End o' Week Musings

How come some weeks seem soooo loooong? Yeah, it has been a long week- how'd you guess?!

Friday afternoon I had a conversation with history! I interviewed Mike Stoller, half of the famous composing duo Leiber and Stoller. The two men wrote an amazing amount of songs for R&B, rock and pop for artists such as Elvis Presley, Peggy Lee and Big Mama Thornton. We had a wonderful chat-- Mike was nice and funny. Watch for my story at http://www.sgvn.com/.

Saturday I performed with Ad Hoc Consort at the Mason's Lodge in Upland for its officer installation. I danced with my swords and played with the band. We had a different tune for each officer, so it was interesting. After the formalities, we went into the venue's basement for sandwiches, cookies and lemonade. Not a bad way to spend an evening.

I enjoyed Tuesday because I went to the Arcadia Historical Museum and me with artist Frank Hartley. He paints these amazing pictures depicting things seen in space. He has a very good technique where he captures the look of "space dust" perfectly- it seems almost see through and floating through the air. His works will be on exhibit at the museum in March.

It was Maggie's night Wednesday in Santa Fe Springs. I met up with Carin, Tom and Byron for the buffet and drinks. After our meal, I went home with Carin and Tom for a soak in the hot tub under the stars. I slept very well that night.

Thursday I spoke with horn player and composer Jeff Oster. Another space connection here- we discussed his song, "Saturn Calling," in which he uses sounds recorded from Saturn by the Cassinni project. It's eerie and beautiful all at once.

Today I will be chatting with Country Joe McDonald, who is touring playing Woody Gunthrie tunes. Country Joe is probably best known for his anti-war song at Woodstock, but he's done a lot since then. He is coming to Caltech later this month, so I will be talking to him about everything!

The highlight of my weekend will be my usual Super Bowl Sunday adventure. I will be going to Universal Studios with Carin and her niece Megan. When we've had enough, we'll go home and watch either the football or the commercials that Tom has faithfully taped for us. We'll probably sneak in some hot tubbing and drinks too.

I'm out of the office on Monday, so no update then... don't whine, I'll get you caught up on Tuesday.

In rotation this week: Manisha Shahane (just can't get enough of this CD!), Sleeze Freaks, Haarp and Sacred Oath.

Photos we got 'em: Just the usual cute pet picks from the Web.

Thought o' the week: Find your strength from within. There's a lot of changes going on in my life right now and many of them are scary and not necessarily good. But rather than getting into all the "drama," I'll share what I'm doing in response.

This weekend I'm going to take some time to go over everything in my life. I need to find out where I stand financially, with my health and in other areas and begin to make a plan of action. I am going to start writing a list of options, as well as pros and cons and look for the best solutions for my various problems. I don't want a temporary fix, I'd rather chart a new course to follow and that is where strength comes into play.

Humans are creatures of habit. Most of us don't do well with change and those of us who do OK with it, still have areas in our lives that are fragile. Right now I need to access what skills I have to get things back into balance and I need to be realistic. I also need to decide how much and what kind of risk is acceptable to me in order to get on that even keel. This is where I call on my inner strength. I have a never-give-up attitude mixed with optimism, which has seen me through the many hard times in my life. I have other good attributes that I can call upon to help me through.

Enough rambling, the point here is to look within for the answers and don't be afraid to do what you know you need to do. Strength comes from within.

Keep on rockin'

Mickie