Author: Jen Rios

Shopping

My Dad read the entire paper every single day! On Sundays, he would take all of the sale papers out and put them on the floor in the living room while he sat in his recliner and read the paper. On lazy days, I would walk into our living room and sort through the pile of sale papers. I made two piles. One pile for things I wanted to look at and the other pile was to discard and put into the recycle bin.

I remember one time laying on the floor in the living room on my stomach with my knees bent and my feet lazily kicking behind me that my Dad looked up from the paper and asked me what I was doing. My answer was short and direct. I didn’t know why it was not obvious but I just said, “Shopping.”

I remember him kind of chuckling a bit at my answer but it made complete sense to me! I was not old enough to drive back then so I was entertaining myself by shopping from my house. I never really thought that would actually be a thing but, it is!

I thought about this today because I am not feeling well and it would be a good day to go shopping laying on my stomach on my living room floor with my feet kicking behind me. But, first of all, I am not physically able to do that anymore.

I am really not feeling well because it’s raining and I even opted to NOT wash my hair. Seems like it is another another #DirtyHairDontCare day for me!

MyGirlL: “Good Teeth”

So, dental hygiene has been huge for me for my entire life. It became more important to me once a had Sean! We have cleanings every six months and I looked into getting braces for him when he was seven. He didn’t get his braces on until he was 13 after for teeth extractions. While he had braces, he needed a second mouth surgery!

So, I made his teeth a priority as well as mine. For my last cleaning, my dentist told me that I have, “Good teeth.” So, I find it really funny (my mom does too) that Leia likes to get her teeth brushed as well! I guess it’s through osmosis that she wants ‘good teeth’ too!

#Overwhelmed

I can clearly remember some 16 years ago of hearing this song in a car during the summer and feeling vastly contented. It was warm and I probably was wearing still able to wear my Doc Marten’s. I started to feel overwhelmed when I heard the beginning guitar chords I and I began to cry! Hearing all of these people sing-along made me cry this morning again and remembering that memory and I’m sure I have seen this in my YouTube feed and shared the song but to hear all of those people sing it made me cry as well as I remembered that day in the summer so many years ago!

And this one has the lyrics as well:

“You Were So Cute!”

I saw this meme and shared it on Facebook yesterday:

I posted on this song on my blog yesterday:

it got me thinking about a very long time back when I worked at dfcuu financial. I looked through my tunes tab and checked what I wrote about Matty. I wrote this post a couple years ago so the video for, “Electrical Storm” is no longer available so I will re-post the video for that song here:

This song always reminds me of working the drive-through with Matty because his sister like that song. But another memory of Matty I have and clearly remember this day because it was the first time I fell in public. It was before I started using crutches and was still walking on my own. It was the first time my legs just gave out in public! I was walking behind the teller stations and I don’t know how but they just gave out and I fell. I was walking with another woman and she helped me up. This was the beginning of balance issues so I didn’t know anything about see it. I just knew that I was really embarrassed! I could feel my face ignite into flames!

I think it was a couple weeks later that Matty and I were working in the drive-through (a different time) and he started to talk about seeing me fall. I was completely mortified with a branch full of members and everyone I worked with there! He started to chuckle and told me, “You were so cute!” I disagreed with him and I started to laugh too. I’ve been thinking about that time of my life and it makes me a little bit sad. Even with that being the case, I always have some great music to listen to and to remember!

Roughly 7 Years, 5 Months Later…

I’ve been thinking about this song a lot lately and was not able to post it seven years ago back when the procedure for posting links on my blog was a lot different. I want to clear up any questions or confusions about the song that I always liked it because I used to work at the 7-11 the summer before college aand NOT not because I used to get hit!

This One REALLY Hurts!!!

Okay, So, I have written before about the fact that I was still rockin’ my iPhone 7s. Disability does not allow for much extra things so I just rocked my old phone. It worked just fine! It wasn’t until the phone case broke and I started having real difficulty with it that I started thinking about replacing it. During the NCAA Championship game, I saw a commercial from Verizon talking about offering trade-ins for phones and big discounts. I called him the next day and figured out that I could get a purple iPhone 11 for a reasonable price. The 12 is already out but I want to the purple phone!

But then, I received this email and 1146 today:

This one really hurt! It looks even cooler than my phone! I texted this to both Sean and my best friend, Ami.

This is what Sean send:


I told Ami thatI have a sparkly case and this is what we’ll have to do until I get another phone but this one really hurts!

