CONGRATS CUBBIES!

Something special happened tonight. The Chicago Cubs are going to the World Series for the first time in 71 years. They last won the World Series 108 years ago. Both of those were a long ass time ago. The Cubs deserved it!

I have been a San Francisco Giants fan since they first came to California back in the 1950s. Giants fans & players have had a magnificent ride with three World Series wins in the past six years. We have experienced the euphoria of winning the ultimate prize in baseball. And it feels freaking incredible!

The Cubs fans & the city of Chicago now know that feeling with even more emotions swirling around in their hearts since their journey has been so very long in coming. The Cubs beat my Giants in the first round of the playoffs this year. They earned their conquest & I tip my hat to them. It must feel amazing to get that huge monkey off their backs.

Tonight they beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, the hated rivals of the Giants, which made their victory much more palatable for us Giants fans. As much as I wanted my Giants to continue their unbelievable streak of even year World Series wins, having won in 2010, 2012 & 2014, this is the Cubbies year. I cheered them on big time as they sent the Dodgers home for the season. Now, I will root for them to break the curse & FINALLY win the World Series against the Cleveland Indians.

As tonight's game neared the end, what took my breath away were the expressions & emotions on the faces of the fans. You could see the hope, the fear & the sheer disbelief on the face of every person - young, old & in between. They were afraid to believe that their long, long wait was over. It literally brought tears to my eyes as the camera found person after person praying, hoping & agonizing over the impending victory.

They just interviewed Dorothy, an old lady in the stands, who has been a Cubs season ticket holder since 1984. Both of her brothers, who were huge Cubs fans, too, have passed away. She wished that her siblings could have been with her to share their triumph. When the reporter asked her how she was going to celebrate, she smiled brightly & replied, "I'm going to have a Jagermeister!"

If our Giants couldn't win it, then let's hope they lost to the ultimate World Champions!

GO CUBS!!!!!

SONG LYRICS

A few days ago I heard an old seventies song by Three Dog Night called “Joy to the World” – no, not the Christmas song. This one is rock ‘n roll at its finest. It was also featured in the movie "The Big Chill" which is one of my favorites.  The song starts off:

"Jeremiah was a bullfrog.

Was a good friend of mine.

I never understood a single word he said.

But I helped him drink his wine.

And he always had some mighty fine wine."

This song has a rockin’ beat & is good to dance to – geez, now I’ll REALLY date myself & say that I sound like I’m on American Bandstand back in the 50s & 60s. If you aren’t old enough to remember Rate-A-Record, Dick Clark would play a new record (yes, a small round vinyl disc) & have kids rate it. They would give it a numeric value & say things like “It has a good beat & is easy to dance to”.

Anyway, it is a catchy tune that makes you want to dance & move. Back in 1970, when I was newly married to a skydiver, our group of parachutists hung out at a local hotel near the drop zone where the manager loved the jumpers & gave us free reign of the place. We’d play “Joy to the World” on the jukebox probably ten times a night since it was such fun for dancing. Another favorite was "Knock Three Times" by Tony Orlando & Dawn.

To this day whenever I hear “Jeremiah was a bullfrog…..” or "Knock three times on the ceiling if you want me....", I am immediately transported back 45 years to that other world. That got me thinking about how powerful song lyrics can be. Most of us have a few songs that immediately trigger a memory from long ago.

Back in the old days, I recall listening to a record over & over to figure out the lyrics. You would lift the needle, back it up 1/16 of an inch & place it down to hear it again then scribble down what you thought you heard. Now, all you do is Google “Joy to the World Three Dog Night lyrics” & they pop up right in front of you! It is so much easier but not nearly as much fun as listening over & over & asking all your friends for help.

It was a common occurrence before the Internet to go years without knowing the correct lyrics to a popular song. Often times people sang along substituting their own incorrect interpretations. When I first heard the Creedence Clearwater Revival song, “Bad Moon on the Rise”, I thought for sure John Fogerty was singing, “There’s a bathroom on the right”, not "There's a bad moon on the rise".

