workingwifey

I can’t remember if I’ve posted a blog about it before, but Rhythm Ring is my dad and his friend Brian’s company. Check out www.rhythmring.com. Saturday, my dad and I got matching Rhythm Ring tattoos of the logo. They sold over 2000 rings over the weekend so we thought we would celebrate! It’s a pretty cool little musical instrument. Uke players are really digging it, as well as people in other countries like China and Germany. My dad is currently developing a double one that is vertical (i think? Opposite of what it is now lol) for playing guitar, so that when you strum, the sound actually goes with the strumming. It’s sweet. The current standard Rhythm Ring is mostly for percussion or uke players.
Anyways, the tattoos is on the inside of my right calf. My dad got his on his right bicep. Now we have two matching tattoos Not only was it a time for business celebration, but it was a time of father/daughter bonding! I couldn’t figure out how to put a picture in the body of this blog so look at the comment I left with a picture of the tattoo.

I didn’t want to do the cliche thing that everyone else is doing and post a blog about Michael Jackson….but I can’t help it!

I was listening to his music a lot since he died (of course, as everyone is) and the song Corner of the Sky came on by the Jackson 5. It’s one of my favorite Jackson 5 songs. The lyrics of the song really stood out to me. I feel like if Michael were alive, he would probably say that the words to that song are totally the way he feels. It’s so sad that he died, and that he had to live in his own personal hell inside his brain, and that he never got help.

Here are the lryics to Corner of the Sky…and all I can say is that I hope that now, Michael has finally found his corner.

Everything has its season
Everything has its time
Show me a reason and I’ll soon show you a rhyme
Cats fit on the windowsill
Children fit in the snow
Why do I feel I don’t fit in anywhere I go?

Rivers belong where they can ramble
Eagles belong where they can fly
I’ve got to be where my spirit can run free
Got to find my corner of the sky

Every man has his daydreams
Every man has his goal
People like the way dreams have
Of sticking to the soul
Thunderclouds have their lightning
Nightingales have their song
And don’t you see I want my life to be
Something more than long….

Rivers belong where they can ramble
Eagles belong where they can fly
I’ve got to be where my spirit can run free
Got to find my corner of the sky

So many men seem destined
To settle for something small
But I won’t rest until I know I’ll have it all
So don’t ask where I’m going
Just listen when I’m gone
And far away you’ll hear me singing
Softly to the dawn:

Rivers belong where they can ramble
Eagles belong where they can fly
I’ve got to be where my spirit can run free
Got to find my corner of the sky

Here’s a poem I wrote on 1/19/02. I can’t remember what I was thinking when I wrote this poem but I’m assuming by the theme, that I was thinking about my life. Thinking about all I’ve seen. My mom had not yet died when I wrote this either so I was probably sad about something about her, and about my dad. At the time this was written, I was actually having a great time in life. I was 19, had a job, was partying with friends every night, lived with my dad (he had just gotten a divorce from his 2nd wife…actually this may have been around the time they tried to reconcile so my dad wasn’t home very much), I was getting lots of tattoos and piercings, it was a pretty care-free time but it’s right around the time I started to get…I don’t want to say depressed, but ya, depressed. I started getting in touch with my inner anger and realize how misunderstood I felt, and how lonely I felt, and that’s also when I started writing songs. I wrote my first song in March of 2002, so not long after I wrote this. This was one of the last poems I wrote.

My eyes were opened at a very young age. Opened to the world and the hate and the rate. Hate and rage I came to know very well. But on the outside I didn’t show my hell. The tears I cried were always inside. No one knew I had so much to hide. I hide all the pain and the anguish and fear. I never let anyone get too near. If they get too near they’ll see what I’m about. And I just can’t let anyone find out. They can’t find out that I’m sad as can be. They cant find out that I’m not really me.

I started writing poetry when I was 15. I bought Jewel’s poetry book and was so inspired, I tried writing and who knew? I had a talent for it! I never knew poetry like her style existed. I think I’m going to start posting some of my poems as blogs, just for the heck of it. I’m so paranoid, I always feel like someone’s going to rip my work off. I have them all copywrighted (the ghetto way) but still.
Some of my poems rhyme, but most of them don’t. Especially the early ones, none of those rhyme. I sort of styled myself after Jewel’s style, because that was the only poetry I’d ever been exposed to. From poems, I then started to wring songs, also mimicking Jewel’s style. She’s definitely my biggest musical inspiration.

Yesterday I was talking to a co-worker about positive hip hop. He seemed confused as to what it was, and how it could be different than what you hear on the radio. I have many friends that are into the local hip hop scene. They all happen to be Christians, though I don’t feel that they let ‘religion’ show thru into their music, which to me is a good thing. Their music is just like any other hip hop that you hear on the radio, except it’s positive. I explained this to my co-worker and he still didn’t seem to understand. I told him that instead of talking about their Cristal, their money, their girls, their cars, etc., they talk about relationships, the human race, changing the world in a positive way, changing yourself in a positive way, etc.
I’ve been to a few shows where my friends have performed and it is a completely different scene than anything I’ve ever seen. The people are all there for a reason. These musical artists are trying to change the world, one word at a time and I find that so inspirational. You don’t realize how bad the music on the radio is today. It has no meaning, there’s no good inspiration, it’s just words and sounds with no meaning, and that’s sad.
OK so back to the original story - I showed my co-worker a Youtube.com video of my friend performing a song. He watched it and said that he felt like a jerk. I was confused, didn’t understand what he was talking about. In a nutshell, he said that because this whole ‘world’ that I was talking to him about was so good and positive, the fact that he was so completely different than that made him feel bad…like he wasn’t doing his part, wasn’t as good as he could be. He said to me, “Let your light shine.”

You never know how certain people are going to be changed by seemingly ‘everyday’ topics. I love that about this life
I thought it was very interesting for it to have that type of effect on this guy,