the soundtrack of my life.

"What songs define you, and what songs make up the soundtrack to your life?"

That's what my friend Loukia asks in her most recent post on her blog.  If you've been reading me a while or know me IRL, you'd know that music is a big deal in my life.  And not in the negative "if my parents make me take up yet another musical instrument I detest, I'm going to stab someone in the face" kind of Big Deal.

No, it's in the positive way my heart lurches and turns over, my fingers itch to hold my bass guitar again, and the sudden urge to simultaneously laugh, cry and dance takes over me whenever I hear this song...



Yeah, that kind of Big Deal.

This is the very first song my band covered and the very first song we played at our very first public gig.  We had our audience convinced that we'd been playing bars for ages.  We were that good.  Not bad for a bunch of kids closer to graduating high school than touring stadiums.

There have been many songs like that, that when I hear them again, they propel me back to my first crush, my first broken heart (and how much of an ass I thought he was), the freedom I felt when I'd jam with my band, hanging out at the mall with my best friend, screaming a song on the dance floor at an engineering social, watching video shows (before MTV) with my friends, long drives to California with my family and friends, being in my husband's arms at our wedding reception, driving several provinces over for our nerd's honeymoon, watching our children dancing, etc.

Here they are, in no specific order, the songs of the soundtrack of my life...

Don't You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds
Out of the Blue - Debbie Gibson
We Run - Strange Advance
I Think We're Alone Now - Tiffany
I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
Girls on Film - Duran Duran
Like a Virgin - Madonna
How Will I Know - Whitney Houston
Do They Know It's Christmas - Band Aid
Come On Eileen - Dexys Midnight Riders
Two for the Road - Andrea Marcovicci
Somewhere Down That Crazy River - Robbie Robertson
Wake Me Up Before You Go Go - Wham
Don't Give Up - Kate Bush & Peter Gabriel
If You Leave - OMD
Control - Janet Jackson
Thriller - Michael Jackson
Everything Counts - Depeche Mode
Girls Just Want To Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper
Rock Lobster - B-52's
Blister In The Sun - Violent Femmes
The Time Warp - The Cast of Rock Horror Picture Show
Paradise By The Dashboard Light - Meatloaf
Relax - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
It's a Beautiful Life - Ace of Base
The Look of Love - ABC
Poison - Bell Biv Devoe
I've Had The Time Of My Life - Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes
Step By Step - New Kids On The Block
Let Your Backbone Slide - Maestro Fresh Wes
New Year's Day - U2
At Last - Etta James
Natural - S Club 7

How about you? What songs define you, have influenced you, become the soundtrack of your life?

the fridge hates me, and the toaster's laughing at me.

When folks say "Christmas is a magical time", I don't think they had "Refrigerator comes to life and drops door in protest" in mind.

For the past 2 years, my appliances and I have been getting along.  I think they're happy that I'm back to drinking coffee.  Espresso actually.  So Juan Valdez and my house really have nothing on me anymore.  Do you hear me, Juan?!  Don't come 'round here, or I'll kick your ass. You and your little donkey too.  

The bathroom's all prettied up.  The dishwasher, washing machine, and garage door opener are happily working away.  The garburator and oven still need fixing (a fuse is busted), but they more-or-less do their jobs in non-cranky fashion.

As for the fridge, I try to keep her loaded with delicious healthy things like cruciferous veggies and cottage cheese.  Maybe she's pissed that Roomie keeps jamming Coke and other such evil products in her busty innards.
Perhaps HE is the reason why she decided to do this...

So, if she's going to be all weird, bitchy, and door-droppy, could she have at least done it on Roomie's watch instead of mine?

All I was doing was putting groceries away.  And NOT sneaking snacks, as my awesome-yet-evil buddy Camille suggested I was REALLY doing to all and sundry on Facebook.

I figured out that the door dropped due to the pin in the hinge falling out.  I didn't need to reverse engineer the thing.  I didn't have to find the schematics.  I just used the miracle of sight.  And my brain.  And what little logic I'm capable of these days.

No problem.  Easy fix... IF I HAD FOUR ARMS!!!

My awesome and generous friend Sue was going to come over to help me put it together, but I didn't want to yell at her, and when any kind of appliance fixing happens in my house, there is a high probability that yelling will occur.  And I'd much prefer to yell at Roomie.  (Just kidding.  I don't yell at Roomie.  I just look at him disapprovingly.)

So, since I was going to wait 4+ hours for my dude to come home, my clever friend Antiquark2 (name has been changed to protect the guilty) suggested I channel good ole Red Green and secure a blanket on my fridge with duct tape in the meantime to keep the cool in and the cat out.
Et voila...

Okay, overly-long story short,  my he-man came home and fixed the fridge with me.
Like a scene from a bad porno...

"Hello, ma'am, I'm here to fix your fridge."

"It's over here, beside my... bed."  Bow-chicka-wah-wah...

No, not really.

Huzzah!  Fixed fridge!

I love...

This post was inspired by Schmutzie's post on Aiming Low.  Thank you for sharing the love. 

... simple, clean, natural decor...
... summer day trips to small towns just outside the city...
... my son and me bouncing to our favourite songs on the car radio while we drive...
... my grandmother’s house in the Philippines, with its jasmine and rose bushes, rice paddy field, and kalamansi trees...
... having the door held open for me...
... the crack of the hard caramelized sugar top when I dig into a creme brulee...
... Scottish accents...
... bacon baked so that the fatty bits are dry and crisp...
... the delicious silence while my besties and I savour our first bite of sushi during our monthly get-togethers...
... white walls I freshly painted myself...
... frozen grapes...
... update pictures of the SOS childrens village we support every month...
... putting on my favourite cardigan fresh from the dryer...
... the feel of a fresh pair of contact lenses...
... how light my head feels after a long overdue haircut...
... that my daughter was invited to take the Royal Academy of Dance ballet exam...
... when my warm fuzzy cat lies on me on a cold night...
... that, sometimes, all I need is a quick swipe of lipstick to make me feel better...
... how saying just one word would set my husband and me laughing over a shared memory...
... real-life royal weddings...
... how my feet feel after taking off high heel shoes I’d been wearing for hours...
... walking around Hilo, Hawai’i on misty days...
... naked cuddling with my husband...
... Sheldon Cooper and Doctor Doofenschmirtz...
... when PayPal notifies me that I’ve been paid...
... the night when 3 of my favourite sci-fi shows are showing one after the other...
... Fergie's battered pickerel with my daughter after ballet class...
... having coffee with my bff and giggling over cute boys as if we're 15...
... my aunt’s Buko Pandan...
... that I have the complete DVD set of some of my favourite TV shows that are no longer airing...
... that I lived with my husband first before we got married...
... soft fresh salmon sashimi...
... movie nights at home with my family...
... starting a brand new erotic romance novel by any one of my favourite authors...
... getting snail mail that’s not a bill or spam...
... going out for breakfast with my sister...
... spending the whole day in pajamas...
... mallratting with my son...
... the caesar’s salad at Stella’s that has the perfect amount of garlic and parmesan...
... rediscovering what flowers I’d planted when they pop up again in the Spring...
... the warmth of the sun on my face...

How about you?  What do you love right now?