AI Top 5!

Neil Diamond week!  Gah. 

Jason:  Forever in Blue Jeans and September Morn.  So look who goes first – does pure laid back Jason Castro renditions of these well chosen songs and gets shot down for not stepping outside his comfort zone.  Although if he had stepped outside his comfort zone he still would have been shot down but with bigger guns.  To keep things all balanced and even in Idoldom a guy needs to be the next to leave this group.  And it ain’t gonna be either one of the Davids.  Surviving going first in the line up is never easy, and when the judges diss you besides – double whammy. 

David C.:  I’m Alive and All I Really Need is You.  This guy is super smart.  He choses not so well known pieces and sings the hell out of them so that the deadly comparrison factor to the original artist becomes a moot point.  He knows he’s good, but he also knows he has to work that vulnerable and oh- so-humble factor into his performance as well.   A musician and an artist?  Oh yeah. 

Brooke:  I’m A Believer and I Am I Said.  I suppose I’m bitter that Brooke is still around and Carly is not – if I had to choose one of them to listen to it would not be little miss sunshine with her mile wide smile and her Barbie hair and her cute little Bratz boots.  But harshly criticizing her is just no fun at all.  She would be deeply hurt, and she would NEVER lash back.  She tries hard.  She has a nice voice.  But I never thought she’d make top five.  Now making top four is a real possibility.  Mind boggling.

David A.:  Sweet Caroline and America.  You gotta love this kid, even if you’d never vote for him in a million years just because he’s exactly what the doctor ordered for the next American Idol.  He’s young, he’s got a great big powerful voice, he takes advice to heart and he is just so freaking ecstatically happy to be here.  His songs are both of the very well known sing-along kind, and will stick in the heads and the hearts of Americans while whatever everyone else did fades off into oblivion.  As Simon said, he ticks all the boxes.

Syesha:  Hello Again and Thank the Lord for the Nightime.  This girl has an incredibly beautiful voice, and at last she seems to have developed some kind of a performance personality.  AI credibility would definitely suffer if the absolute best technical singer got the boot now, so popping her into the pimp spot and Simon saying she might be in trouble should be enough to save her for another week and maybe even ensure that she’s the last female standing. 

I’m really hating these theme weeks this year, and the fact that they pull old half dead artists out of the woodwork to be mentors.  Okay, that was a bit harsh, but really.  It all seems so much in the category of ‘desperate for publicity’ for everyone involved.  And already next week it’s down to FOUR.  I’m predicting that the top four will not include Jason.  I think it will definitely include both Davids and both remaining girls.  Kind of a no brainer this time around, but it’s also one time where I’d really like to be wrong.

Apnea Schmapnea

To get to the bottom of my chronic tiredness I agreed to be tested for sleep apnea. What insanity. I realize the condition is a serious problem for a lot of people and that there are different kinds of sleep therapy that can often work wonders. I don’t think I have it, but to satisfy my curiosity I filled out the forms and answered all the questions. I have some of the symptoms, but definitely not all of them. I’ve never fallen asleep mid conversation with someone. I find myself infinitely too interesting for that to happen. Ha. And I’ve never fallen asleep at a red light or anywhere in traffic if I’m driving. (Being a passenger with W. at the wheel is a completely different story, and I can nod off before he puts the vehicle in drive.) My tiredness has not really affected my work, except for some extra crankiness. And the inability to concentrate combined with memory loss can be simply explained when you consider my life long state of being dazed and confused combined with advancing age. Right? I would say right. Yes, I snore, but no one has ever mentioned that I’ve stopped breathing in the middle of it, unless I get so loud that I startle myself awake wondering who the hell is making that godawful racket.

So I drove all the way to the west end to pick up the equipment, got the in-office demo and brought home the instructions for hooking up the little black box that records sleep patterns.  I watched the little 8 minute video of someone with a severe case of sleep apnea happily strapping the CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine onto his head at night and the next day playing frisbee with his sons on the beach.  This kind of thing can actually happen, they would have you believe.

