I don't mean to go off on a rave here, but ...
[yes, another rave ... these holidays are killing my crotchety street cred] ...
... in the spirit of tonight's transition from 2011 to 2012 and in honor of what I posted last New Year's holiday (my favorite of the year) ... here are my 12 raves for 2012 (in alphabetical order) ...
1.) AIR FORCE -- with one nephew graduating from the academy in a year or so and another finishing his training for deployment in Q1 or Q2, I now have allegiance to a very specific branch of our military (and I'm all for flying more drones, if that keeps the boys out of harm's way, or we can just wrap up our warmongering for that matter). But more than anything, I'm just proud of the men that Teddy K and JAC K have become and the service that they provide to our great country.
2.) (C) -- another year, another strange way that 365 days feel so long and so short at the same time. Your stent-ed life is doin' you well! Here's to many more (years, not stents -- maybe it's time to stop smoking again?)
3.) DOT MARIE JONES -- whether on the show, or as a guest judge on a reality competition or two, or in interviews -- she just makes me smile when I see her. It's simple -- be yourself, love yourself. God bless ya!
4.) DREAM-LIFE -- thans goodness there's a place for my craziness to run wild and unhindered ... I don't remember all of them -- and not all of them are happy go lucky dreams -- but a romp through my REM state is like no other. I never know whom I'm going to see (pets that have passed on are regular characters -- and a person or two on the other side as well or where it's going to be (I swear my subconscious has created sets that get pulled out repeatedly for different dreams just like a sop opera) -- but I always know it's going to be an adventure.
5.) FLASHBACK FRIDAYS -- I've been doing this micro-blogging for nearly 1000 days, and it's taken on different flavors over the last 2.5 years (and "micro" is apparently a relative conept) -- but I do think my favorite is the pictorial autobiography one year at a time from twenty years ago that is the post I look forward to the most each week. Reliving my formative years, revisiting places I've been and people I've met -- it's a pleasure.
6.) GOLDEN TEE -- I may be getting older, but I can still crawl a good bar scene -- so long as I start my evening with the traditional games of Golden Tee. And the 2012 edition had the good sense to celebrate its popularity by uploading over two dozen older courses, making the beginning of each night out feel unique.
7.) MARTINA MCBRIDE -- In 2011, Martina released her 11th album entitled "Eleven". And sure enough, it stands up to repeat play over and over again -- each time, providing the ability to find new gems amidst the collection. Everybody knows (should be read with a tinge of Phaedra) that the girl can "sang" ... but it's the stories she tells and the stands she takes with her music that make it all the more endearing.
8.) MAULER -- I found her in the Gretna woods, abandoned by her mother, crying out for attention. She was the tiniest of kittens, and she slept inside my shirt for the first three days I had her. That was some 17 years ago -- and she's slowly and stubbornly fading away. I don't know how much longer she'll be in this world, but she still runs the house, alternatively doling out her love whenever anyone takes a nap and her chastisement when the food doesn't appear quickly enough. She's a cat like no other ... and each day is one more day with her to be treasured.
9.) QUALITY TV -- I'm an addict. I'm not in denial. I'm aware of how it influences my daily existence. But it pays off -- the rush of seeing Officer Oullette and Shane interact in the final episodes of Weeds Season 7, the thrill of the twistedness of Tate on AHS, the actorly skills of Tara or Nurse Jackie, the genius of the stories spun out of Bon Temp, the realness of how to survive a zombie apocalypse as demonstrated by Shane and Rick. My cable company could raise the price threefold, and this junkie would sell his possessions to keep the quality television crack in his life.
10.) REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES -- Probably for the wrong reason, but this batch of individuals are at least making it entertaining. The dance of our political season is to strike the "right" balance (pun fully intended) of appeasing the extremists during the primary but moderating for the masses during the main election. I can appreciate the people as people -- and there's one I'd love to have at every dinner party, or one I'd love to have as a professor , or one I'd love to see banished to work in the historical reenactments at Williamsburg because his whole worldview seems to be of the 1700's -- but I predict that the party won't have the skill to rally around one candidate and that there will be splintering off (regardless of how strategically the VP is picked to balance the ticket) or even an independent candidate or two (Ross Perot redux) that will shape the 2012 race toward a guranteed second term for Obama.
11.) SKYPE -- I didn't use it because Oprah told me to -- but instead we embraced it at work as a strategy for enhancing the work place now that many of us (including me) work from home. We use it to approximate the water cooler and I've risen to the challenge of speaking in symbolic Skype emoticons whenever possible. It's made my work life that much more enjoyable since I started working remotely some 14 months ago.
12.) WARM CLIMATES -- It's my age (and don't get it wrong, I can still appreciate the Snowmageddon that we had on LSD last February), but if I slip away to rest and relax, it's to somewhere warm. The Hollywood/Miami and Palm Desert areas are now regular stops on my vacation itinerary (I just look better after I've sunned and released that 1/16th American Indian background of mine) -- and I can't wait to get there next week. Makes a boy think about early retirement (I can still say that while I'm in my thirties for another few days, right?)!
I hope your life is just as full of things about which you can rave -- after all, we may not be here next year at this time if the Mayans were right -- so it may make sense for all of your glasses to be half full in 2012. May you and the ones you love have the happiest of New Years!
(now ... I'm running late for my golden tee time and my NYE bar crawl ...)
GO FOR THE MUSIC, GO FOR THE GOLDEN TEE, GO FOR THE LOCATION -- JUST GO:
http://tracechicago.com/
MARTINA MARTINA MARTINA:
http://martinamcbride.com/news/43281
IT'S NOT SCIENCE FICTION -- IT'S WHAT THEY DO EVERY DAY:
http://airforce.com/
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