"Deliver Me From Nowhere" by Warren Zanes

I decided my next read would be "Deliver Me From Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska" by Warren Zanes, in advance of the new movie of the same name, based on the book, that's being released later this week  (Oct. 24th). (We haven't been to a movie since early 2020, before the pandemic began -- something we always loved to do! -- but Bruce has been a constant presence in our lives and our relationship since we first met -- and I always like to read the book before I see the movie version -- so...!)  

As the subtitle points out, the book focuses on a particular era of Springsteen's life, the making of the 1982 album "Nebraska," which marked a profound shift in Springsteen's life and career. It also delves into the events and circumstances, in Springsteen's personal life and career, and in the American culture of the time, that led up to it and shaped it.

I had been aware of Springsteen when I was a teenager (I loved "Prove It All Night" when it was on the radio, summer 1978), and my pre-dh boyfriend had "The River" album, but I hadn't REALLY listened to his music until I met dh, who was a big fan and had the nickname "BRUUUCE" lettered on the back of his residence floor T-shirt (lol).  I bought a couple of his albums and they were a big comfort to me when dh went to graduate school the next year in a different province. 

"Nebraska" came out in the fall of 1982, when I was 21 and starting my fourth and final year of undergrad, without dh on campus. It was starkly different from the Springsteen albums that had come before, or the ones anyone else was making at that point. But the more I listened, the more it grew on me. (I especially liked "Atlantic City" and "Reason to Believe.") 

What became "Nebraska" -- and parts of the subsequent "Born in the U.S.A." album -- began as a cassette tape of demos recorded by Springsteen in early January 1982, on a simple four-track home recorder, sitting on the bed in the bedroom of the farmhouse he was renting in Colts Neck, New Jersey. He'd just concluded a hugely successful tour to promote "The River" -- but he was struggling with what it all meant and what direction he wanted to take next. Around the same time, he was mulling over several things he'd been watching and reading, including Terrence Malick's 1973 movie "Badlands," based on the Starkweather murders in Nebraska during the late 1950s, starring a very young Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek;  a book about Starkweather's teenaged girlfriend/accomplice, Caril Fugate;  and the short stories of Flannery O'Connor. 

When he brought the demo tape into the studio for the E Street Band to work on, some songs came together very quickly, and would form the nucleus of the "Born in the U.S.A." album, including the title song. These songs formed an almost complete album, with the markings of a huge hit (which it would eventually become).  But the other songs kept calling him -- and he struggled with how they sounded when augmented by the full band.  Eventually, he decided to release those songs as a solo album -- exactly as recorded. No interviews, minimal advertising. He did authorize one promotional video ("Atlantic City") that was shown on the fledgling MTV network -- a series of black and white film clips of Atlantic City in all its gritty glory. No Springsteen or E Street Band in sight. 

"Nebraska" was critically acclaimed when it was first released, and still is today. It was a milestone in Bruce's career and in the music world generally, for many reasons that Zanes delves into here. 

There's probably a whole lot more detail here than most of us probably need or want to know about this album. But personally? I loved it. It was a great reminder of that time in my life, of what Bruce meant and still means to me & dh, and what a brilliant artist he is. Of how sometimes it pays to take risks, even when they seem crazy. (And how it helps to have people who believe in you and what you're doing, as Springsteen's manager, Jon Landau, and the record company did.)  There was a lot here that I already knew about this time in Springsteen's life, but I enjoyed the insights provided here (by Bruce, and by others) that put Bruce's music, and this album, into the context of the times.  If you love Bruce, and enjoy learning more about his creative process, especially if you love the album "Nebraska," you will probably enjoy this book. 

I haven't listened to "Nebraska" in full in years, and reading this book makes me want to pull out my CD and give it a spin. (I did have the vinyl album originally, but it now belongs to Older Nephew.  : ) ) 

4 stars on both Goodreads and StoryGraph.  

This was Book #31 read to date in 2025 (and Book #4 finished in October), bringing me to 69% of  my 2025 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 45 books. I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 4 books behind  schedule to meet my goal.  :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2025 tagged as "2025 books." 

