Jilly’s A2Z Playlist: K is for the Kinks Part 2

Well I changed my mind. I might post two A2Z a day. At least for today, I couldn’t help myself.

Warren does it again, he reminded of another Kink’s song that puts me in a better mood. And as I gear up from my big day on Wednesday, I need all the help I can get in that respect.

Ray Davies man, enuf said.

Listen to the lyrics. Not to be too preachy, but they are definitely something to aspire to.

Better Things

That piano tho

AmIRight?!?! 😎

Always 🤣

Music is meant to be shared. If it speaks to you, I’d love to hear—drop me a comment.

As always, more to come.

Share Your World: Musical Edition

Gratitude: I am grateful for the miracles of modern medicine in that I will have a repeat scan on Wednesday. Hard to believe a year has already passed. I’m grateful for every second of that time in between even if some of my gratitude is in hindsight. Mostly at the moment, I am grateful to have work, WordPress, and other things to take me out of my head, even if just for a moment.

Now for the Q&A. Thanks Di for hosting. To join us in sharing your world, here are the rules and pingback.

1.  Do you play a musical instrument? No but I always wanted to learn.
2.  Is there an instrument you wish you could play? Piano
3.  Can you read music? I wish I could remember which course it was that I took where reading music was part of it. I think it was just a general education, music appreciation thing. Whatever I knew for a brief moment, I have completely forgotten.
4.  Do you have a favourite memory that involves music? Too many to name. My life is like the dramedy Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. Only it’s not other people’s thoughts that turn to music, it’s my own. That’s what my A2Z is all about. Music saved me before and it’s saving me right now as I grapple my way through my so-called life.

As always, more to come.

Jilly’s A2Z Playlist: K is for the Kinks

I picked the Kinks purely for their name. Ha! Not a huge fan but Destroyer is a song whose lyrics I relate to for so many reasons. Apple … tree … mi madre.

This line tho ….

Stop! Hold on, stay in control

AmIRight?!?!?

Destroyer

Music is meant to be shared. If it speaks to you, I’d love to hear—drop me a comment.

As always, more to come.

What a Difference a Day Makes … or a Few Hours

This was my morning.

This is now: If doing so doesn’t overly stress myself, I will rewrite this week’s A2Z – Monday to Saturday. I won’t be posting two a day with links back though, but I will be commenting to myself. Like talking to myself but as long as I know it’s me ala Dave Mustaine. Sweating Bullets !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will be just fine.

The link to “I will be just fine,” above is to my 2018 #SoCS. The commentor cjensen has not been active on WP since 2020. I wonder how he is, where he is, and if he even is. He was addicted, purposefully homeless, living on the streets of Canada. We had such a deep kinship even before I knew I was 1/2 Canadian (ha! inside joke, technically true, legally not so much). And no I do NOT think he is a lost relative. The dates simply do not line up. The kinship I speak of is the organic variety. Not homegrown through blood but grown through similarities that defy explanation.

While this is I for Interview, it also means I am fucking FINE.

Okay enough blabbering, it is tune time!

Is that not the best artwork ever?!?!

Y’all know me, I always have something to say. The gloves are off, not that I want a fight, because I don’t. I just want to be heard, accepted. I want what you said about forever ….

On a completely random aside, I bought a lamp for my desk in our family room. A big ass desk that I inherited from my sonshine. I resisted making it homey because I have too much stuff. And because I could escape into my home office and be alone if I did not make the desk usable. I decided I do not want to be alone. And in the spirit of being around my people, mainly just B and me, I have been sprucing up the place. I created a nest where I can come and write my little heart out. All it took was my new lamp, with pencil/pen holder and USB port. There is also a space for cell phone, my meds and Olive the Otter. See feature image – Olive was given to me by my coworker Debbie. Her brother got some really bad news recently, their family is reeling and still she thought about me.

As always, more to come.

A to Z & Other Assorted Statuses

For the rest of the A to Z April Challenge,
I’m letting the songs speak for me.

No commentary,
no echo back to myself —
just music.

Still, I’d love your comments.
I’ll be here, answering.
I’m a responder in more ways than one.

This shift — this quieting —
is because I feel myself slipping.
And the whole point of changing course
was to reach for something lighter.

But life doesn’t always follow the theme.

The 15th is my re-scan.
I try not to think about it,
but the truth is
I’m in pain,
and I’m scared.

