Guess I’ve become a holiday blogger….ooooops…..guess I forgot Thanksgiving. Oh well, Just the Important Ones, I guess.

Decorating the House: I used to love to decorate every room in my house and have a big Open House and invite everyone I knew. Spent days baking cookies and cakes (all right, that’s a lie - all I know how to do is melt chocolate and pour it over those Chinese noodles) But I did spend a lot of money on chips and dip, pretzels, cheetos, and liquor. Who needs anything else!! It was wonderful!! The downside was I was a nervous wreck and collapsed after the party for a couple days of bed rest.

So as the years passed (along with my youth and stamina) I now get my four year old grandson to come to help decorate the tree. It seems like every year for a while I had to buy a bigger tree because I love to shop for Christmas decorations and always buy a new ornament or two everywhere I visit, and when Hallmark started selling ornaments (y’know they’re “limited editions” and “appreciate in value”) the downhill slide began in earnest. I’m now up to a 12 foot hummer of a tree and 8 smaller trees spread throughout the house.

I started collecting angels years ago and almost all 12 feet of the main tree are covered with them. However, sometimes it’s hard to tell an angel from a faerie….y’know….they both have wings (scientific correctness dictates that angels have feather wings and faeries have butterfly wings - but some artists use their license in this regard) and they usually have a beatific expression on their face. Although, since I’ve become a connoisseur of faeries, I’ve discovered quite a variety of facial expression on them. This is one of my favorites!! My daughter says she looks scary, but i think she looks soulful. hmmmmm...do faeries have souls?



it’s clickable and click again at the bottom right corner to see it really large and expressive....

As you probably know, I’m also a scifi nut so I have smaller trees exclusively for Star Wars and Star Trek ornaments. Hope you saw that really great new one Hallmark had out this year of Kirk, Spock, and RedShirtGuy(obviously not long for this or any World) in a transporter. Wow! Sound effects and wavering lights….takes me back to the sixties….






I also have a tree just for souvenir ornaments…..D.C., NY City, Empire State Bldg, Pikes Peak, Texas, Connecticut, Boston, Newport, New Orleans, Puerto Villarta, Germany, and last but not least Branson, MO (love me some Wayne Newton). There’s a tree in the computer room devoted to Clay, naturally, and yes, one with tiny birdhouses in a bathroom…..

Grandson has three trees in his room. He’s quite special…..and that reminds me…..he was here helping me decorate the big tree. Every ornament was new and just wonderful to him. I saw all those sparkly dreams with new eyes. It was delightful…..one drawback is that he does seem to hang everything rather close together in one spot…oh well, the company was worth the rearranging later.

One last story – I just bought a new faerie – a male one – rather rare. My daughter says I’d better watch out or all those faeries will be propagating late at night. He’s a Truffle Fairie…he’s holding chocolate…those little twinkle-toes don’t have a prayer….ooooops - hope the angels are closing their eyes.


also clickable



it's just me, geni

HALLOWEEN TIME AGAIN

It’s too bad adults don’t get to go trick or treating. We could all trek up to Clay’s door …but we would just yell, “Treats only” when he opened it, wouldn’t we?

Most women love to dress up. And we could be as outrageous as we always wanted to dress and no one would make snide remarks about being “cheap”. We could wear great wigs….long straight black Cher ones, or pink ‘60s pageboys, or white spiky Billy Idol ones …at one time or another all these appealed to me but i have always been too repressed coughanalretentativecough to really express my true inner self. That must be why i love the internet and message boards so much….you don’t know me….i can be anybody i want to be. My Space is really great for that. I’m young and tall there…but i digress.

We’re talkin’ Halloween here, right. Remember when there were no such things as store-bought costumes??? You were a hobo or wore your mother’s clothes….that was about it. But nobody worried about razors in apples then either.