What a horrible night I had.  Getting myself all wired up and taped together was not the hard part – it was figuring out that if you do your finger first, the throat and the nose become much more complicated.  And once you’re attached in three different ways, you are pretty much committed to being trapped in bed - you should have made your last trip to the bathroom WAY before now, you moron.   How this whole procedure can end up with results that are anywhere near accurate is beyond me. The tape on the ‘microphone’ on my neck was gross and painful.  In my zeal to get it right I used enough to strangle myself.  The finger thing was annoying as hell, sort of like a weak clothes pin easily knocked off and able to make the box beep accusingly whenever that happened.  More tape needed, but careful not to cut off the circulation – having done it so well to your neck should be sufficient for now.  Then there’s the oxygen-like tubing that left an indentation across one side of my face for almost four hours after I took it off.  Yes, I DID time it, making a mental note that an actual mask could conceivably disfigure my face permanently.   And those little probes stuck up my nose were fine as long as I didn’t move.  Otherwise they tickled and itched and no amount of tightening or losening the strap under my chin made any difference in that respect.  I did discover that when it was too tight it made my ears hurt.  They really should put that bit of info in the book.

I must have wakened up a dozen times during the night tangled up in wires. Although I really wanted to just say “F THIS” and rip everything off I did persevere until 7:00 a.m.  At which point I actually did say something similar.  And not using my inside voice.  Then I made the drive all the way back across town to return all the rigamarole and have the information I recorded under great duress fed into a computer for a preliminary analysis by my sleep specialist.  That might not be her exact title, but at that moment I didn’t give a flying fig how her damned business card describes her.  She told me I was the second person that morning to tell her they’d just spent the worst night of their lives, sleep-wise.  You’d think she’d be used to hearing that.  Then I got to sit and yawn a lot and wait to be ushered into her office to sit down once again, this time in the big blue lazy boy chair.  I’m not seeing the use of that particular chair as a good business practice for these people.  But I did manage to stay alert while she explained to me that the results show I’m borderline for needing one of those sleep apnea machines.  She would still like me to try one, but it might not make a significant difference in the long run.  Normal times to stop breathing in the space of a minute are five and under.  I’m at 6.8.  My blood oxygen level during sleep was 8.9 and I believe she said that’s low but not excessively so.  She now sends this incredibly interesting information off to a doctor for further interpretation.  And we both presumably wait with baited breath to see what he has to say.

Oh yeah, and she begs to differ with W., my snoring is NOT off the wall.  It’s MODERATE.  Jerk.  Snort.  Etcetera. 

Our session did end on an extremely pleasant note.  She asked me to verify my birthdate, since she thought she must have made a typing error when she entered it into the computer.  Then she did a really believable version of looking shocked, saying she simply could NOT believe I was that old.  I have now forgiven her everything.  My crankiness level shot down to about half in a matter of seconds.  Now an afternoon nap (a lovely wireless one) should get it right back down to normal.

Bits of History

This is a book I’ve just finished slogging my way through;  not that it wasn’t interesting history.  It took several chapters for me to stop being annoyed at how the author skipped back and forth between present and past tense.  Charlotte is doing such and such, since so and so had been done and was blah blah blah and here she is now doing this.  It just didn’t sound right in my head.  I’ve copied the blurb from Random House about it, being entirely too lazy to blather on about it on my own.

In 1775, twenty-year-old Charlotte Taylor fled her English country house with her lover, the family’s black butler. To escape the fury of her father, they boarded a ship for the West Indies, but ten days after reaching shore, Charlotte’s lover died of yellow fever, leaving her alone and pregnant in Jamaica.

Undaunted, Charlotte swiftly made an alliance with a British naval commodore, who plied a trading route between the islands and British North America, and travelled north with him. She landed at the Baie de Chaleur, in what is present-day New Brunswick, where she found refuge with the Mi’kmaq and birthed her baby. In the sixty-six years that followed, she would have three husbands, nine more children and a lifelong relationship with an aboriginal man.

Charlotte Taylor lived in the front row of history, walking the same paths as the expelled Acadians, the privateers of the British-American War and the newly arriving Loyalists. In a rough and beautiful landscape, she struggled to clear and claim land, and battled the devastating epidemics that stalked her growing family. Using a seamless blend of fact and fiction, Charlotte Taylor’s great-great-great-granddaughter, Sally Armstrong, reclaims the life of a dauntless and unusual woman and delivers living history with all the drama and sweep of a novel.

