Idol Dreams

I just dreamed that the top ten (or whatever it is, been a few years since I’ve watched it) finalists for American Idol
were all people I know, and the winner was someone I know who absolutely, without a doubt, cannot sing.

I need coffee.

Maybe That Late Pizza Lunch Was a Bad Idea

I fell asleep in the chair at the desk earlier this evening while reading blogs (no, I don’t remember whose I was reading) and wound up having this dream that was like a freaky version of The Sopranos crossed with some bad B-movie gangster film of the Thirties or Forties. Except I don’t know if the freakiest thing was because it kept switching back and forth from, like, Capone days to modern times, or if it was just so weird because nearly everybody in it was an NIT blogger (or associated somehow).

The only people I remember from the dream offhand were (all gangsters) Smiley, Hutchmo, Knuck, Jon Hickman, Sarcastro, Mack, and Slartibartfast, except Slarti didn’t look like he does now, he had his ’70s mustache from like 20 years ago. And Mr. Ivy, who I only met for the first time the other day. And Aunt B. was like this Bonnie Parker type walking around with a beret and a cigar and ordering Mack and Sarcastro around (heh). And Ginger and I were like Flapper-era gun molls. And Kerry Woo was on the gangster side too, except instead of really being a gangster, he was like Ming the Merciless from the old Flash Gordon serials, and he had a bald head and everyone kept reverently referring to him as The Evil Dr. Woo. There were probably more people in the dream but those are the only ones I recall for sure.

Man, every time I have a dream that involves NIT bloggers it’s always super freaky. I’m glad I didn’t have the pepperoni.

Only In Dreams… Strange Stuff

In the course of a very brief little catnap I took today during my usual afternoon break, I dreamed that Knuck was my attorney, and we had just come from the Governor’s office and were on the way to Washington to see “some friends that would take care of things”. What things? I don’t know. It was a 10-minute nap. I’m not making any of this up.

I wish I could have stayed asleep longer to find out the rest of what happened. Perhaps we were going to see President Smiley and Vice-President Woo. Maybe we had just come from Governor Hutchmo’s office? Meeting with Secretary of State Sarcastro?

I have never had a blogger dream before. That was pretty weird. What it all means, I’ve no idea, other than the fact that still I am craving BBQ but what that has to do with legalities and politics, I dunno.

I haven’t posted much this week because I have been absolutely and completely exhausted all week long. Catch y’all if I ever wake up once I go to bed tonight…

Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine

For those of you who haven’t been here in a while and were surprised to see it’d been updated, the Wall was updated in October and again in December 2001 & January 2002 – please see the Archives if you missed those updates, which were the first since January 2001.

Next up – thank you NOBODY for pointing out to me that I’d tagged everything 2001 on the January 2002 update. I figure that proves that nobody is reading this anymore except for a few of my closer friends, but none of THEM told me either. Duncan I expect something like that of, the rest of them have college degrees and brains and in some cases two (degrees, not brains). Of course, I also know my friends so I suspect this was yet another one of those “let’s see how long it takes her to notice” games that some of them oh so love.

I am happy to report that for the first time since the exact week I moved to Memphis in January 1988, we actually had a REAL snow. Four inches of gorgeous white stuff, so perfect that when I had to take the broom to get all the snow off my car Wednesday, I was shocked to find there was no ice underneath on the car. It lasted one good day and the lying weathermen told us we were going to get another inch or two the next day, but alas, no more snow, Thursday it mostly melted and by Friday it was totally gone. One thing that kind of unnerved me Thursday afternoon, while driving home from work, was the sight of all the dozens of snowmen I saw with no heads. What’s this, I thought, is someone going around decapitating all the snowmen in Midtown? And is this person anti-winter, or just anti-snowman? And just who is this beheader of snowmen, anyway? Kathy tells me the heads always fall off first, but just how could it be possible that every snowman in Midtown’s head melted off and fell in the EXACT SAME SPOT. I think what Andra said about it is right, there was a serial snowman killer on the loose. Snicker.

One thing I always love about when we get sleet/ice (we haven’t had snow in so long, up to now) the patio always freezes and it’s a riot to watch Baby and Dobie go sliding all over the patio. With the snow, I thought my Beagle/Dachshund, Tallulah, would hate it because she is so low to the ground… her little body is pretty much all squatty Dachshund body and legs, in some places the snow was taller than she was. But no, that turned out to not be the case – instead she turned into Lulu the Beagle/Dachshund Snowmobile! Every other minute or so I’d see this brown and black swoosh thru the snow, zipping from one end of the yard to the other. That was pretty funny so, since we had no ice this time, I didn’t miss the display of Dobermans on Ice too much.

Did I happen to mention I got a CD burner for Christmas? Yeah, one of those things I kept refusing to buy for myself because I knew better? I’m still trying to behave… everyone knows that’s something I needed like I needed a great big hole in my head, yup….

Nothing else really going on news-wise. Really.

Sometimes you gotta wonder about your subconscious. Like, lately when I’m asleep, I have been plagued by a series of dreams about ex-boyfriends. I find this really annoying when I wake up, because, save for maybe one or two, these are all people I refuse to think about or allow to even exist in conscious mind nowadays… as KC says, the days when I almost always remained friends with ex-boyfriends are long over!! So when those who I don’t allow to exist in conscious mind pop up in such a way in my subconscious, that just ticks me off even more than I was already p.o.’d to begin with. This has been such a frequent occurrence in recent weeks that I’ve been making myself think of something or someone in particular while I’m drifting off to sleep, in hopes I’ll dream about that instead of yet another ex – you know the supposed alleged deal about how whatever you think about when you’re going to sleep is what you’ll dream about? I’m here to tell you, it only works about 1 in every 10 times, that theory is BS. But what I do find interesting about some of these dreams, even though they annoy me, is some of the circumstances and some of the little details (what little I can remember anyway, I’m usually not very good at remembering all that much of what I dreamt the night before). This is stuff I never would have thought up on my own consciously, so like I said, sometimes you just gotta wonder. Here are some examples of some of the weirder dreams… if nothing else, they’re good for the entertainment value alone:

