Yesterday morning I woke up with the song “Love Rollercoaster” on my mind. It’s one of those songs that makes me remember being a five year-old, and I think it was probably on my mind because I heard it at my cousin’s wedding reception this past weekend. It’s also one of those songs that makes me head straight for the dance floor when I hear it, only I don’t typically head for the dance floor a lot these days because, well, I hate to intimidate people with all my sah-weet moves. In fact, I try to restrict my dancing to the hip-hop dance-offs at church, where D and I are the reigning couples’ hip-hop dance champions thanks to an incredibly inventive routine set to Nelly’s remix of “You Can Call Me Al.”

I can’t even type that with a straight face, by the way.

But can you imagine what a treasure that routine would be if it actually existed?

Or the pretend remix, for that matter?

ANYWAY, since I’m apparently in Dance Fever mode, I’ve been making a mental list of songs that I love to hear when I’m near a dance floor. Which happens about once a year. Usually at a wedding. And surrounded by lots of family members who won’t mock me if I venture into Elaine Benes territory.

Also, since I’m so rarely anywhere near a dance floor, you should probably know that hearing these songs can also result in some unfortunate above-the-waist moves if I’m at a red light. Right now the little man tolerates my crazy, but give him about four years and he’ll be BEYOND HORRIFIED.

All righty. My list. In no particular order.

1) “Love Rollercoaster” – RHCP – I believe I mentioned this one. I prefer the version by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but I’ll take the 1975 version in a pinch. For nostalgia’s sake, you understand.

2) “Hard To Handle” – Black Crowes – Might be the best group dance song ever. I’ve loved it for almost 20 years, and it never, ever gets old.

3) “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” – Stevie Wonder or Michael McDonald – I double-dog dare you to try to sit still when you hear it. DOUBLE-DOG DARE.

4) “A Little Less Conversation” – Elvis Presley – The Ocean’s 11 version is perfection. And something about this song makes me wish I knew how to dance like Ann Margret in Bye Bye, Birdie. I don’t, of course. But I can pretend.

5) “Hey Ya” – OutKast – Sweet mercy at the catchy. So fun.

6) “Brick House” – The Commodores – I remember seeing The Commodores perform this song on TV when I was little. And Ioved it instantly. It reminds me of Sister and her friend Cliff clearing out the den so that they could teach my cousin Benji how to dance. So many fun memories with this song.

7) “Groove Is In The Heart” – Deee-Lite – I wore out this cassingle when I was in college. WORE IT OUT.

8) “Love Shack” – B-52s – “TINNNNNNNNNN ROOF! RUSTED!” I can still sing every single word. You might find that sad, but I consider it my personal tribute to the music of the late 80s. It was a simpler time.

9) “Sexyback” – Justin Timberlake – Don’t judge me. You know it’s a good ‘un.

10) “Crazy In Love” – Beyonce’ – I think this song is single-handedly responsible for a resurgence in the use of horns in modern music. Granted, I’m not entirely sure that there’s been a resurgence of horns in modern music, but if there has been, then certainly we all owe Beyonce’ a very large thank-you.

11) “You Dropped The Bomb On Me” – Gap Band – This song makes me want to wear some bell bottoms and platform shoes. It almost makes me want to part my hair down the middle with some feathered wings on each side, but not even nostalgia is that powerful.

What about you? Are there any songs that are guaranteed to get you moving? Any songs that cause you to heap untold volumes of embarrassment on your children when you start to break it down in the carpool line?

Do tell.

– Every single person in this house adores Dave Barnes. We love his music and his heart. And when I bought his brand-spankin’ new Christmas CD off of iTunes a few minutes ago, I thought, I bet D totally bought this today, too.

But that is okay. Both of our iTunes will be happier as a result of Dave Barnes’ Christmas music. You can check out the new CD on iTunes (it’s only $6.99!) – and I think the video for “Christmas Tonight” is absolutely adorable.

It makes me want to put up our Christmas tree tonight. On November 9th. Just because I can.

– I loved Melanie’s post today. Nobody makes me laugh like she does, but I think she does some of her very best writing when she shares her heart.

– Lora Lynn has put together a very big, very wonderful list of websites and shops that are selling really great stuff to raise money for adoptions and for orphan care.

It’s a pretty wonderful way to give Christmas shopping a greater good, don’t you think?

– It’s still giveaway central around here: right now you can enter to win Visa gift cards on the Similasan giveaway, the Ragu giveaway and the Pop-Tarts giveaway. There’s a new Laughing Cow giveaway and a new Lands’ End giveaway coming up very soon.