Odds & ends

• The Springsteen tickets saga (part one here): I got an email last night that I was NOT among the select few to be granted Verified Fan status, which would allow me the opportunity to TRY to buy pre-sale tickets when they became available today. I was on the "waitlist."  "If tickets remain available to sell after the initially selected fans have shopped, we will use a lottery-style selection to invite Verified Fans from the waitlist to shop," the email said. ("If tickets remain available" -- yeah, right...!)   
• My sister offered to try to get us tickets for the Winnipeg show on Nov. 10th, if we wanted. It's one thing to go all that way to see Paul McCartney, when he was not playing Toronto on the same tour, but Bruce IS playing two shows in Toronto, a few days later. And it's one thing to spend the money to fly to Winnipeg in October, when the weather might still be fairly nice, to spend Canadian Thanksgiving with my family (especially when we haven't been there in the summertime)... it's another to to there in mid-November, when the weather is far more iffy, and when (hopefully) we will have already been there in the summer, and will be back again a little more than a month later for Christmas.  We thanked her, but decided to pass. 
• Dh (the original Springsteen fan in the family) was not interested, even for the Toronto shows. "Why are you even TRYING to get on the list for tickets?" he said to me. "You don't even want to eat in a restaurant, and you're going to sit in a crowded arena with 20,000 people??"  Good point. :(  
• I actually DID get an email with an access code around 11:15 this morning. I couldn't resist logging in and seeing what was available (and at what prices). There were only 27 people in line ahead of me, and I got in almost right away. By then, there were a few pairs of seats remaining at the back of the arena in the upper rows of the 100 level (at about $350 a pop -- which is about what my sister & I paid to see Paul McCartney & Elton John in Winnipeg a few years ago -- expensive enough, but not too bad). There were also some seats priced around $100 each, but they were all in the nosebleed section, at the sides of the stage and behind it. 
• I closed the window. In a different, covid-free world, it would have been nice to see Bruce again, but...  I wish I was a more adventurous person, but I'm not (and am certainly less so since stillbirth and infertility, not to mention three years of living through a pandemic...!).    
• The Bloglovin' saga:  Aside from the odd blip when some current posts pop up, it's basically been unavailable since (at least) early December. (Not much has changed since I wrote this post a month ago.)  Most of the ALI-related blogs I follow are listed on the blogrolls on the right-hand side of this page, so I've managed to keep up with most of them that way, but there are other non-ALI blogs I follow that I am hopelessly out of touch with now.
• I did export & save a file with my Bloglovin' content about a year ago, thinking I might try Feedly -- only to find out (as I described here) that Feedly doesn't let you follow more than 100 blogs at a time (unless you cough up money for a paid subscription). I currently have more than (gulp) 500 blogs on Bloglovin (albeit not all of them active). I declined to pay up back then, but I'm starting to reconsider... 
• Dh & I joined SIL, BIL & Little Great-Nephew last week for the weekly toddler storytime session at the local library (!). SIL took LGN there regularly this past year, but this was his first time back there since before Christmas, and the first time we'd ventured there to watch.  I was surprisingly OK with it all (albeit I suspect 20 years ago, it would have been a different story...). There were lots of grandparents there -- we were far from the only greyhairs, lol -- and it was fun to watch LGN interacting with other children (albeit sometimes I wanted to watch through my fingers, lol -- like when an excited LGN, running around the room, hopped over another toddler who was lying flat on the floor...!).  
• We arrived a few minutes after the session started, and when LGN saw us, he exclaimed to SIL (his grandma), "Uncle [dh] is here!" and started jumping up & down in delight. What a boost to the ego...!  ;)  
• (We were the only two people in the building wearing masks.) 
• Another LGN story:  He was also at his grandparents' house another day last week. SIL went to work in the late afternoon. BIL hasn't been feeling 100% lately and didn't want to be left with LGN by himself, so dh & I went over to keep them company until Older Nephew picked up LGN on his way home from work. 
• LGN LOVES being at his grandparents' house (who wouldn't love to be the focus of so much spoiling??), and does NOT like it when it's time to go home -- and especially when his dad is the one doing pickup! (Poor Older Nephew -- after a long day of work, too!)  He saw his dad come in and immediately dove under the kitchen table.  Older Nephew had to grab his ankles and drag him out, lol. I said, "Awww, LGN -- but you've been such a good boy all day!"  I helped Older Nephew as he struggled to put on LGN's winter jacket and boots. "[LGN], come on, you're being bad!" he said to his son in exasperation. LGN looked up at us, puzzled, the very image of innocence, and said, "But... Aunt Lori says I'm a good boy??"  I still crack up when I think about it. (I said, "Yes, you ARE a good boy, but you're going to have to be good for a while longer for Daddy!")  
• I was interested in the Notes From Three Pines Readalong, which Mel told us about a few weeks ago. I thought it was a great nudge to dive into Louise Penny's highly acclaimed Inspector Gamache mystery series, which I've been meaning to do for a while now, and I enjoy discussing books with others, in person or online. I recently finished and reviewed the first book in the series, "Still Life," here, just in time for the discussion for that particular book, which started today. 
• However!  (and beware, if you were thinking of joining in too): several of the posted discussion questions related to the series as a whole (i.e., it's assumed you've already read the other books) -- and one question in particular included a huge spoiler about what happens to one of the characters from the first book, later on in the series. 
• I know there's a lot of debate over how long we're expected to keep spoilers secret in an uber-connected world (especially related to movies & TV series). But both my D.E. Stevenson & L.M. Montgomery book groups make a point of asking people to be careful about revealing spoilers related to future chapters or future volumes in a series, out of consideration for those in the group (and there are some, alongside longtime, rabid fans) who haven't read the book before, or later books in the series.(If/when we do, we're expected to post a **SPOILERS!** warning.) And I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who are also reading the book(s) for the first time, after the new "Three Pines" TV series debuted recently on Amazon Prime. 
• I'll keep reading the series, and probably within the timeframes of the readalong (as I said, it's a good nudge!) -- but I'm not sure how much I'll be able to participate under the circumstances? Which is somewhat disappointing. :(   
• Next up: Gamache #2, "A Fatal Grace," on March 22nd. 
• "Titanic" (the movie) turns 25 this year (!). (And it's back in theatres!)  I was reminded of this by Meg Conley's recent post about the movie in her Homeculture newsletter on Substack.  I was not obsessed with the movie, or Leo diCaprio -- I was 37 years old by then, after all -- but I did enjoy it. Those incredibly realistic-looking long shots of that magnificent, doomed ship leaving port and steaming out to sea for the first and last time had me in tears, and yes, I cried at the end too. Dh was not interested in seeing it, so I went with my mother when she came to visit me that year, during her spring break, and not long before it won all the Oscars. 
• Did I mention I was pregnant at the time?  (As I wrote in this blog about the experience, 10 years after the fact, "I can't believe I sat through the entire 3+ hours without having to duck out to the washroom." lol)
• This article from the Globe & Mail (originally published last October and referenced again in a recent newsletter) stuck in my childless craw:  "What if moms decided to ‘quiet quit’?" It opens with the story of the one-day women's strike in October 1975 in Iceland -- known as "Women's Day Off" (note: WOMEN'S), in which 90% of Icelandic women walked off the job, both in the office and at home -- and then asks "What would happen if the moms of the world decided to embrace the idea of “quiet quitting” and refused to do the extras?"  
• Great point -- BUT! Throughout the article, the terms "women" and "moms" are used almost interchangeably (with "moms" the dominant reference).  I rather doubt that, even in 1975, 90% of all adult women in Iceland were mothers... 
• I don't doubt that moms are depleted, as the article suggests... but they are certainly not the only ones who experience stress and burnout while juggling multiple roles and caregiving demands. 
• Let's all say it together: "WOMAN" DOES NOT EQUAL"MOM."  (Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.)  
• I wonder what a similar walkout of childless/free women (or women & men) would look like?  For sure, it would not be quite as impactful as one by all women, like Iceland's -- but I think a lot of people would be surprised to realize just how big a group we really are (and we're a group that's rapidly growing!). 
• Jessica Grose's subscriber newsletter for the New York Times, which focuses primarily on parenting & family issues, is examining the decline in global fertility/birth rates in developed countries.  Last week, she posed an interesting question:  "Are Men the Overlooked Reason for the Fertility Decline?" (She's not talking about declining sperm counts, either.) Sample passage: 

[Vegard] Skirbekk [a population economist] argues, in part, that it’s because of a lack of “‘suitable’ men, as women have become increasingly selective.”... 

