Notes from ShellyCentral

can't sleep, of course

Hello neglected blog.
I have noticed my most popular time for writing is when I can't sleep. And right now it's 1:34 and I wish I were in bed. Ok, I am in bed, but I wish I were fast asleep instead of wondering why I'm wide awake at such an hour.
Here are some things on my mind:
1. my proposal for an art party class at the arts center
2. going to Disney World (57 days)
3. money
4. packing
5. Europe
6. the Disney book I'm making
7. my Disney wardrobe
8. art supplies
9. the bad dogs
10. new (to me) music

I got some new music yesterday. Two Merle Haggard cds, and one Dwight. Yep, the country music love continues. I borrowed some Allison Krauss and George Strait and LeAnn Rimes. I'm still looking for some Heather Myles. Later I was flipping channels and landed on CMT. I found an brand new favorite song by a trio I'm digging called The Band Perry. It's a sister and two brothers, with accordians and banjos and mandolins. Hooray.

Today Hannah and I went to Spirit, a giant Halloween store. I found a cowboy hat I liked and decided I'll dress up as a Cowgirl for Halloween. Not that I'm going anywhere, I'm chaperoning Hannah's party and handing out candy and eyeballs to the few kids that will ring the bell. But it's an easy costume so it works out. I might carry my phone in my pocket and have it broadcasting Hank Sr the whole time.

(Right now Barbra Streisand is singing me a song from On A Clear Day You Can See Forever called "Go to Sleep. Hah. I'm trying Babs.)

Hannah is super excited about Halloween. It's her favorite holiday I think. I've never been too big on it. I like the dressing up part, but icky and scary and dark is not my thing. I like Easter best, with bunnies and chickies and bright pastel colors. But I bought her some decorations today and set her loose on the house. Everything is covered with fake spider webs and there are snakes and rats lying everywhere about. It's fun to see her excited, and it's fun to have the house fested up. I kinda like it. I definitely like the bowl of candy that's on the table now, and I'm wondering how long it's going to last.

And I wonder how long till the sleepy pill kicks in. I thought it would about 10 minutes ago but I'm not feeling it. I think I'll go read some stuff about Disney World and then try to crash again. Thanks for keeping me company.

Hank House

This is the view from Debra's porch. On the right is a house where a man named Johnny was born and lived for almost all of his life. Debra used to live in the blue house in the middle. A lady lived in the house on the right, but it's really the house to the right of it that I want to talk about.

It's hard to see the house from the street. It's the one in the middle here, behind the big fence.

Debra's friend Johnny, from the first house, told her lots of stories of olden days Kansas City. One was that one of the guys in Hank Williams band, the Drifting Cowboys, lived in this house. He said that when ever Hank was playing in or around town, he'd stay here. In the house, right across the street from where I was staying.

As you've probably noticed, I am in love with Hank Williams Sr these days. I was freakishly excited for the whole weekend. Saturday night as we sat outside in the dark, I kept a constant vigil on the part of the house I could see, hoping the ghost of Hank might wave at me. I couldn't help myself and called out "Hank!" once. Silly me. One time the porch light came on (no, not just after I shouted), but otherwise not so much.

Another interesting thing about those houses - if you notice in the picture, it's big house, little house, big house, little house. During the depression, the people who lived in the big houses built the little houses in the side yard to rent out and make more money. Interesting. I've been on that street a million times and never even noticed the pattern.

Here are some links to some Hank, in case you're curious:

bedtime post

I am behind. It feels like in everything. But that's always how it feels when you get back from vacation, right? Especially when you're the mom and it was a family vacation. We had a good time though, and I have many pictures and stories to share.

Here's a picture of two of my little Lhasas.

The dogs were so excited to have us back. It was super fun to sit on the floor and just let them all jump and nuzzle on us when we first got back. I hate the kitchen floor, by the way, and can't wait to change it.

My friend's the Wilburs had tickets to Lilith Fair they couldn't use, so they let me and Megan go in their place. I always thought I didn't like Heart until I heard them that night. Damn those girls can rock, and that Ann can still belt it out. I borrowed some cds from Alan (he has such a great cd library) and I kinda think her voice is better now than when they were recording some of those songs.

