Saturday, July 25, 2015

Just For the Fun of It.

     It has been a while since I have posted one of those "here's mine, what's yours" post. I can't even explain what work has been like since the first of July. I try very hard not to feel guilty when my clients call and want to know what they are supposed to do. I haven't slept well, to say the least. Tuesday afternoon, I took off early, mainly because I had big company at work Monday and I had been nervous about that, and then we had VBS, so Tuesday morning, I felt a little like I had been hit by a Mack truck. Anyway, I took off Tuesday afternoon with the intent of listening to a friend of mine testify before the House of Representatives and then take a nap before Tuesday night's Bible school. Ended up, Jen didn't start her testimony until 2, along with 2 clients from other agencies and Dalitso, our Association's president. They didn't get done until after 3, they did a great job, and I was floored by all the questions--that's a good thing though.

Anyway, I didn't end up taking a nap. Tuesday night, I was finally tired enough though, I slept, and I slept so well that I dreamed. I don't remember dreaming forever. If I have ever even met you, you were more than likely in that dream. I couldn't believe how many people I saw that night, how many people were brought to mind that I hadn't thought of for years.

And there were the weird things, like worlds colliding. I dreamed I was sitting on a bench in the mall in Mattoon. I was sitting there with Sally Furry. Sally and I first met when I worked at the Dairy Queen, in 1986.  She helped me get my job at Walmart in 1989 and though we went a while without seeing each other, thanks to facebook, we at least know we are both alive and well. The mall was busy, very busy---that is an oddity all by itself, and then there was a conga line running through it. This is where all of you come in. It was crazy long, Susan Shull and Debbie Diel were leading it. Some people say you don't dream in color.....I dream in color. Susan and Debbie were wearing the brightest colored outfits that I had ever seen. In typical style for them though, they both looked like they stepped out of a magazine. I DO know why I saw those two, I had been reading about their trip abroad and enjoying getting to see Italy through their eyes. Brenda McDade, my boss until she retired, was in the line too, she came and hugged me and Sally like she hadn't seen us in a million years (I'm not sure if Brenda and Sally even know each other that well in real life, Sally did go to school with Brenda's son Mike). If I was trying to interpret my dream, that probably has some deep meaning about all that is going on and me wondering if I am really capable of everything I need to be doing at work and wondering if it would be better if Brenda was back. But who knows, as I said, there were people I hadn't even thought of for years, it was actually kind of cool, but has gotten me in a nostalgic mood.

I took off work early yesterday too, I was going to work on my basement but Mom had three tubs of tomatoes that needed worked up and I wanted to make spaghetti sauce so I spent the afternoon in my kitchen. Ever since the night of the dream, I have been craving Steve Winwood music. So, I pulled up my Rhapsody account and started playing one Winwood song after another...The Finer Things, Back in the High Life, Arc of a Diver, and on and on.
I am one of those people who tacks a song to a memory or a memory to a song, not sure which. But here is a list of some of my favorite memories/ songs, as of right this moment anyway.

Chicago: Hard Habit to Break--this song reminds me of my Senior speech class. I loved speech and if I would have attacked every class like that one, I would have had straight A's. Anyway, for our final, we had to give a 25 minute speech. We could use any kind of prop or other media for up to 10 minutes. My speech was on our class, the Class of 1985. When I told Mrs. Wiman what I wanted to do, she said it was fine, but if I shed one tear, she would flunk me, especially when I told her what my media was. I played 10 minutes of things that happened our Senior year, from the announcements, to just noise in the hallway, to a blurb, "Newton Marching Eagles, you may take the field for competition", to some of the songs that was popular at the time. This was going to be the song that I knew I had to make it through without crying. What was worse was, it truly did make others in our class cry. I didn't though. I never knew how much public speaking would be a part of my life but to this day, I know better than to cry, I told some pretty personal stuff about myself and my childhood last year at a meeting, but I didn't cry. Oh, and one last memory. David Casey was supposed to be the time keeper, our speech was to be 25 minutes long, with a little leeway on each side, I can't remember how much. My speech was exactly 25 minutes, and I will never forget hearing David say it was.

REO Speedwagon- Can't Fight This Feeling--I was working at the Dairy Queen and it was the summer of 1989. I hadn't worked there very long when a tall husky blond headed guy came in with this much older woman. We started talking immediately about how much he looked like Bruce Hall. So, Dibber, who waited on him, told him, he looked just like Bruce Hall. He laughed, as did the little, older lady that was with him. He said he was Bruce Hall. Turns out his grandma lived in Greenup and he would come down every so often to see her. They came in for lunch about every time he came down. A friend of mine, Tony McMorris,  mowed this grandma's yard and ended up with tickets and back stage passes to their show at Shelbyville. Tony couldn't go so he gave the tickets to his sister, Heather and me. That was probably one of my favorite concerts ever. Bruce came over and treated us like he had known us forever.

Bryan Adams--Everything I Do. The summer before Andrew and I got married, I spent a lot of time with several people from Walmart. I was going through the aftermath of a major breakup with a guy that I had dated for over a year and knew it would never go any farther than it had gone and it was time to cut the cord. I also was going through having a major crush on a member of management that I knew I couldn't date. One of the guys I worked with was going through a lot of things too and all of our friends had significant others so we decided to spend the summer un-dating. We were friends and it was great, no expectations, but someone to go do things with when everyone else was in pairs. One night that summer, we went to see Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, this song was the love theme. I absolutely fell in love with the song. The crush didn't let up and things started happening with my job so I ended up in a different store, As soon as I did, that crush, now my husband, asked me out. Everything I Do played at the restaurant on our first date and it became our song. I have totally lost track of my un-dating friend, Ray Fread, but he was in that conga line too, I'm sure people who I haven't seen for a long time would appreciate this dream because they all looked like they did the last time I saw them. I ran into Ray at an auction probably 20 years ago, he still looked the same then, so he looked 25 or so in my dream. Sorry to those of you I see regularly, you just looked like you.

Tears for Fears--Everybody Wants to Rule the World. This too reminds me of my senior year, yearbook and Marc Alblinger. Funny, Marc was one of those friends too, that guy friend you could talk to but didn't think anything further about it. Yet another reason I love facebook. Marc travels-- a lot, and I love seeing all the places he and his wife have been. The one place, out of ALL the places he's been, that I am most envious of is, believe it or not; Broadway to see Wicked. I'm gonna do that one of these days, Part of me says it won't surprise me if I end up in Greece, or Italy, or someplace someday, but I know I will make it to see Wicked on Broadway. Anyway, I heard this song today and it always reminds me of Marc. He introduced me to Tears for Fears before they were popular here because of his overseas connections. He bought me this album for graduation, I'm sure my mom even knows every word to every song because it was played constantly that summer.
 
I have so many more, but it is almost 10 and Andrew has already went to bed, so I best be heading that direction. Nice to take a little walk down memory lane. If I spend any amount of time with you, I probably have a song that I can connect, that's how my brain works. Something really funny is Robert does that too. I know we aren't normal because I mention this to people and they look at me like I have 3 heads, but oh well.

Sorry if this blog bored you (if you made it this far), this was a totally for me, maybe having a middle age crisis, kind of thing.

Happy Saturday.



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