Sometimes age is not measured by the wrinkles the suddenly show upon your face, or the extra weight around your girth that seems to accumulates as the years go by. Age, sometimes, is not even gaged by how fast your children grow.
Sometimes what makes you realized how the years have by is the passing of legends.
This being Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and now, Michael Jackson.
For most of us we saw it coming with Ed McMahon. He has led a full and rich life for many, many years. He was a cultural icon born and raised in the era of our parents and grandparents. He would forever be linked with Johnny Carson and the Tonight Show just as most of us remembered him.
Most of my generation probably know him from the Publisher's Clearinghouse giveaways, or the "TV Bloopers" series with Dick Clark. When his death arrived only a few short days ago, it was unexpected, yet expected at the same time.
With Farrah Fawcett, most of us saw it coming after her documentary was released a short time ago. I remember her hair from the Charlie's Angels days, as she was a cultural icon of my generation. Who doesn't remember "that" poster. We watched her rise in the industry, fall briefly, raise a family, then go on to do some of her best work with "The Burning Bed".
I had always been moved by her admission about how that production had affected her so deeply. I had seen the movie and was finally very impressed with the depth of her performance. She had finally come into her own on her terms to define the type of thespian she would be remembered for. To me, all personal issues after that paled in comparison to the professional actress she had finally become.
Even her final months, she showed that same grace, strength, and determination to do things on her own terms as she did with her career.
Michael Jackson's death was a bomb out of left field. No one could have remotely predicted anything like this coming, except for those in his close inner circle. Only time will tell if we will really know what was going on as we all got use to his ever reclusive and eccentric lifestyle. We will leave that to the experts as we find out more in the coming weeks.
When I think of Michael Jackson, I have to think back to the latter part of the 80's when I was dating a guy named Robin Cutshall. Robin had a roommate named Mike Anderson, who idolized MJ completely. Mike was strikingly handsome; with blonde hair resembling Jackson's coif at the time. He wasn't geeky or weird due to his Jackson idolization, because he could pretty much have any girl he wanted.
Though Mike's dress was on par with the King of Pop, he never pushed it over the edge in order to make himself overtly noticeable in the sense. But singing Michael Jackson's songs was different story. I remember times of walking into the house with Robin and you could hear Mike in the back of the house with his microphone hooked to a speaker singing "She's Out Of My Life", so sincere and with so much heart. Unfortunately, when caught by us, he quickly turned a few shades of red, and embarrassment replaced a passionate karaoke session in a flash.
Robin and I parted ways due to issues in his life and I never saw Mike again after he married. But all through the years, whenever I heard anything about Michael Jackson, my thoughts always turned to Mike and wondered "what did he think of the situation?". When Jackson went through the past 15 years defending himself in court and public eye against molestation allegations, I often wondered what Mike Anderson thought and if his feelings ever wavered towards his idol.
I won't remember Michael Jackson for the many mistakes, faux pas, and blunders he made in the past two decades, but instead for the incredible talent and music he left us all that forever changed music and the way we look and listen to it. There will never be another one like him, just like there will never be another band like the Beatles, or another Elvis.
To all of them I say good-bye, God Bless, and thank you for sharing your best with us all.
Still remodeling the kitchen
The kitchen is still in remodeling chaos. My many thanks to the universe for navigating me towards Liza Lee Miller's blog as she gave such inspiration on what to do with the backsplash behind my stove and my sink.
I did find that I used the wrong sandpaper on two of the cabinets that nearly left them in splinters when I was done.
Oops!
Luckily, we went back over with finer sandpaper and fixed that problem up in a jiffy. They are currently drying from the 3 coats I applied this morning. Oh, and especially love the skunk look I'm sporting today as I took a moment to apply half the gallon on my roller and paint both the underside of the cabinet and my hair at the same time.
Since I'm sans shower today with a white streak in my hair - can anyone say Pepe Le Pew?
It seems though, that the rest of the cabinets "are aware" of the remodeling going on as various pieces of hardware on the cabinets doors have been randomly falling off suddenly.
We WILL have to replace it all now.
So I'm off to Home Depot this evening for mine and my husbands date night in order to match up, pick out, fight over, which hardware will go the best.
I'm going for metro modern - he's going for dirt cheap.
Looks like this could be a short date night tonight.
Did I mention that the 1960's lights under the cabinets need to be replaced as well? I didn't! Well, they gotta go too. They are just as hideous as the rest of the kitchen. I was thinking about selling them on Craigslist after I replace them with some savvy LED's, but then again, who would buy these things except an antique dealer who might get a good laugh out of them.
So I have to pick out LED lights as well as cabinetry hardware tonight to go under the sink cabinet and the counter cabinets.
This will be a short date night.
BTW - does turpentine remove hair from the scalp?
