Confessions of a Lazy Blogger

 

My daughter's kitty Zizi who passed a while ago

I have been enjoying other bloggers' long posts full of links and photos and diary-like reporting of their lives, and I think yeah I should do that too. Then I think nah I can't be bothered. Today I had planned a longer post for Jim's Song Lyric Sunday, which would have featured the song "I Hate Myself for Loving You" by Joan Jett, who was born in September (the theme). I had the idea of relating the lyrics to my own experience of the same, as this month marks the 10-year "anniversary" (9/25/16) of when I met the Michael who ghosted me at Thanksgiving (as opposed to all the other Michaels). I was going to jabber on about the significance of the square numbers, and go through the whole boring story again, even though some of you have heard it a few times already. 

Meh.

I find that I just don't care enough about it any longer to talk about the details. If it's uninteresting to me, I am pretty sure I can't make it sound interesting to you. Plot twist: I'm happy that I no longer care about what happened 10 years ago or any other dating experiences. They're all a big stupid blur of who gives a f*ck?

Nothing else grabbed me to post for SLS, so I thought OK I will do Joyce's Hodgepodge. But the theme is football. I mean, it goes beyond football, but ugh. Football. If I participate and share my link, then I will need to read other posts on the topic to participate fairly... blech. This is nothing against people who enjoy football. Some of my best friends like football. Hah.

I saw someone in my feed post about "lilac," and I followed the link back to the OP, who are a couple peeps I interacted with years ago on Wordpress, but they have their comments disabled. Blogspot posts do not "ping back" to another post when you create a link; the only way to alert another blogger that you tagged them is to go over there and leave a comment. I don’t mind doing this occasionally, but if comments are disabled, I don't feel like dealing with it, going to all the pingbacked links, hoping for a few return visits, blah blah, even though I might have done that if I could have commented, which makes little sense as it's the same thing, but hey. Then I thought, fine, I'll just do my lilac post for my loyal readers who come here of their own free will just to read exciting posts like this one.

Meh. I was out of the mood by then.

Generally, I avoid the diary type of posts because I have to leave out too much, since I don't post about work in any specific way nor do I want to say anything about family or friends that they might not like. I have been burned before in writing about these topics. It doesn't seem like anyone I know in "real life" reads this blog, but if I ever mention something like say a roommate I had back in Huntington Beach, then you can bet they will come slithering out. I do use the name Michael, and occasionally Jim, as there are a kabillion of them, and I doubt one will want to make himself known by jumping up and yelling YES I'M THE AHOLE!

I see that the Sunday Whirl Wordle has some really pretty words in it like mosses and plumes and forest and ruffle, so maybe if I get over my lazies I will write a poem with all the prompt words. Hazy images are starting to materialize in my mind...

Here's the bottom line (literally): I don't want blogging to take much effort. If an idea for a post turns out to be Not Fun and a Giant Chore to continue with, I delete it. If participating in a "blog hop" takes a bunch of work, I'm out. There are too many books I could spend time reading instead.

Two for Tuesday: Movies

Two ducks in Los Angeles 

Last Friday my friend and I saw Coyote vs Acme at the Bella Terra theater in Huntington Beach. (Dinner first at the Cheesecake Factory, which is always delicious, even if you don’t have dessert.) We really liked it! Just good nostalgic fun with no profound messages, except maybe a reinforcement of the thrill of the chase being superior to the catch. (Sometimes.) If you aren’t that familiar with the old cartoons however, you might not find the movie super enjoyable. Apparently, the film was inspired by a 1990 article in the NYT, which you aren’t even allowed to read as a gift article if you don’t have a subscription. Whatever. They suck.

Saturday I went up to Los Angeles in a carpool to see Project Hail Mary with other friends. These peeps have a super big TV screen, so we had the pleasure of that along with the comfort of being in a private home. I’m glad I read Andy Weir’s book first because otherwise I might have been confused at some points, especially during the backstory scenes. I really enjoyed seeing how the alien was depicted onscreen after imagining him via Andy’s words on the page. It was an excellent movie, and we all loved it. I highly recommend the book and the film. 

Unfortunately, my alien-themed cupcakes, while cute, tasted awful. Pillsbury is usually great, but the pistachio cake mix, along with the frosting, was just plain yuck. I don’t understand how they messed up so dramatically, but I had a bad feeling as soon as I opened the box and took a sniff. Since sometimes my sense of smell is off, I made them anyway (baked late Friday night and frosted Saturday morning). I definitely do not recommend this product.

I also saw The Phantom of the Opera musical at the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa on Sunday (told you I’ve been busy, not to mention working some OT for month-end). The tickets were a birthday gift from my daughter and son-in-law. We were all unfamiliar with the story, but the singing and costumes were gorgeous, so it was a lot of fun even if we didn’t follow 100% of what was going on. One of my close friends was at the same showing, but her seat was nowhere near us, so we couldn’t chat.

A musical version of The Great Gatsby is scheduled for next May at Segerstrom, and I hope to see that too. I am familiar with this story! I only read the book like five times and watched two versions of the movie. 

Down in the Sand

Colorful music notes from Pixabay

Sorry I've been a bit absent this week ~ it's month end at work, plus I have been a busy social butterfly. I will get to your comments on previous posts in a bit. Today for Jim's Song Lyric Sunday he asks for songs about the beach to celebrate National Beach Day. I have always lived close to a coast: New York, New Jersey, Southern California, and even in Chicago I was right on the shore of Lake Michigan, which counts too. That said, I don't spend much time at the beach, though it's nice to know it's there. 

