Tag Archives: U2

It’s a Cute Hamster Week

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Hi all, I was away this weekend visiting Sonia, my fellow U2 fan and friend extraordinaire. We had an awesome time and wondered why we had waited so long? The visit had started with us trying to see the band again. Then we realized we didn’t have to wait for Bono to croon to us for $300 a pop to see each other. Love you, Bono, but we’ll maybe catch you next time around. So instead we talked non-stop and had a lot of fun. It was a great antidote to a couple of stressful weeks, so while I’m feeling much more balanced, I had no time to polish any of the blog drafts I have. The 5-hour train ride was filled with great hopes of writing several blogs and finishing a book.

I fell asleep for the most the ride. Ah, well. Some times you just have to sleep.

Which brings us to: all I got is the cute hamsters. These are not ours, but they made me laugh.

This one just looks like Einstein and the way his hair is sticking out, he also looks harried. with a side of frantic. That’s pretty much what I’ve been feeling.

einstein hamster

This is is just about hanging in there. Have a good week!

Cute Hamster Animal Desktop Wallpaper

Happy Let’s Keep It Together Day

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As a country, we seem to be in kind of a shit storm right now. I feel like every group is rightfully angry or scared about something and is being vocal about it, and we’re all screaming, or quietly affirming, or firmly declaring as our beliefs and level of emotion require. It feels chaotic and overwhelming, and although I’m trying to be a good citizen and sort and sift through it all and be supportive, I don’t feel very effective. So I am clinging to something Bono of U2 often says about us. He loves America as an idea. He says it at every concert I’ve been to. He pumps us all up on being Americans, and then he specifically inserts the needed realism that as an idea we’re great. We haven’t yet achieved what the idea is capable of. But the idea of equality, the idea of freedom, the ability to fight for these things in our society, even among ourselves, is something worth appreciating and worth preserving.

We’ve had shit storms before and we’ll have them again. Let’s find a way to keep it together. Happy Fourth.

 

 

Top 9 Posts from 2015, Because Less Is More

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Here we are at the end of the year when we run out of steam and cover it up with year-end top 10 lists. Because I want to leave you begging for more, there are only 9. If you want a 10th, send “10s and 20s” like Sally asked for in the Charlie Brown Christmas special. You think these posts grow on trees? Oh, wait some times they do. Sometimes they spring from the bushes of a Boston suburb, or an overheard conversation in a  coffee line, or from bras that look like snack bowls. Still, 10s and 20s couldn’t hurt.

Enjoy the 2015 top 9 posts, redux, and have a fantastic New Year’s! I will see you on the flip side of 2016, my friends, and thanks for reading this year!

9. Top Ways to Stay Warm Without Heat

The popularity of this one surprised me; I can only guess that people were looking for real tips, and I’m sure they were sorely disappointed, But they clicked on the link, so it’s all good from my end.

“You can’t prove that I tried to use the little flame from the candle lighter before realizing it would be spring before it worked or that I would set the hose on fire.”

8. A Girl, Her friend and Their Band U2

Best. Friend. Visit. And. Concert. Ever. EVAH!

“Seeing U2 with Sonia was like coming home. They are in a reflective mood with this new music and we are too. Yes, they forced it on everyone for free. Get over it.  I promise to hold my tongue when the new album from your favorite band I don’t give a hoot about shows up for free in my iTunes.”

7. The Girliness Adventures Go Underward

Victoria Secret never did retweet my post about this. I can’t imagine why.

“I was unprepared for the uniformity of what I can only describe as the matching snack bowl design of all the bras in the place. Seriously, rows and rows of hanging bowls.”

6. And the Repairman Sayeth, ‘Let There Be Heat.’

This was the third and final installment of my saga of being without heat for three weeks during THE snowiest month in Boston history. Makes me sound like a total badass, right? Well, it goes waaayyy deeper than that. There was some controversy about deflating and inflating certain things. You’ll have to read to find out more. I am grateful that folks hung in there to see how it ended.

