A Three Way Crash: BOTB runs into SOML and Lost and Found

What we are seeing here today is a collision of epic proportions.

First, there was Battle of the Bands. List of participants at the end of this post.

Second, I started writing posts which I lovingly call The Soundtrack of My Life. A few others have joined in this endeavor. Who's participating in this one? These guys:

StMcC Presents BATTLE OF THE BANDS

Cherdo on the Flipside 

Holli's Hoots and Hollers 

THE DOGLADY'S DEN 

Third, I joined the Lost and Found Bloghop. You can find the entire list of participants HERE. Who is hosting this event? These guys:

Arlee Bird at Tossing it Out http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/

Guilie Castilol-Oriard at A Quiet Laughter  http://guilie-castillo-oriard.blogspot.com/

Elizabeth Seckman http://www.eseckman.blogspot.com/

Yolanda Renee http://yolandarenee.blogspot.com/

Denise Covey http://dencovey.blogspot.com/

Alex J. Cavanaugh http://alexjcavanaugh.com/ 

For those of you new to this blog, I'm going through my entire life in song. Sounds tedious when I write it like that, but, surprisingly, not so much. We left off with me receiving a phone call from J1 (just as I was approaching college graduation) to say he'd decided to join the Army and requested a placement in Germany. We'd been on and off again (mostly off) for two years now, but I was still horribly in love with the guy.

In the face of this adversity, we decide to become "on" again. Makes sense, right? I'm headed for my first real job in NYC, and he's headed to boot camp. With promises of writing each other and a visit after boot camp, but before Germany... that's where we left it.

I made my move (lots more to tell there, but not in *this* post) and purchased enough stationery that I really should've bought stock in the stuff. And I wrote and wrote. (If you've read my rambling here, you have a fairly accurate idea about the sheer volume of words I'm attempting to describe). And I waited. Nothing came. Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch. My mailbox remained perpetually empty.

Each day that passed with no word from J1, brought tears, anxiety, and too many meetings with Captain Morgan. My roommates got sick of listening to it. I got sick of listening to it. Why? Because I didn't understand it. I guess it should've been obvious after all the times he said he'd call, and didn't, in the two on/off years, but I really thought we'd turned a corner.

I daresay that the boot camp lasted six to eight weeks. So, it was in July when I knew he was outta there and sitting at home with his parents. I was sure he'd call. The plan was he'd visit me BEFORE Germany. So, a phone call was required, no?

That phone call did eventually happen. But he didn't initiate it. It was a Friday or Saturday night and I'd imbibed just enough Captain Morgan and Diet Coke that calling seemed like a reasonable, and right, thing to do. We had beautiful parquet flooring in that Queens apartment. I remember sitting on it (okay, sprawled on it) and drunk dialing him.

He told me that he got all my mail after boot camp was over. All of it. All at once. Turns out, he couldn't send or receive mail during his stint there. Ergo, as he read he saw I was spiraling out. I didn't call him names or anything, but there was a lot of "I don't know why you're doing this to me" sort of talk there at the end.

I could understand why he wasn't ready to pick up the phone and call someone who may or may not be riding the crazy train that first day. But, day two? Three? Two weeks later? What could possibly have kept him from calling me and putting me out of my (obvious) misery???

"He didn't want to hurt me anymore."

I was floored. Literally and figuratively. But, I eventually managed to wrap my head around this poor excuse and accept it. I suppose this is where the Lost and Found comes into play... because when someone tells you they are a jerk or don't have time for you or you're not the priority (and really he'd been telling me for YEARS) or he just doesn't want to hurt you anymore, you should say, "Well thank you for clearing that up. You're absolutely right. If we carry on down this path you will devastate me. This was good information to have." Instead, by accepting this lame rationale, I was signing up for more pain. My bad. I lost myself and found out just what it is to hurt. We think the pain is in the letting go. Often it's in the hanging on.

And that leads us to the Battle of the Bands/song portion of this event. This describes how I felt that entire six to eight weeks he was in boot camp. 

The song is Say Something. I'm pitting two covers against each other. Listen to them both and cast your vote in the comments. That simple! I recommend NOT watching either. I find both of these distracting, but I'm not the NSA and won't be monitoring you, so do what you like!

Here is Boyce Avenue featuring Carly Rose Sonenclar:



Here is Pentatonix:


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)
• 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 
• Janie Junebug Righting and Editing
• NovelBrews
• J.A. Scott
• Quiet Laughter
• Holli's Hoots and Hollers 
• beReInVintaged 

Battle of the Bands ~ Starships and IWSG (early)

I've been out of the IWSG loop for a while, and now I'm posting early. What can I say? I'm striving to multi-task here.