“Even in the world’s most gender-egalitarian countries, women tend to prefer men with relatively high income and education,” according to Skirbekk. Women also tend to not want to partner with men who have drug and alcohol problems or are prone to violence. [Note from Loribeth:  Well, duh...][How dare we be so picky, right??  :p  ] 

Presenting data from 27 Western countries, Skirbekk writes that in most instances, somewhere below 10 percent, in some cases below 5 percent, of the population seems to voluntarily opt for being childless. On an individual level, that’s not a problem: free country and all. But, I do think what Skirbekk calls coincidental childlessness — when people who never explicitly decided they don’t want children don’t have them for a variety of reasons — is a problem. If someone wants a child but doesn’t end up with one because of not finding a suitable partner, because of reaching age-related infertility, or because of the increasing expense of having children, that can be life altering.

• (This is consistent with what Jody Day of Gateway Women has written:  the vast majority of women without children do not choose to be childfree, or even wind up without children because of infertility issues. Not finding a partner who is not only suitable/desirable but also wants to have children with you, while you're still able to do so, is a huge issue that's not explored often enough.)  
• The newsletter is subscriber-only, but I'm a subscriber ;) and this link above is a gift link, so have a read and let me know what you think! 
• The comments are interesting.
• In a similar vein, Lyz Lenz's Substack newsletter ("Men Yell At Me" -- love that title, lol) points out that "Men Are Lonely. But Women Are Being Attacked." (Subhead: "Male loneliness is not a woman's problem to solve.")  Also worth a read! 
• Jess at A Different Path had a great post recently, asking "What IS Self-Care?" I thought of it when I read Anne Helen Petersen's latest Culture Study post, "The Tyranny of Faux Self-Care," which includes an interview with Dr. Pooja Lakshmin, author of a forthcoming book on the subject.  (The comments are also instructive!) 

Odds & ends (& whines, lol)

• "This Valentine's Day, show some love to the one who’s always there." Katie at My Sweet Dumb Brain makes the excellent point that "The only constant in your life is you." 
• Here we go again? Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band just announced some Canadian dates this fall, including two nights here in Toronto in November. (He's also going to be in Winnipeg, for the first time ever! -- 40+ years after dh first romanced me with his music in his dorm room, lol)(on a cassette played on a boombox, lol).  I signed up for verified fan status with Ticketmaster -- which entitles me to the CHANCE to buy tickets when they go on sale (I'll find out next week if I'm going to be allowed to try...!).  
• I'm of two minds:  
• On the one hand:  Bruce isn't getting any younger (and neither are we...!). He's 73.  Who knows how many more chances we'll get to see him again?  He & his music played a key role in our early relationship :)  (as I've written on this blog several times before), and we've seen him together twice in the past in Toronto, in 1985 and 1992 (without the E Street Band) -- dh saw him a couple of times before he met me, and we tried but failed to get tickets for other times he's played in Toronto. (I also tried -- and failed -- to get tickets to see his "Springsteen on Broadway" show in New York City a few years back. A great excuse for a trip to NYC, right? Oh well...!)  He always puts on a GREAT show. 
• On the other hand: I'm mindful of the Elton John tickets saga, and how well THAT turned out...! (and how will SIL feel if we buy tickets to Bruce, after she & I decided to cash in our Elton tickets after repeated postponements and cancellations amid pandemic uncertainty?). I'm also very mindful that (contrary to what some might think), covid is still very much alive and well -- and the prospect of sitting in a crowded arena with 20,000+ other, mostly maskless, singing & cheering people, is not as appealing as it might have been three years ago, to me or to dh...!  (In fact, I recently read that several members of the E Street Band are currently out with covid themselves!) There's also been a sharp increase in crimes on the transit system, which is how we'd normally head downtown. Parking there is both hard to find and astronomically expensive, especially when there's a big event on. 
• (This is assuming we're able to get tickets in the first place... and even if we're able, are we willing to pay the exorbitant prices that will likely be charged?)(Pricing hasn't been announced yet, but as the Toronto Star pointed out, it's likely a far cry from the $10 dh paid to see him in 1978...!)  
• (Why does life have to be so complicated?) 
• A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how developers are proposing to build a 12-storey condo building right next door to ours (and directly across the street from another, larger 10-storey condo building) -- replacing three houses on/adjacent to the corner of a main road and a residential street, and facing and exiting onto the residential street.  
• Last week, I tuned in online to a recent meeting of our city council where members of the public had their say about the proposed application. There were 45 written submissions (available to read on the city's website) and about 10 local residents speaking at the meeting or via Zoom.  It was fascinating and quite an eye-opener in some respects to watch the process unfold and listen to what they all had to say. It's quite obvious to anyone who sees the site that it's a completely inappropriate place to put up a 12-storey building, but it was informative and validating to hear all the arguments presented in such an articulate way. (I won't list them all here but let's just say the proposed design violates existing zoning laws in more ways than one, not to mention urban planning principles and simple common sense.)  
• Whether that was enough to stop the project -- or at least scale it back to a more reasonable size -- remains to be seen. To their credit, the councillors were unanimous in their opposition -- but they also pointed out that the appeals process is stacked solidly in favour of the developers, enabled by a pro-development provincial government and premier. Sigh. 
• The BBC had what I thought was a surprisingly thoughtful article about the growing number of people choosing not to have children. They point out the difference between childFREE and childLESS, discuss the many reasons why people might not have children, the fact that people tend to lump childless and childfree people together -- AND they talk about how the choice to live without children is still not well understood and accepted  -- a point that I don't think gets enough attention outside the childless/free community. Worth a read!  
• The article uses the term "backlash," which I don't think I've ever heard in a discussion related to childless/free living before.  I read Susan Faludi's classic book on the subject when it first came out in the early 1990s -- and I see there's a new edition available (from 2006).  Time for a re-read, perhaps...!  
• "Freeze now, sell later":  Alison Motluk , who writes the Substack newsletter Hey ReproTech, speculates that some women who freeze their eggs but never use them might eventually try to sell them as a way to recoup their significant financial outlay.  
• Yael Wolfe in Medium:  "This Gen Xer Doesn’t Understand TikTok."  
• This late Boomer/early GenXer doesn't either, lol, and Yael perfectly voices my gripes with trying to keep up with technology (and some of the reasons why I've never sought to expand the "reach" of this blog onto social media and become an "influencer"). (Trust me, some day it will happen to you -- if not with TikTok then some other newfangled app that you don't "get" and have no interest in learning how to use...!) 
• In a similar vein, Anne Helen Petersen recently announced that she is winding down the Discord community she created as an extension of her Culture Study Substack newsletter. Like many online community leaders, she found it was taking up a lot more time and energy than she bargained for.  
• I've been on message boards since 1998, and on the CS Discord for the better part of a year, although I rarely visited there. There were a lot of similarities to old-style message boards -- and yet, I just couldn't figure out how it was organized or how to follow threads, etc.  I guess I really am getting old...??  :p  
• I debated over whether to watch "Not Dead Yet," the TV version of Alexandra Potter's delightful novel "Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k-Up," which I read, loved and reviewed here. Then I forgot all about it. Oh well. 
• I may still watch (I found I can catch up online) -- but from what I've read, I didn't miss out on much. "Struggles to Show Signs of Life," says the Hollywood Reporter. Ominously, the Reporter also says the show is "adapted by David Windsor and Casey Johnson in almost no recognizable way from Alexandra Potter’s novel." ("A loose adaptation," says Slant.)  
• The only real similarities between the book and the TV show seem to be a lead character named Nell who returns home from abroad after her relationship implodes and lands a job writing obituaries.  But in the Hollywood version, the setting has changed from England to California (not surprising, but very disappointing), and... the dead people Nell writes about... talk to her.  A cutesy twist that's definitely not in the book. Sigh. 
• Have you watched it? (If you have, have you read the book first?)  What did you think? 
• I have virtually zero interest in American college or NFL football or the Super Bowl -- but I did watch the halftime show on Sunday... and noticed that Rihanna seemed to be sporting a bit of a tummy. I knew she'd had a baby recently and figured maybe it was leftover pregnancy weight? 
• But then dh told me "Rihanna pregnant" was trending on Twitter, so I Googled and found out she'd had her son back in May 2022.. so...!. (You can see how closely I follow celebrity gossip these days, lol.)  Her management confirmed the pregnancy before the show was over. 
• The childless forums and accounts I follow were full of eyerolls and angst the next morning. CNBCers in the UK reported that Rihanna's pregnancy was the headline news, with who won the Super Bowl coming a distant second/afterthought. 
• Personally, while I did some eye-rolling myself, I found this far less triggering/enraging than Beyonce's ultra-smug reveal of her first pregnancy at the VMAs some years back (ripping off camouflaging clothing and then caressing her belly with a self-satisfied smile, to make sure we got the message)... followed by her photo shoot and then "fertility goddess" routine at the Grammys while heavily pregnant with twins a few years later (which I wrote about here). Oy. 
• (Does anyone actually sing LIVE at these events anymore? It was obvious several times that Rihanna wasn't even trying to lip sync...)  

