Why You Probably Don’t Want To Borrow My iPod

About a month ago, Tyler Stanton posed an interesting question – name one song on your top 10 songs of all time list. I immediately thought of my answer. Then maybe a week later I was listening to the radio and they said the song I had chosen was listed as the #1 song from a TV show (according to some Billboard list). I felt like that gave me some credibility, but in about 5 seconds I’m sure you will disagree.

The first song to come to my mind was “How Do You Talk To An Angel” by The Heights.(1)  It would definitely be in my top 10 – I love it. As for the rest, I had a hard time nailing down a remaining 9 because there are just too many options. So, because I can’t narrow down the other 9 “of all time” I thought I would just randomly list some favorites.

In no particular order:

* Favorite song about a day – “Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night” – Bon Jovi

* Favorite song about a city – “L.A. Song” – Beth Hart

* Favorite Song with my name in it – “She’s In Love With The Boy” – Trisha Yearwood

* Favorite Garth Brooks song – “When You Come Back To Me Again”

* Favorite song that reminds me of college – “Smile” – Sun Cured Red

* Favorite song that reminds me of high school – “Summertime in the L.B.C.” – The Dove Shack

* Favorite song I “think I know” all the words to – “Notorious Thugs” – Notorious B.I.G.

* Favorite pick up line by song – “Sugar” – Ryan Patrick Imming

* Favorite bittersweet song – “Goodnight / Goodbye” – Will Hoge

* Favorite song played at other people’s weddings – “Don’t Stop Believing” – Journey

* Favorite song that I plan on playing at my wedding someday – “Enough” – Tyrone Wells

* Favorite song that reminds me of my mom – “Downtown Train” – Rod Stewart

* Favorite song that reminds me of my dad – “Last Train To Clarksville” – The Monkees

* Favorite song I like for no particular reason – “Popular Girl” – Survivor

* Favorite song I’m most embarrassed about – “Stars are Blind” – Paris Hilton

(1) this also happened to be my first experience with being angry with FOX for cancelling a TV show that I really liked (in case anyone was curious)

I didn’t get licked this time, so that’s a plus…

This week I was in charge of five boys during VBS at my church. I survived, but barely.

Some thoughts…

- So apparently energy necklaces are all the rage with 6-year-old boys. I thought the kids were just making something up when they said they were “energy necklaces” but apparently that’s exactly what they are. I would describe them as croakies in training. Instead of wasting all my energy telling them to quit swinging them around and please can you put that back on, I should have been requiring them to take them off. Really, parents – you think it’s a good idea to buy a necklace that is going to give your son more energy. Come on.

- Best response from a friend
Me: So when we learned a dance from Pakistan during recreation the boys were all dancing and into it, but then in the gym they wouldn’t dance to the music. I asked one of the boys why and he said, “because no one was watching us in there”
EW: Did you give them the whole “dance like nobody is watching” talk?
Me: Actually, yeah I did. It didn’t work.
MF: “I had to have the same conversation with E* this weekend”

- When going over Esther the boys did not want to talk about it because she’s a girl and they don’t like girls. In case you’re curious, that included me because I am not their Mom, Sister or Grandma. I don’t think they were serious and they really redeemed themselves later in the conversation when they asked how old I was and responded to me being 30 as “that’s not very old” Thanks boys.

- One morning as I was walking over to the building, I saw a mom who was having her kids run suicide sprints through the tunnel that connects the two church buildings. I wish it would have been the kids in my group. I finally just gave up and let them play tag in our room when they got there in the mornings until it was time to go to the gym. I figured if the other leaders in the room judged me, it was okay because you know what, I’m not a mom, I don’t know any better. Ha.

- I felt like at some points I didn’t get the boys to talk about the stories enough, but then another leader told me one of her girls grabbed the cards out of her hands today when she was reading the Bible story and said, “no more, we’ve done enough of those” This made me feel better.

*her husband

2 days, 4 hours, 17 minutes & 41 seconds

I am way too far behind on my podcasts. 59 episodes to be exact. It’s only been about a year since I even started listening to podcasts and now I’ve created a monster that I can’t keep up with…

You can click the picture for a full size list in case you are really interested in what is included.

This is very overwhelming – do I listen to one of each or do I completely knock out one? How did I let this happen?

