If you have time to watch this fantastic trailer about the time change, do it. This may be the best thing I've ever seen on YouTube, and I've seen a lot of things...
Battle of the Bands is, once again, colliding with my Soundtrack posts. Yep, I'm doing those again. Here is a quick list of other people participating in The Soundtrack Of My Life:
StMcC Presents BATTLE OF THE BANDS
Cherdo on the Flipside
Holli's Hoots and Hollers
THE DOGLADY'S DEN
Mean Who You Are
Wrote By Rote
If you decide, at any time, you want to start posting these on your blog, let me know, and I'll add you to the list.
First, the story.
Where we left off: J1 decided to quit school (again). His parents lived approximately 30-45 minutes away from the college, so my first thought was that this wouldn't be that big of a deal. In other words, dating him was still doable. And to my credit (or codependency, whichever you prefer) I did give it my very best shot. However, J1 made it difficult. At least, it felt that way.
I remember spending a lot of time waiting on phone calls that didn't happen. Being disappointed by planned visits that suddenly became unplanned. However, I accepted all the excuses (shame on me!) and even justified the insanity to my friends.
Meanwhile, Christmas break came and I went home. This was a bizarre year home. It was the first Christmas with my parents actually divorced and living apart. Ironically, I don't have many memories of this Christmas. Did I block them? I don't know. I do remember visiting my relatives on both sides... just separately with one parent and then the other.
I didn't plan to include this... in fact, I only just remembered it now, but it was this Christmas visit when we spent more time than usual at my cousin's house. She had two young kids (a 7 year old and a 2 year old). The seven year old (girl) looked very much like my cousin and was a very happy kid. They'd had a big Christmas despite the fact her husband was out of work (so it was hard on them). All the women on my dad's side of the family are a bit psychic and interested in "odd" things. At that time, my cousin was big on palm reading. I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but being one of those women (on my dad's side of the family), I found it intriguing. The lines on your hands tell several things, but my little second cousin didn't have a single line on either of her hands. I suppose that should have screamed something to me (and her mother!) but it didn't. It was just another odd thing. My hands said I'd go through two divorces (and I have)... my parents' divorce and my own. The line for my parents' divorce is much deeper than my own. I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to figure that one out. Anyway, there will be more to this story later.
Back to the J1 part of this story. So, we're at my nanny's house (dad's mom) and it was probably Christmas day late afternoon. The year was 1988. No cell phones and you still paid to call long distance. In point of fact, my family pretty much only called long distance in a state of emergency or for a two minute or less call. Why call when you could write a letter???? So, it was a fairly big deal to ask my nanny if I could use her phone LONG DISTANCE to call J1. I thought she might say no, but she agreed.
Turns out, I could've saved that dollar. I called and talked to him for about thirty seconds. He was watching a football game on TV and didn't want to talk to me. And he pretty much said it just like that. I mean he can talk to me any time, but how often is his favorite team (Minnesota) winning??? Merry Christmas!
Nanny was surprised to see me off the phone so quickly and said, "He wasn't home?"
I said, "No, he was. Just didn't want to talk. The football game was on."
She got what I think of as "the look." You know that look... like she bit into something rotten. Then she said tartly, "I hope you told him to sit on a tack."
Of course, the idea of me telling ANYONE to sit on a tack was absurd. (I didn't share the "saucy" aspect of the women on my dad's side of the family... unfortunately.)
But, I really really should have. I would've loved to see the look on his face when sweet little me said, "You and your football game can go sit on a tack!"
I'm sure I said something like, "Oh. Well, I don't want to interrupt you. Talk to you later. Bye." And then asked how high the next time he said, "Jump." Not pretty, but true.
Now, the song.
The song for today is Chain of Fools. It was originally a hit by Aretha Franklin, so we're not going to listen to that version today.
Had I been thinking harder (and longer) I might've included the movie The Commitments on my Top 25. I really liked the movie and loved the soundtrack. I might've loved the movie, but it's been a really long time since I've seen it, so maybe I loved it then but wouldn't like it so much now. I think the real point is I listened to the soundtrack much more often;)
Here is the version by The Commitments:
Back in 2007, I discovered Eva Cassidy. Very talented lady who died much too soon. Here she is with her version of Chain of Fools:
I really like both versions of this song, so this one is going to be a tough vote for me. In fact, I'm still not sure where my vote will land. I'm curious to see what you guys think!
Please vote for the version of this song you prefer. If you want to get into the Ins and Outs of why you like one better than the other... I LOVE long comments!
For more Battle of the Bands fun, check out the other BOTB bloggers to vote on their battles:
- Far Away Series
- Stephen T. McCarthy's Battle of the Bands Blog
- Tossing it Out
- DiscConnected (temporarily disconnected from BoTB)
- This Belle Rocks
- Mike's Ramblings
- Curious as a Cathy
- Book Lover
- The Sound of One Hand Typing
- dcrelief ~ Battle of the Bands
- Cherdo on the Flipside
- Angels Bark
- THE DOGLADY'S DEN
- Jingle Jangle Jungle
- WOMEN: We Shall Overcome
- NovelBrews
- J.A. Scott
- Quiet Laughter
- Holli's Hoots and Hollers
