Music Monday: Just Say No to Whamageddon...

Don't worry, I'm not one of those players who will send you to Whamhalla on purpose, just because I can. Because I can't. Not from here anyway.

Not familiar with Whamageddon? In a nutshell, it is a game that is played from 1-24 December (the end of the day on the 24th). Kind of like a live-action advent calendar, if you will, but with no chocolates or tiny bottles of liquor. For more information and the rules, you can visit Whamageddon here. It's very competitive among those that play - and those that don't. For instance, my office mate (back in the before times, when we were all going to the office every day) didn't play but knew what it was, so when we were all gathered in our lobby for a holiday lunch and playing holiday music on someone's phone, she suddenly shouted at me, "Nancy, RUN!" So I did. No questions asked, I just ran. Turned out that the original "Last Christmas" had come on someone's phone.

So I'm going to give you some Christmas music this month that won't make you run, hopefully. Well, this first one might, but only if you're a soft chuff who forgot the chip pan on the hob. This song was in the running for Christmas Number One in the UK a few years back and is a good warning for what not to do after those late-night holiday do stumbles home.

Chip Pan

by Everly Pregnant Brothers

It were half past eleven,

I got in from t’pub,

I were feelin’ hungry,

Feelin’ hungry. 

In went into t’kitchen,

To cook up some grub.

I went and forgot it,

Like a soft chuff.

Ohhhh! Me chip pan’s on fire.

Should’ve had a pizza,

Or had a kebab.

I couldn’t be bothered.

I thought I were clever.

Now me ‘ouse is on fire,

And I’m out in t’street,

I’m in me pyjamas.

In pyjamas.

Ohhhh! Me chip pan’s on fire.

Noooo! Me chip pan’s on fire.

So if it’s half past eleven,

And you get in from t’pub.

You’re feelin’ ‘ungry,

A little peckish.

And you get into t’kitchen,

To cook up some grub.

Don’t go and forget it,

Like I did.

Noooo! Me chip pan’s on fire.

Noooo! Me chip pan’s on fire.

Noooo! Me chip pan’s on fire.

Noooo! Me chip pan’s on fire.

Dial 999.

Emergency. Which service do you require?

Music Monday: Thanksgiving Leftovers for Birthday Dinner

The title is part of a joke that used to go around my house on my birthday, which sometimes fell on actual American Thanksgiving Day. "What do you want for your birthday meal, Nancy? Ah, well, we're having turkey." I should have made the switch to vegetarian sooner.

Also, I guess, it's my birthday. Hooray. I mean, it is my birthday, but things like baldness and chemo have stolen some of today's joy. But not my niece, Joy. She is still pretty dang awesome.

Anyway!

Last night, as I was driving back from having a late lunch/early dinner with my sister and her family to celebrate my birthday, I got stuck in traffic. I mean, GENIUS move, traveling anywhere further than the postbox on the Sunday after a holiday, but it is what it is. This was 4mph for many miles of traffic, the kind where you think you've made progress only to find it took almost an hour to go 15 miles - and you have less than a quarter of a tank of gas. But as I sat there on the highway surrounded by trucks, I heard this song and knew it was today's Music Monday.

It speaks to a current WIP that will get more attention after Nano is over. Picture two vampires, whose long lives keep intersecting due to a shared destiny, sitting in comfy chairs by a fire sharing a nice bottle of red wine and telling stories about their time apart from each other - when they suddenly realize WHY they keep finding each other. That's what kept me from losing my mind in the car...Connor and Lark, I'm coming for you soon - get ready!

