My Life: The Musical

Okay, I admit it. I am easily amused. You could give me a piece of bubble wrap and I'd be entertained for hours. Well, at least until I'd popped all of the bubbles anyway. ;-) I can also be entertained by shuffling cards. When I was a teenager, I used to sit at home and shuffle… and shuffle… and shuffle until my mom exclaimed, "Would you knock that off!" As you can imagine, it drove her nuts! Of course, I blame my sister for my card shuffling addiction. She used to do the same thing. Plus, she's the one who taught me how to shuffle, so in the true spirit of sisterhood, I say……"She started it!" ;-D

Then there's my tendency to start singing and dancing at the drop of a hat. Hey, what can I say? I LOVE music and I have happy feet! ;-) Sometimes I hear a word of phrase that reminds me of a song and I just can't help singing it. For example, when someone shouts, "Stop!" I tend to break out into that Supremes hit, "Stop! In the name of love, before you break my heart, think it o-o-ver…" Yes, I even throw in the arm movements. Even the word "tomorrow" can inspire me to sing "Tomorrow" from Annie. Who says life isn't a musical? ;-)

Breaking into little musical numbers happens quite a lot in the department where I work. Good thing there's only two of us! ;-) If we're not spontaneously making up songs or singing whatever song pops into our heads, we're singing along with the songs on our iTunes playlist. We've also been known to throw in a few slight (and sometimes not so slight) dance moves. One of the newest additions to our playlist is a song called "Psycho Chicken" by The Fools. Yeah, I hadn't heard of it either until my boss was telling me about it. Apparently, it's a parody of a song called "Psycho Killer" (what a name, huh?). Being a fan of parody songs, I checked it out and downloaded it. "Psycho Chicken" cracks me up every time I hear it. It's just SO out there! Yes, I know, that's the pot calling the kettle black. ;-) Just last week we were singing it, clucking like chickens at the appropriate parts of the song while flapping our arms and bobbing our heads as part of our own "chicken dance." Hey, give us a break! It was Friday afternoon and we both had a bad case of Friday-itis! Here's a link to the song to help put things in perspective:

The Fools - Psycho Chicken Found at abmp3 search engine

We received only one strange look that day and that was because someone happened to be walking by just as we were doing the clucking part. Our office is somewhat isolated from the others (for some oddball reason ;-D), so our little musical numbers don't usually attract a lot of attention. We got caught that day though, at least as far as the singing went! LOL! However, the guy (who's pretty "out there" himself) just shook his head, grinned, and walked away. That's the good thing about working in the "creative" department. The rest of the company has pretty much come to expect all kinds of zany (yes, I said zany) antics from us, since we're the artists and you know how those artists are… ;-D LOL! Hey, it's how we stay creative, okay? ;-)

There are advantages to being so easily amused, you know. You can get the ol' creative juices flowing as I mentioned above, you can find simple ways to relax (I'm telling you the bubble wrap works wonders!), and you can find humor in the most unexpected places. I've recently seen a few signs that have had me cracking up (okay, so I may have already done that… so sue me! ;-D), but I'll save those stories for my next blog post. In the meantime, would anybody care to dance or maybe sing a duet? ;-D

Why I Became a Walking Kaleidiscope

After our Revival service at church tonight someone looked me up and down, gestured at my wardrobe and said "What's up with this? You're only wearing one bright color and it's a scarf!" I was dressed in black and white except for the bright pink scarf around my neck. Then he turns to someone else and says in an almost horrified voice, "She's regressing!" Then he turns to the visitors we were talking to and explains, "She's the most colorful member of our church." Hmm... I'm not sure how to take this... ;-)

Sheesh! You'd think I had a reputation around there or something. ;-)Okay, so I admit it: I LOVE bright colors! Why? Partly because I find them beautiful and another is that they just make me happy. Have you ever noticed how what you wear can affect your mood or your mood can affect what you wear? If I'm wearing my bright colors chances are I'm feeling playful or happy or feeling pretty confident that day. Believe me, if I'm having a bad day or feeling pretty insecure I'm NOT going to reach for my bright multicolored top that I wear when I'm literally clowning around. ;-)Sometimes I'm feeling pretty low key and will reach for the duller colors like black or brown, but generally I like to have a splash of color somewhere - even if it's just one bright pink scarf or some of my wild socks. ;-)

Ah, yes, the socks. Ever since I found this little shop on Cannery Row in Monterey called "The Sock Shop", I have gone sock crazy. Many of the ones I wear feature designs by a certain artist (can't remember her name at the moment) that have multicolored animals and shapes on them. I like them because they're artsy (which being an artist makes them a nice fit for me, no pun intended... okay, yes it was ;-D) and because they add just a touch of fun for when I'm feeling low key and the rest of my wardrobe is rather dull. Every time I go down to Monterey, I stop at that store and load up on new socks. I even have people buying me socks just because they saw a really crazy pair and thought of me! Hmm... are they saying, that because the socks are crazy, so am I? I wonder... ;-)

No, I do not wear these crazy things for the purpose of attracting attention. I just think everyone should try to add a little whimsy to their day in some way. Whether it's through clothing, breaking out into a spontaneous song and/or dance number (you'd be surprised how often this happens in my department at work ;-D), or some other way, adding a whimsical touch to your day keeps things interesting and fun. At the very least it can help us lighten up and put some joy in the world (even if it is for our own amusement ;-D), and don't you think this world could use some more joy no matter how small? ;-)