Category: Tunes

I think it is a little bit crazy that so many of my nieces and nephews are Michigan State fans! I got both of my bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from U of M!!! My niece, Alyssa, came over last week and it took a while for me to realize that she was wearing a Michigan State t-shirt. When I discovered this, I gasped and told her that I couldn’t believe that she was wearing that in my house!!

She told me that it was the only clean T-shirt she had and I Feel like she should have worn a dirty one! My niece, Natalie, is transferring to Michigan State for her second year of college and my nephew, Jonah, is starting college and Michigan State in the fall. What is going on?! No one is going to U of M?!

I think it was last Thanksgiving that my family had at my house where my nephew, Steven, showed up wearing a Michigan State hoodie. I told him that I hated his hoodie so he obligingly took it off to reveal and Michigan State T-shirt! I swear that it’s crazy that I am outnumbered!

My first year at Western, I learned to collect all kinds of T-shirts. I remember when I transferred to U of M (After my MS diagnosis) for my second year, my friend, Catherine, asked me if I did anything at Western other than collect T-shirts because I was ALWAYS wearing a WMU shirt! We had some classes together and we worked at DFCU together also. I collected a lot of Michigan shirts while I was an undergrad but that was 20 years ago! Many of those shirts have since died!

I pretty much live in sweatpants and T-shirts all year round! I have been collecting college shirts recently. I got two Texas Tech T-shirts when they knocked MSU out of the basketball finals! I also have a USC football T-shirt because my Dad had wanted to go there. And, OF COURSE, I had to get a Georgia Bulldogs Football T-shirt because that is where Matthew Stafford went to college!!!

So, I have a bunch of college football T-shirts in addition to my MS Awareness T-shirts and my GMFB shirt (Which I LOVE!!!) but I do not own a Michigan T-shirt. My Mom, bought me a Michigan T-shirt to wear which got me a really excited!

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When I put it on today, my Mom asked me what it felt like. I told her that it, “Feels Like Home!” Right after I said that, I thought of this movie and this song:

After I put this T-shirt on, I got cold in my house because the air is on and I can’t control my body temperature anymore. I put on the Georgia Bulldogs sweatshirt Sean got me for my birthday but I know I am wearing the Michigan shirt underneath and that makes me feel good because it, “Feels Like Home!”

I recently saw a post on Facebook and immediately thought of my cousinT, Shannon.

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She tagged me in that same post today. She explained that we would already be rich and cited the time we watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothwrs seven times in a row. That’s our thing! We have watched countless movies over and over again and I don’t think watching a movie continuously for 24 hours would be difficult at all!

She told me that the only problem would be choosing the movie because we have so many to choose from! I laughed at this post today! She is 100% correct! We have already done this so many times! To Sir with Love, Willy Wonka abd the Chocolate Factory, are just a couple movies we have already done this with!

We usually sing along with whichever movie we are watching but we really could do this with ANY movie! We just find it fun to sing! Even though I can’t sing like I used to be able to, I still want to watch the same movie repeatedly! You’ve Got Mail, Burnt, Laws of Attraction, The Accountant, I can watch pretty much ANY movie repeatedly even without $1 million at stake!

Right now, I am watching Labyrinth. I can watch this movie over and over again because I am a little girl at my aunt Linda’s house whenever I watch it! I’ve always loved that Sarah has dark hair! I think I may have wanted a woody dress like her dress at the ball…

It was rough waking up this morning. The weather is wreaking havoc on me and I just felt, “Off” today. As I waited for my Mom to come over, after I woke up and called her; I listened to, “Electrical Storm” as is my new routine.

I checked my YouTube feed as I waited for her. I came across this song and was immediately reminded of high school. I was driving in my car with the window down and singing this song at the top of my longs! I shared it on Facebook before I clicked on it and placed my phone next to me and kind of laid there almost listlessly as I waited for my Mom:

I laid in my bed without singing. I just listened and remembered my able-bodied times for high school. I think it’s kind of crazy that I have to remember being able-bodied. It really stinks that I no longer am! I was a little bit sad when the song ended and I scrolled through my YouTube feed.

I came across another song that lives in my memory. It’s a more recent memory of being an adult and even living in my house; so it’s not that long ago. Back then, I could barely sing along with this song but remembered washing the dishes to that song and/or falling asleep to it in my bed before my renovations while I still had to wake up in the morning for work:

Immediately after I listened to this song, my Mom came over. She helps me get out of bed and as soon as I was seated in my chair, I was reminded of how bad things have gotten. I appreciated those memories before I got up out of bed and realized how much it stinks having MS and then I became aware of how badly my knee STULL hurts.

Continuing with the focus on things that people don’t realize I can no longer do.

I miss singing.

I always sang pretty loudly throughout my childhood and even after I had Sean. I sang often in both of our apartments and the beginning years of living in our house. I have been told by some people that I was pretty good. Sean told his preschool classmates that I was in a band. He told them that I was in a band with his, “Aunt Shannon.” I grew up with her and I call her my, “CousinT.” She is an unbelievable singer and she sang throughout high school in school musicals and different choral groups.

