Some folks just don’t dance.

You can have a wide open dance floor, loud music, drinks, food, and lots of good vibes and some folks just don’t dance along with you. Have to admit, it’s been a few years since I last had a good dance party session. I know I’ve danced at weddings over the last decade, but besides cutting a rug in my kitchen along with the kids, I haven’t danced in full view of the public in a very long time. I’m also fifty pounds heavier, and my knees and hips are older than ever before. I’m not a smooth on the dance floor as I once was. Tired, heavy and falling off the beat! Ha. Still had a good time though. The music wasn’t entirely my jam, but I can make do.

I would have to imagine there are a number of hangovers avoided today by those using edibles instead of alcohol. Buzzed with no morning after roughness, what more could you ask for? No dry mouth, or raw throat from smoking. Bladder less stressed because I’m not pounding five or six beers. Less time spent searching for, and using the washroom. I’m still a touch dehydrated, but that’s from dancing in a sweater as a fat-(ish) forty odd year old man, in a small room with ten other people. Drank some Gatorade on the short walk home, and I feel right as rain.

Big plus is that the majority of my friends were there, and we all live stumbling distance from the house we were partying in. Babysitters were in short supply for the evening, I’ll bet, due to how many shin-digs were going on. We’ve had this party on the calendar since early December. It was a shame my spouse couldn’t join me in the end, but for a shining moment I thought we’d actually go to a party together for a change. But her cough, and our lack of babysitters meant she opted to stay home. Her take home prize from the doctors office earlier in the week made her desire to go out wane considerably. Damn you doctors office bug!

On the positive side no hangover means I was up and at’em by 8:00am, and my wife can have a lie in, and chill without the kids being mental, or all up in her space. I don’t need 12-16 hours to get over a hangover. It’s a really great way to party. I endorse it as long as you can walk/taxi where you need to be. Don’t drive under the influence, not worth it. Also no throwing up, no pounding head ache, no gut rot, no need to go pee every half hour, no spins when trying to sleep, no night sweats, no dry mouth, it’s all pretty up & up compared to drinking. I’m a ten milli Tommy. That makes me feel good, but not out of control, or destined for the moon. Feet firmly planted on terrain firma, with my head in the clouds, but not in a totally blacked out menace to society kind of way. It’s nice, don’t have to worry about saying/doing anything stupid. Doesn’t make me aggressive, or melancholy, or feisty. Just a nice warm internal hug that makes me feel alright. The CBD also helps to alleviate those general aches and pains in my knee, hip, wrists, and lower back. That pain relief fuzzy coating makes the THC buzz just that much more like a warm hug. Glorious.

Anyway – Lazy Sunday is here! Shall we watch movies as a family. Play a board game? Or sit listening to the kids lose their minds playing Mine Craft. I’d like to watch more Star Wars, or The Lord of the Rings trilogy if I had it my way. But that’s a long slog even for me, and I’m a fan of both series. I don’t watch the SW prequels, and I’m not as enamoured with episodes 7, 8, and 9. Rogue One however, I could watch twice in a row on most days. Far superior to all three prequels, and most of the last trilogy as well. It went off the rails as soon as The Force Awakens tried to rehash A New Hope. Lost cause. Andor was a slow burn, but added more than any of the last movies have done to the world building, and using non-Skywalker era characters. It was far more interesting. But I digress.

Can’t take the kids skiing or tobogganing due to the rain. Might need to find something constructive for them to do before they drive me crazy with Mine Craft tantrums. Where are the head phones! Not dry enough to scooter, or ride our bikes. Too rainy for ball hockey in the driveway. Maybe I should take them somewhere like a mall for an hour long walk about. I wouldn’t mind going to a Chapters/Indigo book store to find more reading material. I do have four books that I found out the other day from my TBR list, so maybe I’ll cool it on the book purchases right now. You know what I’d really like, another book like the New Horizons one, about the Pluto mission. I tried reading about the Mars Rover, but that comes across like a textbook slash technical manual. The Pluto mission was more cinematic and humanized. It was a terrific banger of a read. Makes me think of Apollo 13, and their scramble to fix issues off the cuff.

Have a great rainy Sunday January 28th, 2024. Ciao Bella!

A stroll down a musical memory lane…

Turns out I can remember a great deal of silly lyrics even after a few decades of changing musical tastes. I saw that the movie “Weird” is out on Roku now, and went to my CD collection to listen to a bunch of my old Weird Al Yankovic albums. And instantly I was in my early to mid teens listening and singing along to Al’s hits on an endless loop. Though I don’t recall the song names & titles, once he starts to croon the words come falling out of my memory and spill from my mouth. I wouldn’t have scored a 100 on any karaoke leader boards, but the majority of it came back, unbidden, and in larger and longer stretches. With head phones on, I bet I’ve listened to the handful of Al albums I had several hundred times. Bits like “One more minute with you“, or “You don’t love me anymore” just exploded out of me full force. I loved those tunes. Along with “Slime creatures from outer space“, and “Like a Surgeon“. There are so many that I kept on a loop for ages. I don’t remember why I stopped listening to it. Great stuff. Although now that I say that, I picked up the guitar at 15/16 years old and turned to Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Joe Satriani for musical fulfillment. So the parodies, while exceptional, fell out of favour. Then along came the likes of Wolfmother and The Blue Stones, and I just didn’t go back. I did like “Amish Paradise”, “White and Nerdy”, “Tacky”, and a few other more current tunes, but it didn’t linger like it did way back when. I also didn’t have access to the depth and breath of music I have now with iTunes,  Vinyl, cassette tapes, cd’s and YouTube deep dives.

Pretty amazing what both smells and music can do for your memory. The first hint of cool air after a rain, makes me think of England, or my walk to school in Scarborough. Certain Status Quo songs make me think of falling asleep under tables or chairs late at night, when my parents held their raging house parties on Baronial Court. I still recall the odd scratchy softness of that mustard-yellow brownish semi-shag carpet in the dining room/living room. The split mirrors running vertically up one wall showing sweaty people dancing, drinks in hand. Or hangovers the next day with Dire Straits playing on the family stereo. Ah, memories. Could be faulty, could be my imagination at this point. Who knows!

We’re off to dig up potatoes. Or the others are, and I’m taking the car to get an oil change. So I best eat something, and go get the vehicle sorted out. Have a birthday party to take the kids to, so I’m on a schedule today! Take care out there. Ciao Bella!