The Way It Goes...

OK, I guess it is about time I "come clean" and admit that behind all the geekiness, buried beneath all the layers of "Domestic Goddess", prior to the addition of DDs and DH to my life, even before my "Excellent European Adventure", I was....a rock chick. I will give you minute to digest this and allow you to form your own mental images of this as, thankfully, there are very few pictures of this time. Oh, there are a few polaroids that show the purple streaks in the long blonde hair, and the leopard-print jacket (that I still own BTW, though it has been used as a Halloween costume a couple of times by the kids). And no, I did not wear a dog collar and did not go in for piercings. I was more New Wave techno-rock than hardrock or metal (think Devo rather than Rolling Stones). But I was very much a part of Dallas's Deep Ellum alternative culture scene in the late 80's, going as far as being not only a groupie to a number of bands, but even worked as a roadie and a back-up singer! In fact, one evening at the 500 Cafe, I was onstage for a couple of sets after Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians. If I ever figure out the the connection between Paul Simon and Kevin Bacon, I will have my 6 degrees!

While I am sure there is some bad video in which I can be seen, I am not in possession of it, and most of the photos I have are ones where I was holding the camera, so I can't even show you me onstage. And the one album I was on only came out only on vinyl, and I am listed as an "Executive Producer" rather than back-up singer (meaning I loaned my electronic keyboard and was a go-fur, critic, adviser, cheerleader, tamborine player AND back-up singer!). And even if I could show you such a video clip, I am not sure I am as brave as fellow geek/blogger Jeff. I'm sure at some point my DDs will take a look at this blog and I am not sure if I am ready to endure their peals of laughter at their Mom's wilder days. And so I chicken out and provide you with this link, showing T-4-2 in their post FA days when they actually had a contract with Columbia and made a couple of CDs and went on tour and everything.

So as my contribution to Soccer Mom in Denial's


I give you T-4-2 performing "The Way It Goes". I used to sing and play in this one, but not in this video. I let your imagination run wild! Now I will go skulk away in embarrassment...

09-09-09

The world did not end yesterday, despite what predictions you may have seen on YouTube. I waited until it was "today" all over the world before announcing this, just in case. While I have never bought into numerology or astrology, the significance of this calendrical anomaly has caused me to stop and think a minute.

It represents the last set of repeating, single-digit dates that we'll see for almost a century(next one is January 1, 2101).

No matter how your culture writes the date, in the Gregorian calendar, it is the same all over the world. (In Europe for example we write date-month-year, in the US we write month-date-year, in some computer programs, data is sorted year-month-date.

Lots of folks got married yesterday. I mean LOTS of folks, all over the world. No excuses for those husbands to forget their anniversaries!

A few lucky children in the world turned 9 years old yesterday. Some of them even got their pictures in the paper because of it. How cool is that!

Apple iTunes 9 was launched yesterday. This new version supports Blue-ray technology. I know a number of technogeeks are celebrating.

All 13 albums of the Beatles were digitally remastered and released yesterday. Anyone got €200 to spare (about US$ 300) ? Now for me, this is reason to celebrate! And the video game the Beatles Rock Band was also released, for those who want to try and imitate these legends.

The significance of the number nine should also be examined. It is known that if 9 is multiplied by any other number, from 2 to 9, the two digits of the answer will add up to nine. For instance, 2 x 9 = 18. 18, made up of 1 and 8. (OK, yes, I am a math geek.)

Tim Burton released his new film "9," an animated tale about the apocalypse, yesterday. It is supposed to be the next cult hit.

In some cultures 9 is lucky, but in some it is just the opposite. For instance, in China, nine is associated with long life due to its similarity in pronunciation to the local word for long-lasting. While in Japan, the word for nine is a homophone of the word for suffering, so the number is considered highly unlucky.

One thing you couldn't do yesterday is look for LOLcats. It was declared A Day Without Cats. But you can find them again today!

Numerologists (please note, these are not scientists!) believe that mystical significance or vibrations can be assigned to each numeral one through nine, and different combinations of the digits produce tangible results in life depending on their application. As the final numeral, the number nine holds special rank. It is associated with forgiveness, compassion and success on the positive side as well as arrogance and self-righteousness on the negative. I have not yet heard their self-congratulations on how right they were...

Google, in its new tradition of creating logos for various occasions, marked the event at 9:09 in the US with a special logo . Some folks consider this further proof that Google is run by aliens.

Some biblical mystics also weighed in on this date as being very auspicious, as it is the upside-down number of "the beast" - satan = 666.

Internet marketing got a "boost" yesterday. Not sure if this is a good thing, but Stompernet has reduced its membership fee from $800 to $1.99 per month.

There was nothing significant that I noticed in my life yesterday. but if you had something in yours, please let me know.

My Dark Side...

OK, I guess it is time to share one of my dark secrets. I am a closet goth-metal fan. Well kind of. At least I am a fan of one band of this genre, Evanescence and their lead singer Amy Lee.

So, as one of my long-missed entries into Soccer Mom in Denial's


I give you "Broken", which she does with Seether. Gloomy I know, but like singing the blues, it somehow makes me feel better... (sorry you have to go to the link yourself, I still have figured out how to embed a video!)

Letting Go...

Summer is over. Maybe not officially. Maybe not according to the weather in your area. But here, the rains and winds have arrived, and the only soft fruits available on the markets are some pale, imported strawberries and hard but not very sweet nectarines. We are fortunate with our blackberry bush in the backyard that will keep giving my DDs their daily snacks until November. But they ripen more slowly as there is less sunlight on a daily basis now.

The change in this part of the world is very noticeable. Already there is a chill in the air and leaves have started turning and falling in anticipation. I am cold already! For a little while longer it will still be light in the mornings when we get up, but that will not last. We get a short reprieve with the change from the Daylight Savings Time, but as it doesn't occur until the last Sunday in October, (25th October this year) it almost seems like too little too late. By the end of this month it will get darker and darker in the mornings, dawn arriving almost an hour later than it does now.

And as if the weather, the length of days, the lack of soft fruit selections and my aching bones were not enough to indicate that summer is gone, the kids have started back to school! While I have actually thought I looked forward to this (as do so many Moms!), somehow this year I am a bit melancholy. You see this year DD2 started in middle school. She was so excited and has taken the change in venue and routine as a new adventure. Unlike with DD1, she was not at all afraid and not lacking in confidence in any way. In some ways she is a lot more mature than her older sister.

And that, I guess, is my source of anguish. I have lost "my baby". She appears to be wiser and smarter than I think of her. Her favorite phrase lately is "I know Mom!" And she does. And I knew this day would come and have tried to prepare myself. But I find myself mourning for the loss of her childhood just as much as I do the end of the long, warm, lazy summer days...

My Granny, my mother's mother, used to say, "Raising kids is a series of little deaths and letting-go's". I guess she knew what she was talking about.