Respecting Your Neighbors...

The Dixie Chicks perform a song on YouTube called, "White Trash Wedding" [YouTube]. It's off their sixth studio album - "Home" [Google]. As the videoclip opens, you hear three women sing in JOY, UNISON, and for me, TRUTH... "You can't afford... no... ring..."

Their voices resonate in perfect harmony and unison over a a completely hushed stadium arena filled with plenty of young men and women with all sorts of "Labels" or "Issues" - just like me - "Stereotypical". "Poor". "White". "Stupid". "Trash".

YOU CAN'T AFFORD... NO... RIIIIIINNNNNNGGGG....

"I SHOULDN'T BE WEARING WHITE 'CAUSE HE CAN'T AFFORD NO RING!" the three friends fearlessly conclude after grinning to one another, from ear to ear, surrounded by an amazing band filled with a variety of instruments played by professional musicians from all around the world, I'm guessing. And given what I DO know about being around the local music scene - produced by Sound-Engineers, Technicians, and so many other professionals BEHIND-THE-SCENES FAR more talented and knowledgeable about THEIR crafts than I'll ever be!

The crowd/audience then "ROARS"! Erupting into "JUBILUS" dance... featuring girls and boys as "WILD" and "CRAZY" as me! The resonance and sound quality of that particular YouTube clip IS spectacular. [YouTube]. [Google].

I ended up listening to some Dixie Chicks when my boyfriend used to watch YouTube clips with me in my childhood home's basement. During my days in that basement, I learned that Taylor Swift used to listen to The Dixie Chicks. At the height of HER career, in 2009, I gave HER album "Fearless" to the daughter's I used to baby-sit! I had seen Ms. Swift on my so-called "Trash Mags" or "Gossip Pages" I used to buy at my local grocery store. Every Saturday. "Big" "Sparkly" guitar's and all the "GLAMOUR" of "BIG FAME" and "BIG MONEY"...

"With Big 'FAME' and Big 'MONEY' Comes..."

So, I LISTENED to "Fearless" on my way to work BEFORE handing it off to the children to make sure HER music was appropriate for THEM at THAT TIME.

AND LUCKY ME IT WAS!

No, my credentials from Illinois are NOT VALID in Indiana. You wanna know what I remember from Illinois? Well, I remember a lot of things. Both "GOOD" and "BAD".

I remember growing up in my childhood basement! I remember going to school 'round those parts... I remember raising "Hell" in church. And school... on my more "REBELLIOUS" days... I remember my close friends and family. I remember my teachers. I remember my mistakes. I remember the many dogs, cats, fish, hamsters, deer, horses, frogs... all the beauty of the South Suburban Chicagoland region...

I remember being the only "hero" of the bunch one day to drive a beyond intoxicated, older, stranded motorist home safely. He had - literally - just fallen on to a hard-wood floor.

"LABELS. RUMOURS. HEARSAY. WHISKERS? WHISKEY!"

I SENSED the fall coming before the "old", "frail" man fell! But I didn't catch him that time, unfortunately. Instinct from my days of clinical training kicked in to the most fundamental of level of "WTF!?" Fortunately, my priorities shifted to that of public welfare, as I did once have four years of college-level training and working in the medical field as a Certified Nursing Assistant - CNA - in both Illinois and Indiana!

I've been watching the medical system - particularly the mental health system, both inside and out, my whole life. I watched this "old" "forlorn" "jerk" consume SOME alcohol. I already knew his liver was failing. Nothing more needed to be said to me. My primary concern after observing the fall wasn't about whether or not my CREDENTIALS to operate a vehicle were valid in this state or that. My primary concern was the safety and welfare of the OTHER pedestrians and other drivers on the road. I refused to let that man drive himself home that day!

I remember when I used to dance as stupidly as I wanted at any time on many different floors, but priorities CAN and do CHANGE! They can shift in an instance, like the current coming school-season. And I have to RESPECT that.

DON'T BE FOOLED... She's... Um... NM...

Enough Non-Sense though... I don't care if that's what the "label" on my "old" "torn" "black" socks, LITERALLY say right now. I'm a White-Sox Fan anyway. It works! I CAN be loyal. To a FAULT! Do I forget the people that sold the sox to me? No! Do I forget WHO bought them for me. HELL NO! Do I forget all the people that put extra time and labor into the production of those socks? NOPE! And bless my soul, some of them STILL REMEMBER ME! I don't forget that I have neighbors. Nor do I forget to check in on them. Now, do I forget/mix up their names? Quite often! Some of them as easily as the turkey vultures and crows I now hear soaring and cackling overhead on my morning walks with Roxy. Some names, I just don't want to drop. I am mentally ill and human!

MUM IS THE WORD, YA' HEAR?

So, I try not to dress like "White-Trash" when I go out... What was I doing in that picture? Not the one above, but the one above the one above? I was working on my music towards the END of the current COVID-19 Pandemic, and "Height of my 'Career' " in my OLD apartment... in the Heights! A"GOOD" "OLDER" guy... A LOT OF THEM ACTUALLY... loaned a "Stupid" "Delusional" girl that guitar. And the pick! I was ignorant, stupid, young and impulsive back then...

I DID SOME MATH THOUGH!

I'm down to Band-Aid's and New-Skin for this BOY now! A younger, equally impulsive, reckless, and stupid younger man! We CAN'T afford to be shady! I can't afford to be as "cute" as I THOUGHT once WAS anymore! If everybody knows, and nobody is getting killed, that's all that matters to me. Still. To this day. That's "all the math and science..." I COULD and at one time, DID understand.

SO WHAT?

Thank God, I WAS in Good Hands... is usually what I'm genuinely praying all along, every day, no matter WHAT STUPID thing I'm DOING or SAYING. If I have a guitar, or at least a NOTEBOOK, SOMETHING, ANYTHING! TO OCCUPY my busy hands and LET me WRITE - in FREEDOM and PEACE... I'm a happy girl. I'm definitely NOT violent.

WHERE YA' AT?

I'm still a pretty "Simple" girl... The going rate...