A Friendly Musical Visit Every Day

We're moving next week. We're not happy about the move, but it's happening nonetheless. I'm going to miss this little house. I know how fortunate I am to live indoors at all, but the past three years have been the only time in my entire adult life when I've been able to live in a house, and going back to living in a high rise isn't something I'm enthusiastic about. The house and town (despite being very small--both the house and the town) are way too expensive to live in. Plus, there's the lack of access to medical care and public transportation.  So we're moving. I'm really sad. And stressed. And busy with all the packing. And my health is poor, as usual. Ill health makes sadness and stress even harder to cope with. That's the big reason I haven't been around. It occurs to me that the last time this blog went on a big hiatus was the last time we moved. It really does consume your life and energy. This song has been in my head every day f

I have been incredibly ill. Emergency room, IV fluids, diagnostic equipment, more meds.  I'm so sorry for taking off without letting you know what was going on, but there are times when it can't be helped. I've missed sharing music with you. I think in terms of posts I want to write, but for a while I couldn't come near my computer. Now I don't remember what I wanted to say. Figures, eh? This song came into my mind at a time when I truly believed I would never get better. Time and treatment didn't seem to make any difference. I was just so sick all the time. At this point, I don't know whether I'm "better" or whether the new medication I'm on is just keeping me stable. More medical appointments to come.  Meanwhile, various other portions of my life are falling apart. Not my relationship. That's strong. My partner has been taking good care of me physically, and I'm trying to take good care of him emotionally, but now is not a happy t

My partner and I watched Back to the Future recently. He'd never seen it before. We got a DVD box set out from the library and I said to him, "Oh, this set has all three movies in it." He came home from the library the day after we'd watched the first one and told me, "I was about to return this when I realized all three movies are in here." I was so proud of myself for not saying, "Yeah, I told you that! Don't you ever listen to me?" heh. Life goes more smoothly when I don't lash out about things that really do not matter. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate link

I'll be honest with you: I didn't know Badfinger was a band until I googled musicians from Wales. I was familiar with this song, but I never knew who it was by. Now I actually understand the joke that mentions them in the Rifftrax riff of Psycho II (yes, that's an actual movie).  (edit: the riff I was thinking of is actually from Amityville 4, which is another lousy sequel.)   If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail subscribers with a weekly update, and I would LOVE to have you on the list.  Click here to sign up:  http://eepu

Woke up with this song in my head. That's all there is to say on the matter. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail subscribers with a weekly update, and I would LOVE to have you on the list.  Click here to sign up:  http://eepurl.com/R4b11 See you soon! Giselle

I've been feeling so sick the past few days that I've barely had the energy to watch TV--and that's saying something. Watching TV isn't exactly a gruelling task. But one of my meds has been making me sick to my stomach, and after days of this I am just so weak. It's times like this when I realize how much my partner does to take care of me and to take care of our surroundings when I'm unwell. I'm noticing how much he does because he's not here. He's at his house; I'm at my place. And my place is a mess because I don't have the energy to clean it properly. Now I'm realizing that usually, when I'm sick, he does the dishes, he dries them and puts them away so we don't have a kitchen full of dirty dishes. Normally when I'm sick to my stomach, he runs to the bathroom with me and holds my hair. If my hair is pulled back, he pets my head because he says he doesn't know what else to do. But clearly he does know what to do, beca

I've been meaning to tell you this story for months. I promised to tell it to you weeks ago. So here we are, finally: the watermelon story. So, I'd just finished shopping at the little grocery store near my building. I was using a walker that day. I can wedge the shopping basket between the metal bars on either side while I shop, then pile my bags on the seat to get them home. That works unless I'm carrying anything really heavy. One time my partner tried using my walker to bring home three cases (36 cans) of Ensure, and he ended up slicing open his finger. Blood everywhere. But that's not the watermelon story. I interrupted myself. Let's start again. So, I'd just finished my shopping and I was coming out of the little grocery store with my bags piled up on my walker when I noticed that there was an older woman trying to fish a watermelon out of one of those huge cardboard containers they keep watermelon in outside the store. With zero luck. She, like me,

The other day, my partner went out to visit a friend who has had multiple strokes and now resides in an assisted living facility. While my partner was out, I watched The Love Boat. Why? Because it was on. And because I remember watching it as a kid. It was pretty hard to sit through, as an adult. The laugh track, for starters. I found I kept leaving the room. When my partner got home, I asked him how his friend was doing. He said, "He was watching The Love Boat." If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail subscribers with a weekly

