Monday

ei34 · February 10

How's everyone on this cold day? Hoping it's a healthy and bump-free week for all!

VarunaTT · February 10

Good morning. I am awfully chipper this morning. Which always makes me suspicious and I start looking through my brain for what I'm ignoring. But maybe I'm just happy? I'm not really used to that, especially right now, so I'll try to just enjoy it. Weekend was good. My arm is feeling loads better, so I very slowly caught up on some household chores. I took it easy so that my arm didn't get messed up again, so it basically took all weekend.

I'm excited for this week. I'm going to take a half day on Friday. One of the rooms that I'm moving into at Mom's house needs a new lighting fixture. She wants me to help pick it out since it'll be "my" room. This should be interesting, b/c our decorating styles are complete opposites of each other and she's going to hate whatever I pick out. However, she is also aware of this and said she considered telling me she was going to get a wagon wheel fixture, just to see my face. Also, she wants to go to the hoity toity place in town. It's her money, so fine. Then, nap time and off to the DJ show. Then driving to KC on Saturday to see my BFF! I'll be there for 3 nights, drive home Tuesday. I'll get to see BFF preach and do his storytellers night, all good things.

How're the rest of you ladies doing? Hope everyone had a good weekend.

ei34 · February 10

The kids enjoyed all of their activities this weekend and I survived them. We got more snow Saturday into Sunday but thankfully not the 8" that it could have been. I do like winter but I'm tired of shoveling snow.

I wasn't going into the Superbowl with particularly high expectations but still walked away underwhelmed. Boring when one team blows out the other, and the halftime show was lacking (I've heard of Kendrick Lamar but didn't know his music...told myself that once he started I'd recognize a few but I didn't). Maybe UO but I think unless it's a megastar performer (Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, etc), the halftime show should be collaborations, not solo acts.

I have a pretty busy week and am bracing myself for it.

CharmedPam · February 10

I have no idea who Kendrick lamar is either @ei34. And because I didn’t watch it, I still don’t! Lol. I put $20 in at work for work squares and $50 for my touchstone jewelry squares, but those were just luck of the draw and nothing to do with scoring. For $50 I ended up winning $250 in jewelry! Yay! And I agree, make it a collaboration of people, that’s always fun.
i joined match com on Friday after some encouragement from my therapist saying it would be a good idea. I’m underwhelmed and I forgot how stupid online dating is with the back and forth messaging. Maybe finding someone IRL is my only way to go? I leave my house from time to time lol.
i’m sitting here waiting on my HVAC guy to come and install a new water heater. Oh joy. He’s going to have to disassemble my washer/dryer in order to reach that area. I completely forgot about that! Maybe I should have done tankless?

banana468 · February 10

ei34 said:

I wasn't going into the Superbowl with particularly high expectations but still walked away underwhelmed. Boring when one team blows out the other, and the halftime show was lacking (I've heard of Kendrick Lamar but didn't know his music...told myself that once he started I'd recognize a few but I didn't). Maybe UO but I think unless it's a megastar performer (Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, etc), the halftime show should be collaborations, not solo acts.

I think that's where I am as well.

I enjoyed Kendrick Lamar and after watching it I feel like I was entertained but also had a moment of "this is a show that my kids are bigger fans of". Neither DH nor I are as familiar with him and I've loved a lot of the more collaborative performances more. I think it was two years ago that the halftime performance was Snoop and Mary J Blige among others and I was off the couch dancing the entire time. If I think back to the performances that I didn't love from recent shows I think the ones I liked the least were The Weekend and Rihanna's and this may be 3rd to the ones I wasn't loving. I don't think any of them were bad but they weren't my style and will assume that the ones I loved probably weren't the style of others.

I do love more collaborative performances just because they're so short so when surprise artists pop out it's adding to the excitement. And you're probably right that added to a blowout 1st half I was on over-eating nacho mode.

I LOVED the beginning performances including Jon Batiste's National Anthem and Trombone Shorty's America The Beautiful. I got to see Trombone Shorty live at the Soulshine concert back in November and the performance was amazing.