"Unrequited Infatuations" by Stevie Van Zandt

As a longtime Bruce Springsteen fan (dh introduced me to his music early in our relationship, in the early 1980s), I immediately put "Unrequited Infatuations" on my reading list when I heard that Stevie Van Zandt had written a memoir. It was released earlier this fall. (I bought it the same day I bought Dave Grohl's memoir, and it was a toss-up as to which book I'd read first. Dave won.) 

As one review I read pointed out, Van Zandt is best known as the "consigliere" to two of New Jersey's most famous sons -- one being Bruce Springsteen, and the other (fictional) Tony Soprano of television's "The Sopranos." He first met Springsteen as a teenager in the 1960s, both musicians in rival bands, who bonded over their mutual passion for rock and roll music. As "Miami Steve," he was Springsteen's onstage harmonizing sidekick in the E Street Band and offstage arranger, producer and adviser. Their partnership lasted until 1983, when Van Zandt asked for a formal role in decision-making for the band. Springsteen refused. Van Zandt quit. They eventually rekindled their friendship, but he didn't rejoin the band until 1999.  

In the meantime, he produced albums for other artists. He formed his own band, Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul. (I had at least one of their albums, now in Older Nephew's collection.) The band's first drummer on the road was Dino Danelli, formerly of the Rascals, one of Van Zandt's favourite bands, growing up. Years later, he would pull off the nearly impossible feat of bringing the four feuding members of the Rascals together again, first for a one-off charity event and then for a tour, which included a run on Broadway. (Dh & I saw the show in Toronto in August 2013 and thoroughly enjoyed it.)  

Van Zandt was instrumental in getting the Rascals inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 -- which was, in turn, helped him land the role of Silvio Dante in "The Sopranos." (The show's writer and producer, David Chase, saw him deliver the Rascals' induction speech and thought he'd be a natural as Silvio.)  He's since acted in other vehicles, including "Lilyhammer" -- a fish-out-of-water story about (another) Italian-American mobster living in Norway (!). (I've never seen it, but -- being part Swedish myself -- I got a kick out of his descriptions.)  

A trip behind the Iron Curtain triggered a quest to educate himself about political issues. He became an activist, organizing other artists from across musical genres to record the influential anti-apartheid anthem "Sun City." (I hadn't seen the video in years until I looked it up for this post... it's still pretty powerful.)  And he and his wife Maureen (who, by the way, have no children) are passionate advocates for the arts, especially in education. Their Rock and Roll Forever Foundation has developed a curriculum for use in schools called TeachRock, which uses the history of rock and roll as an educational tool. Van Zandt also hosts a radio show, "Little Steven's Underground Garage," on Sirius XM, where he spotlights his favourite artists and songs from the 1960s & 70s, as well as newer unknown bands (some of them signed to his Wicked Cool Records label).  

This one took me longer than I expected to read -- partly because of other stuff going on my life that distracted me from reading -- but also because there was a lot to wade through and absorb. (I also found myself somewhat distracted/irritated by Van Zandt's annoying habit of capitalizing random terms such as Rock, Jazz, Manager, Arranger, Artist, Religion, etc. etc.) A friend who read the book first told me it was "fun, but needed a heavy dose of suspended disbelief."  Having now finished the book, I agree.  To put it mildly, the guy has an extremely robust ego  ;) (and a fairly sizeable chip on his shoulder).  As she hinted, I suspect there's some healthy embellishment going on, lol.  But he's honest about his shortcomings too. He's done a lot of interesting things in his life, dabbled in a lot of different areas, and he has some interesting stories to tell. If you love rock and roll music, if you grew up listening to Sixties, Seventies and/or Eighties music (as I did), if you're a Springsteen or Sopranos fan, you will probably enjoy this book. 

I debated how to rate this book -- 3.5 or 4? I'm giving it 4, because it did pick up towards the end, and left me with a smile on my face.  I especially loved this passage, near the very end, where he talks about his TeachRock curriculum: 

My initial ambition for education was quite modest. All I wanted was for every kid in kindergarten to be able to name the four Beatles, dance to "Satisfaction," sing along with "Long Tall Sally," and recite every word of "Subterranean Homesick Blues." 

The rest will take care of itself. 

