Emotional attachment or emotional connection?

My therapist told me last night that I seem to have high energy and in a good space, like I went through and opened all the doors and windows and the air can breeze through. I started to disagree, since this metaphor seems to imply I"m outrageously happy and healthy. But I don't think that's what she meant -- I think I'm just more open and able to see things for what they are, which I can get behind. I could write more about things talked about, but I'll wait. Besides, I'm not sure how fascinating it is to read about other people's therapy session, even when I come back and read this months down the line.

I should read old entries more. I don't take the time to do it very often, but it's harder when you have over two years of near daily writing to cover.

In other celebratory news, I passed the halfway mark on the novel. I must confess I've been a tiny bit obsessed with monitoring the word count of other writers in Chicago. I was in the top five or top ten for most of the time, which I found encouraging, but then something happened this week and a lot of folks saw the 25,000 mark within sight and suddenly I'd been bumped down the list. But now I too have crossed 25K, so I don't care as much. And now I can actually do some work at work.

Don't be mad cause your career's in the ninth inning.

I almost forgot to mention this, but fish unintentionally reminded me. First off, let me say, I don't hate the Dixie Chicks. I mean, I don't really love or like them either, but all of these non-emotions are mostly due to the fact that I'm completely unfamiliar with their work, couldn't really name them upon hearing them on the radio, and frankly, don't really have a compulsion to get to know them. But I don't hate them.

This morning while eating breakfast I was humming Fleetwood Mac, but I didn't even pay attention to what song it was. Then I turn on the tv and flip past VH1 and hear Landslide and realize, wow, that's strange. That's the song I was thinking of this morning. Then I watch a monstrosity of a Dixie Chicks video. It was horribly hellish. I was completely embarassed for them.

I've never really loved Dave Meyers, and I'm quite sure he did this to them. The video has the colors and visuals of Lil Bow Wow's most recent and Pink's Don't Let Me Get Me, which didn't really work for the ballad. The outifts were horrid. There was no point except to pout and look overly melodramatic at the camera while lip syncing while they walked around in three different settings. And one of them had Christina Aguilera's hair from Lady Marmalade, and stood in front of some cheesy special effect of a waterfall flowing up. The video ended with them standing in the middle of the ocean a la TLC in Waterfalls, with another one of them fondling her pregnant belly.

Everything about the video just upset me. And I don't really get that upset about things like this. I have no idea why it triggered such an extremely unpleasant reaction.

Please, do yourself a favor and turn away. Don't follow my example.

More pop culture goodness and a grammar lesson

1. Did anyone alive actually buy Natalie Merchant's last CD (Motherland) and if so, was it any good?

2. The following songs seems to play in every grocery store in the Chicago area when I'm there shopping: Jewel's Standing Still; Vanessa Williams and Brian McKnight's "Love Is"; something from Rod Stewart circa 1993; Phil Collins's "Groovy Kind of Love".

3. Was TLC really working on an album, or did they throw that isht together this summer using outtakes and answering machine messages recorded by Left Eye?

4. I hereby ban the phrase "this is the remix". No artist is allowed to title an album with it, nor are they allowed to say it an any point in a song.

5. How long do you think the trend of people buying CD's based on car commercials will last?

Today's Grammar Lesson: When making a word possessive, the rule is to use an "apostrophe s" unless the word is already plural AND ends in "s". If the word just ends in S, but is not plural, you add an apostrophe S, not just an apostrophe. (e.g. Venus's, Mr. Jones's, bus's) Think of it phonetically. You say both S's, so write both S's.

I thought this lesson was covered very early on the American grammar career, but I think people forgot it the year after and I've been fighting this battle since middle school. Of course, I had a rather fascist and highly passionate drill sergeant of an English teacher for most of my schooling. But I won't give up. Tomorrow's lesson: the predicate nominative!