Eating Lunch All By Myself

If you were to ever look at my playlist - it would be hard to determine if I was 17,  35 or 70 years old.  There is everything from BTS and Taylor Swift to Loretta Lynn and Roy Clark from The Carpenters and Talking Heads to Michael Jackson and Little River Band. I've been trying to figure out for years where I got my taste in music.  I believe I have narrowed it down to one person.   My sister. She is a couple of years older than me, and of course, the younger sibling always thinks the elder sibling is way cool in all choices.  I have to say, for music, in retrospect, she was pretty cool. Before we could buy our own records, we had to depend on whatever was in Mom and Dad's collection.    My parents must have had the Oklahoma soundtrack because she introduced me to Surrey with the Fringe on Top.  She also introduced me to Herb Albert and The Tijuana Brass.  Her favorite was A Taste of Honey while I preferred Lonely Bull.     I also remember listening to Merle Haggard&

                                   I found my first blog! I had to troll through the archives of every saved page on my computer - but I finally found my lost blog "The Spartan Wife!"  My blog debuted on February 9, 2009.  I actually remember writing the maiden post - we lived in Chesapeake, VA at the time. A lot has happened since that initial post.   We moved 5 more times.   We are now empty nesters and I work part time.   A lot has stayed the same.   I am still obsessed with cleaning shows, am still sarcastic and probably should never be taken too seriously. Here is my first blog entry:   I really don't make New Year resolutions. It has always seemed a little silly - if you want to do something - do it now. Don't wait six months, 30 days or 1 week to start something. (I feel the same way about the idea of driving to a track to run. Run to the track for God's sake! Not that I run or even know where a track is.) But, I digress. When I make u

China is cracking down on uncivilized behavior!   Is it protesters?  Women's rights advocates?   Union subversives?   No. Not even close.  China is cracking down on public pajama wearers. According to a recent New York Times article, police recently implemented photo recognition software to identify anarchists and published partial names and places of this public humiliation.  Ms Dong and Mr Niu are two of the identified pajama wearers that lack public morals.  Read the story below. Pajama Wearers Humiliated I had this discussion over brunch last weekend in a local farm to table type of eatery.  It was very cold, lightly snowing, everyone was wearing sweaters and boots except for this guy that shuffled by us in his pajamas.  Complete with slippers.   Complete with dog or cat hair on his pajamas and therefore floating in the air.   He actually looked liked perhaps there was a bed in the back corner and he had just rolled out of it. This is not an unusual occurrence.   

For years, perhaps decades, one of my favorite movies was "Same Time Next Year" staring Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn.  It is about Doris and George who meet by chance at a small beach side inn and spend a night together.   They decide to meet every year at the same inn on the same weekend and do so for the next 25 years.   Oh, yeah, both are married to other people.   One of the rules of their tryst is that they cannot contact each other and can only see each other at the assigned date. Wow.  Writing this out it really sounds like a terrible movie.   It is not.  It is actually quite sweet, sometimes sad and there is never a doubt that they both love their spouses.   But they also enjoy their time together for 25 years. Of course, the viewer doesn't see all 25 reunions. Montages of world events are shown over Johnny Mathis singing a beautiful song  "The Last Time I Felt Like This."   The years of the affair are 1951 - 77.  Watch Video The Last Time I Fel

Have you ever been singing loudly with your friends, or a group of people and suddenly everyone stops.  If they aren't staring at you, they are laughing.    It happens to me quite frequently.  There are only two reasons.  One is because I cannot sing and the second is I often mishear lyrics.     Here are a few of my favorite misheard lyrics by me (and the correct lyrics in case you don't know the words, either.  You are welcome!) P robably the worst misheard lyric I claim is from Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart.   The lyrics are: "And I need you now tonight And I need you more than ever And if you only hold me tight We'll be holding on forever And we'll only be making it right 'Cause we'll never be wrong" I totally blame my Catholic education for what I've been singing for 30+ years: And we'll only be naked in Christ    Then there is Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins.   Apparently the lyric