Sometimes people are unbelievable

Posted on January 18, 2009 by Sherry

You would think, having worked in technical support/customer service for several years once upon a lifetime that I wouldn’t be surprised by idiocy anymore. And yet, sometimes I still find myself stunned by people who are giant asshats.

George and the girls are “camping” in the living room again tonight so I said I would take Pearl out for her last pee of the night before putting her in her crate so that George wouldn’t have to do it. When I take her out in those cases, I usually go out the front door, let her pee down by the sidewalk, and then walk around to the other door.

When I got to that door, I saw a woman standing inside in the stairwell with a little Bichon Frise on a leash. I had seen a car in the parking lot, with the engine running to warm it up, so I figured she was waiting while her husband got the car ready. She spotted me coming and pushed the door open for me. Then she noticed Pearl trotting along at my heels.

The woman looked at her own dog, then started to pull the door closed while shaking her head. Stunned, I reached out and grabbed the handle to keep it open. She said, “No, no, you have to go around!” I held my keys up to her and said, “no, I live here, I can come in either door.”

Then she actually got ANGRY with me, still trying to close the door on me – a visitor to the building trying to close the door on a tenant! – and insisted, “No! Go around! You can’t come in this way!” She glared at Pearl to make her point.

By then I was fed up because it’s cold outside and I wanted to get into my warm apartment and put my dog to bed so I could go relax with a hot cup of green tea before bed. Pissed off, I yanked the door wide open and said, “My dog and I both live here! This is my fucking home, and if I want to come in through this door I bloody well can, now move out of my way!”

She hissed a nervous, “no, no, no!” at Pearl as we walked in, as though she was worried her dog might suffer the horror of being sniffed by a Beagle. She needn’t have worried; Pearl was mildly curious but also very tired and had no real interest in getting to know this new animal.

I just tossed a look of disgust over my shoulder as I headed up the stairs, and called it a night.

Maybe she’s had some sort of bad experience with a dog jumping hers, but:

a. I have a medium sized Beagle. I wasn’t walking a giant Rottweiler – even though Rottweilers are one of my favorite dogs, and can be quite gentle, at least I could understand being nervous of a large dog with a head bigger than your own entire dog.

b. If she has a dog she should understand dog language. Pearl’s ears weren’t flat, she wasn’t growling, and she wasn’t crouching. There was nothing to hint at aggression. She was, however, wagging her tail so hard her butt was shaking, and her tongue was hanging out of her mouth in happiness.

c. MY HOME! If she had been a tenant and didn’t recognize me, I could understand a little, but she was a visitor in MY apartment building. There was no way I was going to tolerate being shut out of my own damn apartment building.

I love people. This is why I want a cabin deep in the woods somewhere. Fewer morons that way.

Friday Flashback # 20 – You're the One That I Want

Posted on January 16, 2009 by Sherry

Every once in awhile a song I haven’t thought about in ages will suddenly just pop into my head, usually when I’m doing the dishes. I hate dishes because I don’t have a dishwasher, so I pass the time by listening to my iPod or by just singing random songs.

The other night, I suddenly found myself singing “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” from Grease. When I was still taking acting classes and wishing I was brave enough to just GO somewhere like Toronto or New York or L.A., I auditioned for the theater program at one of our local colleges. When I tried out I knew that I couldn’t actually go; I wasn’t living at home anymore and had rent and bills to pay. The theater program is so intensive that you can’t work. I could have applied for financial aid but since the school itself is free, it only would have covered enough to pay for textbooks and student fees. It was utterly impossible. Still, I applied to the program and got an audition date just because I wanted to see if I could get in.

We had to prepare two monologues. One had to be classic (in other words, Shakespeare) and one had to be modern. I hired my acting teacher for a couple of private lessons in order to prepare. For Shakespeare, I pieced together a monologue from Julius Caesar, playing Portia* and for the modern monologue I created one from “I Am A Camera” which was the play that inspired “Cabaret”. I did Sally Bowles, the character later played by Liza Minelli.

We also had to sing a short song (I forget the suggested length now), and I froze in a panic because sing? What, in front of PEOPLE?! I love to sing. I sing a lot. But not in front of PEOPLE. As much as I love a good musical I wouldn’t likely be in one, unfortunately. Unless I could drink a lot of wine before going on stage.

Anyway, it wasn’t because they wanted great singers, apparently it’s a way of seeing how well you can project to the back of the theater. Nervous, I chose “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” from “Grease”. Sandy may be the big part in “Grease” but I always wanted to play Rizzo because she’s more fun.