Fix Youby Coldplay, Cody Fry
When you try your best, but you don't succeedWhen you get what you want, but not what you needWhen you feel so tired, but you can't sleepStuck in reverseWhen the tears come streaming down your faceWhen you lose something you can't replaceWhen you love someone, but it goes to wasteCould it be worse?Lights will guide you homeAnd ignite your bonesAnd I will try to fix youTo fix youHigh up above or down belowWhen you're too in love to let it goBut if you never try, you'll never knowJust what you're worthLights will guide you homeAnd ignite your bonesAnd I will try to fix youTears stream down your faceWhen you lose something you cannot replaceTears stream down your face, and ITears stream down your faceI promise you I will learn from my mistakesTears stream down your face, and ILights will guide you homeAnd ignite your bonesI will try to fix you

Music Monday: There's an Uprising

Another Saturday spent playing Dungeons and Dragons. My teenage heart is happy. The word for the day is... SHILLELAGH! ✊

(Original by Muse - Cover by Damned Anthem, lyrics included in the cover are below:)

They will not force us

They will stop degrading us

They will not control us

We will be victorious

They will not force us

They will stop degrading us

They will not control us

We will be victorious

They will not control us

We will be victorious

Victorious

Music Monday: One Big Wolfhound Love

Ciaragh is still on my mind - last night I went to shut the basement door after Bryn and Willow came inside and I swear, I could feel her out there on the patio, lying on the cool tiles and looking up at me like, "five more minutes, please?" I don't regret the decision we made, but I do so miss her - our Ciaragh had one big love for all of her humans and pack mates. So this is for her...and for me. Lest I forget...

One Big Love

by Patty Griffin

Let's take a ride to the seaside

We can go out swimming in the high tide

Just wear your shorts and your long hair

Don't forget the lawn chair

Everybody's gone to the movies

Everybody's gone and its groovy

They went to the one about the big war

I didn't, I'd seen it before

I guess I'm taking my chances

Giving up the ring throwing in the gloves

I guess I'm taking my chances

Trading in my things

A couple wings on a little white dove

And one big love, one big love

Everybody do like a Monkey

If you want to go on and be funky

No need to talk like a hero

Talk a walk count down to zero

No sense defending your honor

Just go on and kiss him if you wanna

Everything before is gone or is going somewhere

I guess I'm taking my chances

Giving up the ring throwing in the gloves

I guess I'm taking my chances

Trading in my things for a couple wings on a

Little white dove

And one big love one big love

I don't know where we are

And I don't care

And now we're out of gas

And riding on air

And one big love, one big love

Stages of Love

I'm going to talk about grief today, and not just because we just lost that gorgeous face there yesterday afternoon to a very aggressive lymphoma. 

It's been a wild ride, these past few years. We lost my father in 2018, my mother in 2019, the world from 2020 to 2022, and now I've lost my youngest wolfhound, my Ciaragh. So much loss. So much hurt. How do we keep going?

Grief is funny. Not funny ha-ha or funny hmmm, but funny insidious and cantankerous and never, ever satisfied. I've heard all the little adages about grief being love you have that you can't give anymore because the object has passed...love that builds up to where it spills out your eyes and down your cheeks... And while those are valid, they don't strike home as much as grief being the flip side of gratitude or maybe even just a level of gratitude.

If I wasn't grateful that I was Hoyt and Martha's daughter, I wouldn't have noticed that they passed out of my mortal life. They wouldn't still be a part of near daily conversation. I wouldn't have thought of them when I saw a cardinal in a tree looking at me as we arrived back home without our Ciaragh.

If I wasn't grateful for the friends I have, the life I had before, the interactions and bus rides to campus and all the thousands of little things that made my life my own prior to 2020, I wouldn't have grieved the loss of the same for going on three years now. I'm an introvert and the pandemic lockdowns and social distancing should have been my time to shine -- and it was, to some extent -- but it was also painfully lonely in other ways. 

If I wasn't grateful that my dear friend Heather rang us to see if we could foster a 14-month-old Irish Wolfhound who needed re-homing through no fault of her own, I wouldn't be missing the wide-eyed, fuzzy head in that photo.