“I would like to say, absolutely, I followed all the rules of blogging to the letter. I did not invent my lack of heat, nor did I inflate the length of time I went without heat merely for my own blogging use. Sometimes the environment can influence a topic, like lack of heat.”

5. Overheard, Secondhand

Why waste time thinking of topics yourself when perfect strangers will give you all the content you could ever want?

“She has chickens. Bubble hit: 3. Why are chickens a thing? Suburban chickens are the new black.”

4. Top 9 Reasons Why I Love the Gays

Clearly I like gays and the top 9 of various things. Deal with it.

“These reasons are particular to my friends; your results with your gay friends may vary.”

3. Birthdays: Top 5 Reasons 50 Is Better than 30

So sometimes I do 5 top reasons. It does confirm that people like lists of things, and who am I to deprive you?

“Reason 3: I finally can tell all the “experts” to go stick it in their pie hole.”

2. Jilted by My Hairdresser–Twice

True confessions. I wrote the original version of this piece of this many years ago and updated it for the blog. You’d never know. Oh, crap, except I just told you.

“It’s shameful I know, but I don’t remember her name.  I don’t remember any of their names, those who come after Eileen.  I made my way from Newbury Street to Supercuts and every place in between, shamelessly talking about her to them all.”

  1. And the number one spot? Of course goes to the ever fabulous, ever rockin’ Rick Springfield: Rockin’ in the ‘Burbs: Top 6 Things You Didn’t Know About Rick Springfield

Yeah, so another top numbered list. I actually think it was the cool pic of him on my blog that got that post so many hits. I added it above, you know for comparison research purposes.

“Damn suburbanites. So I could have probably told you 10 things about Rick, but the crabby, unhip, “new money” people in Cohasset prevented me from learning any more.”

 

A Girl, a Friend and Their Band U2

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I saw U2 in Boston on Tuesday night with my best friend and fellow U2 fanatic and her college-age daughter who wanted to come with us. Cuz that’s the power of U2, or at least the power of our passion for this band. Even a millennial wanted to see them. See, we’re too young for Woodstock, not into drugs enough for the Grateful Dead, and too old for…oh, yeah, right, there are no really great big new bands anymore. And that’s not just me being an old fart; I have that on great authority, my teenage son. There are great new bands, but the “big” part seems to have gone the way of the network TV. Lucky for us, U2 is still going strong.

Before Tuesday, I hadn’t seen Sonia in about 15 years and last saw U2 in 2005. Encountering both is like no time passing. Sonia and I met in college and bonded over our love of the band–they were just breaking out with their third album, War. It was a connection that launched 1,000 conversations about race, religion, and the meaning of life, and lest you think we’re too serious, there was a healthy amount of talk about boys, various vices, and rock ‘n roll.

I’ve been trying to write this post all week, but the thing is I could write a book about me, Sonia, and U2, or at least more than a blog post. And I think I will, eventually. But for now, I’ll just say, seeing U2 with Sonia was like coming home. They are in a reflective mood with this new music and we are too. Yes, they forced it on everyone for free. Get over it.  I promise to hold my tongue when the new album from your favorite band I don’t give a hoot about shows up for free in my iTunes. In concert they also played a lot of the older songs we bonded over, and they are still making new songs that we both like. Use any cliché you like–transformative, moving, an affirmation. U2 has always been in sync with us. Every album says something to us, and we always have something to say to each other. This visit we talked about new stuff, and we reminisced about old stuff, some of it funny, some of it hard. But all good.

I posted a picture on Facebook of me and Sonia at the concert, and we’re screaming with joy and laughter. I could talk more about what it means to us, but the picture says it all. And that’s it– I loved catching up with her, loved getting to meet her awesome daughter who I babysat as an infant, and I loved hanging out with our U2 boys in Boston.

Sometimes, years later, with losses and loves, failures and successes, it’s as simple as a girl, her friend and their band.