Grease (1978) is one of my favorite musical movies, and one of the songs I love is "Summer Nights," which is told in a he said/ she said style about how Danny and Sandy met at the beach. Their friends join in to ask questions about the relationship. It begins in a sweet way and then heats up, just like a summer's day.

Summer loving had me a blast

Summer loving happened so fast

I met a girl crazy for me

Met a boy cute as can be

[...]

She swam by me, she got a cramp

He ran by me, got my suit damp

I saved her life, she nearly drowned

He showed off, splashing around

Summer sun, something's begun

But ah! Oh, the summer nights

Well-a, well-a, well-a, huh

[...]

He got friendly, holding my hand

Well, she got friendly down in the sand

He was sweet, just turned eighteen

Well, she was good, you know what I mean

[...]

Sandy was supposedly moving away at the end of the summer, so they said goodbye and exchanged their "true love vows," though apparently not phone numbers. Sandy didn't end up moving and instead showed up at Danny's high school. When their classmates asked about their summer, they told the story song "Summer Nights," giving details of their romance. Of course, they both had different viewpoints. Whose do you believe? I tend to go with Sandy's version. After the song ends, they realize they're at the same school and shenanigans ensue. Nothing like this would happen today because Danny and Sandy would be madly texting each other all along.

Enjoy the full song here.

Lyrics from Musixmatch. Songwriting credits to Jim Jacobs / Warren Casey.

The One Who Knocks

AI generated image 

Tony stared at his SUV, which was loaded down with his stuff. Where would he go? He supposed he would have to stay with his mom until he found a new place. “Just one more chance?” he asked.

Mitch shook his head. “No can do, Tony. There have been too many complaints.”

“I was just expressing my feelings!” Tony cried. “And I think Dawn likes me too. She’s just shy.”

“Tony, you kept banging on the pipes. Your neighbors couldn’t get any sleep. They have a baby.”

Tony sighed. Mitch did have a point there. “OK, but when I simply stood outside quietly holding a sign I wasn’t bothering anyone.”

“You were there all night,” Mitch reminded him. “The police asked me what was going on. I can’t have that, Tony. This is an upscale place.”

“I think Dawn was starting to fall for me though,” Tony insisted. “She kept playing that love song as I knocked on the floor in Morse code. It was only a matter of time before she knocked back.”

“Dawn was the one who called the police.” Mitch held out his hand.

Tony realized that he was at a dead end. Reluctantly, he handed over the key.

~*~

Written for Fandango’s Story Starter 261 and inspired by the Tony Orlando and Dawn song “Knock Three Times.” Title inspired by a Breaking Bad episode.

Not So Gentle (flash fiction)

AI generated image of a couple arguing 

“I just don’t understand what you’re so upset about, Beth.” Kevin pointed to his sleeping bag upon which Beth’s chubby grey cat was crouched. “I always leave my stuff behind your couch.”

Beth rolled her eyes. “You assume that you can flop here whenever you please, after disappearing for months or even years, without considering that I might have made a life for myself while you were gone.”

Kevin thought about that. “Of course you should have fun when I’m traveling.”

“I am not talking about fun, Kevin!” Beth yelled. “I’m talking about being an adult, having responsibilities, and making commitments.”

Eww, the C-word. Kevin shuddered. That was almost as bad as the M-word. Wait, what was that on Beth’s left hand? “Beth!” Kevin gasped. “Are you engaged?”

“I am.” Beth held out her hand, and the diamond ring sparkled in the afternoon sunlight. 

“But I thought we agreed not to be bound by a fussy old contract. We’re both free spirits!” Kevin frowned. “That’s why thoughts of you are always so gentle on my mind.”

Beth sighed. “We said those silly things when we were teenagers. I’m thirty years old now, and I want a home and a family. A husband and children. Someone who will be there for me every night, not sleeping in bus stations and hooking up with whoever happens along.”

At a loss for words, Kevin grabbed his stuff and left. As he wandered back to the freeway, he decided that this was for the best. He was a nature photographer and couldn’t settle down in one place. Beth had changed so radically he didn’t even know her anymore. A home and a family? Who would bring children into a world like this? Crazy talk. Kevin shook his head and popped out his thumb to hitchhike. 

Decades passed, and Kevin found that he could no longer revisit rivers of his memory to be comforted by images of Beth. Their last conversation ruined those gentle feelings. He tried to recreate the relationship they’d had early on with new women, but nothing ever worked out for more than a few nights. No one desired an ongoing, yet open love affair. No one wanted to let him stash his stuff at her house. He had to keep renting lockers as he traveled around.

Kevin woke up on a train outside Boise on Christmas morning. It was bitterly cold, and there was something heavy sleeping on his chest, probably Beth’s cat. He tried to nudge the kitty away, but he couldn’t lift his arm. “Beth?” he whispered as everything went dark.

~*~

This fictional story was inspired by the song “Gentle on My Mind,” which was written by John Hartford and popularized by Glen Campbell in 1967. 

Lunchtime Share

My sweet little Inky

Before I jump into Di’s Share Your World questions, I want to acknowledge that it’s Black Cat Appreciation Day. I love my little Inkerbelle! 

