Counting the tags in so many ways

Danielle tagged me not so long ago to share 8 Musical Musings. Our musical tastes are so personal. Sometimes you find out the musical preferences of a person and say to yourself "Ah, just as I expected" and other times your eye widen in a bit of shock as you think "Who'd have thunk they were a closet Big Hair Band devotee?" Tapping my feet to a beat, here goes....

1. I grew up in the South where people typically believe Country music is the rule. I hated Country as a young person, can tolerate it now and only barely like a few country artists.

2. That said, I tend to like lot of music that has country influences which makes my husband point at me and exclaim "Ha, that's country!" Um, nope, it's not honey.

3. Love, love, love old swing, Rat Pack and big band sounds. Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole are my old favorites. Michael Buble, Brian Setzer and Harry Connick Jr. keep it alive. As a side note, I all around think Harry Connick Jr. should be my part time boyfriend. Just to sing to me, talk in that Nawlins accent of his and bring me fruity little drinks with umbrellas in them.

4. My first concert with my hubby, then boyfriend, was Whitesnake and Motley Crue. Hit choice, not mine. Yeah, still his choice. Not mine. We were in Oklahoma and David Coverdale from Whitesnake asked all the 'men' in the crowd (I use the term men loosely) if they rode thier women like horses in Oklahoma. Motley Crue has barely dresses girls on stage gyrating around. Ewwwwww! I guess I was just never cut out to be a hard rocking groupie. The hard rock concerts I did like? Def Leppard. They weren't derogatory in their repartee with the crowd, put on an excellent live show and seemed grateful to be there during the few concerts I went to.

5. Every summer, I camp out for 4 days with no AC, running water or indoor plumbing with at least 25 teenagers for a festival called Creation that is like a massive Woodstock-like event loads of bands. We get pretty much no sleep, each day we take pictures of our feet which get incredibly dirty walking around the grounds and have embarrassing videos of ourselves jumping up and down while waving hands, throwing balls or passing a giant box (as in 8 feet tall) of Captain Crunch cereal through a crowd of 100,000. (To understand the Captain Crunch reference, google Newsboys Breakfast Song)

6. I love musical theater and will pass by 20 movies to see one live production on stage. After years of discouraging the hubby from going to see Rent for the 3rd time, I'm trying to get tickets for all 5 of our family to go before they close on Broadway June 1st. Way back, hubby stubbornly dug his heels in with a firm assertation that he was never going to be coerced into seeing a musical which in his opinion had to be vile, boring events for the octogenerian set. Finally as a favor to his aunt and I , he was persuaded to see Rent over 10 years ago with us as a Mother's Day gift. He went in with his arms crossed and attitude closed. He came out having laughed, cried and jumped up with a standing ovation. Since then the man collected Playbills like some boys collect Pokemon cards and I'm all for it.

7. The last 5 artists to play on my MP3 player are Sarah Bareilles, One Republic, Feist, the Killers and something from Cirque du Soleil.

8. I have a lyrical album. Every once in a while, I'll do layouts for songs that mean something to me either in the long term or just for the moment. Don't think I've shown this one on here, but this is one small example of what the album is filled with. The song is Dig by Incubus.To pass this tag on, I'm throwing it to Kelly who always has music going!

And another tag of sorts from Miss Jennifer at dust bunny hostage who has lots of goodies that one day I'm gonna drive down and poach off her porch while she's out shopping for more fabulous finds passed on a Blessings Award to me. She is a sweet spirit with fabulous taste and I'm so glad our blogs have crossed paths.

I'm going to pass this on in a real snail mail note to a few people who have blessed me recently or who I know will shortly be blessing me & mine. People like neighbors who've called with locations for water this past week as we in turn called them when we found out something. People like Kevin and Corey who are 2 in a fabulous team of leaders for our youth group. They're going to team on a weekend called Chrysalis in a couple of weeks that my daughter, Kirsten, will be attending. Kirsten doesn't know it yet, but she's about to get her socks blown off with an outpouring of love like she's never imagined and surprises that will surely spoil her to the tips of her toes. I've teamed on a Chrysalis weekend and I know it's a sacrifice of time away from their lives, but one they look forward to as they see what kind of positive impact this weekend will have on the almost 50 teenagers who will be there.

In the midst of the water mess, I also got a sweet message from Michelle at Back Through Time; the You Make My Day award. Michelle just about lives my dream of owning an antique mall. She also has a gift for putting objects together. Honestly, gifted folks! The last week of boiling water, buying water, taping signs over taps and reading newspaper articles that weren't very nice between the people of our tiny town, there have been some people who definitely made my day. 2 who live close by and offered to open their doors were Kelly who I already tagged for music and Kim from Too Much Stuff. I didn't need it, but their generosity is always there. I may call yet! Another is Valita at My Wonderful Life. She was my swap partner for the Vintage Heart swap and I had so much fun packing little goodies into a box to spoil her with. She had foot surgery last week and still inquired about my little water problem while she's been going through that. Such a sweetheart! And can't forget my Sister From Another Mister, Danielle. When things go wrong, she's always there to listen to me vent and somehow we always end up laughing about something. Not sure how we get to the laughter, but we do and that's good medicine. Pass it on my friends!

I've slapped some paint on the studio, finally got some knobs on my cabinetry and have been busy nesting in there. It's really my happy spot. Photos next time. For now, I'm off to play!