(1) Ex-boyfriend A: Calls me on the phone and, sounding somewhat alarming, asks me to come to (X city) immediately. Which I do, and after driving for pretty much an entire day and arriving to meet him at some place I never would have heard of anyway, I find him seated at a table full of shady-looking gangland types. And it would appear he has changed race, indeed, is a different color altogether. (Considering the person in question, that particular little detail is actually pretty hilarious.) Apparently he has also now lost the ability to speak, and writes on a cocktail napkin, “Go Home”. I start throwing a hissy fit and understandably so, seeing as how I’ve just driven about twenty hours and now I’m supposed to turn around and go home… riiiiiight. Still all I get is this “Go Home” thing. I make a particularly nasty two-word comment and, indeed, I turn on my heel and leave to go home. Driving off, I look to see him standing in the street and he has changed color once again – he’s blue! And then when I have to stop at a stoplight, I look again and now he’s the Grim Reaper. That’s all I remember of that one. About all the sense I can make of that dream, seeing as how I’m not particularly racist and thus that part just seemed really a weird detail in itself, and this person really has little in common with the Grim Reaper (that I know of anyway), about all the sense I can make of it is that the nasty two-word comment is pretty much exactly what I wish I’d said at the point of ending and left it at that… what the rest of that dream means, I have no idea.

(2) Ex-boyfriend A again, same day, different dream: For some reason I am where he is (which I would never be), and there’s this maze-like house involved, and this whole group of people including his friends and his parents are trying to hide me in various places in the maze-like house, because Ex-BF A’s significant other suspects I am there and wants to kill me. There are bunches of other people in the house too, and at one point when someone is trying to hide me somewhere, we come right up on Ex-BF A’s significant other – and since she doesn’t know me or know what I look like, she starts talking to me, much to the horror of whoever at that moment is trying to get me stashed somewhere. She leaves on her maniacal murder spree quest and they hide me again and there is so much activity going on with this person and that person trying to hide me that I actually don’t even see Ex-BF A until about maybe halfway through the dream, and at that point when I do see him, I demand to know why this is going on and why this woman is running all over this maze-like house like some crazed maniac wanting to kill me, and I do remember that I said in the dream, “(expletive deleted), (name deleted), what is her problem? I never was all that important to you anyway!” And so he opens his mouth to speak, and what comes out’s a mystery…. no, that’s a Replacements song. (snicker) No, really, he opens his mouth to speak and nothing comes out or if something did I don’t remember. And then there’s more of the desperate hiding me again, including being hidden by his mother which was pretty weird in itself, and then pretty soon after that I woke up, having managed to get through and out of that dream alive (or at least I think so). At some point in the dream I remember running around trying to find places to hide among all these racks and racks full of tapes and CDs – some of which I could tell you what they were if we had a few days to list them – so I suspect in that regard that was actually two different dreams wrapped into one, ha. Very weird. Next up…

(3) Ex-boyfriend B: I get this e-mail that says I have to come to (X city) immediately (familiar beginning, but this one was before the aforementioned dreams and it’s a different town anyway). When I get there Ex-BF B is tied up and gagged, so I untie the gag and well, guess what, yet another one who has apparently lost all ability to speak. So, guess what next, I simply leave. Much like the aforementioned dreams and just weird to have anyway as these are people I generally try to consciously forget exist anyhow, however I must admit the sudden verbalization dysfunction thing is not totally lost on me… I’m just puzzled a bit as to why I’ve been having such dreams lately. Next up…

(4) Ex-boyfriend C: This one’s really weird because this is not only an ex I like and am still friends with, but talk to in some form or fashion about every other day. In the dream it is the present day here and now and my life’s the same as it is every day and everything’s the same as it is when I’m awake. In the dream I’m sleeping and the phone rings and Ex-BF C is on the other end of the line and says, “I’m sorry, but we’ve got to break up” (or something like that). And I say, “What, are you kidding? I left you fifteen years ago!” (Which I did.) And he says, “Oh, that’s right,” and hangs up. Probably needless to say, the next day I called him just to make sure there were no underlying issues from the past or anything I wasn’t aware of. He of course thought it was hilarious and said maybe my subconscious is trying to tell me what a great big giant mistake I made, and we had a good laugh about that (as everyone, including Ex-BF C, knows that is maybe the only smart decision I ever made in my life!).

(5) Ex-boyfriend D: For some reason we are in the same city of (X), where I might be but probably wouldn’t be, and we just bump into each other and I say hey but – here we go again – another case of inability to verbalize. So we sit down on this park bench and he gets out this piece of paper and scribbles (and I swear this is exactly what it said): “My tongue was ripped out & roasted over a fire by a mass of hungry cannibals when (X person I know) and I went on a safari to Africa last year.” (I swear to god that’s exactly what it said.) The other interesting part about that particular detail of the dream is that Ex-BF D doesn’t know the aforementioned (X person I know) and thus would not have gone to the bathroom with this person, much less on a safari to Africa… isn’t the subconscious mind a riot sometimes?! Anyway, back to the dream… so I tell Ex-BF D he’s lying, and, looking incredulous, he tries to stick out his tongue and, indeed, has none. But still I say again that he’s lying, and suddenly, like magic, voila – he was lying, it’s there. But he still can’t speak. Yet again this sh*t is just so not lost on me… next…

(6) Ex-boyfriend E: The phone rings and he says “Call me right back”. So I dial the number, which is one that has remained in my memory for more than twenty years even though I can’t even remember my own cell phone number half the time. And I get that annoying operator recording: “The number you are trying to reach has been disconnected…” or whatever the crap it is that they say. At least that dream did make plenty of sense, Ex-BF E is not only someone that I still adore, as opposed to some other ex’s, but has been long gone from this world. Next…

(7) Ex-boyfriend F, who I am still more or less friends with even though we don’t see much of each other nowadays: I decide to go grab lunch at (X restaurant in town) and am not too terribly surprised to bump into Ex-BF F, seeing as how we used to go there pretty often back in the old days, so after some hi-how-are-ya’s (at least this one can speak!) we decide to sit and have lunch together, and after the meal when we’re saying bye I realize I have not said a word through the whole meal because I simply have not been able to get a word in edgewise, and in fact, didn’t even really try. Nope, some things just don’t ever change, not even in the subconscious!

