GIRLS CHASE BOYS

I rarely watch music videos these days, mostly due to the fact that I have not had cable for about two years.  Even prior to that loss of cable, I only rarely would turn on MTV.  When I do catch music videos I am usually not too impressed by what I am watching. However, I saw this video "Girls Chase Boys" by Ingrid Michaelson and really enjoyed it.  Yes, I know this video came out about ten months ago and I just saw it for the first time a few weeks ago.  To repeat, I am very behind on pop culture things at times and I am no longer cool.

I had heard this song on the radio first and I enjoyed it.  My wife and I watched this video together. We are both kids from the 80's and could recognize from first sight that her video is homage to Robert Palmer's 1988 video "Simply Irresistible."   However, here Ingrid switches gender roles and she takes the role of Robert Palmer and instead of the hot brunette female models in the background we have male models. I enjoyed seeing Ingrid playing the more masculine role and nailing it, with her body language.   However, I was more interested in watching the male models. Not only are the male models wearing makeup, they are wearing tight pink tank tops and are dancing to the music.  The male models appear so feminine to me by just wearing makeup and how they are moving there bodies.

As the video goes on there appears a few female models in the same makeup and they start to dance with the male models.  It strange how both male and female bodies blend in together so much that I can almost not tell which is male and which is female.  This video makes me miss my gender studies courses I took in college.  Even the lyrics to this song are about "girls chasing boys," but we all know the original saying is that "boys chase girls."  I read that Ingrid, reported the lyrics are about how when it comes to love both girls and boys chase each other. 

HOMES FROM WINTER’S PAST 

GRANDMA DOROTHY: 41ST & NASH

With my new job I spend a lot of time driving in the city of Milwaukee.  A few weeks back I pulled to the side of the road to look up a client’s address and then by chance looked to my right and saw my Grandma Dorothy’s old house.  I had been concentrating on the exact address, that I had not even notice where I was.  I grew up in the city of Milwaukee and I find that this new job has me driving by all these old houses filled with memories from decades ago.  It was only a few years ago that my father sold my Grandma Dorothy’s house, after my Uncle passed away.  The house had been his childhood home for the majority of his youth.  He had built the fence that still in the backyard with his own father many years ago, one summer.  I can almost see my Grandpa Bill and my dad, the eldest of three sons, working together in the warm summer sun and the smell of freshly cut wood in the air. I myself had spent many Christmas Eve’s in that house, with my Grandma’s small blue lighted Christmas tree in the front window. 

GRANDMA JUNE: 44TH & CENTER

Then I can drive about 2 miles away to 44^th and Center and see the childhood home of my mother.  The duplex my Grandma June lived in when I was really little  I recall having my first lemonade stand there with my cousins Sheri and Sarah our table positioned across from track and field of Washington High School, which was on the opposite side of the street.  On that day some neighborhood kid stole some lemonade without paying for it, the injustice.  My Grandma June lived on the second floor of the duplex and many family members took turns living on the first floor.  Originally my Great-Grandma Rose lived there and when I was in my first years of life my parent’s and I lived there.  Years later after the lemonade stand I recall the bottom of the duplex was empty for the moment and Sheri, Sarah, and I used an empty room to start a New Kids on the Block Club, which we denied access to of our two younger cousins, Niki and Jessica.  Niki and Jessica informed Grandma of this and she came down the stairs with a wooden spoon and informed us that the little two kids we're in the club, as we all hid in the empty closets.

THE MCKINNEY FAMILY: 49TH & WRIGHT

Now if you were to drive about 4 blocks up and two over you would hit 49^th and Wright, which is the home I spent the majority of my childhood.  In this duplex my parents and I lived and rented the bottom part.  Whenever Ashley complains about our present home being too cold, I think to myself that she would have never made it in that old drafty place on 49^th Street.  We had a space heater in the living room and I recall sitting next to for warmth, like it was a fire place.  Whenever I drive by this place I am always amazed with that pine tree right in front of it and how tall it has gotten.  I could be wrong, but I remember being a child and being able to touch the top of that tree.  There is photo somewhere of my mom sitting on that front porch steps in the summer, with a book and glass of ice-tea and our amazing dog, Roxy, sitting a few steps below her.  These places are occupied with new families, but just viewing them brings back all of the good moments I have had in this city. 

CHANGES & NEW CHEESE

I have left the world of retail about a month and a half ago.  Now I have started my new chapter as a case manager for clients who live in my community and have a mental illness.  When I started on December 1^st, I spent the first two weeks in class room training.  From 8am to 4pm, Monday to Friday, and I felt like I was back in high school. Previously I had been working in a busy pharmacy where I was on my feet all day and only sat down during my lunch break.   My legs felt stiff at time from sitting in one spot for hours at a time. I sat at a table with three others, who were also going to be case managers.  This also took a page from high school in that we all sat at one table, those working in group homes at a different table, and a few who were loners sat by themselves. The classroom training did teach me some new stuff, but it seemed like some of the information was more relevant to those who would be working in group homes.  