I think that’s actually what’s written on the back cover, and I’m also too lazy to check that out because I’m just so done with the book. 

 
This one I loved reading!  It’s more history of sorts, but it’s a story based in Yellowknife in the early 1970’s!  Once I started to read it, the plot became unimportant – I would have finished it just to keep coming across the place names in and around Yellowknife where we lived for two years. 

Latham Island.  The Gold Range (better known as the Strange Range).  Rainbow Valley.  Frame Lake.  Weather reports and newscasts on the radio in Dogrib and Slavey.  The Berger Inquiry and the MacKenzie Valley gas pipeline controversy.  Giant and Con mines.  School Draw, Dettah, Back Bay, Mildred Hall, Old Town, Willow Flats.  The mish-mash of professionals and misfits from all over the country who end up thrown together for any number of reasons, forming bonds and creating their own life altering adventures.  All absolute music to my ears. I’ve given it to W. to read because I think he’ll like that part of it too.  The actual story, of how four people wander off onto the tundra somewhat ill prepared for all eventualities, to trace the route by portage and canoe of the last journey made by John Hornby – that will make him roll his eyes and sigh a lot.  Because he’s been out on the land and he’s been lost, and he knows the harsh reality of the barren grounds.  And he’s seen many rescue parties organized for adventurer’s who were too smart to ask for advice.  And there have been tragedies. 

Elizabeth Hay was a radio broadcaster and she lived in the north and she saw it all too.  I picked her book up from a 40% off rack at Chapters – some of my very best finds are made in this random way. There were so many observations she made throughout the book that kept me thinking – yes! – that’s exactly how it was.  Exactly.  If you’ve ever been anywhere near the north, or known anyone at all who lived there, you will love this book.     

Celebrate

There are sad things happening these days and I don’t want to write about them yet.  Maybe I never will.  Don’t know why it’s so hard for me to be objective about the present.  Probably because it’s such a very subjective thing and it’s just not easy to step back and see the big picture.  I’m way better years after the fact when my brain has had a chance to process the information it’s been able to retain, and then make up the little details that somehow went missing, adding its own dizzy ditzy spin on things.  I never claimed to be an accurately good historian. 

The other day a rather dreamy and dazed looking lady came into the Vision Cenre to pick up her glasses.  She asked me the same questions twice, didn’t really listen to my answers, gazed off into the distance a few times.  Then she looked at me and said “I’m just devestated, you know.  I lost my husband.”  I told her I was very sorry for her loss and said it must be hard for her to be on her own.  Turns out it was over a year ago that it happened, and she’s been in this zombie kind of fog ever since.  She needs to snap out of it!  An entire year of being in a state of devestation is too long!  But how easy is that for me to say, and how hard might it be for me to take my own advice?

I don’t know. 

I’ve been doing a lot of puzzles on my computer screen.  It’s very therapeutic.  Because it takes all my concentration and there is absolutely nothing else on my mind except concentrating on getting those little pieces to click together and form a pretty picture.  I also play scrabble, and read books.  All things that take me out of the present reality of things.  Pleasant little escapes.  Like this place should be, and will be again once I get my bearings.  And, you know, ’snap out of’ whatever I’m snapped into right now. 

So, time to carry on delving into the past and collecting the little pieces of it that make pretty pictures to share.  Our freak April snowfall is finally over and today the sun is shining.  Life is good.  And much too short to spend it being sad.  I will celebrate the good things.  Starting right now. 

AI Top 6!

The hurrieder I go the behinder I get…and since I’m not even attempting to hurry, maybe I should just be brief.  AI will be finished and I’ll be stuck somewhere pondering the top three….

I hope to hell they never ever attempt an Andrew Lloyd Webber night again.  What exactly was good about that?  I can’t think of anything off hand. 

Well, okay I suppose I can if I try super hard.  Syesha and David C. did okay with the theme.  David A. was told to keep his eyes open and he did, and looked slightly less on the verge of tears.  It’s so much easier to say what was bad.  Carly seems to consistenly keep picking a key just almost out of her range and then shouting the high parts.  Brooke completely bungled everything but used her puppy dog face to hang in there.   Jason will never make it to Broadway.  I expect that doesn’t make him too sad though. 