Christmas Trees for Easter – Why Not?

You know when you look at movies on IMDB.com they usually have a section that posts all the continuity errors, etc from the movie. This section alone is why my dreams could never be movies – because the whole script would fill this section.

Which leads us to my dream last night (at the end I’ll tally up some of the “errors” in case you miss them).

It took place at a version of my house (nicer, bigger, different deck, etc) but it was still in Atlanta. It was Easter Sunday and apparently I had a party the night before. There were 10 people in my dream that had all stayed at my house after the party. In my dream I knew them all, but in real life I know only 9 of them. The one I don’t know in real life’s name was Pete.

Anyhoo, we were all hanging out in the morning and my sister, who was there, decided that she needed to go see our Grandpa in Missouri because it was her birthday and she was mad that everyone just said Happy Easter and no one said Happy Birthday. She left around 10 am.

We all hung out and played board games, and then decided to watch some football games around noon. After the end of the first game, my sister came back from my Grandpa’s house and was in a better mood, so she hung out with us.

After the end of the second game at 3, Pete and I went outside on my (amazing dream) deck and commented how pretty the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree looked all lit up. Then he pointed at it. We stared at it for a few minutes and then went down to my (pretend dream) yard to take a picture, but when we were lower, there was a building in the way so we went back up. Then another friend came out and said not to use the flash because then we wouldn’t get the full effect of the lights.

After taking the picture, we went back inside where everyone was getting ready to go back to bed. That’s where my dream ended.

Things that aren’t right:

1. It’s Easter, which doesn’t match up with any of the following – Football, My sister’s birthday, Christmas Trees
2. I also wouldn’t have had a party that night because if I am in town I would be  at church on Easter.
3. Watching football period was kind of strange. I do not think football has been on my television since my brother moved out a year and a half ago.
4. Two football games in 3 hours doesn’t really fit either, especially since they were televised ones.
5. My sister leaving at 10 am, getting to Missouri and back around let’s say 1:30 ish, is impossible no matter how you look at it.
6. There is no way you would see the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree from my deck in Atlanta. Or for that matter the tall buildings that were blocking our view.
7. When we went outside at 3 pm it was dark and the tree was lit in the distance. So assuming you could really see the tree, it still wouldn’t be dark at 3 pm.
8. We were maybe on the deck for 30 minutes – why on Earth was everyone going to bed at 3:30 and why still at my house?
9. Who the heck is Pete? Why was he the only fake person in my dream?
10. My head (apparently)

By the way, minus watching the football, because I don’t really care about it, this would actually be a pretty fun Sunday. I love board games.

My week in TV 10/11/10

Best Line: Mad Men 10/10/10

“I thought you didn’t go in for those kinds of shenanigans” – Peggy

Great line because it was a call back to the premiere, and also because it showed that Peggy understood what he was doing with the letter, while no one else (except maybe Megan) did.

Best thing I watched: Vampire Diaries 10/7/10

From the preview the week before I was looking forward to what would happen when the Sheriff found out about Damon and Stephan. I really liked how Caroline got to save the day and in the end that Damon did not kill the Sheriff, but just decided that they would compel her to forget everything that happened. I do not like the way she treated Caroline though when she found out she was a vampire, so it will be interesting to see how that plays out since now she will forget that, but Caroline won’t. I also wonder what’s up with Katherine and Mason and what that stupid moon stone does. Very interesting season so far.

Worst Thing I watched: Running Wilde 10/6/10 or Mike & Molly 10/4/10

I usually give comedies 3 shots to get better because I feel like pilots can always be a little tricky for 30 minutes with having to set everything up. Both Running Wilde and Mike & Molly failed and were deleted from my season recordings last week.

Worst scene in an otherwise good show: House 10/4/10

I mean really, what was with the skanky girl Dr. Chase was with at the beginning?

And So It Begins

Tonight is the beginning of my Fall season for TV with Vampire Diaries coming back. Things don’t really pick up for a few weeks, but I’m pretty pumped for this tonight.

My boss also sent out our annual TV Season game today where we try to pick the winners and losers of the season, who’s going to play in the World Series, SEC/ACC Championships, etc. If come springtime, we win, then we get a day off, so of course I had to fill that out.