I've said a few times over the past 24 hours that this is just part of having a dog in your life, and it is even more so when the dog is a giant breed with a short life span. But it's more than that. It's learning to open your heart again and again, even though it is only cobbled together from past hurts. As another friend said, it is learning to "hold them with open hands" because you know what is coming.

It is tempting to close off to everything -- friends, experiences, love, laughter -- but that isn't the right choice. If you don't love, you don't grieve. It's the love and the gratitude that makes the pain worth it.

If you are in that dark place with all the grief, I am with you. When you can, turn some of the pain to gratitude. It will help, I promise.

Music Monday: Mean

All I will say about this is that taking the step to remove toxicity from your life/work/heart is always a good idea, and if you are slow about it or give those voices more chances than they deserve that is all part of your own growth, so don't let anyone tell you that you deserve that stuff. You don't. (lyrics in video, thank you Taylor Swift.)

Multiverse was a blast, and was so much fun that I apparently forgot to do a NEW Music Monday. Sorry about that. But Sister Moon is speaking to me in terms of the WIP for NaNoWriMo so you got it twice. This time I was thinking about Moonlighting because it was just released on streaming and I made sure to watch my two favorite episodes...one of which featured the song below during a dream sequence. Good, fantastic stuff.

The lyrics are below because this one doesn't have captioning but it does have Sting, so I think that's... no it isn't really a good trade, but it has Sting. Enjoy. This time next week I will be well into my 2k words a day, so I'm going to just lean in to the vibe this song creates.

Big Man on Mulberry Streetby Billy Joel
Why can't I lay low?Why can't I say what I mean?Why don't I stay home?And get myself into some boring routineWhy can't I calm down?Why is it always a fight?I can't get unwoundWhy do I throw myself into the night?
I'm on the outsideI don't fit into the grooveNow I ain't a bad guySo tell me what am I trying to proveWhy can't I cool out?Why don't I button my lip?Why do I lash out?Why is it I always shoot from the hip?
I cruise from Houston to Canal StreetA misfit and a rebelI see the winos talking to themselvesAnd I can understand
Why is it every time I go outI always seem to get in trouble?I guess I made an impression on somebodyNorth of Hester and south of Grand
And so in my small wayI'm a big man on Mulberry StreetI don't mean all dayOnly at night when I'm light on my feetWhat else have I gotThat I'd be trying to hide?Maybe a blind spotI haven't seen from the sensitive side
But you know in my own heartI'm a big man on Mulberry StreetI play the whole partI leave a big tip with every receiptI'm so romanticI'm such a passionate manSometimes I panicWhat if nobody finds out who I am?

Music Monday: Sister Moon

Well, last weekend was Multiverse and I don't know about you, but I need an easy Monday. This song, with it's snippet of Shakespeare in the middle, is just like a soothing nap on a sofa with a quilt and maybe a hot cup of tea. And...well, Sting. Enjoy.

Sister Moonby Sting
Sister Moon, will be my guideIn your blue, blue shadows, I would hideAll good people, asleep tonightI'm all by myself, in your silver lightI would gaze at your face the whole night throughI'd go out of my mind, but for youI'd go out of my mind, but for youLying in a mother's armsThe primal root of a woman's charmsI'm a stranger to the sunMy eyes are too weakHow cold is a heartWhen it's warmth that he seeks?You watch every night, you don't care what I doI'd go out of my mind, but for youI'd go out of my mind, but for youMy mistress's eyes are nothing like the sunMy hunger for her explains everything I've doneTo howl at the moon the whole night throughAnd they really don't care if I doI'd go out of my mind, but for youSister Moon

Music Monday: Keep on, Carry on...

Before you ask, no, I have not seen the series finale of Supernatural. Much like I tried to do with Star Trek: Voyager, I am choosing to believe that the boys are still traveling around, spreading salt circles and listening to great music through Baby's speakers. I have a problem with change and endings, okay?