God, this is turning into the longest flashback ever. So I did my two monologues and then I took a deep breath and belted out my song. A month later I got something in the mail. I totally made it. And then I wondered why I had done that to myself because you have no idea how hard it was to pick up the phone and call them to say that I was very grateful but my “circumstances had changed” and I would not be able to take the course since I needed to work. Heartbreaking. I still wonder what would have happened if I had told my ex I was moving back home with my parents so I could study theater. Ah well.

I chose to sing that song because it wasn’t out of my range and was a solo. But my favorite song from “Grease” is definitely “You’re the One That I Want” by Sandy and Danny.

God. I love “Grease”. I got to play Cha-Cha DeGregario in my high school drama class but I always wanted to be in the full thing. I guess I’ll settle for singing the songs while I wash my dishes.

*I did the whole monologue, on the suggestion of my teacher, in a British accent. I do it quite well, especially when I’ve been practicing. I delivered a very killer “Dwell I but in the suburbs of your good pleasure? If it be no more, Portia is Brutus’ harlot, not his wife.” One of the women holding the audition told me my accent was AWESOME. Blimey.

The upside of an Arctic cold snap

Posted on January 16, 2009 by Sherry

Lately most of Canada has been brutally beaten senseless by an Arctic cold snap. BC isn’t suffering quite so much, but they deserve the break since they had to deal with flooding and mudslides lately after getting more snow than usual and then heavy rains. From Alberta Eastward though, the cold Arctic air has been creeping down and freezing us all into a bunch of ice zombies.

Yesterday as I was outside walking in what came to -34C with the wind (-29F), I actually found myself laughing. I couldn’t help it, crying would have been counter-productive since my eyelids would have frozen shut within seconds. But really, I laughed because it just seemed so utterly ridiculous that it could actually be THAT cold. And hell, I had it good out there in my -34 weather. People in Winnipeg, Manitoba were probably cursing their decision to live in the prairies because out there the wind was making it feel – no kidding – like it was -49C or -56F. Now that? That is insane.

I’m Canadian, and if there’s one thing Canadians stereotypically enjoy doing, it’s talking about the winter. I perpetuate this stereotype because I love weather. I watch weather shows like some people watch the stock market, I’m a member of a fairly hardcore weather forum, I check both Forecastfox and The Weather Network for discrepancies, I’m all over the weather. I also complain about it regularly. In the winter I groan about the snow and ice and frigid winds. In the summer I moan about how it’s too humid to live.

So instead of complaining about the fact that it’s the third subarctic day in a row and I’m still waiting for my ears to warm up, half an hour after getting back in from walking the dog, I’ll keep laughing about how ridiculous these temperatures are and give you some positive things about all of this.

Positive things about Arctic cold snaps:

1. Getting to experiment with creative layering. On the first day, my jeans were no match for the wind and I came inside with frozen thighs that burned as they thawed. Realizing I was turning into my mother, yesterday I searched from some tights that I could wear under my jeans. I couldn’t find any so I did the next best thing – I wore two pairs pants. Seriously. I wore some skinny pants and then topped them with my jeans. Warm thighs are worth how weird that feels. Today I wore those same pants, a pair of jeans, two pairs of socks, thermal-lined boots, a long-sleeved pajama shirt, a polar fleece hoodie, a button-down cardigan, thick gloves, my winter coat, my Harry Potter scarf wrapped around my face, a toque, and my hood pulled up over it. Sexy? Not even close. But I was warm enough.

2. A glimpse into the future. I wish it wasn’t too cold to be fiddling with a camera outside because then I could show you what I might look like in a a few decades or so. After about two minutes outside, it’s difficult to breathe through my nose, what with it freezing shut. That means I breathe through my mouth, but with my scarf wrapped up just under my nose, breathing causes a lot of condensation. Any hair that is sticking out from under my hat gets wet. Because it’s -34C, the wet hair freezes almost instantly. My hair turns completely white. Not white the way it gets when snow is falling, I mean completely opaque white. I’m not keen on going grey, but if my hair goes totally white like my grandmother’s did, I’ll be okay with that. From what I could see, it looks pretty good!

3. Experimental vision. The reason my scarf is wrapped up just under my nose is because, with glasses, covering up your nose with a scarf means instantly fogged lenses. When my nose does get really cold, I pull the scarf up for a minute, and then I spend that time peering uselessly over my glasses. Looking through them means the world is covered in a thick white film, looking over them means the world is a fuzzy blur. Exciting!

