The first 25 things I can see cluttering the surface of my desk right now:

1.    One bag of Lays Kettle Cooked Mesquite BBQ potato chips…about ½ c. of chips left.
2.    CD of photographs on “How to skin a snake” that my uncle sent me for Christmas.
3.    A four inch stack of photos that need to be sorted.
4.    1 pad of Post-it Notes (Lime Green…because I’m out of the fun colors!).
5.    1 Family Circus book.
6.    1 Nora Jones CD
7.    1 antique copy of the book “Lucile” by Meredith Owen.
8.    5 Paper Mate ink pens (blue ink).
9.    1 chocolate Tootsie Pop.
10.    2 Gold hoop earrings.
11.    1 purple Sharpie marker.
12.    1 “New Moon” ticket stub.
13.    1 Rose is Rose Comic Collection book.
14.    A small box of letters written by my grandma to my grandpa in 1937.
15.    17 used Post-It Notes with various scribblings on them.
16.    3 letters from Mitchel.
17.    1 quarter.
18.    1 sheet of return address labels from the Disabled Veterans.
19.    1 small custard bowl with 8 wire bread ties.
20.    1 Autumn-Themed card from my friend Gina.
21.    2 packages of orange replacement bulbs for a string of 100 Halloween lights.
22.    1 tin-type of my great-grandfather Hershner and his band.
23.    1 postcard of West Point, NY…postmarked 1926 and written by my great-great grandfather Isaac Wood.
24.    Part of a proofreaders printed chapter/corrections for Kiss in the Dark asking how Vance used his I.O.U.
25.    One Band Aid.

01. That’s What Friends Are For » Dionne & Friends
02. Say You, Say Me » Lionel Richie
03. I Miss You » Klymaxx
04. On My Own » Patti Labelle & Michael McDonald
05. Broken Wings » Mr. Mister
06. How Will I Know » Whitney Houston
07. Party All The Time » Eddie Murphy
08. Burning Heart » Survivor
09. Kyrie » Mr. Mister
10. Addicted To Love » Robert Palmer
11. Greatest Love Of All » Whitney Houston
12. Secret Lovers » Atlantic Starr
13. Friends And Lovers » Carl Anderson & Gloria Loring
14. Glory Of Love » Peter Cetera
15. West End Girls » Pet Shop Boys
16. There’ll Be Sad Songs » Billy Ocean
17. Alive And Kicking » Simple Minds
18. Never » Heart
19. Kiss » Prince & The Revolution
20. Higher Love » Steve Winwood
21. Stuck With You » Huey Lewis & The News
22. Holding Back The Years » Simply Red
23. Sledgehammer » Peter Gabriel
24. Sara » Starship
25. Human » Human League
26. I Can’t Wait » Nu Shooz
27. Take My Breath Away » Berlin
28. Rock Me Amadeus » Falco
29. Papa Don’t Preach » Madonna
30. You Give Love A Bad Name » Bon Jovi
31. When The Going Gets Tough » Billy Ocean
32. When I Think Of You » Janet Jackson
33. These Dreams » Heart
34. Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone) » Glass Tiger
35. Live To Tell » Madonna
36. Mad About You » Belinda Carlisle
37. Something About You » Level 42
38. Venus » Bananarama
39. Dancing On The Ceiling » Lionel Richie
40. Conga » Miami Sound Machine
41. True Colors » Cyndi Lauper
42. Danger Zone » Kenny Loggins
43. What Have You Done For Me Lately » Janet Jackson
44. No One Is To Blame » Howard Jones
45. Let’s Go All The Way » Sly Fox
46. I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On » Robert Palmer
47. Words Get In The Way » Miami Sound Machine
48. Manic Monday » Bangles
49. Walk Of Life » Dire Straits
50. Amanda » Boston
51. Two Of Hearts » Stacey Q
52. Crush On You » Jets
53. If You Leave » Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
54. Invisible Touch » Genesis
55. The Sweetest Taboo » Sade
56. What You Need » INXS
57. Talk To Me » Stevie Nicks
58. Nasty » Janet Jackson
59. Take Me Home Tonight » Eddie Money
60. We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off » Jermaine Stewart
61. All Cried Out » Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam With Full Force
62. Your Love » Outfield
63. I’m Your Man » Wham!
64. Perfect Way » Scritti Politti
65. Living In America » James Brown
66. R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A. » John Cougar Mellencamp
67. Who’s Johnny » El Debarge
68. Word Up » Cameo
69. Why Can’t This Be Love » Van Halen
70. Silent Running » Mike & The Mechanics
71. Typical Male » Tina Turner
72. Small Town » John Cougar Mellencamp
73. Tarzan Boy » Baltimora
74. All I Need Is A Miracle » Mike & The Mechanics
75. Sweet Freedom » Michael McDonald
76. True Blue » Madonna
77. Rumors » Timex Social Club
78. Life In A Northern Town » Dream Academy
79. Bad Boy » Miami Sound Machine
80. Sleeping Bag » ZZ Top
81. Tonight She Comes » Cars
82. Love Touch » Rod Stewart
83. A Love Bizarre » Sheila E.
84. Throwing It All Away » Genesis
85. Baby Love » Regina
86. Election Day » Arcadia
87. Nikita » Elton John
88. Take Me Home » Phil Collins
89. Walk This Way » Run-D.M.C.
90. Sweet Love » Anita Baker
91. Your Wildest Dreams » Moody Blues
92. Spies Like Us » Paul McCartney
93. Object Of My Desire » Starpoint
94. Dreamtime » Daryl Hall
95. Tender Love » Force M.D.’s
96. King For A Day » Thompson Twins
97. Love Will Conquer All » Lionel Richie
98. A Different Corner » George Michael
99. I’ll Be Over You » Toto
100. Go Home » Stevie Wonder

