I think it was watching Chase Winovich sing along to this song that reminded me of this song and 1999. My Junior year; the best time of my High school career! Sean is a Junior now. In Winovich’s words, after tonight‘s “smack down,” “The “Revenge Tour” has officially commenced.” I love football!
I am old and how did he know this song?!:
The Simpsons first became a show in December of 1989. I was seven years old. I remember the first episode; my brothers and I will still quote Homer saying, “Pardon my galoshes!”
During my first year at Western, I lived in Harvey Hall. If you look at the picture below, I would be the second door on the left. I was still accustomed to eating dinner at 6 o’clock as a lot of other students were. I’m not sure how it happened but I was part of the group who all sat in the back corner of the cafeteria next to the TV. We all sat there to watch The Simpsons. We weren’t friends; I’m not even sure I knew the other people I sat with but we all were just there to watch The Simpsons.
I couldn’t remember the name of the other hall that shared a building with us. I asked Google. Then, I came across this video that showed what the rooms look like! My roommate and my bed were placed differently but we had a purple rug very similar to the one that’s in there! It was kind of crazy for me to see the room because I haven’t seen it in almost 20 years.
I began thinking about The Simpsons because my Mom and I were talking, (about what, I am not sure) but it came up that I would think my “go-to” junk food would be donuts. The honey glazed, chocolate dipped donuts from Tim Horton to be exact! Now, I don’t really get them very often but I did immediately after my injury and before my surgery because it hurt so badly! It still hurts pretty badly! In our conversation, I said, “Mmmmm donuts!” just like Homer Simpson. I began to laugh and she did not know what I was talking about. My brothers and I were watching the TV, but she wasn’t; so she would know the quote!
I showed my Mom the above video and laughed and laughed. We already have used this quote in conversations that we have had since. She was the one who said, “Mmmmmm donuts!” We both laughed! I haven’t gotten donuts since I told my Mom about Homer Simpson but we still can laugh and laugh about it!
My brother stopped by my house to help my Mom with transferring me. The three of us talked for a while once I was safely in my chair and he showed me a picture he had. It was a picture of a picture. I know I have seen this picture before but it made me gasp and completely stopped me in my tracks! I remember taking this picture! Back when we still lived with my parents and I could still walk. I still can remember how soft Sean‘s hair felt on my neck.
I asked Steve to text me the picture and I saved it in my phone. I saved it in the “favorites” of my pictures. When I went to retrieve it for this blog post, I saw this picture that is also in my “favorites”:
This picture also made me gasp and stopped me in my tracks! I miss my Dad SO BADLY today!!!
When Sean got up for school on October 2nd, I told him that it was T-30. He didn’t know what that meant. So, as an explanation, I played him this song:
It COMPLETELY blows my mind that my baby is going to be 17! It blows my mind that 17 years ago, I was entering the last month of my only pregnancy. Sean always makes fun of me that when my birthday comes around, I celebrate for the whole month. I told him that we can celebrate for two months for his 17th birthday!
As it has turned out, lately, Sean has not gotten me out of bed and I go back to sleep when he goes off to school because I’m not sleeping very well through the night. Before he leaves, he comes to tell me he’s leaving and often times he will kiss me on my forehead. I will grab my phone and play this song that I downloaded on Apple Music! I also will play this song when he gets home from school too!
Since I’ve been doing it for a week now, Sean will roll his eyes A little, smile, and will dance a little to this song because he sees how excited I am. The other day, I only played it once and I told him that that fact kind of bummed me out. He said it was OK and I told him that this was the last month of my pregnancy. He asked me if I, “Really was going to make this about me?”
I told him that it was because I birthed him and have the scars to prove it and I grew him so, yes it is about me too!
Since I have played him the song so far about 20 times, he smiles when I know all the words and I will tell him about when my friend turned 17. I drove her to school and the morning of her birthday, I drove past her house to get to school so Mr. Flint could let me in early and I decorated her locker before I drove back to pick her up. When she got into the car, I played ABBA for her too!
It wasn’t really T -30 anyway because there’s 31 days in October but he got that his birthday was a month away! Tomato, tamahto. He will be 17 soon and until that day, I will play him ABBA every single day!
I’ve been watching the Hallmark Channel Fall Harvest Movie Countdown this whole weekend when I was not watching football. Both Michigan and the Lions won! During the commercials and between the movies, there was an advertisement for the countdown that had this song playing in the background. I haven’t heard this song in a really long time and it’s fitting because it’s October. It doesn’t really feel like that because I can’t tell being cooped up in my house since I got my motorized chair.
I have already seen the number one movie in the 15 movie countdown but I really like it! It’s “Falling for Vermont.” Stacy Hinkhouse, the, “Insane psycho freak” from Freaky Friday is starring in it. My Mom was the one who made that connection when I was watching another Hallmark movie she’s in. She is older and has darker hair but now I can’t NOT see Stacy Hinkhouse when I watch the movie.
