The Rock’s got Talent

So, what did you do on Friday night?

I somehow got myself involved with the crazy idea to join my friends, Barbara and Renee, in a parody of The Supremes.

Our church ripped off the concept of America’s got Talent. We had a talent show and called it, of course… The Rock’s got Talent. My first idea was to do a comedy character. I wanted to be Amy Winehouse’s oldest fan. My plan was to imitate her signature Beehive hair-do using 2 wigs. I was going to do sagging tatoos on my arms and saggy body parts as well. I would make my entrance using the aid of a walker and sing, “They tried to make me go to Rehab”. The reality is that more than half of the folks would not get it because they don’t know Amy or her music. So… 86 that idea.

Then I heard that my friend Barbara wanted to lip sync and imitate Dianna Ross and the Supremes but couldn’t find anyone who would do it with her. I (half jokingly) said that I would have been one of her Supremes. To my surprise, she ran off and came back a moment later with the other Supreme! It was ON!

STOP... in the name of love

OH YES WE DID!!!

It was hilarious! Barbara’s husband, Sherwood, even got in on the act from the audience. We sang the whole song to him and Barbara really put on the attitude. At the end, Sherwood tried to charge the stage to be with Dianna… um… I mean, Barbara. We had great fun.

There were about 17 acts in all. The real talent was shining. We had a singer/ songwriter who debuted her own song. Rachell Rowell, your song was fabulous. There was a 12 year old comedian, McKinley Matthews, who had the audience in stitches. There was a head banging, screaming rock group that introduced me to a form of music that I was hitherto not familiar with. Judging from the head bobbing, yelling  group of teens sitting in front of us, this group was GREAT!! I loved their exuberance.

I cannot go into a description of every act that performed but suffice it to say, there was not a clinker in the bunch. It was a great night of entertainment and laughter. Yes, we laughed out loud at church. The emcees were two of our very humorous men and they had jokes and quips aplenty. They had a noise meter and after each performance they had the audience applaud. The loudest reading on the sound thingy determined the winner. We had no idea there would be winners or a prize.

Barbara nearly fell off her chair when they announced “Barbara and the Supremes” as the winners.

Barbara and the Supremes

I am still laughing when I look at the pictures! I got to do the wigs and the make up for us. The wardrobe? Sadly enough, the clothes came from our very own closets. Yeah, I know.

Hair play

BEFORE

AFTER

Creating a change like this just thrills me. I feel so blessed when people trust me with their looks. My friend, Helen, shows me pictures of what she is thinking she wants and then, together, we make it work. We call it collaboration. She leaves the little details up to me. That allows me to feel like I have done something special.

A couple of weeks ago, I shot a commercial for Progress Energy. It was a fun shoot because the director liked every one to look natural and real. I was soooo on board with that idea. I hate to see people looking all up tight and contrived in commercials.The fact that we had an abundance of adorable children in the commercial added to the fun. Here are a couple of my favorite photos from this time.

playing dress up

tired princess

Have I mentioned lately that I have the best job in the world?

A day in the life

I have some pretty creative friends. Go check this out. http://www.bryanmcgee.com/2008/08/25/noah-gets-a-haircut/ then please come back and leave me a comment.

Mystery or secret

We had a very full day today. This is our drummer / keyboard player / sound booth engineer. He is a busy guy. I couldn’t resist taking this shot of him during our worship team rehearsal. Hee-hee. You thought you found a safe place to chill out and close your eyes for a moment Tim, but I thought you were just too cute to pass up on this photo op.

Church today was very inspiring. I love to be challenged and reminded that it is not about me. It is about Jesus and the people that He loves. The greatest information that I ever received was the fact that God is not mad at me. I was such a screw up all of my life that I figured He had just been fed up with me, but I was mistaken. God loves us so much that He not only allowed His son to die for me, He planned it that way. He sent Jesus to bail me out of the mess I had made of my life. He planned for Jesus to die. For me.

But, I said that it is not all about me. God is not mad at that junkie on the street either. He is not mad at the prostitute. He is not mad at the person who stole your wallet or the drunk driver that killed that innocent child. God sent Jesus to die for that person’s debt too. Jesus wants to pull them out of the mess of their lives. It was His whole purpose for accepting the Crucifixion death. To pay for our sin and mess so we can hang out with God. God likes us. God loves us. A lot.

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave His Son, His one and only Son. And this is why, so no one need be destroyed; by believing in Him anyone can have a whole and lasting life.” John 3:16&17 (the Message Bible)

This is a mystery but it should not be kept a secret.

