The Wo and I went to Red Snapper for dinner the other night, before heading over to Starlight to see the Night Ranger, Foreigner & Journey concert. It was more of a \u201clisten\u201d, since most of the original band members are long gone, but they\u2019ve gotten good replacements and all the songs sounded just like they did on the radio, 20+ years ago. Journey, of course, was the most fun \u2013 lots of tunes that take you back to being young and clueless, though I think \u201cDon\u2019t Stop Believin\u2019\u201d is now associated more with the Sopranos than anything else. It was bittersweet, because I listened to Journey\u2019s Greatest Hits album a ton after my dad died, so even though I had the association of songs with being in high school, I also had the correlation to driving around and crying. Anyhoo, it was nice to have my husband\u2019s arm around me as the crowd swayed, real lighters were held up to the sky, and we all sang along to those familiar songs.<\/p>\n
But back to dinner. I opened my fortune cookie first, and it said \u201cHappy news is on its way to you.\u201d I read it aloud, said something to the effect of \u201cThat\u2019s good,\u201d and waited to hear what the Wo\u2019s was. He opened his, read it, and then said, \u201cYou will be the bearer of happy news.\u201d I was like, ZOMG! That is SO AWESOME! And he studied his for a little while longer, and then tossed it down.<\/p>\n
I eagerly snatched it up, because if that was not a picture opportunity waiting to happen, I don\u2019t know what is, and immediately my brow furrowed, because I could see his fortune had a LOT more words than what he\u2019d spoken. \u201cDude. What the hell. That\u2019s not what your fortune says.\u201d<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t even realize I\u2019d fallen for it! But I had. While he laughed, I explained, earnestly, why I thought it was SO EPIC, and yes, I was disappointed because, DUDE, the universe was saying HAPPY NEWS IS COMING, and while I don\u2019t put much stock in fortunes or horoscopes, I was entertained that we would manage to get such symbiotic messages.<\/p>\n
Alas, it was not to be. But, I\u2019m ultimately an optimist, and I\u2019m also pretty confident \u2013 so I actually know some good news will be coming my way really soon, and if a slip of paper wants to echo that sentiment, excellent.<\/p>\n
I realize I\u2019m a slacker with my blog. I think part of me was surprised to discover people read it? I mean, I know my friends sometimes read it, my husband keeps up, family does here & there, but after several people told me randomly they follow my blog, I realized I started writing (and not writing) with the audience in mind, deciding how much I did (and usually didn\u2019t) want to share. I guess that\u2019s the thing about blogging, huh? You go out on the front porch & play your banjo, and you just don\u2019t know who-all is listening. Most of me doesn\u2019t really give a shit, but the part of me that\u2019s been stepped on, blindsided and where the memories of the personal hurts reside? That part has held me back. It\u2019s not about work, really, it\u2019s not about politics \u2013 it\u2019s just\u2026. finding the balance of giving, taking the time to find the words, deciding if something\u2019s REALLY that funny, or did you just have to be there?<\/p>\n
But then I look over my shoulder, at even just the past few weeks, and I think, ok, haven\u2019t blogged about the Caffeine Crawl. Haven\u2019t told you about how I went to prison this summer (just visiting!), haven\u2019t chortled at the misfortune of those who deserve it (well, ok, maybe that\u2019s one of those things I shouldn\u2019t share\u2026too often.) Sometimes I want to use my blog to twist the knife, because if you\u2019re really still reading it, I want you to know I think [your baby is ugly] [your husband thinks you’re nuts] [you’re the reason you’re unhappy] [man I can be a bitch]\u2026. ha! So I edit myself. It\u2019s the long pauses in my head, the ones that took me so long to recognize and hear, that say \u201cDon\u2019t say that out loud.\u201d or \u201cMaybe just let that go.\u201d But typing those things out sure did make me laugh.<\/p>\n
Maybe that\u2019s all part of it, too. The Wo and I have been together over 11 years. We have thousands of inside jokes accumulated, and it\u2019s one of the elements of our marriage that I treasure \u2013 we know how to make each other laugh, we know how to prank each other, and it\u2019s never done with malice.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s why, as we were standing side-by-side under the stars, singing \u201cFaithfully\u201d in a sea of 8,000 people, that when we got to the part in the song where he sings, \u201cI get the joy of re-discovering you\u2026\u201d I started to shake. Wo was alarmed a bit, at first, thinking perhaps I was having an Emotional Outburst. But instead, I was shaking with laughter, thinking of our dog Tripper, who, whenever we pull out the couches and chairs and unearth the bones of days gone by, seizes on one with great gusto, and as only this dog can do, rockets it all the way to the back of his jaw and rolls it while biting at it, resulting in the stupidest dogface ever, combined with a crazy rattling sound of bone-hitting-teeth repeatedly. The first time it happened, James said something about them rediscovering the bones, and I immediately started singing, \u201cI get the joy of rediscovering bone,\u201d to that very Journey song. Because that\u2019s what we do, song-association, all the time.<\/p>\n
The girl can\u2019t help it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Wo and I went to Red Snapper for dinner the other night, before heading over to Starlight to see the Night Ranger, Foreigner & Journey concert. It was more of a \u201clisten\u201d, since most of the original band members are long gone, but they\u2019ve gotten good replacements and all the songs sounded just like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,8,16,29,115,103],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2390,"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389\/revisions\/2390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plazajen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}