I'm tired of all the stupid things that keep happening to me...and somebody had better do something about it!

A couple of weeks ago I posted about being pissed after learning I had shingles that were released in my system by the chemotherapy treatments I underwent to treat my breast cancer. At the end of the post I jokingly said "what's next, leprosy?" or something like that. Well, no, not leprosy. Just clumsiness.

A couple of days ago I was hurrying to switch clothes from the washer to the dryer and bring dry clothes up from the basement while on the way to work. As I grabbed the basket and started to make my way to the foot of the stairs, I tripped over the outdoor extension cord that was lying on the floor. I didn't remember that it was there and, of course, in my haste I just fell over. I twisted to the side on the way down, thinking I could set the basket down and possibly save myself. Instead I ended up going down on my side and hitting the back of my head on the edge of the door jamb. Hard.

I lay there for a minute, reliving the sound of the wood crunching under the impact of my head and also thinking that almost every accident I have ever had in my life (and there have been a number of them) were the result of my hurrying. When I was 18 I fell down the stairs of my apartment building and hit my chin on the concrete, causing a cut that required 10 stitches. When I was a lot older, I fell down the stairs here at home, hurrying to work again, and broke my nose on the closed door I hit when I landed on my face - that required surgery to repair. When we were moving my daughter's furniture to Chicago I hurried out the front door to get in the truck and tripped over a newspaper that had been delivered, breaking my ankle. There have been a few more, but I think you get the idea.

I got out the ice and made a pack that I left on the very large bump for 4 hours. Thanks to that treatment, the bump was very small the next day, but it is still painful. Maybe I need that as a reminder.

I...need...to...slow...down. Seriously. Before I kill myself.

New Poll to Measure Hottest Baritone - Vote for Nathan Gunn!

Instead of contesting the results of the Barihunks poll from last week, I've set up my own. Please vote in the poll in the sidebar - we will definitely show Barihunks who the hottest baritone is, once and for all!

Tango for the Guinness World Record Next Weekend!

Last week I attended my first Tango "practice" dance class. It's not an ordinary class by any means - our community is attempting to capture the Guinness World Record for the Largest Dance by Couples next Saturday, February 21st. We need 1100 couples (or 2200 people) to dance the tango for five minutes straight to win. For all the details please click this link Tango Decatur

The only bad part is that I have never tangoed and my only knowledge of the tango has been gleaned from movies, most noteable among those True Lies with Arnold Schwarzenegger. When the instructor asked the class what we knew I said "the man drags the woman across the ground at some point, right?" to which he laughed uproariously. Fine. I'm an idiot. After that faux pas I didn't dare say anything about the transfer of the stem of a rose from one mouth to another.

I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself. We have a basic step, a step with a rocking thing in the middle and then a step that has the man swerve the side and we follow. Anyway, we don't have to do all the fancy steps, just the basic one over and over. For five minutes. I'm guessing it's going to be the longest five minutes of my life. I'll give you all the details after the event.

Book Review - No Regrets by Michele Ann Young

This book should have been titled Plenty of Regrets for buying this POS. Seriously.

Caroline Torrington is large. She wears glasses. This is mentioned in just about every breath, so no one is allowed to forget it. Sometimes she is called buxom. So you wonder, does that mean her boobs are big? Or does it mean that she's fat? Who knows? And after about 100 pages, who cares?

Caroline is the daughter of a vicar, and it is revealed in flashbacks that she has known the hero Lucas (Lord Foxhaven) all her life. Once the vicar died Caroline and her three sisters have had to go to work and the start of the book has her washing up dishes from an event in a nearby manor.

Enter Lucas. Lucas is misunderstood by his daddy, so instead of conforming to anything daddy wants, Lucas wants and allows daddy to believe the worst of him. Lucas wanted to play the piano but daddy said no, and since mommy was dead Lucas is unable to do anything he wants to do. Wahhh! Lucas even allows Caroline to take the blame once as children for something he did. What a guy.

When they are grown, Lucas's daddy says, No, Lucas, you cannot marry anyone but Caroline if you want your grandma's money. So Lucas asks Caroline who says, Oh, noes, I cannot marry you as you are cute and I am a dog. Lucas says okay and goes off somewhere to whore it up. Caroline, of course, goes home to weep copious amounts on account of she really wants Lucas but can never have him. Huh?