And finally, to wind up the series of recent Ex-BF dreams, there is:

(8) Ex-boyfriend G, who shows up on my doorstep expecting to become the proverbial knight in shining armor, the prodigal Ex-BF expecting me to be willing to take him back after kicking him out of my life for so long… only to find the one true love of my life who is there instead is just about the last person he ever expected it to be. There’s probably more reality behind that one than any of the others and actually I’m really not at liberty to comment much, not right now anyway.

Anyway, since I didn’t really have anything else to chat about right now, there’s your Wall for February 2002, a rare view into the (albeit snoringly asleep and subconscious) psyche du Lynnster. ’til another time, maybe something really exciting will happen to share by then… ciao, peace, luv, & loud guitars…

Well I’ll Take My Time

Hi, not a whole heck of a lot to report, other than spring has suddenly arrived in Memphis with a vengeance. I woke yesterday morning to find my car completely colored in yellow pollen, and let me tell you, that does not make emerald green look so hot (tho I suppose it could have been worse, it could have been pink…).

I haven’t shut my furnace off yet, seeing as I just had to have it on last week, yet the AC is now running.

Sunday morning was equally rather strange, as I woke from a really weird dream that involved actor James Spader (don’t ask, because I honestly just do not know why James Spader) and suddenly for the first time in over a year, the muse woke… in other words, I wrote and wrote and wrote until I was too sleepy to stay up any longer (as some know, I kind of attempt to be a so-called writer, albeit unpublished). The unfortunate coda to this is that I didn’t touch, nor do I feel like it, anything I already have that has been left unfinished – instead, I started something new, which probably means that too will sit unfinished for years once I get this current wave of so-called creativity out of my system, which doubtless it will disappear soon as it always does. In any case, it’s very strange and interesting and definitely something new for me, but damn it’s kind of frustrating when you can’t seem to finish other stuff first.

Anyway, that wrapped up the weekend. I do wish I knew exactly what precipitates these writing fits so I could maybe keep it going all the time, and maybe actually finish and publish something someday, rather than turned off as it mostly is. Maybe James Spader did the trick, I just do not know really what happened there – (chuckle) – and there’s a collective shaking of heads across the globe right now, heh.

Anyway, ’til I have something more exciting to report surely later in the week when those old Englishmen hit Memphis, I am yours truly…

He Just Smiled and Gave Me a Vegemite Sandwich

I actually had quite a bit to expound upon this evening, but an extended-family emergency of sorts kept me on the phone and offline quite a bit of the evening, so most of that will have to wait until another time. I did, however, have something that’s never happened to me before happen that was kinda weird and funny… I was asleep Sunday night, well, Monday morning, and having a dream that involved one of my pseudorelatives and, at one point, actually I, in the dream, was telling myself (my sleeping self) to wake up before I killed this person, because at that point in the dream she had annoyed me so that murder was pretty much imminent, and I did wake myself up! Pretty strange.

Oh well, that had little to do with anything, but anyway, I should go for now… however, did want to say no offense meant to any of my many Australian readers for the vegemite comment earlier, I mean, if you folks want to eat something that looks and smells like cat hairball medicine and tastes like – well, I still haven’t decided what exactly it tastes like but my American palate finds it pretty doggone horrific, an aforementioned offline comment about motor oil is probably pretty close to target, but that’d be motor oil with a LOT of salt – anyway, if you fine folks want to eat that stuff, that’s fine with me, you can eat ALL you want. Ugh. It was bad enough on toast with butter, I can’t even fathom the horror of a vegemite sandwich. Ick. ‘night and ’til later…

Rocky Top, You’ll Always Be Home Sweet Home to Me

Oh, like you didn’t know what you would find here today! WE’RE NUMBER ONE, BABY!!!! Thanks to Peerless Price and an awesome defense line, the Tennessee Vols squashed Florida State last night at the Fiesta Bowl to become the number one college football team in the United States for the first time since 1951! 13-0 and with a team full of sophomores and juniors, WOOHOO!!! Fourth quarter of the game is what college football at its best is! For all the millions of non-believers that said we couldn’t do it, for all the folks and press who looked down their noses at us, I think I can safely speak for most of the state when I say you can all kiss our collective Big Orange butts!! (giggle)

And then, personally, I have my own little list of folks who may now cheerfully eat crow at my little feet, such as… Duncan, who so misguidedly believes that, one day, Vanderbilt will actually win another game; Ron, who threw Ohio State in my face the last two years; Meki, and why a native South African wanted to bet me on an American college football game is beyond me; Jason, who informed me we were going to lose and nearly predicted the score perfectly, just the wrong way around; and Peter, who made reference to “when Tennessee gets stomped by FSU” or some such recently. You can all cheerfully admit that I am always right now. (giggle)

And, of course I saved the best (worst?) for last… to the dimwit Vanderbilt lovers, KC, Josie & Steve, JJ, Greg & Beck, and Jay W., all of whom had the gall to chip in and send me a small funeral wreath yesterday with a card that said, “Divine Miss L. – We’re so sorry for your loss. With sympathies -”, I thumb my nose in y’all’s loser team’s general direction. Ah, victory! (giggle)

So anyway, sorry for a few days of non-updating, I basically am sort of paralyzed via freezing, i.e., I’m too cold to type. It has been awful down here the last several days and my biggest problem is I get still and sort of warm and don’t wanna move. Some will remember the fall back in ’86 when it turned unseasonably cold in Middle Tennessee in October, I hadn’t gotten my heat turned on yet, and it was so cold in my apartment you could see your breath… fortunately several kind souls braved the freeze with me, probably out of pity, and spent many hours at my place those few days with us all huddled in coats, blankets and whatever else was around, ten or fifteen to the couches all in a row for body heat.

Well, it’s about that bad right now, and I have the furnace up full blast and it’s not helping, like, I could be wearing gloves right now in the house. In fact, I’ve been sleeping in sweats and socks – the fact that I’m even bringing this up reminds me that way too many people are way too aware of my basic sleeping habits, sheesh – but anyway, that’s something I wouldn’t do in a million years, so that gives you an idea of what a popsicle I am at the moment. Fortunately, it’s supposed to warm up to 39 later today! Woohoo!

