When Your Morning Starts With The Wrong Angel Singing

May 13, 2014May 13, 2014 / Ally Bean / 17 Comments

Talk about being disoriented. As if getting up pre-dawncrack isn’t difficult enough, I now have worm of the ear going on… and it’s the wrong worm.

Botheration.

# # #

Here’s the deal. Zen-Den sets our clock radio to wake us at 5:30 a.m. each morning. But last night he changed the wake-up time to 5:15 a.m. because he needed to get going earlier than usual.

He did not tell me about the change.

So this morning the alarm, which is set to a local radio station, went off earlier than normal. When the alarm/radio goes off at its usual time I’m already a little bit awake so it’s not too much of a shock to me. But this morning the alarm/radio startled me out of my deep sleep.

Obviously.

# # #

And in my sleepy mind it seemed like the radio was LOUDER than usual as it played an oldie: “Angel of the Morning.” Not a bad tune, but slowly as I began to wake up I realized that it wasn’t the right woman singing the song.

Who are you? And what are you doing in my morning?

So I laid there in bed trying to figure out what the heck was going on. I could confirm with a glance at the clock radio that it was the wrong wake-up time, but the singer/angel situation flummoxed me.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

# # #

So now, later in the morning after a few mugs of coffee, I have been able to make sense of what happened. Come to find out there are many versions of “Angel of the Morning.”

The first one, the right one, the best one, the one that my mind would have accepted without confusion, sung by Juice Newton, is:

The second one that I was familiar with but didn’t grow up listening to, sung by Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders, is:

But the wrongest one, the one that was forced on me this morning and is still lurking in its worm-ear-y way within my brain, the one that apparently is the original version, sung by Merrilee Rush and the Turnabouts, is:

And I don’t like it.

Cold. Bored. But With A Song In My Heart. Or Something Like That.

February 10, 2014February 10, 2014 / Ally Bean / 16 Comments

~ • ~

Let’s pretend, for purposes of discussion, that in an uncharacteristic development, I’ve discovered that I have NOTHING TO WRITE ABOUT here today.

That after a week of being at home, unable to get my car down our driveway onto the street due to an ice build-up at the bottom of the driveway where it meets the street, I have NO STORIES TO TELL.

That after this weather-induced hermit experience my creativity and awareness have disappeared, lost in the boredom that comes from DOING TOO MUCH NOTHING BY MYSELF.

Meaning that all I have to share with you, my gentle readers, is a photo of a birch tree branch that fell on top of the icy snow, making a lovely visual summation of my current situation: IT’S FREEZING OUTSIDE AND I GOT NOTHING MUCH TO DO.

Except, I guess, to decide what song needs to be in my heart. ANY SUGGESTIONS, ANYONE? Goodness knows, I have the time to listen to them all!

But Tuesday Is My Favorite Day

February 4, 2014February 5, 2014 / Ally Bean / 18 Comments

I AWAKENED THIS MORNING thinking that today is Friday. As it is Tuesday, I’m way off the mark with that thought. I’m rather amused that I’m confused. It’s like my subconscious is playing a fun little game with me called, “O Bean, Where Art Thou?”

~ ~ • ~ ~

I HAVE NO EXPLANATION for why this morning my mind skipped a few days ahead, but it did. I like Tuesday so it’s not as if I’m trying to avoid anything.

In fact, once upon a time there was a meme going around that asked specifically which day of the week was your favorite. My answer was Tuesday. An answer, as I recall, that made many people question my sanity.

Nobody likes Tuesday, they told me. I like Tuesday, I replied.

~ ~ • ~ ~

THEY SAID NOTHING MORE about my answer, but I was left with the distinct impression that I was a nobody, with no credibility at all, because I liked Tuesday .

People can be most peculiar. N’est-ce pas?

And with that bit of wisdom, I’ll take my leave to fly away [so to speak]. Now that I’m awake, Tuesday is calling to me. Catch up with you later, kids.

~ ~ • ~ ~

We Went To Utah For A Long Weekend

August 12, 2013July 1, 2025 / Ally Bean / 19 Comments

The hubster was on business out in Salt Lake City, Utah, so I decided that it was time for me to see Utah. He left here on Monday and I joined him there on Thursday.

The tail of an airplane + many pigeons at Hill Air Force Base Aerospace Museum.

On Thursday afternoon Zen-Den and I went into downtown Salt Lake City so that I could see what it was all about. SLC was just as clean and organized as I had heard that it would be. I didn’t take any photos of the buildings or streets, but visually it was inviting. And clean. I mentioned that, right? With people walking within designated painted lines on the streets in accordance with the timing of the traffic lights. Who knew?

The Wasatch Mountains.

We have friends who live just north of Salt Lake City and on Friday they took a day off from work to drive us around the area. It was generous of them to do this, can’t thank them enough. First we went to Hill Air Force Base Aerospace Museum and looked at their wonderful collection of airplanes and memorabilia– which, of course, I liked. Then we went to lunch at Taggart’s Grill, a restaurant and bakery nestled in the Wasatch Mountains, with camera-shy pet peacocks who live in the garden around the restaurant. The food was delicious. Coolness.

The Great Salt Lake.

After that we drove up through the Wasatch Mountains and then down to the edge of the Great Salt Lake. Everywhere I turned I saw the most amazing sights– whether they were natural formations, or unique small towns, or a herd of bison living free on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. Amazing.

A herd of bison on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake.

On Saturday Zen-Den and I drove up to the mountain resort town of Park City, Utah, to go to an art show. Park City is home to Sundance Film Festival— and many wealthy people from the looks of it. The community was perfect. Like Disney perfect. Like so planned that I worried that we’d be thrown off the set for not adhering to the director’s vision of what the town’s residents should look like. Oh well.

Wild sunflowers that grow as weeds along the highways in northern Utah.

That evening in Park City we had tickets to the outdoor Deer Valley Music Festival with the Utah Symphony featuring Mandy Patinkin. He was amazing and professional with an astounding vocal range, charming personal stories and a quiet sense of humor. Delightful.

Starlings [I think] in a nest under the eaves.

On Sunday morning before we left we decided to drive around the University of Utah in SLC and surrounding neighborhoods. Again, so clean. And well-maintained. And, I’m assuming, safe. I say this because the capitol of Utah is in a residential neighborhood with no fences or guards around it. The building is just sitting there. Pretty.

Utah daylilies in an unusual shade of orange that I’ve never seen before.

We enjoyed Utah and would like to go back there someday. Maybe take a week and drive up into Wyoming and Idaho while we’re in the area. Maybe take more photos of the cities– and the buildings– and the unfailingly polite people who waited on us. That part I really, really liked. Worth the price of the vacation alone.