This was Book #57 read to date in 2021 (and Book #3 finished in December), bringing me to 158% (!) of my 2021 Goodreads Reading Challenge goal of 36 books. (I've exceeded my best-ever showing in the Goodreads Challenge since I joined in 2016 -- which was 50 books read in all of 2019.)  I am (for the moment, anyway...!) 23 (!) books ahead of schedule. :)  You can find reviews of all my books read to date in 2021 tagged as "2021 books." 

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AND.... this is it!!  Post #2,000 since I began blogging in October 2007!!!   

#MicroblogMonday: Legacy

Six (!) years ago, I wrote about my decision to hand over my treasured vintage (early 1980s) Zenith stereo (turntable/cassette player and radio/tuner, all in one) and vinyl album collection (about 180 classic rock LPs) to Older Nephew (who was paying ridiculous sums of money for used copies of some of the same albums that were gathering dust in my basement...!). The stereo and some of the albums were kept in his bedroom, pre-wedding, and in the basement suite at BIL's since he got married. 

This past weekend, he, his wife and Little Great-Nephew (and the dog, lol) finally moved into the house they bought this spring. (They took possession in June, but have been painting and doing a few renovations since then.) BIL was on vacation last week, and he & dh made several trips up to the house to bring some things over in advance of moving day, make some last-minute fixes, etc.  

Dh took some photos on one of these expeditions so that I could see what they'd done with the place. Among other things, Older Nephew's MIL's carpenter boyfriend built them a beautiful shelving unit all along one wall of their family room. Guess what holds the centre spot of honour?  That's right, my stereo & vinyl collection (the ones I gave Older Nephew as well as ones he's bought on his own). He's bought new, more modern (smaller! lol) speakers, but otherwise, it's all just as I gave it to him. 

Sometimes, those of us without children wonder about what kind of a legacy we can leave, and to whom -- whether and how we and the things that mattered to us will live on somehow, after we're gone... whether they will matter to someone else.  I took one look at that photo and my heart just swelled. I thought, "There's my legacy (or at least part of it), right there!"  

Not only that -- dh told me he checked out what was on the turntable -- and practically burst HIS buttons when he saw it was Bruce Springsteen's "The River," lol.  :)  (Our work here is done, lol.)   

(I was going to include the photo, but when I asked dh to send it to me, he told me he'd already deleted it. (!!)  Sigh...)  

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here. 

Right now

Right now... (an occasional meme, alternating from time to time with "The Current")

Reading:  6 (!) books in October (including 4 while visiting my parents)(all but one reviewed during October on this blog):

• The Education of Brett Kavanaugh by Robin Pogrebin & Kate Kelly 
• The Baby Matrix by Laura Carroll 
• Kate Hardy by D.E. Stevenson (for my online DES fan group) 
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (for my library book club -- or so I thought, lol.) 
• Normal People by Sally Rooney 
• The Brink of Being: Talking About Miscarriage by Julia Bueno (review to come) 

Current read(s):

• This Particular Happiness:  A Childless Love Story by Jackie Shannon Hollis (the next book we'll be discussing -- WITH the author! -- in the private Gateway Women community, later in November). 

Coming up:

• The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman (which seems to have an ALI-related plot -- to be discussed at my November library book club meeting).  

My Goodreads 2019 Reading Challenge YTD total now stands at 40 books -- 16 more than my goal of 24 (167%).  :)

(Some) recent purchases/additions to the TBR pile (that I haven't read yet):  (Ahhh, fall book release season...!  ;)  ) 

• Me by Elton John  
• Parking the Moose:  One American's Epic Quest to Uncover His Incredible Canadian Roots by Dave Hilton 
• Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow 
• No Stopping Us Now: A History of Older Women in America by Gail Collins  

Watching:  We saw one movie in-theatre in October:  "Western Stars," a sort of a companion piece to Bruce Springsteen's album of the same name. Bruce performs the entire album (with a bonus track at the end: Glen Campbell's "Rhinestone Cowboy"!), backed up by a 30-piece band/orchestra in the loft of a 100-year-old barn on his property in New Jersey. The songs are interspersed with scenes from the American West with voice-overs by Bruce explaining the stories and inspiration behind each song. Dh leaned over to me at one point and whispered, "He makes you fall in love with him all over again."  ;)  Bruce never disappoints!

On television:  

• I'm continuing to watch the final season (#5) of Poldark on PBS (slightly annoyed at the deviations from the books this season -- but I do love the characters & actors...). 
• The Battle of the Blades finale was on CBC TV last night (a uniquely Canadian reality competition, which pairs hockey players -- both male & female -- with figure skaters, skating for their favourite charities). The final result was voted on by Canadian viewers... and as I suspected, Sheldon Kennedy & Kaitlyn Weaver won over my favourites, Ekaterina Gordeeva & Bruno Gervais. I liked Sheldon & Kaitlyn too -- they had great chemistry, skated some great routines, and I loved how Sheldon was clearly game to try anything. (The guy is 50 years old!)  He's a national hero, not only because of hockey but because of how he went public with the story of how he (& others) were abused by his junior hockey coach, and became an advocate for victims of abuse & bullying (check out the barebones story on his Wikipedia profile). I just felt Ekaterina & Bruno were the clearly superior team, technically. Oh well! It was fun watching! 

Listening:  Not enough lately... I have a huge backlog of podcasts on my Google Play & Spotify apps! 

Following:  Continuing to follow the unfolding impeachment drama in the U.S.

Drinking/Eating: Leftover Halloween candy, lol.  This was the fourth Halloween that we've lived here, and we've never had any trick or treaters visit us -- although dh insists on buying some Halloween candy anyway, "just in case"... ;)  Maybe next year our little great-nephew will come??

Buying (besides books, lol):  Restocked some of my Sephora staples recently -- which include Benefit Browvo! eyebrow primer/conditioner, L'Occitane foot cream, and Fresh Sugar Advanced Therapy Lip Treatment. Expensive, but sooooo good...! 

Wearing: Back to long jeans, socks & shoes, and (around the house) long yoga pants, long-sleeved T-shirts & sweatshirts, socks and even slippers on some days when the floors are particularly cold.  (I was very glad I brought my winter jacket with me to Manitoba when I was there for Thanksgiving to visit my parents!)  

Trying:  Not to let the gloom of November envelop me this year, as it sometimes does (albeit not to the same extent it once did). 

Wanting:  Some magic answers to appear to my genealogy questions, lol.

Celebrating:  I got tickets to "Hamilton"!!

Loving: My family. So much.