Time goes by. Lucas really, really needs his money. He wants to build a school for street kids to learn music. Yes, that is just what the poor urchins who don't have anything to eat and live in the street want - they want to play music. How about regular schooling, jobs, etc? But I digress. Lucas needs his money to get this school for the poor deprived musicians underway. So he takes another run at Caroline - this time he comes into a house party where she is washing dishes while on horseback. Now this might sound semi-romantic but Lucas doesn't really want Caroline - he just needs her John Hancock on the marriage certificate to get his money.

He picks her up on the horse, rides up the stairs of this manor with her and locks them in a room so she will be hopelessly compromised and have to marry him. Oh, woe is Caroline. So ugly, fat, large, buxom. So unworthy of the hot Lucas. Okay, I'll marry you but only if you provide seasons for my indigent sisters. I was surprised that Lucas didn't say, "Hey - are your sisters frustrated musicians? 'Cause I've got a deal for you". Instead he agrees and they both sign a paper that if either of them want out of the marriage for any reason it shall be so.

Now married Lucas must control himself around the fat, large, buxom Caroline. Of course this is difficult, so every now and then, just to keep her off balance, he'll sneak and kiss/feel/etc. and then reject her. So she is more convinced than ever that he is hot and she is not. Caroline figures out Lucas is going somewhere secret - the school for street urchins turned musicians, of course, but he couldn't come right out and tell her, for God's sake! - and she figures he's got a hottie on the side.

In comes Lucas's father's favorite nephew. He is the favored one over Lucas on account of he takes the father's crap and doesn't say anything (see, Lucas?!) and unknown to Lucas he really wants all the old man's money, all of Lucas's money and the fat/large/buxom Caroline to boot. Entre le conflict.

He is super nice to Caroline while Lucas blows hot and cold. He convinces Caroline to leave Lucas which plays right into his and another blackguard's hands. You see, as if this weren't a stupid enough book, we have a French cousin who comes along and tells Caroline that she is heir to a large estate in France so she should come meet her auntie. The inheritance thing is true, so cousin will have to marry Caroline to keep his hands on it. He doesn't think Caroline is fat/large/buxom, so of course she goes to France.

Meantime, the street urchin musicians have had enough and start to cause Lucas difficulty so he can't run right after Caroline.

Finally he gets free of the situation and goes to France where the bad guys are vanquished, they make up and all is well. For them, I guess, cause by that time I was ready to hurl the book. Talk about stupid. They never get it on, no one gets it on, the bad guys were transparent and the plot sucked.

This type of plot makes me crazy. One small conversation could have cleared up everything. Hey, Caroline, I don't think you're fat/large/buxom and you are worthy, and btw I have a house full of dirty musicians - wanna be house mom? Hey, Lucas, OKAY. The end. I could have saved myself a few hours and frustration if I could have just written that in the first chapter.

Live and learn. And I've learned not to read anything by this author again. Sheesh.

Another Nathan Gunn Convert!

Last weekend I was forced by my somewhat elderly mother to drive her to visit my sick cousin in Lincoln, Illinois, a small town about 35 miles away and only accessible by the dreaded two lane highway...passing cars is not a favorite occupation. 35 miles is an hour+ in two-lane-highway minutes. Sigh.

The visit was done and we were on the way back when I asked her if she had had time yet to listen to the Just Before Sunrise CD that I had given her for Christmas A YEAR AGO. (She keeps telling me that she will, she will, she's just so busy, and so forth.) Of course she replied, "No, I haven't - tell me again who this guy is?"

Well, I went into my usual dissertation. Best baritone that ever lived, a lyric baritone which is different than bass and others, not a "tree trunk Verdi baritone singer" (paraphrasing NG himself). I further tried to get her where she lived by telling her that he had played Lancelot back in May...she loves her some Camelot (the Richard Harris/Richard Burton talking versions) and she thought Robert Goulet was a GOD. Still just uh-huhs from her. So I decide to bring out the big GUNN. (<--ha ha, I crack myself up)

"Mom," I say, "it just so happens that the CD is in the player so let's listen to it now" and before she can say anything I get it going. She at first protests that it is too loud. (I like my Nathan cranked up so that when I sing along I don't hear how bad I am in his key.) So I reduce the sound slightly, but she does have a hearing issue so I keep it up a bit so she won't miss anything.

After listening to him sing The Briar and The Rose, she turns to me and says, (get this) "It's so pleasant to listen to a voice that you can tell is a MAN. It just feels like a warm hug, doesn't it?"