It’s a good day when…

You know it’s a good day when:

1. You have a good doctor’s visit.
2. You are told that your 6 month Cat scan to measure the progress of the Pulmonary Fibrosis you were diagnosed with shows NO CHANGE at all.
3. Your doctor tells you that the scarring that showed up on your first Cat scan might not even be Pulmonary Fibrosis but could be due to some damage done in the past.
4. You get to tell your doctor that you believe in the power of God to heal.
5. You have family and friends who rejoice with you over good news.
6. You get to go to work at a job you are good at AND enjoy.
7. God allows you to see just one more of His spectacular sunsets at the end of your work day.

I know it has been a good day.

I hope you had one too.

Secret Shopper

Sometimes, I think I would like to be a secret shopper. The person who is secretly there to give the business a score. Say 1-10 with 1 being the worst and ten the best. Most of the places I have been to recently would rate beneath a 5. That might be because I expect too much when I go into an establishment or it could be that customer service is a thing of the past.

For instance, (you must have known this was coming) last night, I went to a restaurant for dinner with some friends. All 4 dinners came out of the kitchen at different times. Granted, once we all got our food it was good food. But I would take points off the score for this. At the end of the meal, I paid our waitress in cash. She brought me back the correct bills but no change. I should have received 9 cents along with my bills. I asked her how much my bill was again and she had to go find the bill to tell me.

I said, “Shouldn’t I have nine cents along with my change.”

She quite perkily said, “Oh, I just rounded it off. Is that OK?”

To which I replied, “No, I want my 9 cents please.”

Now, the issue here is certainly not the 9 cents, but when did it become OK for restaurants to round off MY change. What if I had all but the 9 cents to pay my bill with? Would it have been OK for me to brightly go on my way? I probably would not have even made it out the door.

I wonder how many 9 cents or 10 or 25 cents they rounded off that night. Last time I checked, that was called stealing. I do not like to be taken advantage of no matter how cute and perky the person cheating me is.

Next time you go to Elizabeth’s enjoy your food but count your change.

Ruth’s Chris in Wilmington

 

In response to Hazel’s comment, I will give you all the low down on Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse experience.

We drove up to the front of the Sheraton Hotel where Ruth’s Chris is located and were met by valet parking. Ed came around to my side of the car and opened the door for me seeing as the valet seemed to be focused on getting the keys from Ed and parking the Sequoiya. That was OK, it was still a nice start to the evening.

Ed made the reservations earlier in the day. He was told that the dress was “business to formal”. He looked very handsome in his suit jacket and I got decked out in a skirt and heels.

Upon walking into the restaurant, we were greeted by two neatly dressed young ladies who asked for our name. When they looked at the reservation list they immediately wished us a happy anniversary and offered us the choice of a table inside or a table on the small patio outside. Since the weather was so perfect last night, we opted for outside. It was a little weird because it was just a tiny platform that held maybe 10 tables. The good thing was that we got to see a beautiful sunset over the Cape Fear River.

Ok, I know you really want to know about the food. We both ordered the petite steak and shrimp. The side dishes are served family style which means that we had to agree on what to get. Ed wanted mashed potatoes, I wanted steak fries. Ed wanted mushrooms, I wanted asparagus. We got steak fries and asparagus. Ed smiled at the young waiter and explained that we were celebrating our 26th anniversary. He said that in 26 years he had learned to pick his fights and this was not one of them. Smart man. 

The steaks came out on plates that we were told were 450 degrees. It kept the steak hot through the whole meal and that was nice. The only drawback was that it continued to cook our medium steaks for a few minutes. The asparagus was cooked aldente, just the way I like it. Everything was seasoned nicely. All in all it was quite a nice meal. They served me Fiji still water and Ed has Voss bubbling water.

At the end of the meal the waiter brought us a complimentary slice of Chocolate Sin cake. It was like eating a slab of decadent fudge topped with a wet chocolate frosting and drizzled with raspberry juice. Ed is not eating any sugar so I told him I would take one for the team. I did my best to represent.

It was a very enjoyable night. We expected to pay dearly for the dinner and we were not disappointed. It was over $100! We do NOT do this kind of thing often. It was a special night.

Ed also bought me a pair of Tahitian Black Pearl earrings to go with the necklace he got me for Mother’s day. I will wear them to church tomorrow.

This is day one of our next 26 years. So far so good.

Happy Anniversary

Wow, it has been 26 years that Ed and I have been married.

