biking

We finally got my bike fixed. I need to dig out my helmet, I suppose, selenite says it's in a box in the garage. And yesterday we got a baby trailer for the bike at a 2ndhand place, at a pretty good price. We need to either reinflate the tires or replace them, we'll have to find out which. And I'll need to get helmets for the little ones, and figure out at what age Jamie can safely ride in it. I hope to eventually get a bike for Brendan.

Yesterday I rode around the block, today I rode around the subdivision. It was nice, just to get out in the air and enjoy the activity.

Of nicknames and music

I'd been meaning to write this for some time, but have been really short on uninterrupted keyboard time.

I'd been thinking about music a lot lately. I suppose it started with that questions meme, where meerkat1 gave me the nickname Songbird. That was really cool to me, because I secretly think nicknames are just cool in general - means somebody noticed you! I have not had much in the way of nicknames in my life. In college I was in a coed service organization, and a LOT of people in the chapter got nicknames. Some of them were okay - I don't think Mike Lindy minded being "Triple", and I know Brian enjoyed "Long John" (and yes, I know the story behind it, and no, that's not it.) I think it wasn't as fun for Bonehead... so when I was at a party early on and chattering away at my usual rate of speech, and one of the guys called me Speed, I happily adopted the nickname - officially, because I knew that as nicknames in this crew went, that wasn't bad - unofficially I just enjoyed getting a nickname. (I even ended up with a particular way that I always signed it - and given that the year after that I ended up with an office in which I had to sign incredible amounts of things, I got very accustomed to it. Even had a APO shirt airbrushed when home over Xmas, by an airbrusher I knew at my old job, and had him copy the signature)

Whoa, I don't know anybody anymore who knew me as Speed... no, that's right, my mom knew about it.

Anyway, so Songbird was cool nickname, and meerkat1 said it was because I was always singing. I hadn't realized it. I must drag her home to hang out with the rest of my family sometime, if she thinks I sing a lot. Mom's been known to make a point by sitting down at the piano and launching into a song, and used to use it to lure me out of my room. And certainly my younger sister has a musical quote for just about anything. (Sung in perfect pitch, at ranges most humans cannot attempt!)

But I do like it when I sing, and frankly I'd like to do a lot more of it. I used to do more... then got made fun of, and dropped it for years. Now I no longer care if people are likely to think I'm weird, I'm likely to sing anyway. Went to a women's spirituality group meeting a few weeks ago, where the theme was on what moved us spiritually, and I sang _Acts of Creation_.

Then yesterday selenite and I went to the mall, to look for some clothing staples for me. Which we didn't get, because Lane Bryant was charging ENTIRELY too much for them. Fegh, I shall order online. They had the most gawdsawful music playing in the store, horrible drum machine synth crap, but now and then I was catching scraps of a familiar melody line - so I forced myself to actually listen to the crap, and then I realized it was "Summertime", from Porgy and Bess. As if a Broadway musical writer had a drunken drugged fling with a techno-drum machine-rapper, and this was the retarded offspring. Gak. Some things are Just Wrong. We left the store, and then as we were heading back through the mall I sang the song properly, just to get the bad version of it out of my head.

I was telling him about a post theferrett made in which he asked people if they'd go sing karaoke with him, and what they'd sing. I've never done karaoke, never had the opportunity, and what really intimidates me, is that I figure there's a whole bunch of unwritten rules and understandings that go along with it that I just don't have a clue about. Frankly I'd find that far scarier than the singing part.

Also, I have no idea what kind of music they have. I posted a comment to his post, and I said my ideal song would be "Reciprocity" from Chicago. Actually, there's a number of Broadway songs I could do pretty well. But I am guessing that any places that do karaoke have pop hits from the last few years, which I wouldn't even recognize. Nor do I have a clue where one finds such things - I would actually have had some ideas back in LA, but not here.

Anybody know these things, and want to tell me about them? selenite has been asking me what I want us to do for our upcoming anniversary - and we actually know somebody we trust who's currently looking for more childcare business, so for once in our lives we could get a sitter, albeit still with restrictions on how long I can be away from nursling Jamie. Part of me is actually tempted to suggest we go do karaoke. Except I haven't a clue how, and he doesn't sing, anyway.

In any case, I've been deciding I do want to sing more, and actually learn entire songs I enjoy, rather than just being able to sing bits and pieces of them. I was telling selenite this while we were out in the van today, and had no sooner told him this than we passed a motorcycle with two riders - the passenger's t-shirt said on the back, "Sing or get off the stage". Right, I get the hint. Time to sing some more.