The Note, Pure and Easy: a Rock Opera about the Who

Elton John
in Tommy.

In seventh grade, I discovered Elton John. He was my first concert – 1976 in Greensboro Coliseum. If I remember correctly, the tickets were $8.75. My friend Allison and I whooped and hollered our way through a magnificent set of piano pop… Well, I don’t actually know if it was a magnificent set – to a 13-year-old girl who has never been to a show before, it was pure excitement. I did not yet know that the best music is seen crammed right up to the stage at a tiny venue with the speakers right next to your ears and the performer’s sweat threatening to drench you…. 

My obsessive teenage love for all things Elton was an introduction to a much more meaty and interesting band – the Who… because it was around this time that EJ put on those ridiculous stilt-boots and portrayed the “Pinball Wizard” in Ken Russell’s crazy movie, Tommy. His version of that song was a huge hit, and my friends and I went to see the movie just to see him sing it. 

I have loved the Who
for so long.

Before this, though, my seventh-grade friend Mary Madison lent me her sister’s album of the Who’s Tommy, so I knew all the songs, knew the convoluted story, and became acquainted with Pete, Roger, John and Keith, whom I’ve loved ever since. Anyone who’s ever listened to classic rock radio (what they called “album rock” back in the day) – which is pretty much everyone – knows that these fellows will completely rock your socks off.

I love this album. Critic Robert 
Christgau absolutely did not.

I’ve followed them, albeit loosely, for years, always on board with Pete’s solo efforts – despite Robert Christgau’s unmitigated scorn for them. (Of one album, Christgau says, "it's pretentious at an unprecedented level of difficulty – you have to pay years of dues before you can twist such long words into such unlikely rhymes and images and marshal arrangements of such intricate meaninglessness.") But I love Pete's records. I feel his pain. His plaintive voice makes me weep. I’m not exactly on board with his love for guru Meher Baba, but that doesn’t mean he can’t write and sing a song, right? And it doesn’t mean I can’t take the words the way I want to… which as you know, is how I roll.

Pete still does his windmills.

Anyway… so where I’m going with this is… I got to see the Who the other night! At Greensboro Coliseum, again, performing their “rock opera” Quadrophenia all the way through! Then they played the hell out of some of their bombastic classics while the crowd sang along. I found it completely thrilling. Of course a couple of the original musicians have gone to their reward, but the remaining two – Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey… well, they had my heart soaring and my brain racing… over thoughts like these:

1. I think I like them so much because… their music fully occupies my mind and my emotions. It creates longing as well as satisfaction, and my head is constantly trying to wrap itself around the lyrics and the mix of aggression and vulnerability that they create. Roger’s hearty voice is out to conquer you, while Pete’s thinner, but no less beautiful, voice is full of yearning.

The windmills are fun
until someone gets hurt...

2. What the hell does it all mean? The words, I mean… Some of it, I guess is fairly obvious – the youthful bluster of My Generation, the carefree joy of Going Mobile… Other songs are more obscure. Baba O’Reilly? Eminence Front? I mean, you get a rough idea of what they’re about, but it’s not something you can analyze word-for-word. My friend David has worked for a lot of quite famous rock bands and he told me once that when he would ask Pete Townshend what songs meant, Pete would say, “It means f*ck-all.” I’m guessing that means, “Don’t overanalyze it.” (How cool would it be to be able to go directly to the source when pondering the meanings of the songs you love? It would be a tiny whisper of what we’ll have in heaven when we get to know the secrets of God Himself!)

3. If I could ask Pete one question, I would ask him what the sea represents in his mythology. He uses that image so often. Pete says, “I am the sea,” and “The sea refuses no river,” and “Let me get back to the sea…” Is it love? God? Humanity? Death? Can someone please enlighten me?

Rog is still in fine form.

4. Because of their aggressive sound, I guess, the Who have primarily a male following. I’ve always wondered what it says about me that I love them so much. Is my femininity lacking somehow? I think, actually, it’s just that I love men. And I love and romanticize these intense men the same way I love the idea of rugged Highland warriors, or dangerous pirates.

Still spinning the mike...