This is a song I've known forever (well, since it came out), but I never knew who sang it. I often don't know who sings what songs. I'm not a music expert. I'm just a person who likes music. Anyway, when I spotted this video on YouTube I finally understood a riff from Miami Connection , which I have watched many dozens of times. (Actually, I usually just listen to it--I'm not sure I've ever watched it with my eyes.) This movie is about a karate rock band populated by orphan housemates who hate stupid drugs. I'll have to play you music from the film one day. I genuinely like it, but I'm a sucker for anything 80s.  The riff I've got in mind is sung, and it's something like "I'm not Patty Smyth--the one who spells it with a Y from Scandal, I'm not her." I never knew who this riff referred to, and I thought it was talking about the TV show called Scandal, which I never saw. I didn't know there was a band called Scandal. Except

My partner has been asked to speak at the memorial service for a lifelong friend who died last month. They'd known each other since they were babies. He is currently working on what he'd like to say, and he's listening to Paul Simon. The last time I walked into the kitchen, this was playing and my partner said, "I love this song." I asked what he loved about it and he said, "Lots of things. But it's about putting a child to bed. What could be better than that?" If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail sub

I got to find out what you do if you can't lift your head off the pillow but you have to get out of the house because someone has an appointment to check out your boyfriend's home that's for sale. We had decided to go to the community centre so my partner could work out at the gym there and I could work in the library. But my vertigo was bad. My health is just so bad, honestly, I can barely function some days--and yesterday was one of those days. So when we got to the community centre I said to my partner, "I'm just going to lie down in the car." My partner said, "You can't stay in the car! Children die that way!" I assured him that I wasn't a child. He tried to give me his keys so I could at least open a window, but I didn't want him not to have his keys. I wouldn't take them. He tried to convince me that this was a bad idea, but I wouldn't listen. I should have listened. Because the car got hot fast. And when I realized I ne

My vacation was wonderful except that I had vertigo the whole time, and such bad nausea that I had to go outside any time my partner made coffee or cooked anything.  I guess that doesn't sound like a wonderful vacation, but when you are chronically ill to the point where you're just used to being sick every day, it's like... I'm glad I got to be sick in such a lovely spot? I don't know if that will make sense to healthy people. I'm not sure it would have made sense to me when I was healthy. There were two lakes close by, and I could swim on this floaty board thing (okay, so I could kick my feet) and that was nice. The only problem was that if I looked at the waves, I felt especially vertiginous. I didn't have my cane in the lake the first time I went in, and when I got close to shore I just kept falling over. Usually when I start falling over, I catch myself on my cane or my walker or the wall or some furniture. But there was just lake, so I kept falling in

I'm taking off on you again, although this time it's planned. My partner and I are heading to the cottage his parents built (with their own hands!). The owners are so kind to let us rent it even though it's not a holiday rental--it's a family cottage. Plenty of nostalgia there, for my partner. Unfortunatly, the nostalgia usually makes him mournful of the past, which isn't fun to be around. But we keep trying. We weren't able to go last year because my partner was recovering from cancer treatment and he was too tired to do anything. There was also a lot of medical stuff going on at that time. I was changing dressings because he had open wounds from radiation and skin that was falling off and pus... well, I've probably said too much already. Just wasn't a great time to be around sand and far from hospitals. But we get to go away this year, so we're going and hopefully it won't be sad. The weather might even be okay (fingers crossed) but if it isn

Spent last night throwing up thanks to one of my medications. Today I'm eating rice and drinking Gatorade. My head hurts. My eyes feel like someone's sticking a thousand needles into them again and again. That's all I've really got for you. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail subscribers with a weekly update, and I would LOVE to have you on the list.  Click here to sign up:  http://eepurl.com/R4b11 See you soon! Giselle

I've been watching Dutch decluttering videos on YouTube lately. As a result, I've been doing a lot of decluttering. I came across this album when I was going through my CDs. No, I didn't get rid of it. It's not going anywhere. In fact, rather than shoving it back in a box, I created space on my bookshelf for a stack of CDs and that's where The Sticks currently sits. (My boombox takes up one shelf of my bookcase. Yes, I still have a boombox. It is 30 years old, but it still works.) You know, getting my bricks out in the sticks felt like such a good idea until we did it. When we found out what it was actually like to live in a small town, we realized we'd made a big mistake. Which is part of the reason my partner's trying to sell his house right now. The town has certain charms, and in a lot of ways it is like living in a Hallmark movie, but if you aren't a fan of racists and homophobes, it's not the best place to be. Moving is a big deal, but when