The Halloween that will always stand out in my mind is the year i begged and begged my mother to let me wear her dangly rhinestone earrings with one of her fancier dresses and high heels (now these were her very nicest earrings, mind you) and she refused. But being the persistent only-child i was, i bugged her until she relented.

Of course, i lost one of them somewhere along my route. I just hated to go home that night. Not that i was afraid i would be punished, because i knew i wouldn’t be. But because i knew how hurt she would be….to lose that favorite earring…and that i had been so careless after i had promised and promised how careful i would be. Nothing hurts a child like that “mother guilt thing” does it? I use it on my kids all the time now..

The only other Halloween i really remember was the last one. My girlfriend and i must have been thirteen or fourteen….still young enough to want to get as much candy as we could (girls didn’t grow up so quickly then, obviously)….but aware enough of our age and height to be a little self-conscious. I remember we had a great time and were amassing great quantities of calories when we went to the last house we ever went to (these momentous occasions need to be documented, ya know). The woman gave us candy, but guess she just couldn’t help herself from ruining our evening, “Aren’t you girls a little old for this?”

Now i wonder what would prompt her to say that to two young girls. She ruined this holiday for us forever. Maybe she had had a bad day herself, maybe she was just tired from answering the door bell, maybe she was just a frustrated old bitch. I’m sure she had problems of her own (all adults do). But my girlfriend and i didn’t understand that. We only knew we had been slapped in the face. The candy really didn’t even taste too good that night. We felt ashamed that we had been going door to door and embarassing ourselves and didn’t even know it.

When my kids were little we lived in a great neighborhood and i made all their costumes. The best was the robot - two cardboard boxes spray painted silver with wire antennae on top. By that time, i always accompanied them on their forages(maybe even stole a snickers bar once in a while when they weren’t looking). Anyway, the neighbors would always invite us all in and they would oooooh and aaaah over their costumes and the kids would just preen with pride.


What memories! Now the only trick-or-treater i have is when my daughter-in-law drives over with my grandson and i have a special bag made just for him and we take pictures of him. All the neighborhood kids go to the mall and go from store to store now. I understand completely. Parents have to be so careful in these troubled times.

But still…….i always wonder who found that rhinestone earring and what they did with it.

It’s just me, geni

Check out these

LITTLE THINGS MEAN A LOT




Doncha just love those wonderful little, seemingly inconsequential, inventions? I don’t mean the earth-shaking, magnificent accomplishments like cell phones and their offspring, camera phones, tivo, high speed internet, audio books (a mixed blessing), web cams, dvd and cd burners, uSendit, Itunes, blogs…….

No, I mean just tiny, thoughtful ideas to help save a little time, eliminate an irritating annoyance. Who was the nice person that thought up making the back stand on picture frames with one side slanted so you could use either a vertical or horizontal picture in it? That was thoughtful. Or that curved thingy attached to electric cords that clips onto it when you wind it up for storage.

Pull out handles on rolling luggage, push buttons to open umbrellas, beep button to find lost portable phones (be nice to have one of those on remotes, too) One of my favorite inventions is the detachable gas pump. Yes,it is embarrassing to drive off with it attached to your open gas tank, but better that leaving self service hearing that scrape and clang and the horrible scene in your rear view mirror of a writhing pump spewing gasoline all over the service area. And although gasoline will clean the dirt off the side of your car, it also does something to the paint job.

Or zip locks on plastic storage bags…think how many schoolkids are saved the tramatic experience of stale bread with their pb&j, not to mention, effortlessly learning that red and blue make purple.

Who thought up the laborsaving idea of using the lid on the liquid laundry soap to measure just the right amount? Lids in general have evolved, well maybe that really is creationism ….squirt tops on ketsup and mustard – no more searching for mislaid ones. I love those flip top ones on mao. Child-proof lids probably saved a lot of kids. Course there’s the trade off of seniors dying with their medicine bottle, lid intact, cluched in their arthritic hands. Gel caps (capsules, of course, but a nice segue you’ll have to admit) gel caps are so much easier to swallow even if they remind me of midget slugs…excuse me, little people ones.

