Music, books and buddies

Jackson is in his bed trying not to fall asleep. As usual he calls out to me cause he knows I can hear him from my perch on the couch in the living room.

"Do you love me mom?"
"Yes baby, I do."
"I'm Glad. Mommy, are you glad?"
'Yes, I am glad."
"I'm glad too."

He will be quiet for a few minutes and we'll do it again. A few minutes ago I went in and covered him as he requested he asked me what I was going to do. I said I was going to get my jammies on and read my book on the couch. With a glass of wine. I didn't tell him that part though, just the book part. When I came out of my room having changed, he called out to me again.

"Mommy, do you have your book?"
"Yup, I sure do."
"Are you gonna read it?'
"Yup. I sure am."
'I'm glad. Are you glad too?"
"Yes, Jackson, I am very glad."
"Me too, mom. You can be my buddy."
"Ok, son."
"You're my best buddy in the whole wide world, mommy."

Sigh. It just doesn't get much better than that.


We went to the Christmas Parade and Stroll in Georgetown today and had a good time. The pic is Jackson waiting for the parade. They had a big free kids area with moon walk jumping things and machine spitting out some fake snow off and on. And turkey legs. I bought a huge turkey leg and ate a third of it. Good Things David's folk met us there and Lou was more than happy to take the turkey leg off my hands. We decided not to stand in line to see Santa Clause. We were pretty tired from chasing/keeping track of/entertaining a three-year-old for three hours and standing in line for an hour for something Jackson didn't even care about doing was not on our fun list for the day. He could barely wait in line for the moon walks and he desperately wanted to jump. We might get a Santa picture elsewhere this year. Or we might not. Either way, no big deal. I love Santa Pictures but we are just not interested in the possible ordeal of it.

David's folks came to dinner afterwards and it made me glad we have already gotten our Christmas tree and decorations up. We have lots of nice decorations and it sure is a warm, inviting room all lit up with Christmas lights. Makes me want to sit here and put on some music and blog or read with a glass of wine instead of watching TV. I am pretty blessed. I have a good home and family and everything I need or could want and today I am healthy.

Last night David took me on a date. Dinner and a movie. We saw Cadillac Records which is about Chess records from the 50's: Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, Chuck Berry, Etta James and the like. Man do I love that music. Blues, soul, real R&B. Right now there is a little Janis Joplin playing on my stereo. She owes much of her sound to those people. In fact, I heard a Lady who grew up with Janis say on NPR that one of Janis's things was to do a near-perfect Etta James voice when they were cruising around drinking. And you can hear that in Janis's music. Etta, I mean. You can hear Etta in Janis. Anyway. The movie was great in that the music was fabulous and there was some seriously good acting - Jefferey Wright as Muddy Waters, Gabrielle Union, Adrienne Brody, Mos Def as Chuck Berry. And Beyonce' was not bad as Etta James, although I don't think she really sounds like Etta.

It did totally make me smile that she had to strait sing the songs like Etta did. I mean that she didn't sing At Last with so many trills and runs and arpeggios making the melody unidentifiable as is the modern pop singers habit. They have to show off, they can't just fricken sing the song and let it be. Etta James threw in her riffs and runs, but never did they detract from the song, they added to it, embellished. Pop singers today don't know how to do that. They ruin great songs by showing off. So hearing Beyonce' sing it strait was awesome. She sounded good.

Tomorrow I have a lunch date with Andrea' and a play afterwards. Right now I have a date with my glass of wine and my book and there is currently some Van Morrison on my shuffle. (Thanks for teaching me about great music, Dad.)