We met in AA, went together for 2 years, then split up for 2 years. It was during this time apart that we each developed a relationship with Jesus Christ. He brought us back together and we were married within a year.

Amazing!

10 MORE things you may knot know about us:

1. This is a second marriage for both of us.
2. We both had children when we met. Ed had 2 daughters and I had one daughter.
3. Our three daughters gave us 4 grandsons until 4 years ago when Caroline Grace was born.
4. We were both heroin addicts in our past.
5. Both our parents got divorced when we were very young.
6. God comes first in our relationship, then each other, then our children (family), then friends.
7. We have committed to be honest with each other and never to discourage each other.
8. We actually like one another.
9. We really love one another.
10. Today, we committed to shoot for another 26 years together.

Got to go now and start getting dressed for our celebration dinner at Ruth’s Chris steakhouse. I have never been to one of these restaurants but I hear they serve the very best food anywhere. Dress is formal.

What a classy couple. 🙂

Family, friends and … yuck

The plan was for me to go to Raleigh today, stay at a hotel tonight and shoot a commercial tomorrow. At about noon today, I got a call saying we would delay the shoot one day because of the threat of bad weather tomorrow.

I think God arranged for me to be home tonight so I could be the one to clean the poop off Daisy’s foot. Mr. Eddie owes me big time. George Carlin once did a whole comedy routine around the fact (?) that humans step in dog poop but dogs never step in their own poop. I wish Daisy had heard Mr. Carlin’s routine. Most of all, I wish she hadn’t proved him wrong tonight. Yuck!

 I really think she was quite embarrassed by the whole incident. She would be mortified to know that I just blogged about this. How could this sweet looking animal do something so gross?

By the way… I am a Grandnoni!! This precious blond cutie is Natalie Glenn Cook. Her Mommy, Becky, is my Little Girl friend. Natalie’s Granny is my BGFF, Nancy. Ed and I got a visit from them last week and Becky took this great photo. Natalie just loved the dogs. I think she liked us OK too. 😉

She decided to move into Bella’s digs. In this pic, I think Bella is saying, “Hey, aren’t you gonna do something about this?” It was adorable to hear Natalie try to imitate Bella barking. Life is good.

A mustard seed of faith

 Most of us think of God in the same terms we think of our parents. My Dad abandoned our family when I was two years old. He basically rejected us. When I was 8 years old, my Mom couldn’t take proper care of me. She gave me to my older sister who provided a normal home life for me. It didn’t remove the rejection I felt from both my Mom and my Dad. I began to seriously wonder what was wrong with me that people couldn’t love me. I thought my sister and her husband must have been some kind of a saints to take me in. I tested their love for me all the time.

Fast forward to me at 24 years old, alcoholic, bar room drinker with a child of my own that I was incapable of taking care of. I was suicidal. Hopeless. Completely devoid of any self worth and desperate to change my life. I was angry, rejected, self pitying and belligerent. I was a fighter. When I got drunk, all my self control disappeared. I punched people on a fairly regular basis. People who were once my friends started avoiding me because I was trouble. If I wasn’t swinging at them, I was getting us all kicked out of some establishment by starting a fight with someone else.

Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. I had a hard road ahead of me. If God was like my parents. it would only be a matter of time before He rejected me too.

By the end of step one, I realized that I was completely unable to help myself out of the dilemma of my alcoholism. I was still clean and sober but that had nothing to do with MY will. That was because I was learning to depend on this Higher Power. I was beginning to believe that there was a God out there who actually cared about me. I was beginning to grasp faith. Somewhere in this journey, I had stopped asking Ruthie’s God to help me stay sober. I was learning humility by kneeling next to my bed and sincerely asking “God” to help me stay clean and sober. I was no longer running the show. I could honestly see that whenever I was in control my life was a mess. This revelation was growth.

As I continued to practice asking God for help in all of life’s situations I grew in faith. God never let me down. He didn’t answer every prayer the way I wanted Him to. There are three answers to prayers.

1. yes
2. no
3. not yet

God answered in the way that was best for me. I had come to realize that I did not know what was best for me. I was developing a trust that God knew far better than I what was good for me.

At first, AA was my God. They were a group of people that were doing what I couldn’t do. They were staying sober. They were relatively happy people who lived a generous way of life by using the principles of AA. They used these principals to point me to a faith that was honest and true. I am so grateful that my sponsors never allowed me to put them on a pedestal and worship them. They assured me that any success in their life was due to God and Him alone. AA was introducing me to God as I understand Him.

 Finally, I began to let go of the reigns of my life.