The LONG and Winding Road

   I have had this blog in my head for weeks, looking for the right words to describe The Beatles, and I may come up short.
   Fifty years ago, these four boys, changed, shifted the atmosphere of so many. Adults and kids paid attention.
   That Sunday night, I remember getting to stay home from church, to watch this thing? we were not sure what to expect. Our families knew, that it must be big, there was a buzz in the air.
   My cousins came over to our house, because my daddy ALWAYS had the best TV in the Jacksonville area! We were all crammed into our dinning room, I think they had turned it into a TV room by then. My cousin Becky and I held hands, screaming and looking at others watch us. I can not say for sure, who was there, and what people were saying, I just know that after that night I was different. My eleven year old mind and body ( which was going on 18 !!) was forever knowing a different kind of love.
  I loved the Beatles, down to my toes. I felt funny inside, I was in love with Paul and I was going to marry him. So, without hesitation, I wrote him a letter.
   Me and hundreds of other little girls, and maybe guys too. We all loved them, we loved their music, we were allowed to twist and shout! We collected Beatles trading cards, we took the bus to the Florida Theater to watch A Hard Days Night. We played records, albums, on big ass stereo players. I would lay on the floor with my ear right up to the speakers, the music was inside of me. It still is.
  It is playing on my CD player right now.
  Yesterday, I watched a documentary on George Harrison, on HBO. I spoke into the Ipad, " You changed my very thought pattern!"  Each song he had written, during and after the Beatles sent me to Nirvana.
  When John died, my sweet husband, took me to New York to mourn, I still think about what he left us and think what else he could have done.
   Paul and Ringo are around and occasionally sing. Ringo, not so good and My Paul, not so bad.
   I think Abbey Road is my favorite album, then I hear the early stuff, and my heart sinks. Their words without the music, is food for my soul.
   That Sunday night we did not know what was coming, but I think my generation was ready. We were born for change, and we had a Ticket To Ride.
    There are no words, I have looked, all on this page come from my heart.
    I love with Beatles, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

Chaos

  As I sit down to type, there are men upstairs putting down hardwood flooring in the hall and stairs. Lucy, the lab, is under me, the noise freaks us all out!! I, at least, have ear plugs in. The cats are jumping off the walls crazy. Lainey is under the couch in our bedroom, wheezing away and Diana is, god only know where. I did wake up to cat urine on the new couch at five am! Chaos in the Baron household.
   Each year we try and do something, what I call, house repairs. Usually I wait until summer, so I can somewhat escape, but with travel lined up, we moved up the fix this stage, a few months.
   Our home is probably about 28 years old, a huge brick, typical Atlanta house.
   Lovely, and needs some love.
   Last year or the year before, I have lost track, new kitchen, two new baths. Year before, new back deck. This year flooring upstairs and two more baths to do. Out door fence, and some bulkheads to work on, and re do driveway. Those things are on a very long list. Now all of upstairs needs new paint, blah, blah,blah.
   I love this house, it is lived in, and welcoming. Big home repairs, send me, to .....not a happy place. ( I have a mouth guard in, because last big project, I got lock jaw from gritting my teeth so much!) I have to laugh, this is not a big deal. I am blessed to be able to afford all these things, and I appreciate the fact, that it takes very little to please me. Just a moment ago, the main man, brought me, broken spindles from the stairs, I told him to go to home depot and buy whatever he wanted. How bad could it be? Its a spindle for the love of Jesus. He asked me if we had some paint, I did not ask why, I told him that conversation would have to come later. Iam in the middle of a blog, I have to get things down, before they flee my attention span of thirty seconds! ( I wish I had shot a picture of Lucy breaking through the plastic on the door, it look like The Shinning, instead of Jack it was Black! Lucy!) You have to laugh, or the tears will drown you. The two men working, are Mexican or Latin, whatever you choose to say, but yesterday I thought they were speaking Iranian, I think I may be on the edge of crazyville!!
  Well, I just had to share, as my mom said, " It will look so nice." Thanks mom, " I may be a little concerned about how it will look, when your eldest best daughter in the world, is in a straight jacket, with Lucy and the cats with Diamonds! with me!"
  Whats a little Chaos? I got this!