So anyway, I did the drive-up-to-mid-West-TN-and-back thing tonight for the Fiesta Bowl, getting together at the Dadster’s & Stepmomster’s along with my stepbrother and his crew, and I found my drive out eastward out of town to be interesting, mainly the new HOV lanes that virtually nobody was using between 4-6 p.m., save for one car that was illegally on it with only one person in it. I’ve read where other cities that have them, people aren’t using them properly either and they stay mostly empty, so I’m like, what’s the point.

I also noticed the big “Bellevue Welcomes You” billboard, or whatever it says exactly, and thought of my esteemed Web colleague The Mad Memphian, I know how much he looooves Bellevue Baptist Church.

And, I saw a dark emerald green, two door, certain kind of Dodge automobile, with the Tennessee Arts cat license plate, being driven by a blonde with Ray-Bans on, and for a second thought I’d crossed the line into a parallel universe. Boy, that was weird.

Anyway, not much other news besides football and freezing to a popsicly death. Hopefully when it warms up I’ll do some catching up with some of you nice folks this week, I’m not kidding when I say I can barely type at the moment my fingers are so icy, and it’s been that way for a few days now, but they tell us 30 degrees and then 50 degrees is on the way. And, did anyone else have any really weird dreams in the early hours of Monday morning, ‘cos I had a doozy around 5-8 a.m. CST and I’m still trying to figure it out… ciao ’til later, hopefully a much warmer later – L. the Orange Ice Princess.

A Deer Dance

The good news is, with some thanks to Tim Vine the Laptop God, I have finally gotten my e-mail box down to a manageable level with less than 50 waiting, woooo. The bad news is I don’t know when I’m gonna get around to the rest of it, but soon I hope. Most of what’s left is those I have to catch up the last year with and some other things that are going to take more time than usual, like Jules who I haven’t written since, like, Christmas, so you very important people just bear with me a tad longer, I am finally making some progress wading thru the cobwebby e-mail pit.

I am ashamed to say I found e-mails there dated all the way back from October and November 1997… I’ve been a very, very bad girl. But this has been a major improvement, down to under 50 from somewhere in the 350-400 range, so I have finally accomplished something. Those of you who’ve gotten any reply, much less more than a few, in the past year should feel pretty doggone privileged. Or at least that’s Rule #112 in The Lynnster Book of Rules…

I found some fun things in my e-mail box too, some viewer mail to share with the masses, with some names and circumstances changed to protect the innocent, these were some of my favorites… there was this Dutch guy that wrote that there were “only four Replacements fans in Holland and all four are in a band called The Regulars, and one of them’s me. This country sucks.” (Paraphrased, because I accidentally trashed the original without meaning to last night.)

And then there was this dream a pal told me about, which may well be the funnest e-mail I ever got, names changed to PTI of course: “…as dreams are wont to do, the whole thing switched scenes and I was all of a sudden out in the middle of some woods being chased by four bizarre giant deer – two or three of which had, instead of regular deer antlers, one giant horn that stuck about 4-5 feet straight up. So they’re chasing me, bent on making “Dave” Shish-ka-bob, and I came to “Joe’s” house and ran inside to escape, and then he and his wife were nice and sheltered me from the killer uni-deer.” Is that not the best? I may have to start a separate viewer mail page, some of my mail is so great. I love the uni-deer, hehehe. Well, gotta go, tho there’s one more piece of maybe good news for those who’ve been in the know lately, and that’s that I may not lose my part-time job after all, so for the moment I feel a teeny bit better. Ciao for niao…

In Dreams I Talk With You

Well, here we are in August. It’s really kinda unbelievable to me, this year’s just really flown by. Just think, a little over four months from now and it’ll be Christmas! (shudder) Don’t really have any exciting news, so pardon the brevity today, I have got a huge headache and just basically feel cruddy, I think I slept too much after exhausting myself all week. And I had really strange dreams about people I went to elementary school with and am still trying to figure out why. ’til later…

Glass Houses & Other Rot

(NOTE: April 1998 entries have been moved from an old site of mine in big chunks for the sake of convenience… sorry & thanks – L.)

04/17/98: Nashville Tornado Update: OK, just reporting in quick tonight, I know some of you check here before you check your e-mail… everyone’s alright so far as I know at this point. Have talked to Josie, JJ, the Breits, the Walkers, the Selfs and the Callicotts, and everybody’s OK. Josie and JJ were both downtown when the tornado hit but no problems, except that Jo’s car needs a new windshield. Walker Breit was also downtown at the time but like Jo, no damage ‘cept to his car. Was kind of upset to hear about St. Ann’s Church being destroyed, and Centennial Park, both a real shame. KC’s got some damage to the condo but JJ’s staying there for the moment, and KC knows about it now (and had many many expletives to impart, heh). So, in a nutshell, all’s well so far as I’ve heard. They have closed off downtown Nashville and thereabouts for tonight and tomorrow anyway, schools are closed, and Sundquist has official declared the city a disaster area, unreal isn’t it? For those who don’t know, it is really, hugely odd for a tornado to hit downtown Nashville like that, would be odd for one to strike Memphis like that too or even where I live in the middle… usually these things take out a suburb or two every year, and that’s it, you’re usually pretty safe in the inner city. They apparently just hit before or blew right past Memphis during the night and yesterday afternoon, hitting Manila, Arkansas, up near Dyersburg at Roellen, and then the big one downtown in Nashville. Anyway, just wanted to stick a word up here that’s everyone’s okay, mainly since Robin checks her e-mail only once a year… Must have been something about yesterday… my brush with concrete walls, there but for the grace of god and a most excellent driver go I, & KC’s thousands of miles away from the condo, whoosh – scary, and very, very lucky. ‘Night…