1. What was your favorite TV show as a kid?

When very young, I loved Pink Panther, Speed Racer, Roadrunner, Rocky & Bullwinkle, and Let’s Make a Deal. Later on, all the game shows became favorites, especially Match Game and Hollywood Squares. As a teenager, my sitcom faves were I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, One Day at a Time, the Brady Bunch, and Eight is Enough. I also enjoyed detective shows like Columbo, Hart to Hart, and McMillan & Wife. I’m sure there are lots more that I am forgetting!

2. Do you have a favorite “tipple” (alcoholic drink or something when you are out for a meal, etc.)?

I love alcoholic drinks, but they don’t love me, and the older I get the worse it is. Fancy cocktails are so much fun. I used to love margaritas, mojitos, mai tais, pina coladas, Irish Coffee with tons of whipped cream, etc. ~ all those sugary, girly drinks, particularly if they came with tiny umbrellas. I went through a Bailey’s Irish Cream phase (that lasted 40 years), an amaretto phase, and a cinnamon whiskey phase. Yum! Now all of that makes me barf. 

Nowadays, I can have a glass (or two) of red wine or champagne, which may or may not give me a migraine, though since I get migraines frequently regardless, I occasionally decide that it’s worth the extra risk. If I remember to drink water afterwards, it often helps me to avoid a headache. That’s it though. No more mixed drinks or sweet liquor for me. Wah.

The vast majority of time, I order iced tea or Diet Coke.

3. Is there a movie you can watch again and again and still enjoy?

Yes, indeed. In fact, this weekend I rewatched both Mamma Mia movies while I worked on my puzzle (ironically, a pic of fancy cocktails ~ see my IG), and I enjoyed them immensely. Somewhat less frequently, I rewatch Walking on Sunshine, Chicago, Fiddler on the Roof, Saturday Night Fever, and other musicals, and romcoms such as You’ve Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally, 27 Dresses, The Hating Game, etc. And of course Young Frankenstein! I generally do not rewatch serious movies. 

4. Did you have a favorite toy as a child? Or perhaps one you wanted and never got?

I loved my Barbies, but this was back when you had a few dolls and bought outfits and accessories for them. Nowadays, you buy a whole new doll in a themed pack instead of changing their clothes. While I appreciate themes, it was a lot of fun to mix and match outfits and browse the Barbie catalog for new ones. I also loved my Super Spirograph set and spent many hours creating cool designs ~ and redoing them obsessively until they were perfect. I don’t remember if there was anything I wanted and didn’t get, except a sister.

Gratitude: I am grateful that FedEx delivered all my stuff and that I managed to connect the new Spectrum equipment without any glitches (except for my Roku being slower). My daughter asked if you only had to plug it in. WELL YES, but I am extremely talented at messing up the simplest things. She should know that!

Plane Podge

AI guy in a tux hanging onto a chopper

I'm participating in From Across the Pond's Hodgepodge 667. Thanks go out to Joyce for coming up with a bunch of interesting themed questions every week!

1. August 19th is National Aviation Day...do you like to fly? Last time you were on an airplane? The date is chosen in honor of the history and development of aviation, and celebrated on the birthday of Orville Wright. Have you ever been to the Kitty Hawk area of North Carolina? The city of Dayton in Ohio (their birthplace)?

I hate flying. I know it's safer than driving, but even so I am thrilled that both my daughters now live within reasonable driving distance. For a while, I was regularly flying up to the Bay Area to visit them because the drive took 7 hours. It wasn't the actual flight I disliked as much as the whole rigmarole of getting to the airport two hours before boarding time (drive and pay for parking or get an Uber?), navigating the massive annoying crowd at the airport, dealing with flinging my carryon in an overhead bin without hurting my back, being squashed into a tiny seat next to PEOPLE, and getting a headache on the descent. Yuck!

The last time I was on an airplane was in 2021 coming back from Oakland after visiting my daughter. She and her hubs moved to SoCal shortly afterward. I have never been to North Carolina, but I have been to Ohio (the Newark area, not Dayton) ~ my mother was born in Granville, and we occasionally visited her peeps when we lived back East. 

2. In what area of your life do you tend to 'wing it'? Is this an area you should be winging? 

I'm a planner, not a winger, but I am trying to be casual about blogging now, which I suppose is a form of winging it. When I was on WordPress, I stressed myself out by replying to multiple prompts per day, hosting prompts, replying to every comment, feeling the need to comment on everyone else's blog, etc., until it sucked up all my free time. These days, I only reply to a prompt when I have something I want to say, which means that I skip most prompts, including my own that I made special images for, such as Two for Tuesday and Thursday 13. While I do have a post scheduled for this Tuesday, it will probably be a while before I come up with another thirteen related statements. Yes, when I do it, the statements must be related to a theme!

Should I be winging my blogging? Yes, absolutely. I have a lot more free time now, which means that I read many more books and watch many more movies. Ironically, that gives me more blogging material.

3. A favorite book, song, or movie that relates to flight in some way?   

I just read Final Descent by Audrey J. Cole, which I liked a lot ~ it was about a pilot who was being gaslit by her ex-husband, culminating in a cockpit fight with a creep he had hired to ruin her life. (Nice illustration of how both dating and flying are terrifying and should be avoided.) A year or so ago, I read her full-length novel Missing in Flight about a baby who was kidnapped aboard a plane while his mom went to the bathroom. It was really good, and I recommend it!

