Anna Pigeon is 49!

I like to read mysteries and thrillers. One of my favorite authors for light reading is Nevada Barr. The plot lines are adequately interesting and suspenseful, the characters are well developed, the dialogue is realistic and I love the fact that many stories involve national parks.

But my favorite thing about this author is her main character, Anna Pigeon, is my age!

Anna is tough, smart, strong, resourceful, brave and aging -- just like me! (Really, I'm tough -- I think.) She still can do the things she has done in all of her books: repelling, hiking long distances, rock climbing, white water rafting, and anything else a park ranger does. But in her most recent book, Anna complains about aches and pains, gray hair and the wrinkles on her face.

I'm liking Nevada Barr and Anna Pigeon more and more as the story of Borderline unfolds.

Nice Compliment Today

I haven't written in a while because I've been a little busier than usual, but I absolutely had to share this.

Today I was talking with a co-worker about different races I plan to travel to this year. I mentioned that I'm thinking about doing a full marathon to celebrate my 50th birthday. She was shocked. "You're turning 50?" she said in disbelief. "I can't believe you're going to be 50!" (The exclamation points were my interpretation.)

I don't normally tell people I'm turning 50. It even feels weird coming out of my mouth. And I'm never sure how to react to people's comments. Nothing feels natural right now.

But I have got to say, every time someone says I look younger than what they think 50 looks like, it makes it that much easier. If this keeps up, by the time December rolls around I'll be just fine!

American Idol Ramblings

Though not a big fan of the show, I do watch American Idol. (It's my family's fault, but that is a different story.) There are many very talented people who appear on the show, but I have very conflicted feelings about it.

I really hate the first auditions. This part of the show is just plain cruel. How on earth can a screener pick someone to see the judges knowing they are just plain horrible and the judges are going to publicly humiliate them? I know it is down for ratings, but is it necessary to pick the best and worst just to make fun of people? I do really wonder how the whole process works. How many screeners are there?

Once the group that goes to Hollywood is chosen, the show gets better. What I like about this part of the show is you hear each singer's genuine voice and they pick songs based on who THEY think they are. There is such variety, especially in voice tone. This year there are some women with really great gravelly 60s folk rock singer voices!

When the final 24 are chosen, and as the show progresses, a lot of that individuality is removed. Week by week as people are voted off, the finalists all start to sound the same. The ones that started out sounding different and cool either change to be like everyone else, or they end up leaving the show. The judges throw weird musical styles at these people taking them out of their comfort zones (which is not all bad) and then are amazed that no one can sing a Sinatra song like Sinatra and make it sound like a current hit at the same time.

There are exceptions -- Chris Daughtry and Adam Lambert kept their personalities -- but they didn't win.

So, I watched the beginning of this season enjoying the variety of really good musicians who made it to the top 24, and at the same time, I'm sad. What are they going to do to the two blond women (one with dreadlocks) who are amazing just as they are? What will happen to the goofy rock guy who reminds me of Jeff Conaway playing Kenickie?

I know, I know -- it is just a silly TV show that I don't even enjoy that much. I'm not even invested enough to know the singers' names! And is it any different from what most famous people have had to go through to make it in "Hollywood"?

I just hate seeing talented people, many more talented than stars who have very lucrative singing careers right now, turned into middle of the road pop singers. (Milquetoast is the word that comes to mind.) But then again, it is American Idol and the entire point is to find the next "pop star".
_________

Note about me: I cannot stand the vast majority of current music. Having grown up in the 70s, I just like rock music -- real instruments, real voices, good melody, no techno crap. I am not the demographic that American Idol is trying to reach. There are times when I am convinced there are a million 80-year-old grandmas doing the voting.

I Need a Snow Day!

On day's like this I wish I was still in school and could have a snow day. Unfortunately, I'm an adult with a real job, and they kind of expect me to show up, regardless of the weather.

Maybe next winter...

Reminder -- It's the Calories!

After today's City Wrestling Meet, I gave a couple kids a ride home. As many people know, wrestlers are obsessed with weight. Though the coaches do not encourage the boys to lose weight, they don't discourage it either, and often the kids resort to unhealthy outdated methods, like avoiding eating for days on end.

One boy needs to lose a few pounds by Wednesday. Unfortunately, I found out after we had already decided to splurge on Chipotle for dinner. (The kids wrestled all day -- they could handle the extra calories.) This young man said not to worry about it, he would run the mile home and burn it all off!

I tried to explain to him that in order to lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you consume. He said that his mom said not to eat carbs.

ARGH!

I understand that high school kids are prone to following fads, but this is ridiculous. I'm continually amazed at the misinformation that continues to be spread.

Though I talked to him a little bit more about calories in and calories out, I could tell his eyes were glazing over, and he was not listening.

The wrestling season is almost over. There really isn't much I can do about it now. But if my son decides to wrestle again next year, I think I'll have a talk with the coaches about providing a nutrition program for the athletes

Making My Hair Guy Sick

One of my New Year's resolutions was to visit my hair guy every month and avoid the "skunk" look. My hair has grown especially fast this past month and I should have seen him last week instead of waiting until today.

I knew something was wrong when I walked into his shop and I didn't see Dan anywhere. He yelled from the back that he would be out in a minute. Several minutes later he came out looking pale, was light headed and said he almost passed out.

I offered to come back in a couple of days and he said no -- my hair looked bad enough (my words, not his) he really wanted me to get color TODAY. While we talked, he got dizzy and had to sit down. All I kept thinking is, he is going to get half my hair colored and pass out.

Well, he insisted and mixed the color. All the while he applied it to my hair he was breathing hard and occasionally had to hold on to the counter for support. Oh boy!

Luckily, he got all of my hair covered, wrapped my head in a plastic bag held by a big black clip, put a towel around my shoulders and sent me on my way. I was happy I didn't have to stop anywhere on the way home. And fortunately, I did not get any auburn #5 on my car seat.

After an hour, I washed it out and except for needing to be cut it looks great!

Now here is my question: If my hair looks so bad my extremely ill hair guy insists on coloring it before he will go home, have I really kept my resolution? (And no, there are no photos. Though I thought about it, I decided I'm a little too vain for that.)

10 Snowmen

I counted over 10 snowmen in the neighborhood tonight. One family was even creative enough to have a family of snow people roasting marshmallows over a fire! (My camera died, so I didn't get a very good photo of the family. I'll post them tomorrow!)

The snowmen reminded me of some really fun days the winter we lived in Omaha. I thought I knew what snow was since I lived my first few years in a city near Lake Erie. Can you say lake-effect snow?

Then we moved to Omaha, and learned that lake-effect snow is nothing compared to what happens in a really flat state. After plowing, the snow on the sides of the roads was well over 6 ft for most of that winter.

Maybe the year living in Nebraska is why I sometimes still really enjoy a good hard snow.