Good Seats

     I think a glass half full or empty is never the right question. What is in the glass, determines if you care or not!
     That too goes for good seats. If the concert , play or movie is bad, the seat is not an issue.
     This past weekend, I had good seats( perfect season tickets for The Fox, thanks for listening to me Bill)
a good date ( son Hart) and a banging musical, fantastic play. ( The Book of Mormon)
      Yes, The Book of Mormon ( mom you can skip this one!) was off the charts, hilarious and blasphemous! Right up my alley.
As soon as I saw Jesus in his white robe with rope lights for the trim, I knew I was in for a ride. This irreverent, cheeky, sacrilegious piece of heaven, played to a full house. The music, each song and dance, was memory making. The stage was a hodge-podge of design perfection. I was transported to hell and Uganda with a turn of a door. Nine Tony awards, was not near enough, for this South Park writers masterpiece.
 It left you roaring with laughter or covering your mouth, with " Did they just say that?"
 I asked Hart, in between screaming with hoots, " Do Mormons come see this play?" It was rough around the edges and pure raw in the middle, all godly people were included in the party.
  I know at some point there must have been people in a tizzy, not knowing what they were in for, surely you would not have gone. I knew what to look forward to, and I was a happy girl.
  I love humor in my life, and if it has music to go with it! Thank you Jesus!( even the light up Jesus!)
 This obscene jewel is now on my list with, Rent, Wicked, Billy Elliot as another one of my favorites.
   Good Seats and a Good Play, my glass was full!
Amen and Amen

February, Be Nice

   Not in my wildest dreams, can I believe it is February. Nor can I believe the ice, minimal snow, storm that blanketed Atlanta last week.
  January, good-bye and I will make other arrangements for next year. Key West get ready, this girl is over this mess.
  I could not even blog last week, due to weather anxiety and clothes claustrophobia!! I don't do coats!
  This Saturday, there is a glimpse of weather fit for humans, and it reminded of something I had to tell you.

  The book, Humans Of New York, is a must have for all. Not the Kindle version, the turn the page, and smell it, touch it, lick it , if needed.I had been seeing some pictures on Facebook about this hoopla, and my friend BA/Bird/Brooks Anne turned me on to the fact that  it was indeed a book.
   I only download books, so how can I do that with a picture book? I think that will not work, so I ordered it.
  Hubs has a birthday soon, and was born in New York, so it seemed like a good gift. A gift that I can also share, is always a good choice!
  It had been hidden in the laundry room for a couple of weeks, and I did not think anything about it. That was until Bill said, " I didn't like this Humans of New York on Facebook, how did it get on my page!" My eyes may have become large like, " WHAT!" I just let it ride. Then several hours later, he continues, " Here it is again, what is this Humans of New York, How can I delete it?"
  I replied, " Just look at the pictures, I think they are nice." ( This was his present, and he was going to like it, right??) One more time, he mentioned it, three was the straw. I walked, with a purpose! ( maybe hard!) and found the jewel, and said, " Here is your early birthday present, and maybe it will help you understand."
  He was a little red in the face, but laughed at the irony.
   After a few pages, and no noise, I asked him if he liked it. True to Dr. Bill's fashion, " Yes it is very nice."
  It is not nice, it is life altering. I have not seen a book like this, ever, in my 61 years. People in all there humanness!! ( Not sure if that is a word?) People jumping off the page at you, with little neat captions, thoughts, snippets of pure, grit your teeth, joy!
   I beg of the human race, to go buy this book, and not only see New York, in her glory, but look at people uncovered and shinning.
  Brandon Stanton, studied at The University of Georgia, was a bond trader in Chicago and had an epiphany! Got a camera in 2010, and the rest is history. What a grand story, people, go online this minute.
  We all have a story to tell, with words or pictures, or both.
 I love this book, so much and I know Bill does too, in his way. ( I know you are all smiling!) ( We all have our own ways!)
 Tell your story to someone, share this book with others.
 Celebrate all the people in every city, color, size, religion, We are the Humans of New York, all of us!

" I Will Give You Something You Cant Refuse!"

    Hello My name is Bonnie and I'm an addict.
    At no time can I refuse The Godfather Movies.
    Even the first notes of the iconic music stops my heart, and I take over the many TV's in our house.

    Just this past weekend, there has been a marathon! A big binge of The Family! My Family, my Sicilian brothers from another mother. Yesterday, I missed GFIII, and watched II and I, until lights out.  I taped III, to watch on this Sunday. Then much to my delight, the marathon was on again, and I have seen all three today. I think? but they are sort of running together. You see I do have things to do, outside of my devotion to Michael Corleone. It helps to have seven TVs in our abode, and momma is in charge of the clicker! My family scatters when they here the music, " Oh No!" is heard around each corner, because they know, Mom can not be reached for anything, unless it is squirting blood!

