His Name Was Bobby

And he loved this song
He was barely eighteen.
I was barely old enough to know how young that was.

I had an Elton John songbook. He had a favorite song. 
It was also our song.

**it's a little bit funny this feeling inside

I'm not one of those who can easily hide**

His mother had an old upright piano in the den
I had a lot of time in those days.
He didn't.

So for hours we'd play Bingo. Going over letters and sounds. Letters and sounds. Letters and sounds.  What the epilepsy didn't steal from his mind, the medication took the rest.

**So excuse me forgetting but these things I do / You see I've forgotten if they're green or they're blue**

And then I'd play for him a song he thought was his very own. "For Bobby" it was written, just under the the title in my now-yellowed sheet music book of the seventies. He made me sing every word. Every time.
No matter how many times he heard it, I must I must I must sing it again. Again. And again.




**it may be quite simple but now that's it's done
...I hope you don't mind. I hope you don't mind that I put down in words.
How wonderful life is while you're in the world**


It was hard to say no to a boy with brown eyes and kisses so sweet
on my cheek
on the bench
of bingo-strewn love
and tunes made of blue
poured
on out-of-tune keys
keeping out-of-time time

**Yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen**

I can't sing it today - or hear it - without thinking of him. When I get to the part....
**and you can tell everybody this is your song**
I still break down and cry


Oh I knew he was leaving.
He knew it too.
But we sang
anyway

 I don't play it much anymore

or open the songbook

why do I want to cry?

But one day

I will play it again

Just to see him smile

as he did in those days

when he still believed the world was wonderful

when he couldn't remember his name

or which letter comes after C

before....before....

nothing mattered

but how young eighteen really was 

after all 

and that his name 

was Bobby

**My gift is my song and.....this one's for you.**

Prissy Is as Prissy Does

The Prissy Meme

Many things have been said about me. Some are true. Some are lies. Some are fair. Some are sinister. But there is one indisputable not-so-secret secret about Yours Truly. I love being a girl.
That is a fact.

  I know what you're thinking, guys. You can't possibly do a prissy meme even on threat of dungeon duty. Not to fear. And quite frankly, unless you're a metrosexual and want to talk about yourself, you can still answer this meme about the females in your life.  So let's powder up and get on with the makeover.
(**warning** I couldn't stop at 7 questions this week)

1. What is your favorite lipstick color and why?

Let me get my purse. Hold on......Today it's "watermelon"  and I don't know why except it matches this shirt. Muuuuahhh!

2.  How long does it take you to get ready to go to work in the morning?

Imagine wild throwing of mismatched clothes on the bed and hangers on the floor. Then imagine trying on mismatched clothes until something matches - or doesn't - and then deciding if I want to noticeably rebellious or just noticeable. Then imagine changing my mind about changing my clothes and and changing my clothes again for good measure.   Then imagine looking in the full length mirror and starting the process all over again.
Oh. About 4 hours.

3. Do you have your nails professionally done? Mani? Pedi?

Is God female?

4. Tell us about your latest spa experience - real or imagined.

My latest spa experience actually took place in the dungeon. There was water. Lots and lots of water. Read about it here. And then a gentleman in rubber boots and shiny things appeared out of nowhere to save me.  He was a Fireman. And oh so hot. I really do lead a charmed life (if you don't count natural disasters in everyday existence)

5. Is there something you'd like to change about your appearance? Would you ever have cosmetic surgery? 

Yes. I would like to be 2 inches taller. I solve that problem with taller than normal heels these days. If I take them off on a date I stand on my tiptoes behind furniture for awhile so he won't notice before we dance. Then I stand on his feet. Works for me. 

6. How do you take care of your skin?

There is nothing better for your skin than gentle soap and water. Use WATER based cosmetics (I use Clinique and have for years) and a daily routine of cleanser, exfoliating, toner and moisturizer. 3-Step+ routine. I love Elizabeth Arden's Green Tea lotions and sugar scrubs also.

7. Tell us your secrets for vibrant, shiny, healthy-looking hair.

Olive oil. Coat wet hair with it straight out of the bottle. Wrap your hair in a hot towel for a couple of hours at MOST. Rinse (this takes a while) and you too can have curly hair that falls out of the car window.

