CelebriTuesdays: Dreamgirls Edition – Sheryl Lee Ralph & Anika Noni Rose!

It wasn’t a Dream when I saw these Girls! In December, I saw the star of the Broadway version of Dreamgirls – Sheryl Lee Ralph – and today I saw the Dreamgirls star from the movie version – Anika Noni Rose. As lucky as that is, even better was the fact that both pictures came out great!

Anika3

 

Normally, I’d be making a weird face in these pictures because I’m a fool that thinks these wonderful performers are just waiting for me to waltz on up and serenade them. The story would have been a whole lot more interesting had I strutted over purring “It’s more than you. It is more than me. No matter what we are, we are a family…” but my wife has finally got it through my thick skull after all these years that no one (and she really stressed the words as she said it) NO ONE wants to hear me sing. Lesson learned, because when I tried to explain that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, she informed me that my singing is actually mutilation, not imitation. The last time I tried to sing for my wife was New Year’s Eve 2001 when I drunkenly convinced the band that I was actually a lounge singer and would love to serenade the love of my life for the crowd. They somehow believed that nonsense and thought it was really romantic until they saw the sea of about 200 blank stares looking up at me as I mangled the first verse of “If You Say My Eyes are Beautiful.” That’s when they abruptly ripped the microphone out of my hand and said “why don’t you guys dance instead of singing” which elicited thunderous applause from the crowd for some reason. True artists are often misunderstood, but in retrospect – maybe a Whitney Houston love Duet wasn’t the right choice for my vocal range. Either way, my wife has instructed me to never, ever, ever sing in public again so the Dreamgirls were spared my Effie imitations…

 

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When I saw Sheryl Lee Ralph, she was taking pictures of the huge Christmas Tree in the lobby and I felt bad bothering her. She was really trying to get the perfect shot and must have taken ten pictures. Similar to me, the Christmas Tree was overgrown and much too wide to fit in most standard camera frames – so I don’t blame her for trying to get the right angle. . . Since she was so fantastic as Claudette on Ray Donovan, I was dying to ask what Jon Voight is really like and then I wanted to ask her about the anniversary revival of Thoroughly Modern Millie they’re doing, but she was really fixated on getting that shot of the tree. Practice makes perfect because her shots came out great – these are taken from her Instagram:

 

 

She was very cool, kind, and patient with me and also with the Christmas Tree, so I stopped myself from asking to try that fur coat on (I know I don’t need to remind you how good I look in fur)!

 

coat in lobby 003

 

When I saw the other Dreamgirl, Anika Noni Rose, she was hobbling around in a walking cast yet still took time to stop and take pictures with everyone. She was such a sweetheart and as a person that’s broken the same ankle two years in a row on the same exact day (both alcohol related), I can tell you how hard it is to get around. For her to stop, chat, and take pictures while she was obviously uncomfortable was seriously awesome and much appreciated!

 

broken leg.jpg

 

Anika is a Broadway veteran who snared the Tony Award for Caroline or Change, but was also in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Raisin in the Sun, and the movie version of Dreamgirls with an up-and-comer named Beyonce and Jennifer Hudson. She also made history as Tiana, Disney’s first Black princess, in The Princess and the Frog to the delight of kids everywhere.

 

dreamgirls movie 2

 

 

I’m on a Dreamgirls roll here and don’t worry, I’ve started walking around with one shoelace untied for when I see Jennifer Hudson and need to get it off quick; J-HUD throwing a shoe!  Hey J-HUD – Forget The Voice and let’s get a date on the calendar to meet up: I’ll bring and share my imodium and you bring and share your Oscar and extra shoes!

 

2006_02_supporting_hudson

CelebriTuesdays: 1, 2, 3 – another Faith saw me!!! Faith Evans completed my Trifecta!!!

