How to wait after it feels like you've waited so long

Have you ever felt just generally uninspired?

When I get into these funks, I tend to listen to music.

When I was a teenager, that usually involved a record player or cassette player (yeah, I'm showing my age here) and a hairbrush (later a curling iron), because they both made excellent microphones. Besides, what is more fun than dancing around your room singing into a hairbrush? Not much, let me tell you. (This might suggest that I need to get out more... hmmm. Something to ponder later.) BUT, this sort of thing was almost always successful in raising my spirits.

I also spent many years with a tape player (later a CD player) permanently installed in my bathroom. I turned it up loud while in the shower and down (a little) when I wasn't. Again, this was excellent for the overall mood. However, when migraines struck in the early 2000s, this is one behavior I mostly quit. Who could stand the noise???? The water hitting the shower was loud enough... OMG. (Yeah, when this is loud, you have a migraine.)

I've gone on about the band Train on this blog before. In fact, I wrote a series of posts before I went to see them in concert (again) back in 2012 for their California 37 tour.

So, when my mood plummeted to Blah, I pulled the CD player off the shelf. Pulled my meditation CD out. Put Train's CD My Private Nation in.

Short story: I knew the Train hits Meet Virginia and Drops of Jupiter before I saw them for the first time live back in 2003 (I think). It was right after their album My Private Nation was released and one of the many concerts my ex-husband dragged me to (completely oblivious of how painful concerts were to my migraine situation). This one was outdoors (and much more pleasant for this migraine sufferer). All I remember is that a couple of songs in I was hooked. Infatuated. Completely under their spell. I bought a freakin' T-shirt. The ex did not. And soon after I loaded up on CDs. So, I mean hooked.

As I've learned more about this band, the more I believe that you can get a sense of where they were just by the song they choose to name the album after. The first one was self-titled with just Train. So, I guess it was the "this is who we are" album. Drops of Jupiter was second. I watched Pat on a TV special (MTV maybe?) talk about how that song came to him via a dream he had about his mother who recently passed. She was his staunchest supporter and died before the band achieved any "real" success. So, the song Drops of Jupiter is about his mother. Ironically, it's the band's "biggest" song to date, so his mother inspired an iconic song AFTER she died. With that in mind, I'm posting it here, though I think you've already heard it, unless you don't listen to contemporary music. (Yeah, I'm looking at you Stephen T. McCarthy.)




I loved that song before I really understood it. Now, I love it more.

But, My Private Nation. Man, I love that album. I listened to the whole thing yesterday, and damn. Every song on that album appeals to me. Every single one. Pat Monahan writes many of the songs (or at least co-writes), so the albums almost always reflect where he is in life. Does it get more real than that? And he wasn't in this great place when he wrote My Private Nation. His marriage dissolved, and anyone who's divorced know how that feels. So, there are songs that speak to that, as well as songs with just those quirky lyrics that Pat does so well. I could easily find a reason to post every song from that album, but that wouldn't be pleasing to anyone but me. ::sigh::

I will suggest that you listen to When I Look To The Sky, Get To Me, Calling All Angels, and I'm About To Come Alive. That last one really resonated with me on this listening, because I feel like that for the first time in a long time. Like I'm on the verge of it. Just hang with me for a little bit longer. I'm about to come alive.

But, like I said, I've noticed that the title song captures the MOOD of the album, even when it's never released to the radio. So, My Private Nation is the one I'm posting here.



How to get, how to give
How to make ends meet
How to lose, how to win
How to stay on the seat
How to use momentum to keep the two wheels straight
How to wait after it feels like you waited so long

I don't need nobody flyin' in my jet stream
Take the bus
Go on and get yourself your own dream

You can ride on, it ain't free
Leave a light on, so you can see
How to get back when you go

It Could Be Today

You want to know the truth? I am tired of political posts on Facebook. Heck, I am tired of political posts everywhere. I think most people have their minds made up and anything you say isn't going to change it. All you are going to do is make someone angry.  And yet, I cannot stop posting because this is THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION OF MY LIFETIME.

And then I think about that Eminem quote about people being mad at you. His response is, "Well good. At least at means you stood for something." You didn't sit in a corner too afraid to say anything because you might hurt someone's feelings. You didn't live to be so politically correct that you didn't want to offend your whole life. And I think, "Yeah, that is what I think makes him so damn hot." I don't agree with his every thought. Action. Definitely not every action. In fact, I don't think he does either. But he OWNS everything. I gotta respect that. And I don't think he cries in his milk when someone unfriends him on Facebook. Or if he had a blog I don't think he would lose sleep if he lost a follower. Oh well.

Real friends stick even if they disagree with every single word you say. They respect the crap out of you for saying it. It's like the song Drops of Jupiter. They might think you're wrong, but they have your back. And they are just glad you have the backbone to stand up. Because everyone someday is going to have to stand up. Maybe sooner than you think.

I am not going to ramble on much longer because I have an excerpt for you from someone who explains this much better than I can. But, this is just the tip of the iceberg as to why I feel our current President does not have OUR best interests at heart. Please understand that I don't think ANY OTHER PRESIDENT could get away with what he is doing. He has our social media wrapped up and reporting the news just the way he wants it. We are being fed the news he wants us to hear. And anytime any other version comes out, those people are portrayed as crazy or extremists or something else anti- or ugly.

