How do you decide where to live?
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Family, Home
Over the last two years, Sam and I have talked about moving elsewhere. Georgia has almost no consumer protections for citizens, has a crappy support structure for humans in just about every way you can imagine, and has law enforcement who don’t care to enforce laws unless you’ve got enough money to get their attention. Essentially, we want to live in a blue state, which means leaving the Bible belt. Cooler weather would be nice, too. Less humid heat, at least, would be a relief.
We haven’t really made plans, not wanting to uproot Katie while she was in school and so on. There’s a lot of inertia, too, since I’ve been here all my life (except for the few years in Alabama before my parents moved us to Atlanta). Sam was born here, and wasn’t thrilled with New York or New Jersey when he lived there. Our families are here, which means something, even if we don’t see them that often.
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Tags: Alabama, anti-gay marriage law, Atlanta, Baltimore, California, Chicago, Connecticut, Corvallis, Eugene, Georgia, high tech, law enforcement, Maryland, Massachusetts, Medford, Milwaukee, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Portland, Rhode Island, Rockville, Salem, Sam, Silicon Forest, Washington, Woods Hole
Musical Memories
Posted by Cyn | Filed under Music
Following Bill (fossilapostle’s) lead, I’ll play along with the “music meme” that’s making the rounds.
Go to Pop Culture Madness and check out the songs from the year in which you turned 18 (1984 for me, if anyone cares). Bold the songs you like(d). Underline or strike the songs you didn’t/don’t. I’m italicizing the ones I’m mostly okay with Like Bill, I’m just leaving the ones I don’t have any strong feeling about alone. Most of those, honestly, I just don’t remember. I’d probably react I heard them instead of just reading their names.
A lot of people my age seem to remember the songs of the 80s by their videos. Our family didn’t have cable TV, and I wasn’t a big TV watcher any way, so I didn’t see most of the videos that went with these songs.
1. Thriller — Michael Jackson — It was number 1? For the year?!! I’ve never been in step with pop culture. Ever. I still haven’t seen the video.
2. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun — Cyndi Lauper
3. Footloose — Kenny Loggins
4. Like A Virgin — Madonna
5. Holiday — Madonna
6. I Can’t Drive 55 — Sammy Hagar
7. Pride (In The Name Of Love) — U2
8. Jam On It — Newcleus
9. Legs — ZZ Top
10. What’s Love Got To Do With It — Tina Turner
11. Time After Time — Cyndi Lauper
12. Lucky Star — Madonna
13. Dancing In The Dark — Bruce Springsteen
14. Cruel Summer — Bananarama
15. She Bop — Cyndi Lauper — I absolutely refuse to believe that it’s about that. No. I won’t.
16. Let’s Hear It For The Boy — Denise Williams
17. Teacher Teacher — 38 Special
18. Stay With Me Tonight — Jeffrey Osborne
19. Purple Rain — Prince
20. I Will Follow — U2
21. Miss Me Blind — Culture Club
22. I Feel For You — Chaka Kahn
23. Heart Of Rock and Roll — Huey Lewis and the News
24. Karma Chameleon — Culture Club
25. Let’s Stay Together — Tina Turner
26. Eat It — Wierd Al Yancovic — wow, he’s been around a long time, hasn’t he?
27. Borderline — Madonna
28. We’re Not Gonna Take It — Twisted Sister
29. Let’s Go Crazy — Prince
30. Let The Music Play — Shannon
31. Cover Me — Bruce Springsteen
32. Holding Out For A Hero — Bonnie Tyler
33. Runaway — Bön Jovi
34. Rock You Like A Hurricane — Scorpions
35. Somebody’s Watching Me — Rockwell
36. Remember The Nights — The Motels
37. Jump — Van Halen
38. I Want A New Drug — Huey Lewis and the News
39. Bang Your Head (Mental Health) — Quiet Riot
40. 99 Luftballons — Nena
41. White Horse — Laid Back
42. Wake Me Up Before You Go Go — Wham
43. Mama We’re All Crazee Now — Quiet Riot
44. Caribbean Queen — Billy Ocean
45. I Wanna Rock — Twisted Sister
46. Jump (For My Love) — Pointer Sisters
47. Ya Mo Be There — James Ingram
48. Rebel Yell — Billy Idol
49. Against All Odds — Phil Collins
50. Better Be Good To Me — Tina Turner
51. Sister Christian — Night Ranger
52. 10−9−8 — Face to Face
53. Illegal Alien — Genesis
54. It’s My Life — Talk Talk
55. Look At That Cadillac — Stray Cats — odd, I rather liked them but can’t remember this song at all
56. When Doves Cry — Prince
57. Hard Habit To Break — Chicago
58. I Just Called To Say I Love You — Stevie Wonder
59. Taking It All Too Hard — Genesis
60. No Parking (On The Dance Floor) — Midnight Star
61. Hot For Teacher — Van Halen
62. High Energy — Evelyn Thomas
63. Superstar/Until You Come Back To Me — Luthor Vandross
64. The Longest Time — Billy Joel
65. To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before — Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson
66. On The Dark Side — John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band
67. State of Shock — Jacksons and Mick Jagger — they did something together?
68. Missing You — John Waite
69. Midnight Maniac — Krokus
70. Blue Light — David Gilmour
71. Freakshow On The Dancefloor — Bar-Kays — who the heck is that?
72. A Girl In Trouble (Is A Temporary Thing) — Romeo Void
73. You’re The Best Thing — The Style Council
74. Love Kills — Freddie Mercury
75. Sex Shooter — Apollonia 6 — huh?
If they’d asked about contemporary Christian music of the time, I’d remember more. I was singing all the time at church back then, and constantly looking for new material.
To be honest, I didn’t remember a whole lot of the people at my high school reunion, even though it had only been five years since we’d graduated. As people came over and greeted us, I read their nametags, played the small talk game, and kept turning to the girlfriend who attended with me and husband v.2 saying, “Are you sure he/she went to school with us? Absolutely?” (They knew who I was — one benefit of being the valedictorian and being involved in a bunch of extracurriculars, plus having a best friend who has never met a stranger. At least she remembered all of them!) That’s part of why I didn’t bother going to the other reunions we’ve had since then. Sadly, I’m doing better with the songs than I did with the people, statistically speaking.
Tags: Billy Idol, Billy Joel, Billy Ocean, Bonnie Tyler, Bruce Springsteen, Cable TV, Caribbean, Chicago, Christian - Night Ranger, Culture Club, Cyndi Lauper, David Gilmour, Denise Williams, Evelyn Thomas, Freddie Mercury, Huey Lewis, James Ingram, Jeffrey Osborne, John Cafferty, John Waite, Julio Iglesias, Karma Chameleon, Kenny Loggins, Me Blind, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Phil Collins, Romeo Void, Sammy Hagar, Shock - Jacksons Jagger, Stevie Wonder, Style Council, Tina Turner, Van Halen, Willie Nelson