4. Remembering the 80s. When it’s windy, that wind is so cold and biting that tears stream from my eyes. Or well, stream is too strong a word. It’s too cold for streaming. Tears POOL is more like it, and I end up with frozen eyelashes that clump together so much that I am reminded of my first attempts at makeup, when I would glop mascara willy-nilly all over my eyelashes, only to have them clump together and then smoosh up against my glasses. It’s good to reminisce. (Yes, I was totally stunning as a young teenager. STUNNING.)

5. Extra credit Geography. I love Geography. If I could go back in time without changing the present, I would have told my freshly-graduated-from-high-school self to major in Geography because I would have really enjoyed it. However, while you can learn a lot in a classroom or from a book (or the Internet!), there’s nothing like being out in the field for that extra credit and a real chance to learn. Sometimes in the summer, when I’m lying listless on the couch and wondering why humidity has to exist at all, I’ll watch the weather (see? I wasn’t kidding!) and fantasize about living way up north in this vast country. They’ll show the temperatures for the capitals up in the Northern Territories – Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Iqaluit – and they’re all really low, wonderful looking temperatures. I’ll start thinking, “you know, the Tundra is beautiful in that stark way. I’d love to live there.” Then I find myself online looking at the jobs and homes available way up there, north of 60 (now I’m in the mood to watch the show!). Well, having the temperatures as cold as they are and knowing it’s even COLDER up there now, I realize that you know, maybe I’ll just stick with bitching about the humidity and hovering under my air conditioner in the summer and stay in the southern part of the country, thanks anyway.

I think that’s about all I can muster for this cold, crazy weather. It’s supposed to warm up this weekend, though “warm” is pretty well all relative at this point. Right now Forecastfox is showing me a high of -20C (-4F) and -15C (5F) for Saturday and Sunday, plus the windchill. But it’s warmer than today, so I’m looking forward to it.

Who knows? Maybe I’ll only wear one pair of pants!

House of Aches and Pains

Posted on January 11, 2009 by Sherry

Yesterday morning I woke up and felt fine, if a little tired. At lunch time I took the dog for a walk and realized I had a bit of a headache. That’s not much of an observation for me. I have a headache pretty much every day, I just ignore them because they aren’t all that bad. I think it’s hereditary because my grandmother on my dad’s side was the same way.

It was a beautiful day with clear blue skies in that shade of blue that you only see in winter, and the temperatures weren’t awful. When I came back, the girls and George were just finishing lunch so I told them that I would give Breanna a nap and then we would go outside to play in the snow.

It never happened. By the time Breanna went to sleep my head hurt so badly that I felt like the back of my skull was going to shoot straight off my head. I tried to sleep with her but I could only close my eyes – there was actually too much pain for sleeping. After she got up, I went back to bed until I finally picked up the phone and used the intercom to call George in the living room – because I couldn’t even will myself out of bed – to ask him if he could please go get some Advil at the store since I had taken the last two a few days earlier (for carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms – getting older totally rocks).

He did and I took two of them, then passed out for a couple of hours. Miraculously, the pain had dwindled down and thank GOD for that because I honestly started to wonder if there was something wrong what with the amount of pain. Have you ever had a headache that is so bad that you start to wonder what it might be like if it just never goes away, and how long you could last before you’d throw yourself in front of a bus? That was me on Saturday afternoon.

I took another dose every four hours until bedtime and managed to feel much better by evening. I took the dog out after supper and was shocked by the brilliant full moon in a cloudless sky. I actually felt well enough that I ran back upstairs to grab my camera, the monster lens (70-300mm), and my tripod. I’m pretty thrilled with the results.

Since I was already outside anyway, I walked down to the corner and played with long exposures to capture light trails.

And I had some fun with the traffic light, making it an impossible light altogether.

After the kids went to bed, I managed to stay up to watch “Ghost Town” with George. I had never even heard of it before but what a great feel-good movie! I highly recommend it.

*******

Tonight I am grateful to not have a headache because in between writing this up, I’m also watching the Golden Globe Awards, which is cool because I really enjoy awards shows but it’s also for work so I can feel like I have a good reason to be watching celebrities.

Having to stay up though to watch this and manipulate images to put up on PittWatch with a headache like yesterday would have been impossible.

