More Than You Probably Need to Know About Me:

For lack of something better to post, I give you my Top 25 List from my iPod (June 22, 2006).

“Crush” Jennifer Paige*
“Miss Independent” Kelly Clarkson*
“Can’t Get You Out of My Head” Kylie Minogue*
“Bittersweet Symphony” The Verve*
“Another White Dash” Butterfly Boucher*
“Transatlanticism” Death Cab for Cutie #
“Constant Craving” k.d. Lang*
“You Get What You Give” New Radicals*
“Maybe Tomorrow” Sterophonics*
“(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” The Caesars
“Politik” Coldplay
“How To Save A Life” The Fray
“This the Last Time” Keane
“Cold Wind” The Arcade Fire #
“Barely Breathing” Duncan Sheik
“Time is On My Side” Irma Thomas#
“Girl Next Door” Saving Jane*
“Aganju” Bebel Gilberto #
“Only Love” The Bodeans
“Yeats Grave” The Cranberries
“She Is” The Fray
“Over My Head (Cable Car)” The Fray
“Somewhere Only We Know” Keane
“Your Misfortune” Mike Doughty
“A Good Thing” Saint Etienne

* Single downloaded from iTunes. For some reason, several songs that I downloaded seem to have stuck in this list

# From the “Six Feet Under, Vol. 2” Soundtrack. A fantastic compilation.

I’m sure I’ve lost any shred of respect I may have had with Maki for some of the selections. Obviously my music taste is all over the place.

Some thoughts on the list:

1. “Politik” is my absolute favorite Coldplay song. I first heard it performed on the Grammy’s (I think). I was blown away by the passion displayed by Chris Martin as he wailed on the piano. I find myself drawn to artists that you can “see” the music exuding from them.

2. “Only Love” speaks to my single days and my dating woes. I wouldn’t want to go back there for all the money in the world, but that song was my theme song for so long I can’t abandon it. It was my “That’s fine ‘cause I didn’t want to date you anymore anyway” song.

3. “Girl Next Door” I liked before it really went mainstream thanks to obscure XM radio channels.

4. “Aganju” tops the alphabet of my library and always seems to get played.

5. I bought the CD for The Fray and love every song. Not surprising that there are three songs on this list.

6. Noticeably absent on this list is any U2.

7. “Your Misfortune” is from the solo album of Mike Doughty. Mike Doughty is/was the lead singer for Soul Coughing, which gave us another of my favorite songs “Super Bon Bon”. “Super Bon Bon” was featured in one of the greatest under-watched TV shows ever: “Homicide: Life on the Street”. The song was played during a powerful scene as notorious drug dealer Luther Mahoney was murdered by a homicide detective. The series was filmed in Baltimore where my brother and many of our friends live. One of our friends was even an occasional extra in the show, usually playing a uniformed officer in the background at a crime scene.

8. A few selections by Keane show up on the list. I thought their first release was great. I saw them live with The Killers last summer and they rocked. Keane released a new album on Tuesday, which I really need to buy. Maybe I will do so on my way home tonight.

9. The Saint Etienne song is from their latest release entitled “Tales from the Turnpike House”. I first heard the group on XM Café. You should definitely check out the band.

10. Not on the list, but totally stuck in my head today is Blue October’s “Hate Me”, which I think I will need to acquire as well.

It has been another shitty day in a particularly shitty week. I’m going to bail out of work early and try to enjoy the weekend and re-adjust my current shitty attitude. Nothing a little alcohol can’t help. Have a good weekend!

A Quick Update

I feel that I have left you hanging from Monday's post, so here is an update. My coworker was admitted to the hospital for tests and a biopsy. The biopsy was Tuesday. I went to see him in the hospital Tuesday night and he was feeling better, was upbeat and in a good mood. The results of the biopsy came back yesterday afternoon. I wanted to wait to post until I knew more, but all I know is that he's been diagnosed with cancer* and is to start chemo treatments next week. The news came from our executive director. I don't know exactly what kind of cancer he has, just that they biopsied enlarged lymph nodes in his neck. He was released from the hospital yesterday and is back at home. I know I need to call him. My plan is to wait until tonight or maybe tomorrow to call. The news probably needs to sink in with him a little. I'm a little scared to talk to him. What do you say to someone who has just been diagnosed with cancer? I'm sure the words will come to me, but the thought of it all is daunting nonetheless.

*The diagnosis was not entirely unexpected. He has smoked for 40 years. I decided to spare you my soapbox about smoking. I will say to you my dear readers, that if you smoke, my wish is that you consider quitting. I know it is a lot to ask and not easy to accomplish, but it is an important wish. Not coming from me necessarily, but I speak for those around you that love and care about you. Do it for them.

Not Such a Good Monday

So, I guess I’m going to stop bitching about my co-workers. As much as certain ones annoy the living crap out of me, I wish them no harm. My dear coworker (not a member of the brain trust) who had the heart attacks is not doing so well.

He came back to work last week for a couple of hours a day. He’s had a rough throat since being in the hospital, which he had thought was a result of the medications that he now needs.

He left early on Friday and went to see a doctor about his throat.

This morning as I was on my way out of the house, his wife called me on my cell phone. She called to tell me that they found polyps in his throat and that he was having trouble breathing and wasn’t going t be at work for a few days. The doctor(s) wants to biopsy the polyps Tuesday, but needs approval from the cardiologist because of the blood thinners he is taking.

