Fingers crossed

I'm still frosted by the other night.  I wrote about mothers, and it took me a while, and in the blink of an eye it disappeared.  And now it seems too late to redo it.  Anyway, it was cool to see my son and my wife celebrate their first Mother's Day together, but in reality I think that every day since December 21 has been Mother's Day, and it always will be Mother's Day from now on.

I have one more thought about this, but I will save it for a while later.

Some quick other thoughts:

-I'm ecstatic about the gay marriage ruling in California for no other reason than it makes the uber-conservatives froth at the mouth, which reinforces that the GOP is the party of discrimination.  I can't get enough of the Dr. James Dobsons of the world hyperventilating about "traditional" marriage being "under attack."  I can't help but wonder if they all have a little bit of Ted Haggard brewing inside of them.  Otherwise, why are they so concerned?  What I don't understand about the anti-gay crowd is their ignorance (or indifference) at the fact that homsexuality has been around as long as man has.  Have they not read about Ancient Greece?  The Roman Empire?  And spare me the "it's in the Bible!" rant; so is killing your children if they are disrespectful.  Just as they do with the Constitution, conservatives selectively interpret the Bible.

-Yo, Hillary!  There's the door, don't let it hit you in the ass on the way out.  There's no way to convince me that she wants Obama to win.  She's willing to sacrifice the next four years of this country just so she can run again in 2012.  No one will be more disappointed with a McCain defeat than she.

-I'm stunned at how the incompetence of others sometimes puts me behind.  Grad school, I'm talking to you.

Wrapping it up with a random eleven.  The dude I stole this concept from has been on fire lately.

1. "City of Blinding Light"-U2.  I'm usually not too fond of "anthem" songs, particularly by groups like U2 who should know better, but I dig this one.  And I did before Obama picked this as his campaign song.  I would have had a hard time with this being Mitt Romney's though.

2. "My Baby"-The Pretenders.  I don't really listen to this song differently since Desmond was born.  I've always thought the baby in this song to be a lover instead of a child.  Have I mentioned that I do a killer version of "Brass in Pocket"?

3. "Shiny Happy People"-REM.  It's amazing how many people think of this song as REM's "Sussudio."   I like it, always have.  Nephew embarrassment time: he graduated from the University of Illinois-Chicago last Saturday (and already has a job; good for him, I say, through gritted teeth).  This song came out in 1991, when he was five.  Whenever I played the CD and this came on, he'd come running into the room and dance to it.  Unfortunately, I do not have any video of this.  But it happened.  A lot.

4. "Hard Day's Night"-The Beatles.  I'm starting to think I dreamed this because no one seems to know what the heck I am talking about, but I swear when I was a kid that there was a Beatles cartoon show.  I don't remember much of it, but I do recall that the opening and closing credits featured the Beatles running away from mobs of screaming girls while this song played.  And Ringo was portrayed as a complete dumb-ass.  At one point, he gets bonked on the head with an anchor or an anvil, and it doesn't faze him a bit.  "You know I work all day" (CLANK!) "to get you money to buy your things."

5. "Spanish Dancer"-Steve Winwood.  Winwood was a huge influence on me during my freshman year at Iowa, when Back in the High Life was at the top of the album charts.  This song isn't on it, but it is on Chronicles, his greatest hits CD.  I lived in a room on the first floor of the dorm, and we had a huge window that faced north.  I can remember sitting at my desk at night with no lights on just staring out that window, listening to this song.  Those were interesting times.

6. "Amsterdam"-Coldplay.  This is a big roadtrip song for me.  The first (of many) in the years post-retail was to New England in October 2002 and A Rush of Blood to the Head got some heavy rotation in my car stereo.  It also reminds me of John Irving's A Widow for One Year, which I was reading around this time and has a significant portion take place in Amsterdam.  Still can't get over what happened to Rooey.

7. "Sky Bird"-Neil Diamond.  When I was a kid we had an 8-track player (a concept that seems laughable now, can you imagine people tolerating a song changing tracks in the middle?) and I got hooked on the Jonathan Livingston Seagull release.  I'm not familiar with the literary aspect of JLS at all, but I like the music. 

8. "Burning Photographs"-Ryan Adams.  Ladies and gentlemen, the number one played track on my i-pod.  And I couldn't give you the title of another Ryan Adams song to save my life.

9. "All or Nothing at All"-Frank Sinatra.  Eh.  This is mediocre Frank at best, but I put it on the 'pod because of the organ solo towards the end.  If indeed it is an organ.  Maybe it's a hurdy gurdy.

10. "Chicago"-Sufjan Stevens.  One of the all-time greatest road trip songs ever recorded.  I don't even mind that it's in Little Miss Sunshine (though I am bothered at the error that occurs in the movie at that time).  I recall driving out of Joshua Tree National Park on a blistering hot August afternoon (number of scorpions seen in the park: 1; number of other people seen in the two hours I spent in the park: 0) and heading east towards Arizona on I-10 when this song came on.  Can't help but think of cacti now every time I hear it.

11. "I Grieve"-Peter Gabriel.  That this song was released shortly after June 2002 is indeed an eerie coincidence; that its lyrics mirror my thoughts for most of the rest of that year is a measure of influence, I'm sure, but whenever I hear it every inch of my skin stands up.

Getting ready to hit "save."  This had better not disappear.

UPDATE: Yippee