Weekend was super busy. Saturday was another fencing meet in the morning. Chiquita won 2 out of 3 and is showing some decent progress on the team as a novice. There were 3 schools in attendance and 1 didn't have a novice team so that was it for her. I spent the afternoon cleaning my bathrooms and we showed the kids the new Wallace and Gromit movie for dinner. Learned the psalm and alleluia for the Sunday mass because I was coverage as our cantor confirmed he wasn't going to make the ride.

Sunday I was out the door early and thankful that Chiquita shoveled out the end of the driveway. After subbing the two masses I was in laundry mode.

I'm definitely feeling very 'leaned on' right now in the house and I'm trying to tread lightly because DH Is just not great. And I can't push on him knowing that he's not feeling great with his anxiety or health (they're definitely linked and he's making changes to both so I can't fault him) but it's a lot right now. I have the kids school grades on an app and after seeing Chiquita missing assignments this morning and Chiquito slept through his alarm so he had a grand total of 6 minutes to get dressed and to the bus stop, I feel.....like I'm tapped.

VarunaTT · February 10

Kendrick Lamar IS a superstar act. He's huge, won a total of 22 of Grammys including this last one where he became the first hiphop artist to win 5 Grammys in one night, has been nominated (I can't remember if he won) for an Oscar for his music work on Black Panther, and has won a Pulitzer prize for music, being the first hiphop artist to do so. He also has lots of charts awards, one of the highest grossing tours of all time, and is widely considered the best hip hop artist of his generation. So, y'all don't know him, but 1. that doesn't mean he isn't a megastar and actually blows some of the previous half-time shows out of the water with his musical pedigree, and 2. I was LIVING for everything happening on that stage, including the fact that he did the diss track, his symbology of American flags and the show being black coded all to hell and back, and , everyone yelling "A Minor" and "MUSTAAAARD" in the arena, and Serena Williams crip walking.

It's okay to think, This wasn't for me, but that doesn't mean it wasn't freaking amazing or entertaining. This is a little bit of check your privilege, please. Not everything has to be catered to a white gaze.

ei34 · February 10

Being entertained is subjective though. He can have his (deserved) accolades and people can still say "I found the halftime show boring". I also found the game boring, and I think my south Jersey/Philly friends would disagree.

banana468 · February 10

VarunaTT said:

Kendrick Lamar IS a superstar act. He's huge, won a total of 22 of Grammys including this last one where he became the first hiphop artist to win 5 Grammys in one night, has been nominated (I can't remember if he won) for an Oscar for his music work on Black Panther, and has won a Pulitzer prize for music, being the first hiphop artist to do so. He also has lots of charts awards, one of the highest grossing tours of all time, and is widely considered the best hip hop artist of his generation. So, y'all don't know him, but 1. that doesn't mean he isn't a megastar and actually blows some of the previous half-time shows out of the water with his musical pedigree, and 2. I was LIVING for everything happening on that stage, including the fact that he did the diss track, his symbology of American flags and the show being black coded all to hell and back, and , everyone yelling "A Minor" and "MUSTAAAARD" in the arena, and Serena Williams crip walking.

It's okay to think, This wasn't for me, but that doesn't mean it wasn't freaking amazing or entertaining. This is a little bit of check your privilege, please. Not everything has to be catered to a white gaze.

I felt entertained. I liked the show and after seeing some of the background to understand the Serena Williams presence I liked it more.

But it wasn't my style. I think my kids are more into him than I am and that's OK! It was an element of feeling like I'm getting old and the pendulum is swinging to a show that my children are more into.

VarunaTT · February 10

ei34 said:

Being entertained is subjective though. He can have his (deserved) accolades and people can still say "I found the halftime show boring". I also found the game boring, and I think my south Jersey/Philly friends would disagree.

And that is what I said. It's okay to think "this show isn't for me" in all the ways, BUT that doesn't mean the show itself wasn't good or that Lamar, b/c YOU don't know him, isn't a superstar on par with Gaga, or any of the other criticisms that are based in "I don't follow/listen to hip hop, so IDK who Lamar is, and that means this show is bad", which is what a LOT of the criticisms are being based in. Too many white folx expect the half time show to cater to their preferences, and when it doesn't, they freak out (please see Beyonce's half time show and criticisms). It's important to make sure that we recognize our implicit biases we hold when critiquing things.

