The Middle Counts The Most

"My dad says that childhood is the happiest time of my  life. But, I think he's wrong. I think my mom's right. She says childhood is what you spend the rest of your life trying to overcome. She says that beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad, but its the middle that counts the most. Try to remember that when you find yourself at a new beginning. Just give hope a chance to float up & it will"     Bernice Mattise 

Hope Floats is one of my all time favorite flicks.  There's something quite genuine about the way Texans are portrayed in this movie,  I think it captures the heart & the spirit. Ok, maybe as much as a light fictional drama starring Sandra Bullock would ever be able to capture something as monumentally huge as the spirit of Texas, but you get what I mean.

  While home recently,  I overheard my dad giving directions to my uncle over the phone,   "About a mile as the Crow Flies".  It struck me as not only a descriptive metaphor for the distance upon a country road, but also as the overall feeling when I'm back home.  The shortest distance between two points.  Less hem & haw more action. Less whining around feeling sorry for yourself &  more making tough choices & then gettin' busy gettin'on with it.
 Zero pomp & circumstance, 100% substance.

For a girl who has an acute fondness for keeping her head somewhere in close proximity to the clouds?  It's a good change of pace to get a good helping of prairie sod between the toes every once in a while. 

And mom's apple cake,
 good helpings of that are also  immensely beneficial.

"The Middle Counts The Most"

Hepburn Hugs & Stetson Dreams,

Birdee Bow

 "And there she stood...like a disheveled prom date: Our Very Own California Dream" 

Bouncing violently from side to side I reached into the overhead compartment which held the few pieces of clothing I still owned. Dressing inside a moving vessel while ripping down the highway had become second nature for me, but today getting decked out into a white bikini & a pair of faded denim cutoffs was proving to be a bit more difficult than originally planned.
Just behind a sliding accordion style door, separating me from the rest of the band, I caught a glimpse of myself in a shaky mirror upon a paneled wall.  I guess that was me alright, tan face, sunburned nose & a tired set of blue eyes just above a matching set of deep dark circles. Too little sleep. Too many 99cent Burger King sodium sandwiches. And honestly?  Entirely Too Much Fun.

As my head bounced & jerked it's way forcibly toward the window, I suddenly realized there was nothin. Nothin' but ledge & the remnants of falling rock. Wasn't there supposed to be a road here? Maybe a shoulder of some sort??  It was the type of scenery that would have normally compelled me into the high pitched terror screams of a little girl,  but today my vocal chords made no sound. Still hoarse from 6 shows in a row at 6 different clubs with the same shoddy sound systems & non existent vocal monitors.   Ahhh what's not to love about the Bartender / Sound guys of the independent tour scene? 

 All I could muster was a whimper.
 A whimper & a prayer.

  Winding, bending & clutching onto curves like a slick butter knife teetering upon the edge of  an ice cube, this Vintage 30ft Fleetwood Southwind RV (aka  home) was hellbent on making it's way up, around & down Topanga Canyon.   

Destination?  The beach. 

Objective? 

Forget about the lack of dough needed 

to keep that beast of a behemoth running on diesel for another 8 weeks of tour. 

Somehow, someway we would make it happen.
  

But today?

Today we would relax like rockstars in the sun doin a little California dreamin' 

Ok rockstars who eat 99cent fries for dinner ;)

xo

Hepburn Hugs & Ric Ocasek Dreams,
Birdee Bow

Moments of Impact

There will be no Movie Spoiler Alerts in today's blog. Rest assured I won't be uttering any info which isn't readily available & or implied in the trailer;)
  "The Moment of Impact.  That's the thing about moments like these. You can't, no matter how hard you try, control how it's gonna affect you.  You just gotta let the colliding parts go where they may.  And wait..for the next collision."   Leo The Vow                                                                                                             
As a rule I try to avoid sad movies.  So, last night when my friends recommended I see The Vow?  I was skeptical.  The trailer told me most of what I didn't want to know: Love story + sad accident?  For me that typically equals = No Bueno.  However,  I am a fan of actress Rachel McAdams & I must admit the true story status of the movie pulled me into the 2 hour journey of joy, sadness & utter tragedy.

Two young lovers caught up in a freak accident. While each are severely injured, the girl sustains head trauma resulting in amnesia. Only remembering bits & pieces of her life, she struggles with the overwhelming challenge of rebuilding her world.  Huge chunks of time were completely deleted from her memory bank and as fates would regrettably have it? The 5 year span encapsulating the time of meeting, falling in love & marrying her husband were among the deletions. 

Disappeared.
  Gone.
    Vanished.
      Strangers.

One cannot even think of such a sad scenario without reflecting on our own existence.  It's amazing the amount of "lives" which are lived within any one life.  The changes we go through: There's the person we are,  the person we once were,  and the person we hope to become..

How unfathomable to comprehend the loss of one of those dynamics in one profound moment.

Change is constant & ever apparent, but without the gradual process which brings us to new understandings, how could we even begin to make sense of it all? Oh sure, I suppose losing a few really crummy BAD memories here & there might be a fabulous thing;

 Like the time I slipped down an entire flight of stairs in 6th grade.. In front of my 8th grade crush,  while wearing a pair of burgundy floral cowboy boots & a white lace Easter Dress.  I,  of course thought I was rockin' it, but in reality it was hideous and those boots were
S L I C K as I C E !!

OK ok , But what are we if not the sum of all of our moments woven together?
 The horrible,
     the beautiful,
         the utterly brilliant
           the completely unplanned
            & the "Seriously, What the heck was I thinking?"

Go ahead & relish in a memory today

      Tell someone how much they mean to you

                          & don't forget to buckle your seat belt.

Hepburn Hugs & Ric Ocasek Dreams

xo

Birdee Bow