Trying To Sing Through The Clouds
Michelle on Dec 11 2006 at 2:12 am | Filed under: The Personal
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This weekend, the black cloud of depression has been hanging heavily upon me. I think I have exacerbated a natural tendency towards it by sliding off of my diet into an orgy of cookies, ice cream and Cheetos. I know what chemicals and sugar do to me. I have got to get back on track. I’m not sure how right now. I’m not sure what I am thinking that is causing this behavior. Could it be, “I deserve to eat a bunch of junk because I am under stress because of Older Son’s arrest?” If so, I need to change that message.
I spent the majority of the weekend in a pretty unproductive manner. Husband didn’t feel good and holed up in his house in the bed. I did download 300 songs from a peer to peer file sharing program, sorted them out in iTunes, and burned a couple of CD’s. People have told me from time to time that I would like the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, but it’s one of those things that I tend to forget. I found them on the service, and downloaded an awesome version of Requiem that rocks. Sage requests it over and over again. I also found out that they will be touring not to terribly far from my area soon. The tickets are sooo expensive, though. At any rate, here is an awesome interview with Paul O’Neill in Christianity Today. I had no idea. I like their philosophy, and the light shows look like an awesome Christmas production.
Along musical lines, I never got to participate in that iPod shuffle meme that was going around, say, a year ago, because I didn’t have an iPod. I clicked over to Party Shuffle and got this:
Kansas-Dust in the Wind
Bing Crosby- Good King Wenceslas
Sting-Desert Rose
Lakota Lullaby
Michael Salgado-Palomita Blanca
Dropkick Murphys-The Dirty Glass
Paris Combo-Fibre De Verre
Donna Summers-Enough is Enough
Frank Sinatra-Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Bronski Beat-Communards
Nirvana-Smells Like Teen Spirit
I was fortunate enough to find my favorite song in the entire whole wide world, which is Looking From a Hilltop, by Section 25. New Wave 80’s stuff. My mood is getting better just thinking about it. I also found some Frank Black. 
Another thing: I took the kids to see Happy Feet. This may be the worst punishment that Older Son has had yet since being on house arrest. Younger Son enjoyed it, and Robin Williams did an excellent job with a couple of voices, but other than five laughs or so, it was an unbelieveable bore. I provide you with this helpful information out of the goodness of my heart. See at your own risk.
The preview for The Nativity Story looked excellent. We’ll be seeing that one for sure, although the irony of the sign on the window of the theater stating, “We apologize for the lack of heat in the theater showing The Nativity Story. Sorry for the inconvenience.” was not lost on me. It crossed my mind that they were trying for a more interactive movie experience, perhaps to build empathy amongst viewers…;-)
ITK code for Singing The Sky:
Isn’t it amazing what music can do to ease and lift moods, isn’t it? I’ve been listening to “U + Ur Hand” by Pink and “Dance, Dance” by Fall Out Boy over and over again on my iPod tonight, and my depression is all but gone. However, now I have a headache from head-banging. I’m such a dork.
Oh, man, I’m with you on the music… I don’t think I would have finished writing anything in grad school w/o the help of Internet radio.
As for Happy Feet… Boy Wonder and I went yesterday and loved it. But, my taste in movies has always been questionable.
Hope your spirits are picked up today. Sounds like you still had a nice weekend desipte the cloudiness.
NNot every weekend has to be the picture perfect one…some are just meant to eat cheetos, ice cream and cookies and wallow. 
I sympathize with you about your junkfood problem. Every once in a while I find myself slipping back toward that behavior and have to nip it in the bud. I especially think it is important to never have that stuff around at home, but sinc you have kids around I guess that’s easier said than done. Good luck.
This time of year is very emotional and tricky for me too. And I just have hormone issues going–plus the stressful teacher job. (not as much on my plate as you) I love the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, but also adore Mannheim Steamroller. Even my husband has decided he likes them after going to their concert last year.
I think there may be something about this time of year which makes me prone to mood swings. It could be the weather, it could be all the jolly red Christmasyness, it could be that another year is almost over and there are still so many hopes and dreams which didn’t get met. But anyway, I would agree that good music can definately lift your mood, my tendency is to listen to really depressing, whiney music and just bring myself lower!
Hope the week gets better!
Do go and see the nativity story. It’s well worth it. We all saw it on Monday (cheap day at our cinema here).