3/30/11-Never Fear, the MUSIC in my Heart is Always Near

3/30/11

I suppose I should be flogged for leaving this blog so under nourished all this time. One thing’s for sure, I am still all about the magic of music. It’s been a very difficult road for me over the last ten years. The last six years have truly been one very horrific nightmare following another. Eventually, I settled in the 15th layer of hell and can only now just start realizing that I peaked there. Slowly, I’ve moved on up to about maybe the 9th layer of hell. Check me out making progress on some levels.

Yup, I would never want to back-slide past the 9th level. Once you’ve peaked that the 15th level of hell, the 9th level seems almost somewhat pleasant from time to time. All the efforts to claw my way back-up the levels to, what I hope will at least hit ground level some day, have caused me enough issues to disturb the entire “way of me”. I can guess that’s confusing, so I will try to explain further.

First, I’ll mention that most current information about me is located at singingfromthecrease.wordpress.com and checking out the “Get to Know Mia” page may help a bit. Second, it’s been more challenging than it may be worth the have two separate blogs and keep them both populated with relevent goodies on an even keel. The first few “incarnations” of my blogs were titled things like “Music-Head Central” and “All About Music”. That was all fine and dandy, until it started appearing that my other love, ice hockey, wasn’t fitting into the mix very well on those earlier blogs.

Don’t get me wrong here, I have always included my thoughts, opinions and expressed my great love of the sport, especially the NHL, goalies and the Washington Capitals in the blogs. It wasn’t that I personally couldn’t put regular, everyday happenings, musical passions and NHL in single blog. It was the interesting nature of those who were reading the blogs that eventually gave me clear indications about what many will take the time to read and what many won’t even bother with no matter the content, subject of a post , tags, or how well-formulated some of my thoughts were presented.

For the musical, creative sorts, there wasn’t much issue. The traffic that one of my earlier blogs got was an absolute astonishment to me every single time I checked the stats. As a matter of fact, this blog, with no recent updates or posts still gets regular visits daily. The problem became combining my TWO LOVES – MUSIC AND HOCKEY on the same blog without sacrificing. Those who love music, self-expression, random musings and other free-spirited internet reading, but who are NOT fans of the NHL will accept mentions and some thoughts about ice hockey as a part of my musical musings. Those who are interested in the NHL, but who also really appreciate or even love music, do not typically accept any random musings, musical thoughts, and ideas interjected stemming from my life and personal experiences as an appropriate internet reading option of any value relating to NHL related topics.

Hence, at some point in 2005, regular readers of “Musical Laughter” (or maybe it was still “All About Music” at that point), began to provide me feedback indicating my posts had too much ice hockey content. The more I put thoughts about ice hockey in the posts, no matter how much music, personal and creative content was also included, the more readers I lost. On the other hand, there were far fewer NHL blogs, specifically Washington Capitals blogs and even fewer goalie-centric ice hockey blogs in 2005, so I was gaining traffic due to the NHL related content.

As more and more NHL blogs appeared, fewer people felt that visiting a blog with creative, personal content titled as a “Music” blog was an actual “NHL” blog and I lost many regular readers. I also wasn’t getting “stumble” traffic. For a while, I was perfectly okay with the process I had worked within for many years. I wasn’t ever really doing any of it for stats of any kind. I didn’t even know until a year after I started web journaling (prior to bloggers and blog sites) on a website I created and owned for a creative project known as “Open the Box”, that it was rather simple to check site statistics.

Eventually, as categories, the internet, search engines, tags, meta-details and free blogger engines sprung-up like gang-busters and became more and more accessible and known to the world, my little blog became nothing but me generating thoughts typed for my own reading pleasure sometime in the future. Still, I was perfectly good with that notion and there were, and as all-out amazing at it may seem, still are a very small group of people who have followed my blog incarnations from the very beginning. I’m not entirely sure if those loyal readers have been chained to desks and forced to click on my blog posts as some sort of diabolic psychological experiment involving illegal chemical testing of some sort for the last, about 12 years. I may just be ribbing those folks in a silly manner right now, but just in case the former scenario is the case – PLEASE KEEP UP HOPE THAT ONE DAY YOU WILL BE FREE!! GO TO YOUR HAPPY PLACE!! THERE IS NO DESK OR BLOG-TORTURE AND YOU ARE NOT UNWILLING TESTS SUBJECTS!! THERE IS ONLY THE MAGICAL WORLD OF SARLACAN WHERE YOU ARE THE WISE ELDERS WHO HOLD THE HIGHEST HONORS BY READING FROM THE PROFETIC ELECTRONIC SCROLLS FOUND ATTACHED THE GOLDEN, JEWEL ENCRUSTED DESKS LEFT BEHIND FOR YOUR PEOPLE BY THE GODS OF KNOWLEDGE!!!