So the two Davids are declared safe first.  I can picture a two David finale in the making.  Jason and Brooke are also declared safe.  Everyone wonders why.  Into the bottom two go Syesha and Carly, and Carly is done. 

And of course with THAT result, things will get a bit ugly, but the show thrives on the controversy.  I hope Carly gets a great recording contract.  I’ll miss seeing her next week.

AI Top 7!

Who would have predicted that the GUYS would do so well on Mariah Carey week!!  Not me.  I seriously considered skipping this one altogether. 

David A. (When You Believe) did a lot of riffs and runs and interesting stuff. If (when) he cuts an album it will be inspirational overload.

Carly (Without You) was okay, but might have done better with a song a little less well known to cut the comparrison factor. The ending was a bit forced and shouty.

Syesha (Vanishing) is either really smart or really stupid, I can’t decide. She always picks the toughest songs imaginable, and you either have to love that or hate it. Sometimes I think she’s a little too in love with herself, and other times I think she’s quite amazing. Still don’t think there’s anything all that distinct about her. Technically brilliant, but very forgetable personality-wise.

Brooke (Hero) has the distinct voice thing totally wrapped up in this group of ladies. Her unplugged version of this song was very good. Not exceptional, but nice. Does that sell records?

Kristy Lee (Forever) did a nice twangy Nashville version. Whether that’s going to turn out to be a popular thing or not I guess we’ll find out tonight. Not really something I’d line up to listen to again.

David C. (Always Be My Baby) was beautifully done. He continues to be the artist and the musician and the risk taker and thus the most memorable in this group. For somebody that I didn’t think would make top 12, he’s turned out to be quite remarkable.

Jason (I Don’t Wanna Cry) was beautifully done too! He’s David C. with less of a work ethic. I can’t really comment without bias. I love everything he does and hope he’ll be around for at least a week or two longer.

I’m thinking it will likely be an all female bottom three, with either Kristy Lee or Syesha going home. (I keep saying that, and it keeps not happening!!) If it’s either Carly or Brooke, (or ANY of the guys) that will be our second shocker in two weeks.

Mom

The following is an e-mail I received from my sister and which I’m posting here in it’s entirety because it’s something that needs to be shared with everyone in our immediate and extended families.  I think it’s a beautiful tribute to a beautiful lady.

Mom was nominated for the LAA for all nursing homes in Ontario (I believe…), but we had to put together an essay to submit & I’ve included it here.  This is the version before Mom got hold of it and chopped it up!  She thought I was too wordy, which of course I was.  Anyway, thought you might be interested….  Actually, the final is really worded better, but this has more information!

 

Haven’t heard if she won yet… (??)

 

Ann

Lifetime Achievement Award

Margaret McArthur – Southampton Care Center 

We asked Mom what she felt were her greatest achievements in life so far, to which she answered, “Sixty-five years of a happy marriage and raising four wonderful children.”  But those who know her, know there has hardly been a day gone by when Mom was not in the process of achieving something, whether it was helping her husband, her children, her relatives, her neighbours, her community and doing what she could for those less fortunate around the globe.

Mom was born on February 17^th, 1917 on a farm in Saugeen Township, the oldest of four children.  My Dad remembers her as the “smartest girl in school” and he said he always knew there was something special about her.  Although busy at home helping with farm chores and household duties, Mom found time to enjoy playing softball, and managed to get her name across from many athletic awards in her high school year book.  She graduated from Stratford Normal School in 1936 and taught in one room rural schools on the Bruce Peninsula (Red Bay) and in Bruce and Saugeen Townships at a starting salary of $500.00 per year.  In 1942, she married Hank McArthur, and gave up her teaching career to become a full time farmer’s wife.  They first resided in Saugeen Township, and moved to Arran Township in 1954.  Always community minded, they became involved in municipal affairs, as Dad was a member of municipal councils for about 15 years in both communities and later became reeve of Arran Township. 

