Whose Line Is It Anyway?

It felt like the never-ending vacation, but it ended.  Finally.

Mom and I returned home this weekend in something resembling a lump.  Make that two lumps.

I did promise you some details on my nephew's wedding.  That seems like Forever ago.  To be fair, it was a couple of weeks ago... It was a Catholic wedding.  As you can guess, the church was lovely.  There were something like three weddings happening in that church that day.  This one was at noon and was pretty short insofar as Catholic weddings go.  The first memorable moment (for me) was simply how happy my nephew looked when he saw his bride at the back of the church.  His face lit up.  I really thought his smile would engulf the entirety of his being.  I had a difficult time looking away from that joy to even focus on the bride.  Turns out, she had that same look on HER face.  I didn't expect to cry, but I felt myself tearing up.  Yeah, I needed a tissue.  But, that was the ONLY time.

The other memorable wedding moment came during the vows.  My  nephew said his first.  When the bride began her vows she accidentally said, "I (groom's name)..." and then stopped realizing what she'd done.  She had no idea what to do.  She looked at the groom in horror.  Then looked out at the congregation with his look on her face that clearly said, "Now what???"  The priest said something in her ear that got back her on track.  She began again using her own name - instead of the groom's - and everything went smoothly after that little hiccup.  Of course, those are the stories that make a wedding great!!!

The reception was amazing all the way around.  The food was outstanding.  There was dancing for anyone who felt like getting out there and shaking their groove-thing.  The DJ was one of those who only played about a 60 seconds or so of any given song.  That was a plus and a minus.  If you loved a song and were really digging it, so much fun to dance to, and if you hated a song and not a great dance tune, well you only had to suffer through it for 60 seconds or so:)  The crowd was mostly 20 somethings, so I spent the bulk of the reception hanging out with the older folks (yeah the 40 somethings).  That included my brother, sister-in-law, and her siblings.  I mostly danced with my sister-in-law, one of her brothers, and my brother (occasionally).

There was one of those cool photo booths at the reception with an entire table of funky junk for you to wear while taking your picture.  I hopped into that thing with my mom and brother.  My mom has that picture or I would post it for you.  But I do have the ones that I took of me and my sister-in-law's brother that we took after stepping off the dance floor.  We took two trips through that Magic Machine because someone left the curtain behind us open and we didn't realize it until our session was nearly over.   All I can say is whoever thought of those photo booths... great idea!

If you are wondering why I have no pictures of the bride and groom... well, I still don't own a camera.  And I can't figure out how to download anything off my phone.  So, I didn't take one single picture this entire vacation.  I am counting on getting some professional pictures or copying some off of Facebook before this is all over. 

SINGING OUT LOUD

I was thinking today about patterns. When I was kid (elementary school age) and I would get into a blue funk I would pop one of my favorite records onto the turntable and dance around my room singing into a hairbrush. Back then, that meant it was Cher's Greatest Hits, Shawn Cassidy's Greatest Hits, or it might have been this record that I ordered off of the TV. It was purple and it had a big clunky shoes on the cover. The name of it is on the tip of my tongue, but I can't quite pull it up. My mother says that I composed quite the letter to place my order. Apparently, it was $7.99, or something like that, and I told them I was sending them $8.00, and I gave them my address so they could send me back the penny. She thought that was hysterical. She sent a check and kept my letter.


As I got older, and moved into junior high and high school, the groups changed and cassettes became more the thing, although records did hang on for a while. And we had an eight track player that still got some use. I discovered that I liked singing into a curling iron better because it had a cord, and that lent a certain panache to the singing experience that the hairbrush lacked. Of course, it had a danger factor, too. Tripping was problematic if you got caught up in the song and weren't paying attention. That did happen on a number of occasions. The 80s lent themselves really well to the curling iron. Who didn't love to croon "Bette Davis Eyes" into the curling iron? "I'm Still Standing" always made me feel better after a lousy day at school. Barbra Streisand released "THE BROADWAY ALBUM" and I thought I died and went to heaven. For a curling iron want-to-be singing diva this was manna from heaven. It just didn't get any better. Here's to the ladies who lunch!


I lost my love for music in college when I majored in it. That was a very blue period that did get better after I dropped music as my major after freshman year. Fortunately, I would still go to parties, and there would be music, and I would sing along, and it would satisfy this elemental craving that I still didn't know I had. After college, I went back to singing along with the radio and my tapes. I wasn't CD techno yet. Alas, I was too mature to sing into my hairbrush or curling iron or dance around my room like a primadonna.

It was only in my singledom that I rediscovered the power of dancing and singing it out. It works with or without the hairbrush/curling iron. Anytime I start to feel blue, I just have to crank up something with a beat. Now, this doesn't work so hot if I have a migraine. But, any other time, it is a surefire home run. The funny thing is my dog. As soon as the music comes on, she comes running. She wants to dance, too. And she barks at me until I pick up her front feet and dance with her, or pick her up and hold her while I dance. Who can stay depressed with all that going on?

So, have you ever sung into your hairbrush or curling iron or danced with one of your pets? What crazy thing do you do to kick a blue mood?