October 4, 2008

It's All About BRAD!!!!

BRAD!!!!!

Hello handsome!

While I am QUITE SURE that you are not aware of my presence in the audience, I am absolutely sure that you are singing for ME.

These other people are like commercial filler.

This has been an AWESOME night!

Thanks to the fact that my best friend is as looney as I am and cares enough about the state of my mental well being to make sure I get to leave the house once in a while dressed in something other than a t-shirt and jeans, Beth got birthday tickets for us to go and see Brad.

Brad Paisley, of course! Is there any other one whom I'd care to see?

Uh, DON'T THINK SO!!

It was so cool to see him actually live and in person! It is one thing to watch the videos and to enjoy Brad's creamy, silken voice on the internet and over the airwaves, but to actually be within a stones' throw of him and see THE MAN in person was incredible!

The outdoor amphitheater we were in was partially filled when we arrived with more drunks arriving by the moment. I have no qualms about people having their adult beverages in the privacy of their home or when they have a designated driver.

I, however, draw the line at their sharing their beer with me across my left shoe. Call it a weakness. The shoe is now marinating in Lysol and getting a bath.

Hearing the screaming from people around me (because you know that I would NEVER participate in that sort of vulgar display!) was also part of the fun. For the record, I came home pretty hoarse -but I'll live.

Although I took my camera with the intent of collecting some photographs of the nights joy and wonder, I have to admit that shaking hands, jumping up and down and screaming to the top of my lungs once in a while did nothing for the photo quality.

The good part is I DID get a couple of good shots. The bad part is that depsite the number of aperture clicks from the concert, not all of the photographs were good. But rowdy people who are making noise while watching a concert aren't known for their stellar skills in clarity and focus. You take what you can get.

I have to say the best part of the night was sharing the moment with someone like Beth who is dyed in the wool, hard-core country who knows the ebb and flow of the emotions in the songs and who knows all the WORDS to all the songs, too. It's hard to enjoy a concert with someone when they are not 'invested' in the music and the act. Sure, it is still nice to go, but when you are with a fan, it makes being a fan yourself just a little bit better. Plus, singing along is just that little bit of love that we can throw back to the people who have shared their talents with us. It's a better gift than throwing bras onstage like they do at some concerts. Plus, frankly, what is Brad going to do with a pile of sweaty bras anyway? It's not like HE uses them.

As I sit here pondering the night's events, I must also mention that last night bore NONE of the trappings of the Hollyweird crowd. It was by and large a family event. Witness that statement by the number of kids and families who had come to share in the fabulous music and guitar playing which absolutely blew me away. (Go, Brad!)


And I was over the moon for him to sing (to me, of course) two of my favorite songs: "I'm Still A Guy" and "Waitin' On A Woman". There weren't any songs that weren't my favorites if the truth be told. His catalog of music just fits the contoures of my life.

I am thankful to have a husband who encourages me to get out and enjoy the things and people who make me happy. There are women who don't have that freedom and some who choose not to take it even when it is available.

More power to them.

I need these breaks in life to bring a semblance of sanity back into the room. I contribute way too much to the removal of sanity in my own life ...

Now, I will spend the day catching up on chores, doing the wash and mostly just remembering how nice it was to have a personal audience with Brad... even if he didn't know it was me he was singing for.

September 29, 2008

Bail Me Out

I feel your pain.

In ways you cannot imagine.

Your pain is generally a temporary kind, whereas the pain for those of us living on Main Street, U.S.A. is full time, full contact, in - your - face sort of pain.

While the sub-prime mortgage debacle is now washing its filth over the pristine shores of banks and brokerages in ways that are most unpleasant, those of us living in places where those now empty houses that never should have been sold are seeing first-hand what happens when risk overwhelms good sense.

I understand the American dream. We want to be successful and have the trappings that come with it. But American dreaming has become an opiate addiction of greed manipulated by power brokers who care little for those trusting souls who lose everything on the roll of the dice as they place their trust and their money into the care and keeping of people who play the market like a red eyed craps shooter on a weekend pass in Vegas.

It's not THEIR money, so they don't get the pain sensation - until now.

But there is one group, tethered to golden parachutes not available to the great unwashed, who NEVER feel any pain at all.

They got theirs and you got nothing and they do not care. Not one night of sleep is lost and not one luxury car or home in the Hampton's is repossessed.

But they should be.

The financial guru's who steered the national debt into overdrive by lending money to people with no visible means of paying it back should now forfeit their PERSONAL holdings to pay back part of the debt they HELPED people to incur.

I am no financial planner, and I don't play one on TV, but dang it - I know someone making 35K a year cannot possibly pay off a 235k house even with a low, low, low subprime interest rate.

The payments would mean that they couldn't have furniture, groceries or anything else - yet they have all of the above.

CREDIT.

INTEREST.

COMPOUND INTEREST.

When anyone borrows money, there is a credit process that goes on. The borrower has to show sufficient resources to pay back in a timely fashion all that was borrowed plus interest for the use of the money.

Interest never sleeps and compound interest is an insomniac gorilla waiting to pounce on people who are not mindful of just how important it is to learn how to use the tool of credit.

Sadly, it seems the brokers, the bankers and the lenders skipped the lessons on how to use the tools and went right to the project stage.

Now, the sad truth is, the mighty are fallen and begging for the lowly to save them from their folly only to repeat the cycle all over again.

I believe in mercy because it benefits everyone, but I also believe in justice because we have to be held accountable even when it is personally uncomfortable.

The CEO's of the failed companies should lose all they have just like the people who trusted them have. It might be a really good lesson to them to learn to say, "Do you want fries with that?"

Increasingly, that is all that is left to those who have been hurt by the stupidity and greed that has harmed the ability to dream let alone to sleep for most Americans.

Just one question though . . . when did it become alright for people to seek a bail out when they drilled the holes in their own ship in the first place?

If I don't do well in a performance review - I don't keep the job.

If they don't do well, they get millions of dollars as a parting gift.

It's time some of the corporate decision makers pick up the tab personally and divest themselves of what they stole by capricious lending decisions that hurt us all.