Monthly Archives: August 2015

27Aug/15

“It’s Only Rock And Roll”….

Lifestyle, , ,

but I “love” it…

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I changed The Rolling Stones lyrics a little here but I don’t just “like” music, I love it!  I love all kinds of music. Having just had my “Summer of Concerts” end last night with Motley Crue and Alice Cooper, it got me to thinking about all the concerts I have been to since my very first one in the early 70’s.

I thought I should compile a list of my top ten concerts of all time…in no particular order. I can’t really rate them that way due to the fact they are all so different. I have such a wide range of music likes, from Alternative to Country. So I think depending on where I was and who I was with in my life may have had an affect on what I was into at that specific time.

My Top Ten Concert List:

1. Bon Jovi – it only tops the list because I think I have seen them more than any other band. They were awesome back in the early 2000’s and even up to 2011. 2013 not so much and now without Richie, well don’t think I will be going to see them again. Also memorable was taking my grandson to see them at the 2013 concert. His first concert.

2. The Rolling Stones – early 80’s, was booked as their last tour. Great concert. Journey opened and were booed off the stage. Also George Thorogood and The Delaware Destroyers played too. Don’t ask what happened after the concert was over.

3. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young –  In the 70’s..during my hippie phase.

4. The Bee Gees- Late 70’s during my disco phase.

5. Queen – early 70’s, my very first concert. Went with my husband, concert was great but about halfway though I told him I was hungry because I smelled BBQ Chicken, he looked at me and said, “um, that is pot”..I was very young and naive.

6. Counting Crows, Blind Melon, The Lemonheads, Gin Blossoms and Toad The Wet Sprocket – the 90’s and I was into “Alternative” big time. Note: I was dating a much younger guy. I still love this music though. My one regret was not ever seeing R.E.M live.

7. Quiet Riot, Scorpions, Poision, Loverboy – 80’s. Saw most of these at City Island, Harrisburg, PA. My significant other at the time loved these bands. Have to admit they were great concerts.

8. James Taylor/Carole King – 2010 Truly one of the best concerts I have ever been to. My youngest daughter and I went to see this. She is a huge fan of JT and I got tickets for her birthday. We were running late and we walked in the door as the concert was just about to start. The lady at the door said, “we’ve been waiting for you”…we laughed and she said “no really, we have. We have a surprise for you, give me your tickets”. We looked at each other and gave her our tickets. She told us to follow that guy over there. We did, we had no idea what was going on. We kept following him and he led us down on the floor…to the very front row. We just looked at each other in amazement and screamed. Our tickets we gave the lady were at the very top row of the Verizon Center. Needless to say a very memorable concert in so many ways.

9. Kid Rock and Foreigner – July 2015 VA Beach. Great show by both bands.

10. Motley Crue and Alice Cooper – last night, August 26, 2015 Baltimore. With 2 of my kids and an awesome show put on by both bands. What more could you ask for?

My life has been filled with music of all genres. My parents played Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin and a little Glenn Miller. In my teens I was into The Temptations, Four Tops and all the music that Dick Clark had on Bandstand. And let’s not forget, The Beatles. I was a true Beatlemaniac. My greatest music regret is never seeing them. We played music all the time when the kids were growing up and I think that is where they developed their love of it.

I love live concerts. There is something about the vibe and feeling I get when I am there. The memories I have of going to concerts are some of my best memories. That is what I notice now when I am at one, seeing parents taking their young children to see bands that they enjoyed. Families making musical memories together. I have also seen some other memorable musicians/bands such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rodgers, Jimmy Buffett and Neil Diamond just to mention a few. I wish I would have kept all of the tickets cause I know I am  forgetting some really great ones.

I’m not sure if it was the music, the people I saw or heard it with, what I was going through at the time or a combination of all of these. I just know my life would not have been the same without it. I love music. It can transport you to another time and place in seconds. So go ahead, put on some music and dance, dance, dance…

Do you go to live concerts? What was your favorite and why?

 

21Aug/15

I CAN’T HEAR YOU…

Lifestyle, Rants, ,

And yes I am yelling….

a little louder please...

a little louder please…

This isn’t something I like talking about, but I feel the need to speak for all of us who have any kind of hearing problem. I am almost totally deaf in one ear and about 80% in the other. I wear a hearing aid but most likely will be needing to have one in both ears in the very near future.

The reason for my talking about it today is I want to raise awareness and hopefully by doing so, maybe make people have a little compassion for the hearing impaired. I struggle on a daily basis to understand people in any number of situations. I can’t always hear servers in restaurants or clerks in the stores. People have a tendency to talk fast and or mumble which makes hearing them even harder. If I am going to be in a situation where I know it is going to be hard to hear the person and it is important for me to do so(like at my recent eye exam), I will stop them before they even start talking and tell them I wear a hearing aid and would they speak slowly and clearly.

I have to constantly ask people to repeat what they said, sometimes 3 times(that is my limit). Very often, what happens is I still am not getting it and just nod or answer to what I’ve thought they said. Then they stand there staring at me with a blank look in their eyes because I’m clearly not answering the question correctly. Sometimes I just walk away.

Not being able to hear is hard. It isn’t something someone can tell about you when they see you. Even when you are with family and friends that do know, they tend to forget and talk in a normal tone of voice so I can’t always join in the conversation. Even when I do, people think it’s funny when I mistake what they’ve said, when “Do you want some brie”, becomes “Do you have to pee”. I agree that is funny and I laugh along with them. But sometimes its not funny. Sometimes it just hurts. It is hurtful to make fun of someone with a hearing impairment, just like making fun of any other impairment.

