Music: The Deeper Side of Pop Music

February 28, 2012 by

I talk about music a lot on this page. Not only is it soothing for me, but it often serves as inspiration.

So it’s not unusual for music to become a topic of conversation between my trainer and I when we’re working out.

Last week, it went something like this:

Trainer:  I’m going to see group XYZ up in Michigan tomorrow night.

Me: That’s awesome. Should be a great show.  I’m going to see Rick Springfield next week in Detroit.

Trainer. Yes! Bruce!

Me: ::Eye roll:: Not Springsteen, Springfield.

Trainer: ::blank stare::

Me: ::Soul dies a little::  Jessie’s Girl.

Trainer:  Oh that’s cool.  Not as cool as Bruce, but you know…

It’s not the first time I’ve been criticized for clinging to 80′s pop music. What can I say, some things really were better then. And while the long list of top 40 hits, is definitely part of what I love about the RS experience, it’s often what I find when I dig a little deeper on the albums that touches my soul.

Here today, I’m sharing a video of a lesser known Springfield song, and will do the same at my facebook page for the rest of the week. These are the songs that go a little deeper. Touch emotions that some of the hits may not do.

It’s the deeper side of pop music.

Rick Springfield – Honeymoon in Beirut

Filed Under: Life, Music, Writing Life Tagged With: , , , ,

Something to Believe In

January 28, 2011 by

Today I’m blogging over the shiny, new MVRWA Blog about why reading romance is important to me. Here’s an excerpt, but you have to head over there to read the whole post.

It didn’t take me too long, however, to realize I had a connection to this stranger that went beyond the early morning workout. We were both more interested in starting our day with a smile than letting the bad news of the day set the tone. I’m not saying I turn a blind eye to what’s going on in this big world, but I do choose to not let it affect my mood. And sometimes that means turning it off. (Continue Reading)

In the same vein: Here’s a Friday “song of the day.”

Something to Believe In – Poison

Filed Under: Life, MVRWA, Road to Fitness, Writing Life Tagged With: , , , ,

New Year’s Resolutions

January 3, 2011 by

It’s 5:30 on New Year’s Eve as I write this. Even though I don’t plan to post this until Jan. 3, I can’t help but reflect on the year that’s past and set some goals for the one that lies in front of us.

Last year’s writing goals were three fold.

  • Finish Resurrecting Harry.
  • Submit Resurrecting Harry.
  • Draft The Ultimate Catch.

How does that Meatloaf song go? Two out of Three Ain’t Bad?

Looking forward, the short list of what I want to accomplish isn’t all that different in scope.

  • Continue submitting Resurrecting Harry.
  • Finish drafting The Ultimate Catch.
  • Submit The Ultimate Catch.
  • Draft a new project.

As I’ve blogged about here, I also started a road to better health this year by joining a health club and hiring a personal trainer. Though the road is sometimes littered with stumbling blocks, I can definitely wrap it up with so-far, so-good.  Because the contracts I signed were for eighteen months and a year respectively, this journey will continue into the new year. While losing weight is, of course, a marvelous side effect, the true goal is to be healthier and stronger by the time 365 days have past.

From time to time throughout the year, I will update as to how I’m doing on achieving these goals.

My wish to all of you is for a healthy, happy, and successful new year!

Filed Under: Life, Writing Life Tagged With: , ,

Prioritizing Life

November 12, 2010 by

As I begin this post, I fully acknowledge I’ve spent a lot of time on the subject of time management this year.  i guess that’s a pretty good clue to how important it is to me. Since this is a Friday post, and they’re supposed to be about my journey to fitness, this one has a little different spin.

When I had that epiphany a little over a month ago that I needed to make a change in my life, I was already stretched way too thin with my time. My support roles of wife and mother and obligations I’d chosen to be responsible for were eating up most waking hours of my day. I knew that if I was really going to get serious about getting healthy, it would require a chunk of time out of my day–A large chunk of time out of my day.

The logical thing to do would be to trim some fat (I mean in the schedule!) right? I really needed to eliminate some unnecessary obligations to find those two or more hours a day I now needed to devote to my physical health.

I know I’m not the only one out there with this specific issue. It’s commonplace for woman to juggle several hats, these days. So, I don’t need to tell you, that a jam-packed schedule doesn’t mean there are extras to be trimmed. I keep my appointments on an electronic calendar, so I thought if I set my schedule visually that I’d see some ways to make up the time. Mapping it out on paper with little colored boxes to mark the time something else held my hostage only made me want to go to bed for a week.

Not a viable option.

So, what’s a person to do? Or better yet, what did I do?