I should hope those rare few individuals who have managed to stick with all my 12 years of several blog incarnations, random musings on all topics, mostly focusing on the awesomeness of music and all that is the NHL, have not done so under duress. I mean, I’m not sure I could handle the guilt ya know? (please be sure to understand I am a bit of a goof-ball with a healthy dose of dry and sarcasm in the mix as well)

I am now a two-blog kinda gal, however, the two-blog system is not a good solution for me as a blogger. Enough time, experience and practice in the “two-blog” approach for me to be sure I prefer a single blog containing the entire musical, goalie-centric, NHL-loving, odd, goof-ball, serious, creative, analytical, empirical, science-is-cool, humorous, ball of spirited me. To that end, I have been working on the other, mostly NHL, goal keeper and Washington Capitals centered blog, Singing from the Crease, and not updating this blog for the last year. While doing so, I have been plotting my devious merge of the two-headed blog monster into one fire-breathing, mega-blog that has all that I share, but in more categorical fashion for those who don’t like to mix your peanut butter with your chocolate. To me, music and the National Hockey League are as yummy and delicious as the brilliantly conceived Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup.

In time, this blog and Singing from the Crease will become one. I will keep the blog under the name “Singing from the Crease” and am 1000% sure that no further incarnation will be necessary in terms of title. Never again will those few who have followed along since “Daily Ruminations”, through to “Almost Daily Ruminations” and then who bravely proceeded further to “Music-Head Central” and up to now have to endure the bumpy, blog reinvention ride. I promise to “Sing from the Crease” for the rest of my days just for you, ya freaks! Maybe I’d feel better if you are actually chained to desks being force-fed my inner-mianess and all of its galaxial trips through life. Thinking you’ve been on board on your own accord may indicate a severe psychological trauma has damaged your reasoning and critical thinking skills. 😉 But I sincerely thank you and your brain damage for your never waivering, continued support. I am in some debt to those of you few who refused to let me go any great length of time without making some attempt at posting something, anything, on any of my blogs. YOU ROCK – BUT YOU’RE A BIT LOONY!!

Before I close, I will state right out that at no time will you be given a hard deadline regarding posts, features, the date of the final merge or anything in definitive terms relating to either of the blogs. Over the last five years, the Universe has put forth an enormous effort to reinforce the notion that I simply can’t deliver on the deadlines I place on the labors of love that are Mia’s Musical Musings (a.k.a. – Triple MMM) and/or Singing from the Crease (SFTC) regarding posts, updates, archives, features, etc. The Universe has taken its mission very seriously and has done a fantastic job of beating the living snot out of me in every possible manner available to it in order to inform me through conditioning the hard way that something will always happen to prohibit me from making any and all deadlines I set for my blogs. I must have a solid rock head, so receiving a massive, relentless beatings by the Universe using weapons it probably had to find in some remote storage location, long forgotten about, out of pure necessity to finally reach the part of my brain that believes in deadlines like they are an absolute like blinking one’s eyes, in order to remove the inevitable stresses that accompany deadlines. Okay, so the Universe has spoken and I’m tired of watching the poor Universe look in frustration for weapons it doesn’t even user-manuals for while it struggles to teach me a lesson and loses energy as the time has marched on. How much more fight and beatings could the Universe have left at this point?  I chose to take pity on the Universe before it reaches a total flame-out this time. NO DEADLINES FOR BLOGS!! 10-4.

Of course, the Universe keeps energy stores strictly for use in its side business called “Humorous Irony.” Technically, I think it knew I’d relent with the pity “lesson learned” with regard to the “no deadlines for blogs” thing and had employees of “Humorous Irony” ready in wait for the signal to leap into action on its main project a.k.a. “All non-Mia related deadlines shall be met. ” If anything needs to be done on any sort of deadline, or anyone needs a goal met in a given timeframe, I have been trained by the Universe’s most capable henchmen to hit that mark no matter what size, variety, type or amount of the obstacle or challenge threatening the deadline. The Universe instilled a drive in me that is as precise, high performing and able to function at extreme high speeds as an elite European sports car when it comes to deadlines set for the benefit of others. Yup, the short of it is this:  Deadlines for things related to me are silly according to the Universe, but deadlines relating to all else shall be met – end of story.

