Someone to Watch Over Me

Warning....Post Overkill!

I have been singing this song all day. I heard from 20 year old Niece 1 that she is going to audition for a Cabaret night at college singing this Gershwin song. I was surprised. This is the kind of song Dad sang around the house when I was growing up. Guess that is why I like it. How do 20 year olds know this song? Well, duh, apparently everyone who ever sang a note has a recording of this song.

I did research.

I forgot they sang it in the new Fame movie....I guess I forgot because that movie was a totally lame copy of the original. By the way, there was a version of the song in the TV show version of Fame by Nia Peeples.

And Katherine McFee sang it on Idol. Missed that one. Once she gets past being pitchy dawg, she does a decent job with it.

Sting??? Not sure about this......

This one made me shake my head. Lady Gaga, I had no idea you could really sing! P.S. Button up your shirt, your underwear is showing.

Amy Winehouse has the voice for this classic, in my humble opinion. Of course, if you go to YouTube, in the comments section, people say every artist who sings this song has the best version. Maybe it is harder to wreck a classic.

I have the Linda Rondstadt/Nelson Riddle version on my iPod.

Who can compare to Ella?

Yep, Old Blue Eyes! The Chairman of the Board. Frankie.

I could not pick my favorite. Is the mark of a classic, that it is the song not the artist that drives it? There are lots more artists singing this song on YouTube. I found a particularly bad version by Julie Andrews. She should sue YouTube. And get it off there.

Is it in your head now?

You are welcome,

Normal Girl

The West Wing

My current viewing project is The West Wing. Did you know that show had seven seasons? I did not watch it while it was on, but have seen some reruns.

The reason I did not watch it when it was on every week, is because I am the least political person you know. Politics makes me disgusted. I feel like politicians cannot be trusted, they have hidden agendas, and anyone who is a politician is inherently the kind of person I do not want representing me. On what is that based? I am not really sure, but campaign TV ads alone are enough to make me run screaming for the hills.

But, I am mesmerized by this show. All of the characters have redeeming qualities, can tell right from wrong and act on that knowledge, and place the good of other people before their own good. God's commands are actually taken into consideration when decisions are being made. If I were to design the people that ran the White House and our government, I would make them like these characters.

Have you watched the show? How close do you think it comes to reality? I think not much. And if I was given the opportunity to spend a month in the west wing of the White House, I would go in an instant. Just to see.........

I would guess that politicians started out just this way.....but have gotten really sidetracked in 200 years. It is not good for this country. If only the writers of this show were making the country's decisions, I think we would be in a better place. Weird , huh?

Why aren't there more shows with morals? It lasted 7 years, that is a long time for a TV series, something about it worked....

Normal Girl

The Avoidance Project

I accomplished approximately one thing this week. OK, well, two things. If you count finding 23432348 reasons not to sit down and work on my thesis. I seem to excel at avoidance lately. I need some anti-avoidance medication. Or a slap upside the head. Or a time machine that will transport me to January when my thesis will be finished.

But, I did manage to get a new set on stage for the next sermon series. Mind you, the old one is not cleaned up yet, but the new one is ready for the techies. They will be fixing up four or five projectors to show lots of stuff on these stretched fabric screens. That is a lot of white swim suit fabric up there. And isn't that a better use of white stretchy fabric than for swim suits????

Off to timemachines.com,

Normal Girl

Patriotism??

I went to a hugh school sporting event tonight. The national anthem was played before the game. Good. But my sister and I were the only people in the gym that sang the words of our national anthem. There was total silence except for us. I was appalled. No hands over hearts, no singing. What is that?

Is it a trend? Tell me, please. It felt like disrespect. Is this what is happening at sporting events or at schools? People were watching us like we had grown extra heads. How do you hear the national anthem playing and not sing it???? Seriously. Do people not know the words or do they not care?

What about our hard won independence? What about the thousands of service men and women who gave their lives so that we could sing that song? What about national pride? I really have no understanding of this.