Waiting impatiently: For the arrival of our first great-nephew, very soon!  Feeling: Excited -- but also very anxious (given my own reproductive history & the parallel timelines between this pregnancy & my own, 21 years ago..).... 

Also feeling:  Devastated by the precariousness of life. :(   I posted a few days ago about the 28-year-old daughter of a high school friend who was in serious condition in the hospital following a car accident.  Sadly, she took a turn for the worse, and her parents and husband made the difficult decision to remove life support. She died just before noon today. I am devastated for my friend, who has endured several other sad losses in her family over the past few years too (albeit none quite like  this). I never met her daughter, but from the photos I've seen, she looked so much like her mother. She says "Hug your kids. Tell them you love them every time you say goodbye."

Right now

Right now... (an occasional meme, alternating from time to time with "The Current")

Reading:  After zooming through 6 (!) books in July, I read a grand total of ONE book in August (reviewed on this blog): 

• I Love Dick by Chris Kraus (the Gateway Women book club pick for August). Group consensus was mixed, albeit a few people were more impressed with it than I was.  
• Our next group read will be Up Beaver Creek by Sue Fagalde Lick, who blogs at Childless by Marriage as well as Unleashed in Oregon. (Sue recently lost her father;  go over & give her a virtual hug!)  

My Goodreads 2019 Reading Challenge YTD total now stands at 29 books -- 5 more than my goal of 24 (121%).  :)

Current reads:  

• American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump by Tim Alberta. (It's actually pretty good, quite readable for a political book... but it's long -- almost 700 pages! -- so it's taking me a while to get through...!) 
• The Vagina Bible by Dr. Jen Gunter. (See below.)  

(Some) recent purchases/additions to the TBR pile: 

•  Dead Blondes & Bad Mothers by Sady Doyle
• The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
• The Wake: The Deadly Legacy of a Newfoundland Tsunami by Linden MacIntyre (a well-known Canadian broadcast journalist & writer) 

Watching: Dh, BIL & SIL & I went to see "Blinded by the Light" a few weeks ago -- about a teenaged Pakistani boy in Margaret Thatcher's Britain of the 1980s, who improbably becomes a Bruce Springsteen superfan (based on a true story). It was corny but really cute, and of course there was all that glorious music. :)  Watching it, I was reminded of the early days of our relationship, with dh playing his Springsteen albums (on cassettes, even!) for me in his dorm room and singing along with them to me. :)  We all left with smiles on our faces. 

I also watched the last few episodes of season 3 of "The Handmaid's Tale." The finale was quite satisfying in most respects, the last 20 minutes or so had me sniffling, and I will look forward to season 4, whenever it arrives. (Although seriously, how many times can June ALMOST get out of Gilead??)  (Looking forward to: getting & reading "The Testaments," Margaret Atwood's sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, which continues the saga of Gilead, albeit not Offred's story. Expected publication date: Sept. 10th.) 

Wondering (on a related note...):  (a) Whether I have time to read Donna Tartt's "The Goldfinch" before the movie version comes out on Sept. 13th... (b) Whether I really WANT to read the book... (c) Whether I really want to see the movie either??  Have you read the book? Thoughts?  (I read "The Secret History" by the same author years ago, & was quite impressed with that one.) 

Listening:  I HAVEN'T listened to any podcasts recently, and I have a big backlog to catch up on!!  including new episodes of "The Full Stop" and "Live Childfree with Erik & Melissa."  

Following:  Dr. Jen Gunter, author of "The Vagina Bible" (see above), on social media.  She is an awesome common-sense advocate for women, their health & their reproductive rights, a loss/preemie mom -- AND she's from my home province and the med school of my alma mater. :) She's also frequently hilarious. :)  I am hoping to check out some episodes of her new online show soon.  It streams on CBC's Gem service, and it's called "Jensplaining." (Unfortunately, it may not be available to viewers outside of Canada.)(Now you know how WE feel re: all the stuff online that we can't view here!)    

Drinking/Eating:  Obviously too much, judging from the numbers on the scale lately.... :p  (Actually, I think my issue is probably lack of exercise, more than what I've been eating...)  

Buying (besides books, lol):  I bought my plane ticket back to Manitoba in October to visit my parents for (Canadian)Thanksgiving & attend an Elton John farewell tour concert with my sister. (I also get to be there for one of the Little Princesses' birthdays.) Feels funny to be planning a solo trip -- the last time I travelled by myself was five (!) years ago now, to Minneapolis to attend my uncle & aunt's 50th wedding anniversary (I met up with my parents & sister there).  But my plane ticket plus the cost of the concert ticket were pretty expensive... plus I think dh is still recovering from the 17 days we just spent there in July, lol. I did used to spend time there on my own when we were first married and getting established in our jobs, and he didn't have as much vacation time as I did. And I travelled solo to attend the funerals for both my maternal grandparents, 21 & 20 years ago, respectively (both also in October). It's just been a while...! 

Wearing:  I've had to start bringing a cardigan or jacket with me when we're out in the evening... a touch of coolness in the air that tells me summer is (almost) over... 

Planning: What to wear for Older Nephew's Wife's baby shower (next weekend).  Probably a blue floral print sundress that I bought on sale at the Gap earlier this summer and haven't yet had a chance to wear anywhere. Weather permitting, the shower will be held outside on the beautiful patio where we celebrated the couple's engagement, five years ago.  (Also thinking about what goodies I can bake to bring along for the sweet table!)  

We already bought them a rather pricey rocking chair for the nursery -- but I didn't want to go empty handed (goodies aside), so I bought them a baby/memory book... and a copy of "Go the F*ck to Sleep,"  lol.  I think it will appeal to both Older Nephew & his wife's senses of humour.  ;)  (And if you haven't heard it as read by Samuel L. Jackson on YouTube, you're in for a treat!!  lol) 

Trying:  Not to let all the back-to-school & empty nest posts on social media get to me. (MUCH more to come over the next week or so, though...! -- most schools here start on Tuesday, after the Labour Day long weekend.)  


Remembering: It was 40 (!!) years ago this weekend that I moved into my dorm & headed off to university. It was a little scary, yes, but exciting, too, and my memories of it all are still very clear. I still think of those four years as the best time of my life. :)  I am so glad that I am back in touch with my university roommate. (I'm also in touch with her ex-husband, whom I also met that week -- I introduced them! -- and two of our dorm neighbours.)  