 

Sarah McLachlan played last and she was, of course, fantastic. She brought back a lot of memories, even though she didn't do anything older than Fumbling Towards Ectasy. That super old stuff is my favorite.

Peg and I had a great time.
Oh, and she gets to find out what kind of baby she's having on the 28th. As long as the baby cooperates. Megan says it's grounded if it doesn't.

It's not late but I am so tired. I think I'm going to go to bed now and hope I wake up early in the morning to get some chores and projects done. It's going to be a million degrees out again tomorrow. I hope I don't have to leave the house for anything.

Don't V. Do

I've been loading and organizing music onto the magic MacBook (thanks again) and tonight I noticed a big long string of songs that start with don't:

Don't Ask Me Why
Don't Call it Love
Don't Cry
Don't Fall in Love with Me
Don't Fence Me In
Don't Give Up
Don't Go
Don't Hurt Yourself
Don't Let It End
Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight
Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me
Don't Rain on My Parade
Don't Stand So Close to Me
Don't Stop the Music
Don't Tell Me
Don't Throw it all Away
Don't You Ever Learn?
Don't You Fret

There are far less Do songs:

Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?
Do You Feel Like We Do?
Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?

Weird. And they're all questions, not commands.
Just noticing. And commenting.
Observe and describe.

What you put in your head... *

I thought I'd write a little about what I've been putting in my head lately:

Movies:
The Lost Prince: So. King Edward and Queen Mary of England have a son who has epilepsy and some sort of learning disorder. Of course they ship him off away from everyone and out of view. This is a two part BBC show about his life. Done badly. Mostly because few characters are interesting or likable, especially the Prince. And the Queen (are all Queen Marys bad?). And etc.  In terms of the history geeking, in second part some things get interesting. WWI breaks out and the King’s beloved cousin, Nickolas of Russia and his whole family get wiped out by the revolutionaries. That was an interesting relationship I’d never thought of before even though I love the Russian Revolution. Over all I’d say it was just bad and boring. Maybe also frustrating.

Season 1 Disc 1 of Secret Diary of a Callgirl : Dirty! I know. But also very good. Sleek and glam looking, I especially love all the scenes of London! And I love that girl, even though her name is Hannah. Her accent is fascinating. I’ll try the next disc after I watch some Sarah Connor Chronicles, which is next on the Netflix queue.

Hello Dolly: Forgot how much I love Barbra Streisand and this movie. I’ve been just watching it on repeat as I go about my day. Love it!  I’ve seen it a thousand times I think, starting when I was a small child. This set of viewings is the first time I realized that as much as I love Babs, Dolly should really be played by someone much older. She’s a widow who was married for a long time. And she’s going to marry Horrace/Walter Matthau who is quite older and ickier than her (I do not like him so much). I love all the songs in this movie, from ‘Just leave everything to me” to “So Long Dearie”, but I guess my favorite is Put on Your Sunday clothes is my favorite. It’s upbeat and encouraging, everyone gets a few lines, and what’s not to love about that giant dance number. I also love when Babs stands still in the middle of the marching and sings ‘Before the Parade Passes By’. And I can’t not mention the clothes in this movie = fantastic.

Godspell: I love everything about Godspell (almost). The hippiness. The hapy love joy joy wandering about the countryside. The super great costumes I wish I could wear and of course, of course Victor Garber with his super young face and his dreamy dreamy voice. Victor makes the best Jesus I’ve ever seen. The songs are catchy, meaningful and irresistable. Ok, sometimes the clowning is a little cheezy but I’d still leave home to join that crowd. Did I mention I love the costumes the most? I’d like to wear the outfit of the girl with the little tiger puppet. Oh, and I seriously appreciate that there are the same number of girls and boys. Most movies about Jesus dis the girls. Most everything  about Christianity disses the girls but that's another entry. My favorite songs are many but my tops are probably “All for the Best’ (how trippy now to seem them dance atop the twin towers), "All Good Gifts" and "Save the People". One of the best musicals ever.