Hey thanks for thinking of me Universe. I’m as reliable as reliable can be to everyone but me. Nice work Universe.

I will be working on for a while on getting as many of the scattered archives from every single incarnation of all the various blogs up and in one place for a while. Check Singing from the Crease for the bulk of those archives and keep checking back. A few years (2002-2005) of archives were saved on an external hard drive. That drive was recently rediscovered, but is slightly damaged. Many of the archives have been corrupted, but are not beyond saving with some work. I am doing that work. I have revived a few posts from the 2005 so far. In time, all the saveable posts will be archived at Singing from the Crease.

Stay tuned for more of this saga to unfold. For now, I feel terrible that I did not mention until now that I saw Steven Page (formerly of the Barenaked Ladies) at the 9:30 Club several months ago in support of his album “Page One”. Everything you need to know about his work and about the man, the singer, the Page can be found here at his website.  I think he has a sharp-wit and a fantastic singing voice. I am very happy with “Page One”.

I realize I saw him at the 9:30 Club in DC one night away from his “lyric blunder” at a Washington Capitals vs. New York Rangers game when singing the American National Anthem, but I never got around to voicing my thoughts that the “blunder” wasn’t as bad as some had made it out to be, he still sounded great and he DID A SUPERB JOB WITH THE CANADIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM IN FRONT OF ALL THOSE MASSES GATHERED ON HEINZ FIELD ON NEW YEAR’S DAY, 2011 TO WATCH THE CAPTIALS BEAT THE PENGUINS IN PITTSBURGH FOR THE WINTER CLASSIC OUTDOOR GAME!!

Support Steven Page and enjoy his fine singing voice. Keep your MUSE as close as you need. Your MUSE will never leave you as long as you still believe. I think guitarists should have their guitars painted with the images of NHL goalies. Mind your nets and make your music – peace – mia – singingfromthecrease@gmail.com and twitter @creasesinger

10/20 – Guster, Charity, Washington Capitals – GET TO D.C. THIS WEEKEND!!!!

10-20-10

To the few who kept coming back here, looking for new input and then e-mailed me to let me know that I was a no-good slacker for not keeping this side of my blog up-to-date, thanks for not cutting me a break. I needed some poking and prodding as a reminder that I should be less neglectful of my musical side. For those who only read this blog and not my other, more hockey-focused blog, here is the reason why I’ve been less active on the “ether-verse”.

I haven’t had the best of luck on the health side of my life, so for me, it’s always a continuous struggle to keep consistency in any shape or form. That kills me on the inside sometimes. A few days ago, that internal demon popped its nasty little head up and took over. It wasn’t pretty. I still feel as though I will never get an accurate diagnosis or treatment of any condition that seems to bring me down in the health department. Doctors and lab results come and go, but never seem to mean much. It’s one of the reasons I am being ultra-careful and proceeding very slowly in working out how to deal with Lymphoma as a part of my life.

I’ve spent a lot of time in hospitals, medical offices, specialized diagnostic facilities since 2005. Mainly, all that ever got me was bankruptcy, confusion, frustration, anguish and depression. I stopped taking medications at a certain point in 2008, despite all the multitudes of warnings and so forth I received from various parties. I will say that I didn’t just stop, I took the time to ween myself off of everything. Then eventually, I could start over with a clean “baseline”. I didn’t need most of the crap I was prescribed. I don’t need pain therapy. Pain is something I learned to accept as a part of my everyday. It gets indescribably bad sometimes, but I don’t have to pay a single penny to get through it and I’m not plying myself full of synthetic substances to only temporarily counter the pain.

I do the very best I can every single day. I never stop trying and I never stop working as hard as I can to live MY life, the way my nature prefers. I’m happy to have mostly good ears so that I can hear all the music sent out into the Universe. I’m glad I have eyes so that I can see all the spectacular NHL action, or at least read about it if that’s all I got. I do not let the idea of all my many fortunes slip away very often. I did that a few days ago, but it was merely a blip and it was gone faster than it came. Which brings me to reason I am typing here today: Guster the awsome band I will forever pimp.

Guster recently released another CD called “Easy Wonderful”. Now I am aware that I slipping in my old age, but I did pre-order the CD and have listened to it many times at this point. My favorites from the album right now are “Architects and Engineers” and “Do You Love Me”. I am a rather pushy pimp of the Guster, so they get a lot of blog time dedicated to them, as compared to most other subjects. Here’s a hint for all those who “don’t quite get it” – GO SEE THEM LIVE AND ALL WILL BECOME CLEAR.

