time

Time is just getting by me these days. It just seems like yesterday I wrote a post and it has been three weeks. So much going on. Let's see what: I celebrated 25 years of marriage on the 13th. We didn't do anything - we are taking a second honeymoon the end of July - nothing fancy just going to same place we went when we got married. I will look for a picture and post it one day. The camera is not my favorite thing. My daughter has gone back to school. The nine to five thing finally got to her and she realizes that she needs her education. She is taking summer classes here but will eventually leave to go back to her school for the spring 2007 semester.

The best news of all though is that my son got a job!! One that he likes as well. He is working for an oil company on a land based oil rig. It pays well and is actually a good job for him because it is at night. He spent so much time working at night while in Iraq that I think that was one of his bigger problems when he came back. He was not used to being out in the day and was not sure how to handle people during the day. Not that they are better in the day but when he patrolled at night he knew the people he dealt with were 9 times out of 10 up to no good. So it was an adjustment to come back here and deal with people in the daylight. This job is structured for him as well. He works three weeks on - 10 days off. He lives with one other person who works the shift opposite of him - kinda of like being back in the barracks and he works the night shift. So he has been working there for a week and the times he has called you can tell a difference in his voice. One of the best things of all though is he has a feeling of worth again.

You see when he came home everyone was so nice to have you back, thanks and so on but he could not find work anywhere. After a while rejection becomes a way of life. Walmart (I don't shop there anymore) has billboards up for their distribution center. He went through two interviews only to be told they didn't need him. A war vet - Walmart the we do everything for our country not hiring a war vet but still obviously hiring as new billboards just recently went up. After you apply and get turned down at so many places you start to think nobody wants you and how can that be after everything you just did for this country. So you get depressed (more so than when you first came home) and you get even more moody. Not good. So this job came along at just the right moment. It has given him of sense of someone needing him.

Other than this we have just been pluggin along with our lives. I read y'all out there everyday - I have to get to work so I will blog with y'all later. Peace and love!!!

Television fanatic

For the past few months I have worked by someone who is an American Idol fan. Not just any kind of fan, an all out do whatever it takes, stalking kind of fan. When the show got down to the final 10 or 12 (I don't watch the show, except for once because I had to see what she was talking about), this is how a week at my job would go. Monday - she would be getting excited cause Tuesday the show was going to come on. She would search online to find out the theme for the night and to see who was singing what, then she would call and talk to everyone about who was going to be singing what and how she felt they were going to sound and who she felt was going to do well. Now you are probably asking yourself how do I know all of this, well this lady has a very loud voice and she uses several different types of voices but her main voice on quiet is about three times louder than normal and she sounds just like the lady on the Nanny (Fran I can't think of her last name), just awful and nasally (if that is a word). That is her main voice, she also has a baby voice and a whisper which you can hear down the hall. I sit probably 25-35 feet away from her and can hear her clear as a bell. Back to the week, on Tuesday, oh my God she is so happy because her show is on tonight. That is all she will talk about all day today. What she is making for dinner or where she is getting it; how she has to get home and get ready for the show. Mind you none of us (well 3 others) watch this show. Wednesday, we hear all about the show all day long, who sung the best, who sounded the worst, whose pitch was off, you name we hear about it.. and she is not talking to us she is on the phone talking to others. We also hear how many times she voted for singers, and who she thinks will be knocked off that night. Thursday, we hear all day long about who got knocked off, whether or not they should have been knocked off and who really should have been in the final three and oh my God if one of her picks is in the final three it is going to be a long day!!! Friday is the only real quiet day. Simply because everything has happened and it is too soon to know who is going to be singing what next week. We live for Fridays at my job for more than it just being the end of the work week....

Okay the show has ended, you think the drama would be over right, wrong!!! Her favorite won so now we get daily updates on what he is doing what she has read about him and of course there is the American Idol tour this summer!!! Will it ever end? Now don't get me wrong, I love my tv shows as well. I have my favorites (Lost, CSI (all of them), and a couple of reality shows (amazing race, project runway, big brother, road rules/real world), okay a lot of reality shows, but if you were to ask anyone at my job they would not know, not because I wouldn't tell them but because my whole life does not revolve around them.. There is nothing wrong with having a favorite show and with being a big fan but don't try and convert me. Don't try and tell me what I am missing out on.. which is what she does. She even offered bring in her tapes of the shows (yes she records them and has all five or six seasons) and watch them with us and tell us all about it. Crazy!!! The one time I watched was to see who she was talking about... and then I voted one time for the other person. How many times does she say she votes, well when they were down to 3 people, she voted 40 times for her favorite, 20 times for her second favorite and 10 times for her third favorite. Now that's a lot of voting on your text messaging at 10 cents a message not to mention the number of times she calls at 99 cents a call. Yup she is a true fan and we all know it!!! Now if you excuse me I have to go watch Road Rules/Real World Fresh Meat - Have a great day!!! Blog with you soon!!! PEACE!!

The Old Days

Today I am going to have two posts so be sure to read the one after this.

Last night on television - VH1 Classic to be exact, I watched a classic concert by Journey. November 1981 was the date in Houston, Texas and I was there. It was the first concert MTV ever showed and yes I was there. Five months pregnant and so excited to see Steve Perry. As I watched the concert last night some 25 years later I realized that what I saw back then was true music. They had no gimics, just five guys playing and singing their hearts out. No fancy dancers, no back up singers for when Steve's voice was lacking, which by the way, it was not, just five guys playing and singing. I miss seeing bands that way. There are still a few out there but in the days of true bands they were all out there. The old bands still tour today, of course I won't go see Journey now because they replaced Steve Perry and to me Journey is not Journey with him. That's why today I love to go watch garage bands, bands that play just to play and sing for the love of the music and the sound. I have never seen my blogger friend Stringman play, but I would imagine that his band is one of these bands. Another reason I enjoyed seeing this band is as I said I was preggers with my boy and you know to this day, Journey still calms him. It was for me a time right before my life was totally going to change - I would have kids and truly have to become a grown up. Though even today when I have just recently had a birthday (I turned 20 and 24 thank you), I still like that music and always will. I used to think when I was younger that when you got older you had to stop listening to rock and start listening to other stuff but I can tell you that I am going to 80 and still jamming to Journey, my Journey with Steve Perry and I am still going to be enjoying the music of bands like Journey that play for the music and love of simply making the music. Bands like Journey, REO Speedwagon, Styx, Van Halen (Sammy not Dave sorry), and so on - I love these bands - I guess I am stuck in the 80's but it's all right!! Rock On!!!!