Manic Monday - Storm

I love this week’s Manic Monday word – Storm – because this was one I could think of a few things to write about. My mind always seems to go to music first, but I will save that for the end.
I LOVE storms! Mid-summer, late evening thunderstorms are just about the best thing! I have a friend who moved to Seattle who told me that it never thunders there! What?! It rains all the time there, but no thunderstorms?! Dude, that is just not right!

Unfortunately, the storms have recently been working against us. Last weekend when we went out of town, we checked the weather, and there was only a 10 % chance of storms. Uh-huh. That 10 % chance managed to rain on us for the entire 4-hour trip. We even stopped once on the turnpike to look at the radar, and it was raining nowhere else except all along the interstate. Imagine that.

Then, this weekend I have had a serious craving for grilling out on the deck. Two days in a row, it has been perfectly sunny until we are just getting ready to cook out. Then it rains. Last night, the sky just opened up and let out a torrential downpour complete with thunder and lightning right after Eric put hamburgers on the grill, so he had to snatch them up and finish cooking them inside.

I try to pay attention to the weather, but honestly, how much good does that usually do? Even with all of that, I still love thunderstorms, as long as we don’t lose power. That is not cool.

On to the music. I recently made a lullaby CD to play for Georgia when she goes to sleep. One of the songs on it is Over The Rainbow sung by Harry Connick, Jr. (lurve him!). He sings it with a full orchestra, and at the beginning, the orchestra sounds like a big storm is rumbling. I wish I could find a clip of that on YouTube, it is super cool. Anyway, I made a copy of the CD for my 4-year-old niece, and later found out that the storm scared the crap out of her. I guess I need to be a little more careful when making mix CDs for children.

One of my favorite songs is Stay With You by the Goo Goo Dolls. You all know I am a Goo slut, so it shouldn’t surprise you that this came to my mind. The chorus is:

“I’ll stay with you
The walls will fall before we do
So take my hand now
We’ll run forever
I can feel the storm inside you
I’ll stay with you”

Fabulous song, freaking awesome video! See below.

Necessities

Lately, Eric and I have been getting into Dave Ramsey’s financial makeover. You all may have heard Dave Ramsey on the radio – we listen to him on XM – talk about getting your finances into shape, staying out of debt, and only purchasing necessities.

I try to remember what we did with all of our money before we had kids. Seriously. What the hell? We could have paid off so many things back then. Dude! If you have kids, you know what I’m talking about.

Anyway, this led us into an entire discussion about necessities. Hence lays our problem. In a nutshell, we like to buy stuff. And I can justify absolutely anything. Honestly, I should win an award for that – it’s one of my special talents. If there is something I really want, I can think of a way to justify it in about 10 seconds flat. I should make that a TT – 13 things I have erroneously justified. But, I digress.

I have really been trying to watch it lately. I’ve tried to curb my massive coffee addiction, and I recently bought clothes, but I had a gift certificate, so that doesn’t count. As much I have been watching the expenses lately, there are still a few extras I feel I have “needed” that Eric scoffed at, such as new shoes at the Payless BOGO sale, or my renewal to the Goo Goo Dolls fan club. (Come on – like I’m going to give that up!) But seriously, I thought these were fairly small things, even though I get endless harassment from my husband.

My husband. Well, I found out today that he has weaknesses, too. One of those is the fact that he loves Tina Turner. In case you haven’t heard, Tina Turner is coming out of retirement to do another tour. Her first show is going to be here in Kansas City on October 1st. Eric bought presale tickets today . . . for $350. Now, I love Tina Turner. I mean, she is almost 70!! And I can only dream of having legs like that! But dude! $350!!

Dude!!! I think I’m good for like the next year on anything I want to buy and Eric can’t complain, right? I’m thinking maybe a spa treatment.

Or, I’m seriously hoping The Goo Goo Dolls come back to town next year. I’m thinking I can get VIP seating through the fan club for less than Eric paid for Tina Turner tickets. Or I could save the money. But that’s not nearly as much fun.

Guess where I was tonight?

I'm posting this at 12:30 a.m. We just got home from the Goo Goo Dolls concert. Oh, sweet holy Jesus - they were AWESOME!!!

Lifehouse opened for them, and I love them too. I have two of their CDs, and after tonight, I am going out to buy their latest one. It was like two shows for the price of one. Eric is now a big Lifehouse fan.

Then, out came Johnny! Ohhhhhhh . . . . Johnny!

I screamed. I sang. I jumped up and down. And then I screamed some more along with some "WOO WOO's." I now have no voice. And I was one of the calmer women in the audience.

Eric claims he had a good time. But, I wonder. As I was belting out Let Love In, he leaned over and said, "Hey, look at that guy in that row. He looks pretty weird, huh?" or "See that crazy lady dancing down front?" or "Did you see the dress that girl had on?"

No! No, I didn't. BECAUSE JOHN RZEZNIK IS ON STAGE AND I'M WATCHING HIM!

After the concert, I was quite bubbly with excitement, so I turned to Eric and said, "What did you think?! Weren't they awesome?!"

His response? "Yeah, I guess. I liked Lifehouse better." Gaaaa!

I had better go to bed now and try to get some sleep. My ear drums are still ringing and probably will be for the next three days. But I leave you with a couple of clips.

First, here is the Let Love In video. Great song! Great video!

Second, here are the Goo Goo Dolls singing American Girl, which is what they ended the concert with tonight. Enjoy! And the next time the Goo Goo Dolls come to your city, GO! Run like the wind to go see them!!!