Wanting: I know I've said this before but it's really what I'd like:  a decent night's sleep!  lol  I really can't think of much that I seriously want that I either don't have or can't easily get. I suppose that makes me pretty lucky. :)  

Feeling: A bit creaky, especially in my left knee. :p  But overall pretty happy at the moment.

Loving:  The slightly cooler temperatures and the drop in humidity. We've been able to have the balcony door open almost all day, every day lately.  My idea of summer perfection!  (But also, sadly, a signal that summer is almost over...!)   

The Current

(An occasional meme, alternating from time to time with "Right Now.") 

Current Book(s) -- On the last 100 pages of "Dark Money" by Jane Mayer (review to come), and trying to decide what to read next. I have a lot of similar political-related books in my To Be Read pile -- but I think maybe something lighter and less depressing would be a good idea, lol.  ;)  

Current Playlist -- While I was visiting my parents, my sister gave me a memory stick/thumb drive/whatever you want to call it, containing part of her vast mp3 collection, acquired during the days of Napster. The files included songs from all the big Canadian rock bands of our day, as well as other bands that were in our childhood/teenaged vinyl collection. I've owned music on vinyl, cassette and, most recently, CDs, but this was my first foray into digital music (yes, I'm a dinosaur...!).  Her techno-wizard boyfriend showed me how to load the files from my laptop to my cellphone for my portable listening pleasure. I have a lot of apps and (especially) photos on my phone, so there's not a lot of room for music -- I can only load a certain number of files at a time, and will have to rotate files in & out. I've never really been in the habit of carrying my music with me anyway -- Walkmans didn't come into being until I was in university. (I;m really dating myself here, aren't I??)  But it's nice to have some of these songs back again. :)  I gave my vinyl collection to Oldest Nephew before we moved, and I don't own all of the same titles on CD, so this will help to fill some of those gaps. 

Current Shame-Inducing Guilty Pleasure -- Cheap T-shirts at Old Navy. I already have a closet full of T-shirts, but I can't seem to leave the store without a bag. (I wear holes into them almost as fast as I buy them... :p ) 

Current Color -- Aqua/turquoise, and coral red/pink -- it's summer! (And I usually do well with jewel tones.)  ;) 

Current Drink -- Surprisingly fewer iced beverages than usual this summer -- but then, it's been cooler & rain-ier outside, too. So, I continue to order my favourite tea lattes (tall non-fat Royal English Breakfast) at Starbucks. :) 

Current Food -- We're back at home, so we're back eating lots of dh's favourite beans & lentils. Missing the new potatos and yellow wax beans, fresh from my dad's garden! (There is a farmer's market nearby, but it's on Saturday mornings, and we usually don't get out of the house that early on weekends.)  

Current Favorite Show -- I don't really have one at the moment. Waiting for the new fall shows to start, or old favourites to return! (Obviously, I need to get back to Netflix, lol.) 

Current Wishlist -- Still haven't put up the rest of our artwork/framed photos -- erk!  (Although I did find a couple of collage frames on sale at Michaels a few weeks ago.)  I am thinking of asking Santa to bring me a new Kobo e-reader for Christmas -- the one is have is not one of the originals, but close to it...! (probably about 7 years old).  Still works fine, but it would be nice to have something with a few more bells & whistles. Plus -- tickets to "Springsteen on Broadway" would be nice. ;) Would love to see Bruce again, and it would be a great excuse to see NYC again, this time with dh, who has never been there... 

Current Needs -- Still need to get new window coverings for the living room/main living area windows. And I need a new cutting board for the kitchen. In the grand scheme of things, that's pretty good "needs." huh? (First world problems, etc...)  

Current Triumphs -- Getting rid of a ton of stuff that had been sitting in a closet at my parents' house for 30+ years... no small victory for a self-confessed packrat!  

Current Bane of my Existence -- The endless construction on the highway/main road that runs directly in front of our condo building. :p They are widening the road to accommodate a new dedicated rapid bus transit lane, which (when built) will hook up with the new subway line that's due to open at the end of this year. I'm sure it will be great when it's all done, but for now...!  Traffic here is already a nightmare, and this doesn't help. :p  

Current Celebrity Crush -- Mourning the loss of one of my favourites, Sam Shepard. :(  Adored him in movies like "The Right Stuff" and "Baby Boom" (although the plot of that movie WAS ridiculous...). 

Current Indulgence -- Besides Old Navy T-shirts?  ;)  Sleeping in. Because I can!  lol  ;)  

Current #1 Blessing -- Air conditioning!!  (It's generally been a cooler & rain-ier summer -- but when it's hot, it's hot, lol!).   

Current Slang or Saying -- Hmmm, not sure I have one. 

Current Outfit -- Around the house: denim shorts from Reitmans and Old Navy T-shirt or tank top. When we go out: denim capris (also from Reitmans) and a dressier T-shirt -- probably from the Gap or Lucky Brand. 

Current Excitement -- Busy weekend ahead! -- barbecue on Saturday;  get-together with dh's girl cousins (the ones I went to New York with a few years ago) for Sunday brunch. And I'm planning a little road trip for dh & me, BIL & SIL for the early fall. :)  

Current Mood -- Disbelief that it is already mid-August. Some of my friends & relatives in the States are ALREADY posting back-to-school photos of their kids!!  Where has the summer gone?? 

"Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen

When dh & I heard that Bruce Springsteen was publishing a memoir this fall, there was absolutely no question that we would be heading to the local bookstore the day it went on sale -- waiting for the paperback be damned. ;) 

I've written before about the role Bruce played in dh's & my early relationship, but a brief recap:  I was only dimly aware of who Springsteen was (although I'd heard & loved "Prove it all Night" in high school) when I met dh in October 1981 at a dorm party. His residence nickname was "Bruuuuuce," emblazoned on the back of his official floor T-shirt. I remember visiting friends on his floor & poking my head in the open door of his room to say hello (we all did that in those days).

"Who's the hunk on your wall?" I asked, indicating the poster of a good-looking guy, onstage in a dynamic guitar hero pose, tacked up over his bed. "That's Bruce Springsteen," he explained patiently. Thankfully, he didn't hold my ignorance against me ;) and before long, he was playing me all of Bruce's albums (on cassettes on his boombox)(and before long, I was buying copies for myself). (The poster is somewhere in a box in the depths of my parents' basement... if I ever retrieve it, I'm going to frame it & hang it on the wall of our office. ;)  ) We've seen him twice together (although dh saw him several times in the late 1970s/early 1980s before he met me), once in August 1985 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto during, shortly after we returned from our honeymoon, and once in 1992 at the SkyDome, sans the E Street Band -- a last-minute bit of luck, when a work friend of dh's couldn't attend and sold his tickets to us at face value. I seriously considered Bruce as a middle name for a boy, should we have had a son.

