Author: Jen Rios

Tune #49 and #50 Inspired by GMFB

I woke up a little late this morning but once I was out of bed and in my living room, I turned GMFB on. I still had not put my contacts in and I’m not sure one he was talking about but Nate said that a player would be, “Fresh and Clean” like Outkast. I was too tired to tweet at him but i immediately got that song in my head!

I think I didn’t tell Sean that he looked, “So fresh and so clean” until he go to high school and would be in his suit for homecoming or prom. I asked him if he knew what I was talking about and he nodded and told me that it was Outkast but it was really old! Wow, I am really old! It was cool 20 years ago when I came out!

Kyle started talking about the Packers versus 49ers upcoming game and he recalled the week 12 meaning in which the Packers laid an egg. He was specifically talking about Aaron Rodgers and I had my contacts in by that time so I tweeted him this:

This Eminem song came out when Sean was still really little and I could still drive back then. Just hearing Kyle drop the line,”Mom’s spaghetti” with search nonchalance made me laugh really hard! And really took me way back!

I absolutely love that I am contemporaries of the entire breakfast table (Kay is a little bit younger than me but…) and I completely get these random, off-the-cuff pop culture references.

Tune #48 Inspired by GMFB

So, this morning, Peter and Nate were talking about the Grammys and I can’t even remember how Nate got to singing “Rollin’ with my Homies” which launched a whole discussion about clueless with Nate, Peter, and Kyle. I ABSOLUTELY love the ease with which they have random conversations! I was too tired to tweet any of them but I have been singing this song all day long!

I wanted to find the movie clip and the best one I could find was this tribute to Brittany Murphy.:

I haven’t seen this movie in close to 20 years as a racer board I think I’m going to have to watch it again!

NUTS!!!

This afternoon while my Mom and I ate lunch, she was paying a bill and needed to talk to someone so she was on hold. Once she was placed on hold, they started saying something about services they offer or something and then once they stopped speaking, music came on. I was completely shocked at hearing that song! Then, they started saying something else so the music stopped but then a few seconds later, the music started again.

It was a song I was very familiar with and I remember hearing it and liking it in either my upper class men high school years or in my young adult years. It took me a minute to figure out who I was hearing as the music that plays when you are on hold. Basically, it was the ”Elevator music.” When I figured out who was singing, I told my Mom what it was and that hearing it while you were on hold is, “NUTS!!!

Dave Mathews is the coolest ever! The fact that he is playing as the music when you are on hold proves that I am SO old now!!!


Slow Motion Selfies

I recently saw this commercial and I laughed. But today, as I watched the Kansas City versus Houston game, Sean was with me. When that commercial started, I told Sean, “It’s you.” It wasn’t until the end of the commercial and he saw the little boy blowing the hairdryer at his mom that he started to laugh as well. I don’t have an iPhone 11 and I was never that way. But something tells me, if I was, Sean would definitely have held the blow dryer for me!









Library Card

This morning, on GMFB, Kyle nentioned that his dad is a voracious reader yet, he refuses to buy a kindle. I am also like that! I prefer to read physical books. Kay responded by putting her fists in the air and yelling, “Paperbacks!” and she said that she still has a library card. Of course I had to tweet at her this:

I actually have two library cards. One for Dearborn and one for Deerborn Heights. My son also has two cards. I asked him when he got his Deerborn Heights card and neither one of us could remember but he had to be around 10.

I spent so much of my life when I was growing up in the Dearborn Public Library. I read 100 books The summer before either kindergarten or first grade. In the evenings, in the summer, my Mom would take my brothers, cousins, and sometimes neighborhood kids, and me to get ice cream and we would run around the fountain in front of the library and eat the ice cream.

I don’t really frequent that area anymore because I no longer drive but one time in 2016, we passed the Centenial library and I know that I had Sean take a picture of the fountain’s demolition but it is no longer there.

    I haven’t been to the library and so long, I just order books on Amazon now. I think it’s crazy how reading has completely changed now for me. I find that my eyes get tired faster than I am finished reading but I just have to stop reading which is sad.

