Today I have the blues. Not “my lover ran off with my best friend” lonely hearts club blues. Not “I’m a blob and I’ll cry if I want to” pity party blues. Not “everybody hates me, I think I’ll go eat worms” cray cray survivor man blues. It’s more like a mild case of “how great would it be if I could hibernate until springtime” moody blues.
I was reading about twenty-somethings grabbing life by the scruff, holding on and going wherever the wind blows. What a great adventure! I accumulated a lot of frequent flyer miles flying by the seat of my pants like that. Now, looking back, I know that all of the great things about my life couldn’t have happened any other way. Growing up in a place where girls go to college to become fascinating at dinner parties, where unless you were Helen Keller or Rosa Parks, your value to society was summed up by your cooking skills and baby making potential, (it’s probably changed since I was there) I wanted no part of it and said, out loud, “Nobody’s telling me what to do, I’m joining the military.”
Yeah, I get the irony.
It must be an impulse for an end of year evaluation that made me search my iTunes library for a song to help identify what I’m feeling so I can shake off these blues. Music helps me burn off excess thoughts that accumulate from time to time. Searching for a blast from the past that has not been used to sell cars is damn difficult, but having a can do attitude even when I have the blues helped me find this:
Another year is coming to an end and I am forced to ask “what’s next?” Not knowing the answer can make you feel like a candle in the wind, but don’t despair if you feel like this:
It helps to remember this:
Whether or not we realize we’re doing it, we make life what we want it to be.
Willy tried to tell them BYOB didn’t mean bring your own bathrobe.
Happy Holidays Everybody. Until next year….peace.
Honie Briggs 
I know what you mean by those blues, my dear friend. It’ll be okay…that’s what I keep telling myself. Your music is wonderful and eclectic and fun — just like you, Honie. (that pic is GREAT!!). Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, my dear sweet friend. xxoo
Wonderful, eclectic and fun! Thanks, you made my day Brigitte. xxoo
Happy Holidays. I love the robes, we would get a new robe or pajamas every Christmas. Then we would wear those all day long and into the next until mom kicked us out to get dressed and go play outside.
The robes are classic Grandma gifts. I’m gonna give robes and slippers every year when we have grand kids. But I won’t answer to Grandma. Nope Honie is the only name those kids will be calling me if they want ice cream and frosted flakes for breakfast!
Ha! Do they call you “Most Fantastic Honie” to get some chocolate syrup on that?
I hadn’t thought of that. Excellent idea! Then home to mommy. 🙂
Sugar them up and ship them off! I like your style.
I can’t express just how much I appreciate having this entry as my soundtrack tonight. Oingo Boingo, Simple Plan, and especially a Journey song I’ve never heard before (LOVE their entire Greatest Hits, but I don’t know their older tracks or non-singles too well) are currently going a long way toward salvaging a day that started with blues and just kept retreating further into the darkest end of the rainbow as it went. Thanks for that.
Music often goes a long way toward salvaging the remains of a grievous day.Peace to you Randall. Peace to us all.
That photo is priceless! After I read the whole post and listened to each song I wondered if I could play them all at once – you can – a cacophony with a whistle on top.
Lorri, playing all of those songs at once, that is hilarious. The photo is my husband and his two sisters at their Gram’s house. I just love it.
It’s a great photo – a real treasure. I think if I am going to listen to more than three songs at once – at least half should be whistling.
One weird Friday indeed…probably for a lot of us. So glad Tara and I are getting away for the weekend. We need it!
I love the tinsel on the tree.
This may be my favorite vintage holiday photo ever. It’s weird that our childhood photos are now vintage. What great memories! I don’t know why tinsel stopped being popular. Funny. 🙂