Category: Tunes

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…

So, after taking a short nap, I turned on the Hallmark channel. There is a movie premiere after the current one I am watching. The promo for the new movie had this song in it. I was immediately transported back to Spanish class, sophomore year.

My name for Spanish class was, “Julia.” “Julio” sat next to me and he rolled his eyes when I told him that we were Raggedy Anne and Andy! Just before channel one came on, I used to begin singing this song very softly. Lauryn Hill released this song on her “Miseducation” album. I would stand up and stand by his desk next to me gradually beginning to belt this song out. Sometimes I would sit on his lap. I was SO crazy in high school!

So, I added my Mom to my Netflix account a while back. She ALWAYS watches obscure movies and recommends them to me. She recommended this movie to me a while back and told me she thought I would like it because I, too, am a potty mouth.

She knows that I watch GMFB, Hallmark movies, and movies over and over again. Today, I thought I would check it out after I finished watching Seven Brides for Seven Brithers. I actually dug it!

I can’t believe that my Mom watched it and I’m glad that I was NOT with her when she did! I am not ashamed to say that I cried a little bit at the end and don’t even think it’s because of PBA or an MS thing. I didn’t understand why the title was what it was until the ending credits. It took me way back to high school! I don’t want to say it’s an, “Almost Forgotten” tune but it is DEFINITELY a throwback!

Songs that pop into your head when you cannot sleep… This song popped into my head and I remember It being a hype song for the 2015 NFL season. I really dig this song because I dig Gavin DeGraw! “Pack of Lions tonight…” Nice!

I just searched in the extensive archives of my blog to try to find anything I had written about this song. It also reminds me of Barwis too! I couldn’t find anything so I thought to post something to have it in the future. I reposted something on Facebook from May 2014 because I remembered Phil saying to “Shutty-Uppy!” I really miss that place! If only my knee would STOP hurting already!!!