Prioritize. Yes, no surprise to you that read this blog regularly, I set loose the obsessive list maker inside me.

Everyday I look at what absolutely needs to be done–making sure there is time for the wants as well as the needs and I make a game plan. That doesn’t necessarily mean things get done in the order of importance.  Picking up a gallon of milk might be high on the need list, but if I do it when I drive the kid to a class that is in the same part of town as the store I like to shop at, it saves time.

If when I make dinner tonight, I cut up enough vegetables to make three days worth of salad, I’m saving a little time the next two night. (Word of warning: I’ve found prepping vegetables for further out than three days, actually wastes time as by that fourth day they’re not as enticing as they were fresh.)

So, is it working for me?

Generally: Yes. Sure I have days when I want to pull my hair out, and other days when I’m nodding off in the chair at about 8:30.

How do you trim the excess and make time for what’s really important in your life?

Filed Under: Life, Road to Fitness, Writing Life Tagged With: , , , ,

Music Makes it Easier

October 29, 2010 by

This is Friday, and for the foreseeable future, Friday posts are about lessons learned through my attempts to be healthier.

Anyone who knows me knows that music is a big deal to me. Even in my writing, when I’m trying to get inside a character’s head, I will create a play list of their favorite music. It helps me to understand who they are and how they will react to given situations.  But this week I was reminded how music can effect how we endure a work out.

The gym where I’ve been working out is relatively new and each piece of  cardio equipment has its own TV. So for the first few weeks I used the bike time to catch up on the news, but that did little to push me through an extra few minutes when the muscles started screaming uncle.

Than I remembered how, on previous attempts, music helped me set a pace and while saying “just do three more minutes” seemed impossible, working through one more song isn’t so bad.  A mental trick? Yes, but whatever works, right?

So, last week and this week I experimented with different play lists and albums to try and find the one that worked the best. I’ve also been reading Late, Late at Night (The Rick Springfield Biography) and while reading the section where he discussed the Shock Denial Anger Acceptance album, I remembered how much I liked the driving beat of that album and used it three days last week. Those were the days I was able to endure the longest.

Over the weekend I want to try to create some play lists with a variety of songs that would give me 45 minuets of a driving beat with one or two songs to warm up/cool down to on either side.

Any suggestions?

Filed Under: Life, Road to Fitness, Writing Life Tagged With: , , , ,

A New Journey

October 15, 2010 by

Last week I made one of those life altering decisions (or what could be a life altering decision). And I wasn’t too far into the process before I realized I wanted to share some of this new endeavor here.

First, I joined a health club, but that isn’t the life-altering part. I’ve done this before, went for a few weeks and then stopped because I wasn’t seeing changes fast enough. So the part that I think will make it different this time is I also hired a personal trainer. My motivation for doing this was a little out of the ordinary as well. I’m not going to deny that weight loss and getting in shape weren’t part of it, of course they were. But the biggest motivation came from pain — and trying to manage the arthritis in my S/I joint.

Don’t worry – I’m not about to make this about what I eat every day or how my trainer tortured me this week. There are plenty of fitness and diet blogs out there written by people much more qualified than I am to pontificate on the subject. What I thought would be interesting to share is how/if the changes do help my pain management like I hope, how they effect my energy levels, etc. I’d also like to share myths (held by me) as they are shattered and how I balance the time out of the chair, when as writers we’re constantly told the best thing we can do for our career is get our buts IN the chair (and ignore our widening backside).

So, for as long as I feel like I have something to say on the subject, I’m devoting Fridays to this topic. And will break the ice with a few interesting facts/busted myths I encountered this week.

  • Arby’s Marketfresh sandwiches are not a healthy choice. — Just yesterday I was out running errands etc much longer than planned when hunger hit good and hard.  Thinking “turkey, whole grain bread, should be a good choice” I turned into an Arby’s a picked up just the sandwich and a drink.  Imagine my surprise when I looked up the nutrition data and found out it was 710 calories with 28 grams of fat. (A Wendy’s single has over 300 less calories — and 7 less grams of fat.)
  • Cell hydration – I do know the importance of drinking water and not getting dehydrated, but at one of my initial meetings was the first time I knew they could measure the hydration of your cells…and that by that measure I was dehydrated. (Also didn’t know a body will not burn fat if you’re dehydrated.)
  • It ain’t that bad – Also had a test that told the doctor, trainer and I my body fat/muscle ratios.  Don’t get me wrong. It’s not good, but it’s not as bad as I thought it was. (Isn’t that always the case?)
  • Owe! There’re muscles there?! — ‘nuf said.
Filed Under: Life Tagged With: , ,