      Sometimes…

      I have had MS for 19 years now. Over half of my life. I never liked when people in my various MS support groups would call themselves, “Warriors” and would tell all of us that we were,”Warriors” too. that is until it got real for me.

      Damn right, I am a warrior! This is so difficult! I was asked once what hurts and I told them, “Just my nerves.” I paused a moment and let the person know that there are nerves in every inch of your body. Everything hurts. All of the time!

      A woman in one of my MS groups shared this song and she said the lyrics spoke to her. Well, they speak to me too! When she posted it, she let everyone know that she was NOT suicidal but this song is real! I am NOT suicidal either and I know that I have too much to live for to do something like that but it’s enough to acknowledge just the fact that this is difficult and I need to acknowledge the feeling that to just, “Let go” Is really appealing at times.

      My support groups come alive at night and I completely get that. I think it was a little after 1 AM when I shared this song on Facebook because I did not want to forget it. I listened to it two times last night and cried both times. I let my Mom hear it this morning when I was eating my eggs and I cried again.

      My Mom didn’t like this song and I tried explaining it to her but she told me that neither my Dad nor my aunt Rita gave up, not even at the very end. I told my Mom that it is different because they both had. terminal illnesses. My aunt died of ovarian cancer and my Dad was a non-compliant diabetic for most of my life who had two open-heart surgeries and was on dialysis for 3 1/2 years.

      I am just going to have MS for the rest of my life and have to and will have to continue dealing with whatever it decides to throw at me. Believe me, now, it’s throwing a lot at me! I tried to get my Mom to see this but she didn’t so I decided to just listen to this song when I am by myself. I will probably listen to it as I am trying to fall asleep at night but this is really difficult and having to be on high alert every second of the day is a lot. For me, this song was really good. I know I’m not going to do a thing deliberately but I needed to hear this song because sometimes…

      ALMOST Forgotten Tune #82

      I will say that there is nothing like watching a throwback movie with Sean. We are watching, Jumanji. We just saw the third Jumanji at the movies on Christmas and we laughed at how NOT state of the art this one is but it’s still a solid movie!

      The Peloton commercial very cute saying really got to me:

      I think it’s crazy that songs from my youth, my high school years, are selling things now. I really dig this song and I forgot how much I dug it until I saw this commercial:

      I’m Just Sayin’…

      I haven’t been tweeting anyone at the breakfast table for a while. I am watching but seem to be too tired to tweet. That changed today because Nate mistakenly called Peter, “‘Toya” when they were having a discussion. Toya is Nate’s wife. Kyle and Kay laughed hysterically and Peter called Nate, “Erica” at the end of the segment. I had to tweet both of them this;

      They didn’t like it this time but I liked it enough for all of us! Hearing Nate call Peter his wife’s name, reminds me of the first time I was called, “Mom” by a student. She was insanely embarrassed and I deflected her embarrassment by telling her that I have ALEAYS wanted a daughter but I didn’t want one when I was 12 years old because it was my first year teaching and I was only 24. She was 12. Nate recovered nicely because he wasn’t even embarrassed! I love that show!!! I can’t wait for the off-season because I’m having a little difficulty getting into the playoffs because the Saints are already out. That really bums me out and I wanted to see them win the Super Bowl! Kay rapped about them and I tweeted her and she liked it immediately. I’m just sayin’…

      ALMOST Forgotten Tune #81 + Random Songs in My YouTube Feed #33

      When I woke up Friday morning, I texted my Mom that I was awake and while I waited for her to come and help me get out of bed, I watched some YouTube videos. This one showed up and I really dug the song! It reminded me of being a little girl and my Parent’s living room having green carpet. It’s hardwood now but when I was a kid, I used to lay on it and watch TV.

      I watch video clips of The Voice in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep (Which is pretty much every night). I post the videos that make me cry because I can no longer sing like the videos I see. So, Friday morning I posted this guys rendition of Terence Trent D’Arby and Saturday morning this video showed up and I shared it on Facebook as well!

      This song took me way back and I tagged two of my brothers when I posted The second video on Facebook of the actual video. It was proof that Big Brother is watching and listening through our phones I guess