Or am I a dinosaur? Thoughts, my friends????

Normal Girl

Dream a Little Dream

When I sleep deeply for the whole night, I have some hysterical dreams. Seems like age or something is not allowing me to do that very much anymore. But last night, I slept Nyquil induced sleep and had a crazy dream.

Yeah, my dreams do not always make sense and the places and people in them change without explanation. Are yours like that?

So, I was in a hotel suite with an older woman, not sure who she was...and The Human Pinball's two youngest kids. No idea what we were doing there. One of the kids had just left to find a bathroom when the room did an abrupt movement that a hotel room could never really make, and suddenly we are in a sharply banking airplane.

The plane was diving and when I looked out the window, there were hundreds of airplanes in the sky, all diving (some going straight down), and all traveling in the same direction. Older woman and I go to look out the front window. No pilots, but that did not seem to be a problem in my dream. It was snowing heavily and I asked the woman to turn the windshield wipers on. Well, of course, she did.

I see we are landing on a road. Somehow, I know we are in Dallas. People are in the way. I knock on the window, like they can hear me, and we land nice as you please on the road. Other planes are landing and some are crashing into buildings. It seems like every plane in the air all over the world is landing or crashing in Dallas.

We exit the plane and I am wondering where in the world we can hide so giant airliners do not land on top of us, when I woke up.

Ok, you dream experts, what in the world did that mean????? I never did find the kid that left the hotel to go to the bathroom. I just kept thinking I did not have to worry because she is smart enough to tell people how to get her back home.

Happy Landings,

Normal (hahahahaha) Girl

Happy Birthday to Me

Even though they make me a year older, birthdays are usually fun for me. Mine was fairly eventful.

I had a surprise this morning when Pastor D read an email to the congregation that I had written to him Lesson: never assume your emails are private, hahahaha! And how pathetic is it that an email that I wrote brought tears to my own eyes? It was about Girls' Night In and I was sort of bragging about the women who went. I am proud of them.

After lunch (which was my favorite growing up lunch, which I will not describe to you so you are not grossed out), I went to a flea market. I spent $5. Got two metal chairs. I am going to use them in a talk I will be giving in November on decorating without spending much money. They have possibilities, don't you think?

And after a really short cat nap, my girls took me for Mexican (my adult favorite) dinner at an authentic Mexican restaurant. I am stuffed. It was good.

Now I have enough time for a sci fi movie before bed.

Good day,

Normal Girl

Rosette Experimentation

Thanks to my very creative friend Helen, I have been making fabric rosettes. Love them. Very trendy.

And, I cannot leave well enough alone, so I had a little rosette experimentation today. I really wanted to add a gold cord, didn't have any, so I added a gold ribbon to the rosette.

And then I added a strand of seed beads.

Naturally, I like the beaded rosette. Which do you like best?

Normal Girl

Girls' Night In Awesomeness

Tonight when we went to Grace Center of Hope, we had a record 21 women in our group. It really was a terrific night. There was a lot of one on one chatting and I watched connections being made.

For our craft, we did bead soup. We all had fun and nearly everyone made at least one bracelet out of the soup.

The kids had their own table and strung beads like nobody's business!

Some played a crazy game. It was kind of dumb. I am not sure anyone liked it, but they gave it a try and at least they sat together and worked on it. Six teenage girls came with us tonight. Sometimes the prospect of spending an evening in a rescue mission with women who we don't really relate to can be daunting for even the most seasoned of us. But, those 6 girls were incredible. They pitched in, playing with the little kids, and visiting with the adults like they had been doing it all their lives. It was humbling to see them so accomplished.

We put together one big long table, brought in extra chairs and sifted through the soup.

Nuthin' better than bead soup baby!

Oh the concentration required to select beads!

Even the little kids had plenty of attention tonight.

It truly was an awesome night. We snacked, we talked, we played, and we made bracelets. We stayed later than we ever have before, and got applause when we said good night!

God is good!

Normal Girl