The Curious Case of Mattjamin Blogger

I am sitting in the new Tiki Room (Tiki Room Y2K15). The other night Cha Cha and I went out and got the new blinds for the windows. The walls in this room used to be a french mustardy Dijon yellow color. It was called butter cream or something. It was kind of this color. The blinds we had on the windows and the curtain for the sliding door were this color. I painted the room last week a very light yellow and the shades I installed yesterday are white. They are really cool blinds that do not have strings. They are the Pinocchio of blinds. You pull them down and they just stay where you want them to stay simply by letting-go of them. When you want them to go up you just push them up from the bottom and they stay wherever you let them go. The guy is coming back Thursday to install the french doors. They are white and have blinds built right into the window between the panes of glass. He was here last Thursday but did not have the correct materials because the window and the frame were not the correct whatever even though he came out ahead of time and measured and we bought the door based on his initial measurements that he gave to Lowe's who he is a subcontractor for. It is good that I am off all day every day to accommodate his schedule. As long as it looks as good as I anticipate and Cha Cha gets what she has envisioned I will be happy.

I was thinking about Benjamin Button this morning. No, I do not know why. I am pretty sure he and I went to college together as our ages crossed. I liked that film (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). It is really about life in general and it made me listen to The Circle of Life this morning from Disney's The Lion King. If you think about it, if we live long enough, being a baby and being very old are very much alike. You cannot dress yourself and you cannot feed yourself and you cannot control your bowels (or you just don't want to), you wear diapers, you don't have any teeth. I still dress myself and I have most of my teeth, I have peed myself but that was at SIU from drinking too much. Right now I am a little past the MIDDLE part of my Benjamin Button Phase but I am afraid that the second half is going to go faster than the first.

I so want to use this mind-loss for my own amusement but I can see that the jokes are wearing thin on some and I think it kind of upsets Cha Cha. My jokes also, often, help me relieve my own stress. On the way back from Tennessee we stopped-off in Marion, IL (no I was not being committed or examined at United States Prison - Marion). Splenda drove over from Carbondale and we had lunch with her. I made a few cracks of this nature and I could tell that it bothered her so I stopped right away. Maybe it is tough seeing your dad go off his coconut though there is so much less stress in it. I have always dealt with things with humor. I also have a pretty good gauge of when that is not working and I know when to stop. A good stress comic has to know his audience. You don't know that managing a comedy club (Zanies) for a couple of years in your Benjamin Button journey is preparing you for later life but all of our travels in life, if we pay attention, are just spring training for something else that is yet to come. I am nervous of what my current training is preparing me (or my loved ones maybe) for. 

I am listening to The Eagles station on Pandora and Ben E. King is singing Stand By Me right now. I have always loved this song but, like any song does from time-to-time for all of us, it has different meaning this time. Ha, now The Beatles are singing Nowhere Man telling me about making all of my nowhere plans for nobody.

Pretty sound advise 

Jill and I are going to see a travel agent later today. We ARE going to go to Europe soon and we want to make the best of it so we will pay somebody who knows what they are doing in this arena to help us. I am about 98.6% sure that we are taking a Rhine River cruise but we want to make the most of it and see as many things that I will be able to forget as we can. Ha, Take It To The Limit is playing now. I guess after we talk to this dude we are going to dinner at one of our favorite places - Bien Trucha. We have been there many, many times and I remember that I love this place but, for the life of me, I cannot picture it in my mind or where it is. Not a joke. It is odd the things that I can remember and the things that I cannot. Maybe my mind is purging the things that it deems unimportant first. People have always been the most important to me so I am confident that you will be there until the end. I cannot promise that so please do not be offended that I forget you but it will be great to meet you again one day. And, if you are offended, don't worry - I will forget all about it.

I still want to do a blog like a tribute to Cha Cha. Uh oh, I feel the tears starting to well-up. It doesn't help that Eric Clapton just started to sing Wonderful Tonight - damn you karma and your evil ways! I cannot believe how fortunate and unworthy I have been to have her with me for the past  32+ years (that includes dating...). Not to mention that, without her, I wouldn't have met some of the best people that I have ever known (her dad Jerry, her brother Tom and our maid-of-honor Mary as examples). I have to stop writing this because I am chocking-up and I need to get some stuff done today. Maybe later?

I do remember these now that I Googled a photo!

Now Keep on Loving You (REO Speedwagon) is ending and Everything I Do, I Do it For You (Brian Adams) is playing. They should call this the Matt In The Middle Station. I want this Pandora station played at my funeral.

Thank you for encouraging me to continue to write. I don't know if I was ever taking quitting the blog seriously or I was just feeling sorry for myself but I need this therapy and short distraction every day. Funny how a distraction is discussing the problems and issues huh? I guess that is what therapists and psychologists do - let us talk about our problems. I have never seen either of the two but who knows if my path will lead that way later? But, I sincerely do thank you and appreciate you every day whether you comment or not. Have a great day as I will. I cannot wait to try this Bien Trucha again for the first time today. I should probably see if I did a Yelp! review of that place - I sort of think that I did. TTTT...MITM (out) TA! Now Let It Be (The Beatles) is ending and Stairway To Heaven (Led Zeppelin) is starting - UH OH! Double TA!