I don’t like having this affliction. I don’t like sitting on the sidelines and not joining in the fun at family gatherings and dinners with friends. And I am happy for everyone with perfect hearing. I envy you. Enjoy it, you don’t know what a wonderful thing it is until you don’t have it. All I’m asking is the next time you are talking to someone and they ask you to repeat something for the third time, just do it and don’t complain about it or make fun of them. We hate it as much as you do!

So please people, speak up and speak clearly!

13Aug/15

Who Am I??

Humor, Lifestyle, Rants, , ,

Its happened, I have truly turned into my parents…

Stop it now...

Stop it now…

 

I don’t know when or how this happened, but it happened. I find myself saying and doing things they did all the time now. Daily, hourly, every few minutes… I just can’t stop it. I want to but I can’t. I have turned into my parents!!

How this is affecting my life and the lives of those who love me (at least they did, maybe not so much anymore) has not been determined yet. But it is affecting them and me. I promise myself to try harder to stop being my parents. But can I?

My my youngest daughter and grandkids are visiting from Vermont this week and I find myself acting like my Dad constantly. Saying things like “turn out that light, stop running in and out the front door, calm down, shut the refrigerator door, do you have to be so loud, you’ll poke your eye out”…and on and on. The words just come out of my mouth and the moment I say them I hear him and want to stop but I can’t.

I wasn’t always like this, I was a fairly normal person for the most part and allowed the kids to be kids, but I have sadly turned into Dad and I can’t go back. Mom wasn’t as bad as Dad. My Father was the one who had no patience at all with kids. That is until I had kids, he was pretty good with them and actually talked to them, I don’t remember ever having a conversation with him unless he was telling me NOT to do something or to lower my voice. I couldn’t do anything right. I tried to be different with my kids, I left them be kids. I wasn’t like this when they were little..or at least I don’t think I was.

Dad did however have his limits, even with my kids. I remember both of my daughters telling me of one particular night they slept over at my parents house, they had been to the mall and each of them got a balloon. They were being kids and playing with the balloons and had named them “Buster”(they got them at the Buster Brown Shoe Store). Of course they were giggling and running around the house with them until Dad just couldn’t take it any longer,  he got up from the sofa went over and ripped the much loved Buster from their tiny little hands and threw them out. I always thought this was such a horrible story. That is until recently. I could so see myself doing this…and maybe even have done something similar.

So I ask, is this normal? Or is something wrong with me? Or could it be due to the fact I have been through so much lately that I have absolutely no patience for anything that is out of my ordinary daily routine? I have had so much chaos, craziness and loss in my life that now I seek peace, calm and a semblance of order. I am not making excuses, I am just saying this is the way it is.

And by the way, this isn’t just happening with my grandkids, I am even doing it with my oldest kid who has moved in with me. I find myself on a daily basis telling her to turn off the light or shut the refrigerator door. She just looks at me and I know what she is thinking. I also yelled at my youngest daughter the other night for jumping around in bed. I thought she was going to have a heart attack. Of course I feel bad after I do these things, but for some reason I just can’t stop myself.

Again I pose this question to you, is this normal? Do you find yourself having less patience as you turn older? Do you find yourself saying and doing more things like your parents? Please tell me I am not alone or crazy!

Are we destined to turn into our parents?

 

 

06Aug/15

There’s No Place Like Home..

Lifestyle, , ,

Even if it isn’t your home anymore

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The house I grew up in..

 

I drove by the house I grew up in last week and as it always does these days, it made me sad. I’m sad my parents don’t live there. I’m sad someone else is living in “my house”, enjoying my yard and sleeping in the room I grew up in with my sister.

My parents built this house in 1949, the year I was born. They lived in it their whole married life. I was born in this house. How can this not be our house anymore? I sit out front and stare at it now and wonder if the family inside is enjoying it as much as we did. I am also silently hoping I don’t get arrested for stalking or something.

I have such wonderful memories of my youth and growing up in this house. We had our whole family together here every major holiday. There would be picnics outside in the summer where Dad would cook on the grill and Thanksgiving and Christmas Mom would do her thing in the kitchen. Family meant the world to my parents and they included everyone in these celebrations. Oh, what I would give to have one again.

I love thinking back to the days when we played outside in the back yard or roller skated down the sidewalk. Everyone in the neighborhood knew each other and if you misbehaved someone let you know it wasn’t acceptable or told your Mother. And you didn’t want that so you behaved. We were outside from morning until dark. My first friends were all from the neighborhood and we were always together. All different ages, it didn’t matter. We made up games and things to do and we were never bored. Sometimes we would just lay in the grass at dusk and look at the stars until our parents made us go back inside for the night. Then we hooked up cans on string and threw it across the window to the house next door so we could continue our conversations.

I think of all of this as I sit there staring at “our” house. I can picture us running around the neighborhood or riding our bikes. Speaking of bikes, I remember the little girl across the street getting her foot caught in the spokes of my bike an having to go to the hospital. See Mom was right, you shouldn’t let anyone ride on the back of your bike. I also remember when the meat truck would pull up out front and Mom had me go out to get our lunch meat. I also remember one such time after looking both ways and seeing not a car in sight, getting struck by a car and having to go to the hospital. I was 5 and believe me, I was a super star when I went back to school with the story of getting thrown 20 feet in the air and surviving with just a few scratches.

My own kids don’t have this. I have moved so many times in my life it it ridiculous. so there isn’t that one place they can look back on and say it was their home. I bought the house I live in now so that our family can be together and have a place to call “home.”  But what is a home? The dictionary defines it as this..”the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household. Permanently..see even the dictionary thinks it should be permanent.

I miss this house and everything it meant to me. I hold all of those memories in my heart now of course, but I would love to be back inside that place one more time. One more time with my family all together. One more time.

Do you still live in your family home? Would you if you could?

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Me and some of the neighborhood kids.

“There’s no place like home” ~ Dorothy