If I'm going to mention The Twilight Zone (as I did yesterday), I should tell you this story: a couple weeks ago my partner and I were at my apartment. I've got a bunch of Twilight Zone episodes on the PVR, so I picked one to watch before bed. It was the episode where William Shatner takes advice from a napkin holder. My partner isn't interested in paranormal stuff (although I would argue that this particular episode is more psychological than paranormal) and at the end he said, "It was interesting to see William Shatner so young. I've never seen that before." I thought he was talking about the episode--he'd never seen that episode before. But no. He had never seen The Twilight Zone! Like, what? Shocking. There are a bunch of different openings for this show, but... here's one. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check t

Okay, I mentioned I Dream of Jeannie yesterday, and since it's one of my earliest childhood memories, let's listen to the theme music. I was going to say that Dick York was in one of my favourite episodes of The Twilight Zone, but he was on Bewitched, not Jeannie. My brain is very hurting and foggy today, and I'm having trouble typing, so let's leave it at that. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail subscribers with a weekly update, and I would LOVE to have you on the list.  Click here to sign up:  http://eepurl.com/R4b1

You think we're listening to Stereophonics because the word came up in a song the other day, but no! We're listening to them because they are Welsh. And I'm going to admit something shameful: even though one of my grandmothers was from Wales, I still can never tell whether a character on a TV show is played by a Welsh actor who has an actual Welsh accent, or whether it's an actor doing a bad Welsh accent. Isn't that awful? I should be able to tell, considering my partial Welshness.  And I spent a lot of time with that grandmother, as a kid. She used to babysit me and my cousin while our parents were at work. My earliest memories are of watching I Dream of Jeannie with my Welsh grandmother. Mind you, by the time I was born my grandmother did have a type of facial paralysis that affected her speech, so I'm not sure what her accent sounded like before then. Anyway, that's my shameful announcement for today: I can't tell a real Welsh accent from a fake one

My chronic illness was sparked by the onset of menopause (thank you very much, hormonal changes) and yet my mother is constantly saying to me: "I don't understand why you're so sick all the time. You were such a healthy baby." Yeah, you'd think that would have carried me all the way through life. Weird. I was listening to a Paralympian talking about proving to the world how much we (people with disabilities) can do. Because I became disabled in adulthood (well, midlife), I find it's the opposite with me: I feel like I have to somehow prove that I can no longer do things I could very easily do earlier in life. And I hate that feeling. And, realistically, it's not "the world" I need to prove this to. It's certainly not my doctors--they have been wonderfully supportive. Strangers at the grocery store and random people on the street are lovely and helpful, for the most part. The only people who challenge me are my closest family members. Main

I have a sister who is in her thirties. We don't spend much time together, in part because of the age difference (we're always at vastly disparate life stages) and in part because we live in different cities/towns, but we were out together a couple weeks ago and a teenage boy called me ma'am. My sister burst out laughing. I didn't get the joke. She was like "Ma'am!" That was the joke, I guess. If she spent more time with me, she would know just how often I get called ma'am. I don't even hear it anymore. And if she just waits a few more years, it's very likely that teenagers will start calling her ma'am, too. (I'll wait a little while to warn her that eventually people who are OLDER than you start calling you ma'am as well...) This music video was on my mind because I took my walker for a walk this morning and I've never had so many young men be so cordial to me. Boy howdy. If you're wondering how you can support me

This song popped into my head just now. Not sure why. Not even sure why I remember it so well. Before today, I'd only ever heard it once, when I watched the movie Silk Stockings on TV as a teenager. It felt like a classic, to me, but I'm not actually sure if too many people have seen it. And, in fact, this song is the only thing I remember about the movie. You'll have to turn your volume up-up-up to hear this one. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail subscribers with a weekly update, and I would LOVE to have you on the lis

Sorry for taking off without letting you know what was going on. I didn't quite know what was going on, myself.  On the face of it, I just didn't feel like I had anything to share with you, music-wise. I'd been scrambling for songs, and that didn't suit the spirit of this here blog. But I think my health issues and mental health issues were actually weighing me down so badly I just wanted to hide. My brother had routine dental surgery that went wrong in a way I didn't even know it could go wrong, and he is suffering tremendously. He doesn't complain, but you can see it in a person's face (the sunken eyes, etc) when they are in terrible pain. I know because I see it in the mirror pretty much every day. I am worried about my brother, but I'm also worried about myself, because the thing that happened to him actually clarified one of the health issues I've been experiencing (we have some of the same medical problems) and now I am scared out of my mind. F

Taking some time off for a variety of reasons. Hopefully I'll get back to posting soon. Take care, my friends.