I adore post-it notes….now you don’t have to hunt for the scotch tape, remember how that pulled the paint off the wall along with the taped note? Clap-on lamps were nice. Whatever happened to those? Someone die of fright in the middle of the night when all their lights came on suddenly?

Now these innovations are not so little but are so convenient that they hold a place in my heart: Household appliances like self cleaning ovens and no-defrost freezers. Most of you are probably too young to remember chipping away at the ice buildup with a knife and boiling water and sitting the pan up there. Those glass topped stoves are nice to look at. Did you know you can melt that glass if you happen to be looking at clack and forget that you left something cooking on HIGH?

Driving innovations can be life saving. I kinda like what they’ve done to the side of the highway. Ya’know when you veer over too far to the shoulder and you get that horrible grating noise and vibration…wakes me up right away. Then there’s seat warmers, remotes that unlock the door and turn on the lights, cruise control, GPS, (I need one of those because I have literally driven miles to get to the next exit to go back and find the right exit I just drove past), DVD players for kid control. No more, “Do I have to stop this car and come back there?” I wish someone would come up with an easier way to open the hood, though. That release handle under the dash takes a lot of muscle to pull, not to mention the search for the little latch inside the hood when you’re standing out in the sleet with your jumper cables over you shoulder.

Sippy cups, diaper caddies, electric warming box for wipes, automatic musical baby swings, telebabies, the wiggles…..not to mention “that night” pregnancy tests and morning after pills. Hmmmmm maybe I shouldn’t go there.

Velcro is real nice. Now kids never have to learn to tie a bow – which they don’t need to know anyway – stores sell colorful bows to just stick on your gifts. Velcro shoulder pads are nice too, except if one should happen to somehow fall out of a loose sleeve and someone taps you on the shoulder and says, “I think this belongs to you.”

Personal enhancement items are great. Like non-absorbent falsies. Ever go swimming with a pair of those old ones in your top? Not a pretty picture when you’ve been out of the pool for awhile. Nail glue is marvelous. One word - leepressonnails. I gave up on eyelash curlers….too dangerous. Self-ear piercers are simple and handy, but studs all the way to the top of the ear are overdoing it, I think. Also won’t go to the various and sundry other places that some people are piercing now.

Thank God for little things.

i have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night

it's just me, geni

sex, lies, and videotapes

the sad killings in PA have prompted this blog. what in the world is happening to people? Why in the world would someone do this? the killing of innocents is always about the killer, though, not the victims.

quite obviously this killer chose those symbols of innocence - Amish children - for a reason. not because he knew them, or they had harmed him in any way. just for the symbolism. and girls - women - are quite often the target for men with suspected sexual confusion - sex.

i watch the news- videotapes - sporatically, so may not be up-to-date on the "latest developments in this breaking story". and in my opinion - and that's what a blog's for, right, opinions? - but a blackbagfull of the problem lies right at the media's bloody doorstep. this constant, continuous, overblown coverage of stories with an emphasis on sexual overtones is fueling the fire.

and i mean the fire raging in so many people. that fire of sexual confusion - sex. that quest for physical gratification, for a "soulmate", someone to fill all our desires, someone to be the answer to all our problems, someone to make us whole. well, of course, no one can fit that bill. no one is going to solve your problems but you.

but we are constantly fed this dichotomy on screen. 1. "the horror of it all" and 2. if i buy enough/change myself enough i, too, can have some of that perfection i see fed to me daily on screen - if a bit too skinny or a bit too musclebound sometimes - still the promise is there - maybe.... perhaps, if we can just find it.....maybe everything will be all right.

it's all pr....lies....giv'em what they wanna hear and see. i have no idea who's to blame....the giver or the receiver....the media or the public....the idol or the worshipper. as pogo said, "i have seen the enemy and it is ?????"

