Since American Idol is back in full swing, I thought I’d celebrate by doing my own little audition right here on my blog. My apologies for it being audio only, but here I am singing The National Anthem. It’s recorded with no tricks, no filters and no special effects used at all. It’s as live as if I was singing sweet nothings into your ear.
Small wonder the teams left town permanently after I sang at their sporting events back in ’99.
With Earl out of town tonight I’m going to find myself with a little extra time on my hands. So I’ve decided that I need to plan out further details for our trip out west in May. We’ve finalized the route in that we actually know where we are going, now it’s getting the details of where we want to go and what we want to see that’s going to be a little bit of work.
We’re doing sort of a whirlwind tour in 11 days – driving to Phoenix, spending a few days there, then driving up to South Dakota to go to Mount Rushmore and then across I-90 to get back home. I’ll think all in all we’ll clock just under 8,000 miles.
I’m hoping to eat at local establishments, see some severe thunderstorms or maybe even a twister, meditate in the desert, do some videotaping so I have some cool shots for future video projects and add a few states to the shrinking list Earl and I have not visited yet.
We also plan to do the touristy stuff like visit sightseeing and whatnot. Isn’t the largest bale of twine in the world somewhere out in that neck of the woods?
I know to some it seems like we’re doing a lot of driving in a short amount of time. And we are. But who cares, life is too short to sit and dream about the things you could do. Instead you should just go ahead and do them.
Back when I was still in my single digits, we used to play around with our cousins once removed that lived down the street. Looking back on that sentence and arming you with the knowledge that I grew up in farm country, I suppose the term “play around” is a little odd and conjurs up thoughts of something kinky. We used to hang around with them, there was nothing odd about it. Now that my mind is out of the gutter, why don’t you join me?
Anyways, these family members used to play this game that I still haven’t figured out over 30 years later. If a person said “What?” in response to anything anyone said anywhere, they would say, “You have five minutes to get rid of that word.”
I could never get rid of the word (assumedly “What”) because I didn’t know what on earth they were talking about and I didn’t know how to do it. I would invariably become upset and frustrated. Even today I don’t know what they were talking about and if it was a game that other kids played in the mid 70s, like “punch bug” where you slug the person next to you when you spotted a VW Beetle. I don’t know if this damaged my psyche in any way, and I haven’t the foggiest idea why I thought of that today, but there it is.
What?
You have five minutes to get rid of that word.
* My more “proper” cousins insisted we play “Fruitbasket” (right up my alley?) where they would yell out a random fruit and if you were it you had to jump on the bed. I found it incredibly boring.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
Weird? Eccentric!