Can't remember the last time I washed my hair, or bathed in any way for that matter. I splash water on my face in the morning, but that's it. Depression does this to me. I feel disgusting and I look disgusting, but the cashiers at my local grocery store are still so kind to me--even in this outwardly gross state--that I always leave the place with tears in my eyes. That's how much I appreciate their kindness. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail subscribers with a weekly update, and I would LOVE to have you on the list.  Cli

When my partner moved from his apartment in the city to a (small) house in a small town, he said it was because he didn't want to die listening to the woman upstairs snoring. Now he's bought this condo in a his hometown and a move seems imminent. I keep wondering how he's going to react to the other-people noises in this new building. My own apartment building is a concrete structure. This morning, I woke up to the sound of a sneeze. My partner isn't here with me. The sneeze came from another unit. I'm not even sure whether it was a human sneeze. I think it might have been a dog sneeze. He got away from the thing he wanted to get away from, and now he's going back to it. What's worse is that he's moving farther away from the place he wants to be (the city) because it's so massively expensive to live here. I can only afford my place because I've lived here for twenty years and rent controls have kept the cost down somewhat (long ranty story). T

The other night, I wanted chocolate. And I didn't have any chocolate. I was alone at my apartment in a city where stores are actually open past six in the evening (as compared to the small town where my partner's house is, where stores are... not open after six in the evening), so I went out to buy myself chocolate. I never do this. Go out to buy myself a treat? Just because I want it? I don't do that. But I did. I went to the store and picked out a chocolate bar, and then I went over to pay. The cashier was obviously bored, because she had no customers and was just scrolling on her phone, but when she saw me, she put down her phone and smiled so big I couldn't believe it. We small-talked very briefly as we transacted, and wished each other goodnight, and I left the store walking on air. That tiny encounter made me unbelievably happy. By the time I got home, I didn't want my chocolate anymore. I was content. I went to sleep. Sometimes the thing you think you w

This song popped into my head while I was cleaning my apartment. Not sure why. I'm very frustrated and angry over the state of my apartment at the moment. If I get into it right now, I'm just going to get angrier and more frustrated. So maybe this is a story for another time. Maybe not. We shall see. Lots on the go, where housing is concerned. Very stressful. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail subscribers with a weekly update, and I would LOVE to have you on the list.  Click here to sign up:  http://eepurl.com/R4b11 See you so

I had to stop myself from singing this theme song to my partner in bed the other night--not to serenade him, only because it was stuck in my head. I thought I might be able to remember all the words, but no. In preparing this post, I discovered that Tress MacNeille did the voices of Chip and Gadget on the show. Simpsons fans (and fans of animation, generally) will know the name. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or check them out from your local library.  Supporting my  AudioErotica  endeavour on  Patreon  would also help me hugely. I'm also an  Amazon Influencer,  so hopefully I can make a little pocket change when you buy stuff by clicking through  my affiliate links . I also recommend subscribing to my newsletter. I generally e-mail subscribers with a weekly update, and I would LOVE to have you on the list.  Click here to sign up:  http://eepurl.com/R4b

I took a whole bunch of painkillers this morning because my partner's real estate agent and some other people were coming in to prepare the house for sale (long story), but after they'd gone I decided all the spider webs in the rafters needed to be dealt with. It's something we've been putting off the entire time he's owned this house. So I duct taped two brooms together, I brought the ladder in from the garage, and I insisted that I was capable of swatting at spiders. Except that climbing a ladder and bending your head back is a very stupid thing to do for someone with chronic vertigo, among other conditions, and as soon as I was finished my self-assigned task, I had to lie down. On the couch. Because the couch was close. Actually, my partner doesn't own a couch. It's a loveseat. So my legs flop over the side. For a long time after that, I couldn't move at all. Despite the many medications I'd taken. I felt like a ragdoll. And I've had this s

When I was a kid, my favourite cousin lived in a small(ish) town. One March Break, my aunt invited me and my sister to stay over for the whole week, and she signed us and my cousin up for art camp. I loved art and I loved my cousin, so this was the best thing ever. One of our art instructors one day said to another, "I love The Police." Except I didn't know The Police was capitalized in her sentence. I thought she was saying, "I love the police." Which seemed very odd to me, because she dressed like a punk, in a leather jacket and everything. Punks and police didn't go together, in my mind. Not sure how long it took me to realize she was talking about a band. Could be minutes, could be years. My memory is kinda sketchy. But every time I hear a song by The Police, I think of that art instructor. If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my books (most are for adults only!) or c