Casadena · February 10

@VarunaTT I woke up feeling the same way exactly. The boys were also just super cute and sweet this morning which is always nice. Trying to trust and lean into the happy feeling instead of being skeptical. It's hard when it's sadly not the norm.

@banana468 I was texting a friend this morning about the same feeling of being stretched too thin and not really having a solution atm. Sending good thoughts/vibes.

Woke up on time and in a great mood today, shocking what 5 nights of uninterrupted sleep can do. Have a gigantic to do list for both work and home and feeling a bit overwhelmed. Found a dress i love for the fancier gala we're scheduled to go to next weekend, hoping everyone stays healthy enough for us to make it to that one.

Therapy dog appt tomorrow night, jury duty downtown on Thursday, book club Thursday night, comedy show downtown Friday with H, Vday event with the kids at the library Saturday morning. Busy but fun week. We got childcare figured out for Friday, our parents are just switching weekends which I really appreciate. But IL's work all day Friday so probably won't be able to get over early enough for us to do dinner before our 7:30 show, so we might be doing packed charcuterie and single serve wine on the train in

flantastic · February 10

VarunaTT said:

Kendrick Lamar IS a superstar act. He's huge, won a total of 22 of Grammys including this last one where he became the first hiphop artist to win 5 Grammys in one night, has been nominated (I can't remember if he won) for an Oscar for his music work on Black Panther, and has won a Pulitzer prize for music, being the first hiphop artist to do so. He also has lots of charts awards, one of the highest grossing tours of all time, and is widely considered the best hip hop artist of his generation. So, y'all don't know him, but 1. that doesn't mean he isn't a megastar and actually blows some of the previous half-time shows out of the water with his musical pedigree, and 2. I was LIVING for everything happening on that stage, including the fact that he did the diss track, his symbology of American flags and the show being black coded all to hell and back, and , everyone yelling "A Minor" and "MUSTAAAARD" in the arena, and Serena Williams crip walking.

It's okay to think, This wasn't for me, but that doesn't mean it wasn't freaking amazing or entertaining. This is a little bit of check your privilege, please. Not everything has to be catered to a white gaze.

I don't know his music really at all, but I know he is a big deal and I could tell the show was good.

Although Iike all halftime shows, the audio mixing live was terrible, so I couldn't follow the rap well because I didn't already know it. But that's not on Lamar.

VarunaTT · February 10

@flantastic you are the first person, besides me, to say this. I could not believe how terrible the mixing was. I was actually researching things awhile ago b/c I couldn't believe how terrible my television was always sounding. Basically, most TV is recording and played assuming you have 5.1 sound and most of us still really don't, we just have our TV speakers. That's why it sounds so bad, or background music will be so loud you can't hear dialogue, etc. I'm almost tempted to get a sound bar, just to help, b/c I do watch TV for entertainment and sometimes it's horrible sounding.

banana468 · February 10

I don't know if anyone watched Fire Aid but I found some of the audio to be a serious issue when that was broadcast to the point that the mixing was hardly able to be heard.

DH was following Reddit when we were at Soulshine and there were complaints that while we could hear some of the musicians in the audience those streaming the show live couldn't hear things like the artists' microphones.

ei34 · February 10

VarunaTT said:

ei34 said:

Being entertained is subjective though. He can have his (deserved) accolades and people can still say "I found the halftime show boring". I also found the game boring, and I think my south Jersey/Philly friends would disagree.

And that is what I said. It's okay to think "this show isn't for me" in all the ways, BUT that doesn't mean the show itself wasn't good or that Lamar, b/c YOU don't know him, isn't a superstar on par with Gaga, or any of the other criticisms that are based in "I don't follow/listen to hip hop, so IDK who Lamar is, and that means this show is bad", which is what a LOT of the criticisms are being based in. Too many white folx expect the half time show to cater to their preferences, and when it doesn't, they freak out (please see Beyonce's half time show and criticisms). It's important to make sure that we recognize our implicit biases we hold when critiquing things.