My son turned into a big Beatles fan in high school (I raised him right!) along with his best friend. I recall them listening to “Norwegian Wood” & thinking that “this bird has flown” sounded exactly like “whispered the phone”. I was a semi-genius for interpreting for them....especially since I explained that "bird" was a slang term for "woman" in cockney English.

For me, the Rolling Stones song “Get Off My Cloud” was impossible to interpret. I had no clue what Mick was saying for most of the song until a few years ago when I finally Googled the lyrics. Even with the translation I couldn’t begin to make heads or tails out of what the song was about. It sounds like blah, blah, bladdy, blah, blah…or something similar. And honestly, knowing the lyrics, it still doesn't sound anything like what I read. Oh, well, maybe some things aren't meant to be understood.

I suppose the best advice is to simply crank up the volume & sing along when a favorite old song comes on the radio!

CRISIS AVERTED

I'm pretty good at finding things. When Lou can't find his wallet, sunglasses or cell phone, much of the time I can join the search & ultimately help locate whatever has temporarily gone missing. Today my skills were put to the test with the "lost princess."

First I should mention that my natural frugality flies out the window when it comes to my Charley. Yesterday we celebrated her birthday a couple weeks early since she will be back in New Mexico when her actual birthday rolls around. I had bought her a kid's camera, a Shutterfly puzzle with photos of her & Daddy, a pair of suede Bearpaw boots, a furry vest to match & two long sleeve tops to wear under it.

Charley, my sister (Karen or Zizi to Charley), & I went to Costco to pick up pizza for our party. The guys all stayed at my dad's & every one agreed that, "They won't get out of Costco without buying Charley something else." They all know I can't resist that little sweetie when she really, really wants something. Alas, they know me too well. And, you know what? I'm good with that.

The line was really long to order pizzas so while Zizi waited, I pushed Charley around in the cart looking at Halloween & Christmas things. First, she wanted these three big witches stirring a cauldron that ran on electricity. It cost $139 & Gaga couldn't afford that, plus she couldn't take it with her to New Mexico without buying a couple more plane tickets. She did understand that. Oh, by the way, I had already bought her a crazy looking zombie a week ago.

Then she spotted a box of eight princesses (all the ones from Disney movies - Elsa, Anna, Cinderella, Ariel, Belle, Merida, Tiana & Rapunzel). They were only about four inches tall & each had a dress that if you squeezed the bottom, the princess could slide out the top so they could interchange clothes easily. Of course, Charley (& me, too) knew all the princesses & which dress belonged to each one. It didn't take her long to convince me that she HAD to have them & she added sweetly, "It IS my birthday." We found Zizi who immediately started chuckling when she saw the box next to Charley in the cart.

Back at my dad's, Charley went in first carrying her box of princesses. They guys all laughed, too, & said, "We knew it!" The princesses were a big hit & she played with them last night & this morning. Today Darrin, Charley & I went out to run errands & to Taco Bell for lunch. Two of the princesses came along in the car. Upon returning home, Charley brought them in the house. I thought she had Tiana & Ariel with her.

When I counted them to put them in her present bag for the trip home there were only seven. Oh, no! We determined Ariel was missing. A search of the car turned up nothing. While Darrin packed up things to load the car for their trip to Hayward, Charley & I looked everywhere in the house for Ariel with no luck.

Darrin & Charley were pretty sure that she had Tiana & Rapunzel, not Ariel, in the car earlier. Rapunzel was accounted for as were all the others. I knew it could be disastrous later on if Ariel was nowhere to be found. We looked under furniture, in the office, all over the kitchen, behind cushions, in the bathroom, but Ariel was still missing in action. Finally, Darrin says, "Charley, I think we have to call off the search since it's getting late & we have to leave." I assured her that when I found Ariel, I'd mail her to Charley wherever she was. But I was still worried that tonight it may be a major catastrophe if Ariel was not found.

Charley thought she took her upstairs to our bedroom so we went up one last time even though we had looked there before. She told me where she set her but she wasn't there. However, I turned around & saw Ariel standing on the shelf behind our bed beside a candle! "There she is!", I exclaimed. Hooray! The missing princess was found!

Charley yelled at the top of her lungs, "DADDY! WE FOUND HER!!!" Crisis averted as Ariel joined her fellow royalty in the gift bag! Whew!