First Timers :
There's my guy on the left. We were up in Big Bear over the 4th of July weekend and on Monday night we went to the bar to have a drinky winky after dinner. The bartender is Chris. Young kid, but very cool. Anyway, the place is dead. My honey and I are the only one's having a drink. In walks these two dudes with top hats and sit down at the bar with us. Their names are 'Joe' and 'Joe' they tell us later. So, they aren't drinking much. The one in the blue is drinking water and the dude in the green who looks like a leprecaun (sp?) is drinking beer. My honey opted to try appletini's for the night. I am drinking gin and tonics. Love 'em. So, Chris goes over and turns on the Kereoke machine and trys to get us going. Well the two Joes' are up for this and get up and proceed to entertain us for the next 3 hours till Midnight. We are suggesting songs, we are punching in numbers and the boys are singing away. A perfect rendition of an Iron Maiden song is on it's way as well as an eye opening version of Brown Sugar that no one realized those were the words. I will never listen to that song again without thinking of those Joes. I get a few gin and tonics in me and I do Mack the Knife. Love that one. Know all the words. Chris does a Johnny Cash tune and Joes are up there again. I am telling you we were singing at the top of our lungs all night. Finally, my honey, who challenges anyone to an arm wrestle who is questioning his manhood for drinking appletini's, has enough of them in him to take a spin.
Doesn't do a solo, but joins the two Joes. I wish I remember the first song, but there were many after that. He even took the dude in the blue shirts top hat from him and wore it while singing that one. Joe in the blue shirt was so cool. I was up there a few times struggling and he would come up there and rescue me. Especially when I started singing 'That's the way, uh huh, uh huh, I like it, uh huh uh huh." And 'Stand by your man..." I had to do an REO speed wagon tune too. 'Take it on the Run!" Who hasn't sung that in their car to the top of their lungs? Raise your hand if you have...Mine is up there. Chantilly Lace comes to mind when all 4 of us were up there with another gal, coincidently named Chantilly. What a fun night. Never forget it. I kept calling up to our son's room and begging him to come down to see his dad singing and he just couldn't face the embarrassment. I almost peed my pants a few times and was horse the next morning. The night wound down and we settled up with Chris and made our way back into our room. No bed spins, no headache the next day. YEAH! I don't 'tie one on' too often. But that was a blast! Here's to us! We broke our cherry as my honey said. Now, we can hold our heads up high and say, we have done Kereoke and survived.

My brandy new truckYes, it was my turn. It would have happened sooner, it wasn’t for lack of my honey trying to get me to buy something. It was me resisting.
This time it was out of necessity. I have been driving around in our 1997 Forest Green Ford Explorer. For the past 10 years, it's been relatively reliable. Brakes and Tires, Brakes and Tires, thrown in an oil change every now and again, a new windshield for good mesure and I had a very reliable car for commuting, and tailgating. (Go Chargers!) My honey has been pestering me every flippin' time I would throw $500 at the car and keep it going that it didn't make sense and that should get and deserve a new truck. I had been oogling the new Volvo XC90 for quite some time. It gives me the shivers just looking at it. Like a school girl. What is wrong with me. But when it came down to it, it was way too expensive for what it was. Sure it's awesome looking, it's safe as all get out, but if i got one, I would want the top of the line bells and whistles one and that bottom line was out of my price range. So, I kept the 1997 Explorer on life support and kept driving up and down the 15 freeway bombing along. It had a great engine in it and I could fly!
But, the saga takes a turn a few months ago.....
We were coming out of big bear on Memorial day weekend. My honey likes to ride his Harley up the mountain on Friday night, I drive up with the bags and the coolers full of frosty beverages and snacks that same night. On the way down, I follow him on his bike. We get about 1/2hr from home and he turns into the auto mall out of the blue. We get out and I say, "what are you doing?" And he says," I just thought we should look at trucks for you." (Being that it was Memorial Day, he knows they are all hot to sell cars/trucks while slashing prices/wheeling and dealing. (yeah, right) Anyway. I reluctantly walk around the lot, checking out the inventory while our son pouts in the trusty steed playing some electronic gadget (Gameboy I think) and ignoring us. (Par for the course) it was blazing hot - in the tripple digets. UGH! Ungodly.
So, I say, I like the Mercury's just as well if not better than the Explorer (that was the idea, get another explorer, since the curent one was up to almost 200K miles. Pure logic folks) We start looking at one , and one of my criteria is that any new truck I get, has that feature that brings the gas/brake pedals closer to your feet if you are height challenged like me. And this one silver Mountaineer did. See picture above. It had black leather interior and I thought 'hot hot hot" but if the AC is on, who cares. Then the slimy salesman comes by and starts giving me the creaps.
It was hot out, we had a truck load of baggage and stuff from our trip and I didn’t want to buy a car. Matt was with us and being miserable. So, when the guy offered us $5k off, and I turned it down and left, oh boy, did my husband give me heck about that. I just wasn’t in the mood to spend 5-7hrs buying a car right then. I know you understand. He gave me heck about that all the way home and half the rest of the week. Told the guys at work," the guy was ready to offer us $5k off the truck and my wife turned him down....." I said, I didn't care what he was ready to offer us. If he really wanted me to buy that truck that day and he was really going to give me $5K off that truck, he wouldn't have let me just say no and walk away. It was a bullshit offer.