Should I confess that I kinda enjoyed the ridiculous movie Snakes on a Plane? LOL

For music, how about the beautiful and sad song "Early Morning Rain" by Gordon Lightfoot? 

Hear the mighty engines roar

See the silver wing on high

She's away and westward bound

Far above the clouds she'll fly

Where the morning rain don't fall

And the sun always shines

She'll be flying o'er my home

In about three hours time

4. Soft serve, gelato, sherbet, frozen yogurt, or good old fashioned ice cream...what's your pleasure? Your favorite flavor? How often do you indulge? 

Wait, what? How does this relate to flight? Maybe like they do with booze, we can set up a froyo flight of vanilla, strawberry, coconut, and mango samplers. Don't forget the toppings! My favorite is one of those bases with strawberries, mango, and coconut on top. I used to like vanilla with peanut butter cup pieces smashed in, but lately I find that just too sweet and blech. I'm not sure if I've ever had gelato. I don’t have frozen treats that often. Way back when, I used to be "addicted" to Ben & Jerry's vanilla with cookie dough, but I don't buy their products now because REASONS.

5. I never get tired of______________________. 

Mamma Mia movies. Relating them to the theme, you do have to take a flight to Athens and then a ferry to get to the island of Kalokairi, where the fictional Hotel Bella Donna (formerly the Villa Donna) is located. Or if you are wealthy, like Sophie's grandmother, you can charter a helicopter to take you from Athens to the island. Oh, I see from Google that the island is also fictional. Huh. Learn something new every day!

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I sometimes think that I'm obsessive, but then I run into true obsessives and realize that I'm not even anywhere close to their level. Being competitive by nature, I will sometimes experience a sudden urge to out-obsess the obsessives, but that impulse is generally squelched quickly because I'm also lazy.

Where My Rosemary Goes

Colorful music notes from Pixabay 

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, Jim asks us for a spicy song… I mean a song that mentions a spice. I think rosemary counts because people use it to add flavor to food. This is what Google says:

“Rosemary [...] is a fragrant evergreen shrub with needle-like leaves native to the Mediterranean region. It features blue, purple, pink, or white flowers, belongs to the mint family, and is widely used for culinary flavoring, aromatic oils, and ornamental landscaping." 

So, it’s a spice, yay! Oh wait…

I also discovered that rosemary is technically an herb, not a spice, "because it consists of the fresh or dried green, needle-like leaves of a woody shrub in the mint family. In culinary terms, people often group it with general seasonings or 'spices,' but botanically herbs come from leaves while spices come from roots, bark, seeds, or fruits."

OK, then. Not really a spice, but whatever, too late now. 

This is what Edison Lighthouse says about rosemary:

She ain't got no money

Her clothes are kinda funny

Her hair is kinda wild and free

Oh, but love grows

Where my Rosemary goes

And nobody knows like me

Aww, I guess that's nice, in a sort of backhanded compliment kind of way. "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" was written by Tony Macaulay and Barry Mason* and released in 1970. These guys were not members of the British pop band Edison Lighthouse (formerly Greenfield Hammer), however; the members were Tony Burrows (lead vocalist), Stuart Edwards (lead guitar), David Taylor (bass guitar), George Weyman (drums), and Ray Dorey (guitar).

She talks kinda lazy

And people say she's crazy

And her life's a mystery

Oh, but love grows

Where my Rosemary goes

And nobody knows like me

Thank gawd she has these guys singing a ballad at her, since no one else seems to like her. Geez. The reason I really like this song is because I named one of the main characters in a novel Rosemary, but like most of my ambitious writing projects, it fizzled out. Well, not totally: it ended up as a long short story in my Sidewalk Noodles book, but poor Rosemary gets only two mentions there, so not exactly a main character any longer, is she?

There's something about

Her hand holding mine

It's a feeling that's fine

And I just gotta say, hey!

She's really got a magical spell

And it's working so well

That I can't get away

So she's like a witch? Lyrics from Genius. Listen to the whole song here, if you like.

*This is really weird, but today (Thursday) I saw another one of Fandango's "loosely based" posts and decided I would write one of my song fiction posts on Tom Jones' song "Delilah" combined with the Plain White T's song "Hey There Delilah," and just now when I looked up the writers of "Love Grows," I found out that Barry Mason also wrote "Delilah." Mind blown! Anyway, you, dear reader, are not going to see this fascinating paragraph until Sunday morning, as that's when we schedule our posts for Jim's SLS, but tonight (Thursday) I am going to write the Delilah post, which you will probably see tomorrow (Friday) morning. I want to do a good job on it, but I also need to do a 3-mile exercise walk, so I might end up too tired to finish the post since I haven't started it yet. It's all clear in my mind though. Sort of...

Delilah

Scared woman in a house via Pixabay

Delilah loved her new home, except for the weird feeling she experienced in certain locations, particularly near the front door. This past week, she'd felt so scared near the door that she began exiting the house through the patio and coming around the side. The house was beautiful, but Delilah began to have thoughts of moving away, far away. 

She stood on the patio, sipping her coffee, wondering if she was losing her mind. Maybe she was just lonely with Tom gone all the time now that his band was a success. All the good things he had promised her in his silly hit song had come to pass, so why wasn't she happy?

"Hey there, Delilah!" Andy the pool guy greeted her with the line from the song. Everyone knew she was that Delilah, and while at first it was off-putting to be famous, she'd long since gotten used to it. 

