In honor of my week

So the past three days were spent in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. My family decided to do one of those come look at our timeshare property and get a mini vacation out of it dirt cheap. We even found the trip on Great Mini Vacation.com. We had a nice time.

We took my daughter tubing at Shawnee Mountain, which she loved. Her constant request after every run was a resounding, "AGAIN!!!" It wasn't until later in the session that I realized I had to be sitting in front for us to stay facing forward the entire way down the track. Because let's face it, I weigh a helluva lot more than my 2 1/2 yeard old daughter.

Here is a quick video of one of our runs down the hill

And we took her to a fun little tourist trap called Crystal Cabin Fever. Just imagine a giant barn in the middle of February with refrigeration units running to keep the whole place even colder than it was outside. There were ice sculptures, and a cabin made out of ice. But the highlight was a 50 foot ice slide. You can guess where my daughter spent most of her time.

Though I must say, the highlight of my trip was the little climb I took to the top of a waterfall right behind the place where we had our timeshare presentation.

It may have only been like 30-40 feet tall, but still it was fun to no end. I wish my family had done more outdoorsy type things when I was growing up. Thankfully, I won't make that same mistake with my kids. I felt alive climbing to the top of that waterfall. Unfortunately, my ultimate destination in the Pocono's was closed for the season. But Bushkill Falls will be on my travel destination list this year. If only to tell them that they have it backwards there. Sorry, couldn't help but take a shot at our former Commander-in-Chief.

So in honor of my trip to the Pocono's, I am choosing one of my favorite songs of all time, "The Mountains Win Again," by Blues Traveler.

"I pick up my smile put it in my pocket

Hold it for a while try not to have to drop it

Men are not to cry so how am I to stop it

Keep it all inside

don't show how much she rocked ya-

Chorus:Ooh can you feel the same

Ooh you gotta love the pain

Ooh it looks like rain again

Ooh I feel it comin' in

The mountains win again"

Those of you who have read any of my posts know that this song is near and dear to the topics I have been writing about recently. But I guess I can expand on it yet again. The line about taking a smile and putting it in your pocket hits home for me. I lost track of the things that made me happy and just plain stopped doing them. And that is not right.

"A pocket is no place for a smile anyway

Someday I will find love again will my mind

Maybe it will be that love that got away from me

Is there a line to write that could make you cry tonight"

Nah, it's totally different see

I have tried and tried and tried to find the interview. I have seen people online writing comments about it, but I just can't seem to find the interview itself but it is proving elusive. But basically it was Vanilla Ice trying to prove he isn't a plagiarist. Here's my own dramatic recreation of the "Iceman's" brilliance.

"See, their song goes `dun dun dun da dadun dun, dun dun dun da dadun dun.' My song goes, `dun dun dun da dadun dun, dada, dun dun dun da dadun dun.' See, it's totally different."

One of the highest of high comedy moments. But today I am not choosing "Ice Ice Baby" as my song of the day, but the original classic by Bowie and Queen, "Under Pressure."

"Pressure pushing down on me
Pressing down on you no man ask for"

Talk about pressure, I don't know if I have ever lived without it? Maybe in Cancun on spring break where the only thing I worried about was drinking and having fun was there zero pressure in my life. Pressure leads to stress, and stress leads to death so I have made the decision to try and let it all go.

"Insanity laughs under pressure we're cracking
Can't we give ourselves one more chance
Why can't we give love that one more chance
Why can't we give love give love give love give love
give love give love give love give love give love
'Cause love's such an old fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
The people on the edge of the night
And loves dares you to change our way of
Caring about ourselves
This is our last dance
This is our last dance
This is ourselves
Under pressure
Under pressure
Pressure"

Maybe one of the greatest endings to a song ever. And the day you get your bonus and tax return on the same day, relieves a lot of pressure!

Hello Universe

I truly love, love, love, having the universe speak to me. I was trying to figure out what I would use as a song today, and I was struggling. I couldn't think of anything to write about. Then, as I went to my neighborhood Giant, a grocery store for the uneducated readers out there, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I opened my door to walk in to get batteries for my son's swing, and yogurt and frozen fruit for breakfast shakes (the new craze in my house), and the wind grabbed hold on my door and tried to slam it into the "Mommy Missile" minivan parked next to me. So I am choosing "Wind of Change" by the Scorpions as I am hoping for massive change in my life.

"Walking down the street
Distant memories
Are buried in the past forever"

This is my ultimate goal right now. To turn the page on the past, and remove the bad memories and guilt forever. Learn my lessons and cast the pain aside. Focus on the good memories, the laughter, the conversations with the universe, and move forward to a future unhindered by any ghost. I feel incomplete right now, but I am learning that it is ok. Because it is that feeling that catapults you into the world, to experience life and truly live.

"The world is closing in
Did you ever think
That we could be so close, like brothers
The future's in the air
I can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change

Once you cast aside the past, take everything you can from it, then you have limitless possibilities. You become open to the world and the future is in the air. I can sense my future again, and it is a great feeling. Especially that it is my own, and not confined or constrained by anyone anymore. Everything that comes from now, will come from my decisions and choices.

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams
With you and me
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
in the wind of change
The wind of change
Blows straight into the face of time
Like a stormwind that will ring the freedom bell
For peace of mind
Let your balalaika sing
What my guitar wants to say

To me the "Wind of Change" is really the breath of the Universe, constantly blowing, but asking you to live in the now. To be content that the future lies ahead of you but to cherish every moment and not let it slip away. So thank you Universe, I hear you, I am doing my best to listen, and I appreciate your messages every single day.

Healing

When I started this, I always wondered what artist would be the first to get a second song. I really never thought that it would be the "Red Rocker" Sammy Hagar. Today's song, "Amnesty is Granted"

"Love's an hourglass
Goes out wide, comes in closer
Time ticks away, it drips away
Leaving empty, sanded shoulders
But who said that love would last forever
I'm growing tired of feeling like I do
All those simple little secrets
Have come between us
And they're pushing me away
And I feel comfort in the distance

And you said that love would last forever
I'm growing tired of feeling like I do
Oh yeah
And there's a time, there's a place
A change of heart, about face
It's about love, it's about forgiveness
It's about our destiny
Tell me now, tell me like it is
No one has to give
Amnesty is granted
And what's done is done for everyone
Come on baby I want to start again
Right now
Amnesty is granted

This song I am dedicating to myself. It's time to forgive myself for the mistakes I have made and focus on the things that make me happy. Taking care of myself will allow me to make sure my kids are happy and healthy. I am hoping to keep in a space where I can focus on me and evolve into the person I was inside all the time. No more garbage will be internalized. I am granting myself Amnesty.

Everyone's theme song today!

50 Years ago today, a great tragedy occurred in the world of music, immortalized by the Don McLean classic "American Pie."

"But february made me shiver
With every paper I'd deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldn't take one more step.
I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died."

The deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper were unprecedented. If such an event were to happen today, what would be the equivalent? Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus, and Garth Brooks? I don't know. What I do know is that the original plane crash robbed the world of music of three terrific talents that still have many fans today. But what is the song truly about? A quick search of Wikipedia leads to no answers really, even from McLean himself. So I will offer my own interpretation. I feel it is about the loss of innocence. Rock Stars and Movie Stars appear larger than life to us simple folk, but they are not immune to tragedy. And if three celebrities like this could die so suddenly, then our own mortality is heightened. In a song filled with wide open lyrics, this verse illustrates this point the best.

"And in the streets: the children screamed,
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed.
But not a word was spoken;
The church bells all were broken.
And the three men I admire most:
The father, son, and the holy ghost,
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died."