 

 8.  What is your favorite fragrance?

Elizabeth Arden's Green Tea. It's fresh and non-perfumey. Smells clean. I also spray it in my hair. It helps take the gentleman's mind off the 2 inches lacking in height.

9.  Everyone has a certain color they love to wear. What is yours?

I am a "winter" color. Bold reds. Winter white. Blacks. I also LOVE corals and light pinks. 

10. Do you have ink?

Not in this lifetime. It's against all royal rules of the kingdom passed down from bleneration to bleneration (that's blog + generation for all you non-blog speakers). Have you ever seen a lily white Queen with a tattoo?
I didn't think so.

11.  How would you describe your personal style?

Revolving. Evolving. Sometimes even dissolving.   But as long as there's a new lipstick color I'm good.

Wanna play?

Comment here or below!

*Photos Mimi Lenox* Lipstick photo Creative Commons 2.0

Monday Mimisms ~ Thank God I Wore The Ugly Shoes

So there he was. The fisherman.

Not just any fisherman but one who shall always from this day forward be known as THE Fisherman. 

Baby Boy and I had a picnic at the park. It was chilly. I had not changed into more comfortable clothes and I certainly wasn't looking cute Friday afternoon.

Dog tired. Worn out. Needed a break. And I needed a manicure.

So did Baby Boy. Not the manicure, the break. He nearly fell asleep in the backseat on the way to the park. After dinner and ice cream under the shelter we proceeded down the wooden steps toward the river. Men fishing  Handsome but jailbate men fishing. Families congregating. Ducks! And water! Big flocks of birds in trees! And peacefulness.....

Until the child shouted.

Everyone knows you can't shout in the presence of fishermen.  Everyone but Baby Boy.
It falls into the do-not-talk-on-your-cellphone-in-a-public-restaurant category of unspoken manners.
"shhhh! sweetie. People are fishing. We need to be quiet until..until..."

Ummmm

Well

Until I....

 found myself looking straight into the darkest pair of eyes I'd EVER seen in my entire life staring back at me from the root-filled river bank. And they were definitely not jailbait eyes. Now I usually don't fall for fishermen. Live bait is animal torture in my opinion. Just sayin. In fact, the last time I fell in love with a fisherman was way back in the year 130BC or something like that. He fished. I slept on his lap on the riverbank with a book under a blanket until it was over. It was seventies romantic and so Ali McGraw-ish. My luck with the fisherman lasted a quarter of a century.  I still hate to fish.

Did I tell you I was wearing a long flowing skirt? The wrong skirt. Groovy. But wrong.
Just wrong.
a skirt so long and so wrong it could cover up even the dimmest of wardrobe malfunctions
See?
 

 It picked a fine time to stumble over a root.

Well! I was distracted! The boy was tugging on my arm, the guy was trying to make gorgeous eye contact and I was trying to have a cohesive conversation about a "sport" (ahem) I'd forgotten how to play. So to speak.

"WHY are you whispering?" he asked.

"Because you're FISHING."

He laughed. "You don't have to whisper. They can't hear you."

"MIMI! Come ON! **tug tug** "Let's go exploring!" whispered the impatient child.

Now I'M laughing.  Note to self: We will be spending more time at the park.
And thinking..... if you love me Baby Boy you will stop trying to steal me away from Mr. Dark Eyes  and talk to the ducks for a minute. Jeepers! I'll bet he thinks I'm married. Let's clear that up right now.

"Why is HE whispering?"

"Because I'M whispering."

(Tell me that made sense to you, Bloggy People)

"And besides,"  I continued,  "my EX-husband used to fish and he didn't like me to talk."

(I'm such an idiot)

But I had one save left. Praying left and right that he would not notice the absence of my matching suede boots substituted by the ugliest pair of walking shoes I owned, I picked the perfect moment to......you guessed it....get tangled up in his fishing line which was by now underneath the flowerchild skirt being tugged on by the confused child who I am swearing under my breath will never see another ice cream cone cause somehow I just know this is his fault.  Of course all attention is riveted straight to the white stringed atrocities on my dainty feet which are looking more like huge duck webs in these shoes.  But thank God for small favors. Had I still been sporting the heels I would have fallen flat on my red-faced face. At least that didn't happen. Did it? Baby Boy, tell me it didn't!!  **Oh. I forget. I am not talking to you.**

With many a whispered apology I finally took my stammering twisted up self awaaaaaaay from THE Fisherman to follow little Prince down the path of ducks and water ONLY to hear Baby Boy exclaim too loudly as he skipped down the rocky path, "You know your shoes don't look right with that skirt. Did you know that, Mimi?!"