but is it any wonder there is so much frustration out there? confused people are just becoming more confused. they give up and the dementia takes over. perhaps just the overwhelming feeling that "if i can't have what i want someone is going to have to suffer along with me". perhaps just the desire to end it all, somehow, no matter who else gets hurt.

do i have any answers? are you kidding? this is a blog not an advice column. i have no idea what a solution might be or even what the real cause is. this is the third millennium, we're all just winging it here. i only know what i see and hear on those screens, just like you. i only know something is very wrong with a lot of people. let me know what you think...

it's just me, geni

p.s. a blog isn't part of the "media", is it?

CLAY AIKEN CD RELEASE PARTY - SEPTEMBER 18

i just had to share the unique experience i had last monday.



These are some pix from the KCCLAY club cd release party. This is most of the group in front of Walmart just chomping at the bit to get in there a buy lots of ATDW. I'm there in the second row.


WALMART had
  

there were five of us from Mid and SW MO who traveled to Kansas City for the ATDW CD release party. you have to understand that Overland Park, KS is just part of greater Kansas City. there are more people in greater Kansas City than in all of the great windy state of Kansas. (i think)

the KCClay Club did a wonderful job. There were about 60 of us at the restaurant, the favors and door prizes were generous, the silent auction and raffle prizes were fabulous. The KCClay Club earned a lot of money for Bubel/Aiken Foundation with their hard work.

the videos and games were great (well, claytrivia level 2 and 3 were too hard for me(now I ask you, who besides Jaiken knows three of the five songs Clay sang solo with the Raleigh boys choir – and unfortunately, long-term memory is slipping along with short-term) and although i know all the lyrics and harmonize beautifully with clay on every song he ever performed, seems i'm no match for certain claymates who obviously prepared for this Claylyrics event with refresher courses at Clayversity.

as i said the Clay gift sets were fabulous - lots of burberry purses, frames, paper weights, sponges, clocks, pillows, key chains, flip flops, candles, tee shirts, the satin night shirt was REAL nice, light switch,
note cards, magnets - all with CLAY on them, of course. Lucky Me won a raffle prize of totebag, clock, key chain, frames, and best of all three cd set of JBT by Tsunamimommie. The key chain has CLAY in rhinestone letters – I’m thinking of changing my username to I BLING FOR CLAY…..

then at 11 pm they passed out electric candles and off we went to walmart. now this is way past my bedtime and I was getting a leeeetle tired by now, but the buoyant spirit of all those Claymates kept me goin……and the sound of that glorious voice wafting through the aisles of wallyworld may have helped. the curious stares of those late night walmart shoppers sharpened my senses too. One can only guess what went through their minds at the sight of 60 women (and one man, bless his heart) in new white tee shirts with CLAY AIKEN’S FACE emblazoned on the front, waving six inch white electric candles – all excitedly laughing and talking at the same time. i talked to a couple of quite young people who stopped by my bench at the front of the store (where i had taken refuge – well, yes, I did have a couple of drinks, but only for the sake of liquor research. Wouldn’t you just hafta know what “sand in your pants” tasted like?)

walmart had three registers open for us at twelve oh one and had 250 cds stacked on the table. Jaiken collected almost 30 cds for our service personnel (walmart donated five). Great job, J! It was a wonderful experience…and I haven’t even gotten around to talking about the Voice yet.

well, I’m one of those who had been streaming the cd all week…so no surprises. But with Clay's new CD for company on my three hour drive home Tuesday, time flew. (See my previous blog if you haven't already bought yours. It was the #1 debut album on the charts last week selling over 207,000 copies!!)

it's just me, geni
"i have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night"

CLAY AIKEN IS BACK

QUITE SOON HAS FINALLY ARRIVED




Clay Aiken fans are mighty thirsty after the long drought. But there's plenty happening now to quench their thirst.

