J.P.

Like many folks I have been watching the Winter Olympics. I just finished watching a figure skating performance and found it quite impressive.

It made me remember 1979, the second winter in the house my father built for us. We had a hardwood floor in the family room (it’s still there as a matter of fact) and my sister and I were inspired by watching Randy Gardner and Tai Babilonia. Even though we lived in the great white north known as the Lake Ontario Snowbelt, we opted to ‘skate’ around the family room in our socks on the hardwood floor. With the furniture pushed aside and some 45 spinning on the GE Wildcat record player, we danced around like we were skating and did our best Randy and Tai impersonation. We were not as good as “Fire and Nice” from ‘Modern Family’ but we did our thing. Who needs ice. My mother was happy because it kept her from having to dust the floor.

I remember finally getting the nerve to lift my sister in the air during a slow motion, real estate limited routine when my mother immediately stopped the show. I think she was afraid we were going to knock the oddly placed, shaped and decorated chandelier that hung in front of the fireplace off the ceiling.

Randy and Tai were safe for another year.

I have spent the last hour or two downloading music and watching music videos of all time periods and a variety of genres. The trip around the virtual radio dial has been enjoyable tonight and has been a good little escape. My little projects around the house keep me sane and distract me from the stress of the workday.

I just tried to call it a night. I got into bed, kissed the husbear who was already walking through the dreamscape and then I laid down and stared at the ceiling. I tossed and turned a few times, counted a few dozen sheep and went through my other ritual of boring myself to sleep: counting the classrooms in my high school 25 years ago and remembering which teacher went where. (Yeah, I’m strange, I know.). I can’t fall asleep, though. My mind is processing the days events. I hear folks born around the same time as me do the same thing; they process things. They take an event, think upon it, turn it into an obsession and process it a little more. And then when a resolution is near, they process some more.

The funny thing is, my mind doesn’t want to shut down tonight because I feel good. I think I’m actually excited about going to work tomorrow. I can’t even begin to fathom why I feel this way (no offense to the company I work for); we’ll have half the staffing we’ve had throughout the rest of the week in the tech center and we have three times the number of trouble tickets we usually have. Only the universe knows what lies in the queue for tomorrow but I have to admit that I right now I really don’t mind what tomorrow entails.

Not to sound all corporate shilly and silly but I remarked today to one of my co-workers that the reason I get up and go to work in the morning is because of the people I work with. My co-workers are quite varied in skill set and personality and thankfully have gotten used to me but when things get tough we pull together and do what we can do to keep the chaos at a dull roar. That’s a good thing. Whilst getting through some technical troubles this week I’ve really discovered that my co-workers have my back and vice-versa. I don’t know why I’m having this surge of energy or sudden realisation of this at 11:30 on a Thursday night, and I’ll probably have to re-read this blog entry in the morning to remind me that I enjoy going to work (since I’m not a morning person) but I consider myself to be pretty lucky to work with the group of people that I work with. They’re good people.

With the constant cutting of costs and homogenization of job descriptions in a very diverse tech center, the stress level often runs high and tempers flare. What was once sweet tastes a little more bitter these days. I’m happy that I can sling back a few drinks with my co-workers after a hard day’s work and swallow that pill along with them.

Tomorrow is going to be a good day and that is because I said so.

I am just getting around to blogging this but you have probably heard the uproar about some of the performances at least week’s Grammy Awards; more specifically the pairing of Taylor Swift and Stevie Nicks.

Wow. Now there’s a train wreck on live television.

Stevie Nicks looks as if to be saying ‘What The Fuck Was That?’

Here’s the thing. I don’t know much about Taylor Swift. I know that Kanye West came out during her moment to shine at the Video Music Awards a while back and I’ve read that she’s a really sweet woman who writes beautiful country songs. I have heard her on the radio once or twice and found it odd to hear the use of auto-tune on a country song (though it’s becoming too common these days), but I had never heard her sing live.

Wow.

I’ll preface this by saying I couldn’t do better and I know that. But I’m not paid millions of dollars to sing in front of people nor am I winning Grammy awards. Taylor should have never, ever sang “Rhiannon” with Steve Nicks. There was some really bad karaoke vibes going on during that live performance. Stevie looked mortified a couple of times.

Reports say that Taylor’s earpiece was malfunctioning and she couldn’t hear herself. I have issue with this. First of all, not being able to hear yourself because of an earpiece isn’t working is like saying you can’t hear yourself talk if you’re not wearing headphones. Secondly, though they try to convince us to the contrary, the instruments and the singers on stage are actually making noise outside of what is being piped through the headphones and honestly, I’m sure there were some Really Big Speakers pointed at the audience and I’m also certain that there were speakers pointed at the musicians on-stage. If the earpiece wasn’t working she could have simply taken it out. Thirdly, as a person that sings from time to time and actually went to school to teach others how to do it, I can attest that when you sing you know what each note feels like in your throat. It’s an instinct thing – you know when you’re on key or not, especially if you’re a singer that is considered to be award-winning. You just know it and you hear it. Yes, the earpiece will help you hear things better and possibly hear the backing singers on the other side of a Really Big Stage but you can still hear your own voice in your own head without needing to rely on technology.

I have read that this isn’t the first time that Taylor Swift has been less than impressive in a live performance. This is unfortunate because it seems like she’s a really nice person and she writes really good songs and she is a positive influence in an increasingly wonky world, but for the love of the gods, if you’re going to win awards for singing, then please be able to sing in key.

And Stevie, you dear goddess, what the hell were you thinking when you agreed to do this?

Even though I still DJ from time to time I have been resistant to learn about or listen to Lady Gaga because I thought she was just another manufactured pop entity polluting our airwaves.

Boy was I wrong.

Courtesy of a Facebook friend I followed a link to the video I have included below. Lady Gaga actually has real talent! So I did some reading up on her and I will openly admit right here and now that I was completely wrong when it comes to all things Lady Gaga.

She impresses me.

I had some personal time this morning so I am currently sitting at the local Panera enjoying a nice lunch on a beautiful day. It’s cold since it’s still February and all but the sun is shining brilliantly and my mood is following that lead. This is a good thing.

Since I had some time off I took a ride through the local countryside to clear my head a little bit. I have mentioned before that I enjoy wide, open spaces. I like being able to see the neighbor’s house even though it’s a half mile or so away. It would be even better if I was looking across a lush, green pasture but I can handle a snow-covered landscape.

While the mountains and rock cuts and such are pretty to look at, they’re not really my thing when it comes to a living environment. I would feel very confined and cramped living in the bottom of a valley, especially if it’s a narrow passage; I liken it to living in the likes of a big city such as Downtown Boston, Center City Philly or Manhattan. I attribute this to growing up along the Lake Ontario lake plains at the foot of Tug Hill (along the eastern shore of Lake Ontario). Living on top of a mountain where I have a long view, on the other hand, would be very nice.

This Panera is emptying out a good pace. Because of this, the wi-fi is speeding up. On the other hand a woman just shrieked in glee (and it was a startling shriek) because they now have pasta at Panera. Um, it’s macaroni and cheese.

I like that Panera is posting calorie counts on the menu now. They should include fat grams but perhaps if they did that there would be more startling shrieks.