#SongoftheDay Wishin' and Hopin' (Dionne Warwick)

By

 I enrolled in a free mindfulness course online, and one of the first exercises they ask you to do is take an everyday task like brushing your teeth and do it mindfully. I chose something else--I chose to be mindful every time I vacuum. 

I picked vacuuming because I actually do that more often than I brush my teeth (life with cats) and I frequently have emotional breakdowns while I do it.  When I vacuum, I think. Too much.  Way too much. I imagine scenarios I can't cope with. I end up screaming and crying because of things that haven't happened and probably never will.  

To keep my thoughts in check, I decided to be in the moment with my vacuuming: notice the sound and sensation of the machine, watch what it's picking up, seek out all those little bits of kitty litter.

It hasn't gone as smoothly as I'd hoped.  My brain still takes over.  I think. I panic. I cry.

So I've started singing while I vacuum.  That seems to be the only way to keep myself from ruminating and making up all sorts of anxiety-producing fantasies in my mind. 

Today, I started singing this song.  I don't know why. It came out of nowhere. Even as a child, this was a song that made me go "hmmm... really?" I'll definitely overanalyze why I'm singing it at this time of life--maybe that's what I can think about next time I vacuum.

If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and visits every day, the easiest thing you can do is tell your friends about the site. Tell anyone you know--particularly people who are isolated and enjoy music.

Readers of adult fiction can also buy my books 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.

But you don't HAVE to do any of that. I'm very happy to get a daily visit from you, so just keep coming back.

Oh, and I also recommend hitting the "Subscribe" button at the top of the page so you won't miss a song!

See you tomorrow!
Giselle

Popular posts from this blog

#SongoftheDay Ice Cream (Sarah McLachlan)

By
Image
For Easter, my partner gave me a chocolate bunny. But you know what else he gave me that's even better than chocolate? No, not that. Well, yes, that too, but that's not what I'm talking about. He bought me some of the supplements my doctor put me on. They're pretty expensive (to me--I don't know what qualifies as expensive to other people anymore) but once I started buying a better brand instead of store brand, I noticed a dramatic reduction in the frequency and severity of attacks (when my chronic illness flares up, it's called an "attack" in the literature--how's that for frightening?). So I'd been talking to my partner about how the better supplements really seem to be making a difference, but BOY are they ever pricy and, sure enough, he goes out and buys them for me as a gift. How's that for thoughtful? If you're wondering how you can support me in bringing you songs and anecdotes, the easiest thing you can do is buy my book
Read More! »

#SongoftheDay Looks Like Meringue (John Scofield)

By
Image
So, look... I have a very bad habit of giving myself food poisoning. This almost always involves eggs. The first time I poisoned myself with eggs was after that big east coast blackout that happened in the early 2000s. 2003? I'm too lazy to look it up right now. If you lived through it you probably remember it because power was out for days, which is pretty unusual in major cities. Anyway, I had a carton of eggs in my fridge that was already 6 months expired and then it lived through this blackout. I can't say for sure why I ate those eggs, except that I was very poor and also stupid, but that was my first experience with egg-related food poisoning. A couple years ago I poisoned myself with homemade mayonnaise. This week I poisoned myself by eating raw meringue while making my partner a pie. He told me not to eat raw meringue, but by then it was too late.  The salmonella is a part of me now. It's been with me for days. If you're wondering how you can support me
Read More! »

#SongoftheDay Nothing Better (The Postal Service)

By
Image
When I was in Grade 3 (that's how we say "Third Grade" in Canada), I joined the stamp club. I bet that sounds pretty nerdy, but either it was super-cool or else all my friends were nerds too, because we all joined the stamp club. It was held after school in a small, dark room, which sounds creepy, but it wasn't.  I can't remember the teacher's name who ran the stamp club, but every week he'd hold a draw for us members, and the winner got a set of stamps he was giving away. One week, I won Disney stamps. I forget which country they were from. I think I might have given them to Sweet, because she was a Disney fanatic, but I hope I didn't give them away.  As I so often mention, I'm getting nostalgic, and part of that nostalgia is wanting things from my childhood. Like those Disney stamps. My paternal grandmother gave me stamps when I was in the stamp club. She'd placed them in two sheets from a large photo album. I have no idea where she got them
Read More! »

#SongoftheDay Cornflake Girl (Tori Amos)

By
Image
I've been flipping through my novel Fortune's Diary (a book from the Lesbian Diaries series that totally flew under the radar) and in one scene Fortune and her crush Maya are in downtown Toronto eating shawarma and listening to a busker. The busker is singing Cornflake Girl, a song Fortune has never heard before. When Maya tells her what the song is called, she thinks the title is hilarious. My best friend in high school put this song on a mix tape she made me. Ah, memories... 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
Read More! »