We would both sing at the top of our lungs along with the radio or we would sing along with the soundtrack of a musical. I’ve taken the BEST road trip with her because she makes the best mix for us to listen to! Our singing together was fun and easy!

I have pretty much memorized the entire Sara Bareilles album that just came out. However, I don’t belt it out along with her. That would be too tiring! Sometimes I mouth the words or I sing them in my head along with her.

It’s been a couple years since I’ve really sang along with any music that I listen to. Music is a pretty important part of my life and it kind of hurts that I no longer have the stamina to really belt the words out!

I wonder if I ever will again because I know that your vocal cords are muscles but I just don’t have the strength to work them out especially when it doesn’t sound like it used to! This fact is kind of sad because I am home alone a lot so it really doesn’t matter who hears me except, I hear it. The fact that it doesn’t sound good makes me even more sad.

I’ve been listening to this song a lot. I always thought I would be a wine drinker but alas, that’s not very good for people with MS. I will just silently sing along to this song in my head… :

So, it’s no secret that I’m not really digging Sean’s longer hair. But it’s just hair! This morning when he woke up, He looked like Morrissey. I told him that and he didn’t get the reference so I showed him this picture:

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After he got out of the shower and got ready to accompany my Mom and me to the Barwis golf outing and lunch, he looked like Tommy Page. I showed him this picture:

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He kind of laughed at the Morrissey picture but he agreed that he kind of looks like Tommy Page. It’s just different. It’s gonna take a while to get used to! Today, after the Barwis golf outing and lunch, I searched Tommy Page’s songs. I remember seeing this episode of Full House when I was younger:

Sean thought Tommy‘s hair is way longer than his is right now. Then I started singing a Morrissey song. This song recording was before he went solo but it was the song I was singing. I still remember the words!

I told Sean that I was going to write a blog post about this and he told me that I was, “Going to write about his hair that is like hair from the 80s and 90s. The worst hair possible!” I don’t really think so but those two guys are who his hair reminded me of today!

A few days ago, I wanted to listen to my U2 playlist. So after I called my Mom to come over to help me once I woke up, I searched for that playlist and chose this song:

This song makes me think of my former co-worker, Matt Davis. we used to work at DFCU together when I was an undergrad in college. I think this is a perfect song to wake up to! That is the new routine I have. Once I wake up, I call my Mom, and jam to some U2 while still laying in my bed.

This song is just mellow enough and it reminds me of professing my love for U2 (the band) and seeing, “Matty’s” is uncomfortable look on his face. I would love to see what he’s doing these days! It’s been almost 15 years since I worked with him!

I will scroll through the songs in my U2 playlist sometimes and other times, I will just re-play, “Electrical Storm“ multiple times. I am really digging this new routine! What better way to start the day then listening to your ULTIMATE, FAVORITE band?!

I’ve written more than a few times before about the fact that I no longer possess the dexterity or muscle control to write. It’s another especially cruel part of MS because writing used to be a huge part of my job and my identity. The fact that I can no longer do this, hurts! A whole lot at times!

To deal with this, I use speech to text capabilities on my phone a lot and I have enlisted my Mom’s help to serve as my proxy to write things out for me and I just sign the documents. Today, I needed her to both read some documents to me, (the writing was too small) write some things for me, and mail the documents out.

My Mom does NOT like doing paperwork but she agreed to do it before we started our morning routine. She went into the, “utility drawer” in my kitchen to get a pen. ALL of the pens she found were purple. She got frustrated to discover this and told me that she could NOT fill out the papers that I needed because all of the pens were, “Purple, purple, purple!”

I laughed and told her that it used to be my signature color (whenever I wrote to anything)! She told me that if she tried all five pens in the drawer and they prove to ALL be purple that she would NOT complete the paperwork. Well, ALL of the pens ended up being purple! It WAS my signature color!

I called my friend to come over tomorrow to fill the paperwork out for me and I asked her to bring a black pen because I do not have one! She laughed agreed, and is coming over tomorrow. Hearing my Mom say, “Purple, purple, purple” COMPLETELY reminded me The Na Na Song of by Sheryl Crow! Just Sayin’…

This video showed up in my YouTube feed this morning. I shared it on Facebook before I even got out of bed! It made me think of my first year teaching and when I learned that a colleague shared my love for U2! Well, he’s a guy so he really doesn’t love Bono like I do but he likes the music!

It was either during my first for my second year teaching that we ended up driving to the U2 concert together. We got tickets separately and realized that we were going the same place so my brother and I drove with him and a couple more colleagues. He actually picked out the T-shirts that I still have because I was on Canadian crutches then and it was too far to walk for me.

I have been thinking about my first years teaching, cleaning my classroom, or grading papers/ entering grades into the computer and listening to a best of U2 CD. It was back when I worked way too much in order to get by craft established.

Maybe now my YouTube feed will be flooded with U2 videos. That wouldn’t be a bad thing…