Rambling rambling

Where did the last seven days go?
I am being a bad blogger lately. Again. I think there must be some kind of blogging "etiquette" rule, such as if you are going to have a blog you should publish something on a regular basis. And, I have been breaking that rule, obviously. I have also been rude because I haven't been getting around to replying to all the interesting comments on previous entries here.It makes me wonder if I should continue on with this. Maybe this overwhelmed feeling I have been having(about everything--not just making time for Blogger) will pass. I'll try to blog a bit in the next few days and visit my favorite places, but I have to admit that most likely this coming month of May will find me missing in action much of the time. I'll be working more hours with more to do at my job. Two co-workers are taking vacations in May(one for over two weeks).
But enough of this.
How about some random thoughts?

* The pic of the lilacs above is not of my own bush. Because, we no longer have a lilac bush--our yard is now lilac-less. It got some kind of mold disease last year, and we had to cut it down last summer. Every time I walk by a blooming lilac bush in the neighborhood, I feel sad that we don't have one anymore. They always were almost at their peak on or around my daughter's birthday(May 1). You could simply step out the back door some mornings and the fragrance would waft over you. I would cut some branches for the house, for work and some for R to take to her teacher(this was back in her elementary school days...the last few years, of course, I couldn't even think of trying to make her do that!)

* Badaboom badabing! This is what popped into my head as I was slowly waking up and still lying in my bed a little bit earlier this morning. What a strange phrase, and why I was thinking about this in bed first thing, is probably even stranger.

* For a bird so elegant and graceful on the water, a flying swan is about one the most inelegant clumsy things you could ever witness. Big and white and gangly(which my Spellcheck is trying to tell me is not a word), and wheeling and flapping overhead, I noticed one as I drove near the beach and past a pond(where a pair live year round) yesterday as I drove home. It looked so awkward up in the sky--like it really had no business trying to fly.

* Why is it that my musical tastes are shared by 20-somethings and/or men? From time to time, I have clicked on one of my interests and favorites listed in my profile--just to see what other bloggers have the same favorites listed on their profiles. And, for the most part, my musical tastes/favorites seem to match up with either males or much younger-than-me bloggers. For the most part, my tastes aren't shared by many late 40's women. Hmmm....

* The huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is sickening to me. I had to turn off the radio yesterday, when they were going on and on about all the damage that will be done as this oil slick spreads toward the coast. How many times is this going to happen? Wasn't there another oil spill in the Great Barrier Reef(a tanker somehow went off course and wound up crashing in there) a few weeks ago? And now this, which will probably be as huge as the Exxon Valdez spill off of Alaska. From the AP news:

The oil slick could become the nation's worst environmental disaster in decades, threatening to eclipse even the Exxon Valdez in scope. It imperils hundreds of species of fish, birds and other wildlife along the Gulf Coast, one of the world's richest seafood grounds, teeming with shrimp, oysters and other marine life.

Like I said, it just makes me want to to cry.

* American Idol has become so uninteresting and boring this year. Even R doesn't really show much enthusiasm for catching up with the taped shows(she is still too busy with homework and after-school stuff on those nights to stay up and watch it at night, so we have been DVR'ing). None of the singers have much sparkle or any kind of uniqueness. Siobhan seemed to have had potential at the beginning but she kind of went off course, and now I hear she is gone. I think this show has run it's course--maybe no one can make all those old songs sound new or fresh, anyway. Or, it could also be that because we are catching up with the show in spurts because of our schedule that we just naturally aren't getting that connection to contestants as in other years when we were more often able to sit down and watch the entire show in one sitting. I don't know which reason, but in a way, not feeling so compelled to watch this one show frees up more of my time, that's for sure....

Now, this lady can sing and seemed to have an interesting personality and story to tell!

I had never even heard of Melanie Fiona (she's a Canadian R & B singer who has had some success and even a Grammy award nomination, and is on tour with Alicia Keyes) until last week, when she was on the Tell Me More show on NPR. I was at work when she was being interviewed and then sang two of her songs "unplugged"(just her voice and her guitar). Hearing her sing stopped me in my tracks. You can listen to the two songs she sang,"Ay Yo" and "Monday Morning", over at the Tell Me More site.

**

So, there are some thoughts.

I think it's going to be a 'badaboom badabing' (or is that 'badabing badaboom' ?) kind of day--I can feel it.