Listening to: Mostly just soundtracks. Pippin. Godspell. Camelot. Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Downloaded from iTunes this week: 4 songs from Enchanted, 3 old Barry Manilow songs, 2 Victor Garber singing Sweeny Todd.

TV: nothing much to watch lately
Lost - I’m just trying to follow the flow, trusting they’ll give me some satisfaction in a couple weeks. Do I really think I’ll get it? No. But a girl can hope.
General Hospital: I have no idea whose baby Elizabeth is having, but I hope it’s Nikolas’s and they move back to whatever pretend island he’s Prince of. While Lucky is often a fool, Jonathan Jackson is always so terrific. Same goes for Luke/Tony Geary. I still want to join their family really really badly. Shelly Spencer, I’m telling you.

And sadly, the only thing I’ve been reading is the internet and various recipes and food labels. Hopefully that’ll change right away.

* Lyrics from a Todd Rundgren song: "What you put in your head just can't help effect how you feel."

Look how much she's posting!

I think I have abut 16 things to say, but since it's far past my bedtime I bet it's more like 3.

Number 1 is I get so frustrated when I'm tired but I have things to do! I'm bad at mornings, and it takes me a long time to get it together and really get going in the morning. I get better and better, and if it's a good day, it's always around 10 or so when my brain gets juicy and I'm reading to Do some Stuff! But since I'm old or since I'm human or something, I end up getting distracted to how my body is mad at me for being awake and taking it out on me in mean, painful ways.

Number 2 is more exciting. And probably proof of my dorkiness in case you needed any. I have been a serious Bing Crosby fan since I was about 9. Dreamiest voice ever. I love him lots and could/should write all about him, but not tonight. My favorite Bing Crosby movie is Holiday Inn, which you should see if you haven't. Bing is a song and dance man who retires to run an inn that's only open on holidays. Beyond that it's typical Bing and Fred Astaire chasing after the same girl, but it's charming and ends happy. The music is all Irving Berlin, and it's where he introduced the ever popular (but not with me!) White Christmas.

So I have the movie on DVD and watch it a couple times a year. And of course I wanted the soundtrack because the music is the best part, but I've only found it for far too much money than I can afford for a cd. But hah! Today I got smart and looked on iTunes. Actually I was just looking for this awesome song called The Best Things Happen When You're Dancing which I didn't find, but there was the Holiday Inn soundtrack for 9.99. So you can guess what I'm listening to too loudly. Right now is

Number 3 is I got some kind of energy serge today and worked a bunch or making my art room work better for me. All the stuff I needed was far away (well, I'd have to stand up and walk a couple feet), and everything within reach I didn't use much anymore. So I fixed that. Or I'm fixing that. That's been fun and made me excited about future art projects. I wish I had an art club going on. I want to do art with other people, and I want someone to tell me what they like and don't about what I'm doing. Anyway, I'll show you all my lovely drawers when they're ready.

Number 4 is sad. I have a dad, like most people. He died 8 years ago tomorrow. I really miss him. I never imagined I'd go 8 years without seeing him, or talking to him, or even just listening to him. I would very much like to answer the phone and hear "Yeah Shelly, this is your dad..." even though he knew I had caller id. Or have him look down his glasses at me and ask "Do what now?" after I offered up some crazy idea. Or call him myself and be several minutes into the conversation before he asked "Who is this?" because he couldn't tell if it was me or my sister. I'd really like to just stand around with a group of people and listen to him tell a funny story and then laugh and laugh. He was a good story teller and a good laugher. But of course mostly I just want him to hold me and let me cry and tell him how much I miss him, and I'm sorry I was such a pain in the ass and I understand what a very good dad he really was. And then, since he owned and ran the best BBQ restaurant, I'd like him to make me a sandwich and fries just like I like them and then come sit and talk to me while I ate it.

We're going to stop at number 4 because I'm all cry-cry now. I'm going to fill a couple more drawers and then try to sleep without thinking about it too much.