I’ve been working like a fiend for the past week. Whether helping my dd sort through my mom’s lifetime accumulation of stuff, writing the next bounty hunter, editing pages for author-friends, and reading shorts for the next Boys Behaving Badly anthology, I don’t have time for TV. So, I missed this year’s Grammys. However, this video of one of the performances during that show is inescapable. I saw it on a Twitter feed, watched it once, and I swear I’ve probably watched it twenty more times over the past few days.

There’s so much to love about it.

First, you see Demi Lovato in a gorgeous dress, looking angelic. Immediately, I was struck with gratitude that the overdose she suffered didn’t kill her and that she’s standing on stage looking beautiful and strong.

Then you see her begin to sing, and she does that thing that anyone who’s stood on a stage fears most—making a mistake and having to start over. My stomach sank, and I was cheering inside for her to go on. She did.

As a writer and editor, I love her words. They are few. But every single one matters. The lyrics are raw from Word One. I love the melody. It plays in my head. I can’t hum it; it starts low and quickly rises way outside my limited range, but the music makes my heart soar.

And then you see the tears, hear the tears. If you’re one of those lucky people, like me, who gets goosebumps when music moves you, then you know how I feel every time she gets to that searing crescendo. It’s glib to say, but it’s a wonderful performance.

If you haven’t seen it, get ready. If you have, enjoy another look…

If you didn’t watch it live on Sunday night at the Oscars, or you’re not one of the nearly 12 million people who’ve watched the video, you’re welcome! It was the best moment of the night and left this writer sighing.

Just back from spending the evening with my dd. We turned on the Grammy’s and settled in. As always, it was an uneven evening of entertainment with a few sterling performances. Our favorite, hands down, was Brandi Carlile singing “The Joke”. No glitzy costume. Just her with her acoustic guitar and small band, and her big, big voice. The video of her Grammy performance is on YouTube yet, but she’s always best live, so I’m sharing her performance on Austin City Limits. Really, folks, catch the Grammy performance. She was unbelievably great!

UPDATE: The winner is…Mary Preston!
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I should have been writing.

Instead, I said yes when my dd asked whether I’d like to make a trip to Sam’s. Sam’s is an hour away. And an hour back. Inside Sam’s is a world of temptation in big, multi-box glory. We took forever shopping. So, when we wrapped it up, the kids slept in the back of the mini-van while the adults cranked up the Pandora to do some headbanging. And then it was, “Play this!” We went through our hard rock/metal faves—Limp Bizkit’s “Nookie” (I can’t believe how well that song has aged for me!), White Zombie’s “More Human Than Human”, Disturbed’s “Stupefy”—with all of us trying to follow David D’s haunting cantor’s wail (oh my eardrums!).

In the middle of a very satisfying jam, my dd suddenly, joltingly, changed the theme to our least favorite songs, beginning with “Peaches” by The Presidents of the United States of America (which, oddly, we knew all the words to!). But the one that rose to the top of the groans scale was “Brimful of Asha” by Cornershop. Don’t remember it? I bet you’ll wish you didn’t after you have a listen here. And I’ll bet you can’t play it just once. (Ahem, it’s a bit addicting.)

“I don’t want to wear a pink bow!” the 5-year-old yells, and then she runs to get the “perfect bow”—a gargantuan blue blow that makes her look like a cartoon character, but hey, she’s happy.

“Lala, you’re going to be late!”

“I’m not finished braiding my hair!”

“J, have you brushed your teeth?”

By the time they’re walking down the long drive to meet the bus, I’m sitting back, sipping on my coffee, and secretly laughing my ass off, because I didn’t have to do squat—been there, done that.

My dd comes back from seeing the little one up the bus steps and says, “Hey, before you go back to your office, wanna watch Deadpool 2?”

Of course, I was in. I LOVE superhero movies. She wanted to pre-screen it before she decided if any of the kids could watch it, because we saw the first one, and Ryan Reynolds has a potty mouth (not that I mind that so much—I prefer kids being exposed to bad words and a little flesh as opposed to violence, blood, and guts). So, we settled in to watch.

All I can say is I’m glad we watched it at home because I would have been “That Woman”—you know the one who laughs too loud and has to make comments all the way through the movie. Loved Ryan Reynolds (I have a crush on him), loved Josh Brolin as Cable. Laughed myself silly over Matt Damon’s cameo as the redneck talking about Wet Wipes and toilet paper and Deadpool with the little baby legs. The parachuting scene?! HaHaHa! The soundtrack was fun as well. I laughed again when a Céline Dion song played, because it so wasn’t suited for the movie, but was somehow still perfect.

After the credits rolled, I had to find the video. Céline’s music isn’t my music. I don’t have a single song of hers on my iPod, but this is fun! Hope  you enjoy it! Loved Deadpool in high heels. 🙂

I was sad to hear about Demi Lovato’s overdose today. I’m a fan, and I’ve been following her journey. It’s a reminder about how difficult it is to beat addiction. Demi’s always let us see her vulnerabilities and has been honest about her addiction, eating disorder, and mental illness. I wish her well and hope she finds sobriety again.

UPDATE: The winner is Jennifer Beyer!
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Okay, so maybe a better title would have been “happy songs” or “dance tunes”, but I’m sitting at my dd’s kitchen table watching the 13-year-old sweep the floor, and the quiet’s killing her, so I brought up You Tube and found this. Love Luis Fonsi! Remember “Despacito”?!

Yes, life’s hard for teenagers without something or someone entertaining them.

In steps grandmamá.

She’s smiling now. Give us some ideas for more tunes that will make us want to dance while we write…and sweep. 🙂

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