This is from Michelle Malkin's book Culture of Corruption. She is clearly not racist (she is a minority) or anti-women (she is a woman). However, she is one of the few people courageous enough to speak up and call a spade a spade. Watch her on YouTube. She is impressive as all get-out.  This is from her book:

 "But the most glaring example of the Obama culture of corruption, and the clearest evidence that Hope and Change is hazardous to your personal well-being and welfare, can be found in the $60 billion White House payoff to Big Labor in exchange for its support for Obama's health care takeover plan. In mid-January 2010, the White House convened backdoor meetings with Democratic leaders, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern, and United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger. Outside the view of C-SPAN cameras, which Obama had so ostentatiously, repeatedly, and falsely promised to install at every health care policy negotiation, the special interest groups cut a deal to exempt union members from a massive 40 percent excise tax on high-priced health insurance premiums.

The excise tax kicks in for everyone else in 2013. While the law squeezes middle-class taxpayers, employers, investors, and drug-makers to subsidize expanded government health care, the Big Labor Cadillac tax exemption gives union members who belong to any health plan that is part of a collective-bargaining agreement immunity until 2018. State and local government employees who belong to unions will also be spared. As the Wall Street Journal editorial board put it succinctly: "The 87% of Americans who don't belong to a union will now foot the bill for a $60 billion giveaway to those who do."

 And you can bet those union lobbyists will spend the next eight years lobbying to ensure that the "temporary" exemption never ends. ... Connecting this raw deal to the parallel dirty deals hammered out on Capitol Hill to force the Obamacare package through, National Review editor and syndicated columnist Rich Lowry put the payoff in perfect perspective: "This Labor loophole stands in the finest tradition of the Louisiana Purchase and the Cornhusker Kickback. With no possible public-policy justification, it puts the awesome power to tax and spend at the service of nakedly political ends. Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said that taxes are the price of civilization. In this case, taxes are the price of not belonging to a group that pours countless millions of dollars into the Democratic coffers."

This is just ONE reason that I cannot vote for this man. Michelle Malkin has written an entire book citing enough things that this man has done to make a person physically ill. There isn't a single promise that hasn't been broken. That is made all the more crushing since he came riding in on the white horse. I think the people expected more. I mean, we all know politicians lie. But this guy was Hope and Change. Not more of the same... and even worse.

If you are tired of being force fed what the media is cramming down your throat, read Michelle Malkin's book. Open your mind to what is actually going on. This is the most important vote you will ever cast. Romney will repeal Obamacare, and that is moving Forward. The 87% don't know it yet, but they will thank you later.

I thank you for listening.  And I know that you will post your comments with grace and respect.  Because that is just who you are.

A Soul Vacation

Well, I am late getting started with my next post in this series.

I have actually had a busy day.

Went with a friend to see The Dark Knight Rises. Wow. What an awesome movie. I refuse to accept that it is the last one. Christian Bale absolutely must make another Batman movie. They lined up the dominoes so perfectly for the next movie that they cannot NOT make it. It is just unacceptable. Joseph Gordon-Levitt knocks it out of the park in everything he does. Seriously, this guy is seriously starting to make me really like him. As in he might get added to my Cannot.Miss.Anything.He.Does List. That is a tough list to get on, but he has worked overtime to get there. And he has sold me. Or maybe I am owned. Not sure how that one works. Whatevs. And Anne Hathaway shocked me with her dazzling performance, too. Everyone was just spot-on terrific. This movie just nailed it all the way around. Now, if the real life crazy people would just stay at home, the world would be a perfect place. Big sigh. Moving on....

Then we met up with friends for some dinner and karaoke. In honor of the Train concert this Friday, I sang some Drops of Jupiter. I can't say that it is my best singing performance, but I can pull it off with enthusiasm. Woot.

Now, on to some more stuff off of California 37. I just read on the message boards on YouTube that someone had seen them in concert and they performed this song. Pat apparently said at that concert that this song is something of a continuation on a theme to Drops of Jupiter. By the time the song was over the whole place was in tears, or so says the person who left the comment. I can believe it.

Here is the Studio Sessions clip of You Can Finally Meet My Mom. It is only a couple of minutes. However, I love these clips. They are so revealing about the song and the band.



Okay, let's listen to the song in its entirety.



I can see right now that I better pack some tissues for this concert because I am going to lose it on that song. I know me and the floodgates are going to OPEN WIDE. I can't listen to it right here without crying like a little girl.

If you are now sitting there thinking, but I know Drops of Jupiter. Okay, maybe I only thought I knew Drops of Jupiter. What am I missing???? You want to hear it again. Am I right? If that was Drops of Jupiter 2, what did you miss about Drops of Jupiter (1), because you weren't pulling out your hanky as you drove down the expressway when you heard it the first, second, third, and fourth times???? Well, let's take another listen...



And there it is. That soul vacation that I liked to imagine was one to Jamaica or Hawaii was a bit more permanent, wasn't it? Hence all the references to sailing across the sun, falling from shooting stars, etc. And then there are the questions. Did the wind sweep you off your feet? Is heaven overrated? And, most important of all, do you miss me????? And let's whip out the tissues because the crying has started again. I think I might not be able to karaoke that song anymore. It may be joining the long list of things I can no longer sing, because I just start bawling like a baby midway through. I don't have that capacity to separate myself from the song no matter how many times I have heard it. I am unable to build up an immunity.

So, today we are looking at the softer side of Train. Yesterday was all about telling your truth even when it might hurt someone else. It was also about having a little bit of fun. Today, we went on a Soul Vacation.

Can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried chicken
Your best friend always sticking up for you... even when I know you're wrong
Can you imagine no first dance, freeze dried romance,
Five-hour phone conversation
The best soy latte that you ever had... And me

When it's my time, I am definitely going to be hopping a shooting star. You can count on it. What kind of Soul Vacation would it be without riding a star?


image found on facebook... again
where I spend way too much time