You Can Quit At Any Time. But This Could Be Your Year.

Well, I missed a few days. Duh.

Did you miss me?

Yeah, I figure you were busy, too.

Funny how you can have great intentions and they can just get shot straight to someplace else. Well, that is what you call LIFE, I think.

Oh well.

Let's get back to California 37 and Train. Can you believe that the concert is only two days away? Me either.

I am absolutely ready for it. It is going to be outside, so I am really hoping that the weather cooperates. Last time I checked there was only 30% chance of rain, so that is good. And it has been cooling down in the evenings... another plus. So, I have fingers, toes, and anything else that is crossable... crossed.

Okay, let's get down to the music. I do believe that I referenced a blog or two back that the band did figure out what the problem was for their lack of ongoing success after they achieved success. In other words, just having a couple of great songs doesn't mean that you will continue to put out great songs. I think that there is a lot of pressure once you have made it to continue to make it. Before you make it, you can write whatever you want. After you make it, everyone seems to have an opinion about your music. And that is aside from the fans.

I found what Pat had to say during this studio session very enlightening.



Let's listen to the whole thing...



If if made you think of Billy Joel's song We Didn't Start The Fire at first listen, you are not the only one. Of course, the listing of events is the only thing those two songs have in common. BJ's song spans decades and isn't remotely personal. Train's song is an intimate look at Pat's life. I look at the timeline of it and I see that at various times there was hopelessness there. Gaping hopelessness. Couldn't you feel it? He even says "this is the time I felt most alone."

I love these kinds of songs because he is offering the entire spectrum of his life to date. There was some terrible places, black places, with sunlight filtering in here and there. However, he kept going and then KABOOM... the universe rewarded all of his tenacity with bounty. Train took off. Train crashed and burned. Train took off again. His marriage crashed and burned, but finally he met the true love of his life in 2004, and it was true and good, and he finally felt at home. The lesson is that you can quit at any time on the timeline, but if you do, you won't get the reward.

So, Journey has the right of it DON'T STOP BELIEVING. And so does Train because MAYBE THIS WILL BE YOUR YEAR.

This is another song I just really like off of the new album. They didn't create a Studio Session for it. And it hasn't been deemed radio worthy... yet. But, it is one of my personal favorites.

If I go before I say to everyone in my ballet

Let me take this chance to thank you for the dance
If I run out of songs to sing to take your mind off everything
Just smile, sit a while with the

Sun on your face and remember the place we met
Take a breath and soon I bet you'll see
Without you I would never be me
You are the leaves of my family tree

Sing together
If you knew me from the very start,
Or we met last week at the grocery mart
Just sing together
It's the least that I can do
My final gift to you
Oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oooo

When I'm past the pearly gate, I will find some real estate
Where we can settle down and watch the world go round
We'll send down all the love we got and let them know we got a spot
For them to be and it's all free,

The sun on your face and remember the place we met
Take a breath and soon I bet you'll see
Without you I would never be me
You are the leaves of my family tree

Sing together
If you knew me from the very start,
Or not at all you're still a part, just
Sing together
It's the least that I can do
My final gift to you
Oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oooo
Oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oo oooo

So, let's all sing together. If you knew me from the very start, or not at all you're still a part of it all. It's the least that I can do.

Without you, I would never be me.


image found on facebook, yet again
Don't ask...

WAYS I RUN TO YOU FAITHFULLY

Thanksgiving has come and gone, so we are now officially in the Christmas season. Ironically, many people find it difficult to work up the happy at this time of year. I think that forced happiness is difficult. Or maybe just being around chronic happiness can make an ordinary life unbearable. In other words, what is bearable at all other times of the year, becomes unbearable when surrounded by so much glee. I know that sounds a little crazy. But, I specialize in the crazy, and that is my opinion. I know that too much happiness when my head feels like it is about to split right off my body is flat-out annoying. Annoying isn't the right word, but you get the idea. Throw in all of the other aches and pains, the fact that my friends don't or won't make the time to fit me into their schedules, and I get downright Grinchy at Christmas. That is part of the allure of blogging. You people still visit. You don't have to drive across town to do it. And you leave nice comments.

The inspirational video for the day reminds me a little bit of PAY IT FORWARD. I love that concept. I think that the whole world would be nicer if we always paid it forward in large and small ways at every opportunity. Sometimes I think that people get hung up because they think that it has to be huge in order for it to "count." Not true. Small things matter. And what is small to you might be huge to someone else. You never know where someone else is living. That is the thing about kindness. We can never be too kind to another person. We don't know their circumstances or the pains from which they are suffering. Your kind word might be the only kind word they hear that day, that week, that month. Do not discount your kindness. And that is why I love this video. I hope that you love it, too. Maybe it will make Your Favorites.




