Thanksgiving Blues

Thanksgiving Blues

I wish there was a holiday all about music (not food). I’d be happy to say,

I’m thankful for Tchaikovsky. I’m thankful for Eminem. I’m thankful for whoever made Les Mis. I’m thankful for Prince, Michael Jackson, George Michaels, The Cure and Depeche Mode.  I’m thankful for multiple octaves plinking up and down the piano, electric guitar when it’s SLAMMED into DISTORTION. I’m thankful for FEELING every bit of the concert by Muse. It moved me in ways I didn’t know I could still - literally made me dance, bounce, jump and live again. I’m thankful for One Republic. For Diddy. For Cage the Elephant. I’m thankful for MGMT, INXS, NKOTB, BSB and NSYNC.

Instead of the month of November Facebook posts saying “Today I’m grateful for….”, so special. Special. Did I say SPEEECIIIAAAAL? I really do want to say I’m thankful for Live. And I’m thankful for Maroon 5. For Keith Urban/Blake Shelton/Georgia Florida Line. I’m thankful for Kid Rock/Linkin Park/Radiohead. I’m thankful for Brittney Spears/Ke$ha/MileyCirus.

Gosh dangit! I’m thankful for beeeauuuutiful viola, fiddle, harmonica and acoustic guitar. I’m thankful for brass bands, marching bands, jazz bands.

I’m SOOOO thankful for soundtracks to movies! Soundtracks to televisions shows! And I always have a running soundtrack in my head, that I call The Soundtrack to My Life.

I’m thankful for Ruben Studdard, Babyface, Usher, Robin Thicke and the like. And I’m thankful for JC Chazes, even though he didn’t go on to be Justin Timberlake. He should have.

I’m thankful for The Voice. Dang if it isn’t the VERY BEST music competition show ever made! Thank you Adam, CeeLo, Christina, Blake, and especially for Usher and Shakira for making it better… Christina seems to have a completely new attitude. Plus she’s covered up that gross boobage.

I’d love to say on a certain day, “I’m thankful for… that new band that just played on Jimmy. Didn’t catch the name but I’m always happy for new music!”

(I have to add that I’m not thankful for Bob Dylan, Joe Cocker or the like.)

I’m thankful I grew up hearing symphonies, seeing great soloists with The Utah Symphony. For playing viola in The Granite Youth Symphony, in Eisenhower Jr High and Cottonwood High Orchestras!

I’m SO thankful I played fiddle at The Barn for four whole years!

I’m so thankful my three kids inherited my LOVE for good music! I’m thankful that they saw Live and The Backstreet Boys with me. That when grown up, Kayli went to New Kids On The Block with me. That Jake went to Muse with me. And that Laci went the second time I got to see Musie! I’m thankful my wonderful wonam/Stef saw Extreme, several sexy R&B singers and Prince with me! And even though Brian likes to pretend he doesn’t care about music, I’m thankful he LOVED seeing Harry Connick Jr. with me, and also his favorite - Bryan Adams, doing an acoustic concert! Happiness!

You can probably guess by now I could go on for a few days with the like.

So, FOOD. Thanksgiving is about food. I like food. I love food. But AN ENTIRE HOLIDAY about food is just too much pressure! When I was a little girl it was about seeing my fun cousins every year! That was a blast! As I grew up it became a day when I’d sit, squished into many tables full of family who ate and ate, while I sat with a hurty tummy and wished I could eat too. Then sadly, amongst the eating, I also became the butt of some very unfunny jokes. As much as I want to forget that and move on, it happens when these certain people get together, and that’s ususally at family affairs involving food. So no, I don’t love sitting with family at a gathering centered around FOOD. And I hate feeling sad watching people eating things that I loved, but haven’t been able to eat for so long. I’m sad that I was the person who loved to spend a whole day making everyone’s favorite pies, including mine, but no longer get to eat them.

So I also hate that November, which is a beautiful, crisp month with crunchy fallen leaves, that includes the date I was married and also several birthdays of people I love - has that BIG holiday I don’t love. Instead of getting together with decorations of turkeys and pilgrims, I’d love to get together to listen to music, play games, and enjoy family in general!

It’s not that I’m not grateful. I am. But I’d sure love a month centered completely around music!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LgcDpTH47g

Yo-yo what???

I saw a picture... pretty little, interesting circles on a board placed as a decoration next to a plant. Labeled "yo-yos". What? I googled and googled.... only to come up with toy stores and the thingies that you yank on a string and do tricks with. Like Andy used to do.... very awesome stuff - we called Andy "Yo-yo boy."

So I googled and googled some more. Cloth sewn up to half it's size, by hand - using cardboard circles to trace on cloth to be cut out. Something that would be fun to do with all my many remnants when I'm feeling antsy watching my reality shows on TV.

It took a long time to figure out how to get into Brian's new tool chest so I could use a box cutter to make my cardboard circle - twice the size of the yo-yos. I wanted to make some to decorate the window in my fun-room. The colors I wanted were green, purple and pink. But I have two very important paintings for that room that are mostly red... so I needed to incorporate red into the mix. After weeks waiting for Brian to show me how to get into his tool chest I cut my cardboard circle, traced, cut out fabric and began sewing my yo-yos and enjoying my reality shows. They were like a drug.... very addicting for a compulsive addict! I soon had many and wondered how I'd put them together. Just sewn, or on strings? I bought some tulle... and was amazed when cutting and putting together that with NO CATS - it didn't get all chewed up and ruined with cat spittles all over it!!! This shows the process of lying the yo-yos out on my living room floor to see how many I had and just how I might put them together.

In my fun-room Brian hung a 2 dollar drape rod so I could put them together. I liked some of the fun hangy pictures I had seen long ago on pinterest when searching for wedding decoration ideas. There were windows with hanging carnations or gems. This inspired my yo-yo hanging. I put them together to cover above the window - like a wall hanging or the original decoration I'd first seen them on. I was yo-yo crazy and decided it would be fun to make a cover for my front door window. It's frosted but at night when the lights are on you can see in (I've seen my next-door-neighbors when I've been there at night.) So when I'm ghosting through the house at night looking for a water bottle or snacks in the kitchen I'm sure everyone loves seeing me in my next-to-nothingness. First I made a light green window cover with magnets at the top and bottom. But when the yo-yos were attatched they were heavy and sagged in a horribly funny fashion! Dang! This disaster was thrown into my closet to be hidden in SHAME! Too bad my cute giraffe print was for nothing! But I got more green fabric and gathered it, then added magnets to make a simple window cover. Wow - it looks like such a GRANNY house now!!!

I got yo-yo crazy when wrapping packages and made tiny ones to add for decorations. Hmmm.... do you think the blue flowered "caterpillar" looks too girly for this boy present? Probably doesn't matter, since the gift is for Nate's baby boy, and Brian probably won't get around to us actually going there while this baby is still small enough to fit in the cute little outfit and sandals inside. Perhaps it will just sit here and wait until someone produces us with a grandson???

Oh yes, here's the mess of yo-yos that became my front door decoration.Yep, it's true I used garbage from my recyclable bag, including a Crunch n Munch popcorn box that was painted (but the back isn't so it looks tacky in the house where we still see the Crunch n Munch box), other random cardboard and an "M" for McCrea I printed, cut out, then sprayed to make it water proof.