Yes, I am pleased to report that my favorite threesome from “Wooshtah” (yeah, that’s the right way to pronounce Worcester and okay they aren’t really from there – just let me go on it because I HAD to type “wooshtah” for theatrical reasons) have put out another good one! GO GUSTER, IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY, GO GUSTER…uh, oops, the doctor warned me against letting the entire world I was a complete freak. Well too late I guess. GO GUSTER. I strongly recommend getting the CD and seeing them on tour. Go to Guster.com right now – It’s Easy Wonderful!!!!

As for the Gusters and their GREEN TOUR, I have always had an awesome time when I have seen them play live. Sometimes I feel as though the median age of the audience stays the same as I get farther and farther away from that number, but what the heck – I’m still very much a kid at heart and screw it I say. I’m going to be one of those “old people” the youngsters make fun of while they are pointing and laughing. I can’t wear pleather pants anymore (actually, I only wore them once to a Barenaked Ladies show in reading, PA – those things DO NOT BREATHE and I learned what the term Monkey-butt meant that night), but I’ll happily make a complete fool of myself for the sweet sound of a live Guster show any day!!! You should too!

Unfortunately, I am heading into homelessness and getting to the DAR Constitution Hall in DC this Saturday to hear the former Tufts students lay down some yummy sound will be next to impossible. It’s a special night too, because they are raising money for the ClearWater Initiative. If I had any way to find the money and get to DC, I would with no doubt. But for those who aren’t dead, seriously ill, or misanthropists – GET OUT TO SEE GUSTER IN DC THIS SATURDAY AND DO YOUR PART TO RAISE SOME MONEY FOR GOOD THINGS! Tell them “Jalopy” sent you – Brian W. must have been reading the “Grapes of Wrath” or something when he assigned me my “Official Guster Member Name”. Rock on with the charity events!

Of course, there’s another reason I should be in DC on Saturday, October 23 – The Washington Capitals are also doing their part to raise money for a fantastic charity, http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/hm_lls. Now if you did click on this link, then you know understand why this particular charitable drive is important to me.

If you are at all interested in ice-hockey, the Washington Capitals, music, caring that I asked very nicely to click here: http://www.lls.org/capsfans, please make your donation through the CAPS fundraising initiative to help the people in the LOCAL D.C. area who are probably hockey and/or music-loving, obsessed pimps of all things good in the world (like Guster and the CAPS).

Dear Hockey Gods and/or Thunder Gods: would it be possible for me to get to D.C. this weekend? I know, I’m always asking for stuff like, “Please let the Capitals win the Cup this year!” and “Please don’t close down Merriweather Post Pavillion”. You have always been good to me, so I will make you a deal – if I can either see Guster this weekend and/or see the CAPS play this weekend – I promise to speak no further ill of Don Cherry (oh boy, this one will be tough ;-)AND I’ll never allow this sort of outburst to happen again.

No matter my status, this weekend looks to be a great weekend in the nation’s capital. I wish all the best to ClearWater Initiative and Guster in their fundraising efforts. I HOPE that everyone who is not at the Washington Capitals game this Saturday is at the DAR Constitution Hall. (Does Ted Leonsis own this venue too?)

I’ll be there (both places) in spirit as always. Thanks to Guster for the new music and GREEN concerts. Thanks to the Washington Capitals for raising money that is of great importance to me and A VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL WHO FACE CHALLENGES WITH A BRAVE FACE AND A NEVER SAY DIE ATTITUDE – YOU ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!! Love your music. Love your hockey. peace-mia

Is Nothing Sacred to Some of the Washington Capitals Fans?

4/28/10

You may all feel free to call me a “cry baby”, a “sissy”, a “wuss”, a “softie”, or any term (some I can’t type here) that describes my not-so-happy feelings about some of the Washington Capitals fans today. I’ve been a fan for at least 30 years and I was getting all fired-up, like everyone else, so when they were knocked out of the playoffs in round 1 last night, it wasn’t a great day for me. I went to sleep convinced that the head coach was a “mental midget” compared to the brilliant strategist that is the Montreal Canadiens head coach.

