Michelle

Obligatory Thanksgiving post

There is so much to be grateful for in life that it’s useless to try to make a list. Thanksgiving Day does require some sort of acknowledgement of gratitude before I get any mashed potatoes, so…

I am incredibly blessed in pretty much every way a person can be. Wonderful life partner and family, loving friends, a great job, a penchant for both laughter and deep thought, health, sarcasm, enough money to have everything I need (and not so much that I can get into trouble), and living in a gorgeous place where I am free to be who I am.

Life isn’t perfect, nothing ever is, but as the late Leonard Cohen said “there’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

Happy Thanksgiving, my loves!

PS
I feel like a really need to throw in something about red shoes, music, boozes, and books. You know, the stuff that pads the sometimes rough edges of life. There will always be bumps, but life has a multitude of compensations for them!

My ideal Elvis set list

The other day I was listening to an old interview of Elvis on the Howard Stern Show, and now everythin’ that ends in ing sounds like Elvis. You know how it is. You’re listnin’ along, smilin’ at all the great songs..and without even noticin’ that it’s happenin’ all the g’s have fallen off your gerunds.

It’s enbarassin’ really.

I’m goin’ to see Elvis with the person who first introduced me to the music of the One True Elvis, and when we were discussin’ where to have dinner before the show, KelBel asked me what songs I wanted to hear. And that is a really hard question. There is such a long list.

So I was thinkin’ about the ideal set list. There are songs he has to play, so we know that Alison and some detectives will be there. He’s got to play some of his more recent stuff so he doesn’t get bored.

Here’s what I think:
Start with Pump it Up. It will drive the crowd wild, and he won’t have to do a lick of work the rest of the night
Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes for me. This is the one I would be most disappointed not to hear, even though it breaks my heart a little bit to hear it at all.

Lipstick Vogue for what’s his name

Sulphur to Sugar Cane

Something from North, like Someone Took the Words Away or Let Me Tell You About Her

My Science Fiction Twin

Uncomplicated

I Want You

You’d need some Peace, Love and Understanding or Shipbuilding

Am I Blue

Beyond Belief

Stella Hurt

Mystery Dance

Veronica

And then I just just sort of surrender. There are just too many songs. He can’t play them all. I’ll be there with some of my favorite guys in the world, and it will be great no matter what.

But, still. There better be red shoes.

How to have a Cap’n Crunch Brunch

Get some cereal–the sugary kind.

Maybe a little booze.

Some pop tarts.

Bacon, sausage.

Invite some people you love over to eat it with you.

They’ll bring more cereal, pop tarts, pastries and booze.

They will show up in their jammies, eat cereal, drink coffee, smoked Bloody Mary’s, mimosas and beer all day, disappear into the garage to do who knows what, watch basketball, make a beer and snack run, get pizza, stay up playing cards with you, spend the night, have breakfast the next morning and even move furniture for you.

There will be exploding bottles of ginger beer complete with glass shrapnel but only very minor bleeding. There will be exploding bottles of 7-Up with no injuries except to the general cleanliness level.

The kitchen will be sticky all over in spite of several rounds of cleaning. The floor will be a disaster area. There will be children setting up obstacle courses in the yard and sleeping on the sofa.

There will be talking, hugging, laughing, more hugging, more talking and more laughing.

It will be loud.

You will be exhausted and happy.

You will not mind the extra mopping the next day, or cleaning ginger beer and 7-Up off every surface of the kitchen.

Then you will know that the secret to having Cap’n Crunch Brunch has very little to do with you and everything to do with the kind of people who are willing to spend the day with you doing nothing but hanging around in PJs eating really bad food.

Just brunch? No way.

It’s another chance to recognize how many really wonderful people you know, and how wonderful life is.