*******

Last Monday, the last day we had before Hayley went back to school, I made a joke with George about how we had all been healthy for two weeks, but once she went back to “that petri dish of germs” someone would be sick within a week.

Ha. Ha ha ha.

Hayley spent most of today on the couch, lying down and moaning because her stomach hurt her terribly. A couple of times she even spiked a low fever. She ate a bagel for breakfast, but almost nothing after that until a bowl of applesauce before bedtime.

She was so worried about having to go to school sick tomorrow. I put her to bed and said not to even think about it. I will call the school before bed and leave a message to say she won’t be in because she’s sick and I’ll let her sleep in a bit so she can feel better. At least we got her homework completed today so she won’t have too much to catch up on.

Poor kid though. Seriously, what the hell do you have to do to keep your kids from getting sick at school all the time? It’s insane. We’ve all been sick since she started in September, one after the other, over and over with only the two-week holiday for a reprieve. I’m going to start sending her to school with a can of Lysol and instruct her to spray it around herself every five minutes.

And on that note, it’s time for me to make some tea and dig out the ridiculously delicious maple cookies we have in the cupboard – I hope your weekend didn’t involve headaches or tummy aches!

Friday Flashback # 19 – Keep Me Hanging On

Posted on January 9, 2009 by Sherry

When Kim Wilde released “Keep Me Hanging On” in 1987 (it went to #1), I was a whopping 13 years old. I had never had a boyfriend, but I had endured endless unrequited crushes over my short life and when I heard this song I thought that surely there was nothing in the entire world that could be more incredibly tragic than having to tell some guy you loved to just “get up, get out of my life” because “you don’t really love me, you just keep me hanging on”.

TRAGIC!

Clearly I had not learned about frivolous things like world hunger, genocide, the blood diamond trade, and whatnot. Oh, to be an innocent boy-crazy 13-year-old self-absorbed girl again. Actually, remembering my distinct lack of fashion sense, inability to do anything remotely decent with my hair, telescope-thick glasses, and confusion over how to properly apply make-up (bright blue eyeliner and bubblegum pink lipstick, woo!), maybe I’d rather not be 13 again.

Also it should be noted that, speaking of hair, I wanted nothing more than to have my hair look like Kim’s did. Or, really to just look like her, period. Now I look at that hair and I laugh at my younger self. But oh, I still love the song.

A little struggle to wake up

Posted on January 6, 2009 by Sherry

This morning was the first day back into the full-on routine. I stupidly stayed up until midnight, so when my alarm started blaring at 6:15 I was a little confused. I had just been dreaming that I was having lunch with Wil Wheaton and his wife Anne (clearly I am being influenced by Wil’s presence on Twitter) so I wasn’t even sure where I was, especially since 6:15 is still just a tiny bit lighter than pitch black outside.

I hit snooze and dozed for the next nine minutes (and never got back to my dream so I have no idea if the chicken I had ordered was any good or not), then turned the alarm off and dragged my ass out of bed. I debated going out in my pajamas and coat, but decided that flannel is warm but not quite thick enough so I managed to dress myself and get Pearl. Pearl, meanwhile, has also gotten used to late nights and late mornings. Having been walked sometime after midnight when George got home, she was not quite ready to get up and go outside at 6:30.

Then when we came back I found that Breanna was mildly hysterical because she had woken up and not found me in my normal place. She calmed down once I got in and she realized that I had not actually disappeared into thin air.

Hayley was not keen to get up either and it took a few minutes of prodding and also of interpreting the mumbles which were her breakfast request. She only wanted applesauce which isn’t very filling but I decided that for the first morning it would be easier to let that one go and give her what she wanted since it was at least healthy and they do have a fairly early morning snack at school.

Miraculously, the rest of the hour went smoothly and she was out the door on time and relatively cheerful if not ecstatic. She was tired when she got home but she wasn’t too cranky so I guess she survived the day fairly well – and as a bonus she fell asleep very easily and quickly tonight.

Other changes in the household were that Breanna finally had a nap again, and that was nice. It kept her crankiness to a minimum. I also worked differently, doing more in chunks as opposed to the “post here and there when I can get five seconds of peace” method I had used over the holidays.

As for Pearl, I got a glimpse into the future. I know now how she’ll be when she’s a little older and not in the crazy puppy phase anymore. Being thrown into a whole new schedule again put her out of whack and she spent most of the day lazing around. Even at supper time, she laid in the hall outside the kitchen and looked at me pitifully as though she were saying, “I’d be sniffing for crumbs but I just can’t get up.” In fact, right now she’s passed out on the couch and snoring.

