After reviewing the last few entries in this blog, it seems to me that there's an undercurrent of sadness. I guess I've been really down in the dumps lately, and it's spilling over here. And while I know that this is my space and I can say and feel anything I want here, I've decided that I need to do something about the gloominess I've brought here because I'm not normally a gloomy person.

In fact, I'm quite quirky sometimes. Some people would say I'm downright wierd. I'm probably the last person in the JLand blogging community to do this, but here are some of the wierd quirks in my personality. Hmm. Maybe I should have the teenager in the house help me do this. She already thinks I'm wierd.....

1. I can name all fifty of our great United States in alphabetical order. In fact, I can sing them in alphabetical order. Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut....well, you get the idea.
2. Everything reminds me of a song. It drives my husband crazy sometimes. He'll say something like, "It might rain tomorrow" and instantly I'll start singing. You know, "It's Raining Men", "Raindrops keep falling on my head"..... I just love to embarass my kids with this, too.
3. I read everything. Cereal boxes, the telephone book, my kids' textbooks, the instructions for some gadget that I already know how to use. If I'm stuck with nothing to do, I'll read anything that's in sight.
4. Whenever I have a plate full of food, I plan the way I eat the items so that either one of two things happens. I end with a bite or two of the thing I like the most, or my last bite of my first helping will be the thing that I know I won't be having a second helping of. I know. Wierd.
5. I love barbershop music. No...not from the movie "Barbershop". I mean men's four part harmony. My dad sings in a barbershop chorus. In fact, he started singing with them the year my twin sister and I were born. The joke is that he simply had to have an excuse to get out of the house on a regular basis....for rehearsals, of course. I grew up listening to this stuff. I was born and raised on it. Some of my happiest memories as a child are of going on trips with my dad and mom and listening to the singing. And, because I have to share it with you, here's a link to a page with music clips on it. I don't yet know how to create links for individual mp3s here in blogger yet, but if you click on the link, it will take you to a Jukebox page. Scroll almost all the way down to the bottom, and you'll see the song "Stars and Stripes Forever". Go ahead and listen. It's really quite fabulous.