Our family always doubled and sometimes tripled  in the summer months as relatives arrived from the towns and cities of Northern and Southern Ontario to take part in our good country living, but mostly  to enjoy the  good company and hospitality provided by Mom and Dad.  Everyone was always welcome, for however long they could stay.  Mom juggled our 5 bedroom farm home, an acre size garden, chores and children, but always had open arms and a full table for all of our company.  Over the years, she offered our home to her parents and several of her elderly aunts and uncles and took care of them also. 

Over the years, Mom was involved with Junior Farmers, Junior Institute, Country Sisters, and Farm Forum.  She was a leader of many  4-H Homemaking Clubs.  She is a proud charter (life) member of the Federated Women’s Institute of Ontario, Mount Hope branch, and served as president of her branch, her district, and later as area president.  She was one of the founders of the Women’s Institute Hobby Fair in Southampton, and served as treasurer for about 20 years.  Part of her work with the institute was delivering gifts and food to less fortunate families in the community.

Mom and Dad were 10 year board members of the Bruce County Children’s Aid Society out of Walkerton, where Mom served as secretary.  During this time, we took in foster children as well.  One little girl lived with us for over 4 years.

Always concerned about  the well being of children, Mom found an avenue through her church to help out.  A life member of the Community of Christ Church (formerly Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) in Port Elgin, she received an award for her work with youth.  She was active as a church school teacher and at children’s camps.  In fact at 17, she ran her first camp for kids behind the church in a horse barn!  She has enjoyed helping at our church reunions and young people’s retreats, as well as being assistant cook for periods of up to a week over the years.

Many have been blessed with a gift of one of Mom’s beautiful hand- made quilts.  She has tirelessly worked through her church to provide under developed countries and those less fortunate with the blessing of warmth through quilting, and through hundreds of pairs of knitted mittens.  She also donated hundreds of knitted finger puppets for children. 

Never one to turn down an adventure, Mom and Dad have travelled as far as Cambridge Bay, North West Territories to visit their oldest daughter and her family; Yukon Territories, to the East and West Coast of Canada several times, and Florida.  They enjoyed curling and skating parties at the old Ebenezer Arena, euchre parties, and joined the Tara square dancing group.

Her greatest love in life is her family who love and admire her as much in return.     

Fifteen years ago, Mom had to overcome the handicap of macular degeneration which limited her activities.  She was diagnosed as legally blind.  She also lost her driver, recipe reader, needle threader, and yarn detangler, when Dad had a stroke 5 years ago.  Through the help of the CNIB, Mom is still able to enjoy her love of reading through “talking books” and still knows more about what is going on in the world than at least one of her daughters!   Throughout her struggle to cope with her disability, Mom has always focussed on what she can do, not what she can’t, and has never complained.

Mom has been able to learn to cope with more dependent living at their home for the past few years, the Southampton Care Center, where they enjoy the loving care of the staff and the new friends they’ve made.  On this her 91^st birthday, February 17^th, 2008, she is still community minded,  taking part in many of the activities there, such as Red Hats, chimes, crafts and euchre.

Anyone who has had the privilege and pleasure somewhere along their journey in life of crossing paths with Margaret McArthur has been blessed in some way by knowing her.

The End.

It is now day 12 of life without Ben.  I’ve taken these days off, as in spending them being “off”, or in a different state of mind, or a little out of my head.  I had no idea I’d feel this way.  Some variations of this final outcome have been bouncing around in my brain for the past two years or more, so you’d think I would have been prepared for it.  Or coping with it better.  But it’s taken this long to write a little farewell, a little cat eulogy.

We had him for seventeen years.  He did cat things. I think he had a good life.  It would be easy to dwell on his downhill slide into a kind of cat dementia, but what’s the point in that except to ease my guilt.  Physically he was still reasonably okay.  But I’ve always vowed that I would never go to ridiculous lengths to prolong a pet’s life if he was obviously sick or in pain or suffering in any way.  So in my zeal to keep that promise to myself, I whipped him off to the vet, described his various problems, my unwillingness to put him through a barage of tests and medications and stress, and said yes, just put him down.  He’s seventeen.  I feel like playing God today. 