Since I was already kind of wasting some time this afternoon, I also decided to map out my TV schedule. I don’t just randomly have TV grids around – I mean I would totally support this, but it happens that they are a staple in my office so I decided to make a copy and map out my programming.

Even though I’m not adding a ton of new stuff, I have 18 hours of primetime TVto watch (includes Mad Men even though that already started). Here is a breakdown of these 18 hours, which by the way will all be watched without commercials*, so really it’s only like 12.6 hours of TV:

- 5.5 hours of it occurs on Thursday, all tried and true except for Outsourced which is new, but I’ve been in the habit of recording the whole 2 hour block on NBC so I’ll just give in and watch it also. The other 3.5 hours – Grey’s, Private Practice and Vampire Diaries.

- 2.5 hours of it is new comedy – let’s see how they do this year – Mike & Molly, Raising Hope, Running Wilde, Better With You and Outsourced. Not sure how long I’ll stick with these new ones, but looked promising enough to at least check out.

- Only 1 hour is a new drama – Blue Bloods on CBS, which since it’s on Friday nights will almost certainly be watched over the weekend.

- 3 is the number of most shows at one time, which I can now handle because I switched to AT&T last spring. I will no longer have to use my VCR to help out. Modern Marvels listed DVR’s as one of the top ten technological marvels. I totally support that. Three at a time include Chuck/House/How I Met Your Mother on Mondays and Big Bang/Community/Vampire Diaries on Thursdays.

- Most anticipated premieres – Chuck, House, Gossip Girl, Grey’s Anatomy and Vampire Diaries. These all left off with some pretty great finales. Hoping the premiere’s don’t disappoint.

- To round out the list for those keeping track, other shows are Life Unexpected, Parenthood, Modern Family (thanks Laura), Cougartown, Private Practice, 30 Rock, The Office, Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters.

Well that’s it. I promise I’ll try to find time to post on my blog in-between all this TV watching.

* I realize this goes against everything I do for a living, but since it is what I do for a living, I am not nor will I ever be a Nielsen family so my viewing habits really don’t matter. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it

10 Random Things from the Beach – Part 5 (kind of)

So unlike parts 1, 2, 3 and 4, I’m not going to do things I learned at the beach because well, that’s old and I want something new, so in no particular order, here are just 10 random things from the beach.*

1. Jesse Rice was a great speaker, given the chance you should totally listen to him. He wrote “The Church of Facebook: How the Hyperconnected are Redefining Community” Great message, and he’s pretty funny.

2. “Once, I was almost eaten by a lion, well not really, I was just at a zoo and the lion was hungry.” – M.O. This was in response to me telling a story that I started like this, “once when I almost drowned, well not really, but we swam too far out…”

3. “What Truck?” Me and MF said in unison when EAC said, “hey look that truck is camouflaged so we can’t see it” (we like to tag team our jokes)

4. Finally saw something in St. Simon’s Island beside the houses, the church & the DQ. Who knew there was a town there?

5. If MF & EAC weren’t getting married so soon, our small group would have come back with Henna tattoos instead cool rings.

6. Aqua Cats!

7. Save the date – 6/20/20 (ES – I picked the date for you)

8. Saw a dad and his kid catch & release a 30 pound shark, but the dad left the camera at their beach chairs. Men…
(also, we immediately got about 100 ft. further from the water)

9. MF – Have you guys noticed that no one under 28 has stopped to sit with us in the shade?
ES – Hey, I’m only 27.
Me -  But you moved down a step to be in the sun…
One of the guys – yeah, enjoy your melanoma

10. MF to Jesse – did you play at Rutledge about 5 years ago?
Jesse – Yeah, I did.
MF – I have your CD in my car.
Jesse – Can you burn me a copy? I don’t have any more. (I did say he was funny)

*All quotes are based on memory and may not be completely accurate – although I tried really hard to get them right.

My New Year’s Resolutions

Here is a comprehensive list of my resolutions in no particular order. This should cover it all.

1. Watch more TV.
2. Read fewer books.
3. Write less.
4. Focus more on myself and less on others.
5. Spend more time reading blogs.
6. Stop blogging so much
7. Keep my house a mess.
8. Cook less, eat out more.
9. Stay up later.
10. Spend more, save less.

Wait a minute, something’s not right…

Strike that, reverse it.