This morning, my Mom and I laughed so much! Maybe I was just in a good mood because the Lions beat the Packers yesterday. I’m not sure how we started talking about this but as she was putting the patches on my knee for my tens unit, we started talking about Sean learning sight words when he was five. I lived in my second apartment back then and he was in Kindergarten. We did flashcards all the time with him and after all the word families were completed, we started using sight words. One of his sight words was , “BUT.”
He would burst out into gales of laughter at that word! I explained to him that it wasn’t that kind of, “butt” but that didn’t matter. He still laughed tremendously! I remembered that I was in the front office at CCA and was telling my friend and colleague about how he laughed so much at the sight word, “BUT.”
She laughed at that as well and told me that the word she always had trouble keeping a straight face with was, “DUTY.” I remember that when she told me, we both laughed and laughed! All subsequent conversations and/or text messages would make a point of using the word, “DUTY.” I would laugh at the image of her being a small child laughing at that word just like Sean laughed at the word, “BUT.”
I am kind of freaking out that he will be 17 soon and my heart was warmed at the memory of hearing him laugh when he was a small child! I will never forget that sound as long as I live! I absolutely loved that and when I finally left at the word, “BUT,” he looked at me with a straight face and said, “Mom, I’m over it!” Man, I love that kid!
I’ve been thinking a lot about what my Mom said to me at the post office after my last appointment with Dr. Moore. It’s true! I haven’t sang for a very long time! I wanted to change that and I knew that if I watched the movie, RENT, I could do that because I know all of the words because of singing it over 1 million times with my cousinT Shannon and by myself in my car and in both of my apartments.
I finally started to watch it OnDemand yesterday and sang along with the entire show! However, I could only get a little bit past when Roger goes to the life-support meeting. And then, I began to cry!
At the support group for people living with AIDS, they sing a song. As I have said, I have listened to the audio of this play and seen this play performed once and the movie tons of times butI have never once thought to liken myself to these people singing this song:
I began to cry and paused the movie. For me, the answers to these questions are: yes, yes, and no. For me, living with MS, I will lose my dignity (I feel it is undignified for my Mom and my 16-year-old son to have to cut up my food before I eat it and pick me up and place me into a car if I want to go anywhere among other things). I am also BEYOND grateful that my Mom cares for me. And lastly, even though I pray for it every night before I go to bed, I have yet to wake up from this nightmare.
I sang A LOT with my cousinT, Shannon, during the last two years of high school. When this song came out, I remember buying the CD single. My cousinT told me that I sing like her. When I told my brother about it, he agreed that I sounded like her too. I didn’t like that because even though she sings well, I don’t like her voice.
After my doctor’s appointment where Dr. Moore prescribed my tens unit, my Mom and I stopped at the post office so she could mail a package that I put together for my niece, Natalie, who is away at college. When my Mom got back into the car, this song was playing on the radio and I asked her if I sounded like her because Shannon and Jimmy think so. She told me that she hasn’t heard me sing in a VERY long time.
My Mom has ALWAYS thought that I have terrible taste in music! She tells me that I listen to, “Wah, wah. Cry, cry.” music. Though I won’t argue with her, she seems to forget that there is a reason I have that taste and it all begins with her!
From a very early age, probably about five or six, I can vividly remember sitting on the stool in the corner of my parents’ kitchen as she got something out of the oven )whether it be dinner or something she had baked) and she would sing this song. She taught me the lyrics and we both would sing in our kitchen at the top of our lungs as she cooked/baked;
I then told her last night about the time where I was probably seven or eight. My Dad wanted to know the lyrics to this song so my brother Jimmy, my brother Dave, and me laid on the floor in the living room on the green carpet and listened to this record over and over and over as he wrote down the lyrics.
My Mom pulled up the Charley Pride song on her phone and we both began singing. She didn’t know the words to the second verse but it started playing and I sang right along. She was surprised and I started to laugh! I recalled how I heard this song over and over and over again as my Dad wrote down the lyrics.
When the song was over, I looked at her incredulously and said accusingly, “It was both a yous!” I told her that it was no wonder that I listened to, “Wah, Wah. Cry, cry” music. Look at the two songs that I vividly remember from my childhood! It’s THEIR fault! From an early age, I knew the words to two of the saddest and most pathetic songs in the world! THANKS GUYS!!! And by, “thanks,” I mean NO thanks; but I don’t mind. I like what I like!
Probably the first time I saw it, I thought my tens unit looks like a beeper. A beeper that I had in high school. However, it is not a Motorola and it is not blue like mine was. I laughed when I held it in my hand for the first time and told Sean that this is what beepers looked like.
I told him that it had to be an early 90s beeper because when I got mine, probably 1998, it was a little bit smaller.
I used to hook my beeper to the left front pocket of my jeans.
How I used to check my beeper:
Sean was amused because the concept of a beeper is so foreign to him.
I’m still trying to get used to having the tens unit on. It’s only been a little over a week. Also the electrodes help my knee, but my headache is a lot worse today! A friend suggested that I take some Tylenol before I turn it on and that seems to help but today it’s hard to handle.
I called my Mom to let her know that my headache was pretty bad today and she asked if I was going to turn it off. It’s the only thing that helps my knee so I am just trying to tolerate my headache with my beeper on as long as I can handle it.