5. If you aren’t familiar with Quadrophenia, it’s a rock opera about the violent rivalry between mods and rockers in 1960s England. It follows one particular Mod called Jimmy through his exploits – his work as a mailboy, his rocky relationship with his family, his nightlife spent dancing and flirting with other mods, a trip to Brighton where he survives a violent riot and a trip to night court with Sting... Tom and I watched the Quadrophenia movie last week, and I was struck by several things. First, while I understood his classic teen angst (I certainly had my share,) Jimmy was a flat-out a-hole. Second, I can’t help but think that he could have avoided a lot of his troubles if he had just stopped with the constant popping of “blues” (amphetamines) into his mouth. Third, this is SO not how I saw it when I first viewed the film in college. 

just like in the old days.

Quadrophenia is about a boy with four faces (apparently)… trying to find out who he is. In the film, Jimmy would occasionally look at his reflection in the four mirrors on his scooter… as if THAT’s where he might find himself…  “Look, I don’t wanna be the same as everybody else. That’s why I’m a Mod, see? I mean, you gotta be somebody, ain’t ya, or you might as well jump in the sea and drown.” 

Dr. Jimmy? Or Mr. Jim?

6. It was kind of odd seeing a bunch of old guys doing a musical about youth. But, as I’ve said before – these guys GAVE us their youth. Their youth is perfectly preserved in their songs… and THAT’S why they will never get old. Pete Townshend wrote “I hope I die before I get old.” And in my opinion, he can keep right on living, cos he’s not there yet.

7. Besides, it’s not like he’s in denial – Pete’s also written some great songs about aging… like Slit Skirts, a mournful, frustrated lament about middle-aged marriage and Who Are You, in which Pete confessed how out of his depth he felt when the punk movement came storming onto the scene.

8. Even though he wrote Who Are You and his character Jimmy struggles with his identity, it looked to me at the show Friday night that Pete seemed to have the happy confidence of a man who knows EXACTLY who he is at this point. He’s Pete Townshend, dammit! 

Out of his brain on a train on a train
wooo he's out of his brain!

9. I was pleased to be able to tell my brother Andy that Roger is still flashing that million-dollar chest of his. And although Rog is 67, it still looks fine – all tan and smooth and gleaming. When Andy was a little kid I was hanging out with him once and we started drawing pictures out of this beat-up copy of The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll. We drew Roger’s chest as it’s own character… It had a grin at the bottom. It made us laugh so hard… and what I wouldn’t give for those sketches now…

10. At a certain point I started to worry that someone on stage might blow a gasket or something, but then I thought… I don’t know about the other guys, but Roger is probably in better shape than anyone in the room!

The photo of Roger and
his chest  that Andy
and I drew from.

11. Pete still does the windmill guitar-playing thing with and Roger still twirls the mike. Yes, it’s a cliché, but wouldn’t we all be just a little disappointed if they didn’t?

12. The two departed members of the band were sorely missed, bless their souls. Back in the day, John Entwistle played bass like... like no other. During one of the songs, they dropped everything but the drums and played a film of Entwistle doing a smashing bass solo. Of course, the crowd roared. During the rest of the show, their stand-in bass player didn't even try to recreate the complex thumpings of The Ox's bass lines... they might have been able to do it, had they hired TWO stand-ins. 

John Entwistle –
the loudest
"quiet one" ever.

And the force of nature that was Keith Moon... What a drummer; what a character. I don't know whether to be proud or frightened that my eight-year-old son Bill LOVES watching old YouTube videos of him playing and smashing drum kits. They paid tribute to Keith by showing a film of him singing Bellboy, when the time came for that song - his earthy, off-key singing and goofy personality on full display.

RIP Keith Moon

13. Stadiums are not great venues for seeing/hearing music. I guess if you get to sit right up front, it would be great... but at today's prices, I won't be doing that. One way performers get around that these days is gratuitous use of video screenage. This show had not only the obligatory zoom-in's on the musicians, but also other screens depicting psychedelic images, old footage of the Who, clips from Quadrophenia the movie, and newsreels of real Mods, the sixties, and, well.. some of the big things that have happened since: the Vietnam War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Glasnost, the Occupy movement, the Free Pussy Riot debacle... Woo! We're multimedia! Was their assertion that they are part of history sort of grandiose? Well, yeah. Or it would be if it weren't a bit true, right? They're part of OUR history as frustrated teens, yearning adults, regretful middle-agers, anyway. And I am not sure they were saying, "We are part of history"... more "We've been here the whole time."

