Dear studio audience, I've an announcement to make:

"Dear studio audience, I've an announcement to make:
It seems the artists these days are not who you think" - Panic! At The Disco

Hey Everyone!

I feel like it's been forever since I've written. In the tradition of Monday's in college (and since today I'm feeling old, despite regressing yesterday to 15 or 16), here's a "Happy List" or should I say....just a list to fill you in, since I'm too tired to be happy! :) Notice the "Song" theme in this one! :)

1. Sunshine On My Shoulders, Makes Me Happy. It seem this shows up and did show up on my Happy List every single time in the spring. It's nice to know you can count on things. I count on the fact that a sunny 80 degree or so day with no clouds makes me blissfully, euphorically happy.

2. You're Living In The Past, It's A New Generation. How about being the Old Person? There are MANY advantages to this! Kare and I went to Bamboozle this weekend. It was predominantly high school age kids, because of the alternative-y-ness of the music. The first good thing about being the Old person at one of these things is you don't care if you don't fit in. In my long sleeve Gap t-shirt and khaki shorts (followed later by a olive green tank top), I just wasn't giving off the angst surrounding me...I didn't care. The second good thing is you can be mistaken for someone's parent (and there were parents milling around in throughout the Meadowlands parking/stages area), so you can do whatever and kids ignore you. The third, "I'm older and I have bigger hips!" always keeps you in a certain amount of your own space.

3. Wreck of The Day. Nee calling me "the Hero of The Day" for just doing what comes naturally. It never occurs to me people appreciate the things I know. I'm always so thrilled when our high school kids say Thank you for the things we do for them, or when parents compliment us. I get a bit embarassed, because we are just doing our job, but hearing "Thank You" is always a little boost to your ego and self-worth. When the Crowd Surfing kid near us fell on his head and the kids in front of us started waving for help, I pushed right through. I guess it never occurred to me not to. I didn't have to do much, as security came and whisked him off through the crowd to get him medical help. I've been thinking about him ever since and hoping he's doing better than he was when he left my "care".

4. Since You've Been Gone. When you return from a weekend away, do you ever feel like you've missed tons of stuff? Even though I left Saturday afternoon and got back this morning, I feel as though I've been away for a week or more. Sad thing is, I missed nothing.

5. I Want To Touch The Light, The Heat I See In Your Eyes. "Angela: I'm totally over Jordon Catalano." Actually, I was never really a Jordan Catalano fan (Sorry Kare!). I still felt that way yesterday when we heard him play in his band, 30 Seconds To Mars, then went to the tent where they were signing autographs so Nee and Kare could get a picture of him. We were standing there, looking at "Jordan Catalano" (aka Jared Leto), when he turned his head, looked at me and smiled. I said to Kare, "I just don't think he's that cute, then he smiles, and...yeah, yeah he is."

6. If It's Not Too Late For Coffee, I'll Be At Your Place In Ten. Starbucks - I really am in love with their Soy Vanilla Latte. Hopefully, it will never let me down! :)

7. I'm Too Sexy For This Song. I've got to say one thing (or probalby many things, as you know I get off on my tangents) about high school kids. They really have great senses of themselves....or else they fake it well. It was so much fun people watching yesterday. I mostly sat around reading everyone shirts and thinking "How true is that!" or " I really love that shirt" (although I think I said that out loud to Kare 800 billion times! What I noticed yesterday in the girls, they wearing things they probably shouldn't, then walk around like they are Charlize Theron in it! As Kare said, "I wish I had their body image". They seem so much more confident in themselves than we did at their age...or even than we do at times now. They are also SO much more "sexual" than we were then...and now. They are touchy feely in ways we weren't.

8. I'm Every Cliche, But I Simply Do It Best. Being around lovely women who are philosophical and intelligent yesterday reminded me that, while I may know the latest bands, clothes trends and tons of other "h.s. stuff" I am missing the part of me that feels "smart". It was nice philosophisizing about the difference in generations, how feminism has affected society and so on. Reminded me I am, actually, an intelligent ADULT. :)

9. Pain Makes You Beautiful. As we the day wound down yesterday, we all found ourselves in various stages of aching and pain. Knees, feet, ankles, backs...all aching from standing and moving for 6 hours. The need for "real food", the cold and the "pain" felt reminded us we were older. As much as you don't want to embrace pain, you start to realize where you are in life - Things don't work the way they used to, a pretzel and Pepsi don't count as a meal and what the heck am I shivering in the cold for? You begin to revel in aging. The responsibilities of your workplace that make it possible for you to own and drive your own car to a restraunt where people can wait on you and bring you "real food", then send you home to a warm place you call your very own. The comfort in knowing all the years and events you've gone through cause those very joints to hurt. The smiling comes, as does the warmth that fills every part of you, as you settle in to who you are, how far you've come and being content with your life at this very moment.

10. Cause You Gotta Have Friends. I really love all my friends. You guys, pretty much all of you love me for who I am. I realize I'm not easy to wrap a little brain around. ;) I'm schizophrenic with many different parts and loves and interests...a bit goofy and childlike, yet grown up...an enigma. I love and miss you all! (As I said, I feel like I've been away for weeks! :) ) As life gets busy and people ebb and flow, the love and thoughts never cease - from me to you and back again. I hope each of you is doing well.

I'm off to work, then to the gym to get ready for the 5K next weekend! :) It should be a blast! :) Look for more on the blog in the week to come. I'm going to try and wax nostalgic and hone my intellectual side though Blogger more foten than I have recently. Happy Monday All! :)