Pat was left with taking Grandma in. This is not a sob story. Grandma owned a home in the Bronx surrounded by extended family. She had fallen and was recovering. Grandpa had passed away several years prior.

Blah blah blah.

Grandma was...... how do I put this...not a sympathetic character. In every picture ever taken of her, she never smiled. She scared the Hell out of me. This is an evaluation held by every grandchild.

Everyone. All 15 of us.

Pat told her, "Mom, we are going to Ireland. You will be fine!"

And Grandma put the curse on her.

"YOU WILL NEVER SEE ME ALIVE AGAIN."

Of course she died. Pat had to come home from Ireland.

It really is not funny. It is actually scary. Grandma had the "gift". And other powers.

Anyway...I babble because it is Sunday night and it has snowed and I raced to the cemetary and tried to get a picture of The Wiggins girl catching snow flakes.

And Pittsburg is winning the Super Bowl. There is one hell of a party going on at Omega's house. (she is married to a great guy from Pittsburg).