However, there is nothing that can be done about it and today is another day. The NHL season still continues and there is still more hockey for the hockey-lovers like me. I will have to “keep the faith” for another 82 games and hope the Washington Capitals get the chance at the cup again. I wrote a blog post on my hockey blog this morning. I have a positive attitude. I was happy to see Brooks Laich could at least make some hard work payoff at some point. I figured I’d root for the Montreal Canadiens to win the cup, because both Buffalo and Phoenix had been taken in the 1st round, along with the Capitals. Some team will win the cup this year. Hockey did not come to a sudden end because the Capitals did not make it any further along the playoffs.

What I got for my positive attitude was a pile of personal attacks from embittered Capitals fans who were so enraged with indignity about the fact that a team I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER WHATSOEVER tanked early in the playoffs. As a behaviorist, I know that most of those fans are simply getting out all of their frustration. I shouldn’t take it personally. It’s hard to do that however. Mostly because someone actually sent me an e-mail that said, “that brain tumor should have killed you – you stupid bitch stop spreading your capitals sunshine and now you think its a good idea to cheer for the team that beat your favorite team – your mother should have had an abortion.” I cut and pasted that straight out of my e-mail box.

So yes, I am a little baby who can’t take it and I will now go crying all the way home wee-wee-wee. That kind of stuff is just so far over the line that I will contemplate the removal of the my other blog for good. It is just a game and I am just a human.

Music will help me get past it – peace – mia (sciencegirl99@excite.com)

A Medicine Mix-up Makes More Mispoken “Mords”

4/26/10

I had a bit of a problem earlier this morning. I was in D.C. at the very crack of dawn this morning. That meant that I needed to be awake around 3 A.M. and out the door no later that 4 A.M. That was a tough trick in the first place, but I managed to sling myself off of my couch and get myself into the car full of coffee (which I drank out of my “home game” coffee mug this morning hockey gods – so the Capitals should win tonight right?) and one my two daily medications. It was a D.C. morning for me today, because I had to do some public speaking on a particularly important topic. I only mention it’s importance, because the gravity of the situation I found myself in can only be truly appreciated if you have that information.

I don’t have an office in D.C., so I have to bring everything for work in and out of the city any time I am called upon to work in the nations capitals. No problem for me – I have one of those “wheelie bags” that some of the guys I know in law enforcement just love to make “old lady” and “lookout you young hooligans – grannies gonna whack you with her 150lb. purse on wheels if you don’t behave” sort of comments about. The “purse on wheels” comment is very special to me. There is one person who found out the hard way that this “old lady” can and will swing my “purse on wheels” and hit my intended target pretty quickly if needled enough (he’s fine and he at least learned to be several feet away from me when he give me a hard time). Anyway, when I barely crawled my hardly conscious body around this morning, long before the sun lit the Eastern sky, I grabbed the wrong pill bottle and put it in my “purse on wheels”.

When I do spend work time in D.C., I have an “assistant” who keeps me on schedule and well prepared for my presentations. He knows I don’t like to call him my “assistant”, but that word is in his title, so it is acceptable. I call him the “Chief of Saving Ass”, but it’s now just “CSA” for brevity. He earned that title the last time I was in D.C. and pulled a total stupid by taking the Green line to the Chinatown/Gallery Place stop. Guess what’s at that stop? You guessed it – the Verizon Center where the Washington Capitals play. It’s like rote for me at this point. My brain says to itself without me hearing, “Hey, I’m taking the Metro in to D.C., I must be going to see a Capitals game.” I should have driven to New Carrollton and taken the Orange line right to my intended location. What can I say – those darn Washington Capitals have conditioned me, like a salivating dog, to go to Greenbelt and take the Green Line to the Verizon Center whenever I get anywhere near D.C. – bastards! But, Chief Saving Ass came to my rescue in grand fashion that day.

My special “CSA” realized that I was not where I usually would be 1/2 hour before I needed to be in front of very busy people giving them an “A++” presentation. He also knew that I had a rough draft of my presentation on a shared drive, so he smartly ran around recklessly trying to get that rough draft uploaded on an available laptop. Then this brilliant individual set-up the laptop in the presentation room and started reading the notes I had sent via e-mail the night before. I was still correcting my “oh boy, oh boy, oh boy – going to see the CAPS – do-do-do” mistake of the day (can you say “one track mind?”) and was about 10 minutes away from my final destination when the VIP audience had filled the room and was ready to hear some well put together information.

Thanks to my great ass-saver, the faces in that room did not turn sour due to my hockey-related blunder. The transition between the “CSA” tactfully going over some key-points to be covered (using my notes) and my covert arrival and subsequent switching out of the laptop with the final presentation and the laptop with the rough draft, went so seamlessly, several people commented afterward that he and I really had our “acts together”. Well, I’m not ashamed to admit – that “act” was a one man show. He is the “CSA” all the way. Well, maybe not this morning – I have to give him the following temporary title today:  “Chief of Make Mia Almost Fall on Her Face, Unconscious”.

