My son put Def Leppard's Historia into the dvd player today. While we watched, I commented that "Animal" used to be my favorite song, and it got me thinking - what is my favorite song from each album? So I thought about it.
Rock On - This song wins by default. It's the only song I know, and I don't even know the original, only the Def Leppard and Michael Damian versions. And quite frankly, I hate this album.
I am not a camper. I am not a fan of nature (except when it's storming). I don't like the heat. I don't like the sun. I don't like bugs. I'm not even that fond of grilled food and spending "quality time" with the family. But Sebastian got a wild hair up his ass and wanted to go camping. I don't even remember how it came about, because the seed was planted months ago. We had grand plans to play games like soccer and volleyball and badminton. We intended to grill food, make s'mores, and sleep in the tent.
The area we camped in was not what I expected. I expected grass, not sand, rocks, and this:
Sam said it was poison ivy, but my super-web-sleuthing skills say it's not pointy enough to be poison ivy. Now, this is the guy who took conservation courses in high school and claims to know his plants and stuff. He kept yelling at me to stop walking through it, and Sebastian was freaked out a bit every time we stepped in something green. All for nothing!
I did, however, get a nasty spider bite on my toe. I think it was a spider. I will spare you a picture of my Fred Flintstone foot. I felt a sting, ignored it, then saw a pretty good size drop of blood on my toe. Since then, it has itched and swollen just a little.
So back to the trip. We stayed at one of Sam's boss's properties, which is currently under construction. A house is being built, but it's out of the way and right on the Alligator River. Fortunately, we did noy see any alligators. Or bears. Sebastian was concerned about bears.
As soon as we got there, I expressed my disappointment over not being able to play soccer or any other games that required running around. Between the lack of grass, the concrete, sand, construction paraphernalia , and the "poison ivy" everywhere, it was clear that this camping trip would be more about relaxing. So that is what I did. I pulled out my chair with the drink holder, sat my ass down, and read 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs. It was okay, but my Temperance Brennan is a bit more uptight than the book version.
So, while I sat, Sam and Sebastian went out in the kayak.
Then I went kayaking. Well, Sam paddled while I sat in the boat. It was nice. I was amazed at how much cooler it was on the water as opposed to the land. I did not want to get off the river.
But we had to. Sam was tired from unloading the truck and paddling so we took a break. While taking said break, I started hearing thunder in the distance. I asked Sam, repeatedly, if he was 100% sure we would not get rained on. He assured me that the rain (and lightning) was on the other side of the (very big) river and moving away from us (sideways). So I watched the clouds and lightning for a while and decided that we needed to get the hell out of there.
Thankfully, the main structure for the house is built, so we hauled ass to the house. We did sit under the balcony for a while, but the wind kicked up and swirled sand and bounced my chair and before long, it looked like a scene from Twister, with shit just flying everywhere.
"I've got to call you back. We've got cows."
We didn't have cows, probably because there were none in the area, but we had a natural sand blaster going on. I won't upload the video but it was windy. And it rained. Not pouring rain but hard enough that we moved the party to the side of the house opposite the river. We put up Sebastian's two-person tent, which ultimately went unused because a queen-sized air mattress does not fit in there. He played in there while Sam grilled, and I continued to sit on my ample buttocks, gloating inside. Nope, it was not going to rain on us!!
If you can believe it, I stuck to my diet while we were camping. I brought chicken tenderloins to grill, along with raw vegetables. While the guys ate hot dogs, I continued to be a good girl. Even when we had s'mores, I made a healthier version, with some Lindt 85% cocoa dark chocolate.
Sebastian's version was a bit different. He choked on a marshmallow last year.
Even his dinner choice was interesting
Why yes, that is a hot dog on a taco shell!
Once it got dark, Sebastian entertained us. He made shadow puppets,
and sang us a scary song about a ghost.
It was scary, yo. So scary, I had a hard time falling asleep. I kept hearing voices (though we were pretty isolated) and it freaked me out. Plus, air mattresses are just not that comfortable. I was very relieved when the sun came up. After a quick breakfast of eggs and chicken tenderloin (the guys had eggs and bacon), I finished my book and the boys went fishing.
While they were gone, I actually did physical work and packed everything up and put it in the truck. By the time we got home, I was experiencing some mild discomfort of the skin on my arms and legs.
I don't know what bit me - I'm assuming mosquitoes, even though I never saw any. We didn't bother with our Thermacell because we didn't see any bugs. I won't make that mistake again. I developed even more bumps overnight and am currently an itchy, bumpy mess. Oral Benadryl put me to sleep, so I scratched subconsciously all night. I've been applying cortizone cream and a Benadryl spray, and it's not helping all that much.
So, in honor of my weekend, here is Faster Pussycat's "Poison Ivy"
Because we were out of town for almost a week and it was incredibly long and busy.
The trip was good. I ate too much junk and exercised too little. But we saw Brandy graduate from high school. Unlike her mother and father, I have been to every single one of her graduations. Bwahahaha! She made out like a bandit with money and electronic gifts. I'm trying to talk her into giving up her monthly allowance (from us) and letting us pay for faster Internet at her house. We pay for shit service right now. I'd be willing to pay slightly higher fees for shit with nuts or corn service.
Sebastian burned his leg on a motorcycle exhaust. It's not a terrible burn. I was going to post a picture but I have some friends with weak stomachs. It's not nearly as bad as the picture of my thumb with the pad sliced off.