04/17/98 (later): If you listen closely, you can probably hear the faint screams from across the Atlantic… as some of you know, KC’s condo is almost all great big panes of glass… er, let me rephrase that, was. The condo he just bought some fourteen or fifteen months ago, yup. Steve Kane called me at work this morning to make sure everyone was okay and then said when he’d heard what happened to Centennial Park, he immediately thought of “KC’s glass house”… it’s kinda bad but JJ assures me not as bad as it could have been, stuff’s still there, just a lot of water damage and some other wind damage and yup, all that glass. Now that we know everyone’s okay and stuff we can all joke about it (well, KC may be able to joke about it someday, I dunno…), and JJ’s taking care of everything up there, we’re just glad the condo hadn’t been rented out yet. Condolences and tacky jokes about people not living in glass houses may be sent to KC’s e-mail. I am pretty weirded out myself about it all, you kind of expect to be safe in the middle of the cities, what hit downtown Nashvegas was a real fluke. But no, none of it hit Memphis – instead it was sort of an umbrella effect, hitting points just northwest, north and northeast of Memphis, so I’m fine… knock on wood, tornado season ain’t over yet, what it is with this weather lately anyway?! Weirdness. Ciao for now, I’m off to hang with the Latimers & the Coles somewhere in south central Mempho, hopefully far from tornadoes and giant concrete walls.

04/19/98: After last week and this weekend, I need a vacation! Spent the weekend with all the Camden folks visiting Memphis… two Latimers and one Latimer-to-Be, one Cole (Donna couldn’t make it), the Hollands, and the female contingent of the Hubbs clan (hadn’t seen Lisa in ages!). As usual, a great time was had by all. A weekend of firsts for me… eating moonshine-soaked cherries (don’t try this at home!) and Johnny played an excellent riff on the Black Crowes’ She Talks to Angels while I co-sang from under a bedspread, heh. I spent the weekend walking around with a Latimer name tag on which I’m sure just confused the heck out of everyone from West Tennessee there, snicker. There’s lots of good news tho… Toni & Johnny have just gotten engaged, and Cole is going to be a first-time daddy come this winter! So things are pretty darn swell. Johnny’s band Porch is going to be playing at the Cinco de Mayo festival May 2nd in Jackson… I can’t think of the name of the place, but it’s on North Highland across from where the Old English Inn used to be… probably sometime after 3 or 4 p.m., so if you’re around thereabouts, come by and see us, we’re all going to be there. Nothing much else, it’s a gorgeous spring day in Memphis and I’m recovering from the events, hangovers, and other such of the week and washing dogs. Hasta ’til later…

04/20/98: Nothing much, all I’ve done since last post was sleep really late, and get half a tree in my hair (don’t ask), so instead I’ll share with you all some stuff I found amusing today in the Monday Morning column of today’s Commercial Appeal. Seems the Memphis chapter of NARAS held their Premier Player Awards, and the column included some quotes from the awards. Here’s one: “Domingo Samudio (better known as Sam the Sham, of Wooly Bully fame,), decked out in a crimson suit and a turban-like headband, as a band member interrupted his presentation during the awards ceremony: ‘Go back there and hit that saxophone player on the head, will ya?’” And I especially chuckled over this one (wonder why): “Musician Dave Smith… after receiving the Premier Player Award for best bass player… ‘I don’t know what to say. I guess that’s why I’m a bass player.’” Smiles ‘n more spring weather, I luv this!

04/22/98: I had a dream the other night that Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson were vampires, therefore I deduce that maybe I’m reading too much Anne Rice? Naaaah, but maybe that’s a sign I shouldn’t be trying to read two at once. So anyway, speaking of Tommy, my pal Becky of the Yap Yap site has put a great new Stinson interview link up on her site, click here (sorry, link now gone) to go over there and see. Or stay here, it really doesn’t matter to moi. Not much huge to report… The Med’s baby-swapping case continues to rage in Memphis. I’ve already said my piece in the memphis.general newsgroup, but I’ll say it again – after the complete three-letter-word that starts with A that woman has made of herself in public this past couple of weeks and the things she’s said, I’m not sure she deserves to take home that baby even if it is hers. Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox now… (heh, as if). A note to my adored long-lost geekboys in N’awlins & Nashville… IXL still has jobs posted on their website, maybe you guys oughta click here (sorry, link now gone) and send in resumes, eh? And finally, Lynnster tries to decide whether to cut her hair or not, a moral struggle of sorts… and thinks not. That’s it, I’m snoozebound.

04/22/98 (later): Much to what I’m sure will be someone’s utter chagrin, I’ve about been talked into both morning and evening editions of the Graffiti Wall, just for the heck of it… not that I necessarily think I have enough to fill up even one day’s worth on the Wall most days, but just to pacify this particular zealot (because hey, I’m an accomodating kinda chick) I’ll say I will and might try. But there are going to be days definitely that I can’t, so, you know, live with it, some days yes maybe, some days no way. You people are funny. Anyhow, wouldn’t you know it, the one day I make reference to The Med’s baby-swapping case here in Memphis and link to the CA’s website regarding it, it’s the first day in two weeks it hasn’t been front page news, so, well, my apologies for that, but I’m sure the big-mouthed money-grubber will wind up back in the news some more shortly. Anyway, was reading today that Memphis native and Kingsbury High graduate Kevin Longinotti, 22, a Vanderbilt student who was the most critically of all the 100 people injured in the Nashville tornado last week, remains in the hospital in critical condition, crushed by a tree in Centennial Park. Sad that he was set to graduate from Vandy next week and the same day was to be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army – he was one of the Vandy ROTC cadets at the park that day for a picnic. I know the day the tornado happened, my mom was telling me on the phone that the news reports from Nashville were showing the park and basically said, well, The Parthenon is still there, but the park itself and the trees were pretty much gone. Hoping for this kid’s improvement, certainly, but it’s even more unnerving and scary and all for me as, as many of you know, KC’s condo (as Stevie Kane so well put it, “the glass house”) overlooks Centennial Park and if he’d been in town and home that day… (shudder). So anyway, there’s a medical expense fund for Kevin Longinotti that’s been set up at First Tennessee Bank here in Memphis, and to assuage my own horror at what might have been regarding KC and also pretty much in thanks that what might have been wasn’t, I’m planning to make a donation to the fund, and I hope some of our other friends and Nashville folk who drop by here will too if you want… I didn’t get the specifics, but I’m relatively certain that if you address and earmark your donation for The Kevin Longinotti Fund, c/o First Tennessee Bank, Memphis, TN 38101, it’ll get where it’s supposed to. Especially some of you utter cheapskates whom KC has bailed out of jail on public drunk charges, paid your rent when you were short, paid for studio time, paid for equipment when yours blew up… (guilt trip, guilt trip, guilt trip). Now you know I mostly jest – (snicker) – but Big Sister here thinks this would be a nice thing to do, and if you’ll let me know you did it I have some plans for our buddy so we can all pretty much make it clear how glad we are that Mother Nature didn’t whisk his sorry butt off the planet. ’til later…