Before I get to that “travel” pill bottle I mentioned previously (you can probably see where I’m headed); I will tell you that I still think he is the “CSA”. I mean, if I can drive to Washington D.C. while practicing the presentation I’m going there to give in my head the entire way, and STILL mindlessly go the WRONG Metro station and get off at the WRONG stop because I’m addicted to Washington Capitals hockey – my “CSA” can make a mistake too! And he did this morning – we’re even I guess. I was getting everything prepared and noticed that I had brought the wrong medication with me, because I grabbed the wrong prescription bottle containing a VERY strong pain-killer. I had only taken this pain medication twice before, about a year ago, and didn’t take it again (I shouldn’t have even filled the prescription). It made me drool and talk to a blank wall for a while. After taking the second pill, it gave the “junkie itch” and I scratched some of the skin of off my arms. Oh, you better believe that’s a controlled substance. I’ll take most types of pain over being so druged-up that I fall backwards into a closet, landing on a pile of shoes, then basically “sleeping” exactly where I fall for several hours. NOT FOR ME thanks!

So, now you can probably guess what my blog title means huh? I do not take a lot of medication considering my health situation, but there is one medication I MUST take a certain time of day with food. I did not have that medication with me and the time was approaching to take my pill. I called my doctor and asked if he could assist me by calling the pharmacy that was right around the corner. That worked out great and all parties were more than glad to help me out, so my “CSA” diligently took the initiative to go to the pharmacy and get my medication. The standard catered, breakfast layout displayed nicely in the presentation room, so I got some 4-star, or better, food in me in preparation for my medication.

I will give you the specifics of how the “switch” happened later, for now, all you need to know is that I took the pill that my “CSA” put in my hand just as I was walking to the front of the room to begin my presentation. Many people have a fear of public speaking, but for some reason, I have never really had difficulty when addressing any size group of people – thankfully. I started my talk and progressed through the first fifteen minutes of a forty-five minute presentation just fine. Then I started to feel flushed and got increasingly warmer as the minutes went by. I realized I was just very slightly slurring my words, so I put more effort into enunciating properly. With about twenty minutes left, I gave everyone a bathroom and food break. That’s when the real fun began.

In my world of “Mia, we haven’t yet discovered what your underlying medical condition really is”, I am quite accustomed to odd symptoms that pop-up out of seemingly nowhere, for seemingly no reason. Nothing new there. I figured I was suffering some adverse reaction to being awake at 3 A.M. and a lack of proper sleep. I drank an entire bottle of water during the break in the hopes that would cool me down and wake me up. Then I headed back to my speaking spot, but I was shuffling my feet and feeling very “heavy”. After starting again and getting to about the ten minutes left mark, I was very glad there was a table near me, because it was either lean against the table or sit on the floor. Everything got about ten times harder to do and concentrating was barely an option. I’m the prideful sort who certainly felt that I should continue my fine standard of giving good presentations. The faces looking at me didn’t seem to show any indication that I was doing anything wrong or different, but I could tell something was not at all right. My “CSA” had returned to the room and was eyeing me very carefully with a very concerned look on his face.

I did struggle through the last five minutes of my talk, barely able to stand up (still, no one listening seemed at all affected). Just as I was getting to the last few sentences; a little voice inside of me was saying “you did it without falling on your face and kept it together for just long enough“.  And then I said, out loud, to my group, “Sometimes, it’s not MORDS you’re looking for in certain situations.” Well, I almost made it without any observable issues. Yes, “words” was what should have come out of mouth, but I very clearly, and with great emphasis said, “mords”. Upon the completion of my presentation, most of the group meandered to the food area again and mingled. I found the first available chair and was then informed by my “CSA” that he had given me the wrong pill. No sooner did he make his confession, a very, very, major player in the audience approached me and said, “I suppose my group has been missing the mark all this time because they were putting too much stock in the “MORDS”. I can only hope that he was saying that with some sense of levity.

My “CSA” was pulling double-assistant-duty this morning. He got a rush request from someone else and put the prescription he had just picked-up for me in my “purse on wheels” for a few minutes. When he returned to get my regular, daily pill and bring it to me, he assumed he had the right prescription bottle. I had no idea he had gone anywhere near my “purse on wheels”, so I trusted that he was giving me a pill from the bottle he had just gotten from the pharmacy. Instead, he gave me something that almost put me flat on my face.