 

As most people do, I have an Ice Trifecta (Ice T, Ice Cube, & Vanilla Ice) and an all-important Faith Trifecta (Faith Evans, Faith Hill, & Faith Prince) of people that I’ve been dying to meet. I’ve been stuck in a holding pattern with both (having met two of the three in each bracket) and I never thought I’d complete my Faith Trifecta, but I finally did it: I met Faith Evans!!!  Two of the three Ice’s have been very cool, but all three Faith’s were so amazing and awesome that Mr. Ice better bring his A game when he meets me! Have a little faith, I’ll revisit the others later on…

 

 

I caught up with Faith Evans and she was seriously, so awesome! I was just walking by, minding my little own business like I do, when she walked up…Or, one might say I was stalking the building she was coming out of like a lunatic. The guy in front of me walked up and asked if he could snap a picture and she said of course. He was “of a certain age when technology probably isn’t his best friend” although I’m no techie either that should be throwing stones. Faith waited patiently posing with him, for what seemed like forever, as he fiddled with the camera telling her to say cheese repeatedly. Unbeknownst to him, while he was posing up a storm working on his big boy smile for her, he had his phone on video the whole time, and he kept pushing the red button to snap a picture while he was recording video not realizing he wasn’t taking a picture. He hit that button so many times, I’m not even sure he was recording either. I can only imagine what all of those one-second videos look like…

 

Faith Evans 4

 

Faith nicely tried to tell him twice that he was recording – not taking a picture. He either wasn’t listening because he was so caught up in the moment with her or he just didn’t get it, so by the third time, she took the camera out of his hand. She switched from video to photo and then looked at him and said “We’re gonna need to get someone else to take this, you can’t do it.” It was hysterical and priceless and we were all hysterical laughing. She handed off his camera so he was finally able to get a snap with her. Win, win for everyone. It was so awesome and she was just so funny; such a sweetie about it whereas any other number of celebs would never have been that patient with anyone.

 

 

She chatted and took a few pictures with me and I, of course, gave her an immodiumabuser business card which she thought was hysterical. She was like “your name isn’t on it, what’s your name?” so of course I filled her in and gave her all the deetz. She was spending her time taking an interest in me which was just so awesome. Who does that? She was cool and kind and just hung out there in the moment with us like a boss. It’s as if she could tell how much this tiny little moment of her time would mean to us and how huge is that? She was funny and in charge and had an awesome hat that I desperately wanted to try on because a bald man always looks better in a hat – any hat!

 

 

Seriously, I have met a lot of celebrities and not many have been as cool as that. Actually, I’ll go into it another time but of everyone I’ve met – the Faith’s have it. Ms. Evans could have just gotten in her car and walked by as I’m sure she had more interesting things to do than discover my Imodium Abusing secret

 

, but she was working the crowd and making people’s day left and right. Very cool!

 

Puff-Daddy-And-Faith-Evans-Ill-Be-Missing-You

 

Unlike CNN, I didn’t confuse Faith Evans with Faith Hill: I’ll just leave this awkward bit of ridiculousness right here. CNN tweeted that Faith Hill would be releasing an album of duets with The Notorious BIG 20 years after his murder and both ladies took the nonsense and turned it into something nonsensational!!!  So cool, although I think they need to seriously work a remix with both Faith’s & Biggie!

 

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Faith Evans reaction

 

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Faith Hill reaction

 

 

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This would be an awesome duet!

 

 

 

 

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Seriously, how cool would I look in this hat? Maybe a fedora is the next stop for me…

 

 

Say it ain’t so! You don’t know UFO Joe?

Throughout my life, I have been very fortunate to have come into contact with a ton of really crazy people. I don’t mean crazy like Wow, she has two different socks on, I mean crazy like Oh my God, she just took off her prosthetic leg and is screaming at me to help find her cigarettes!!! Some might call it a curse, but I have always considered it a gift and I am more than willing to share it with you. I have talked about life at the Fat Camp before here and here, but the absolute best part of living there year-round was that there was always an assorted bunch of lunatics running around to keep me entertained. I will give in and admit that I wasn’t sober for more than eighty percent of the time that I lived there, but still – there were some really crazy peeps out there in the woods.

The whole family went out for my aunt’s birthday dinner and it wasn’t long at all before she actually threw me out of the restaurant. We hadn’t even gotten our appetizers served before the Camp Chef, Joe, started to describe his very first alien abduction. I was obviously caught off-guard by this and immediately started hysterical laughing because it was the first time I was hearing any of this. You would think someone would have prepared me for it because they had already heard these stories multiple times. Naturally I thought he was kidding or, more likely, mentally ill. After a menacing glance, my aunt told me that in case I didn’t know it, it’s very rude to laugh in someone’s face and then she kicked me under the table. That kick really hurt which was misleading because she’s a short and stubby little one but those hooker clogs she was wearing really did a number on my ankle.

