Saturday, March 12, 2011

A random jojo chardonnay post... like in the old days....sorta...





I just added the Amos Lee video after making this post. It's the song, track #3 Violin song that I am talking about. This is from his appearance on David Letterman.

1. took these photos today. I've posted similar ones before. But today  I took down some of the pictures on the living room wall because I am feng shuing even the walls. I've already done knickknacks, closets, cupboards and drawers. It feels good.

2. However I did realize recently that i packed up all but one of my salad bowls AND my book journal, (the one where i write the good stuff from books i am reading.)

3. Uh oh, in that second photo,  I just realized the framed photograph on the far end is a little crooked and my OCD is starting to kick in and makes me want to fix it, only i can't unless i take a new photo and upload it. 

4. That photograph is the one i took of all the paint colors in their cans when I was doing my painting project last year between February through June.

5. The Japan news is very scary. I thought Wisconsin was scary. And now this. What is weird about the Japan earthquake is i got my news about it in the old fashioned way. Neither Brian nor I had been on the computer Thursday night and we didn't watch TV. So the first i heard this news was on Friday morning when it was HUGE headlines in the News Tribune. 

6. I wonder what this means for us all globally too. 

7. I want to blame all of this on Charlie Sheen.

8. I am reading three books: Ahab's Wife, Youth in Revolt, oops...no, make that four books.... World Without End and Townsie. Yep, I am reading four books right now.

9. My hair is too long right now. So i french braid it everyday. I am thinking that if i turned into a bohemian, i might save over $1500 a year by not cutting and dyeing my hair. I'm getting it cut this week.

10. I don't think we are going to buy a house now. Brian said tonight that as he has been looking he realizes he appreciates the charm of our place more now and also the one in Point Defiance that we didn't buy. I'm fine with not moving now that we've fixed our roof and mold issues. 

11. I might re-upholster our sofa now. Spend some money on decorating. Maybe redo bathroom floors and vanities.

12. Oh my lord, this is a really boring random post. When did this happen that i got this way? i blame it on SAD...(Season Affective Disorder).

13. I has rained everyday for a week now. With another week of rain forecast.

14. Would i be a more fun person if i lived where the sun is not constantly the color of of semen?

15. Two cool things: A really good movie : "On a Clear Day" about a guy who at the age of 55 makes a goal to swim the English Channel with the help of good and fun friends. Another: Amos Lee's new cd "Mission Bell". Best song on the cd is track #3. Only i forget the name of it. 

Ok, i'm going to end this right now because #1 either i have not had enough wine to make this an riveting random musing or #2 I am just not into blogging these days and probably should take a hiatus.

18 comments:

jojo cucina cucina said...

The Amos Lee song is called "Violin". SO beautiful.

*******************

Lately I,
I've been heading for a breakdown
Every time I leave my house
Well it feels just like a shakedown
Between street sweepers and the pushers or the lawyers
Who may as well be butchers
Between the small timing hustlers who all, seem to feed upon each other

[Chorus]
Oh God why you been
Hanging out that ol' violin
While I've been waiting for you,
to pull me through

Lately I,
every time I try to lie down
While my mind just gets away
I can't even close my eyes now
Between the big fish ambition, and the lovers
Using words as ammunition
Between the wood planks I've been pacing and this impossible dream that I've been chasing

Chorus]
Oh God why you been
Hanging out in that ol' violin
While I've been waiting for you,
to pull me through

Chorus]
Oh God
Oh God
Oh God why you been
Hanging out in that ol' violin
While I've been waiting for you,
to pull me through

Oh God
Oh God
Oh God

jojo cucina cucina said...

I want to ask Amos, what made you write this song?

jojo cucina cucina said...

I think he's written this about escaping from the the political upheaval and polarization in our country and how we are turning against each other.

equeyaya said...

Thank you for posting those lyrics. What a beautiful song. I watched it on my phone from your facebook post this morning. Then it came on my iphone shuffle when I walked Callie this morning. And I just watched it again. Great album; I'm glad I bought the whole thing.

I think you are smart to keep your home and improve it. I really love it and what you've done with it. I like your idea to change up your photos on the walls. I get so attached to my photos, I hate to take them down. But I think it's a cool idea to change them up with the seasons. I just love looking at photos of the girls when they were little, because they will never be little again.