She watched him unload the supplies from his cart and begin to test the water. "Morning, Andy." Usually, she went back inside while he worked, but today she didn't feel like being in the house alone. Sometimes lately she felt it was alive, breathing, waiting. Waiting for what? She didn't know.

When Andy was finished, Delilah invited him in so she could write his check. "Does it seem funny in here to you?" she asked him abruptly with her pen in the air.

"Funny?" he repeated. "Not sure what you mean."

"In the foyer especially." Delilah motioned for him to follow her toward the front door. "It's... colder right here or something. It gives me the shivers. And the light never works. I changed the bulb twice."

Andy glanced up and around. "Well, it could be the AC vents. Want me to close them for you? I can grab my ladder. Not sure about the light, but I know an electrician who could check it out. Or maybe you're psychic and getting flashbacks of the stabbing. Haha, just kidding!"

"Wait, what stabbing?" she stared at him in horror, as a dark, cold fog seemed to settle around her.

"Yikes, you don't know." He shrugged. "I guess it was just a local story."

Delilah was growing increasingly annoyed as well as terrified. "What was it?" she yelled, opening the door to let the sunshine in. 

Andy seemed startled at her tone. "Nothing for you to worry about. Around twenty years ago, a crazy guy was obsessed with a woman who lived here. One morning he knocked on her door and stabbed her to death when she opened it. He told the police she was cheating on him, but it turned out they'd never met and he'd been stalking her for months. He would stand over there," Andy pointed at the park across the street, "watching her from behind the trees. They said he was unfit for trial and committed him to a mental institution."

"Oh, my God, that's horrible." Delilah vowed she would tell Tom that they had to move. After Andy left with his check, she began googling for information. She skipped dinner and kept searching as it grew dark outside. There was no way she would be able to sleep in this house again. Maybe she should go to a hotel. She realized that Tom had forgotten to call, so she texted him, but it didn't go through. She resumed her online search. It was hard to find old news stories with all the ads and crap cluttering up the pages, but she kept clicking. Finally, she found it, just like Andy had described.

Except he had left out one thing: the murdered woman's name was Delilah.

~*~

Written for Fandango's Loosely Based series with inspiration from the Plain White T's song "Hey There Delilah" (writing credit to Tom Higgenson) as well as the oldie "Delilah" sung by Tom Jones (writing credit to Barry Mason).

Viking Kittens

Colorful music notes from Pixabay

I’m participating in Jim’s Song Lyric Sunday again this week, and he asks for something from an artist born in August. Robert Anthony Plant was born on August 20, 1948, and he is approaching his 78th birthday. From 1968 to 1980, he was the lead singer of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Perhaps you've heard of them? Plant had a successful solo career as well. Despite his advanced age, Plant is still touring, as are a lot of 70-something rockers, and he has a bunch of concerts scheduled here in California at the end of September/ early October. His new album is called Saving Grace, but I confess I haven't heard any tracks from it because I prefer to go straight back to old Led Zep tunes.

There are a ton of songs I love from the band, and I'm going to share one of my favorites today. Now, it's almost always the case that I choose favorites because of the quality of the lyrics, but in this case the lyrics are secondary to... the video. Yep. I think you can guess from the title of this post that I'm talking about the "Immigrant Song."

We come from the land of the ice and snow

From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow

The hammer of the gods

Will drive our ships to new lands

To fight the horde, sing and cry

Valhalla, I am coming

Plant allegedly wrote this 1970 hit as a joke while traveling to Iceland and fantasizing about the Viking conquest. It makes sense that he was riffing when you examine the lyrics. (Jimmy Page is also credited as a writer on the song.)

We come from the land of the ice and snow

From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow

How soft your fields so green

Can whisper tales of gore

Of how we calmed the tides of war

We are your overlords

Given that, it follows that the video I'm sharing is a joke too, and who better to be cute and funny than kitties?! Usually, I don't embed videos, but I am making an exception for this one. Enjoy!

Insensitive

Watercolor of a woman in the rain (Pixabay)

Version 1, parataxis:

It was late. She confessed. We got dressed. I drove her home. She was crying. I said goodbye. She opened the door. It was raining. She walked away. 

Version 2, hypotaxis:

It was late, and there wasn’t anything left to say after she confessed that she had fallen in love with me. As we got dressed, I explained again how I had signed a contract and would be based in different cities over the next several years. While I drove her home, I told her how much I had enjoyed our time together, as brief as it was, but I couldn’t make any kind of commitment. She was crying and seemed inconsolable, so I said goodbye. She opened the door, and it was raining as she walked away.

Explanation:

I wrote these two versions of a scene based on Reena’s prompt of parataxis (no conjunctions) vs hypotaxis (use of connectors to give a flow. I used Jann Arden’s song “Insensitive” as my inspiration for this scene—both versions are from the opposite perspective of the song’s female narrator. I’m including this post in my new “song fiction” collection, which I began with Lucille's Version, a continuation of the Kenny Rogers' song, and next I wrote “Stones” via Neil Diamond, a response to Fandango’s “loosely based” idea.

Stones (flash fiction)

Golden sandals on a stony beach (Meta AI)

When her father passed away, Angela received tens of millions of dollars in cash and investments at age 24. She quit her teaching job, left her boyfriend, and began to travel the world. She visited every city on her list, some more than once, and stayed in luxurious hotels for months at a time. It felt so good to immerse in local culture, checking out all the museums and restaurants and cute little shops. Angela never stayed in a place long enough to make real friends, but she didn’t care about that, at least not at first.

