When Melanie and I were in Charlotte a few weeks ago, we somehow started talking about power ballads. Not ballads like kids listen to today where some four-note-range somebody sings the same two words over and over for sixteen measures – POWER BALLADS. Songs that physically hurt you when you tried to sing them while you were driving around in your parents’ 1988 Buick Skylark. Songs that contained notes beyond the range of most mortals, unless of course a pre-Bobby B. Whitney was the one doing the singing. Songs that were made all the better by the presence of Sheena Easton and/or Marilyn Martin. Come on.

Most of my favorite power ballads are duets, but as Melanie reminded me that day in Charlotte, there are some very fine power ballads by solo artists (yes, we mean you, Kenny Loggins). And while I’d like to think that there are singers in the current musical climate who could hang with the big voices of the 80s and 90s, I feel like they’re missing a certain earnest innocence that’s helpful when belting lyrics like “it’s a paradox / full of contradiction / how I got from there to here / it defies all logical explanation.”

Oh, Peter Cetera-era Chicago. You never disappointed. Not even one time.

So over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking a good bit about my favorite power ballads. After all, we’re talking about our musical legacy, people – a heritage for our children and our children’s children. We need to remember and document these things so that people will be able to identify a power ballad written and arranged by the incomparable David Foster for generations to come, amen.

Here are my 10 favorites.

1) “Search Is Over” – Survivor – DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED about being 14 years old and Identifying Deeply with the lyrics to this song. Because even though I’d never been in love in my life, this song captured all the angst and drama that I hoped with all my heart would eventually be within my romantic reach. Good times.

2) “Something To Believe In” – Poison – I wasn’t typically a fan of the hair bands, but this song – OH, THIS SONG. It hit at just the right moment in my pseudo-intellectual phase. And on the off chance that you’re doubting my use of the word “pseudo,” then let me just remind you that it’s an entirely appropriate adjective because I was in fact a person WHO THOUGHT POISON LYRICS WERE VERY MEANINGFUL. I rest my case.

3) “To Be With You” – Mr. Big – At this point I was older and much more sophisticated. And this song was the second exception to my No Hair Bands rule. Granted, it’s a little more up-tempo, but that’s how I fancied myself at that stage in my life: very enthusiastic and with it and now. Delusion is a powerful thing.

4) “Separate Lives” – Phil Collins & Marilyn Martin – I think my affection for this song is best summed up in the following excerpt: “Oooh, it’s so typical / love leads to isolation / so you build that wall / yes, you build that wall / and you make it stronger / -er -er -er.” Thank you. Thank you so much.

5) “Forever” – Kenny Loggins – I’d forgotten about this song until Melanie reminded me of it. And may I just say? Ever since that Saturday afternoon when she reminded me? My life has been all the richer.

6) “Hard To Say I’m Sorry” – Chicago – I listened to the whole “America’s Top 40” with Casey Kasem on my GPX stereo system so that I could record this song on my cassette player whenever Casey played it on the countdown. After I listened to my recording about 92 times, I asked my mama to drive me to the record store so that I could buy the album. She did and I did. It was a defining musical moment.

7) “Can’t Fight This Feeling” – REO Speedwagon – Okay. So. The stuff that I wrote about the first song on my list? DITTO.

8) “Run To You” – Whitney Houston – If my 22 year-old self could’ve written a power ballad, this song would’ve been the end result. I loved this song so much that I wanted to sing it in a pageant. Preferably Miss Mississippi. But that never happened because 1) I’m not a very strong singer and 2) there is no pile of cash money big enough to get me to walk across a stage in a swimsuit.

9) “And When She Danced (Love Theme From Stealing Home)” – David Foster & Marilyn Martin – Listen. This song holds precious memories for me. David and I used to sing it all the time when we were just friends and would entertain ourselves by driving to neighboring towns and then driving back home again. And then – AND THEN – when we were in North Carolina last fall, we sang it all over again with our friends Travis and Angela while we rode down the highway in a minivan. It was like the completion of a 20-year musical circle. With the lovely Ms. Marilyn Martin as our guide.

10) “All By Myself” – Celine Dion – Let me tell you something: if someone googles “power ballad,” Celine’s picture and a recording of this song should be top result. It’s PERFECTION – and my favorite part is that in order to sing along, I have to HOLLER. Which makes my version of this song sound sort of like the horn on an 18-wheeler. It’s quite charming, really.

Okay. Those are mine. What are some of yours?

Dear Internets,

It struck me this morning that I haven’t been a very strong blogger lately. My mama was visiting this last week AND I had a few meetings (if you’ve been reading here awhile, you’ll remember that, in addition to blogging, I also do some work for top-secret government agencies in the area of weaponry design and production, but clearly I cannot discuss such classified information here) AND I’ve been trying to mentally prepare myself for the fall television season. The Bravo line-up alone is going to require some pre-season training and, I feel, quite a few scrimmages.