Mel is going back to school today. I grilled her some chicken and steamed some asparagus for her to take back with her. And we did quite a bit of shopping yesterday to stock her up on things. We were going to go to NYC next month to see Spiderman on Broadway for her birthday. But I just got an email yesterday that they are closing the show for about a month, over the date of our tickets. So I'll be getting a refund and we'll have to come up with something else to do. She'll be home for her birthday this year, since it is the day before Easter.

Easter rarely falls after her birthday, it is so late this year. I realized that last Easter she was still 18, and this Easter she will be 20, so she will never have Easter as a 19 year old. But she will probably have two of them as a 20 year old. I don't know why I find that interesting, but I do (she didn't when I pointed it out, lol!).

Anyway, I'm going to miss her when she goes back.

jojo cucina cucina said...

I am bored with my blog so i decided to switch it up, right down to the fonts. I like it!

Easter IS late this year. At least daylight savings time happened already though! Yay! No more running in the dark.

sam said...

I'm reading but I got nuttin' to write about. Seriously.

Maybe later in the week.

I will tell you, though, that I would hate it if you took a hiatus of more than, say 3 weeks.

equeyaya said...

ack! I like your layout but I miss your jo-dance photo!

Sam, I like your new avatar! :)

Unknown said...

This month has been very rough at work. I have six employees under me. One's father died, one's husband has throat cancer (treatable) and one thought her aunt (who raised her) was dying. Top that off with us having to move into the gym for six months while they add a new wing to the building and I thought I was losing my mind. Hopefully, everything will settle down.

Oh, Amanda turned 24 and the people who own the horse farm where she has been working breaking their horses, gave her a horse. Yep, a horse with free boarding as long as she is in Athens. It was a wonderful gift and great timing as she found out she did not get into Vet school the same day. She is going to stay in Athens one more and try again...

I am so freaked about Japan. No one seems to be talking about the nuclear reactors and the possible meltdowns. I think we are on a path of killing our planet and ourselves in the process. 2012 seems like a stronger prediction all the time.

I love your place JoJo. I try to do the same. Every weekend this winter I've pared down my possessions. I want to live lite. And I love my Nook. Books were a real problem for me. And I thought I had to have a book in hand to enjoy it..but the Nook has proved me wrong. BTW..I loved Ahab's Wife but nothing she has written since.

I'm juggling several books right now..Discovery of Witches, Colonel Roosevelt (I'm obsessed with Teddy), some silly book about the grim reaper and Cleopatra. I bounce around..

Ok..I'm going to try and sleep even though my body tells me it is still early. I hate this switching time.

equeyaya said...

Oh, Susie! How lucky for Amanda!

I agree about all the bad news, it seems like the world is becoming a harsher and harsher place. Just in the last two weeks, we had an employee killed in a car accident, another charged with email stalking, and yet another threatening suicide. Couple that with all of the global bad news, and it becomes a challenge to keep a positive outlook.

In that vein, Happy Monday, everyone!

jojo cucina cucina said...

Susie, i'm glad to know you loved Ahab's Wife. My brother Troy gave it to me to read. I just started it but he has already called me twice to see where i am in the book and what do i think. (He and i have always liked the same books.)

The only problem is Troy has a way better retention for plot lines than i do and if i give him a book a year or so after i read it and he loves it he wants to talk about with me and then i can't remember what the plot was about.

Truthfully, sometimes it's not even a 'year or so' later, it could be three months and i already forgot. But i always always remember how i felt about the book.

I do that with people too. I can meet someone and something happens in the conversation and i make a decision about that person based on what their character seems to be. And later i can tell you if i liked that person or not, but if i didn't like that person, i cannot remember what they did to make me not like them.

Is everyone like this? or just me?

Thank you too for liking my little place susieatl. I like it too. It's small but i always love coming home to it because after nearly 20 years it's am getting to a nice place that makes me feel good...(except for the popcorn ceiling.)

Also susieatl, i am inspired by your Booknookness. I am starting to get over that i have to have ALL books on display. I have about 8 boxes in storage right now and another 3 boxes i just gave away.

eque...That's a lot of bad news in a short period of time! How many employees do you have anyway? I hope it's ALOT.

Happy Thursday! I had a contractor out today to give me a bid on my bathroom remodel. We'll see how that goes later. The idea of remodeling got me out of my fund that I was in after not buying the house i wanted!

I'm going to change this blog soon, but i have to work on Saturday all day so it might be Sunday before i get to it.

jojo cucina cucina said...

I mean....got me out of my FUNK....though it might get me out of my funds too! LOL.

louielouie said...

OHHH

I am going to write right here, in this little block and not on a WORD document first.