Beyonce's from a few years ago was awesome. I was so entertained that I was dancing along in my living room. I think it's great when entertainers use their time to say something beyond just performing, like she did. I don't mean to shock you but there might be some people who were underwhelmed last night without there being a greater (hateful) meaning. I wasn't familiar with his music before last night and I wasn't moved last night to get to know him better. But I'm sorry if me being underwhelmed or not personally putting him in Bruno Mars/Lady Gaga territory is upsetting or offensive on a deeper level.

short+sassy · February 10

@banana468, I really enjoyed they had a local band like Trombone Shorty as part of the beginning musical performances.

I wish they'd go back to having funny and entertaining commercials for the SB. It's mostly been a snoozefest for years.

So glad NOLA had another opportunity to host the Superbowl and all the economic goodness it brings. But so personally glad it's OVER. GTFO and go back home everyone, lol. Open all the streets back up so I can get back to my normal commute times.

My maternal grandmother died yesterday. I'm not really sad about it, but am extra sorry our move to Cincy was delayed. My aunt is about 90 minutes from Cincy and grandma was in nursing home near her. I could have seen her again if I'd already moved. She was 99 years old and has been tired of living for a long time, so it is a blessing. But my poor mom was really upset when she called to tell me.

VarunaTT · February 10

ei34 said:

VarunaTT said:

ei34 said:

Being entertained is subjective though. He can have his (deserved) accolades and people can still say "I found the halftime show boring". I also found the game boring, and I think my south Jersey/Philly friends would disagree.

And that is what I said. It's okay to think "this show isn't for me" in all the ways, BUT that doesn't mean the show itself wasn't good or that Lamar, b/c YOU don't know him, isn't a superstar on par with Gaga, or any of the other criticisms that are based in "I don't follow/listen to hip hop, so IDK who Lamar is, and that means this show is bad", which is what a LOT of the criticisms are being based in. Too many white folx expect the half time show to cater to their preferences, and when it doesn't, they freak out (please see Beyonce's half time show and criticisms). It's important to make sure that we recognize our implicit biases we hold when critiquing things.

Beyonce's from a few years ago was awesome. I was so entertained that I was dancing along in my living room. I think it's great when entertainers use their time to say something beyond just performing, like she did. I don't mean to shock you but there might be some people who were underwhelmed last night without there being a greater (hateful) meaning. I wasn't familiar with his music before last night and I wasn't moved last night to get to know him better. But I'm sorry if me being underwhelmed or not personally putting him in Bruno Mars/Lady Gaga territory is upsetting or offensive on a deeper level.

I don't discount this. However, it is important to recognize that you usually need to differentiate yourselves from the hateful commentary vs. the ignorant (and I don't mean that negatively, it just means you don't know) commentary. And just b/c you (encompassing you) don't know Kendrick Lamar, who has been big since his first album dropped in (I had to check, I thought it was 2012) 2011, doesn't mean that he isn't a superstar, no matter how you (again encompassing) feel about him. His performance was also loaded with symbology that I don't expect everyone to get, but to dismiss it b/c you (again, encompassing you) didn't, isn't it. I doubt the NFL is going to ask someone they would consider niche and Lamar is played on mass radio. Being like some of the comments above were, This isn't for me, but I can tell it was good, is totally fine. Not knowing who Lamar is, is totally fine. Critiquing based on those things, that those 2 facts = bad show, is not alright. I mean, if they had done anyone country, I might know the name, but I wouldn't know any of the songs and would find it underwhelming, no matter who it was -- so not for me, but can still be a good show.

ETA: or even to say, Hey, I don't know this artist, so I can't really judge on anything.

charlotte989875 · February 10

So sorry for your loss @shorty+sassy and that you couldn’t be there earlier.

Sleepy Monday. I went to bed after the third quarter and woke up having won the 4th quarter squares!

I rewatched half time this morning and damn there was a lot I missed the first time around. There are a few really good summaries floating around covering all the symbolism (Samuel L Jackson,Squid Game board, the prison yard, the flag to name just a few). I did think the sound and mixing was weird at the start, although seemed to get better by the time SZA came on!

ei34 · February 10

I’m sorry for your loss @short+sassy, especially for your mom (and the feelings of regret about the delayed move)

CharmedPam · February 10

So sorry for your loss @short+sassy, but at 99 she must have lived an incredible life!

levioosa · February 10

I’m so sorry for your loss @short+sassy

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