HOLY CANNELLONI - my Mom totally gets it! Apparently Hell has frozen over since the last time I checked.

When we completed our trip and I dropped her off at home, she was saying to herself, "Now where did I put that CD?"

Conversion complete. BOOYAH!

OMG Nathan Gunn - Fix It Already!!

I noticed several months ago that Nathan Gunn's page on IMDB (Internet Movie Database) is incredibly sparse and basically uninformative. No pic of our hero, unbelieveably enough, just a link to The Colbert Report and some random and somewhat incorrect filmography information.

I know, I know, he's not a "movie star" per se, but that site is for anyone in the entertainment business and I think he more than qualifies with his Met HD DVD of The Magic Flute, not to mention other TV appearances on PBS' Great Perfomances and so forth.

It's not the lack of a bio pic that has me screaming, though - it's that the link posted to The Colbert Report just goes to a Hulu.com IMDB page and the latest Colbert Report episode. It doesn't even take you to Nathan's interview on 5-6-2008 which was, for lack of a better word, interesting.

The short filmography displayed shows him as portraying Papageno in PETER GRIMES in 2008 for an episode of Great Performances. Yes, the bird-catching Papageno from The Magic Flute. He does an excellent job in that role, but I doubt that is what Britten or Mozart had in mind. How about fixing that? And did he actually play Jaws Brogan in an episode of Out of Sight in 1996? Or does that credit truly belong to Nathan Gunn Number 3 (believe it or not there are three Nathan Gunns in the entertainment industry)? What's up with listing two appearances on The Colbert Report, one in 2007, one in 2008? He might have been scheduled for 2007 to hawk Just Before Sunrise and got caught up in the writer's strike, but I don't think he made more than one appearance. Take a look if you think I'm making this up: IMDB Nathan Gunn Number 2

Doesn't this guy have a publicist? On his home page, NathanGunn.com, there is a category titled "Links" that gives information on his management, which is all over the world. Could one of those people, who no doubt take a bit of moolah from him, check this out? It has been this way for months, for God's sake. I'd change it myself if I had his permission.

How am I going to convert people and get them all rowdied up for Nathan when the info they need to fall in love with him is faulty?

I'm pleading with you, Nathan Gunn's management or whoever takes care of his publicity - fix it! And put up a pic for his bio. And fill out his bio. And list all his performances correctly. And...well, you get the idea. And if you can't or don't want to, let me!! Leave a comment here - I'll zoom over and take care of the whole thing posthaste. 'Cause I loves me my NG.

Nathan Gunn...TIED?!

I am inconsolable. In spite of all my marketing, my word of mouth, my posting...Nathan Gunn TIED with David Adam Moore at Barihunks for hottest baritone with both singers receiving 23% of the vote. Sigh.

I know the truth, though. Those Moore fans padded the ballot box. It had nothing to do with his rising star, his physique, his voice. It was politics, pure and simple, and Nathan was punished for not coming out from his busy schedule to campaign.

No matter. He's still the hottest Barihunk around my universe. Take that, Mr. Moore.

Nathan Gunn Whispers Sweet Nothings...

...unfortunately not in my ear, but in his wife's. Sigh.



I found this article while looking through some old University of Illinois Alumni magazines for an engineering article for my son. It leapt up and slapped me in the face - a true OMG moment. I was lucky to hunt and peck online to find it there.

Here's the link:

http://www.uiaa.org/urbana/illinoisalumni/0701_b.html

Such a nice article about Nathan and Julie Gunn. It's interesting to see that they were apparently predestined to find each other. On the other hand, if my 20 year old son had told me he was getting married...well, let's just say we would have talked quite a bit about it beforehand, then he would have done exactly as he wanted and I would have supported him, albeit hoping it was not a mistake.

It seems very young to me now, but reading the article it also seems as though Nathan was aware of that and worried a bit himself. Perhaps he has an old soul. My once 20 year old sons were more concerned with video games, football and basketball than love and I was very glad for it. That's not to say that they didn't want them some womens - it's more like they did not find "the one" in college. That might have been my fault. I did not get to college due to "love" and had my oldest daughter when I was 19. I hammered into all my children that they had time for that once their education was complete. So Nathan and Julie must have been very special to know what they wanted and not to worry about finishing school or money or any of that back when they were that age. And their parents must have been special, too, to support them through that process, which I assume they did. Good on ya, parental units!