Anyway -- Sept. 27 rolled around (finally!!) and off to the bookstore we went. (Fortunately for our budget, the book was instantly on sale for 40% off, lol.)

The guy can write. We all knew he could write music, of course, but "Born to Run" is a wonderful book, written in a distinctive voice, chock full of glorious details, personal reflections and a wonderful, wry sense of humour.  I especially loved the early parts of the book where he writes about growing up in a tight-knit but troubled family in Freehold, New Jersey, and his early days as a musician (like many others of his generation, inspired first by Elvis & then by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones).  He delves into his troubled relationship with his father, famously expressed in songs like "Factory," "Adam Raised a Cain" and "Independence Day." He writes about his marriages, including his first marriage to actress Julianne Phillips (he admits he was not a good husband and regrets the way he handled things). As publicized, he writes with brutal honesty about the mental illness that plagued his father and the anxiety and depression that haunt him personally to this day. And yes, there are glimpses of Bruce the proud dad of three children, now in their 20s. (Encouraged by his wife Patti, he started getting up early -- anathema to a rock star! -- to make them breakfast, and concludes that if the rock and roll thing doesn't work out, he could find work as a breakfast chef in a diner somewhere. ;) )  

If you are a Springsteen fan, this is an absolute must-read. Even if you're not, it would probably still be a worthwhile read, because it's such great writing and storytelling.

*** *** ***

ALI notes:

Having read Peter Ames Carlin's "Bruce" some time ago (reviewed here), I already knew the story of Bruce's aunt Virginia (his father's older sister), who was run over while riding her tricycle as a toddler, and the lingering effect her tragic death had on the family for generations to come. 

But Bruce's book did shed new light on some characters I remembered reading about (in Dave Marsh's first book about Springsteen from the early 1980s, also called "Born to Run"):  Tex Vinyard and his wife Marion, who mentored and managed Bruce's teenaged band, the Castiles, in the mid-1960s.

What I didn't realize or remember: Tex and Marion were childless. Bruce and his friends were their "kids."  Writes Bruce:

They were friends of George [Theiss, also a member of the Castiles] who had decided to surrender the fifteen square feet of what was called their dining room to local teenage noisemakers. It was a very informal neighbourhood, black and white separated somewhat by the rug mill but generally hanging around the streets together, with Tex and Marion's tiny apartment seeming to be the hub on some sort of neighborhood teen club. They were in their thirties and childless, so they took in "strays," kids who either didn't have much of a home life or were just looking to get out of the house to someplace less confining and a little more welcoming. Tex was a temperamental, redheaded, comb-overed, loudmouthed, lascivious, pussy-joke-telling factory worker... He was also generous, loving, sweethearted and one of the most giving adults I'd met up to that time. 

Tex and Marion seemed stranded between the teen world and adulthood, so they made a home for themselves and a surrogate parental life somewhere in the middle. They weren't your parents but they weren't your peers either. As we howled away, pushing out the walls of their little home with banging guitars and crashing drums, with the neighbours a mere two inches of drywall away (what tolerance!), they made the rules and set the agenda for what would fly and what would not.... Tex became our manager and Marion the house mother and seamstress to a team of misfit townie rock-'n-rollers.  

Tex was my first surrogate father figure. He was loving in his own twisted way. More important, he was accepting. He cherished and encouraged your talents, took you for who you were and put his time, muscle, money and big black Cadillac, hauling equipment, all in the service of your dreams...   

There were adults like Tex and Marion all across the United States, real unsung heroes of rock-'n-roll who made room in their homes and in their lives to cart the equipment; to buy the guitars; to let out their basements, their garages, for practice sessions;  who'd found a place of understanding between the two combative worlds of teen life and adulthood. They would support and partake in the lives of their children. Without folks like these, the basements, the garages, the Elks clubs, the VFW halls would've been empty, and skinny, dreaming misfits would've had no place to go to learn how to turn into rock-'n-roll heroes. (from Chapter 13, "The Castiles," pp. 68-71)

Just think -- without the support, encouragement, mentorship and management provided by this  childless couple, would young Bruce Springsteen have become Bruce Springsteen, international rock superstar? Something to ponder...

(OK, the "stranded between the teen world and adulthood" line made me wince a little, but I'll forgive him... ;)  )

This was book #18 that I've read so far in 2016.

#MicroblogMondays: Feeling old/feeling young

A few things that are making me feel old(er) lately:

* Younger Nephew got engaged this past weekend!!  (Wedding date still TBD -- his older brother's is this coming fall.)  I still think of him as an adorable, chubby, curly-headed toddler with a soother permanently stuck in his mouth.
* Discussing mother of the bride (& groom) dresses with SIL & Older Nephew's fiancée's mother this weekend, including the merits of dresses with sleeves when you're in your 50s.
* Getting the ubiquitous Christmas card photos from friends & neighbours and noticing how grown-up their kids (& grandkids!!) are becoming.
* Noticing a LOT more grey hair on my head lately.
* Seeing online photos of a holiday gathering of some of my high school classmates, & not being able to identify most of them. (On the other hand, feeling better about my own grey hairs when I see some of theirs, lol.)
*  Trying (& failing) to master a whole lot of new technology all at once. :p
* Only lasting two hours while Christmas shopping in the city last week. (Although to be fair, that's probably as much because of the cold I've been battling as my age...!)
* Trying (& failing) to get tickets to see Bruce Springsteen, & realizing "The River" (which he will be performing in its entirety) was released 35 years ago, when dh & I were both at university.
* Realizing that there's no way these days that I could stand for three hours for a rock concert on the floor like I did when I was 20. Reserved seats all the way!!  (Even if they are more expensive, lol.)

 A few things that make me feel like I'm still a kid: 

*  Watching Santa with the kids at the mall & wanting to go sit on his lap myself. ;)
*  Seeing the Christmas lights on the neighbours' houses, all lit up after dark.
* Enjoying the lights on my own Christmas tree every evening.
*  Passing by an outdoor neighbourhood skating rink that's under construction & wishing I still had a pair of skates (even though I haven't been skating in 30 years...!).
*  Finding myself wishing it would snow (even though I'm enjoying the current balmy temperatures...!) -- makes things much more Christmas-y.
*  Doing the daily advent calendar every morning with dh.
*  Counting the days until I see my family for the holidays (soon! soon!!).

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.