American Idol – Final Six

Pretty good night, although I never thought “Shania Twain Songs” would be a category to follow Lennon & McCartney and Elvis. Sorry, I like me some old Shania, Crystal sang my all-time favorite, but it just doesn’t seem right.

Who’s going home? Hard to tell.  I’m just begging for it to be Siobhan.  I’m not sure what planet the judges were on, but she just stunk. And once again relied on screeching at the end as her “schtick.”  But she apparently has some sort of following of freaks that have kept her from hitting the bottom three all along. My second choice would be Michael…put him on Broadway and get him outta my face. Of the other four, I’d rank Casey and Aaron as the tops for overall performance and sound, but all sang well.

Guess we’ll find out tomorrow…..

1 comment April 27, 2010

Idol Performance “Lip-Sinking”

Yes, I know it should be spelled “lip-synch,” but the burning question in my mind this week is:  In which producer’s mind does horrible lip-synch-ing with a great soundtrack make for a better show than a somewhat lower quality singing performance that doesn’t look completely fake?  Seriously.  Yes, they did this last year, but for some reason I think last year’s contestants covered it up a whole lot better. It took several weeks for me to figure out.  This year, blatantly obvious…hence my thought that loose lips SINK ships.  Besides the fact that the show’s longevity has led to finding finalists who actually have really great potential as professionals…which has made the show quite boring in my mind…this is a big turn-off to those of us who are mainly watching for the entertainment factor, not because we are truly looking for some new start to worship.  Lose the soundtrack and go back to “Oops, she missed on that note,” or “Man, I can’t believe he forgot the words again after a whole week of practicing!”  But I digress.

No shockers on the eliminations this week.  Andrew should have been gone weeks ago, and Katie was just too young to hold out ‘til the end. 

But I really wouldn’t have been sad to Siobhan gone. Her session with Adam Lambert proved that she is truly freaky. In spite of the times last season when he really creeped me out with the makeup and drama, he was ALWAYS one of the top two in my mind.  This girl though, she always has some pitchy notes here and there, and these last two weeks have just been boringly weird.  Some weird tone to her voice in the first half of that song…like she had an opera singer stuck in there or something. Just not cool.

What will happen next week, “Inspirational Songs” week?  One thing that should be entertaining is what kind of songs will fall into this category.  Is this the week Archuleta did “Imagine” during his season? That was awesome. Does anyone from this season even have it in them to inspire?  Perhaps this will be the week the odd Siobhan takes her leave. Any care to weigh in?

Add a comment April 15, 2010

NC Pollen Inspires Poetry

If you’ve ever been to NC in April, you might possibly understand what a high pollen count truly is. I read somewhere the other day that the pollen count is usually around 1300 (whatever they count by) and this year it’s over 3600. During our recent visit to my lovely home state of IL, I made mention of the baby’s suspected allergies to the pollen. At least one family member said, “Oh yes, the pollen’s been bad here this year.” I didn’t say anything, but scoffed a little in my head.

You just don’t know pollen until you’ve experienced it here. Perhaps other states in the South have similar problems, but I lack that knowledge. What I do know is I’d never seen pollen blanket, visibly cover everything in sight with a thick yellow-green dust until I moved here. This is my back deck, my daughter was halfway through washing it before I stopped her for a pic.
This is the stoop INSIDE my back porch, and our deck furniture inside. If you look close you can see the coating of dust on the sill…again, inside a screened area. We had to wipe our shoes on the rug as soon as we came in the house, and didn’t dare walk on the carpet with our shoes on.

The onlything I can think to equate it to in Illinois farm girl terms is like the dust that coats your car, even inside the doors, when you drive 60 down a dirt road 5 or 6 times a day in the middle of July. Does that ring any bells?

And so we come to the poetry. I won’t lay claim to any of this prose, it was scribbled phrase by phrase on a white board in the ladies room at my office. Enjoy.

At 10 a.m.:
Rain, Rain, come today,
Wash that pollen all away!

At noon:
Please, please, do hurry!
Everything is green and blurry!

And at 3:
Sneeze, sneeze! Cough, cough!
I’ve definitely had enough!

No, not astoundingly clever…but if you lived here, you’d certainly empathize!

I hope all of you are enjoying your Spring, no matter where you live. 🙂

Add a comment April 11, 2010

Idol Chatter 2010

So here’s a question…is anyone really paying attention this season?  I, for one, am pretty uninspired.  Not that there aren’t some talented singers/musicians in this year’s group, but none that even make me give a second thought to picking up the phone.

Aaron and Katie – cute kids, but too young to hold out to the very end against their more experienced elders.

Siobahn (sp?) – I dunno, Adam Lambert proved last year that the freaky factor doesn’t have to keep you from making it to the end. But eventually the screaming has to lose its appeal…right?