I stayed in D.C. for a good portion of the day and worked on this post offline. I had to return to my detail office this afternoon, so I took a train. My car is having a sleep over in Greenbelt and I will have to work late this evening. I suppose it was all meant to happen. I’m not sure I could stand to watch the Washington Capitals play game 7 against the Montreal Canadiens. It’s a deciding game for my D.C. based Capitals and I may prefer finding out if they will be playing golf soon tomorrow.

Keep your eyes on your medication – those are very important MORDS – GO CAPS! – peace – mia – (sciencegirl99@excite.com)

Revisiting the National Anthem “Booing” – Just for You Matt

4/25/10

Matt left comments about this post. Below is my response to those comments (which I do appreciate and I understand the point being made Matt)

I won’t change my story Matt, because there were people who did “boo” the Canadian National Anthem. One of them even e-mailed me to tell me that he “booed” in response to the Montreal fans who “booed” during the American National Anthem. It was a much more positive environment in the Verizon Center on Friday night than it was in Montreal previously. You are right about that and I agree. Good point. But, no less than three people who were at the game sent me e-mails and said that people around them were in fact booing during the Canadian National Anthem. Those people would not have made such a claim if it were not true. No Matt, it was not clearly audible like it was in Montreal – but it did happen.

Another reason I am keeping that post exactly as it stands is because there are some Montreal fans who visit the “musical” side of my blog and a few of them have e-mailed me to tell me that they only “booed” our National Anthem in order to throw the Capitals off their game. My blog post clearly states that NO ONE, ANYWHERE should “boo” during the performance of the any country’s National Anthem. This includes the Canadiens fans as well.

Also, when I checked my Facebook page on Saturday morning, there were folks who posted that they heard people around them “booing” the Canadian National Anthem and they were all at the game. I understand your point Matt and I get that the Washington Capitals fans were MUCH more positive than the Montreal fans – but in my world – if even one person “booed” – it is sad and makes me unhappy. When I mentioned that there are those of us out there who “would never “boo” the Canadian National Anthem”, I was referring to the MAJORITY of the Washington Capitals fans who DID NOT DO THAT.

Plus Matt, this is a personal blog where I am 100% free to express how I feel about EVEN ONE person who “booed” during the Canadian National Anthem. Obviously, I am also sending out my opinions directly to the Montreal fans who disrespected our “Star Spangled Banner” – quite loudly. Thanks for your comment and if I did not get confirmation from a fan who admitted he “booed” and a few folks with whom I work who sat near people who “booed”, I would absolutely change my story.

Love your hockey – respect the music – peace – mia (sciencegirl99@excite.com)

Showing Respect for BOTH the Canadian and American National Anthems

4/24/10

I am stepping-up this morning to represent the NHL fans who WOULD NEVER BOO WHILE THE CANADIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM IS BEING SUNG! This particular issue goes far, far beyond the game of hockey and I do take it very seriously. To all the prideful Canadians out there – I’m sorry if your glorious National Anthem was booed before the Washington Capitals v. Montreal Canadiens game at the Verizon Center in Washington D.C. last night. Even if many your country’s passionate hockey fans booed our American National Anthem when the Capitals were up in Montreal for game 3 and 4; that is absolutely no excuse for Capitals fans to “boo” during your national anthem.

Both of our National Anthems are beautiful pieces of MUSIC and we have chosen these songs to represent our pride and belief in our countries. I do hope that the Washington Capitals wipe the floor with your Montreal Canadiens in game 6 on Monday night, but that’s what hockey fans do – we taunt and we have passion. I may not be Canadian by nationality (I was adopted, so I may have Canadian blood for all know), but I live, eat, sleep, poop, and bleed hockey just like you do up North. I am just as staunch a supporter of my Washington Capitals as you are of your Montreal Canadiens. BUT – none of us have any right to disrespect ANY National Anthem.

I know the all-mighty Lord Stanley’s Cup is at stake. I know we want to throw each other’s team off their game in whatever way we can. I know BOTH of our teams fill the Bell Centre and Verizon Center with red pride. I also know that Washington D.C. is my nation’s capital city and it hurts me as a music-lover, a hockey-lover and as a hard-working American citizen that the Capitals fans in Washington D.C. booed your Canadian National Anthem last night. I am not proud of those people and I do not condone that type of behavior. On behalf of those hockey-loving American nationals who wouldn’t do that to your country’s representative song – we want your hockey team to lose the series but we don’t ever want to “boo” music of any kind, especially a song that means as much to you Canadian nationals as our “Star Spangled Banner” means to us!