Anyway, this song came on my radar awhile ago, but my writing partner heard it and came up with an entire scene in his head for the WIP we are working on currently...so I am posting it today, for him and all of you that can see movies in your heads (I'm lucky if I can get a limited run series to pop into my mind's eye at one time). You are the writers I want to be when I grow up, so...carry on.

(Lyrics in the video)

Music Monday, Almost on Tuesday

My sister has done the bulk of the work concerning the last years of our parents' lives, sorting through their estates, and making sure that everything ends up where it needs to be. She said that as she was closing out the last of their estate, she heard a song on the radio that made her think of him...and I totally get it. Everything is so negative in the world these days...we need a ray of light now and then to remember who we are and why we are here.

Nanowrimo starts next month and I'm hoping to carry a spark of this light with me. The world is a dark place for so many right now, y'all. Let's all be a ray of light. Let's feel like we just got home. Onward and upward. (lyrics in the captions)

Music Monday: Sister Moon

Well, what else am I going to do for the first Monday in October? This is from my playlist for a WIP that I'm working on with a writing partner, and it is one of my long time favorites. It just speaks to me of autumn and spooky season and love that can survive anything... "I'd go out of my mind but for you..."

Sister Moonby Sting
Sister Moon, will be my guideIn your blue, blue shadows, I would hideAll good people, asleep tonightI'm all by myself, in your silver lightI would gaze at your face the whole night throughI'd go out of my mind, but for youI'd go out of my mind, but for youLying in a mother's armsThe primal root of a woman's charmsI'm a stranger to the sunMy eyes are too weakHow cold is a heartWhen it's warmth that he seeks?You watch every night, you don't care what I doI'd go out of my mind, but for youI'd go out of my mind, but for youMy mistress's eyes are nothing like the sunMy hunger for her explains everything I've doneTo howl at the moon the whole night throughAnd they really don't care if I doI'd go out of my mind, but for you

Music Monday: Of Time and Bottles

This week starts a new round of infusion treatment for me and a new round of uncertainty. In that vein (see what I did there?), this song is speaking to me, because I'm not a real fan of being unprepared by design. I need to know what's coming, but you can't, of course. So when I was listening to this song as a part of my Nanowrimo 23 prep, the line "But there never seems to be enough time/ To do the things you want to do once you find them" really struck me. The first round of treatment I focused only on the treatment. I planned my life around it. And to some extent, you have to do that...but I haven't written anything since July's Camp Nano save my Very Short Stories on the bird app. That has to change. That will change. There is enough of me to do both. Let's do this. Hand me that bottle.

(lyrics on screen)

Music Monday on Thursday: How do you want to do this?

So, I've recently (like a year ago, but still) been able to fullfill a childhood goal and have started playing D&D with a group of my friends. I didn't think it would be too hard - I did play MMORPGs for more than a decade (still do, shoutouts to Everquest and WoW) and am currently working my way (slowly) through Balders Gate 3. 

I was wrong. So wrong. BDG3 helps, as it is part of the D&D universe. But you know what helps the most? The wonderful folks in my campaign. All but one of them are seasoned players, and they have taken my noob-ness in stride. Today's song is from my other newish obsession, Critical Role. It's like sitting down at my table! Friends (who are all voice actors, but still) gathering around a table to play D&D and I get to watch and learn! This is the opening theme from Campaign 3 and while I'm still watching 1, this is good stuff. 

Also, turn on the captions for the words, and you can see who is singing each line. Join the adventure, chose your actions...you can certainly try. 😈

Music Monday: More magic than tragic

This weekend was a welcome return to normal...whatever that means. I spent the weekend at the Upstate Renaissance Festival in Greer, SC, signing/selling books and talking writing with loads of people. I was apprehensive because my booth mate, the marvelous Misty Massey, had car trouble on Thursday and couldn't join me. I wasn't sure that I could do it - but when I got there, my years as a Rennie and my years of selling books kicked in and it was a breeze. The organizers and staff are amazing, and I'm planning to put in my application for next year as soon as they open!

The intrepid author melts into her seat...