I can't take him anywhere.

Photography Mimi Lenox

Comment here or below!

Peace on Facebook (and other BlogBlast For Peace happenings)

The Peace Globe Movement (aka BlogBlast For Peace) has been rockin' the peace since 2006. All the amazing globes and post links have now been placed in Facebook albums. (click on them  below) There are so many people blogging for peace, we are happy to report it is an ongoing daily process to keep up with them. I seriously need an Administrative Assistant.

We also have a Facebook Fan Page (please LIKE us!) and a Facebook CAUSE. Feel free to join one and all. Keep up with the latest news about peace globes and how YOU can participate. Click the album covers below to see them! If you are a FB user, please share the albums with your friends. We need to keep the images moving across the world. Lord knows we need a little peace these days.

Next launch November 4, 2011!
new templates coming soon

And don't forget to visit the Official Gallery at blogblastforpeace.com where each peace globe is documented, numbered and given an individual post with details on the creator and their blogs so that you can read what others have written on the subject from each corner of the globe.

Major locations by country and state around the world flying peace globes (and counting)

 Afghanistan Alabama Tasmania Arizona Sydney New South Wales Australia Switzerland Arkansas Nairobi Kenya Waterloo Belgium Berlin California Sarayevo Bloggingham Palace Bosnia Colorado Bulgaria Greece Connecticut British Columbia Florida Middle East Calgary Georgia Grand Prairie Canada Hawaii Ontario Idaho The Maritimes Illinois White Rock Indiana Costa Rica Iowa Paris France Germany Hong Kong New Dehli India Mumbai Indonesia Ireland Kansas London Israel Kentucky Italy Louisiana Middle East Maine Korea Maryland Malaysia Massachusetts New Zealand Michigan Nigeria Minnesota Norway Mississippi Oman Missouri Philippines Montana Poland Nevada Portugal New Hampshire Singapore New Jersey South Africa New Mexico Spain New York Sweden North Carolina Taiwan Ohio Thailand Oklahoma Trinidad and Tobago Oregon Istanbul Turkey Pennsylvania Great Britain Rhode Island United Kingdom Saudi Arabia South Carolina London England Tennessee Africa Texas Scotland Utah Wales Virginia United States Washington West Virginia Wisconsin DC Vancounver Virgin British Isles Korea Montenegro New Zealand Newfoundland Italy Japan Kenya Nairobi New Dehli Montana North Dakota Mexico Vermont Oman Oregon Portugal Sarajevo Singapore Spain Taiwan United Arab Emeritas Zimbabwe....and 248 Unknown Locations

Peace out this weekend!

Don't Run On The Moon

#75 The Mimi Moon Meme

The SuperMoon graced the Universe Saturday evening! Since it was a much publicized worldwide event, I thought that we as global blogging citizens should share in the telling from our respective corners of the world. And if you didn't happen out this weekend to have some lunar fun, play along anyway. I'm sure I can think of SOMEthing to ask of relevance. And besides, the lunar phase has made me antsy to do a little dungeon throwing. I haven't in a long time.
Can you moon the walk or just talk the talk?

Do your best, my friends.

Do your best.

Your future depends on it. 

There's a bad moon rising.

1. Did you take a picture of the moon SuperMoon Saturday evening? 

If so, please post it. If not, steal one and post it.

I took lots of pictures of the moon and wrote a disturbing post about it all.  There was a man in the moon in my moon!

2. Have you ever howled at the moon?

Definitely not. Perhaps I'll put it on my bucket list. (not)

Why isn't he wearing a crown?

3. Do you believe that feelings and emotions are affected by the changes in lunar phases? (ie: children misbehave, lovers misbehave, tempers fly)

Ever walked into a daycare on a full moon? Two-year-olds will run you over with Tonka trucks.

4. In the language of astronomy, the two extremes of the moon are called ''apogee'' (far away) and ''perige" (nearby). Who or what would you like to be apogee and who/what perige?
(Crikey! I can now talk moon talk!)