Sometimes she considered buying a property in one of the beautiful locations, settling down, perhaps starting a family, but a new adventure always beckoned. When she turned 40, alone on a gorgeous Greek island, she realized that it was probably impossible to find a man who wasn’t solely interested in her money. She mulled over the idea of raising a child by herself and decided against it. After all, she had a Norwegian cruise booked for next year and another safari three months later. She didn’t want to cancel them and go on the prowl for a baby daddy instead.

It would be nice to have someone to talk to about all this, Angela thought wistfully, but she hadn’t kept up with any of her former friends or colleagues. These days, she exchanged only courtesies with waiters and hotel staff. No one really cared about her the way her father had. She had no one now to share memories with or even silly inside jokes. Angela riffled through the card file in her mind and came up with nothing, not a single name, not even a distant cousin with whom she could engage in superficial chitchat.

Angela stared out at the endless sea and picked up a smooth stone warmed by the morning sun. She flung it out across the turquoise water, satisfied that it skipped three times. This beach was covered with stones, some dull grey, others glittering like jewels. She picked up a coppery one and a silvery one and filled her hands with so many stones that she began to drop them. Finally, she let them all fall at her feet in a big clatter and stood among the stones with empty hands.

~*~

Written for Fandango’s new Loosely Based prompt. My story is loosely based on Neil Diamond’s 1971 song “Stones” (stones would play inside her head / and where she slept they made her bed / she would ache for love and get but stones).

Tiger Striped Hodgepodge

Meta AI created image of "tiger fudge"

Happy last week of July! I am participating in Joyce's Hodgepodge again this week by answering the following questions.

1. What was the last thing you celebrated? 

We celebrated a friend's birthday with a Friday dinner at BJ's and seeing The Odyssey. I enjoyed the film but it was very loud, very long, and very violent. I wore earplugs the whole time, which someone told me to do, and I definitely appreciated that advice. Saturday the party continued at the Orange County Fair where we attended the fabulous (and glittery) combo cover band concert of Kenny Metcalf as Elton John and ABBA LA. Very fun! I wandered around the fair for a couple hours, mostly staying indoors to see the exhibits because I enjoy them and also because the weather has been extremely hot and humid here. Sunday (today) my family got together for a pool party and to celebrate (a bit belatedly) my grandson's birthday. He seemed happy with the FIFA themed foosball tabletop game I gave to him.

2 July 29th is International Day of the Tiger. Besides the wild animal itself, when you hear the word tiger what's the first  person-place-thing-whatever that comes to mind? 

Tiger fudge. This ridiculously delicious treat is made with melted milk chocolate chips, melted white chocolate chips, and heated peanut butter. You pour each layer in a pan separately and then swirl a knife through the whole thing to make it stripey. Refrigerate it until completely cold and then cut it into little squares. Meta AI didn't know what tiger fudge was, but after I described it, I ended up with the above pic, which I think is adorable.

3. The expression 'eye of the tiger' describes someone with intense focus, determination, and the drive to succeed. What area of your life are you currently bringing that kind of energy to?  

I don't have this level of focus and determination any longer. I prefer to do things at a moderate pace, probably because when I was focused and determined, it didn't lead to the success I wanted, so why not enjoy life a bit more? For example, I no longer force myself to get up at 4AM and write for three hours before work. That didn't lead to publishing success, so I might as well get more sleep.

4. What was the last meal you cooked? 

Hahaha. I don't cook for one person (myself), except for the simplest things like an occasional omelet. It's too hot to cook now anyway, and I prefer salads and fruit bowls with yogurt or cottage cheese.

5. Describe your July using exactly five words. 

Hot, humid, exercising, reading, blogging.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I had over 3000 views on this blog yesterday, which is disturbing, since I know they're almost all bots. What do they want from me? I think the massive view numbers began when I did April A2Z this past April, and they've been rising steadily. Before that, I hardly had any visitors, so the bots must scrape blog addresses from public lists, such as A2Z.

Honey, Honey

The cast of MM2

I’m participating in Jim’s Song Lyric Sunday again this week, and today he asks for songs about candy, honey, sugar, or sweet. Naturally, I have to feature “Honey, Honey” from ABBA, except I am not using the original 1974 version but the one sung by Amanda Seyfried in the 2008 Mamma Mia movie instead, which I think is better, more emotional, and not as smoothly cool. 

When the movie begins, Sophie greets her friends Ali and Lisa who have arrived at the fictional Greek island of Kalokairi for Sophie's wedding, which is the next day. Sophie tells them she has a big announcement, so of course they immediately think she's pregnant, but that's not it. What happened is that Sophie has found her mother's diary from the summer when Donna was pregnant with Sophie. 

All these years, Donna has maintained the lie that Sophie's dad was a nameless one-night stand who disappeared before Donna knew she was pregnant. But the diary reveals a different story. From the diary, Sophie and her friends learn that Donna had three relationships in a very short span of time, and one of those men is Sophie's father. Not only that, but full names are included in Donna's diary. We hear about Sam Carmichael first...