04/23/98: Lynnster sticketh her foot in her mouth as usual… make a big deal about the possibility of doing two Wall updates a day and what do I do, I don’t. Heh. Sorry O Graffiti Zealot. Truth is I went to bed early (for me) for a change. We’ll just see, but I’m not making any promises. Memphis weather report for the faithful… yesterday was chilly, today summery-hot, I give up. I just had a little mop dog run into my front yard, which was strange, and in searching for something in the guest bedroom AKA junk room, I just found an amp under the old dining room table… whoever it belongeth to better speak up, finders keepers and all that. Thanks to Mike W. who snailmailed me some way cool Stax stuff that I got today… luv surprises in the mail, and this was pretty neat. Another inadvertantly started collection… This weekend if you’re looking for something to du in Memphis, the annual Crossroads festival is happenin’ downtown. I haven’t been paying that much attention to the schedule, but I do know that a cool band from Madison, Wisconsin, The Wizenhiemers, are playing at Blues City Cafe on Beale at 10 p.m., so even tho I have to go downtown in April by myself (grumble, whine) I intend to be there, look for my little blonde head in the crowd if you’re going… and be sure and say hi to their drummer, Murph, and go, “Hey, do you know Bill Ruef? Whatta great guy!” Fond hellos to Lhiannon, Linda, Jules, Rich the guy with the terrible Gurus curse, Josh, Jude, Ken, Kitty, Dave, Sophia, Jay, Kai, Patty, Brian, Robert B., my dearest Amanda, Downtown, Cindy, Jerry, both the Sues, Jen, Shannon, Greg C., John, Bill & Bill, Annette, cool Dan Scheraga, Mirk, Lozza, Cindy from the Pen, Phil, Dez, Julia (I started, I just haven’t finished!!) and Rod, I think that about covers everything that still awaits in my e-mail box, rest assured I have not forgotten, April continues to be catch-up month. Stef, you don’t count, I’ve written you back (even tho I’m late again). (giggle) Hi KC, heard about any good deals on windows lately? (snicker) And big hugs & smiles out L.A. way to who needs them most. Later…

04/24/98: Good morning! Graffiti Zealots, people millions of time zones away, and other interested parties alike are in luck today I guess, as I fell asleep, phone still in hand, on the couch and had to force myself up again… now waiting for the ol’ hair to dry and watching the sun come up so here I am. Then I’ll go back to snoozing for a couple of hours and feel awful all day… oh well, at least it’s Friday. If anyone ever figures out how to turn sleep deprivation into big bucks, I’m in major luck… let’s see, Jo’s in town to tie up some loose ends come Saturday so I’m feeling an Attack of the Huey Burger coming on; actually I haven’t had one in months, which is kind of amazing in itself, so that’ll be a minor treat. It’s supposed to be sunny and hitting up close to 80 all weekend, which is both good and not good. And I, for now, am going back to snooze. Hope this was worth it GZ. (waving)

04/24/98 (later): Heh, it’s the evening report, quick-like ‘cos I’ve got something to do. Pet peeve city… I have to make a second trip to the Pig on Madison because they forgot to put something I bought in my bag today. After I made a point of going out during the day today so I wouldn’t have to mess with the Friday-after-work traffic later. I would just let it go, but it’s that semi-expensive butter-rum flavored coffee I’ve grown completely addicted to. Grouse, grouse, grumble, grouse, grouse… don’t get me started on the state of the service industry in the United States today, heh. Well, most of all, I’m just glad it’s Friday, and The Wizenhiemers are playing tonight, and there’s some new music stuff on the coming horizon here in the Bluff City, check out the Memphis page before you go… and we (meaning me, Greg & JJ) may be doing that acoustic thang in Oxford Sunday after all, but I don’t know yet, so anyway, good weekend to all, toodles.

04/25/98: Hey. It’s been a weirder-than-usual evening (well, last night) in the land du Lynnster. I am just a tad out of sorts after coming close to having an intimate run-in with a telephone pole on Summer Avenue last night. (And no, KC & choir, it wouldn’t have been my fault, so take your female-driver jokes elsewhere…) Anyhow, well, what can I say… if third time’s a charm, maybe I just better stay home and never go out again? Ugh, it’s all just a little too eerie. Well, anyway, I wound up not going downtown, which was a shame kinda because it was a beautiful night, but oh well. Between the choice of company and the traffic mayhem, I just kinda had a bad feeling about getting down there and all involved with the Crossroads showcase traffic, both pedestrian and vehicular, so I went elsewhere. So anyway… with all the really strange weirdness going on lately, KC & I have been busy trying to solve the mysteries of life in e-mail (a worse pair attempting such philosophies I’m sure there never was) and coming to the conclusion that there are no answers, just questions… like, do you settle for less just because, or do you wait and see? (A very broad-subjected and rhetorical query, of course.) Now, I know what JD, one of the wisest philosophers to ever cross the ‘Net, would say of course – whatever it is, it’s worth the wait. But I dunno, I’m a converted cynic, I’d say there’d have to be a reason or evidence to wait… KC, being more cynical than me, would say play it safe and settle and don’t wait. So, what are we all waiting for? That’s the real question… (snicker)… ah, just a little philosophical brain-teasing here, folks, so Greg Breit, who’s one of those people who sits and wonders if the light goes off when you close the refrigerator door, won’t be able to sleep tonight. Kinda serious, kinda not because Greg’s such a worrywart. I am never above messing with those who are addicted to the Wall, heh, especially those who can be kept awake for days just by posing rhetorical moral questions to them. Anyhow, what else… very very high recommendations for a great new flick rental, The Myth of Fingerprints, it’s an excellent, excellent, excellent film. And a big hello to the recent Australian visitors to the Zone… I suspect I know how you all got here, proud to have ya, wish I was in Coogee right this minute. Anyway, well, I’m still in one piece, that’s basically the news and all the philosophy fun for the night, and I’m outta here for now…