CLAY AIKEN 3RD ALBUM IN STORES - SEPTEMBER 19

GO HERE TO LISTEN TO "A THOUSAND DIFFERENT WAYS"
http://www.clearchannelmusic.com/cc-common/mfeatures/clayaikenOD/








CHRISTMAS CONCERTS GALORE!!

CLAY AIKEN HOLIDAY CONCERT APPEARANCES
12/02/06 Merrillville, IN, US Star Plaza Theatre
12/04/06 Verona, NY, US Turning Stone Casino
12/05/06 Engelwood, NJ, US Bergen PAC Center
12/06/06 Baltimore, MD, US Lyric Opera House
12/07/06 Norfolk, VA, US Scope Arena
12/09/06 Williamsport, PA, US Community Arts Center
12/10/06 Wilkes Barre, PA, US FM Kirby Center
12/11/06 Easton, PA, US State Theatre
12/14/06 Greenvale, NY, US Tilles Center for the Arts
12/15/06 West Point, NY, US Eisenhower Hall
12/16/06 Red Bank, NJ, US Count Basie Theatre
12/18/06 Detroit, MI, US Orchestra Hall at the Max Fish
12/19/06 Grand Rapids, MI, US Devos Hall
12/21/06 Jacksonville, FL, US Moran Theatre
12/22/06 Charlotte, NC, US Blumenthal Performing Arts Center
12/23/06 Greensboro, NC, US War Memorial Auditorium

GET THOSE TIVOS AND VCS SET FOR TV APPEARANCES!!

Sep 18 Clay Aiken - Entertainment Tonight
Sep 19 Clay Aiken - Good Morning America (ABC)
performance and interview
Sep 19 Clay Aiken - Entertainment Tonight
Sep 20 Clay Aiken - Good Morning America (ABC)
Diane Sawyer Interview Part 1
Sep 20 Clay Aiken - Entertainment Tonight
Sep 21 Clay Aiken - Good Morning America (ABC)
Diane Sawyer Interview Part 2
Sep 21 Clay Aiken - Entertainment Tonight
Sep 22 Clay Aiken - The View (ABC)
Sep 22 Clay Aiken - Entertainment Tonight
Sep 24 Clay Aiken - Good Morning America (ABC)
Weekend Show - performance and interview
Sep 26 Clay Aiken - Entertainment Tonight
Sep 26 Clay Aiken - Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC)

(Need to buy more VCR tapes.....)

A THOUSAND DIFFERENT WAYS

The following is a complete track listing for the much-anticipated “A Thousand Different Ways,” including writer and producer credits:

RIGHT HERE WAITING
Originally recorded by: Richard Marx
Written by: Richard Marx / Produced by: John Fields

WHEN I SEE YOU SMILE
Originally recorded by: John Waite
Written by: Diane Warren / Produced by: John Fields

WITHOUT YOU
Originally recorded by: Badfinger and Then Harry Nilsson
Written by: William Collings, Thomas Evans, Michael Gibbins, Peter Ham, and J.C. Molland
Produced by: John Fields

LONELY NO MORE
(NEW SONG)
Written by: Andreas Carlsson, Samuel Waermo, Mimmi Waermo & Clay Aiken
Produced by: Andreas Carlsson and Samuel Waermo

SORRY SEEMS TO BE THE HARDEST WORD
Originally recorded by: Elton John
Written by: Elton John & Bernie Taupin
Producer by: Per Magnusson & David Kreuger

EVERYTIME YOU GO AWAY
Originally recorded by: Paul Young
Written by: Daryl Hall
Produced by: Adam Anders

EVERYTHING I DO (I DO IT FOR YOU)
Originally recorded by: Bryan Adams
Written by: Bryan Adams, Michael Kamen & Robert John “Mutt” Lange
Produced by: John Fields

I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS – Guest Vocals by Suzie McNeil
Originally recorded by: Foreigner
Written by: Michael Jones
Produced by: Russ Irwin, Marti Frederiksen & Charlton Pettus

