It's Official....

It's official....at 37 years old, I am from the "other" generation.

Today was an afternoon for the youth worship band to come over and practice for a couple of hours. After that, we had a monthly youth "chill" time at our place. It was technically supposed to be at someone else's home but all the residents of that home had contracted a nasty 3 day stomach bug. So hubby and I figured that if half the group will be here anyway for the music part, we might as well open it to everyone for the evening and give them all a chance to "hang". We enjoy providing the opportunity and giving the youth something to do.

It was a great evening. I had 21 people in my living room watching Kung Fu Panda. (This picture to the side is a horrid shot for color and lighting but maybe it gives you an idea.) Not everyone is in the picture and more came in the door after I snapped it.

They happily ate through 8 boxes of pizza, drank 5 bottles of soda pop, 2 bags of tangelos, a bowl of pretzels, a plate of cookies, and sour heads candy as they watched the daring courage of a cartoon panda pushing the societal envelope of expectations and dreams.

After that, the board games came out. I don't remember what they played. I only remember timers, noises, and lots of bravado remarks.

While all of that was happening, I found myself at the dinning table with two young men discussing the ins and outs of heavy metal music. All of their talk made my head spin. I remember as a teen that I chose to like or dislike a band because of simple reasons. Could I relate to it? Did I like the beat? Was it a good dance tune? Those were the high priorities for me. These boys were different though. They spoke rather philosophically about how bands choose to further their image by focusing on a key element. For example they will make sure their singer is appealing to the eye, or their electric guitarist has finger speed that no one can match. They talked about something called "comedy death metal" with appreciation. Apparently it is when heavy metal type groups create songs that make fun of something like .....like a popular big name coffee shop or national eatery. They discussed similarities and differences between the groups Nine Inch Nails, Demon Chasers, and Led Zeppelin.

Then the older young man told me that when he is ready to relax for the evening he usually will "put on the soothing sounds of Smashing Pumpkins".

Now please rescue me here..........am I the only one who sees the instant and problematic irony in the words "soothing sounds" and "smashing pumpkins"?

I pointed it out to him along with my obvious ignorance to the music group and asked if they were indeed soothing or did they demonstrate more of a calling to their name sake. My question made him stop, think, and then admit that he had never thought of the group's name as an actual description. I had humored him with my different look at things.

*****

On another note, thank you so much for your concerns and encouragements with me not being around much and feeling up to par.

I think I am gaining ground. I am still awfully tight and tense but doing my stretches several times a day whenever I feel the head thing come on, sometimes every hour, seems to be making slow improvements. So far I haven't had a relapse of that last 5 day head bender. Everything has a season so I know eventually this will be a thing of the past.