I need to say it out loud
so it stops echoing inside me.

B has been steady through it all,
patient,
listening
as I spiral.

From the 17th to the 19th,
I’ll be in Austin —
a change of place,
a small pocket of relief.

Last time, the waiting stretched thin —
six days that felt like forever.
So I’ve done the math.
The 21st is the day
I’ve quietly marked.

And in the space between now and then,
my mind has gone everywhere —
every ending,
every possibility.

My mother died at 62.
My Oma, pancreatic cancer. One month shy of 70.
And now, too close,
my coworker’s brother, 55.
Stage 4.
Terminal.

It’s hard not to connect the dots
even when you don’t know
if they’re yours to connect.

I’ve planned my funeral.
Then my care.
In that order.
Of course.

The worst case —
I’m gone.
Not for me,
but for B
and the kids.

The middle —
I fight,
or I don’t.
Because I’ve seen how sometimes
the cure asks more
than the disease.

And the best —
the quiet miracle —
nothing changes.
Or better yet,
it disappears.

There’s no knowing which story
will be mine.

But saying it —
placing it here —
keeps it from
rattling around inside me.

As always,
more to come.

Song Lyric Sunday: Recently Created Compositions

Three days ago, I didn’t know the Canadian group STARS or their song Calendar Girl existed. A2Z is bringing out some stellar music and this is no exception. Right from the first note, I feel the dopamine hit Jim talks about. I’m sucked in.

If I am lost for a day; try to find me

Please. I’m screaming it in my head. Try to FIND me. No one hears me. I’m lost, alone, hurting. Storm of my life.

December is darkest, in June there’s the light.

December. My birth month.
The month I was given up.
Kicked to the curb. Lost for the first time.

I’ve been waiting to be found ever since.

And you did, for a moment — the last day in June. I was FOUND!
But nothing lasts forever. Something feels like we’ve shifted. I’d love nothing more than to be imagining the distance but I’m trusting my intuition.

And I’ll laugh about all that we’ve lost

Jilly weeps.
Laughter is caught in my throat. Thick, viscous tears blur the screen as the music soars.

Calendar girl who’s in love with the world, stay alive

Calendar Girl. That’s me. And I do love the world. Even the broke parts of it. Smiling in the frame, frozen in time. A curated image. Not reality. Yet trying to live.

Thing is I really do love the song even as much as it pierced my heart.

Special shout out to Warren for the introduction. I’m blessed to have found you in the blogosphere.

Calendar Girl by STARS.

As always, more to come.

Written for #SLS Recently Created Compositions. Thanks Jim for being a fantastic host. The rules and pingback are here.

J is for Jam Sessions

Here is my comment to myself.

I think maybe I picked this particular Joe Walsh song, A Life of Illusion, because that partially explains my life. I lived in what’s known as a ghost kingdom. Always curious and wondering, but never saying it out loud. Everything was smoke and mirrors. The height of illusion. And I’m not complaining, made me who I am today.


Now for Journey. Don’t Stop Believing may be their anthem but Any Way You Want It is one I remember most. They played this jam at the rodeo carnival where we’d scream sing “ooh baby hold tight!” while riding the Scrambler.

Journey puts on an excellent show— very first time we went, my friend V’s mom, Sally, that dear sweet woman, who never learned to drive, walked all the way to McCreless Mall and stood in line with a bunch of diehard fans because she didn’t want us to skip school to get tickets. Someone waiting with her took her under their wing. She got us some of the best seats ever.

I had a lot of Sallys in my life. Mother figures who took me under their wing. Such a lucky girl and I know it. 🍀

As always, more to come.

#SoCS: Returning

Good morning my lovelies. Time once again to get our stream on. LG says we can use bookmark as a noun or verb or any way we’d like.

Bookmark.
Hmmm… think, think, think.

I don’t read like I used to. Not even close. Lately I’ve got the attention span of a gnat—or maybe that’s unfair to gnats. I start things and I’m gone again. On to the next. And the next. Always the next.

But there was a time. There was always a time.

I used to inhale books. Sucking in the words as if my life depended on them. Not just reading them—consuming them, disappearing into them, like the pages were air and I couldn’t get enough. Stories were the best way out of my so called life.

Sometimes I wonder if I stay still long enough—bookmarked—will he come find me again? But I don’t stay. I’m already gone. Next thing. Protect the heart. Before I can fully feel the loneliness… the distance.