Tim – What the heck? That’s all I’m sayin’.

Andrew – I just don’t get this one.  I was as amazed as everyone else during Hollywood week, when he did “Straight Up.”  But he’s been a complete waste of space ever since.  And those glasses…

Michael – Too MUCH drama, I couldn’t agree with Simon more.  Saved this week but I don’t expect him to be one of the top two.

Lee – I enjoy his music and might expect to see him in the top three, but he seems to lack some of the personality that is needed to win this competition.

Casey & Crystal – I think these are our top two.  Both are good musicians, Casey perhaps even excellent with the guitar.  Crystal seems to be the natural winner based on her consistent way of making songs her own. Casey’s not quite as good with this, but he makes up for it with his good ol’ boy charm and flowing locks.

What do YOU think?  Am I totally nuts? Or are you too bored with the 9th season to think about it?

1 comment April 8, 2010

Blog resurrection

So it’s been a year and a half since I’ve even thought about a blog post….Easter weekend should be a good time for a resurrection, eh?

Lots of changes in the past year and a half…job change, baby…okay so only two things but boy those two can keep a girl busy. I’ve been thinking about starting back again for a month, but with a baby attached to my side and  laundry, dishes, cooking to do when he’s not, well, you might understand why I haven’t done it before now.

So come back and visit. I have a few things on my mind.  I’ll probably post some Idol chatter again.And right now I have a nagging desire to read the healthcare bill for myself and stop liestening to…whoever, no matter which side it is. Call me crazy, some 2000-plus pages. So anyway, I hopeyou’ll read and comment. And if not, at least be entertained.

Hope you’re well!

Add a comment April 1, 2010

Pomp and Circumstance

Wow, has it really been almost 5 months since I’ve posted anything?  At least you won’t have high expectations for my next post!

So why “Pomp and Circumstance”?  I just finished my LAST CLASS to complete my Business Management degree!!  What next?  New job, soon as I can find one.  I’d ask y’all to keep your eyes open, but since half of you are not in NC, it won’t help much.

I hope to post more in the future, now that I’ll have SO much free time (yeah, right).  Perhaps I’ll start posting about our trip down the path to adoption….we finished our homestudy on Sunday and should be getting our family profile seen by the end of September if all goes well. 

I’d love to hear from you….

1 comment August 27, 2008

Ob-la-di, ob-la-da…

….life goes on.  Right? 

So by now you’ve probably figured out that I haven’t heard any good news about the job I wanted.  This week Jamie found out someone else was hired, which is what I’d figured for the last two weeks but kept waiting for that letter in the mail.  Situations at work that caused me to start looking have only worsened, so now I really have to start looking hard for something that makes sense….closer to home, minus the huge corporation attitude, hopefully still decent money…. good luck, right?

On to brighter topics.  I’m not much of a basketball fan, but UNC’s men are headed for the final four.  That makes the two males in my family happy.  My daughter is a Duke fan (right now) so she doesn’t care to watch.  I like to watch Tyler Hansbrough play, so right now I’m a UNC fan.  Hoping to watch UNC win the tournament next weekend.

Any comments from anyone on Idol, Season whatever?  I’m glad to see Amanda Overmyer gone, finally, and more and more leaning toward either Archuleta or David Cook as the final winner.  Archuleta’s cute and fun to watch, and an amazing singer, but David Cook really has done some amazing songs in ways I didn’t expect them to be performed.  should be an interesting season.

Anythings else you want to hear about or talk about?

3 comments March 30, 2008

Come on, BE STILL.

Yes, I’ve been a slacker.  Last night as I sat in class I considered writing an entry, but the fact that I couldn’t keep an internet connection long enough to look at the weather discouraged me. Tell me if it makes sense that a student attending ground courses at a school known for its ON-LINE courses can’t get a good connection at the campus? 

In my last post I mentioned that I struggle with being still.  The last month or so has been filled with good examples of this fact. It’s been a flurry of activity around here, and one of the things I’ve been up to is sending out a few resumés.  I sent a few and just stumbled on a job opening 4 miles from my home.  I applied for this job also, and used every avenue I knew of to try to get myself an interview.  Tuesday I went for an interview, and spent the rest of the day fretting off and on about what I would do if I got a job offer from that company before getting an interview just down the road.  I kept reminding myself to be still, do not be anxious, don’t worry, be patient…all that stuff, but if I let my mind wander I was back on “what to do, what to do?”  Finally I just asked God (for about the 10th time) to shut the doors that needed to be shut and open the door He wants me to go through.  And at 4:45 Tuesday afternoon I received the call I’d been waiting for, asking for an interview on Monday morning.

God is good, all the time…….even when I can’t be still to realize it.  Prayer warriors, please pray that God will open this door that would lead to really great things for our family!

3 comments February 27, 2008