Since I’ve failed miserably at being a good “Personal Historian,” I decided to start writing some personal history stuff!  Inspired by my mom’s personal history, I began by listing all the places I’ve lived.  However, let me tell you the scary part…by the time your 44…your memory tends to discard certain things and I actually couldn’t remember all the addresses perfectly!  Can you believe it?  Fortunately, I used to be a good correspondent by mail and have tons and tons of letters from friends and family that still have envelopes!  I still need to fill in some blanks…but it’s kind of fun to linger on all the memories I have of living in each place!
Here’s my list of residency from the day I was born ’til now (not including my current house address).  (I alternated bold and italics to make them easier to discern.)  Just for fun…

List of Places/Addresses I’ve lived:

(Birth-1968)
1020 Griegos
Albuquerque, NM 87107

(1968-1971)
(Lego Rd. in Grace, Idaho)
Rt. 1
Grace , ID 83241

(1971-1972)
Cambridge Rd.
Downey, ID 83234

(1972-1983)
129 Pueblo Luna N.W.
Albuquerque, NM 87107

(1983-1984)
(Ricks College)
Dorm 4 (#127?) and (#113)
Rexburg, ID 83440
(Upstairs once semester, downstairs the rest)

(1985-November 1985)
(Aztec Manor Apartments)
403 Aztec N.W. #6-A
Albuquerque, NM 87107

(December 1985-March 1986)
528 N. 200 E. (#?)
Orem, UT 84057

(Briefly in 1986)
(Paseo Del Norte Apartments)
6134 4th St. N.W. #57
Albuquerque, NM 87107

(Late 1986-mid 1987)
(Aztec Manor Apartments)
403 Aztec N.W. #7
Albuquerque, NM 87107

(1987-1988)
602 Grecian Ave. N.W.
Albuquerque, NM 87107

(1989)
(Paseo Del Norte Apartments)
6134 4th St. N.W. (#?)
Albuquerque, NM 87107

(Summer 1989-July 1990)
312 Alda Road
Rio Rancho, NM 87124

(August 1990-Spring 1991)
100 Coney Dr.
Arabi, LA 30707

(1992-April 1997)
743 Uranium Dr. N.E.
Rio Rancho, NM 87124

(1997-July 1998)
5439 Poplar Drive
Ferndale, WA 98248

(August 1998-April 2005)
6011 Sunshine Pl.
Ferndale, WA 98248

(May 2005-July 2005)
114 Vale Circle
Palmer Lake, CO 80133

(August 2005-2008)
19275 Mariah Trail
Colorado Springs, CO 80908

]]> http://unwindyourlife.com/2010/01/addresses/feed/ http://unwindyourlife.com/2009/12/why-i-hate-lemonade/ http://unwindyourlife.com/2009/12/why-i-hate-lemonade/#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:36:19 +0000 unwind http://unwindyourlife.com/?p=351 November 6, 2009

I think I figured out why I hate lemonade! Seriously, I just don’t like lemonade. I’ve always kind of wondered why I don’t like lemonade. I mean, I like lemon drops…not Lemon Heads…but good old-fashioned lemon drops…you know, the hard candy with the sugar on the outside? Mmmm! I don’t think you see them too often now days…probably considered a choking hazzard. Still, other than those frozen lemonade things you can get in the summer at the grocery store and the water parks…I just don’t go for lemonade.

For most of my life I’ve just figured it’s because I really don’t like sour things. I’d totally rather have something sweet. Although, now that I think about it, I did go with a friend to Mesa, Arizona once and she picked some lemons from her brother’s lemon tree and made some fresh-squeezed lemonade…and after she added five or six cups of sugar…I really liked it! But overall…I’ve always kind of had a thing against lemonade.