I have always liked the number eight because it comes full circle. I suppose I could like the number zero for the same reason, but not so much. Eight has balance and comes full circle. I like it. I like things with symmetry. Things that come full circle. Stories that have an end that bring you full circle, but that you didn't see coming. It was one of the reasons I liked Seinfeld so much. They did that a lot with four crazy characters on seemingly different journeys that all intersected and impacted at the end. Bang. When I write something with a Bang ending, it means it came full circle somehow. It had symmetry, balance, and it finished with a flourish. I like that. If there is some heartburn in there, well then I knocked it out of the park. Doesn't happen often. Anyway, I like my TV, movies, songs, and people like that, too. Give me an onion. Not a real one. Don't really like those, but the metaphorical ones. Love those.

Well, this is Saturday and we are pressing the button and checking out what was playing on MTV back in the 80s. Turns out lots of good stuff was playing on MTV back in the 80s. LOL. I watch the videos now and think, "The 80s had fantastic music. But the clothes and the hair were just freakin' terrible." And that is the truth. I would love to burn all of the pictures of myself from junior high through high school, except my play pictures. Keep those. The rest can meet a fiery death. I think I had a "me" moment and digressed. Let's get back on topic.

We are going to feature Journey today. I really loved Journey. I think of Journey and think of the skating rink. Actually, I think of a lot of 80s music and think of the skating rink. Journey, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Foreigner (which was a little harder), were are all awesome bands that when I start thinking about one of them, I think about all of them. But, we are sticking with Journey today. Steve Perry was the lead singer of Journey, and eventually left them and did a solo album. At least one. I don't know if he did more than one or not. And I am not looking it up. At least, not today. I can still remember the video for Oh Sherrie, though. Moving on...

Narrowing down the videos was fairly easy. I didn't want to go with concert footage, and I wanted to pick songs that I really liked. Yeah, have you noticed how much this blog really is all about me? I've learned you can't please other people, so I quit trying. I please me, so that I know one person will be happy. I figure that at least some of the rest of you will like my choices. So, here are the two Journey videos that I like (and remember best), and are non-concert vids (mostly). Every time I listen to Faithfully it makes me want to hold up a lit cigarette lighter. If I had one. Which I don't. But, I still have that feeling. It's a warm, gooey feeling. Geez, I love that song.







That was pretty darn awesome. I feel 20 years younger. Nope. That was a lie. I don't. I feel just as old now as I did twenty minutes ago. But, that was a lot of fun. And I am really glad that I am not in high school anymore. And there you have the silver lining. Happy Saturday peeps!

I'LL HAVE A MOCHA VODKA VALIUM LATTE TO GO PLEASE

This post I think will actually be short (by my standards). It is shocking, I know. I spent some time last night thinking about my last two posts, and some comments I left on some of your blogs. I also contemplated Lucy March some more and how she is working her blog. Then I stirred all of that up a little bit.


Lucy March doesn't talk very much about her former husband (who she refers to as Fish, in order to keep him anonymous) because her journey is about her. That gave me something to think about. No matter what happens to us, isn't the journey of reclamation about us? Granted, other people or circumstance played their part, but ultimately didn't we (and by we, I mean I) make the choices that landed us where we are?

Well... for Lucy, that has meant examining all of her close relationships and taking a good, long, hard look at them. How did they work? Did they work? You know, that sort of thing. When you do that, sometimes you get some surprises. Not necessarily about the other person in the equation, but about you (and by you, I mean me). What that hands a person is revelation. Things begin to make sense. Patterns emerge. For the good and the bad.


I am amazed, frankly, that she is able to do this every day. Just thinking about it is exhausting. Especially when I feel like I have done so much internal work already. However, I read her blog, I am writing things down like a maniac, and I know that means something. Yeah, it means I am scratching the surface of something. Like I am tapping on a memory. Or an experience. Or a pattern. Or something similar. Not sure yet. It means I need to get in there and break it down.


I guess what I am getting at is this: once I figure out what happened to me before I met The Operator, then I will understand how I ever let myself get dragged into that relationship. What I am saying is that I will be eyeball to eyeball with the demon inside that knew on some level that this was bad and jumped anyway. Maybe I didn't know how bad, but I knew it was bad. Now, how did I get there? Figuring that out has absolutely nothing to do with The Operator and everything to do with me.

I think I know why I called this blog Blog Therapy now. I get it.