Honey honey, how you thrill me, a-ha, honey honey

Honey honey, nearly kill me, a-ha, honey honey

I'd heard about you before

I wanted to know some more

And now I know what they mean, you're a love machine

Oh, you make me dizzy

Sophie reads from the diary the heartbreaking account of how Sam left Donna and returned home to the girl he'd been engaged to the whole time, which of course makes Ali and Lisa feel terrible for Donna. But not to worry! Bill Anderson shows up, and though Donna is still depressed about Sam, she goes with Bill for a sail around the islands, and dot dot dot ~ "that's what they did in the olden days!" 

Honey honey, let me feel it, a-ha, honey honey

Honey honey, don't conceal it, a-ha, honey honey

The way that you kiss goodnight

(The way that you kiss me goodnight)

The way that you hold me tight

(The way that you're holding me tight)

I feel like I wanna sing when you do your thing

Finally, we learn about the third man, Harry Bright, Donna's friend from Paris who shows up "out of the blue" after Donna has slept with Sam and Bill, and dot dot dot...

Honey honey, touch me, baby, a-ha, honey honey

Honey honey, hold me, baby, a-ha, honey honey

You look like a movie star (look like a movie star)

But I know just who you are (I know just who you are)

And honey, to say the least, you're a doggone beast

Note that the 2018 prequel sequel shows these events a bit differently. In MM2, Donna meets Harry in Paris and spends a night with him. The next day she travels to Greece, where she meets Bill, who offers her a ride on his boat when she misses her ferry ~ Donna and Bill do not sleep together at this point because they are interrupted by an SOS from Alexio. After helping Alexio, Bill goes off to his boat race, Donna meets Sam on Kalokairi, and Donna and Sam become lovers. When Sam leaves to return to his fiancée, Bill shows up again, and then he and Donna sleep together on his boat. Harry does not return to Kalokairi in MM2, and so Donna goes through her pregnancy and childbirth sans the baby daddy (whoever he is) with help from Sofia, a local woman, who may or may not be related to Bill. 

Some of you may think that I know a little too much about these Mamma Mia movies, and to that I say pffft. Anyway, after the girls are done with Donna's diary, Sophie stands alone at her window and the song subtly switches from being about the three men as Donna's lovers to Sophie needing to find out which one is her father in order to feel complete. Spoiler: she has invited all three men to her wedding and believes she will know which one is her dad at first sight. Ha ha ha. I'm so excited because there are rumors of an MM3, in which we will learn the true identity of Sophie's bio-dad (to date, she's fine with having "three dads").

Listen (and watch) the MM1 song and movie clip here. Songwriting credits go to Benny Goran Bror Andersson / Bjoern K. Ulvaeus / Stig Erik Leopold Anderson. I copied the lyrics from LyricFind.

Shake It Off

Colorful music notes from Pixabay

I'm going to talk about Taylor Swift for a minute. First, I'm neither a crazed fan nor a cranky hater, so if you're at one of those extremes, you may not enjoy this post. No offense taken if you leave. Second, I've respected TS as a successful businesswoman for quite some time. After reading about the sh!t women go through in the music world, it's awesome that she navigated all that with grace and came out on top. Third, in general, I don't care that much for TS's music: I find it mostly pretty boring with a few exceptions. She has a lovely voice, and some of her lyrics are very clever, but overall I find her songs to be a big blend of blandness. Maybe I haven't devoted enough time to understand her subtleties. That could be it. Fourth, for a while now I've been annoyed with the constant media coverage of TS, but that's not her fault. Same goes for Harry and Meghan. I used to feel similarly about Jennifer Aniston, but the media has mostly lost interest in her. It isn't the celeb's fault that the media will relentlessly hound whichever "it" person gets readers to click on pics and articles (and thus view the ads), but it's easier (and lazier) to get annoyed with the celeb than the journalists, whose names we don't even know.

I stay out too late

Got nothing in my brain

That's what people say, mm-mm

That's what people say, mm-mm

Fifth, when I saw Jim's Song Lyric Sunday prompt for this week of empowerment, I knew I had to go with Taylor's 2014 song "Shake It Off." Not only is it super fun to listen to and dance to, but also it has a fabulous message. We've heard various versions of it, including "what you think of me is none of my business." There's a recent self-help book titled Let Them, which I haven't read yet, but I understand it promotes a similar message about shrugging off other people's opinions. Not everyone is going to like me, and so what? If I didn't give birth to you or you're not signing my paycheck, then pffft on your negativity and criticism.

'Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play

And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate

Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake

I shake it off, I shake it off (whoo-hoo-hoo)

Hating someone back isn't empowering; hating someone gives them permission to take up space in your mind. We've all heard the expression "he's living rent free in her head.” It's a cliché because it's true. Why would you want to give someone that space? Ignoring them is more powerful. Letting them have the last word and allowing yourself to walk away without reply is true empowerment. Leaving their texts on "read" is empowering. Let them wonder why you won't answer. You don't have to! It took me a while to get there, but I finally arrived. I shake it off! And funny thing... those situations don't even occur these days. Guess I "shook off" the right people.

Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break

And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake

Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake

I shake it off, I shake it off (whoo-hoo-hoo)

Listen to the whole song here. I hope you do if you haven't before ~ it's great! Definitely one of the exceptions, imo. And if you disagree, I don’t care! LOL

Songwriting credits go to Taylor Swift, Shellback, and Martin Max. Lyrics from Musixmatch.

You’ll Accomp’ny Me

Butterfly via Pixabay

For Jim’s Thursday Inspiration today, he asks us to share a Bob Seger song. Now I love Bob Seger, despite having heard “Night Moves” about four billion times, so this was a no-brainer. And talk about being “spoilt for choice,” as they say across the pond! You may not think of Bob as a romantic, but in my opinion, “You’ll Accomp’ny Me” is one of the most romantic songs out there. 