He went peacefully to sleep.  I came home and called W. to tell him what I’d done, so he wouldn’t wonder about it all day.  I gathered up all the cat food and paraphernalia and decided what to give away and what to toss.  I vacuumed up cat hair from his favourite spots and reclaimed them, trying to erase him from our lives?  I have no idea;  I just had to keep myself busy and tell myself over and over and over again that I did the right thing.   

Every day I feel slightly more sure that I did.  It’s something that cannot be undone after all,  and so it has to be accepted and put behind us.  We’ve had almost two weeks of uninterrupted sleep, with no godforsaken yowling up and down the hallway between midnight and dawn.  It’s possible to walk around the house now without stepping on a barfed up hairball or tripping over the source.  We’re free to go away for as long as we like without making arrangements for his care.  Litter box duty is finally done. 

And yet we miss him.  It doesn’t feel right, but it was time;  and somewhere deep in my heart I know it was kind.  

AI Top 8 Results

I GOT THE BOTTOM THREE RIGHT!!  Ooookay, sorry for shouting, but that fact makes the results themselves totally unimportant to me.  HAHA!!  Well, not completely I suppose, because I’m sorry to see Michael go home.  Still would have picked him over Carly if it had come down to that though.  This was supposedly the first big SHOCKER elimination of the season.  I don’t know – I’m having a hard time being shocked by anything so far.

So already it’s down to seven.  Of the two Davids and Jason I think those three will ALL be in it for a couple more weeks as two of the girls leave.  Namely Syesha and Kristy Lee.  COME ON!  They’re expendable.  The rest are not, if they want to keep the show interesting with people who are unique and different.  (GAH.  I’m starting to sound like Paula.)  But David C, David A, Jason, Brooke and Carly all have very recognizable voices!  Those other two girls could be anybody if you heard them on the radio. 

And that’s my brilliant synopsis of how things are in the AI world, and who I’d want to be in the top five, as of right now.  If I’m wrong I won’t be crushed.  If I’m right, my head will swell a bit more.  And next week I think they get to murder some Mariah Carey stuff.  So many things to look forward to. 

AI Top Eight!

Once again I missed the show, but watched all the YouTube videos.  No commercials is a huge plus.  Also like to skip over Paula’s blather and cut Simon off.  It’s my own little mini power trip.

Michael (Dream On) going first, doing Aerosmith, and screaming the ending….I’d give him his first trip to the bottom three. I like his bluesy vibe much better than his rocker thing too, thanks to Simon for pointing that out.   

Syesha (I Believe) once again sets herself up for unfavourable comparrison and gets it from all three judges.  Fantasia remains my favourite AI winner ever, and messing with her song bordered on sacreligious.  Or something horrendous like that.

Jason (Somewhere Over the Rainbow), Izz version, complete with ukelele was pure genius. I’m back in awe of Jason.  I’d go to see him live, I’d buy his cd.  And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?  I think he has a more universal appeal than some of the others.

Kristy (Anyway) came across to me as lovely and very sincere.  I can only remember one show where she wasn’t in the bottom two.  Can she squeak by again?  That question is probably keeping a lot of people tuned in.  It’s one way of making yourself memorable, that’s for sure.

David C (Innocent) was good as usual, but I can’t think of anything outstanding about that one. Nice jacket. 

Carly (The Show Must Go On), angry version with some serious stomping around on the stage, was good to break the soppy mood of dreaming and believing ad nauseum. She kind of lost the end of that one – could quite possibly mean another trip to bottom three for her. But I hope not.  She’s by far the most entertaining female performer they’ve got. 

David A (What did he sing?) seemed kind of distracted with his own piano playing, but emoted like crazy once again. There’s something about him that makes me think he’s on the verge of being an emotional wreck with all his intense feelings about everything.  He’s a very old seventeen.

Brooke (You’ve Got A Friend) once again verges on sickeningly sweet while looking puppy dog sad. Kind of Karen Carpenter-ish. 

I didn’t watch Idol Gives Back either, so I can’t comment on whatever went on in that.

My predictions for bottom three – Michael, Carly and Syesha, with Syesha going home. (I’m tired of predicting Kristy Lee week after week.)  (So tonight could be her shining moment.)