That will mean little or no editing.

It has been a CRAZY last couple of weeks at work; everyone is on the edge, and I'm thinking that going over may actually be preferable to clinging to the cliff.

I haven't called anybody, emailed anybody or even been exercising. have been working on being cheerful, and it did help for a while but my cheerfulness is used up for now. Hopefully my sense of humor will return so I can cleverly recount the sibling drama around arranging my mom's 85th birthday party. Brothers are a trip!!

All will be better on Saturday when we fly out to visit my son on Oahu. I'm thinking I will be able to post humorous accounts of my work drama, my family drama and travel drama with a tropical beverage in my hand.

No previewing, no spell check no nothing - I'm already walking on the wild side

louielouie said...

ps jo your little place is swell, and you know how I love tanning by the pool, but it is TOO SMALL.

maybe not right now, but you do need to look at a new place sometime

jojo cucina cucina said...

louie, i think we are reconsidering buying now - at least i don't see it anymore. I have been talking to Brian about saving our money as if we bought that place in Pt. Defiance and investing it instead. THEN buying when we are very close to retirement. I really think I want to live on Vashon Island once i am retired. (Or some place similar.) and if we play our cards right and invest wisely maybe we can do that in 5 years instead of trying to find a place now. And trying to sell our place and not getting that much.

I only want about 500 more sq. feet and not much more. And i'm thinking in 5 years, maybe building a 1500 sq foot home exactly what we want might not be that hard, given that we have connections in the family who can help.

So we may go back to our original plan and look for property now instead of a house.

I hear you on the crankiness piece. I am just now coming out of what feels like a month long funk. That kind of weird feeling where you find yourself feeling like crying for no reason. And you don't want to be around anyone. Or do anything like read or run or cook.

I do truly believe that i have that seasonal disorder and that's part of it, March is a terrible month.

But I also think it's the job. I am overwhelmed with the recent attacks on on public education and unions across the country, because i am not sure we have the fortitude and tenacity to fight this same kind of fight like Wisconsin when i look around at our folks. They are simply too worn out from work to even fight for themselves.

But then again, we do our best work when there is a crisis. So hopefully i am wrong.

And oh yeah....brothers are a trip indeed. I love my two brothers! They are wickedly funny and entertaining, just like your brothers, louie. Funny i forget that we both come from a two girls/two boys family. Your brother are great. Especially Doug, since he is a gourmet cook!

jojo cucina cucina said...

But i keep telling myself to shut up about feeling in a funk. What do I have to be in a funk about??? NOTHING. At least we do not live in Japan. At least we do not live in Japan. At least we do not live in Japan. I keep repeating it to myself. And then i give myself a little slap and i'm okay.

jojo cucina cucina said...

Disclaimer: Louis is LYING. She does NOT love tanning by my pool. In fact when she comes over during the summer, she wears a big bonnet (Like Little House on the Prairie) on her head and makes me hold a huge umbrella over her head when she comes over so she can protect her sensitive pale porcelain skin.

Amanda said...

I think I've looked at your house pictures about a dozen times. I just love your style, Jo. Your house looks so comfortable and clean, and really relaxed, but still stylish. I'm jealous...but inspired. My place could use some sprucing up.

Anyone not in a funk right now is either not watching the news or an asshole (think Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh and probably my dad). The only comfort is my complete admiration of the Japanese people. They are proving much better than we are and I love them. I think about how Americans behave after Katrina, when even the police were looting, and how differently the Japanese are reacting to their tragedies. It's humbling. We should all be so decent.

That's all I have for now. It's hard to write in a cloud of justified funk.

jojo cucina cucina said...

Amanda. You just made me feel better. You're right, we should take our inspiration from the Japanese. I lived in Japan for 5 years from 1968-1973 as a military brat (6th grade-10th grade) and it was the best experience of our military moving.

Americans have much to be ashamed of. Isn't that too bad. We are turning against one another. Blaming the wrong people for the country's problems.And the media fuels it minute after minute. I'm ready to get ALL of my news from Jon Stewart anymore. I cannot stand to listen to the pundits anymore.Even the good ones who try to do the right thing.

They can't go toe to toe when they are up against the likes of Fox News and Glen Beck, and politicians like Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin. It's insane to even try anymore because they are not rational people and fight dirty.

So we have to win by outnumbering them. Which i think truthfully we really do ...outnumber them. Only we are lazier too. so it doesn't FEEL like we outnumber them.

Thank you for the compliments on our little abode...How's your knee these days?