Pardon Me Boy, Is That the Chattanooga Choo Choo?

Good morning! I'm so glad to be getting back to blogging by joining in with Sam and the gang for the Saturday 9 after an especially hectic week...and it's an especially sweet treat to find the Glenn Miller Orchestra featured this week. The GMO was my dad's favorite. I woke up nearly every Sunday of my childhood to the sounds of the band swelling through the house from the speakers of our big old console stereo. Thanks, Sam, for the trip down memory lane!

Here we go!

Saturday 9: Chattanooga Choo-Choo (1941)
Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1)  Chattanooga is Tennessee's fourth largest city. Have you ever visited Tennessee? If so, where did you go and what did you see?

Mostly I've just driven through on my way to somewhere else, but I did drive a van load of ladies from church down to Kay Arthur's campus in...Chattanooga!...a couple of years back. We went to learn how to teach her method of Bible study. It was a fun trip and while we didn't have much time for anything else, what I did see of the area was lovely. I hope to spend more time in Tennessee at some point. The Smoky Mountains are calling!

Since Glenn Miller's recording of "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" was awarded the first-ever gold record, we're going to devote the next questions to your firsts.

2) What was the first award or accolade you ever won?

Maybe an award for best costume in whatever category in our local Halloween parade?  I think I was about 5 or 6 at the time.  I don't remember anything before that.

*Not me or any of my kids!*

3) We know about your blog. But which was the first social media site that you posted to? (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, MySpace ...)

It was a blog, but that was back in 2001. Blogs were nothing like they are now. That first "blog" was one static page that I had to change and update. The first one that had multiple pages was still very plain and basic by today's standards. I can't even remember the company that hosted it....no Blogger or Wordpress back then. 

Other than the blog, my first other venture in social media was MySpace. Gosh, but that site was exciting back in the day! My account still exists over there. I visit it every once in a while out of curiosity. What a ghost town! There are tons of musicians and stuff and they send stuff to my account, but who are they hoping to reach? Does anyone in real life actually use MySpace these days?

  

4) Where did you go on your first plane ride?

My parents had friends who were pilots so it was a local fly-over kind of thing..."Oh look, there's our house!"  That sort of thing.

5) Tell us about your first cell phone.

It was a great little silver and blue flip phone from Sprint. I loved that phone! It made me think of the communicators from Star Trek.  It also had the most awesome collection of ringtones I've ever had....and they came free with the phone, no downloading needed!

6) Tell us about your first tattoo: Where is it on your body? Where did you have it done? What does it depict?

When my 45th birthday was approaching I mentioned to my husband that I was feeling that if I was ever going to get a tattoo I needed to get one or get over it. He responded by driving me to a local tattoo shop called Derma Graffiti. I was lucky that they had a young guy working there who had graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He was really nice, answered all my questions and didn't laugh at the idea of a middle-aged housewife getting her first tattoo.

I decided on an ocean/beach inspired drawing the young man designed for me. It reminds me of my happy place when I can't get away to actually be there. It's on my right ankle. Being that he was an actual artist he went all out and there are 17 colors in my little tattoo. Well, to make it simple, here it is:

7) How old were you when you had your first piercing? 

I got my ears pierced when I was 10, so I'm not against piercings, but this:

to me this goes beyond expressing yourself or enhancing your looks....unless what you're expressing is that you have some major issues. I know some will disagree, but at best I see this kind of extreme body alteration as a cry for attention or an addiction and at worst a manifestation of mental illness or evilness (why on earth would you make yourself look like a demon??? and there are plenty of pics of it...do a search).

8) What had you been drinking the first time you suffered a hangover?

Well, I'm sure it followed a night of drinking at a frat party my freshman year of college so that means it was either I.C. Light (the beer of choice at the time for all the frats because it was cheap) or the notorious garbage can punch made of red Kool-aid and grain alcohol (which incidentally holds claim to the first time I got sick from drinking).

9) Was your first ticket for parking or was it a moving violation?

Believe it or not, I've never gotten a ticket for anything.