Imaginary Rock Star

Confession time: I am a rock star. Of course, when I am rocking out my music videos . . . what I really mean is, I am singing really loud . . . to the radio in the car . . . by myself. And I guess if we are being honest here . . . my recording studio is really just . . . my shower . . . when Troy's not home.

You might think I am popping some crazy pills over here, but I know for a fact that I am not the only one who does this. Who doesn't like to belt out their favorite song when they are alone in the car? And anyone can sound fantastic in the shower! I produce my best stuff in there! Seriously, the acoustics really are decent. Anyone who claims they have never done this had better have an extinguisher handy because his/her pants are on fire. Yeah, that's right, I'm calling you posers out!

Of course, singing alone is way less scary than singing in public. I am painfully shy when it comes to performing, and the thought of singing in front of people makes me want to barf. I took vocal lessons for a few years and there was a recital at the end of the semester. It was just me and a piano on a big stage in front of about fifty people. Of course, I am really critical of myself and one time after I sang my song, I walked right off the stage and made a bee-line for the ladies room where I bawled my eyes out because I was so embarrassed that I messed up on six notes. My parents recorded the performance for me, per my request, so I could study my singing "plays" like I was in the NFL. When I finally got the courage to watch it, I realized that I could really only hear three mistakes and my parents said they didn't hear any. But of course, they are my parents. The rules say they have to tell me that. Bless their little hearts.

So, long story short, when Troy went out with the guys and I went to run some errands, you better believe I was in my car singing my heart out winning over "my fans" with my melodious harmonies. **Side Note: Does anybody else have this strange sense of invisible security when they are in the car? Could this be the cause of our music videos? Another blog topic?** And when I went to take a shower, I was laying down some wicked-hot tracks which are sure to be overnight hits! My records are really hard to find in stores, but that's probably okay because I know you are too busy with your own music career in your car or shower. Hey, break a leg out there. Maybe our tour buses will meet up some time.

Showering at Home

For those of you who don't know, we have been renovating our bathroom. Four months ago, we found a crack in the floor of our tub. After having a friend look at it and tell us that we needed to get that fixed like, yesterday, we thought we would have some time to figure out how we were going to fix the problem . . . until the very next day when we saw water damage in the ceiling of our kitchen. We immediately stopped showering at home and thus began the daily ritual of showering at our health club.

As we demolished our bathroom to the studs, we would gaze at the unfinished room and dream about the day we could shower at home again. Then we would grab our gym bags and drive to our showers. The funny thing is that as more time passed, the more showering at Lifetime became normal. We installed our new tub and tile, bead board and paint, and we would still dream about our finished bathroom, but we were not feeling the inconvenience as we had in the beginning. We had developed a new routine. We had new places of storing our personal care items and brushing our teeth and washing our faces in the kitchen sink was becoming more endearing than inconvenient.

Then the glorious day came when the bath fixtures were put in and the sink was connected to the water line. We could now not only shower at home, but use the sink upstairs too. It was so exciting that I literally giggled throughout my first shower and would shout out things to Troy like, "I am washing my hair in our shower right now!" or "I am using the loofah in our shower right now!" Sure, we were still missing things like the toilet and the last few pieces of trim, but who cares?! We can use the shower! It was fantastic.

However, this had created a need to make a new routine. I found myself standing in my almost completed bathroom with my towel wrapped around me, wondering what to do next. At the health club, I had my after shower routine and I had packed clean clothes in my gym bag. What do I do at home? I faced the same challenges in the morning. Where do I go to brush my teeth? Upstairs? Downstairs? One morning, I realized that I had actually put deodorant one twice because I lost my rhythm. (Sadly, this is completely true.) I suppose that is better than the alternative and rocking B.O. all day, but seriously, who does that?

It has been almost a week now of showering at home and I think I am starting to get the hang of it again. You'll know if I go into a relapse if I start packing my gym bag just to catch a hot shower. If that happens, I may need an intervention. Preferably in my beautiful bathroom because even though it's still feels kind of weird to shower at home, and it's not completely done yet, I really do love it!

Before

(Almost) After

Air Conditioning Snob

I just came in from organizing the garage. We are going on vacation and I wanted to get everything in order that we would need. (See Neat Freak.) Anywho, saying I have healthy sweat glands would be an understatement as I am currently rocking the 'swoobs' (sweaty + boobs = swoobs), although I suppose it doesn't help that I am wearing a sports bra which just pushes the girls together. All this to say . . . I love air conditioning.

From the title of this blog, I am sure you can gather that I am an air conditioning snob. When I came in from the garage, and the air conditioning gave me a big giant hug, it was amazing. It was like the air conditioning said, 'Let me cool you and your swoobs.' And you know what, it did.

Our friend Kasey lives in Washington, D.C. (which is super hot and dare I say, balmy, in the summer). He told Troy that his power went out for a couple of days, which meant that his house was now hotter than Hades without the power running the A/C. I was thinking about what I would do if our power went out. I would definitely get a hotel room. Thankfully, Troy is also an air conditioning snob, so I am pretty sure that it wouldn't take too much convincing on my part to hit up a HoJo. If that didn't work, we would probably just spend all day at our local Barnes and Noble where the temperature is always in the lovely, low seventies.

I guess should also mention, that I am a bit of a heat snob also. Troy calls it the "Kohler Cold" because my dad is the same way too. It almost seems like if the temperature goes over 78 degrees, we are sweltering and if it lower than 70, we are freezing. Of course it doesn't help that the upstairs of our house doesn't seem to benefit from our central heating/air system. In the summer, it is super hot and in the winter, super cold. Sometimes, I like to tamper with the thermostat to make the house more comfortable . . . for me . . . but Troy usually finds out and corrects it. It is actually kinda a fun game sometimes.

While we are on the topic of temperatures . . . can I just take a minute and vent about something? I hate it when I am all sweaty and then I go take a shower. It feels great while I am in there and then I have to get dressed or dry my hair (which doesn't happen very often in the summer) and I am instantly sweaty again. I hate that. Honestly, I am dreading that since I got myself all nasty in the garage and I am going to go shower after posting this blog. I am sure that this scenario will be played out. I have even tried showering with cold water . . . my sweat glands laugh at my fundamental thinking.

So, this is a shout out to air conditioning. I love you. And if you ceased to exist, I would probably spend all my time in the closest body of water to stay cool. This would ultimately force my body to evolve into a fish-like creature and then we would have a Little Mermaid situation on our hands. Therefore, thanks to air conditioning, Troy doesn't have to fight Ursula the Octopus on the open sea and I get to keep my voice. Thank goodness for air conditioning.