There were three tests we had to take during this course and we had to pass them all.  For some reason I had a little bit of anxiety about these tests, even though two of them were open book. .  The tests were a lot of True or False questions and few multiple-choice.   I passed all three tests on my first try and they were not that bad at all.  I think I just got freaked out by the idea of having to pass yet another obstacle.  I had been looking for a new job for so long that there is this fear that something will go wrong and I will have to start the hunting process all over again.  It felt like I was in a pin ball game and it was possible for the reset button to happen any moment.

After my class room experience, I spent the next few weeks having on the job training and following a few different case managers around.  I was excited to be finally learning what an average day on this job would consist of and to meet my new co-workers.  Everyone has been very friendly and helpful so far.  At the same time I would often come home from work exhausted.  I wanted to impress my supervisors and co-workers, so I was constantly trying to stay alert and learn all the little details and to look competent.  The tiredness could have also been due to me not been used to getting up every work at 6am and still having trouble with getting to bed as earlier.  However, now reevaluating everything that has occurred since the start of November, when I got hired for the job, I have been dealing with so much change.  We all say we want things to change in our lives, but most of us are creatures of habit and change can make us nervous.  

A few years back my cousin, Chris, recommended this short book by Spencer Johnson, called Who Moved My Cheese?  Simply it is a story of two mice and two little people who live inside a maze.  These four characters each day find a piece of cheese in the same location.  Then one day the “old cheese” is no longer in its usual place and the mice start immediately hunting for the “new cheese.”  The two little people keep returning to where they originally found the cheese, in hopes that it will return, but it has not returned.  At one point one of the little people starts exploring the maze for the “new cheese.”  At first the little person is nervous exploring the unknown parts of the maze, but the ends up enjoying the hunt, and she does find “new cheese.” 

Switching jobs I know was the correct decision, but I have moved out of my comfort zone.  I knew how to be a good pharmacy technician, but I’m still unknown territory as case manager.  I am enjoying many of the challenges coming my way, but I wish I did not have to ask so many questions.  However, change is important part of life and I do believe we need to keep putting ourselves out there, no matter what our age and fears of the unknown.  I just completed my first week on my own and things went pretty good overall.  I have a lot of paper work still to do and there is always something that needs to get done.  However, I am glad to have found some “new cheese.”

THE BOOKS OF 2014

Starting in 2011, I have kept a journal about all the books I have read or listened to.  And then in the first few days of January I’ve been making Facebook post with the list of the books I have completed in that previous year.  So here are the books of 2014, along with small reviews.  If you have any recommendation for 2015 let me know.  However, I have a piles of books at home that I need to read and I am not the quickest reader.  Enjoy!!
** = Audio Book         SSBC = Books we read in Short Stories Book Club

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin (1999)
This is the second book in the series, "A Song of Ice and Fire," and it was amazing.  I can't believe I have not read the third book yet, but book club keeps me busy and I have so much to read, but I will be starting A Storm of Swords in the next few weeks.  My favorite quote from this book comes from Ser Rodrick:
"When we speak of the morrows nothing is ever certain." (p 194)

Night Shift by Stephen King (1979)  

I picked up this collection of 20 short stories for $1.00 at my local Goodwill.  The second to last story, "One for the Road," two old men are hanging out in a small town bar in Maine, of course.  There is a blizzard going on outside and they are about to close up, when a stranger reports his family car broke down outside of a abandoned town called Jerusalem's Lot.  Unknown to the man there is a local legend that vampires lurk in this mysterious place.  Against there better judgement the two older men drive the family man back to his car, but his wife and child are missing.  Things don't end well in this cold and snowy night.



Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn** (2007) 
My wife, Ashley, and I share a car together, so occasionally we listen to audio books together on many car rides.  Prior to this I had already listened to Gone Girl, which I prefer over this book, but both books kept me guessing who did it to the very end.  My problem with this one is the main character, Camille, who returns to home town to investigate the murder of two little girls.  Camille had a difficult childhood, but she makes some stupid choices at times in my opinion, such as when she decides to do LSD with her half sister, who is only 13 years old.

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (1999) (SSBC)
The stories in this collection focus either on people living in India or people from India who now live in America. I found all the characters intriguing in this book, such as in the final story, "The Third and Final Continent."  Where a young man leaves India and moves to Boston and briefly lives with an elderly woman, who turns out to be 103 years old.  He ends up staying in Boston and raising a family there, but always thinks of the old woman when he passes by her old house.  Here's the final sentences of the story:  Still, there are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept.  As ordinary as it all appears, there are times when it was beyond my imagination. (p 198)

An Unsuitable Job for a Woman by P.D. James** (1972)
This is the first installment in the mystery series of Cordelia Gray, who is a 20 year old private detective who is still new to the field get's her first big case.  Here is a capable and smart female detective whom goes to Cambridge to investigate a supposed suicide of a young student.  I was just reading over my notes and just put something together.  At the end of the novel she ends up being questioned by Chief Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh of Scotland Yard.  Which if you know Jame's work Dalgliesh is protagonist of most of her work and I will actually listened to one of his mysteries this past year, see The Lighthouse.  For Christmas I just go the second Cordelia Gray mystery, The Skull Beneath the Skin, which was voted one of the top 10 mysteries of all time by Entertainment Weekly. 