   Even as I type, the marathon has begun again, and I continue to watch. I know every word spoken, each gunshot before it is fired, probably could hum the entire saga. If you were to ask my hubs, before I went to sleep last night, I could be heard, lightly humming the music. I did not want to let it go, I never do. I may have a problem.

 I LOVE IT, the young Al Pacino, is heaven, pure heaven to look at. Even when he is old by the III, I still grab my chest. When he is confessing to the priest at the end, I tell him, through the tube, " You do not have to do that, Fredo and the others had to die!"

My movie family, I kiss the ring on your finger, and may the others sleep with the fishes!

No Green Bananas! Buy The Paint!

    I have many goals in life, I like to keep a list.
    One is that I continue to improve as an artist.
     Another is that I constantly take classes from History, to French to Gardening.
     So when it came time to dust off my brushes, I signed up for a course.
     Watercolors has been my medium to go to. After my first class, well, let me explain.

       Gathering up my art supplies, after years of painting, I thought I was well equipped. The teacher had another opinion, we needed new stuff. That has never been a problem to me, I like to shop in all categories,
so off I went. Sable brushes, new tubes of paints, pencils, erasers, more paper, my artist palette was overflowing.
      When I arrived at my class, I noticed art for sale, as you enter. A big plus, to shop and take a course, and my new supplies, ready!
       My teacher is nice, and there are about six people in the class, me being the youngest. So I watched and listened. Teacher looked at my fifty brushes, new and old and pulled two out to use. (clearly she does not know me, YET!) Then she did not like my paper, or my new paints?? so she shared hers with me.( That was nice, right?) She put a pea size drop of four colors to be used. One, I like a big glob of paint, and four colors, yikes. She said, " I want to see how many colors you can make from these four, and how many shades." I had a tube of every color in the rainbow, why do I have to make a color. Daddy taught me to not buy green bananas, in case you are not around the next day!! I want the pink paint, now! We are all older in this class, we are not trying to find ourselves or our inner Picasso. Well maybe some Monet, but a hundred shades from four colors, whatever you say teacher girl, I will try. Of course I did all of my colors and shades, and she came around as I was painting a cow pink, and she exclaimed, " You got this color of pink? That is great." I pulled her close to my mouth, and whispered, " You know they make tubes of all these colors, and I may not be here tomorrow, so I need to use them all up!"
She smiled, and let me go, free to stay outside the lines, and paint.
I showed her several photographs that I want to paint, and she told me that one of them, used pen and ink, with watercolor. I asked if that was bad, because I really like it. She semi smiled.
I told her later in the class, that is two hours long, (a tad lengthy for my attention span) that I think I need some texture, or torn pieces of paper. I think I may need more than watercolors, she nodded. I think when I return to class, I may be in the corner, which I never thought was a bad place to be!!
I can spread out, and hum if I need to, and squeeze my paint tubes, until they are dried up and used!!
      I love new classes, new goals, and the ability to use all the paints!

And The Winner Is..

  They just announced the nominees for the Academy Awards, and there was no mention of the "F" word!
I ran it back, to watch again, surely they had not seen the same movies that I watched this year. You see the F-bomb was the star. The winner is over use of the word, F*c*!!!! (OK, Iam having a hard time not writing it, so fuck!)
  I will be the first in line, to use special curse words, including that one. BUT...profanity has its place.
  If I drop a large can of tomatoes on my big toe, I will scream a slur of S**t, Fu*k, Dam*!!! but to use the big F 500 times in the movie, Wolf On Wall Street?? It looses its meaning, its crass, its no-good. After an hour or two, I looked at the hubs, and said, " Not too sure this is a Christmas movie!"
   I loved the movie, very great acting, but who curses that much? Seriously, I know people who curse, and they don't hold a candle to this movie. It was just too much, damn them!
   Then I went to see Osage County with my Emma, and here we go again, at the dinner table, do people throw around the F word so freely. No home I have ever been to. Now some of my girls night out dinners, get a little rough, but that is in the privacy of our table, and its in the correct context! ( OK, when Fifty Shades came out, we may have been a little raw!!)
  I did not mind Julie Roberts character, along with the women who played her sisters, sitting around, laughing at words that the vagina can be called. That was what we sisters do, and friends and relatives! It was a very funny part of the movie. Again the acting in the movie is some of the best, the entire play/movie is dysfunctional families at their best, I loved it, but saying the enormous F in between each bite of food, that is just too much. I looked at Miss Emma, and asked her, " Do you know people who talk like this?" She said, "Yes"  What!!!!! Bad words have become the norm, and that leaves me nothing to use when I so need them!!
   So I curse you Movie makers, and how can I do that, when you have used up all my words!!