Really, doesn’t her face sum up everyone’s first day back at school/work after getting to sleep in for two weeks?

Let’s see if tomorrow is less sleepy for all of us.

Over and done

Posted on January 5, 2009 by Sherry

Today was back to work and school for most people, but with the ped day it was one extra day for Hayley to stay home. I got her up at 8 am this morning, letting her sleep a half hour longer than I had meant to just because she was up until about 11:30 last night, refusing to fall asleep. I was tempted to get her up at 7:30 anyway but an overtired kid is a cranky kid, so I passed.

I also wore her out a bit by taking them outside to play in the snow. We didn’t have the best weather for being outside this holiday. At the beginning we had a lot of freezing rain so everything was icy and dangerous and no place for a kid to play. Then we got some snow which was good, but it turned so cold with ridiculous wind chill factors that I could barely walk the dog for 15-20 minutes, let alone have the kids play outside in that weather.

It sucked because obviously kids need an energy release and if they can’t get it outside it means they release it by jumping on the couch, racing up and down the hall, and generally acting like crazy people.

Today was not what one would call WARM but the wind wasn’t cutting straight through layers of clothing and it was bearable so we went out for an hour. Breanna usually turns her nose up at snow and winter play, asking to come back in after ten minutes (woo!) but even she had a blast out there today. She was even harder to herd back inside than Hayley was.

Tomorrow is a 6:30 morning and Hayley still couldn’t fall asleep until almost 10 pm so it should be interesting to drag her body out of bed. I should write a note that says, “GOOD LUCK!” and send it in to her teacher. We’ll see how it goes.

In fitness news, I did the second day of the SparkPeople boot camp, except what I really did was just repeat the first day’s video. Today’s required a stability ball and I don’t have one or anything that could really stand in. Oh well, the kickboxing was just as fun today as yesterday, and I got to add walking the dog and playing with the kids in the snow as well. That’s two days down. Nineteen more until it allegedly becomes a habit!

The resolution I didn't make but sort of just did

Posted on January 4, 2009 by Sherry

I’ve never really made any fitness related resolutions. Oh, I’ve made the half-hearted “I should move more” goals, but never those really big ones that gym owners love, the ones that get people flocking on January 2nd to the nearest gym to sign up for a year-long membership. It wouldn’t do me any good anyway, I know from past experience that I really hate gyms in a major way.

The thing is, though, while I’m not looking to lose weight, I do miss the feeling of being fit. When I did kung fu so many years ago (I can’t believe it’s been ten years!), I had muscles, flexibility, balance (something I’d never had before, not even when I did ballet!), and stamina. Now I get tired so easily, I have less energy than I ever remember, and while I may be small I have no tone. None. I am a noodle.

I still had no real concrete plans to, you know, do anything about it. And I’m not completely sedentary. I do a fair amount of walking thanks to the kids and the dog, and when you have 35 steps to climb up and down each time, that helps too. But I know I need more.

So enter Laura. I went to her blog solely because I know she’s been doing Holidailies as well and thought she might have a new entry. She did indeed, and in it, she mentioned that she had signed up for the SparkPeople Boot Camp. To put it simply, the Boot Camp offers up a workout video each day for a month, starting today. They mix it up so that you aren’t always doing the same thing over and over again (which is why I have several workout tapes that are covered in dust). Today’s video incorporated a bit of kickboxing, something that I obviously can enjoy what with the roundhouse kicks and sidekicks that I used to love.

The videos are only ten minutes long and that includes the warm up and cool down time. It’s not hard to fit into my schedule no matter how busy I think I am. Aside from that, they encourage 30 minutes of any type of cardio five days per week. Since I walk the dog for 20-30 minutes once or twice a day, that’s not a problem.

So I signed up. I did it for a lot of reasons. The main ones are that I want to be fit again. I want to FEEL like I’m in shape and not be so tired all the time. I’m sick of the panic attacks but I’m still scared of medication so I’m going to try exercise as a non-medicinal approach. Also, if you’ve ever been pregnant, you know that frustrating ache in your calves that come from nerves being pushed around by a baby, especially the sciatic nerve. Well, with Breanna I waited and waited to give birth so that ache would go away. Three years later, I’m still waiting for it to go away. Hopefully some regular exercise will do something to help.