I just got word that he ended up going to the hospital this morning because his breathing was getting worse and that he will be admitted to the hospital today.

I don’t have a good feeling about this at all.

The week is not starting out very well and I’m going to go ahead and officially declare that this year is just not going well. 2006 did not start well and it has not improved much for the people around me.

It’s So Easy to Be Stupid*

A few years back my brother coined the phrase “too stupid to play football”. At the time he was referring to a couple of Penn State players who got themselves into trouble with the NCAA.

Yesterday, as you probably have heard by now, the star quarterback for my favorite pro football team wrecked his motorcycle. He wasn’t wearing a helmet.

This blows my mind. Maybe I’m jaded though. My husband owns a motorcycle. He used to ride it in the HOV lanes everyday to work. While it is law to wear a helmet in the Commonwealth of Virginia—a law with which my husband disagrees—he would wear his helmet even if it weren’t the law. He also wears a reinforced full riding suit and boots even in the summer. Countless times driving on the highways and even in the city, we see people riding motorcycles in t-shirts, shorts and sneakers. Since we’ve had kids, the motorcycle has mostly been collecting dust in the garage.

Until recently, I didn’t think it was necessary to wear a helmet while riding a bicycle. Then a colleague was hit by a car while riding his bike and thrown over 100 feet. What saved his life was that he landed in a grassy marsh and that he was wearing a helmet. Even though he was wearing a helmet, he still spent a couple of weeks in the hospital and needed surgery to relieve pressure as a result of swelling in his head. It was at that point that I became an advocate of bicycle helmets.

First, I’m thankful that the quarterback was not killed. It sounds from nature of his injuries that he took the impact of the windshield with his face, which I suppose may have saved him from serious brain damage. While I do hope he can return to the team, whether or not he plays football again is not so much my concern. My hope is that if he chooses to get on a motorcycle again, he will wear a helmet.

*Points will be given for identifying the band. Extra points for the movie soundtrack where the song can be found.

Around and Around We Go

Having lived here in the DC area for over 16 years, I have always thought that at some point, I would drive the entire way around the beltway in one session. Obviously, I have lived here long enough to have been the entire way around the beltway, but only in pieces—one exit to another—never the entire way in one session of driving. (I do know of people that have done it accidentally, but that’s just because they were tourists and missed their exit and were too afraid to get off at another exit.)

To me the idea of driving the 64 miles at one time would be very therapeutic. Now mind you, I have not had visions of doing this at anytime during the daylight hours, the traffic in DC is entirely too bad and I’m not a masochist. I’ve always thought that 3 a.m. would be a good time to drive it. I find driving to be a good time to collect my thoughts, work things through my head, and to be alone. (When you have kids, you are rarely alone.) I always thought I would do it after some major fight or break up with someone. I’ve had my share of break ups, but never one that lead me to drive the entire beltway. I suppose I am fortunate in that respect.

When my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer a year and a half ago, I made several trips back to my hometown to attend to my mother. Those five-hour drives were the first significant drives that I had made by myself since my children were born. It was liberating and lonely all at the same time. The first trip was to take my mother for her biopsy and it was while driving across the PA Turnpike that I first had time to think about the reality of my mother having cancer. I ended up calling a friend of mine who lost her mother to breast cancer. (Yes, I used the headset for my phone). She was kind and understanding and provided me with frank advice, which I really needed and valued. I still had a few hours of the drive to digest everything and really was able to be in the right place with everything in order to support my mother. The drive back to DC from the biopsy was also therapeutic in that although the cancer had been confirmed, I had that time in the car to get my head in the right place again before I returned to my husband and sons.

This post went in another direction than originally intended, but I think my point is still there somewhere. While I haven’t driven the beltway the whole way around, it’s good to know it’s there if I need it (and hopefully with very little overnight construction).

I Do Not Have A Good Title Today

Sorry for being MIA again. A coworker went into the hospital last Tuesday after having a series of heart attacks. Yes, this is actually a coworker that I like and we usually have lunch together every day. He’s doing okay, but is still in the hospital while they figure out the best course of treatment, which may or may not involve bypass surgery. So, the news threw me for a bit of a loop.

The brain trust has been drilling me for information about the coworker and I’ve had to fend them off quite a bit as well. I’ve been trying to kick out work quickly so that I can stop by the hospital here and there as much as possible. He and his wife have kids my age but they live far away and do not have any family in this area.

So what’s new with you?

I made two new necklaces over the weekend. One is pictured above. *

We mostly hung around the house and did yard work over the weekend. We joined the neighborhood pool for the summer, but only made it to the family barbeque on Sunday night. We spent a fair amount of time yesterday trying to move a couple of azaleas that had grown too big for where they are planted. After much digging and tugging they weren’t budging. We sat the boys safely on the front step and backed my car up and tied a rope around the bush to try to pull it out with the car. After much entertainment to the kids and breaking the rope not once, but twice, we gave up trying to pull them out and just hacked them back into submission.

This week stands to be pretty busy. We have a wedding Thursday night along with a pre-wedding party on Wednesday night. I’m taking Friday off and then this weekend, we are having a birthday party for my youngest son. That reminds me, I have to order a cake!

I might just be MIA again this week. Things should settle down by next week.

Gotta go!

*Blogger for whatever reason will not upload my photo so in the interest of getting this posted, I'll have to try to get a picture up later.