Other than that, I nothing exciting happened. We were so busy that I didn't get to visit any family while I was up. I got very little sleep, thanks to everything that needed to be done. I'm still exhausted. I meant to go to bed early last night but I got sucked into some Babycenter drama. Then the bedroom fan was making funny noises. It almost sounded like someone walking in the attic. So we either had a ghost or some sort of animal up there. I wasn't sure which I'd prefer.
Tonight, I have to clip coupons, watch Hell's Kitchen (last week's), review tomorrow's PiYo workout, package some books and dvds to be mailed out, and try to get the video from graduation burned to a dvd. Oh, and watch last night's True Blood. I wanted to be to bed at a decent time, so I could read a bit. I'm catching up on my Greg Iles and Footprints of God is fantastic.
I used to be a calculus and physics whiz, but since I stopped working (in 2001) and left school (in 2005), I've become pretty darn stupid. Calc and physics would probably come back to me if I sat down and tried them (and trust me, I think about doing just that all the time). I'd wager money that, at times, my almost 6 year old can outsmart me. He certainly sees things from a different perspective. I'm not a visual person. I can't see patterns well or think three dimensionally. I learn fairly well by doing. I don't learn well by reading lots and lots of text. If there are diagrams with instructions, I can semi-do something. I'm certainly not a good listener and my retention (regardless of input format) sucks. That's why I'm not all that active on message boards and pretty self-centered in my blogs. It's not that I don't care. It's that I don't remember and I'm easily side-tracked.
Speaking of which, this post is about Memorial Day. I wanted to find a metal song that fits with the sentiment of the day. Memorial Day itself doesn't mean all that much to me. Every single day, I think of and honor/appreciate the people who have fought and died for this country - relatives, friends, strangers. I was going to say it's like Mother's Day, Father's Day, Sweetest Day, Valentine's Day, Grandparent's Day, and the utterly ridiculous Step-Parent's Day but it's not really the same. Those are bullshit holidays. I'm a mom every day of the year, and I don't need a special day for reading/listening to other moms cry and whine about how their husbands didn't do anything for them for Mother's Day. Dude, you're not his mother. Don't get him anything on Father's Day, unless you're in a very sick and twisted relationship with your actual father. So what if your kids aren't old enough. Do you really think one day a year of forced appreciation is going to change anything?
I think the intentions of Memorial Day are much better. It does mean something, something bigger than just a relationship that not everyone may be a part of. But as far as celebrating, I don't. My father-in-law comes down, takes us to dinner, and I eat crap all weekend. I bitch about the traffic, because Memorial Day kicks off Touron Season (and we can't even shoot them). I will rarely leave my house this summer. Harris Teeter will no longer have killer meat deals until after the vacationers who can't drive the speed limit leave. There are two vacationers I'm looking forward to seeing. The rest of you just get the bird from me.
A couple paragraphs ago, I said I'm easily side-tracked. I meant to start out by saying I'm not smart enough to find a really good Monday Metal Mania song for today's sentiment. So, this week's lame attempt to connect Monday Metal Mania and Memorial Day is Metallica's One. Peter Piper also picked a peck of pickled peppers while the woodchuck who could chuck wood chucked wood and Silly Sally sold seashells by the seashore.
This video always fascinated me. Based on a book, later made into a movie, Johnny Got His Gun, the song is about a disabled soldier from WWI who is limbless, with no eyes, nose, ears or mouth. He cannot communicate with those around him, but his mind is intact. Stephen Hawking (one of my heroes from my short-lived physics-obsessed days) can probably relate a little bit. I've read A Brief History of Time more times than I can count. Another book I love is Kip Thorne's Black Holes & Time Warps. I wonder how relevant these books are today. I haven't even kept up with current theories in instructional design, much less the more complicated field of physics.
So what would I do if I were trapped in my own head, with no means of communication or experiencing the outside world? I think I'm half crazy even with sensory input and output. If I had to put up with nothing but my own thoughts day in and day out, I don't know. I don't know enough about the brain to guess how it would adapt. I do know that I wouldn't want to be a burden to those caring for my body. That's the big thing. I wouldn't make a very good paperweight or door stop.
I'm feeling a bit down today, still crying over last night's finale of Lost. I had to ditch Celebrity Apprentice in order to watch it and I know I made the right choice. I couldn't bear to watch Bret Michaels not resting his sorry ass. Seriously. This man needs to take a vacation and let his body heal. In two months, he's had three serious medical problems. Slow down, dude!
EMI Records is douchey and doesn't allow embedding, but check out Something To Believe In. It honors Bret and lets me have a good cry for Lost.
Today, I honor the sexiest man in hair metal, Kip Winger. He had gorgeous hair, beautiful teeth, a naughty little smirk, and enough chest hair to lose your fingers in. I can't name any of the other guys in the band but let's face it - Winger was all about the man behind the name. And even for being a bazillion years old, he's still sexy as hell.
I have never seen his Playgirl photos, but I may have to hit up these Amazon sellers. Though, I'm not sure I want used, cum-crusted Playgirls lying around. You know men were buying this issue up! It was like when Chyna posed for Playboy. Do you know how many truck stops in Pennsylvania I had to go to to get a copy? It was for Sam. I swear.
I would love that body. Not the face. Or the boobs. They are a little too big. And fake. The hair is nice, though. Not as nice as Kip's!
Speaking of Kip...back to the sexy. Here's Winger, showing off their pedophile/creepy old man sides, with "Seventeen."
I have the best intentions, but my guess is this lasts a month. Every Monday, I will post a video from the good old days, when the music was awesome and all the hot guys looked like chicks.
Today's offering, Driftin' Back by Killer Dwarfs. It's really too bad this was never a proper single, with a video. This song always takes me back (derrrrr!!!) to the most awesomest of years.