Anyway, good article and clears up some of my questions about their lives, which, admittedly, are none of my business. It's just that I think of my six kids and our lives and the business of it, getting everything done everyday, getting everyone everywhere, let alone being an international opera singer...well, it boggles the mind. People often ask me how I did it and I think that once you're in it, and you're doing it, you just DO IT. You don't think about the how or the why and I'm often truly startled when I think of all we actually accomplished when they were young. No international trips on the scale of the Gunn family, but we went somewhere every year in the summer, lots of driving trips (couldn't afford air travel back then) and we managed to see most of the U.S. in a good way. I think (I hope) all of my kids would say they had a great time and education (even if they fought me all through the Little Bighorn National Battlefield - Mom and her stale old history). But just imagine if I'd been able to afford to do more.

Making their children citizens of the world through international travel can only benefit the Gunn kids. Tolerance is achieved through understanding of different peoples and cultures and I think the Gunn family has it going on already. Good for them.

Happy 200th Birthday Abraham Lincoln!

Abraham Lincoln has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Mr. Lincoln practiced law as part of the judicial circuit that included most of Central Illinois and specifically Decatur, where he tried cases in the Macon County Courthouse. You can't go anywhere in Central Illinois without finding some connection to Mr. Lincoln in most towns.

Living only 35 miles from his home in Springfield, Illinois, going to visit it was a yearly destination for my family when I was a child and, as I got older, for myself and my friends. I must have visited his home in the neighborhood of 100 times or more. The things I could tell you about how that area has changed since then. The house itself was always revered, but the surrounding neighborhood was full of gift and souvenir shops for a very long time. I remember parking right in front of the house to go in to tour it. This photo is from before my time, but it shows the disregard for the house with the Pepsi truck parked in front:



Then something wonderful happened - the National Park Service took over the house in the 1980s, bought out the entire area, and has restored other houses in the neighborhood to their original state from Lincoln's time. The streets are correct, the landscaping correct. It is now a joy to behold. Here's a picture of the home as it is now:



Nowadays I take my grandchildren and any and all visiting relatives, work vendors, friends, etc. This last weekend, however, was special.


February 12, 2009, is the 200th birthday for Abraham Lincoln and the entire state has been abuzz with events (an 1860s Ball, a showing of the play Our American Cousin which was what the Lincolns were watching when he was killed, etc.) and special showings/readings and so forth for the past six months. I knew that I would take my grandchildren over this weekend so that they could say that they were part of the festivities when they got older.

We started at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum:



What a great job they did with the Museum and Library! It only took about 20 years and continual political footballing for it to get finally constructed, but it is a wonderful place. It follows Lincoln's life from the time he was a boy to the time he was shot. It is very interactive and has something to please even the most techno of visitors. I was there the day after opening day and many times since (like I said, grandkids, visitors, etc.) and with the gallery area always having a new exhibit, I am never bored.

We then headed down the street to the Old State Capitol:



This is the place where Lincoln gave his "House Divided" speech in the Representative Hall, where he tried many cases before the Illinois Supreme Court and also where he borrowed books from the State Library. On Saturday they hosted area choirs, allowing them to sing spiritual music from Lincoln's time in Representative Hall. There were people in period dress all over, and they gave us pink lemonade and cookies as we toured.

After that we went over to the Lincoln-Herndon Law Office:



This is the only remaining building where Lincoln maintained a law office with his partner, William Herndon, from 1843 to 1852. The building has been restored and has the original Springfield post office on the ground floor.

From there we traveled out to the tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery:



Lincoln was interred in this tomb long after his death...in fact, for a few years after his death he was kept in a different vault, waiting for this tomb to be completed. His body was the object of a kidnapping plot before he was finally able to be put to rest here. The attempted kidnapping plot and the saga of his burial are the subject of a wonderful book by Thomas Craughwell entitled "Stealing Lincoln's Body".

On this day, though, it was more of a time to pay respect. I took the grandchildren into the tomb before the ceremony began so we could view his "sarcophagus" - a misnomer as he is actually buried six feet under the monument in solid concrete (again, read that book to get the details).

Going back outside, a combined choir sang The Battle Hymn of the Republic and Amazing Grace to honor Mr. Lincoln.

Although the grandchildren are only six and three, I know they got something from the experience. The three year old told me that she enjoyed visiting Mr. Lincoln and was especially pleased when I bought her a prairie bonnet earlier in the day so she could look like the lady in the period dress inside the capitol. The six year old surprised me with some very sage questions - he was really paying attention and that is what I wanted. I want them to enjoy and respect the history of the United States, and the special connection all of us feel to Mr. Lincoln as he lived so close by.