If a rock star
plays a note
and no one holds
up a lighter...

14. After they played Quadrophenia from the first note to the last, the boys played some of their hits... AOR staples like Won’t Get Fooled Again, Baba O’Reilly and Behind Blue Eyes. Everyone in the room – except maybe my cynical husband – was riveted on that stage, singing along with every word... (Again, humorous and ironic hearing 20,000 old people yelling, “Only teenage wasteland ... WE’RE ALL WASTED!”) I couldn’t help being reminded of Bob Dylan’s most recent interview with Rolling Stone magazine, in which he mentions that the personal nature of his own songs makes it sort of creepy when people sing along during shows. "I'm not playing campfire meetings," he says.

Here's hoping Pete's joy is complete!

Somehow, though, I don’t think the Who mind. After all, it’s one of Pete’s pet theories that music isn’t complete without the listener. It’s something I wrote about here ... (As an aside, it reminds me of when Jesus said this to his friends: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”) If a tree falls in the forest but no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? If a rock star plays a note and no one holds up a lighter... does it mean anything?

In any case, if you listen to his music you can deduce that Pete Townshend has seen his share of suffering... It may be a small consolation, but I hope that we – the Greensboro crowd – in our response, made Pete’s joy complete. I know mine was.

Good Things

Okay, so I just got this message from Google that I could advertise actual products on my blog. Well, that’s not really what I’m about… what I’m giving out is FREE! Get your free grace here!!! 

That said, I am a regular every-day American consumer who depends on manufactured goods to feed, clothe and care for myself. Mostly I’m a store-brand / cheapest version buyer, but… there are some products I use without fail and would advocate without hesitation. 

I would like to go on record here as saying that before Martha Stewart had her magazine, I thought of what she calls her "Good Things" column. The paper I used to make ads for would do special sections for a local mall, and the copy was always ... so-so. I thought we should have the merchants tell about their favorite things – whether in store or just in general. We never did this, but I thought it would have been interesting.) 

Anyway... I do concede that needs and tastes vary, but… here goes:

Black Chucks are classic, 
but I've always wanted 
some of these.

1. Quaker Old Fashioned Oats. I attribute my stellar cholesterol numbers to this stuff. Store brand versions turn out a porridge with a pasty texture, and fancy steel-cut oats give me that ripping kind of gas that no one should have to suffer. TMI? Sorry.

2. Advil Liqui-gels. They go straight to the headache, or whatever, like an arrow.

3. Leslie Sansone walking workout DVDs. Get your workout indoors. It’s never too hot or too cold to work out. And you can make them as vigorous or as mellow as you like. Run them if you want to. 

4. Apple. I am typing this on a Mac. I work on a Mac. I read on an iPad. I communicate on an iPhone. Call me trendy, I just love’em. They work for me.

5. Converse. Chuck Taylors are also trendy… but also timeless. They look good with everything, and they’re comfy.

6. Eddie Bauer jeans. I may be giving myself away as a wearer of mom jeans, but these jeans actually fit this bodacious mom body. Yeh, that’s right. It’s too booty-licious for you!

7. Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Formula with Vitamin E. There’s a tub of it by my bed, in the kitchen, in my purse, in my office… Best lip balm ever. I just put some on. (When he was a toddler Bill used to ask for it by saying, “My lips are naked.”)

8. Gold Bond Ultimate Healing Lotion… for all over. So creamy. I am right ashy, and nothing else quite does the job.

Krispy Kremes passing
through the veil of glaze.

9. Cheetos Cheese Snacks. The crunchy kind. I can’t really buy them because I WILL eat them all… I think they’re made of crack. 

10. 2nd best: Pepperidge Farms Flavor Blast Goldfish. A blast of… well… flavor! (Bill said today, “We should buy regular Goldfish for a while, then when we eat Flavor Blast, it will blast our mouths again.”)

11. Woodchuck Hard Cider, Granny Smith flavor. Tart, fruity, buzzy. 

Brendan Behan,
drinking Canada dry.

12. Dawn Dishwashing liquid. Serious grease relief. You can also use it on grease stains on clothes. (Make a paste with Oxyclean, rub it in and leave it for a bit… then wash.)