So, what is going on with my writing? WELLLL, I planned to get a whole bunch of writing done at camp. That didn't work out at all. I wrote exactly nothing. BUT, I did have about a week after I got home when I felt super inspired to get it done. To long story short this, I needed to insert a thread into the novel for the sake of continuity. I'd already started before I left, got stumped, didn't write a word for several months, and came back ready to try and give it a go. The good news is that my new rough draft is done. The bad news is that it is a very rough draft, and I'm already aware of some trouble spots I'm going to have to revisit. The good news is that it's easier to smooth out a trouble spot than to start from scratch. The other bit of good news is that I finished this project before a ferocious migraine set in. More on that later.

So, am I feeling insecure? Well, yeah. I think I tend to live there. However, this entire writing process has been incredible. I know I've stretched as a writer. If you read my very first rough draft you would agree. That bit of writing was heinous. Just heinous. The other thing that astounds me is how much my original story has changed. It's fairly unrecognizable when compared to that very first draft.

I guess it's okay to be insecure. Just don't give up. That's all I've got!

If you took the time to read the comments on my last blog, you know that migraines have taken over my life (again). The vast majority of my life since I got home has been spent in bed with a migraine. Uggghhh. I seriously considered just opting out of this battle. However, I'm really hoping to see improvement in the future.

I don't think I told you that I ended up getting a new cell phone. I just loathed the IPhone I had. I would say hated, but I mean loathed. My mom's quit working altogether while we were in Ohio, so we made a trip to the Verizon store to see if they could fix it. Did you know that Apple phones don't have a battery in them? Once they die, they are dead. I highly recommend backing up your IPhone immediately, if not sooner. They offered her a (fairly) reasonable deal on an Android phone. She took it, and so did I. I did mention my loathing of my IPhone, right? Anyway, the screen on the new phone is so much larger and I can do more with it. I still can't easily read blogs with it. Probably because I'm not smart enough to know how to negotiate my blogger dashboard with it, but I can still do way more than I could with the old one. And that has been handy since I spend most of my time in bed.

Where is this all leading? Well, I like to just troll around YouTube. You know, just to see what's there. I end up in the most unlikely of places, which can be good and bad. In my YouTube travels, I discovered a couple of pretty cool covers of this song Starships. You must keep in mind that I've never actually heard the original of this song. It's by Nicki Minaj, and I'm just not all that fond of her music. But, these two videos really cracked me up. I think the singing is good in both AND the videos are good.

So, this may be the only time that I encourage you to actually watch the video and actually make the video presentation a part of your vote. Both videos are clever in their own way. Your job is to decide which you like most. Your decision may be tough if you like the singing better in one, but the video better in the other or vice versa. In this battle, that's all part of the challenge.

So, sit back listen, watch, and vote.

First up is Penatonix with their cover of Starships:


There was so much video goodness in that to love that I could go on and on, but I won't. Let me just say that I laughed for a long time after watching that one. And then I went on a quest to find another Starships cover that I liked just as much. And, yep, I found one!

This is a video by Mike Tompkins, the cast of Pitch Perfect, and a whole bunch of random people who sent in footage of themselves for this video. I freakin' love that.

Here is Pitch Perfect and the gang with their cover of Starships:


We've got so many new Battle of the Bands players that I'm having difficulty keeping up. (We post a new battle on the 1st and 15th of each month.) For those who've been following this feature/blog for a while now, can you believe that once upon a time -- for a long time-- there were only five of us??? Well, now the list grows each battle. So, if your name is not on here and you're participating, please leave me a message in the comments. Thanks for your patience!

 Also, 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 

What I'm Thankful for in 2014 and Battle of the Bands ~ White Winter Hymnal

Happy New Year blog friends!

Yesterday I posted what I intend to be the first of a series. I'm not sure how many posts it will take. If I were Stephen T. McCarthy, I would have all the posts written and appropriately numbered. Well, I'm not and they aren't. I guess I'm more of a roll with it sort of blogger.

Anyway, before we launch into Battle of the Bands, I do want to take a moment and not complain about events of the past year, but to point out some truly amazing things that 2014 brought.

