HERE'S TO YOU THURSDAY

Surprise! Here's To You is back on Thursday (this week). If you were paying attention, there wasn't a post last week. I am hanging tough with my resolution to spend more time on my novel and less time on blogger and other social media. So far, so good! Anyway, let's get down to it. Oh... and don't forget to come back tomorrow for Battle of the Bands!

If you don't know what this HERE'S TO YOU stuff is about, let me explain.  This used to be a weekly event landing typically on Thursdays.  When I read your blogs or you say something in the comments that sparks my imagination (or I hear something and I think of you), chances are good I will click over to YouTube to find footage for you. In the old days you wouldn't have to reach back in your memory bank farther than one week. Now... all bets are off. It could be several weeks ago.

The best (or worst) part is that I am not going to explain why I chose "whatever" footage for each of you. If, you watch your footage and are scratching your head at the end, well that means I didn't do a very good job. However, all is not lost. You can email me at rarichards68@gmail.com and ask me what I was thinking when I chose that particular piece of footage off of YouTube and connected it to you. And then I will tell you. Then I will start sending up prayers that I haven't offended the crap out of whoever is on the receiving end of that email....lol. Because, honestly, I will tell you right now... I admire all of you enormously so I really hope that doesn't happen.

Also, this is not an exclusive venture by any means. I hope that you will take the time to watch ALL of the footage because I don't pick bad footage:-) I also hope that you might check out the blog of the person I dedicated the footage to because they are pretty darn awesome. If you haven't figured this out yet... I pick the footage based on something that you've written or something that I've gleaned from your personality. Think on that for a while... If you are having trouble watching the entire video (meaning it is being cut off on one side), click on it a couple of times and it will take you straight over to youtube. If you click on the four squares at the bottom corner of the video, it will enlarge it to fill your screen. The escape key will bring it back to normal size. The back arrow will bring you back to my page.

Now, let's get this PARTY STARTED!!!!

This one is for everyone:


This one is for Optimistic Existentialist at Musings of an Unapologetic Dreamer:


This one is for Sandra Cox at Sandra's Blog:


This one is for mshatch at mainewords:


This one is for LD Masterson:


This one is for DiscConnected and Stephen T. McCarthy at FERRET-FACED FASCIST FRIENDS:

The Truth

My mom read Debbie Macomber's series that is now a TV series, Cedar Cove. I watch this show with her. Last night we watched the second episode of the second season. Olivia gives her daughter, Justine, this advice: I have found that no matter what the situation, the truth always waits at the end.

Justine was swept away in what her boyfriend wanted for their lives (or thought he wanted) and she was going along to make him happy. By the end of last night's episode she had to confess the truth. She didn't want that future he was so intent on pursuing. And it turned out that he didn't really want it either when he looked deeply enough into his own heart. Truths can be hard to accept. It is so easy to get caught up in what someone else wants (truly or mistakenly). Their desire for that future can feel like a riptide that pulls you under... and it is just too much work to break free.

However, in the end the truth awaits.

I thought about my own life and how I allowed the desires of other people to pull me into things, situations, even life-altering changes that I didn't truly want. I thought about how unwilling I was to face this truth that was waiting for me in the end. I didn't want to face it so much that I LITERALLY made myself sick in order to avoid it. How much sickness is actually just stress over truths we don't want to face that manifest into very real physical illness????

I have spent the last year, with the help of a truly wonderful therapist, facing each one of these truths one at a time. It is painful and freeing to see the truth for what it was. And is. It is a terrible thing to know about yourself that you desire the happiness of others over your own. That, my friends, is codependency at its most unhealthy. It is freeing to understand it because it doesn't have to be part of your life ever again. The truth is always waiting for you at the end.

I told you that horrible first date story a few weeks ago. There was a time when I would have marginalized how bad it was and/or decided that this person TRULY needed my help. Oh, the crazy thinking there. One of my hard truths is that we can't save anyone but ourselves. Anyone but ourselves. So, when this person practically begged me for the save I said, "No." I learned that hard truth and refused to be pulled into his riptide.

I am currently facing another situation where I feel like there is a truth just waiting for me. I am not sure yet what that truth will be because I don't have enough information yet. But, the challenge is this: When I uncover that truth, whatever it is, will I act on it? Will I tackle it right away? I hope that the answer is "Yes," because I know the Bigger Truth. It will remain the truth right up until the end. I can face it now or I can face it ten years from now, but the truth is unwavering.

Understanding that Bigger Truth is an imperative for me. If I don't want to hurt someone else by acting on my own truth I am not saving them anything. That truth will demand to be heard at some point. It will hurt less earlier than later, for the person saying it and the person hearing it.

Can you think of a time when the truth was waiting for you at the end, so you sidestepped, took a right turn, or even doubled back just to avoid running smack into it? How did those maneuvers change the truth? How did they change you?

Battle of the Bands, Migraine City, and Death Knocks

I totally forgot to post the results for the 7/15 edition of Battle of the Bands. Once again, you surprised me. Since the original recording tends to garner the most votes, I thought most of you "older" folks would have voted for Old Crow Medicine Show. I have this theory that we tend to like the familiar. I had never heard the original before, but it was just a bit before my time. Turns out I was wrong about the familiarity factor OR this song just wasn't as popular as I thought for Old Crow Medicine Show... and my "older" voters heard it for the first time here. I am taking the long way around to say that Darius Rucker ran away with this one. Darius got 19 of your votes (add mine to that total) and Old Crow Medicine Show only got three votes. I thank all three of you who voted for them. So glad it wasn't a shut-out. Anyway, there will be something new and different on the 1st for Battle of the Bands -- no idea what yet... but it will be fun!

I also want to take a minute to apologize for not getting round to reading your blogs as well as I would have liked. It has been Migraine City here and just flat-out difficult to do anything. Hence, there is no HERE'S TO YOU post this week. I hope to do better (and feel better) this upcoming week. So, look for it next week. ::crossing fingers::

If you follow Jay Noel's blog, then you are already aware that one of his favorite topics is anything science related. He particularly likes Weird Science. Yeah, I now have that song by Oingo Boingo playing in my head. If you want to hear it, too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jm-upHSP9KU

Anyway, that wasn't really where this was going. A while back Jay wrote a fascinating blog bit about kids with black eyes. It was creepy. I loved it. Turns out that his blogging about these kids brought about a collaboration between Jay and Miranda Hardy to write a novel with this premise. How cool is that???? If you didn't read the original post on these creepy kids, I encourage you to do so by clicking HERE.

And now for the ACTUAL BOOK...

Who knew a knock at the door could rupture your entire world? They don’t demand money or possessions…they want much more than that, they want your life.

Maverick is preparing for senior year: he’s no longer stuck in the “friend-zone” with the girl of his dreams, he’s looking forward to choosing the right college and being on his own, and he plans to have a blast along the way.

But a knock on the door changes all of that forever.

Maverick begins a mind-altering, life-changing journey to discover the truth—a truth that certain individuals will do anything to keep hidden.

Death Knocks is a Young Adult paranormal thriller about the strange global phenomenon known as the Black-Eyed Kids. Take a creepy and exciting ride in a world where myth meets reality.
Death Knocks is scheduled for publication on September 26, 2014 by Quixotic Publishing.

Quixotic Publishing
Miranda Hardy
Jay Noel