Hello everyone!!!
I am still here, it is the end of Carnival, Mardi Gras, and I have been very happy and busy.
After the election my lovies said "**** this!! We're going to spend time at home!!"
So, for the last 3 months or so, (not including a break for the tsunami, a journalists' got to do what a.. well, you know how THAT ends) we have been living a "normal life", as normal a life as two women and a man can have in an extended relationship, anyway.
Ths means spending LOTS of time together, traveling, staying at home, eating out, or cooking in, going to concerts and live music, going to parades, or listening to CD's at home, going to movies, or watching them on TV... you get the idea?
One night Matt and Leigh and I were sitting up late watching a silly movie, "50 First Dates". I am NOT an Adam Sandler fan, but I was pleasantly surprised at how touching this movie was.
But my biggest surprise was at the end, when a very soulful rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was sung, accompanied by a ukelele. Matt, my big tough war correspondent/reporter/journalist lover, looked striken, teared up(!), and excused himself as he left the room. Leigh later explained Matt's special connection to this version of this song. The details are private, and I will not share them here. (I can say that 'way too many nice young men and women are dying in Iraq)
My point is, and I do have one, that this is one of the most emotionally stirring songs I think I have ever heard. Even now, I listen to it and I want to bawl. I put it on my iPod, and have learned to be very careful when and where I listen to it. (I started crying while riding the St. Charles Streetcar on my way to work last week.)
I don't know if it is my knowledge of Matt's sad connection to this music, or if it truly is that special. I think the latter, but I want others to hear it anyway.
The song is from the late Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's "Facing Future" and is a medly of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World".
The entire song can be heard on the NPR website, www.NPR.org. Go to the "All Songs Considered" page. Please listen to it, and share your reactions with me here.
(by the way, I have learned it has been used on TV shows, commercials and the like, so don't bother to tell me)

Love,

Wanda

__________________
"I wondered, am I a lesbian, am I straight, or bisexual? Then I realized that I am just a slut.
So where's MY parade?"

---Margaret Cho