If you want to join me or if you’re already a SparkPeople member, you can see my page here. Let me know if you’re doing the boot camp challenge too, even if you join up later than the 4th of the month.

Here’s hoping I can do this – they say it’s 21 days to build a habit right? Let’s see.

Time for normal again

Posted on January 3, 2009 by Sherry

I can’t decide how I feel about the holidays coming to an end. On the one hand, I am really looking forward to getting back to a routine of some sort. I’ll be taking down the decorations soon, up earlier in the morning, and it will be so nice to have the kids falling asleep earlier (Breanna was awake until 9 pm and Hayley didn’t crash until almost 11!).

On the other hand, I don’t look forward to getting up at 6:20 every weekday morning again to take the dog out before dragging a surly six-year-old from her blankets to get her ready for school. Although the sleeping in has been the primary cause of the later bedtimes, it has been very nice to not be woken up until 9 am or later these past two weeks (with the exception of Christmas day of course). Even Pearl has gotten used to the later mornings since she’s been taken out later at night herself.

At least I don’t have to worry until Tuesday. The teachers took one of the floating ped days on Monday so that they can have a day to come in without the kids and get organized for the new year. Still, I’ll have to get Hayley up no later than 8 am, possibly even 7:30 am, just to make sure that she’ll fall asleep at a reasonable-ish hour on Monday night.

It’s going to hurt.

But I think Breanna will be happy with the return to routines as well. Because of the later bedtimes, she’s been sleeping in. Because of the sleeping in, she hasn’t needed her usual noon-time hour-long nap. She’s been occasionally cranky without the naps but not too often. However, on Friday it finally got the best of her. On Thursday night, George camped out in the living room with the two girls. It was Breanna’s first time doing it and we didn’t think it would really work. She finally fell asleep at about 11:05 pm, right at the end of Horton Hears a Who so I whispered good night and went to bed.

At 4 am George brought her in because she wanted to make sure I was still here. She then informed me “I want to go camp again” and left. She didn’t fall back to sleep but laid out there very quietly until 6 am. Again, she came to find me, stayed with me for about five minutes, then ran back to the living room and fell asleep for another two or three hours. We were pretty proud of her.

But the late night, plus the two hours of being awake in the middle of the night AND the lack of nap? Too much. At about 5 pm the kids were watching a movie (I think it was Horton again, he’s pretty popular around here) and she got cranky, laid on the couch, asked for her favorite blanket, and next thing I knew she was asleep.

Day 2: When the holidays get to be too much

Alas, I had to wake her after 20 minutes or she would have been up until all hours.

Yes, it’s definitely time to get back to normal. Whatever that is!

Friday Flashback # 18 – Lily Was Here

Posted on January 3, 2009 by Sherry

I have always loved the saxophone. I may live with a guitarist and I love what he can play with it, but there’s something about the sax that just blows me away. It’s my favorite instrument.

When I was in grade seven, we had one elective that changed every six or eight weeks throughout the year so that we would have an idea as to what we wanted to choose to take the following year. This included Technical Drawing (I was pretty good at that, much to my shock), woodworking (I was even better at that, and that’s what I ended up choosing), Art (nothing killed my creativity quite like a barking Art teacher), and Music. I already knew how to play the recorder, so I probably would have been best suited to the oboe, especially with only having a handful of weeks to play it.

I did not choose the sensible oboe. I chose the sax. The tenor sax. I was so proud to have a shiny albeit banged up saxophone in my grasp with a little package of brand new paper-thin reeds, and wow was I going to have fun practicing.

Have you ever heard an elephant die painfully on the plains of the Savannah? Me neither, but if I did come across such an experience I am willing to bet good money that it would sound exactly like me, playing the sax.

Luckily for me, my own horrid attempts did not destroy my love of the saxophone. Prince put out a song called “Partyman” and Candy Dulfer was featured in it. That sparked my attention, and then I discovered the collaboration between Candy Dulfer and The Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, “Lily Was Here”.

I loved the song, and I still do.

I thought of her the other day and went YouTube-ing and found a great deal of excellent music that she’s put out since those old days. She is absolutely amazing and no matter how much I loved the sax I never had a chance of sounding like Candy. But that’s okay. Now that I have her most recent album, I’d rather just listen than try to play!

(Duh. Some “Friday” flashback. I wrote it up in advance and saved it as a draft. And then I forgot to publish it. OOPS!)

Chaos Theory

Author Archives: Sherry