I tried to stop laughing, but he kept going on…And on…And on. I know that I’m immature, but come on I thought for one split-second that I might have actually been the one abducted and was sitting with the alien pods because they were hanging on his every word. It was right at that moment when the nickname “UFO Joe” was born and solidified. Maybe it was the alcohol or my natural smart-ass nature that made me do it, but when he was done I proceeded (as serious as I could) to tell him about how my friend Fallon was also abducted by aliens (and not the illegal kind by the way) when she was living in Los Angeles. I was explaining how hard it was for her because her husband Jeff and her father Blake didn’t believe her…when my Aunt hauled off and kicked me under the table again. That bitch could really work a clog if you know what I mean.

The Colby’s

Apparently, she could tell that I was talking about Season Two of the underrated classic The Colby’s but UFO Joe was empathizing and saying how hard it must have been for Fallon…Then (catching on) UFO Joe looked at me like I was the crazy one and said “You don’t believe me? You want to see proof?” Before I could even answer like Whitney Houston and say “Hell to the No”, he unbuttoned his shirt and thrust it open to reveal a huge bloody gash where he had ripped open his skin and dug through it with a paper clip. Right there at the table! Waitress, please cancel the Nachos!

As I was trying not to throw up from the site of it, he was going on about how he was positive that they left a tracing probe implanted in his chest and he wasn’t going to stop looking until he found it and removed it. That gash was so deep and disgusting and gooey that it actually looked like there was a vegetable lasagna platter sitting on his chest; it was obviously infected but he was convinced that the aliens had planted the infection as well. I innocently asked if he thought that using a dirty paper clip to bore through layers of human skin while searching for a tracing probe could possibly cause an unrelated infection to the original alien infection that was placed there – but I got the evil eye. My Aunt threw me out before I could get an answer from him, but at least it wasn’t another kick under the table!

Come on Joe, button your shirt back up!

I am not the type to suffer fools gladly and I am also not a mature person in the presence of crazy people. I couldn’t help but laugh as I sat alone on a stool at the bar next door. I did make a few new friends at the bar and then sang karaoke, but it kind of loses a little something when you’re throwing out an Eric Carmen remix with no one there to see it. All by Myself was my signature song, but it was never truer than that night at the bar. This was the first time that I got a dose of UFO Joe and his insanity, but not the last time.

UFO Joe lived at the local bar that we used to go to every day. There was a barn on the side of the bar and he lived in an apartment above it. He had a small porch and a view of cows in a field that always smelled like shit – but he wouldn’t change it for the world. That is until he moved into the house right next to ours at the camp. The camp had almost 250 acres of open space but where do they put the craziest person in three states: fifty feet from where I sleep naturally.


He was crazy, but harmless for the most part. At least, that’s what I kept telling myself. It took them a while, but they finally did convince me that it wasn’t weird to see UFO Joe barbecuing chicken on his outdoor grill while wearing ONLY an apron. I was obviously disgusted by the sight of it, but actually more concerned that there might be a sudden fireball from the barbecue. (Don’t laugh – It actually happened to me; why do you think I won’t barbecue anymore? There was a huge WHOOSH followed by a big ball of flames shooting upwards from the grill, up my body and face, and then up the side of the townhouse and my wife went inside and shut the sliding glass door! Granted I was screaming like a nine year old girl and my arms were flailing around, but I was lit up like a roman candle and not even an “Are you ok?)

It was truly disgusting, but my real concern was that if UFO Joe’s back hair were to spontaneously ignite, he might spread into a literal wildfire and burn the entire camp down. As unbelievable as that thought was, when I told my aunt she said I was crazy. If that doesn’t give you a clear picture of my aunt’s oddball mindset – nothing will. There’s a naked, middle-aged, alien abducted man grilling chicken clad only in a red and white checkered apron steps away from us and I’m the crazy one.

As if UFO Joe being shishka-bare while cooking wasn’t enough, he’d blast his music as loud as his speakers would go and play opera or 70’s Classic Rock all night long. You did kind of get used to the noise after a while and I could never get him to admit it, but after a while, I actually started to think that maybe he was implanted and that through the the music was sending signals back to the mother ship…That’s when I knew that it was time to get out of the woods and leave the Fat Camp for good.