Happy 200th Birthday, Mr. Lincoln - I'm glad we got to be part of it!

Calling All Nathan Gunn-ites!! We Need Your HELP!!

Over at the Barihunks blog (http://barihunks.blogspot.com/) they are conducting a poll to determine the hottest barihunk (translation for the uninformed - the hottest baritone). Nathan is currently on top (oh, the places my mind goes to sometimes), but he has two other contenders nipping at his heels!

I call on you, the Nathan Gunn, the naked Nathan Gunn, the half-naked Nathan Gunn populace to wing over to the aforementioned Barihunks and vote! We can't let Nathan lose this most prestigious award...it would be criminal since he clearly is the hottest barihunk around!

We are counting on YOU! There is only a day or two left before this poll ends, so please, please don't let Nathan down. I'm sure that winning this contest will be the pinnacle of his career. Or not, but still...he deserves it!

Nathan Gunn and One Degree of Separation

OMG. It just occured to me today that my favorite baritone, Nathan Gunn, has only one degree of separation from my celebrity boyfriend, Pierce Brosnan. How, you ask? Well, I'll tell you.

I was listening to Just Before Sunrise (see sidebar for a widget with song excerpts) and one of the songs on the CD is The Parting Glass. As I was listening for the 100th time, it finally dawned on me that Pierce sang this exact same song in the movie Evelyn! I think the reason it took so long for me to realize this is that their singing styles are quite a bit different...by that I mean Nathan Gunn is excellent, Pierce, well, Pierce is cute, okay? I loved Mamma Mia, by the way, and thought Pierce did as good as he possibly could in the role of Sam, but I didn't buy the soundtrack for that alone.

Don't take my word about The Parting Glass - judge for yourself. Watch/listen to this Youtube video of the song from the movie. Then go to the sidebar and find The Parting Glass in the Just Before Sunrise songlist. I think you will see what I mean.



Forgive me, Pierce, for putting you in this postion, but MAN. There is no comparison.

Why Does Work Have to be so Difficult?

Today work sucked. I mean really, truly sucked. Most days things go along as expected...I can't get enough done in the day and most nights I bring work home. I didn't bring a thing home today besides a HUGE headache.

A little background about me before I get into this. I started life at the police department as a dispatcher. I continued that job for 18 years when I received a promotion to the first ever dispatch supervisor in my department. I worked that position for 3 years, then the city decided to purchase a computer-aided dispatch system. I was recruited to set it all up and get it going - CAD, Records, mobile units. Somehow I just slid over into that job and I've held it for the last 10 years, in addition to being "attached" (so to speak) to the Communications Center as a consultant. Being a consultant just means that I have been there the longest, so I put my two cents in on anything I'm asked to. I usually start those conversations by saying "back in the day we...".

My job often requires diplomacy and tact, neither of which were around today. Technically I work for my city police department, but I also administer the public safety computer system for the entire county. That includes the city police, the city fire department, the county police and 26 volunteer county fire departments. Each one of these entities has an idea of how things should be run. The sad part is that I have been chronically short of tact and diplomacy since birth.

In the last year I have been dragging the fire department kicking and screaming into the 21st century technology wise. We implemented mobile computers in the apparatus in December and it has been nothing but fun since. I think I probably get about 5-6 emails a day about problems that aren't really problems. What I mean is that they are inexperienced with this technology, so when they have what they believe is a problem it is usually operator error, or easily explained.

The biggest problem is that I'd had enough today. I have what I call a bullsh*t indicator in my head and when I've swallowed enough crap from someone/something it eventually gets into the red. When that happens, I blow. Today it was all over the correct response order for fire units. Imagine that.

I have changed and retooled and changed again the order of responding units for the fire department until I'm blue in the face. In fact, I've changed it about 5 times, which is not an easy task and too complex to explain here. Anywho, I wrote an email that I'm guessing will come back to haunt me tomorrow all about how they need to make up their minds and LEAVE ME ALONE.

On the surface this doesn't sound all that bad...or I'm hoping it doesn't. The downside is that I copied the fire chief on the email...and I'm pretty sure I'll regret it. I like him, he is a great person, but I have had enough. It just probably wasn't too smart to add him to the email.

I guess we'll see tomorrow.