13. Trader Joe’s Peppermint Jo-jos. Think Oreos with candy cane-y crème inside... Christmas is coming. Stock up! Even better: the kind that are “enrobed” in chocolate and sprinkled with crushed candy canes.

14. Canada Dry Diet Ginger Ale… because store brand is flat and tasteless. Canada Dry holds up even after refrigeration. (Apparently Irish dramatist and author Brendan Began is the bringer of this famous joke: “I saw a notice which said, ‘Drink Canada Dry’ and I’ve just started.”

Jesus Christ...
He's the real 
good thing.

15. Krispy Kreme donuts. Hot off the conveyer belt… freshly drenched in the curtain of glaze… Nothin’ like’em. 

16. The LiceHappens service. They come to your house and comb the lice out of everyone’s hair. It’s awesome. I’ve already told you about that one here.

17. Jesus Christ. Baahaa - you knew i couldn't go through a post without mentioning Him! He comes to your heart and sweeps out the cobwebs and demons… then He makes himself at home. It's a good thing.

Nothin' to do but go on home...

My in-car love affair with the Twilight
audiobooks is over. For now, anyway.

So, I freely admit that since I first read the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, I acquired the complete set of unabridged audio books on CD and have been listening to them in the car. In sequence. Over and over. I’m not kidding. But this month… October 2012, let the record show that I finally reached saturation point. 

Not being as tech savvy as my husband, I haven’t yet figured out about playing my iPod through my car radio, so I got out my dusty old CD wallet and put in a CD. (That I loaded it in the 90s was obvious by its contents: Hootie and the Blowfish, Blues Traveler, The Black Crowes…) So first I played The Best of Elvis Costello, followed by Neil Young Unplugged… I finally got stuck on The Crash Test Dummies, The Ghosts that Haunt Me.

The Black Crowes - my 90s soundtrack.

Now, if you aren’t familiar with the CTD’s, they’re a fantastic Canadian band that had a hit or two during the 90s. The distinctive deep baritone (aka sexy) voice of their frontman, Brad Roberts draws you right in, but their arrangements shimmer and their songs … well, the lyrics are intelligent and philosophical. It is easy to hear that they are influenced by XTC, another smart, whimsical band.

One of the fine, thoughtful tunes on this opus is called Superman’s Song, which contrasts the wild, uninhibited Tarzan with the powerful but reigned-in Superman: “Tarzan wasn't a ladies man, He'd just come along and scoop em  up under his arm like that, quick as a cat, in the jungle.” On the other hand, “Hey Bob, Supe had a straight job! Even though he coulda smashed through any bank in the United States. He had the strength but he would not.”

Crash Test Dummies -
Canadian deliciousness.

Here’s the chorus: “Superman never made any money, Savin' the world from Solomon Grundy. And sometimes I despair the world will never see another man like him.”

Of course, you know where I’m going with this. Superman = Jesus in this metaphorical musing. Tarzan = us. Regular joes. Fallen man. So, what really stood out to me was this last verse that went like this:

“Sometimes when Supe was stoppin' crimes, I'll bet that he was tempted to just quit and turn his back on man, join Tarzan in the forest. But he stayed in the city, kept on changin' clothes in dirty old phone booths 'til his work was through. Had nothin' to do but go on home.”

And, if you’ve seen Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, you know that this is exactly what Marty supposed… I didn’t find this at all scandalous as some did. I mean, was Jesus tempted to give it all up, get married, have kids and live to a ripe old age? Well, we know that he was tempted to use his power to serve himself. We know that he was tempted to test out God’s power… We know that he was tempted to take the easy route to power… and lastly, we know from the record of his last night in the garden of Gethsemane that he was tempted NOT to go through with the crucifixion…

No, I don’t find it unreasonable to think that Jesus, in his human form, was at any time tempted just to get married, have kids and make furniture for the rest of his days. Lucky for us, he did what he was sent to do… accomplished his raison d’etre… As Paul says of Jesus: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!”

Now, I haven’t been required to die on a cross or anything, but occasionally I’m tempted to throw in the towel. To just go my merry way, doing whatever I want, not “burdened” with the responsibility of having to wonder things like “What does God think of this?” and “What would He have me do?”