E.T. Phone Joe?

Needless to say, the Fat Camp was a fun place to be if you needed a good laugh and there were always plenty of crazy people around to break up even the darkest days. At least it was never boring…

Our Honeymoon Part Two: Forget finger lickin’- my masseuse was testicle flickin!!!

 

If you have successfully devoured Part One of my Honeymoon Saga, you may now advance past Go and collect $200. If you haven’t, click here to catch up. Don’t worry, we’ll wait for you slowpoke! There is always the wild card third option of flying blind and not knowing how or why I ended up here, so whichever route you choose to take – here’s Part Two.

 

Part of the draw of going to The Body Holiday in St. Lucia is that it’s an amazing beach-front tropical paradise where your body is pampered with spa treatments every day. Their tag line actually is “Give us your body for a week and we’ll give you back your mind.” At first glance that might sound really appealing to a normal person, but in case you didn’t know: I’m not normal!!! I hate to be touched in any way shape or form and I gave my mind over to those internal voices and their fighting years ago. I know my body pretty well and its idea of a holiday is not being man-handled – it’s resting on the couch or reclining in an air-conditioned movie theatre.

 

After dinner one night and just before the bed broke the first time, we went to a fashion show where the staff members (they actually refer to the help as “Bodyguards”) model some of the clothes you can purchase in the gift shop. It was at that moment when I first saw an ebony goddess strutting down the runway in slow motion. She was clad in a white bikini smaller than my pocket square and working that runway like she owned it when I suddenly realized that despite the heat, the birds, or the outdoor dining – I love St. Lucia!

 

bodyguard-for honeymoon part two

 

As part of your body’s holiday, there is a spa treatment scheduled every day.  I didn’t want to go to the treatments, but my wife talked/forced me into it. I don’t like the idea of being oiled up and jostled about like a show pony, but it was a no-win battle. Also (and more importantly) as I was now a married man, anyone besides my wife rubbing, fondling, or karate chopping me was gonna start something that wouldn’t be finished. If I am not making myself crystal clear put it this way: Do you know what happens when you knead the bread dough and it starts to get hot? It starts to rise people!!!

 

kneading - for honeymoon part two

Do I even “Knead” to explain this one?

 

As I headed to my first treatment, I asked directions to the spa. The friendly male bodyguard (no, not Kevin Costner) gently directed me to “follow this path towards your Oasis.” What he neglected to mention in his cult-like directions was that the path to the spa was almost ninety steps up the side of a very steep cliff. His “path” was a winding steep staircase the likes of which I thought would never end. I made it up about twenty steps before I had to sit down to catch my breath. There were smokers and senior citizens – literally fucking seniors – passing me as I sat there like a lump. Did I mention the blistering heat and no shade on the path? As a general note for the resort: If you want a fat fuck like me to climb all those steps up a cliff in that heat and you better have a paramedic on standby!!! I thought I was gonna drop dead right there and then.

 

To let you in on how and when the spa treatments are assigned; when you arrive, they plan out an itinerary of spa selections for each day that you’re there. I tried to get them to give my wife two treatments a day instead of getting any for myself, but they wouldn’t do that and my wife convinced me to “try it you might like it.” I gave in – but once again my Immodium Spidey-senses were tingling. Also, I couldn’t help but be self-conscious after the therapist suggested that I might want to upgrade and get a Cellulite Flush. Obviously, I passed as there’s no way I’d ever get anything resembling a literal stick of dynamite for the sole purpose of “flushing me out!” I want to know who in their right mind would choose to cleanse the circulatory, lymphatic, and digestive systems and then walk down ninety steps. Hello? There would be a massive cleanup on aisle two for sure!

 

By the time I finally made it up that never-ending path, I was soaking wet and almost ready to die. As a point of reference, let me just tell you that Hannibal actually crossed the Alps with those elephants in less time than it took me to get up that path. I went into the locker room and looked at myself in the mirror and I was just disgusted. Forget being tired and out of shape, I looked like the Pillsbury Dough Boy in a Girl’s Gone Wild Video with that sweaty, slicked-up chest hair peeking out of my wet T-Shirt. That white rag that used to be my T-shirt was stuck to me like saran wrap around chop meat. I peeled it off me, threw it out, and then took the coldest shower I could.