The Lyrics

Based on my previous YouTube search history, I received some germs this morning because Big Brother Has yet to disappoint me. My Mom asked me if I was going to cry EVERY time I heard this song (she was talking about, “One”). As I wiped The tears off of my face, I just simply said, “Probably.” At that point I had cried hearing both the U2 version and Johnny Cash a couple days ago. So today, this showed up in my YouTube feed and I HAD to share it on Facebook!:

Hearing both of these voices singing The words to this song warmed my heart! My two oldest brothers slept in the basement and I would hear various U2 songs as I fall asleep so Bono‘s voice is very comforting to me and whenever I hear Johnny Cash, I think of my Dad with fondness! As I watched this video, another version showed up and I remember sharing this version sometime ago:

And then I watched this one and I really think it’s the lyrics that get me EVERY. SINGLE. TIME!!! ! (regardless of who is singing!) Some of these lines pierce my soul at make my heart burst!:

So now, I can hear duets of Bono and Johnny Cash or Bono and Mary J. anytime I want and just Johnny Cash and just Bono so I will have four options to choose from when I want to hear this song!:

So, when my Mom asked me if I was going to cry every time I heard this song, after hearing these four versions my, “Probably” is now a, “Definitely.!” I appreciate the Johnny Cash cover and the duos with both Mary J and Johnny Cash but there is nothing like the original:

He Laughed.

I posted this meme on Facebook not too long ago:

I posted it because this is COMPLETELY me! I’ve been talking to my Mom about me possibly getting a house plant. My kitchen gets a lot of sunlight and I’ve been kicking around than ideal.

I talked with Sean yesterday and I mentioned this fact to him. I said, ”I’m thinking about getting implant.” And I waited for his reply.

He laughed. Kind of hard! Hearing him laugh made me laugh! Sean has known me for his entire life and he knows firsthand that my thumbs are black and I kill every plant in my possession!

in my defense, my Dad had JUST died! I am so sad that I do not have ANY plans from his funeral anymore. It’s just a thought I have had recently. I told Sean about a commercial I saw for Urban Stems. He continued to laugh and told me that the flowers are shaking because they’re afraid of coming home with me!

When I think about it, maybe he is correct. maybe I should start with a Chia pet? Do they have elephants?

“Easily One of my ‘Top 5’”

I woke up this morning kind of uncharacteristically early. My Mom had to handle things on the phone so I just sat in my chair, took my vitamins, drank water, brushed my teeth, and drank my breakfast. It was still kind of early in the morning so rather than turning the TV on, I just went down the rabbit hole of watching YouTube videos on my phone. I’m not sure how this one showed up but I watched it and posted it on Facebook as well:

I heard Johnny Cash‘s cover before I heard Nine Inch Nails’ original. I was completely blown away when I heard it and I vaguely remember talking about it with my Dad. He loved Johnny Cash. I learned a couple new things in watching this video. I did not know that he had a song on U2’s album Zooropa. The most important thing I learned was that he covered, “One.”

So, just as my Mom finished her business on the phone, she walked into the living room with me watching this video and crying. Having had PBA for so many years, I do not mind crying at all. I just let the tears stream down my face whenever they want to. Sometimes, my Mom will ask me why I am crying and I shake my head or shrug my shoulders and sometimes I can say, “I don’t know.”

My Mom looked at me in disbelief and she couldn’t understand why I was crying about Johnny Cash singing a U2 song but I don’t like her IL Volo singing a U2 song?! I looked up at her when the song was over and as I wiped my tears away, I told her, ”Well, “One” is easily one of my top five U2 songs!” “Beautiful Day” well NEVER evoke tears from me but “One” easily can! It’s my JAM!!!

Familiar?

So, at this point, I am basically a Hallmark channel expert! I’ve seen so SO many movies multiple times! I have figured it out the schedule on the weekend once a movie is released on Saturday night.

I was not able to see the whole movie yesterday so I turned the TV on to catch it again today. When I turned the TV on, it was halfway through with a movie that I had not seen all of it before so I figured I would just watch it to wait for the half the movie I saw yesterday.

I didn’t even know the name of it but there was a song playing in the background that was so familiar and it was kind of driving me nuts because I couldn’t remember what song it was. I am completely spoiled now and just spoke a few lines of the song that I remembered. Then it showed up on YouTube:

I figured out in searching for this song that the movie is called, Love Takes Flight:


But now the second half of the movie I was watching yesterday is on. I wonder how it ends?! It’s one of the reasons I like Hallmark movies, it always ends happily!!!