Gorillas in the Mist and a Wedding

When I published the last post, I guess I was still feeling down. I hadn't realized it at the time -- thinking the photo I took of the gorilla was funny and fitting. But after reading the comments you all have posted, I think I was a little blue. Well, blessedly, these things pass with me and things are getting back to normal. The stitches come out and the dressing comes off on Wednesday and again I'll be able to wash both hands! Hoorah for simple pleasures and the blessings of caring friends. Thank you.

Yesterday, we attended my niece's wedding in Willow Street, PA (near Lancaster/Millersville where my husband and I went to school and met). My brothers (the younger brother and father of the bride, lives in Mississippi, and the youngest brother in Georgia) and I always have a good time when we're together. We have the propensity to find EVERYTHING funny (much to the chagrin to those around us). The baby and my daughters danced their heads off (my girls are both so shy and demure (like their mother)) as did my 84 year old mom. The bride looked beautiful and the only glitch was the cake. Karen had wanted chocolate covered strawberries on the cake and instead of placing partially dipped strawberries around the three tiers of the cake, the bakery piled the totally dipped strawberries on top. Yes, it looked amazingly like poop. Into each event a little rain falls...:)

Feelin' Groovy

Although I can read music quite well, I cannot sight read. I had always wanted to major in music, voice in particular, and had in fact matriculated at a state college in Pennsylvania for about a week with that in mind. I had not auditioned for the music department, but know that I never would have been accepted because of this failing - the inability to sight read and reproduce music the first time seen. I learn a little differently: if I can hear a piece and follow the score, I can usually reproduce the sound after hearing it twice. In playing the piano, I have to struggle through a few times before my fingers just take over. Music schools, generally, do not allow for this. This is not to say, however, that music has not remained an important part of my life. I've sung with groups like the Columbia Pro Cantare, at a few weddings, and in the frozen food section of the grocery store (again, without the blessings of my kids). I love it.

Music has the ability to change my mood instantaneously. There are pieces that immediately make me sing and dance (much to the chagrin and embarrassment of my kids) and some that bring me to tears. The themes from The Champ (Dave Grusin) and West Wing (W. G. Snuffy Smith) for instance, are captivating to me. I fantasize about conducting The Theme from the Magnificent Seven and the "Midway March" (John Williams), riding a horse across the prairie to the theme from Dallas, dancing to Paul McCarthy's "Dance Tonight" and twirling two fire batons to "Stars and Stripes Forever." Okay, maybe the last one is a bit much, but I think you get the idea.

So what does it for you? What music makes you want to go out and change the world or just jump up and down in your own?

Simple Pleasure

On Saturdays while middle daughter goes to the gym, Richard watches the baby. She arrived this morning bundled up beyond free movement and sporting her purple Ravens hat. She smiled her new four-toothed grin as her mother unbundled her. She's been a little clingy (the baby, not her mother) because she's just getting over an ear infection, but her Poppy doesn't mind. He carries her from room to room showing her all kinds of treasures. For some reason she is enthralled by our white plantation shutters; she stares transfixed as Richard opens the slats and then closes them. Actually, come to think of it, Richard is transfixed, too. Hmm...
I wanted to go to the store before it got crazy -- they've called for snow and rain in our area. When there is the slightest threat of snow, people around here go nuts. Grocery stores are the worst place to be as people scramble for milk, toilet paper, and necessities like M & M peanuts.
Anyway, before I went we had time for one song and dance, and so the three of us danced to "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter. A simple but magnificent pleasure: dancing with our grand baby. It doesn't get much better than that.

Musings from the Gym

Today I need to clean the floor of the sun porch because we have yoga out there this afternoon. I also want to decorate the inside of the house. Older daughter carried all the boxes up from the basement for me. She's a good kid -- er adult. At any rate, I went to the gym early so I could work uninterrupted throughout the day.

I got a parking space easily this morning -- always a treat -- and then headed in to begin my workout. The cardio room in our gym has five TV's on the wall and then three rows of bikes, two rows of elliptical machines, and two rows of Stair-Masters behind them all facing the wall with the large-screens. It's a big room, as one can imagine. I climbed onto my machine (#23) (I am so much a creature of habit!) turned on my IPod, earphones in place, and began my workout. That's when I spotted her. I've seen her there before and I can't help staring at her. She's on a bike, pedaling away, reading a book, and at the same time she's dancing!!! -- she does these routines with her hands and arms -- kind of like conducting but a lot more spastic! It mesmerizes me and I can't look away. Luckily, I'm behind her and she can't see me gawking at her. (I wonder if she can feel me looking at her?) I think what tickles me so is the unabashed way in which she just does her thing. It also amazes me that through all of this she can actually see to read.

Then on the machine next to me is this older woman working out beside her even older husband. She, too, wears earphones, but I think she's forgotten she has them on because she screams talking to him. Now remember, I too am wearing headphones and I'm listening to John Phillip Sousa's marches, Cher, and Jimmy Buffet (my tastes are a little eclectic), but I can't hear my music because she's SCREAMING at her husband. "WHAT'S GOING ON WITH THE GOVERNOR OF ILLINOIS? CAN'T HEAR YOU. WHAD YA SAY?" And then she starts reading to him from Reader's Digest. "DO YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW TO FIX A LEAK IN A SINK? HUH? A SINK, I SAID. NO, A SINK! HOW ABOUT AROUND A DOOR? ARE YA SURE??" It was all I could do not to throttle her and scream, "WILL YOU SHUT THE HELL UP!"

See, Petunia can get nasty, too:).