 

The very top of the never-ending “Path”

 

When I got into the room that my massage was in, I was not looking forward to it but thought it might be OK. I was on the table and tried to explain to the male masseuse that I didn’t like to be touched and that I didn’t want a massage. He said to calm down and relax and before I knew it, he was rubbing my feet with nasty oil and smiling. At that moment, I knew exactly how date rapes start – because he wasn’t taking no for an answer and I wanted him to go slow because I was unsure. He told me to lie back and close my eyes and then released my feet. I was about to do just that when I saw these two big hands covered in oil moving towards my face which prompted me to scream “What are you doing?  You just touched my feet – don’t go near my face.” He was laughing and telling me to close my eyes and relax but that was enough for me. I jumped off that table and out of went to scrub that oil off my feet.

 

Afterwards, I didn’t have to give my wife the play by play to tell her what happened because she was actually in the room next to mine and she said that I ruined her massage. She couldn’t concentrate with me complaining the whole time and because I kept saying “What are you doing? I don’t like this. Why is that oil warm? Where is your hand?” she was actually happy that I gave up and left so that she could enjoy what was left of her massage. She also rescheduled her treatments for different times than me so I wouldn’t be anywhere near her as she said she “wanted to relax” (which I took to mean pretend she didn’t know me.)
I wasn’t going to go to the next treatment (or any others after that) at all, but my wife made me promise that I would give just one more treatment a fair try and she advised me to “not be myself” and try to enjoy it. I caved in and went into the treatment room where I met up with someone facing the wall with her back towards me telling me to get undressed and under the sheet on the bed. Apparently, she wasn’t even attempting small talk and who was she kidding about a sheet – it was more like a short towel. I obviously didn’t want any part of it until I realized who the woman saying it was: It was the ebony goddess from the fashion show! I dropped those shorts in an instant and thought I actually might enjoy this treatment after all.

 

My masseuse right before she attempted testicular manslaughter!

 

As she started to massage me, she was explaining the treatment to me, but I wasn’t listening because I was distracted by how much she moved around. She was back and forth from one side of the table to the other like she was playing ping pong, yet she didn’t miss a spot on me. She was gingerly moving the sheet/towel as she massaged and I really did try to just relax. She was all over me like a rash and I was actually really starting to enjoy the massage. She was firm and then gentle, firm and then gentle. That ended abruptly when she told me to turn over and get onto my back. I pretended that I hadn’t heard her and figured that if I ignored her, she would let me stay the way I was yet she didn’t. I actually COULDN’T turn over and get onto my back because I was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY enjoying the massage if you know what I mean…If you don’t know what I mean, see the comment below about kneading the bread.

She then got a little louder; “You turn over now.”

“I’m OK like this, thanks anyway…” I offered back weakly as I tried to jostle myself and get the sheet/towel to try and cover me again so it wasn’t as obvious what was really going on….
“I said turn over” she said sternly.
“And I said No – No means No!” I shot back at her even more sternly – hoping upon hope that she would just take the hint and leave me alone – but then the unthinkable happened!
She lifted the sheet off me and said “Turn Over – Now!” I jumped to turn over, lost the sheet/towel off the side of the table onto the floor when I tried to recover myself with it and just gave up all hope of modesty or self respect at that point. Her lifting the sheet is not even the unthinkable part I was referring to. As I lied back down and tried to reposition myself and tried to get the sheet/towel back over me, she flicked my testicle! She fucking flicked my testicle!

The play-by-play re-enactment!

 

Obviously I was shocked and scared at the same time (talk about a vulnerable position) and then she took the sheet/towel and tried to recover me which didn’t matter so much anymore at that point because I had taken a nosedive faster than Michael Phelps, if you know what I mean. I was in shock and pain from the flicking assault that I didn’t even notice what she was doing next until I felt this gritty mud being spread all over me as if it were crunchy peanut butter and I were the slice of bread. I tried to complain/ask questions, but she gave me a nasty glare and held up a finger that basically meant one more word and the other testicle gets it too! Needless to say, I shut right up.