Now whether or not I would "lose my salvation" is a hotly debated theological question. Some feel "Once saved always saved," while others believe that a complete fall from grace is possible. I am not equipped to argue either side, so I'm not going to go there. I'm just going to talk about sheer quality of life here.

And the funny thing is, I’m not at all sure that going my own way would be very enjoyable. I mean, what would it be like? How would it be different? It’s hard to imagine, frankly. Perhaps I would just succumb to every temptation instead of struggling over it. Or… maybe temptations would no longer be temptations, but merely opportunities. I guess I’d have to develop my own moral code to guide my activities, right? Certainly there are general guidelines people follow. Murder and stealing are frowned upon by many. Views of other commandments are more fluid… Coveting is not usually frowned upon today… Sexual ethics, too, are not universally agreed upon.

I guess my world view has been so heavily influenced by the moral code of my faith that it would be difficult for me to go any other way. But the Christian life is not just about morals and temptation… it’s about GRACE. The grace of God, is a much bigger deal to me than any kind of rules. But if there are no rules, there is no grace. And there has to be grace. For me, anyway… because I fail so much in so many areas. Not just in keeping "the rules" but in sheer lack of everyday love and kindness.

He is the Vine.
We are the branches.

I would miss God’s grace, and … well, I would miss my friend God. I mean, you guys are great, but... not exactly omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent like my pal God. And maybe my life would become much flatter. I would cease to see the added dimension to art and life that my friendship with God brings. That means… I’d have nothing to write about! Nothing to hold on to... I think I would find myself saying, as Peter did, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6)

So, while this temptation to go my own way is not, as I outlined above, necessarily reasonable, it happens to me nonetheless… when I am tired, and/or on the horns of a dilemma. And I don’t think it’s unique to me. Jesus tells his friends, “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” If it were obvious and easy to "remain in Him," why would he bother with this plea? Paul's letters, too, are loaded with encouragement for the people in the churches to cling to the grace of God and the truth of the gospel. If it we were not likely to be tempted to go another way, he was wasting his breath!

I'm not at all sure why these weird thoughts come to us... the devil? Original sin? When they do, though, how will we respond? How will we choose?

Being Spiderman is about
more than just a suit.

Remember in Spiderman 2 when Peter Parker decides to stop stopping crime, and walks around nonchalantly enjoying the city to the tune of (if I remember correctly) Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on my Head, focusing on his studies, repairing his relationship with Mary Jane…? Of course he gets sucked back into the being Spiderman… because that’s who he is. Being Spiderman is not just about wearing a suit... no, he is chock full of radiation, right? I mean, when you have sticky hands and feet and can shoot webs... well, you ARE Spiderman.

I hope that should I ever think it’s a good idea to go my own way that I would find, like Peter Parker, that it’s just easier to be who I am… chock full of the Holy Spirit... a child of God, nothing more, nothing less. 

And Now... Deep Thoughts

Remember that little segment on Saturday Night Live called Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy? It was introduced by the sooooo talented and much missed Phil Hartman… Anyway, here are some “Deep Thoughts” I’ve been chewing over during the last few weeks:

1. After attending 3 fantastic nights of music that was the Yep Roc records 15th anniversary celebration, I remembered seeing live music right up close in a club is sooooo much fun. I miss this ritual immensely. However, standing up for four hours straight at a show was an opportunity for me to use the worn out line, “I’m too old for this sh*t.” My back, my feet, my ears… they all paid the price for this folly, and it was dear. Oddly enough, Robyn Hitchcock observed at the Yep Roc shindig, that “Rock and roll is an old man’s game.” Seriously, both he and Nick Lowe, two of that night’s highlights, sported the most glorious, white-as-snow hair. And the audience was full of grey and balding and bifocaled heads. Remember when we were the people our parents warned us about?

Robyn Hitchcock and his glorious
snowy mane. By the time he played
that night, my dogs were killing me.

2. My son has reached his perpetually “embarrassed” phase. No matter what I do, I am surely embarrassing him. I offer as evidence this direct quote: “Mom, do you have to be a forest fairy in front of my friends?” (Doesn’t he know that Halloween Carnivals and the like are the only I time I can be utterly myself?!) I’m not sure how long this phase is going to last, but it’s a little restrictive on those who must accompany him in public. Should I bend to his hypersensitivity and strive to be as inconspicuous as possible? Or should I explore new and different ways to cause him to want to disown me?