Bookmarks. I had them. A little collection. Not because I needed them, but because I wanted them. Cardboard ones. Ribbon ones. One I never threw away, even though it was worn and imperfect, for reasons I still can’t quite explain. It just stayed. Like it meant something I wasn’t ready to name.

Funny how something so simple could feel like a promise. A held place. A pause. A “don’t lose this while you’re gone thinking about something else.”

Bookmark as a place-holder. Bookmark as a breath I used to believe I’d return to. Bookmark as “I’ll come back,” even when there was nothing left to come back to.

Maybe I still do that. Just not with books.

Just… life. Thoughts. Pieces of myself.

As always, more to come.

Written for #SoCS April 11, 2026, bookmark any way you like it. The rules and pingback are here. Join us for the fun.

Jilly’s A2Z Playlist: J is for Joe Walsh and Journey

I decided to listen before writing—time to slow down before I burn out. I hope you enjoy this song as much as I do. Music is meant to be shared. This is an unlikely pairing, but I simply could NOT decide on just one, so I didn’t. Ha!

If it speaks to you, I’d love to hear—drop me a comment.

Life of Illusion
Any Way You Want It

As always, more to come.

A Place To Put This!

Done with work and sitting with my heating pad. I’m scrolling around because I got time to kill. I need to make better use of my time — that’s the first thing that comes to mind. But anyway, this is not about that. I see where April 10 is National Siblings Day. And I remember now in hindsight how it was started by someone who lost their brother and sister tragically in separate accidents. And the creator used her sister‘s birthday to acknowledge her grief. Now that doesn’t mean it’s the only thing I’m thinking about — like there’s lots of stuff — exciting stuff about to happen— like Artemis is landing. I mean, how freaking cool is that? Rhetorical —because I mean come on — it goes without saying that the Artemis landing is flipping cool. Alrighty well my pain is off the charts and I’m not sure exactly what that’s all about. Anyway the heating pad is tamping it down a tad. I had a really good day at work. I was busy and I got stuff done. We had been in conference during the week so it was kind of a whirling dervish. I actually went out twice at night like the old days. I love being in community with my coworkers.

This is what stream looks like folks.

Lots of good memories on FB but I only shared one. A throwback picture of Pony and Lulu. Siblings separated by 9 1/2 years yet still very lucky to have each other. And even though they leave me out of their little communications, I know they’re texting daily and it makes my heart happy. 😊 what makes me sad is that everyone doesn’t have that. B is missing Dan and I’m missing Jim. And B doesn’t even have another option like I do. Still I don’t dare go first because — well because we know why. I am back to wanting what I can’t say out loud. No one is reading my mind. No one felt what I felt. 

Three years ago on this day, a certain someone, my Papa, was trying to FB message me a picture of my three siblings, but it wouldn’t go through because I was persona non grata and blocked by the original poster. Then through an alternative source, my sister, I got the picture. We acknowledged that while ours wasn’t a traditional relationship, traditional was boring and overrated. We claimed each other. And that lasted for a hot minute. April 10, 2023 to September 18, 2023. Now some three years later, there is a passive agreement to wish each other well and to live in a parallel universe. It is actually kind of cool because it’s like having a guardian angel, who’s really alive just living in the Pacific Northwest. and the actual guardian angel, my dearly departed she sister, Angie. Who I never knew but claim all the same is for sure watching over me as we approach April 23rd which is the passing of our mama and ‘oh my gosh’ I need to freaking find David. My brother through Cathy. That’s it. I’m texting Debbie.

I don’t recall exactly how it came up during our conference, but I was specifically asked so I answered, I am the youngest of eight. I am the second youngest of 12. I am the second oldest of five (that we know of) and I’m the oldest of three. I have to add the snark because I am convinced there are more out there —floating around — waiting to somehow find us. I think I’ve always been a wannabe quant and the odds are in our favor.

If you’ve made it to the bottom of this ramble and you have any clue WTF, I’m talking about hats off to you. You earn bonus points. And if you wonder why I’ve been escaping into music, now you know. My love to the world.

As always, more to come.

PS one of the articles I read said to post a picture if you thought the relationship should be recognized. And I almost did that like I seriously almost did that but I stopped myself because I feel like I’m alone in my belief that it should be recognized.

Cover of Both Sides Now