04/25/98 (later): 80 degrees, sun, breezes, glorious day in Midtown Memphis. I have nothing to say but hi… just cleaning up some stuff on the website this fine day. Hope it’s as gorgeous everywhere else as it is here… later…

04/26/98: Well, it’s Sunday, and I’m not in Mississippi, so I guess that means I’ll be washing dogs. A word of warning – I’m not sure how much updating there’ll be here for a while. That’ll break the Graffiti Zealot’s heart, I know, but you’ll get over it, dear. Things have been so strange and weird lately with my recent traffic mayhem, the tornadoes, among other things, there’s a lot of re-evaluation going on here of late about… well, just things. After I teasingly worried him to death over rhetorical moral issues the other day, Greg Breit and I were going down memory lane on the phone in the middle of the night last night and remembering back when the only things that really mattered were when, where and how we’d do music, and trying to remember what that was like, when that was virtually all we needed… and wondering when that changed, and why. Another philosophical issue to ponder, among many… anyway, truth be told, I have kept things together and cool for a really long time, years even, a stellar job of being a pretty together chick in the face of some gnarly adversities and I’m pretty proud of and happy about that. The last six months or so have, for whatever and many reasons, not been so easy, and yeah, scary occurrences of late have sort of exacerbated all that. And I think it’s better if I just maybe take a little break from the online world, for the most part. Of course, I’m pretty unpredictable and this may be a relatively short hiatus, who knows, you never know about me… but just a little proactive word of warning here for now, especially so to keep the level of “hate mail” from New Orleans and Nashville and London down. KC made me laugh when I asked him if I was a Replacements tape right now, what would be on me – no hesitation on answering Unsatisfied, Darlin’ One, Achin’ to Be and Here Comes A Regular, among others. Those who know you best… Anyway, with the words of soon-to-be-a-daddy (amazing!) Paul Westerberg – if being wrong’s a crime I’m serving forever… that’s an understatement… I leave you with ‘Mats tunes in your heads, sweet dreams ‘cos if I can’t sleep, the rest of you should and have good dreams for me, and I’ll be back later, sometime… just a temporary lull. You guys don’t really want to hear all the boring, mundane, everyday inanities anyway, and I don’t have much else to offer at present.

04/27/98: Oh… well, I can’t really say what I want to say because, after all, this is AOL, you know, and there are rules… but I guess the alternative proper ladylike term would be, to heck with it. So Lynnster sticks her foot in her mouth again, it’s not the first time and it surely won’t be the last. As I told someone earlier this week, all the rest of the pages (and believe me, there are more pages than you know) on this site are done and finished and just sit there month after month and don’t need anything done with ‘em… most new pages I put up, same deal… this page, the Wall, is really the only one I have much fun with. I think everyone with a website should put something similar up (hint, hint)! But seriously, well, I’d miss it, and some other swell folks have let me know they’d miss it, and I’d just be hard-pressed to deny anyone their daily dose of Lynnster goofiness, sooo… OK, I’m back. (However, Graffiti Zealot, I just don’t know about this morning/evening thing… but we’ll see.) Plus I guess some just drop in to make sure I’m still alive, at least I’ve been told that three times now, so, OK. You want boring, goofy, ridiculous and mundane, you got it. Thanks to the select few who helped me change my mind… you’re always aces in my book. And, you know, I was thinking in the wee hours of the morning… part of my problem with the Wall at this point has been the fact that I’m not in a particularly happy-happy-joy-joy state at present, and I dislike the idea of that affecting things here… mostly, i.e., the chance my smart*** mouth might get the better of me… but then I thought, well, you know, it doesn’t matter, I’m pretty much among friends here, some I know well and personally, some I’ve never met but know well, and others… I just plain don’t care. Whether I’m happy, mad or annoyed and ranting, morose, cracking jokes, or cracking up in public, I’m mostly among friends here of all kinds. And as for the rest – not that I’ve heard or accidentally seen any complaints in a while – if it’s your opinion I am, or my little Wall project is, stupid, silly, inane, ridiculous, self-indulgent, or any other number of like adjectives… feel free to go elsewhere. This Wall, and I, might not appeal to everyone’s liking… but I’m not going to let any figurative bad apples spoil everyone else’s fun. So again, feel free to click elsewhere. In fact, please do. Thanks.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled Graffiti… well, this was kinda a really bad day to be my first day back in rush hour traffic after my recent traffic mishaps, seeing as how it’s rainy and nasty here and I live in a city where everyone immediately forgets everything they learned in Driver’s Ed the minute it starts raining, but I made it home with flying colors. Now, for the last hour or so, I’ve been watching and listening to what has got to the most in number of weather warnings I have ever seen on TV at one time. At first, just severe thunderstorm warnings for Shelby County and others… and then within seconds of each other, tornado watches, flash flood warnings, and then urban flooding warnings (excuse me, isn’t that the same as a flash flood?). Then, suddenly, tornado warnings all around me (tho not here). Oh, and hail. Exciting stuff, this… at present (7:15 pm CST) there’s now been continuous storm coverage for about an hour now, so you know it’s gotta be kinda yucky. The really interesting thing right now is that the two worst storm cells are in Benton County, TN (where I’m from) and Benton County, MS, heh. Anyway, kinda just watching to see if anything’s developing into funnel clouds – so far none, they think – and we in Shelby County are under a tornado watch ’til midnight. And, anyhow, I was just kind of amazed at the sheer number of and varied kinds of warnings flashing on the screen one after another. You don’t see that too often. And that’s The Weather Channel for today… oops, forgot who I was for a minute!