I'm just being myself.
Can I help it if Bill
is mortified?!

3. Classical music’s not half bad. Of course, I have always known this. After all, Amadeus is one of my favorite movies! And Handel’s Messiah? I know it by heart. But in general, it’s not my thing. My discomfort with it probably stems from my growing up years when I had it forced on me night and day by my mom, a die hard WCPE fan. But if you’re a teen, and into the Ramones…. Well, no thanks. And that kind of prejudice can really stick with you. But yesterday we took Bill to a Halloween concert by the North Carolina Symphony, and whaddya know… it was pretty cool. Not that I’m going to set my dial on it now or anything. I mean, at this point, I’m sure a brief concert aimed at kids is just about my speed. (I wonder if my mom was as bummed out by my failure to appreciate her music as I am when Bill tells me to turn off Big Star’s Third or Blood on the Tracks.)

The North Carolina Symphony

4. Yesterday we went to a food truck rodeo. Yum, right? We do love to tuck into some trendy victuals. After downing a nicely bready slice of veggie pizza loaded with artichoke and spinach, some Only Burger fries, and a pumpkin mo-nut (sic), I was just about done in, though. Ready to be rolled out of there. When I declined my husband’s offer to share his salted caramel ice cream sandwich with me… Well, that’s when he hurled this accusation at me: “You’re watching your weight!” Only in our house is that a statement of accusation rather than of congratulations! My husband is awesome.

Food trucks... yum.

5. I may be 15-25 years older than your average mother, but I am just as unsure – maybe even more so – of what I am doing… mom-wise. Pre-teen/teen years are about to collide with perimenopause/menopause years. Can these tempestuous life phases coexist? We’re about to find out. 

6. While we’re talking about motherhood, I’m told that many people spend hours in therapy blaming their moms… as did I. I have learned over time, though, that it’s probably not just the one thing that screwed me up. That would be like saying that my gigantic butt is due to overconsumption of French fries… but omitting the fact that I also am prone to ingest my share of cake, burgers, butter, cheese, biscuits, chocolate and beer on any given day.  So while I am trying NOT to screw up my kid, I am also trying to remember that it’s not all on me. Whew! (I hope not anyway!)

7. I could be a better driver. We are lucky to be alive, and that’s all I’m going to say about that!

John Lennon...
I miss him, too.

8. When John Lennon wrote “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans,” he wasn’t kidding. I have found in my half century of living that making plans in general is okay, but you really just have to accept that they are “rough estimates” of what might happen if, for instance, your 81-year-old mother didn’t fracture her hip while hanging out with your eight-year-old son.

9. Now, if that were merely a hypothetical situation, I wouldn’t be able to tell you that it’s wonderful to have fantastic, thoughtful siblings and other awesome kinfolk to help shoulder the load?! It’s great when a family works together.

10. It’s package season. 

11. In his new book Waging Heavy Peace Neil Young reveals that he is an eccentric gentleman… But we do have the exact same view on this: We don’t mind getting sick, because then we don’t have to do anything. We get to just lie there and get well. I guess that means we also both imagine that NOT being sick means we always have to be doing something. Apparently, he sometimes doesn’t even allow himself a break when he’s sick… as he alleges that he wrote Cinnamon Girl, Cowgirl in the Sand and Down by the River in the same day while in bed with the flu. I am not THAT productive when I’m at the top of my game!

I like my style, but 
it's not for everyone.

12. Elections bring out the worst in people on both sides. Snark, snark, snark… Yes, there' a lot at stake... Still, I’ll be relieved when it’s over. I know I’m not the first person to say this out loud, and it's not the first time I've said it, but I still wanted to put it out there.

13. I told my husband that there were blogs where people took pictures of their outfits and posted them and talked about fashion – like my friend Molly here… and he laughed and said, you could post pictures of your raggedy workout clothes every day! See, cos that’s what he sees me in every day before he leaves for work…  In my defense, after I shower (and post the shower song) I do put on an actual outfit… Seriously, I don’t always look great, but I like my style. However, I’m not sure it’s ready for prime time.

14. There sure is a lot about my mom in this list. Love ya, Mom!