Musical Mondays—Queen of California

Well, Saturday's luau went off without a hitch and I've realized I'm starting to remember people by name, not just face, and we met lots of new people including a relatively new couple from Beaverton, OR. I had noticed the Oregon plates on their pick-up and just had to go say hi. Turns out they've also lived in Fremont, CA (where we moved from) and near where Scoob grew up in Hawaii. Very strange coincidence.

I've also realized something else—it seems to take some folks from around here forever to say what they've got to say because they speak so slowly. And when you find that quality in someone who is particularly chatty and whose thought process seems to get derailed easily... Well, it's enough to drive a girl batshit crazy. I found myself repeatedly dodging one of these most of the luau evening. She's a sweet, sweet lady, I just knew I couldn't take much more without my ears bleeding or an eyeball popping out of a socket.

Anyhow, after doing set-up and decorating on Friday and then cooking until late to get the chicken done, luau until your feet say "oo-ow" from 4 to 11 on Saturday, and heading back on Sunday for a few hours of clean up, I slept like the dead last night. Even after I'd passed out on the couch with my head in Scoob's lap for a couple hours!

I got my very first North Carolina State tax refund in today's mail—a whole $40—but it's $40 more than I had yesterday. And I swear I just paid all those bills that came in the mail along with the refund. Sometimes I swear the month goes round way to fast.

Our garden is just speeding along. I brought in my second spinach harvest last night for dinner and we've got actual tomatoes on a couple of the tomato plants already! I'm really looking forward to those ripening up! Waiting to see how the peppers and okra will do.

Last week, it must have been Friday, I stumbled across free streaming of John Mayer's new Born and Raised album (are they still called albums?). I'm not normally a big John Mayer fan, but for the most part I did like this. It's got a low-key Southern Rock–hippy-dippy-60s vibe. I would say, though, that a couple of songs (especially Queen of California, below) are more than a little similar to songs that already exist. They so closely resembled other songs with style, tempo, key, harmony, I actually thought the song was going to be a cover. I can't for the life of me put my finger on the name of the song it sounds like, but I'm thinking Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Anyhow, there's nothing particularly splashy or flashy on the album, but I liked it and thought it made good getting-work-done or book reading background music—mellow, feel-good, tapping your toes kind of music, but nothing that's going to distract me from work because I can't control the urge to dance and sing along.

Queen of California
John Mayer

Goodbye cold, goodbye rain
Goodbye sorrow, goodbye shame
I'm headed out west with my headphones on
Boarded a flight with a song in the back of my soul
And no one knows

I just found out her ghost left town
The Queen of California is stepping down, down

Hello beauty, hello strange
Hello wonder, what's your name?
Looking for the sun that Neil Young hung
After the gold rush of 1971

I just found out her ghost left town
The Queen of California is stepping down, down

[INSTRUMENTAL]

If you see her say, "Hello"
Just don't tell me, "I told you so"
Joni wrote Blue in her house by the sea
I gotta believe there's another color waiting on me
To set me free

I just found out her ghost left town
The Queen of California is stepping down, down

[INSTRUMENTAL]

And since the album hasn't been released yet, they're being a little bitchy about DRM on the video, but there's a live version of John Mayer performing Queen of California here.