ALL hockey fans, of every nation, should remember that every NHL team has players from many different countries who have all united in harmony to win a silver bowl. I can’t speak for any other American, but I can at least state that I only care about who wins the hockey games – not what I can do to disrespect another country. It’s all about the hockey during the playoffs, but the music is important ALL year-long – 24/7/365.

SING PROUDLY NATIONAL ANTHEM SINGERS – they aren’t saying “boo” – they are saying “you”, as in “YOU ROCK!” – peace – mia – (sciencegirl99@excite.com)

Rage Against the Dying of the Light – then Rage Against the Machine

…from time to time the night hides light…

Ah yes, I have read your e-mails oh tiny following of my little blog. I would like to thank the 4 of you who took the time to send repeated e-mail requests in efforts to get me blogging again. It’s quite humbling that up to 4 people actually found my posts interesting in any sort of way so this one’s for you – Jamie C., Tomas V., Marty T. and Music Pimp II. You Rock!

While I do have a laptop again and a DSL internet connection, it is not anywhere near an ideal situation for me and my blogging ability has been greatly reduced. 1) I live out in corn-cow country and aside from dial-up, DSL is my only option. As some more technologically nerdy folk out there know, the farther you are away from the CO, the slower your internet speed becomes. Well, I am at the very end of the line, so I may be better served using high-speed dial-up. This little problem also prohibits be me from watching my NHL Hockey online as well. (I don’t thing hockey withdrawal is covered under any health policies in the USA – maybe Canada has a clinic I can check into though).

2) My laptop is a basic, stripped-down, Acer that I purchased for an off-key song and was puked on by my late diabetic cat, Dirty Harry. I miss that little guy like you wouldn’t believe, but once a cat vomits on your laptop while it is open and you are using it; the inegrity of the electronics and keyboard becomes less certain. As it happens, I am a dork-geek with a bit of free time, so I did manage to get my laptop back to some useful capacity recently. Can’t guarantee that it won’t just crap out on me, but for now, I have operational keys to press.

I have seen so many movies and read numerous books. I just do not have time to go into specifics, but I have read all of Dan Brown’s books by now and really enjoyed “Deception Point”. I also read a book about Chuck Yeager, mostly written by Chuck Yeager and I simply am astonished that he lived to be an old man. As for movies – I’ll get to them in another blog but I’m sending out my happy thoughts to all those who worked so hard to give us all “Boondock Saints II – All Saints Day” – all I have to say is “Shut-it”. Rock with that low-budget sequel. I’ll sell some of my eggs if it will help get a number III out for the viewing pleasure of the Boondockians.

Usually, I would reserve the hockey stuff to my other blog, but this one feels more appropriate here – to all those Flyers fans who feel like invading my space in Harford County, MD – keep your orange north of the Mason-Dixon line. I’m holding strong with the “Rocking of the Red” south of the Mason-Dixon line. If you cross over MD-139, you have entered full-on CAPS territory. I may be the only CAPS fan that far North, but I’m a pain in the ass CAPS fan who has plenty enough gumption to give it right back when you yell things at me when I am wearing a CAPS shirt or hat. Feel free to give me shit when I venture up to Shrewsbury to shop on the weekends, but I’m one feisty little girl and I’m claiming a “return fire” rule below the PA line. Thanks for the incentive to shop in PA.

To my 4 questionable readers whose interesting e-mails helped get me back here – I will work to get back into the swing of things – I promise. Just give me some slack – I do have some health issues and I wake up at 4:30 A.M. every morning, have a 3 hour commute to work (round-trip) and get home again at 7:30 P.M. I am in bed around 8:30 P.M., so I can get up and do it all over again. I work at secure government facility and cannot access this blog from work at all. I work on a full-time contract and have consultant work on two other temporary contracts. Right now, I am working on a full-scale recovery effort and my health issues drain me faster than I would like.

Don’t worry – I’m on it and I will do the best I can just because I wouldn’t want to have 49 e-mails sent to me in one day explaining why it’s important for me to post on my blog (Tomas – I think that’s actually harassment – but I’m letting it slide because you ended every single one of the 49 e-mails with “GO CAPS”)

Go make a pie and then eat the entire thing in one sitting – peace – mia (sciencegirl99@excite.com)