Saturday 9: Bye Bye Bye

 

Hey everyone! I hope you had a very merry Christmas, or if you're not a Christmaser, I hope you had a truly happy occasion that you do celebrate. Ours was pretty good! I have some returns and exchanges to facilitate, but not too many, I think. I believe everyone here liked the vast majority of their gifts. And while we didn't make it to our plans of the movies on Christmas Eve or the light festival on Christmas down in Ocean City, there's still time for both. Around the corner, a week from right now, is our 25th anniversary, which we're both so excited about! But enough about me, let's see what's rolling around in Crazy Sam's noggin this weekend!

Saturday 9: Bye Bye Bye (2000)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

From Sam: ♥ "This song was chosen because it's time to say goodbye to 2025.

 Thanks for participating in Saturday 9 this year." ♥

1) In this song, a man predicts his lover will start an argument. Is there anyone in your life who can be quarrelsome?

To quote Taylor Swift from her song Anti-Hero: "It's Me. Hi. I'm the problem. It's me."

I can be quite snippy sometimes, and I never know what's going to set me off. I do have one obvious clue, though: Bipolar 1 Disorder. I'm on multiple meds for it in precisely timed doses, and if I miss a round of meds, we're all sure that I'm likely to have a peachy-keen mood that seems totally out of my grasp to control, by the time the next round comes around. It doesn't  happen too often (knock wood), but when it does, watch out.

2) He says he's had it, he's checking out and signing off. Can you think of a time you were glad you walked away from something?

Well, it wasn't this house, but when we moved to Maryland house 5 years ago, we thought we might buy this house in Ocean City. There were all kinds of complications with that, such as we were still waiting for our house in Idaho to be sold, and that was through the VA loan; you can't do more than one VA loan at a time, and we could not/would not do any other loan to buy the next home. This awful guy (we discovered) suggested we buy his OC house in a kind of, pay-as-you-go style. I can't think of the term, currently. But the house turned into a real money pit, and we HAD to leave, for the safety of our kids, pets, and ourselves. The guy sued us and was very nasty about it, so we just settled it with him and cut our losses.

3) This week's song was performed by the band NSYNC. The group was formed in Orlando, FL, which is world famous as home to Walt Disney World. Today there are 12 Disney theme parks located around the globe. Have you ever visited one of these Magic Kingdoms?

No, not yet. We're not a huge Disney family. Chloë, Rob, and I briefly considered a visited to Tokyo Disney while we were there, but we quickly rejected that idea after about 20 seconds. There was so much more of actual Tokyo to see!

4) They made a celebrity appearance on The Simpsons. What's your all-time favorite cartoon show?

I grew up on "The Smurfs," so that was my longtime favorite cartoon. But in recent years, I'm afraid they've been farrr edged out by...

"Bob's Burgers." That's comedy gold right there. Speaking of which, I've been burying my head in one or two or three of Gordon Ramsey's yelly-sweary cooking competitions, and I need to catch up on "Bob's"!

5) In 2000, the year "Bye Bye Bye" was popular, Brad Pitt was named People's Sexiest Man Alive. Are you crushing on anyone right now?

* and here is where I left off on Saturday (yesterday) for this post, for nap #1 of 2? 3? I was very tired and feeling like crap yesterday and just never made it back *

I would've said something like, "Oh, pick a Hemsworth, any Hemsworth (especially Liam)," but honestly I'm just crushing on my husband really hard right now.

(I like his hair this length, and he's got a really cute tush in jeans, what can I say? Oh, that and I love him intensely.)

Let's look back on 2025 ...

6) What's the farthest from home you traveled in 2025?

Rob, Chloë, and I spent about 10 or 12 days in Japan in March. It was glorious except of course when it wasn't. Nico was also invited but opted out.

7) What was the biggest purchase that you made in 2025?

Our one, singular, most stand-alone biggest purchase would probably be when we replaced this ^^^ sardine can refrigerator with

this ^^^ major, expensiver, bespoker, update. Worth it? Depends on your perspective, but I would say yes.

8) What was your favorite book of 2025?

I've been furoshiki-wrapping our gifts for three years now, so I'm glad I was able to get a lot more cloths to use as furoshiki this year.  I'm also grateful to Chloë for giving me this:

book last year, as it really helped me use more fun, interesting ties than just the most basic, easy one to wrap our packages. I would like to get another book or two, though.

9) What are you looking forward to most in 2026?

I don't yet. Just to get there, for now. It's been a rough year. I know I have two living kids, but now I have two deceased kids, and that is hard on a deceased mama's heart. Especially when you encounter so many opportunities for people to ask you, "Do you have any kids? Oh, how many?" and then they're waiting while probably watching your face as you go back-and-forth, back-and-forth on the "How do I answer this time front?" Some people want all the nitty-gritty details, and I don't want to give them, and they feel hurt. And you can do a Punnett square for the other three scenarios there, and then, of course, you can draw out curves and extrapolations for each of those scenarios and more, all the while they're watching your face dance across all those emotions of "Do I have to talk about my son's suicide a year ago? And how our other son, who died as a 3-day-old newborn, was his identical twin, and heartbreaking and devastating this whole concept is for you? How you didn't just lose a baby, you didn't just lose your 21-year-old to his own hand, but you also lost the joy of the identical twin experience you were excited to be able to experience. Not just a twofer, a threefer. 

And there is so much more where that comes from, but this is just a moment. Just a moment where I'm saying I'm glad and grateful to be heading into 2026 with all of you, because I didn't always know I'd be joining you. But I'm here <<curtsey>> and I'm coming along. I'm going to bring my strongest self every day. But check on your people. ALWAYS be checking on your pals, your kids, your parents - even the ones you think need it the least.

#988

Everyone, have a safe and very happy New Year 2026!