 

I tried to remain calm yet look around for the nearest exit to plot my escape until she started to wrap what looked and felt like saran wrap around me. It was almost like I was the sausage and she was putting the clear coating around me. My bruised ego (and bruised testicle) got the best of me and I jumped up to get dressed and get out of there. No one was wrapping me in saran wrap and that crazy shit no matter how hot she was. She tried to get me to lie back down, but I had enough so I put on my shorts and made a run for it. Another treatment ends in disaster…needless to say my wife said it served me right for her flicking my testicle. I know sometimes I am a psycho and bring these things on myself – but in no way did I instigate a testicle attack! That’s literally hitting below the belt!

 

I was totally done with the treatments at that point, not to mention those god damn steps…The next day my wife forced me (literally) to go to my facial. “What could happen? It’s a facial…” she said.  I got into the room and this tiny little peanut that spoke very little English said “OK, you take off now” and pointed at my shorts. I thought she must be confused and said “Just the shirt – It’s a facial right? No need to be naked…” I certainly had no intention of getting naked again , especially after yesterday’s testicular attack. You got me once, but I’m not a fool.

 

She stood up and said sternly “OFF!” and pointed at my shorts, which scared me a little so I did as I was told. This nice little peanut suddenly turned into a little bit of a bitch. Then she proceeded to hand me a “modesty coverup” which was a towel the size of a large index card, but I was just happy to have any coverage at all. As I was lying there on my back, she took slices of some sort of fruit and put them over my eyes. I was concerned being naked again and now having my vision obscured, but I really was trying. I didn’t make it ten seconds like that before she stared rubbing some sort of shit on my face. I’m not sure what it was and hope it wasn’t actually shit, but since my line of view was covered I can’t be positive.

 

This would have been less ridiculous than my facial.

 

She started rubbing that stuff on my face and she was leaning down over my head when all of a sudden I can only assume something got caught in her throat because she started coughing uncontrollably. RIGHT IN MY FACE! I got hit with exactly two bits of phlegm before I started screaming and jumped up. I was flailing around naked looking to get the towel to wipe my face off and ran towards the door when she tried to speak through the coughing…”You…(cough cough)…have a …(cough cough)…sit back down…(cough cough)” I started to open the door to make a run for the shower to scrub my face and get the shit and the phlegm off of it, when I realized that I was still naked as she was vomiting into the little sink in the corner. I found my shorts on the floor and put them on and ran to the showers. As if that wasn’t bad enough, don’t you know that my wife’s first response to me telling her about this latest assault was “Is she OK?” I looked at her like she was crazy and said “What? That’s not the point – who cares? I didn’t even check – she could be dead for all I care, she almost threw up on my fucking face and I was naked again. There’s something wrong with this place!”

 

Every treatment was originally scheduled to be an hour, but I didn’t even make it through a third of that for any one of the treatments. The facial must be a record, because I wasn’t even there for all of four minutes. My wife loved every minute of every one of her treatments and we actually did have an amazing Honeymoon in spite of me and my antics. The lesson here is that if you know that something isn’t right – stick to it or your gonna write a check that your testicle can’t cash!


Rhianna says “Please Don’t Stop the Music” – yet proceeds to kill my IPOD

I constantly chastise my wife because she leaves tissues or loose change or dollar bills scrunched up in the pockets of her clothing all the time; she never checks them before putting them into the laundry basket. I know, I know, it could be worse – I could have a wife that hits me or has bad hair or runs up credit card debt, but this is serious. Every time that she does it, I take it as an opportunity to get on my soapbox and tell her how it is irresponsible and that she needs to check each and every time. “It’s not that hard to check the pockets” I’m prone to saying. I don’t feel good while doing this to her, but I hate, hate, hate, to have torn up tissues mixed in with the clothes. It gets all over and annoys me to no end. Or worse than that is if I stick my hand into her pants pocket to check and grab a disgusting snot rag – GROSS and that is exactly how my last fist fight started.  I don’t bring this up to rat her out or make her feel bad; I bring this up because what goes around came around for me.  Don’t tell her, but I accidentally left my IPOD in the pocket of my bathrobe and put it through the Washer AND the Dryer which destroyed it.  

I keep my IPOD set up in the bathroom with speakers.  I need it there in order to time myself when I shower so that I will know how long to stay in there. It regulates me and keeps me on track. Some might say that it is enabling my compulsions and rituals (yes – I’m talking to you Turtle Lady!) She thinks that I need to evict it from the bathroom immediately, but how else will I know how long my son should be in the bath if I don’t play the specific number of songs? Don’t even waste your time trying to understand my cleanliness rituals – they will just confuse, frustrate, and annoy you. 