• I experienced several No Migraine Days. 
• To help you understand how MONUMENTAL this was, let's put it in perspective. From January 2002-July2014 I had yet to see even ONE day that didn't include at least a low-grade migraine. Not a knock your head off sort of migraine, but just that nagging migraine. I was functional, but really tired in an emotional and physical way. I think only someone who lives with chronic pain will fully understand how it wears you down.
• So, experiencing ENTIRE DAYS without any migraine at all. Woohoo. I can't tell you how joyous it felt to wake up and it not be there. 
• I even had several blocks of two or three days in a row without a migraine. This tells me it's possible. I'm doing the right things to get healthier and well. I hope that next year I report I'm able to work (or have gone back to work) because I reached a point of going several weeks migraine-free.
• I finished a rough draft on my novel. Yep, it has a beginning, middle, and end.
• I revised and revised and revised that rough draft to the point that I read it and think, "This is really pretty good."

That is good stuff folks. For everything that went wrong in 2014 two HUGE things went really right for me. I am thankful. I feel blessed. I hope that we all see even more good things in 2015.

Now, let's get down to Battle of the Bands.

I'm not going to yammer on about the song for today... mostly because I don't know that much about it. I discovered it while jogging around on YouTube listening to Christmas music. No, it's not a Christmas song, but people who sing Christmas songs sing other songs and they show up in the sidebar. That can lead to a lot of clicking and random listening.

The song is White Winter Hymnal, which I think is an appropriate title for a January song. The band who recorded it first was Fleet Foxes. If you've never heard of them, take a number. They're new to me, too. I'm going to warn you that the video is strange. You can choose to watch it, but don't allow it to distract you from the song. If you are one of those who will try to find meaning in the video as it relates to the song, this will only boggle your mind (trust me). You've been given fair warning. You might want to close your eyes. The challenger is Pentatonix. In order to fully appreciate what they've done with the song, I think you need to watch the video. Yep. Life is full of contradictions. Don't snap at me. It's LIFE.

Here is Fleet Foxes with their version:




Here is Pentatonix with their version:



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 
• This Belle Rocks
• Mike's Ramblings
• Curious as a Cathy 
• Book Lover
• The Sound of One Hand Typing
• dcrelief ~ Battle of the Bands
• Alex J. Cavanaugh (sometimes)

If you are participating in Battle of the Bands, and you are not listed here, leave me a note in the comments. Thanks!

Now, is the critical moment. It is time to vote for your favorite version of this song. I even encourage you to leave me long comment explaining all the ins and outs of why you voted as you did! 

BATTLE OF THE BANDS TAKE 8

It's the 15th of the month and that means that it is time for another installation of Battle of The Bands.  If this is new to you, each one of these battles pits the same song sung by different artists against the other.  Battles are happening today on several blogs including Far Away Series, FERRET-FACED FASCIST FRIENDS, and Tossing It Out.  Comments on these blogs might garner you a prize.  DiscConnected is also hosting a battle, like me, without a prize.  We're just in it for the fun!  For more information on the prizes visit FERRET-FACED FASCIST FRIENDS as all of the details are there.


Stephen (FFFF) indicated some time ago that he had a whole bunch of Christmas music on his list.  Of course, that caused my brain to start thinking about Christmas music.  I adore Christmas music.  Hearing it brings back memories of my mom wrapping presents in our living room on a card table hauled out special for the occasion.  Every evening she was in there wrapping and Christmas albums played on the record player.  Yeah, I said record player.  So, hearing Christmas music always transports me to that room with the wood stove burning, my mom wrapping, and the music playing.  And don't get me started on the Christmas tree.  I was one of those kids who would lie under it and look up at the lights.  I simply love everything about Christmas.

So, I am starting early with the Christmas tunes so that I can run them through the holidays.  And I know some folks already have their tree up.  I have seen pics on Facebook.  So, I am not the only one swept away by the holiday spirit.

First up on my Christmas roster is the song Carol of the Bells.  Normally, I go to wikipedia and give you the down and dirty on the song.... who wrote it, recorded it, blah blah blah.  Not today.  I am going to just ASSUME you know it.  I will tell you that my original match-up was going to be Mannheim Steamroller vs. someone else (I didn't have anyone definitive in mind), so I hit YouTube.  And that is when it got INTERESTING.  Why?  I found both of these versions, which I'd never heard before and loved both of them!  I am going to have a tough time with the voting.  However, I want to hear which one is your favorite and WHY, so post your vote (with explanation) in the comments.

Carol of the Bells (for 12 cellos) by The Piano Guys (ironically, no piano in this song, just cello....):



versus


Carol of the Bells by Pentatonix (an a capella version):


You may have noticed that the first one slipped in and out of God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman. Surprisingly, I didn't mind. So, which one of these tickled your fancy? Please tell me... at length.