However, you know how some of your biggest, “Ah ha!” or “Wow!” moments offer epiphanies in the middle of the night? I mean, that’s when I think of most of the story lines for my books…at like three a.m. Anyway, yesterday I woke up in the middle of the night and thought, “Ah ha! I wonder if that’s why I hate lemonade?”

Thus, I believe the reason I’ve always struggled with lemonade…is by memory association! Let me explain:

When I was about seven years old, my mom and dad took me and my little sister (she was maybe eight months old at the time) on a picnic up in the mountains (the Sandia Crest) with some friends of theirs, Jerry and Carol Farr. Oh, it was a lovely day! The air was warm and fresh…fragrant with the scent of cedar. The picnic box was full of delicious picnic type foods (including my mom’s divine potato salad), and a giant jar of lemonade sparkled in the sunshine as we set it down on a nearby fallen tree trunk! Ahhh! What a memory! There was nothing like a trip to the Sandia back then…nothing like eating Mom’s potato salad in the open, free wilderness of the mountains!

Well, things went along at just a lovely, lilting, picnic-in-the-mountains pace as we enjoyed the fresh scents of the trees and the soil…as we ate our potato salad and drank our lemonade. And then…it happened. My little sister (we’ll call her “Luanna,” because that’s really her name) “messed” in her diaper. And I do mean she “messed!” In fact, “messed” in her diaper isn’t even an appropriate description! Rather, the “mess” oozed and leaked out at every nook and cranny, through every bend and venue it could find…running in rivulet’s down her legs and onto anything and everything in its path ! Yeck! (I have a stark vision of my dad holding my sister out away from him as the “mess” oozed and dripped out of her diaper! It’s a very vivid memory! I mean, after all, we were in the mountains…thus, the background scenery for this vision was quite out of the norm…and thus embedded itself permanently into my subconscious.)

Mom soon discovered that they hadn’t remembered to bring any water…none…not a drop. The only liquid we had with us was the lemonade…the lovely, sweet, lemonade. (I have a vision of it still…glistening like liquid sunlight, as it lingered in the large glass jar still sitting on the fallen tree.) Mom was beside herself! No water? How could they have forgotten water? (If you know my mom at all, you know she never goes anywhere without water!) Furthermore, this was long before “”aby wipes.” Needless to say, the picnic was over.

Before I quite knew what was happening, my dad, and his friend Jerry, were washing Luanna off with the only available liquid at hand that could be used to wash a baby’s stinky little bum with…lemonade!

Oh, but the story doesn’t end there! Oh, no! My “dislike of lemonade by memory association” wasn’t set in stone yet! No! That happened when I was elected to hold my baby sister on the hour-long drive home! Not only did my poor baby sister smell like baby poo a la lemonade…she was sooooo sticky! I mean, sticky like flypaper sticky! Sticky and stinky…that’s what she was…and I got to hold her all the way home…at the tender age of seven…the impressionable age of only seven years…the age when your experiences with lemonade are obviously very life-molding. What happens to a child when a bad lemonade experience occurs at that age…well, let’s just say, it sets a precedent, shall we?

And there you have it…my deep-seated, psychological reasons for not liking lemonade…on some subconscious level…I associate lemonade with baby poo! What a realization, huh? Oddly enough, my sister told me just this evening (as we were discussing the traumatizing messy diaper/lemonade remembrance), that she absolutely loves lemonade. And, seriously…one has to wonder if her love for lemonade stems from the same incident that spawned my dislike for it. Hmm.

Well, another one of life’s great mysteries solved!

Thus, I woke up thinking, “Okay…life is way too busy if Bruce Willis comes over and I don’t even have time to get my picture taken with him!  Slow down!”

Slowing down is about to be forced upon me by way of the fact that Kevin and I have to go to the DMV this morning to get the car registration thingy done.  Undoubtedly that will take most of the day.  So, I guess I’ll be slowing down all right…but I still won’t get my picture with Bruce Willis if he drops by!  Good grief!  I have GOT to get my priorities in line!

I have a good friend who likes to sort Skittles or M & Ms when she’s stressed.  It’s fun to give her a bag of trail mix and watch her sort it out.

Do you have anything like that in your own crazy little mind?  Just something you do when you just can’t make yourself do anything else?  When you need a little respite?

Here’s a list I made today…just for fun…just to relax.  It’s a list of words that when I think them, hear them or speak them…they soothe me.

Ambiance,  Serenity, Serendipity, Bliss, Kiss, Resplendent, Mellifluous, Smooth, Iridescence, Enchanting, Breeze, Brook, Sweet, Soft, Hum.

What settles your nerves?

You’ll laugh, I’m sure…but this time of year, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is/was playing when my kids wake up.  I find it’s mellow, soothing…not too Christmassy, but just enough so to lighten their hearts.  (The first day of school always finds Pumpkin Cookies waiting when they arrive home, as well…thus, scent helps lift their spirits and relax them after a long day.)  Furthermore, we listen to the “Home Alone,” soundtrack in the care on the way to school…another soothing, yet heartwarming selection of music.