THESE OPEN ARMS
(NEW SONG)
Written by: Jon Bon Jovi & Desmond Childs
Produced by: John Fields

BECAUSE YOU LOVED ME
Originally recorded by: Celine Dion
Written by: Diane Warren
Produced by: Eman

HERE YOU COME AGAIN
Originally recorded by: Dolly Parton
Written by: Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil

EVERYTHING I HAVE – Featuring William Joseph on Piano
(NEW SONG)
Written by: Jeremy Bose
Arranged by: Jeremy Lubbock

A THOUSAND DAYS
(NEW SONG)
Written by: Christian Leuzzi, Aldo Nova & Emanuel Olsson
Produced by: John Fields

BROKEN WINGS
Originally recorded by: Mr. Mister
Written by: Richard Page, John Lang & Steve George
Produced by: Eman


AND BEST OF ALL A NEW CONCERT TOUR STARTING IN EARLY 2007!!

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

REMEMBERING

9.11 is the Pearl Harbor of our generation.

I remember my mother talking about Pearl Harbor. She said everyone was in such shock…but the main thing she remembered in her later years was that at that time ….she was in her twenties then….that her main thought was that this meant a war was coming and that her new husband would be drawn into it.

9.11 is the Peal Harbor of our generation. We all remember where we were and what we were doing that morning. I was getting reading to go with a friend to her out-of-town doctor’s appointment. I was in the shower when the phone rang.

I rushed to answer it. It was my daughter in CT calling to assure me that she and her husband (who works quite close to New York) were ok. I didn’t know what she was talking about. She said, “TURN ON THE TV”. So I did.

I stood there transfixed as I watched the replay on CNN of the first plane. Shivering in my towel. I was speechless. My daughter kept saying, “Mom…Mom”. I finally answered her ……asking her for what little additional information she had.

Then the second plane arrived. I sat down.

My friend, Carol, and I did make it to her doctor’s appointment. Life always goes on. Tragedy can slow life, but it never stops, I’ve discovered. There was a young couple in the doctor’s office, and when my friend went in, I started talking to them. He was a Marine and had been alerted to report back to his base. He had made arrangements for his flight and was with his wife before going to the airport. He wasn’t real sure any flights were leaving St. Louis, but he was going to be there at the gates just in case. When they rose to leave, my heart rose in my throat and I said, “God bless you.”

He turned back to look at me. He had such a strange look on his face. Amazement that someone would say that out loud in a public place, perhaps…..perhaps, concern that the oath he had taken in peace time to serve his country was a very serious thing , indeed, now…and, perhaps, a realization that all Americans were united that day….Marines and middle-aged ladies in doctor’s offices included.

In Mid America, half a continent away, this tragedy was all that was talked about. American was united on that day and for a few years after. Of course, we are back to our old scappy selves now. But that’s what America and our Star Spangled Banner is all about anyway, isn’t it?

I always wonder where that Marine is now.

august 30, 2006 my first public blog post



VITAL INFORMATION: UPCOMING CLAY AIKEN APPEARANCES
Date Show Network
September 15 Tonight Show With Jay Leno NBC
September 19 Good Morning America ABC
September 22 The View ABC
September 26 Jimmy Kimmel Live ABC


Welcome Clay Aiken fans
and Star Trek fans

and Simpson fans (and King of the Hill and South Park fans, too)

i was checking on a new Clay Aiken montage on youtube when this video arrived on my monitor and the title was so intriguing so i watched it. seemed serendipitous since i am also a Trekker. wonder how youtube knew? then i got to wondering how i could post it on my clayonline blog.....so have just wandered around until i landed here. ya never know.....

so here's the con.nec.tion:







and here's the youtube video:

The Simpsons vs Star Trek

FROM CULTUREKILLER

go with the flow, ya never know,
it's just me,