However.....
Then, the next weekend, we went up to Big Bear by ourselves (sans teenager with angst). That my friends is another blog waiting to happen... Coming down the mountain, same bat time, and same bat channel. The truck makes this noise like a blender going under the hood and stops, then does it again and stops and does it a third time and stops. Mind you, again, following the hubby on the bike. He doesn't know about this and I am freaking out. The engine isn't reving rpm's and the fan isn't on. It did this like 8-9 times coming down the hill. I started to slow down and fall back a bit so he would wonder what was wrong and pull over, which he did. We kind of have a sixth sense with eachother. Must be all the mind reading I do, another blog waiting to happen I am sure. But I digress...
Well, I guess my fate was now sealed. We stopped at the Gosch place AGAIN and met the same guy AGAIN. (still creapy) The truck was still there. Now we had to buy it. Silver, Black leather interior, CD changer (never had one of those), the pedals move forward so I can reach them and not have to move the seat up so far my nose touches the front windshield. You know what I mean. My husband was waiting for me to not get the $5k deal so he could give me heck about it.
I told him to keep his freakin’ mouth shut and let me do all the talking. He has a habit of telling the sales man all our cards right out of the gate. Leaves me no negotiating room. It makes me nuts. So, our agreement now is, you find what you want, then shut the F**K up while I do what I do for a living and negotiate the deal. He agrees. It's worked out well the last 3 big purchases and it's a riot to see him bite his tounge!
So, 'what can i do to put you in this Mountaineer today....." I say well...So, hours and hours later with hubby wandering all the car lots within a 1/2mile radius of this dealership and after many trips back to the finance guy cuz I kept saying no, I got 0% financing, $1000 rebate and $2000 for my trade in, which it wasn’t worth. So, I think I did okay. At one point the sleazy car sales man opened up my file and asked me 'what do you do for a living? want a part time job? Ha!Don't try to flatter me buddy. Give me a better deal and we can go see the finance lady and get the hell out of here.
Look at it. It’s a beauty! It wasn't $5k off, it was more if you factor in the 0% financing. Suzie did okay! My husbands eyes grew three sizes that day (grinch reference) when I told him I was working on 0% financing. He has wanted that deal for ever and our credit has been in the dumps for quite a while. It's a ton better now and it was quite rewarding to get that deal. By the way, they didn't have that deal the weekend before. So, poo poo to him. It's all good I love the truck. two things wrong with it that I had to get fixed. There were 2 paint chips on it and they fixed that. And it has a rattle in the front console that makes me insane. They have it in the shop now and I have a rental courtesy of the ford dealer. It's a red Hundai Elantra - What a piece of crap. I feel so vulnerable on the road driving it. I want my silver and black baby back. (I have a little bit of an issue that it's Raider colors - but I am over it!) I have my Van Morrison and James Taylor CD's in there with my Lynard Skynard and CCR trailing right behind. I deserved it and I got it and we love it and I am making the first payment next week. Crap! Reality just set in.

Strike up the Band: Here is the bandstand in Ocean Park, Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard. I read recently that they were restoring it to it's original state. It has become somewhat delapidated and run down. They were taking up collections/donations. If I had known, I would have contributed for sure. This is the place where my little sister played her trumpet every summer on alternating weekends where we would go see the band play Souza marches and the kids would all run around it's base circling the bandstand as the band played each rendition of star spangled banner, etc. This is also the scene of the crime folks. This is where it all went down. Earlier that morning, June 16th, 1989, we decorated it for my wedding later that day. I had been to the Oak Bluffs town hall and talked to the Justice of the Peace, her name escapes me right now. She told me in order to gain access to the bandstand, I had to find the grounds keeper who drove a little red toyota truck. (memory is foggy on the color). So, I stalked him and just as I was going to go up to his truck in the Town Hall parking lot, he drives off. Yikes, I am off like a dirty shirt chasing after him thinking, if I don't catch him, I am doomed to have my wedding in this bandstand! I drive through Oak Bluffs into a wooded area, following him at every turn, when he finally stops, gets out of his car with a puzzled look on his face and I say, "I am sorry for chasing you like that, but the JP told me you had the key to the bandstand and I need it to get in to decorate, you see, I am getting married up there." he was so nice and pulled out the one little brass key and handed it to me, on pure faith that what I said was the god's honest truth. I was thrilled. Mission accomplished. I had the key. Off I went. It's been my philosophy mostly, that if you are setting out to do something, you do it, get it done and don't come back till you got it done or got what you came for. It's worked for me. I have to muster up all my courage first, then take action. So, looking back on that day, that weekend, when I was the center of attention for my family, my brother missing cuz he had a hair across his ass about me getting married to my honey, I think how perfect it was, except my honey was wasted from the night before, since it was his 3rd marriage. But his best man got him to the event, got us a limo even (I didn't know MV had limos). Everytime I see a picture of this bandstand, I think back and reflect. It's been 17 years now. And the band plays on....