Here’s a list of music I use in the mornings before school…it’s a progression toward Christmas…then a positive “we can make it through winter” type series…and then a “spring is here” type series…ending with a “school is almost out” wrap up.

September-“Autumn in New England” or “A Charlie Brown Christmas” float softly through the house as Trent wakes up, eats breakfast and gets ready for school.  The soundtrack to “Home Alone” keeps us calm and happy in the car on the way to school-helps to settle nerves and remind him that home is just 6 or 7 hours away.

October-“Christmas Treasures” begins our morning.  “Christmas in the King’s Court” soothes us on the way to school.

November-“The Glory of Christmas” starts the day with Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song,” “A 1940s Christmas,” or “A Merry Christmas with Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters” playing in the care on the way to school.

December-Any variety of Christmas music from, “Christmas with Conniff,” to the soundtrack to “The Muppet Christmas Carol,” greet us at breakfast and in the car.

January-The soundtrack to “Nicholas Nickleby” is usually my January wake up music.  In the car on the way to school we listen to the soundtrack to the movie “French Kiss.” I also use the soundtrack to “Sabrina” at dinner time starting in January.

February-The Soundtrack to “Emma” gives a light, hopeful, “Spring is just around the corner,” feel to our morning, and the soundtrack to “Anne of Green Gables” soothes us in the car.

March-The Soundtrack to “Chocolate” perks us up and gets us going.  “Chocolate” usually continues with us all the way to school.

April-I usually rotate between “Emma,” “Chocolat,” or anything by Brian Crain, in April.  In the care I start playing 80s tunes on the way home from school-they’re are perky and fun and remind us that summer is almost here!

May-Again Brian Crain in the morning and 80s tunes in the afternoon!  (80s tunes like “Ain’t Nothin’ Gonna Break My Stride” and “Big Country”…the perky, happy stuff…)

June -This is where I struggle.  My “Christmas Spirit” has kicked in full gear…but I try to hold off…stick with Brian Crain80s tunes on a mellow day… on a bright “we’ve got to get going” day!

July-”Same as June”

August-I’m easily back to “A Charlie Brown Christmas” in the morning!

Now, of course there are tons of collections I play throughout the year…these are just the ones I tend toward!  What do you use to fill your home with a sense of warmth, cozy security?

As a final note…the same thing works for me at night!  When my kids were little, I found that Kenny Loggins, “Return to Pooh Corner,” was the absolute BEST at settling my small children before bed!  I love it!

Do let me know what you incorporate in your home!  I’m always looking for new music!

However, my favoritest thing about it is happening right now!  When the leaves of the flowers wither and fall…what’s left is the perfect, perfect, perfectest “Who” thingy!  You know…in the book Horton Hears a Who…when he puts the dust speck on the clover thingy?  Doesn’t this sooooooooooo look like the clover thingy…sort of?  Trent and I just got a kick out of these photos for that reason!

Which reminds me…I’ve almost got The Lady of Shalott memorized!  I just have trouble on the transition the third to last stanza…but a couple of more days should do it!  Therefore, I’m on to my next memorization project…How the Grinch Stole Christmas!  Who’s with me?  Get it?  The Grinch?  “Who’s” with me?   “Every Who down in Whoville liked Christmas a lot…”

Meanwhile…Can’t you just hear those little Whos calling to us from these flower heads?

I began to ponder over the state of my curious measuring cup collection…and her is what I have, at last, surmised:

1.  Children!  Can I even begin to tell you of the love of a hose and dirt combined that my children owned?  And how could one possibly appropriately play in the mud and water without measuring cups!  Also, I’m thinking of how my daughter used to play with her little miniature “My Little Ponies,”…always pretending some witch was trying to cook them up in a stew!  She definitely needed measuring cups for those imaginative little recipes!  Further, measuring cups are perfect for studying such little things as ladybugs and tomato worms!  So there you have it…possibility #1!

2.  Moving!  How many items are misplaced during a move?  My measuring cup collection has been from Albuquerque, NM…to Rexburg, ID…back to Albuquerque…to Utah…back to Albuquerque…to New Orleans, LA…back to Albuquerque…Ferndale, WA…to Monument, CO…and back to Albuquerque!  I mean, oh my heck!  How could I possibly expect to keep three complete sets of measuring cups during all that?

3.  Stove Top!  Possibly…I’m thinking it would seem very like me to set a measuring cup down on a hot burner and melt it.  I seem to have a vague recollection of have to pick blue plastic off a burner at some point.

In truth…there isn’t a definitive answer I guess…no perfect explanation of my measuring cup situation!  So…I guess I’ll just quit fixating on it…try to think of something else…such as…why do I have remnants of three different sets of measuring spoons?