My IPOD died in vain folks. It all happened because I had gotten some new music on ITunes and Damn you Rhianna! You asked me to make you feel like you’re The Only Girl in the World and you had to make that song so God Damn catchy, Didn’t you! I’m dancing around like a fool and can’t get that song out of my head and my poor innocent IPOD paid the price for it. I took my shower, finished my routine, and put the IPOD into my bathrobe pocket so that I could go downstairs to my office and download that song onto my IPOD. Unfortunately, as I’m often prone to do – I got distracted with my usual nonsense and forgot that it was in my pocket. I removed my robe, got dressed, threw it into the hamper to wash and the rest is history.

As a rule, I never check the pockets in my clothes because I never need to. I always empty my pockets when I take off my clothes. Multiple times. I am a neurotic individual who has to do things many times in a row so you know that I always check the pockets again and again in case I left my keys or the winning Powerball ticket in there. My wife never checks her pockets, so I always make sure to check hers again and again. (Once again with the multiples.) I got paid back in spades for lecturing her over and over when I threw my bathrobe into the washing machine. One can debate the frequency with which I clean said bathrobe and how if I didn’t wash it as much this might not have happened – but it’s easier for me to blame Rhianna on this one.          

As I opened the dryer door, there it was. My poor little green Nano looking up at me helpless and wondering why…just…why…I immediately picked it up and started blowing into the bottom of it to see if I could dry it off in some way – but nothing. (It’s funny because I would never attempt CPR on a human because of my fear of other people’s filthy mouths, bad breath, and, most of all I‘m lazy – but an electric music device brings out the hero in me.) Of course I was cursing myself profusely and being reminded of how stupid I really am to have done that, but I was still hoping above all hope that it just might flicker on. I cradled that poor mint-colored baby and spoke gently with encouraging words, hoping for some miracle resuscitation like when Jack and Kate found Charlie and brought him back to life after Ethan had hung him in those vines on Lost. (Another time that beloved saga made me tear up like a little school girl that missed the bus– don’t even get me started about when Jin and Sun died together on that sub in Season Six because I’m still not over that!)

I then realized what an idiot I must look like trying to give CPR to my dead IPOD on the laundry room counter. Imagine the looks I would get if my wife walked in on me shouting into that dead IPOD’s face “Whitney , come on Whitney – are you still in there Baby?” I really felt like – all of a sudden –  Ms. Houston was gonna just flash on that display screen and maybe I was hallucinating, but I could almost swear that she looked me in the eyes and purred softly “Didn’t we almost have it all…”

Needless to say, my shower the next morning was not OK and I was all out of whack. I did not pass go and went immediately to Best Buy to get a replacement at lunchtime. (This is a big deal for me to admit because me and Best Buy have a long and sordid, love/hate relationship dating back to a certain incident a few years ago that I still cannot talk about without getting irate. Long story short, it had to do with a McDonald’s Monopoly game piece and a piss-poor online ordering experience which led to me to their hotline screaming and threatening to call Ask Asa! The operator finally shut me up and got me off the phone when I told her that I had their address and I was on my way over to the call center. It wasn’t true, but she didn’t know that and credited me back to get me off the phone.) I left Best Buy without incident (this time) with my new IPOD in hand and all was right with my shower today.

Lesson learned here: If Rhianna ever tries to Disturbia my bathroom routine again, that bitch is off my IPOD and out of my shower forever!!! And little green nano in whatever dump site you end up at – “Call me Rude Boy” but I had to get a new model…I had to go on. I really wanted to be like Rose telling Jack in the end of Titanic: “I’ll never let go Jack” but your name wasn’t Jack and I needs me some music for my shower…

AS A POSTSCRIPT TO THIS POST:
I asked my wife to read this and see what she thought of it before I posted it. As she was reading it, she looked over at me, laughed to herself, then looked back at the laptop screen, and then she looked back at me and laughed again. I was thinking how clever she must have thought I was with my Rhianna Song title play-on-words in the post, but no – she wasn’t laughing at that. She proceeded to then reach into her front pants pocket and pull out my Banana Republic Credit Card! She looked up at me and said “Oh, that reminds me…I forgot to give you this back after I ordered that stuff…” I rest my case people!