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (1898) (SSBC)
This book written well over a 100 years ago is often described as a "classic ghost tale."  However, it left most of the book club very confused by what was going on.  Was the governess who came to the strange mansion crazy or were the creepy little girl and boy actually hanging out with dead people?  I am still not sure what was going on here.  I let this quote from the story sum it up:
Wasn't it just a story-book over which I had fallen a-doze and a a-dream?  No; it was a big ugly antique but convenient house, embodying a few features of a still order, half-displaced and half-utilized, in which I had the fancy of our being almost as lost as handful of passengers in a great drifting ship.  Well, I was strangely at the helm." (p 96)


Hush by Nancy Bush (2011)
I have gotten sick of reading the same old magazines while using my bathroom, so I have started putting cheap paper backs in there so I have something to read.  Maybe this is more information than you need to know.  However, I knew this book wasn't going to be amazing, but it did keep my interest.  Same old story, a group of high school girls sit around a fire telling their deepest secrets, later on that night the boy they all had a crush on falls off a cliff to his death.  Now 12 years later they reunite and more people start dying off.

The Lighthouse by P.D. James** (2005)
 I am a huge fan of mysteries, if you haven't noticed that most of audiobooks include death and detectives.  Adam Dalgliesh makes his second appearance, this time his team is sent isolated island to solve the death of an author.  I just got into Ms. James this year and she was an amazing writer, that passed away this last November at age 94.  She first introduced us to Dalgliesh in 1962 and his last adventure was in 2008, pretty amazing.


Stay Close by Harlan Coben** (2013)
My good friend, Tina, moved to Oakland this last fall and for her long road trip I got her copy of this audiobook.  No one can keep you hooked to a story like Coben in my opinion,  I would never put him and Bush into the same category.  Coben knows how to come up with unique plots and you feel like your on this constant roller coaster the whole time. 

The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatics" by Yann Martel (1993) (SSBC)
These are early four stories from the author of Life of Pi.  The title story "The Facts Behind.." was about a college student who befriends a younger student and quickly it is discovered that he has AIDS.  Martel explains in the introduction that he knew someone who passed away from AIDS.  The main character becomes a true friend and helps him by coming up with an idea that they will tell a story together and go back and forth creating the narrative to distract him from the disease and him dying.  A lovely piece, but also very sad. 


Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell (2013) (SSBC)
The book club choose this one for October and all the stories have some kind of supernatural element about them.  Some pretty weird plots, such as vampires sucking on lemons to quench their thirst and in "Reeling for the Empire," young girls are shipped to a sweatshop to make silk and end up transforming into silkworms.  The funniest and my favorite tale was "The Barn at the End of Our Term," where former United States presidents pass away and end up returning as horses.  In this barn half of the horses are former presidents and the majority want to break free from the farm and return to D.C. and get back into politics.  Except, for former President Rutherford, who's main desire is to find his wife.  He starts suspecting that a particular sheep may be his Lucy.  

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith** (2014)
This is the second book featuring detective Cormoran Strike this time he is hired to find a missing novelist.  Strike finds him, but the author has been killed and leaves behind many suspects.  In case you don't know already, Robert Galbraith is pen name used by J K Rowling.  If the only thing you've read by her is Harry Potter, I would definitely recommend checking out any of her other books.  They do not all include wizards and magic, but they are all brilliant pieces of work.

 Bossypants by Tina Fey (2011) (SSBC) 
I had heard many good things of this book and I was excited to read it.  I enjoyed it overall, but maybe not as amazing as I had hoped for.  My favorite chapters were "That's Don Fey," about her bad-ass dad and "I Don't Care If You Like It," where Tina recalls Jimmy Fallon telling Amy Poehler to stop doing something because it wasn't cute.  Amy responded, "I don't fucking care if you like it."   I'll admit that I have only watched a few episodes of  30 Rock, but the book has sparked my interest in watching the series. 

The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (1993)
My Aunt Renee often gives me books to read after she's done with them and I actually found the time to read this one.  This was one of the best books I read this year.  It is the fictional autobiography of Daisy Goodwill Flett, a seemingly ordinary woman whose life is marked by death and loss from the beginning, when her mother dies during childbirth.  Here's a grand quote close to the end of the book: Words are more and more required.  And the question arises: what is the story of life? A chronicle of fact or a skillfully wrought impression? (p 340)