– The LG Text-Ed program is still going strong at over at BlogHer; don’t miss the great discussions on texting and driving, sexting, cell phone ground rules for teens, and so much more.

– A few weeks ago I read the book Big Fish by Daniel Wallace, and OH MY WORD I LOVED IT. It has really stayed with me – especially the idea about how deeply people long to be noticed and remembered. I watched the movie last week, and it’s really good, but the book is great. GREAT.

Hope y’all are having a happy Tuesday!

After the madness that was last Monday, the rest of last week was super uneventful. I didn’t lock anyone else out of the house. I wasn’t awakened in the middle of the night by a dog. I didn’t have to look for anyone’s keys.

It was business as usual, really. Some work. Some time at the library. Some grocery shopping. Some clothes shopping because we were going to a 6 pm wedding Saturday night and it was sort of a dress-up deal and I didn’t really think I could wear my yoga pants and my favorite Mississippi State sweatshirt, though BELIEVE YOU ME, if I could’ve, I would’ve. As it turned out, though, I found a sequin-y tank top for the wedding that I wore with some leather shorts and knee-high boots. It was absolutely perfect except for the fact that OH, I WOULD NEVER.

I actually wore the sequin-y tank top underneath this black assymetrical cardigan-type get-up and some flow-y black pants. And apparently I’ve been around my mother-in-law too long because I can’t seem to stop making new adjectives by adding a -y.

It’s a very Martha-y habit.

This weekend was chock-full-o-activity, which seems to be the theme of Fall 2010. Friday night I was at church until late thirty (MUCH LIKE I WAS IN MY 20s), so Saturday morning seemed to arrive a little earlier than normal. We visited with some friends who’d spent the night with us, and then we packed up and headed to our hometown so that we could go to my cousin’s wedding. Normally I like to pack for a trip the night before, but since I wasn’t home Friday night, I was packing on the fly Saturday morning. It threw me completely off of my packing game, and when we got to my parents’ house I realized that I’d neglected to pack about a third of the stuff that we needed. We managed just fine, though – Alex wore jeans to the wedding, I used Mama’s hair products, and Alex discovered that if he’s in a socks-related pinch, my socks will do just fine.

A few other observations from the weekend:

1) The last time I ate at Macaroni Grill was about five years ago. I have fond memories of their grilled chicken Caesar salad and especially fond memories of that bread they used to put on the table before the meal. We decided to break our Chuy’s stronghold and grab lunch at Macaroni Grill before we hit the road Saturday, and SWEET MERCY it was some overpriced mediocrity (and I mean that in the nicest possible way). The salad wasn’t nearly as good as I remembered (no more green beans!), and the bread was totally different. Our hopes were so high, but we were underwhelmed.

[insert sad trombone here]

2) The wedding was beautiful, and I am happy to announce that the little man seems to have inherited his mama’s love of the dance floor when there’s live music at a family gathering. He and my cousin Paige’s little boy BROKE IT DOWN for about three hours at the wedding reception, and we had a big time coming up with some new and inventive spin moves. It was delightful.

3) I’m still desperately behind on television – I’ve only seen one episode of “The Office” this season, two episodes of “30 Rock” and one episode of “Survivor.” I’m incredibly disappointed by my lack of committment, and I don’t even have a good reason why I haven’t been able to maintain my normal television pace. I’ve been eating well, I’ve been stretching beforehand, I’m surrounded by a strong team of dedicated television enthusiasts – but for whatever reason I’m having an off season. I’m still hanging in there with the Bravo, but that’s hardly a stellar accomplishment. It’s as much co-dependency as anything else.

4) For the first time since Melanie and I have known each other, both of our football teams are ranked. My Bulldogs are #17, and her Aggies are #23 in the AP poll. Needless to say, we’re just beside ourselves. And when I saw the rankings this afternoon, I sent Mel a text that said, “Both our teams are ranked!”

And then, just so she knew that I hadn’t fallen into unbridled enthusiasm territory (unbridled enthusiasm is COMPLETELY OFF-LIMITS for long-suffering Bulldogs and Aggies), I quickly sent a follow-up text: “I’m waiting for the sun to fall from the sky.”

Even still, we’re just as tickled as we can be.

Happy Monday, y’all.

A few minutes ago my friend Daphne sent me a link to this video (appropriately titled “Midday Trainwreck”), and I laughed so hard when I watched it. It’s like a Saturday Night Live skit, only real.

Hopefully all those technical glitches got ironed out during rest the newscast. We’ve all had days like that, haven’t we?

edited to add: thanks, Katherine, for the new link!