I’m not going to post the lyrics because (a) you should listen to the song in its entirety as sung by Bob to get the full impact; and (b) I can’t copypasta on my phone without losing the normal blogspot formatting. There is no option to paste as plain text here like there is on my laptop. I suppose I could type out the lyrics, but I don’t wanna. My lunch is almost over.

Trust me, this is a beautiful song. Songwriting credit goes to Bob Seger himself, and Accomp’ny is from his 1980 album Against the Wind. I just love the vibe that respects someone for being herself, and though things may not be ideal for them now, he will wait until they are. He speaks with confidence and optimism, but not ownership…

Thunder (flash fiction)

Colorful music notes (Pixabay)

The empty stage beckons like a blank canvas ready to burst with color and movement.

She flings herself across the floorboards, whirling and twisting, jumping and kicking, all to the beat of a mad rock and roll symphony playing inside her head. 

Sweat drips down her face as she dances faster, merging with the music as a single entity, encouraged by the thunder of imaginary applause and the screams for an encore.

This is what she has been waiting for her whole life, while pretending to be an introvert and hiding her true talents from the world, when all along she craves the spotlight and the adulation of millions.

“Janice, did you finish vacuuming the auditorium yet?”

Jolted out of her fantasy, she reluctantly trudges off the stage and back to her pile of cleaning supplies.

~*~

Written for Denise’s Six Sentence Story (thunder).

Disguise in Love

 

Lovers in masks image from Pixabay

For this week's Song Lyric Sunday, Jim (via Nancy) asks us to use a song from the Great American Songbook (GAS). I refuse to use Wikipedia any longer because reasons, though it is convenient, so I am relying on other searches and sources (including AI), which may be hypocritical because they probably grab their information from Wikipedia. Anyway, it appears that the song "This Guy's in Love with You" is in the GAS, and that's the one I want to use since it is personally meaningful. I am copying the lyrics and info from Musixmatch.

You see this guy
This guy's in love with you
Yes, I'm in love
Who looks at you the way I do?
When you smile, I can tell
We know each other very well
How can I show you?
I'm glad I got to know you, 'cause...

I have always thought that this song was super romantic. Not sure when I first heard it, but probably as a teen or even younger, as it's been around since the 1960s. Musixmatch says it was written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Many singers have covered it, including Burt, though Google says that Herb Alpert first recorded this particular version in 1968, and it is the best known one. I haven't heard any of the versions with alternate lyrics about infidelity, though I have heard Dionne Warwick's "This Girl's in Love with You," which is also beautiful. When I was with my ex-husband on a business trip to San Francisco in the late ‘80s, the waiter told us that the lounge piano player was taking requests, so I asked for this song.

I've heard some talk

They say you think I'm fine

Yes, I'm in love

And what I'd do to make you mine

Tell me now, is it so?

Don't let me be the last to know

My hands are shaking

Don't let my heart keep breaking, 'cause...

The request got transposed from the table to the piano to "Disguise in Love," which the piano player had never heard of. As the evening wore on, I wondered why he'd never played the song. Finally, he came over to our table to say hello, and I mentioned that I'd requested a song. He apologized that he didn't know it. Didn't know "This Guy's in Love with You?!" When we realized what had happened, we all had a good laugh ~ and then he played the song.

I would like to say that this song became "our song" in a romantic sense and that we danced to it, but that would be a lie. My ex never danced with me, not even at our wedding. He simply refused to ever dance, and I don't know why (there was nothing physically wrong with him). "Disguise" did become a bit of a running joke between us though, which was better than nothing. We never really understood each other, even after 20 years, though we sometimes shared a weird sense of humor. We divorced in 2011, and he passed at the end of June, a little over a week ago.

I need your love

I want your love

Say you're in love

In love with this guy

If not, I'll just die

Tell me now, is it so?

Don't let me be the last to know

My hands are shaking

Don't let my heart keep breaking, 'cause...

Wednesday Mood

Colorful music notes image from Pixabay

https://youtu.be/Vqbk9cDX0l0

Enjoy!

Flashback Friday: Some Like It Hot

Somewhere in time...

I'm participating in Fandango's Flashback Friday today with a post from June 19, 2021 that I found on the Wayback Machine for my old WP blog. 

Hot Enough For Ya? 

Are writers pyromaniacs? They sure talk about heat and fire a lot. Romance novels are full of warm looks, hot kisses, burning desires, and fireworks exploding when people make love. The obsession with heat transcends genre however. Here are some titles from my list of read books. OK, most are romance, though some are horror (as if there’s a difference).

Sizzling. One Hot Cowboy Wedding. Devilishly Hot. Firestarter. Firelight. A Song of Ice and Fire. The Girl Who Played With Fire. Little Fires Everywhere. A Dream of Fire. Heart of Fire.

What about music? Fire It Up. We Didn’t Start the Fire. Fire Down Below. Fire and Ice. The Heat Is On. Hot Summer Nights. Hot Legs. Hot Child In The City. Burning Up. I’m Burning For You. And those are just the titles!

It’s kind of weird that fire/ burning is associated with love/ sex/ romance, when it also conjures up notions of hell. Then again, considering my past relationships, perhaps it’s not strange at all…