I would like STRESS to be apogee and CHOCOLATE to be perige. At all times.

5. Name a famous moon walker.

Naming a moon walker is the easy part, Mimi. A moon RUNNER would have been the better question. Why didn't I think of that?

6. Scientists claim there is no relation whatsoever between a Supermoon and natural disasters. Yet we have experienced tsunamis and earthquakes in the last 7 days on Earth.  Do you believe them?
Do I believe what? That natural disasters or the scientists? 

I believe the great God of Google has more power than even the moon. WikiLeaks and viral YouTube sensations prove my point.

7.  Creedence Clearwater Revival sang about the evil of the moon.  Is there a Bad Moon Rising in your life?

I am soooo done with bad moons this year. It's time for a new moon.

Maybe I should start that howling now.

Monday Mimisms ~ Pilots and Wings

He could have had any toy in the store. And chocolate. 

But he picked the plain styrofoam commercial airliner waiting to be assembled 
with imagination

For one dollar it fell down a lot.

Nosedived in gravel

No parachutes. No frills.

not even paint

But he treated it with gentleness

patiently reattaching

the wings

And with all the determination a 7-year-old pilot can muster

 watched it finally land straight

into a soft landing of leaves

cause something in that boy's eyes knew

his one dollar dream

would fly

Photo credit: Mimi Lenox

The Moon of Good and Evil

All I wanted to do was find the moon. Not just any ole' moon. The Super Moon. If I missed it Saturday night I'd have to wait 18 years to see it again. My camera batteries will be dead by then so I decided to chase it while I could.

After much ado with photography paraphernalia, charging replacements, getting ice cream for the road and stopping for gas, I drove out of town. Way way out of town on back roads. Full of nothing but darkness. Clouds. Ominous clouds. Just like my thoughts on the day's attack on Libya  - the certain beginning of a new war. And no matter how hard I try I can't forget the families buried alive on Japanese hillsides of mud with no dignity or proper burial or even time to run. My mood matched the darkness of the late night atmosphere.

I might as well turn this car around I thought. So many strange clouds. Too many to shoot a decent moon. I almost gave up and went home. And then...a peek through and another and another. Yes!

I found a deserted church parking lot around and waited to see what the magnificent spectacle in the sky would reveal as the clouds began to move back and forth at a slow and spooky pace.

I could almost reach up and touch the eerie formations floating in hot white light permeating the oppressive southern sky.

But what did I have to fear?

Do you see what is behind my car?
And in front of my car were three crosses standing guard at the bottom of the hill. 

Do I know how to pick a good spot or what?

Little did I know that I was about to be blessed by the Moon of Good and Evil. You know, this is not the first time I've been confronted with peculiar clouds. Every time there is upheaval in my life, I dream weird ghostly dreams and seem to pick up signs from the Universe. I'm just stumbling along in my pencil skirt and wham (!) a sign falls out of the sky. Read this post from 2008. I dare you.

But back to the Biblical moon. The praying man in the first picture you see above was a comforting presence in the sky. It was peaceful. Maybe he's kneeling before the moon and praying for peace. Or lighting a peace pipe. Or honoring the Universe and all God's creations, like the powerful SuperMoon hanging in the sky before our collective eyes on Saturday night. The world could use a little good news ya know. I decided to hold that thought.
And I was content to watch him for awhile and eat my ice cream up on the hill of the Jesus church until I saw.....

 THIS

Then I just wanted to go home and hide under my bed.
Wouldn't you??!

Until I realized that sometimes big bad things loom heavy before our eyes in the darkness, maybe bigger than anything we've ever had to deal with before, breathing large and making us weary. The whole world seems to be colliding with travail and smoke at once. And it's in those moments of hovering doom that we forget the lights that have gone before us and the centuries of faith that stand behind us, gently nudging our paths with voices from the past - "That's it. Walk a little braver. Stand a little straighter. You can do it. It will be alright."
  So much does the amnesia of fear paralyze us that neither can we hear the deeply buried truths we've learned to call our own, the ones that stay us in crisis and keep us from tumbling off a cliff. Those lights - you know them - you feel them -  they guide us from deep down inside and illuminate even the scariest of paths.  Whatever demons lurk in the dark times of life, light can always dispel.

I ain't scared of no monster moon.

Photography credit: Mimi Lenox 3/19/2011