In other news, I have a new guestbook, because my old one got destroyed and the guestbook service also went to a subscription-only service at the same time, so please, feel free to scribble. It’s a little more “commercial” than the old one, but I guess we all should be used to that stuff by now… and, besides, that’s how the Graffiti Wall was conceived in the first place, so I’d have a place for retorts to my beloved smart alecks and praise for the wonderful people who visited the guestbook. Also, some cool news I found today! On April 29th, PBS’ American Masters series will be presenting Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart. Being a big Velvet Underground, and Lou solo, fan, I think this will probably be most excellent. Check your local PBS listings for times. Also, a pitiful cry for help… I also noted that the Turner Movie Classics channel is presenting a documentary on one of my favorite actresses ever, silent film star Louise Brooks, on May 5th. Anyone that gets that channel, please holler my way. And that’s about it for now… watching continuous weather coverage in Memphis, going on an hour and a half now, so let’s hope my luck lately has improved… I’m not exactly feeling very Wizard of Oz-like tonight, heh. Bye now.

04/28/98: No tornadoes and such in Shelby County, yay. It was just kind of unnerving, seeing as how I looked out the window at work yesterday afternoon and said, “you know, this looks really tornado-ey out here right now” – if you’ve never lived down here you don’t know, but the sky turns some really strange colors and it’s just, well, weird – and then came home to all the warnings on TV last night. Ick. And, is tornadic really a word, or is that just something Channel 3 News made up, because it sounds kinda silly to me… Anyway, tho apparently there was a lot of severe thunderstorm damage around West TN and northern MS, we’re fine here. The local news should just hire Baby and Dobie to predict bad weather, they know a bad storm’s coming hours before anyone else does around here. Anyhow, note to KC and the rest of the ruffians – Stevie Kane has pronounced my well-known affliction to be “Backup Chick Singer’s Disease”… we’re coming back from lunch, I’ve got the radio on 96X, they play Allison Road, and yup, you guessed it, there I went. I think the actual quote was, “You just go right for the backup without even thinking about it, don’t you?” Yes, folks, she can’t even remember words she actually wrote herself half the time, but by god, she knows the backup vocals to every song ever… heh. Well, I guess you had to be there sorta, but some can appreciate it. Anyway, off to sleep in, take the Demon Spawn to the vet for their yearly shots & checkup today, so if you see the blonde chick lugging the big wimpy yellow dog up all those steps at East Parkway & Central because he’s traumatized by his leash and collar, that would be us. Ignore us, please. Later…

04/28/98 (later): Stuff: I’m sure everyone will be pleased to know that Baby and Dobie, i.e., The Wimpy Twins, have survived yet another annual trip to the mean nasty wicked (their words, not mine) vet’s office. Embarrassment was at a minimum, as Dobie did the expected – had to be carried up all those stairs, glued himself to the floor, etc. – but none of the unexpected, and his mama, unlike last year, was a perfect angel. Hopefully I have regained nice-mom-status again since Baby and I made a swing by McDonald’s after her turn, and brought home 29-cent-Tuesday hamburgers for the victimized twosome. Thank goodness this only happens once a year. Other things… still raining, looks to be raining maybe all week, maybe will clear out of here by the weekend for the Beale Street Music Festival, but I’d bring umbrellas if I were you. Anyway… I had the Gin Blossoms’ Mrs. Rita (you know, “so tell me Mrs. Rita/what’s it say in my tarot…”) on continuous loop for a while last night on the CD player – don’t ask why, I just do that sometimes – and as a result must have accidentally conjured up my personal grocery store psychic again, ‘cos guess who I ran into at the Pig today… this time the Pig on Madison, last time it was the Summer Avenue Pig (the second biggest Pig). (Oh, that’s Piggly Wiggly for those of you who don’t know any better… thought I should clarify that.) Creepy. And she remembered me, double creepy. So she goes, “everything’s changed (since last time I saw her), hasn’t it?”. And I said, “No, not really.” Then she goes, “Well, it is.” OK, what’s that supposed to mean? Sigh, she probably just wants me to make an appointment and pay her some money, so I’m paying it no never mind and maybe I’ll just start shopping at Kroger instead so as not to run into weird psychics who tell me strange stuff I can’t comprehend. Finally, after a dry spell and forcing myself not to go in there, I bought a buncha CDs today, sigh. Oh well, I guess you can’t really put a price on cool stuff… ’til later…

04/29/98: Well, yesterday, the day from Hades (with half the afternoon spent on hold on the phone for the Tennessee Department of Revenue, oh joy) turned into the night from Hades and I’ve got one thing to say – it’s 4:53 a.m. and I am going to bed. The good news is I got a lot of little projects done that I’ve been procrastinating so a *lot* of people will soon be happy… I guess it’s worth spending all day today in a near-narcoleptic haze. So, if I don’t collapse in exhaustion, see y’all later.

04/29/98 (later): Well, it’s raining… so what else is new? Not much to tell today, I heard some interesting things on the radio and promptly forgot them, and things like that. Rainy and wet and yucky around here and I have Stevie Nicks hair so bad this week it’s not even funny, what with all the rain and humidity… but I’m not gonna cut it. Long and messy for summer, that’s my goal! NRBQ at the Hard Rock tonight, be there or be square… catch y’all later.

04/30/98: Last entry for April unless something monumentally exciting (yeah, right) happens today. NRBQ at the Hard Rock was ‘da bomb, even tho the rain was unbelievable. I hope that’s it ‘cos I’m not sure we can take much more, I imagine there were flash floods all over the city last night. In other news, after a weekend trip to Atlanta by the Parrot Women, there’s now a picture of my mother residing on the website of a karaoke bar in Roswell… sigh. No lie. I laughed and laughed. Last, I hope someone besides me caught the Lou Reed special on PBS’ American Masters series last night… that was incredible. Not only was it musically just awesome, I was surprised to see some of those people interviewed, especially the “ghosts” of Warhol’s Factory, were still alive! Anyway, it a was supremely well done effort… skillfully summed up in one hour the over-30-year career of one of the most interesting (IMO) artists in music ever, that one was a keeper. Well, I guess that’s it ’til May, see y’all later!