#SongoftheDay Self Control (Laura Branigan)

By
Image
A couple months ago I had a story in mind to tell you about this song, or a story that was somehow related to this song... but I didn't tell you the story at the time, and now I forget what the story was about. So we'll just listen to the song without the story, I guess. Doesn't it feel good to be watching a music video from the 80s, though? Okay, so maybe music videos weren't invented in the 80s, but I would go so far as to say music videos were perfected in the 80s. 80s music videos were so weird. I love that about them. They give me the feels deep down in my radio heart. In other news, I did once release a book of paranormal erotica called Creatures of the Night ... 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
Read More! »

#SongoftheDay Postman's Knock (The Albion Band)

By
Image
Yesterday I was telling you about stamp collecting. The reason my partner and I were talking about stamps in the first place is that a friend of his used to collect toy cars. This friend recently sold his entire toy car collection and decided he was going to collect stamps instead. My partner and I were talking about collections and collecting, and it occured to me that there's nothing I collect and there's nothing I feel inclined to collect. I enjoy that other people have fun collecting things. I'm not anti-collecting. But for me, having grown up in a hoarder home, the idea of collecting is kind of mashed up with accumulating. I know there's a difference, but I have a compulsion to get rid of things rather than keep them. But, you know, if I HAD TO collect something... I mean, stamps are small. They don't take up much room. Although, having said that, I bet there are stamp collectors with rooms full of stamps. If you're wondering how you can support me
Read More! »

#SongoftheDay Bad Girls (Donna Summer)

By
Image
Every time I come across a music video made in the 70s it blows my mind. Until I stumbled upon that Bee Gees one I played recently, I truly believed music videos were invented in the 80s. So I'm wrong again. This video for Donna Summer's Bad Girls track is just... I don't even know what to say about it. Community theatre on diet pills? I don't even know. It's wild. I was thinking about this song because I recently put out a book called Bad Girls Sexy Surprises . Are my girls really bad or are they just complicated? Who's to say. Many of my characters are based on me, and many of their experiences (ie. sleeping with married men) are things I certainly did when I was younger.  But " Bad Girls " makes for a tantalizing title, and I'm trying to pay the rent, here. 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 you
Read More! »

#SongoftheDay Good Times (CHIC)

By
Image
I have never been the kind of person who enjoys exercising.  Earlier in my adulthood, exercise didn't seem so important--in part because I was younger, and in part because I worked a lot of jobs that were very physical. I also walked everywhere, and I walked often. I moved my body. I don't do that so much anymore, in part because physical activity can actually aggravate my chronic illness if I'm not careful. I have to be so, so attuned to what my body is capable of doing at any given moment.  Sometimes my body is capable of disco dancing.  I've mentioned before that there are workout videos on YouTube that are entirely disco-focused, and they might just be changing my life. I find them so stupidly fun that I'll do one after another. And the more active I am on days when I can be active, the fewer flare-ups I seem to have of my chronic illness. That's not a prescription. It might eve be wishful thinking. But disco gets me wishing for a brighter future.  If yo
Read More! »

#SongoftheDay Nothing is Easy (Jethro Tull)

By
Image
You can blame/thank Heartbeat for this one. I think it's a thank rather than a blame, but I guess that all depends on whether or not you like Jethro Tull.  I actually didn't know what song I was hearing, initially. This song was playing over a chase scene where the Heartbeat coppers were trying to catch a murderous hippie. Luckily, I was watching the show on my PVR, so I could rewind it and play it back and try to make out some song lyrics. I can't tell you how much trouble I had picking out even a few individual words. My hearing is not what it used to be.  But I figured it out, eventually. Lucky us! 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 bu
Read More! »

#SongoftheDay Stayin' Alive (Bee Gees)

By
Image
 I have been seriously struggling with PTSD lately. Flashbacks are frequent, and they draw me completely out of this world--or, at least, out of this time zone.  Out of this time.  Out of now.  I want to be here , where it's safe and there's love, but instead I'm there and it feels so real. I don't even know I've left the here-and-now until I'm back, trying to shake off things I don't want to think about.  Last week, my partner and I walked to the convenience store to buy milk. On our way there, we heard an alarm sounding. We weren't sure whether it was a car alarm or if it was coming from the business across the street. It was hard to pinpoint.  On our way home, we could hear the alarm again. This time, we realized it was coming from a garbage bag at the end of someone's driveway. It was a smoke detector that wouldn't stop sounding. It was garbage day, so I said to my partner, "I guess that alarm will just keep going until it gets crushed
Read More! »