My cozy little tent, Friday evening.

In fact, on Saturday, it was a swift breeze that made my canopy jumpy, but there was no lift off like last year. But I digress...

Hey look, I've got the same garb as...fifty-eleven others.

The view from the chair...

So the moral of this story is that cancer treatment has changed a lot over the years, and I must just be too stubborn to let it beat me. First round is finished as of this morning and I still feel pretty good. Bring it!

For Music Monday I've chosen a song by the late Jimmy Buffett to remind all of us how to get through tough days...Breathe in, breathe out, move on. Thanks, Sailor, for showing us how to live.

Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move Onby Jimmy Buffett
I bought a cheap watch from a crazy manFloating down canalIt doesn't use numbers or moving handsIt always just says now
Now you may be thinking that I was hadBut this watch is never wrongAnd if I have trouble, the warranty saidBreathe in, breathe out, move on
And it rained, it was nothing really newAnd it blew, we've seen all that beforeAnd it poured, the Earth began to strainPontchartrain leaking through the door, tides at war
If a hurricane doesn't leave you deadIt will make you strongDon't try to explain it, just nod your headBreathe in, breathe out, move on
And it rained, nothing really newAnd it blew, seen all that beforeAnd it poured, the Earth began to strainPontchartrain buried the ninth ward to the second floor
According to my watch, the time is nowPast is dead and goneDon't try to shake it, just nod your headBreathe in, breathe out, move on
Don't try to explain it, just bow your headBreathe in, breathe out, move on

Time to be Brave...like the Lettuce...and Leap.

Right Outta Nowhere by Christine Kane. Lyrics in CC.

 Hey there, all you dozen or so Lettuce Readers. Today's post is going to differ somewhat from my normal musical musings and appearance agendas. Today, I want to tell you something that hasn't been made public yet, but I think it's time to come clean.

Leap, and the net will appear, right?

So, back in June, I got a doctor's appointment with a new doc - hooray for insurance companies that switch up preferred providers, right? Anyway, starting on June 7th, I was seen, poked, prodded, bombarded with several types/levels of radiation, and at the end of it all was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer.

Still leaping, still hoping for that net.

I started chemo on July 31st, and as of this writing am about to finish the first round. It hasn't been too bad, other than my scalp yeeting most of my hair and some days where I just felt not quite right. But I am thankful beyond measure that most of the side effects they warned me about either didn't happen or were so slight that I could manage them. I was also having a week in between each infusion, so that helped with getting me back to normal...ish. 

On the 25th of this month, I will start a new round with a new drug, but this time it will be every week, so here's hoping my luck holds out longer than I fear my eyebrows and eyelashes will. My oncologist says that he sees I am responding well, so I guess that means that the tumor (whom I have named Eugene) is reacting unfavorably to the chemotherapy. Good. I hope it hurts, Eugene. I hope it hurts.

So why am I telling you this? Well, I'm staring down an author appearance at the Upstate Renaissance Faire in Greer, SC this weekend and for the first time I will be out in public, all day, in garb. I've mostly been staying home since diagnosis, and even cancelled my trip to Baltimore for my DayJob™ professional conference before any of this wacky rollercoaster ride started. No one outside of my families of origin and choice have seen me in person, especially since my hair fell out. I needed to be okay with this, I guess, before it became public knowledge.

Am I okay with it now? Of course not, but that keeps me fighting. I'm not a warrior, by any means, but I will be a survivor.

Trusting the net will appear.

So, here goes. I'm taking a first brave step out into a wider world, like my MC Gin did when she was yanked out of the Great Forest in Wanderer. (Y'all didn't think I'd completely stop pushing my books, did you? 😂) I just hope that I can handle what comes with the same grace that she did...and does. I hope to see you at the faire this weekend, at Multiverse in Atlanta in October, and the Geekery Market in Concord in November. I'm usually up for hugs, but I may need masks in place first. 

Leap and the net will appear.