And I don’t know if y’all are aware of this, but SEC football starts in three weeks.

I may need a moment to compose myself.

This week definitely had some fun moments, including a trip to the picture show this past Thursday night to see “Julie & Julia” with some friends. I thought it was just delightful. I read the book about four years ago, and I liked it a lot, but I loved the movie. Meryl Streep is stinkin’ great in it. Plus, it stands to reason that if you make a major motion picture about food and blogging, odds are that I will be interested.

By the way, I still can’t quit thinking about this bruschetta-type dish that Julie makes towards the beginning of the movie. Does anybody have a recipe for such a thing? The food in the movie looked FANTASTIC; I left the theatre with an incredible craving for beef burgundy (I would use the French terminology here if I had the foggiest idea how to spell it – oh, wait – it’s boeuf bourguignon – my WORD the Google is handy) and cannot wait to make it sometime this fall. Perhaps to accompany the aforementioned fall television / SEC football extravaganza.

Finally.

I thought I had two more giveaways before I take a little self-imposed giveaway hiatus, but I was wrong. I have four giveaways scheduled – all music-related (Christy Nockels, Selah, some Glory Revealed II concert tickets and one more giveaway from one of my very favorite singer/songwriters in the whole world, but we’re still working on the details). So stay tuned. Unless you don’t care for music. In which case I probably have absolutely nothing to offer you except for a bowl of Cheeze-Its and some leftover green beans.

(OH MY WORD. That reminds me. I made the best thing for supper Wednesday night, and I sorta/kinda made it up. I mean, others have probably thought of it before, but I am unaware of their efforts, so I choose to believe that for one whole time in my life I may have done something that was at least partially original. I will share it with you next week and DADGUMMIT I should have taken pictures, WHY DON’T I EVER TAKE PICTURES?)

So that is all. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I’m going to mow the backyard now. It is by necessity and not by choice. I would appreciate your prayers.

Love,
Me

1. In the midst of this past weekend’s technical difficulties, I completely forgot to close comments on the “Love Story” CD giveaway and draw for winners. So I just closed comments a few minutes ago, and I’ll draw for winners tomorrow. I’d draw for winners tonight but quite frankly it’s just too late for my mind to deal with all those numbers.

2. After I put supper in the oven tonight I sat down to catch up on a few blogs. This post was the first one I read, and the honesty in it just blew me away.

3. This morning I was flipping back through my journal (the one where I write on real-live paper with a real-live pen, just like in THE DAYS OF YORE), and I saw this verse from Proverbs 19 at the bottom of one of the pages: “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.” Haven’t stopped thinking about that all day. Mighty fine dose of perspective.

4. Are any of y’all watching “Design Star” on HGTV? Who’s your favorite? I really like Torie and Dan. And also: I’m dying to know what kind of hairspray Torie uses because she achieves some SERIOUS hold.

5. This post by Missy is absolutely beautiful.

6. I am currently in the process of trying to solidify my hair goals for the fall. Have y’all seen any cute haircuts lately? Anything sassy and fun? Please feel oh-so-free to share.

At first I put “08.03.09” in the title of this post, and that should really be no surprise because quite frankly I’m not entirely sure what day it is. So I looked at the calendar because calendars are handy and I realized that it’s the 6th. I stand corrected.

Anyway, I’m at my parents’ house in Mississippi right now, but I wanted to post some links because they’ve been piling up for a few days and I’ll get all twitchy if I don’t share them.

– Clearly Ree is trying to kill me.

– I love Pete’s thoughts about solitude and trusted relationships. It’s a balance I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.

– My buddy Shaw-awn has had a rough month. And this post – with all of its heartfelt eloquence – is proof positive that God gives beauty for ashes. The follow-up post is even more stunning.

– Mama made this recipe (slightly modified, of course, and with grated parmesan cheese on top, of course) for supper Tuesday night. It’s one of my favorite dishes, but I haven’t made it in a sweet forever. Deeee-licious. Also: you can use ham instead of seafood, and the results are just as tasty.

– Several of y’all wanted to know how you can buy the “Love Story” CD. Well, you can buy it right here on iTunes. And just FYI: song #4 makes me cry.

– I’ve really cut back on the clothes-buying this year. But that doesn’t stop me from being just a teensy bit in love with this shirt. So cute.

Have a great Thursday! And I say that with great confidence because remember, I LOOKED AT THE CALENDAR. I’ll be back later today or tomorrow with the latest round of Miss’sippi stories.

When Melanie and I see each other, we consider it our personal mission to seek out the most mediocre Mexican food we can possibly find. Now granted, we didn’t start out with that goal – we started out looking for Mexican food that was actually delicious – but after about five consecutive trips to Mexican restaurants where the definition of what constituted “cheese” was apparently up for grabs, we sort of embraced our ability to find food that is nothing more than absolutely adequate and in some cases completely inedible.

We have a gift, really.

So last night we were hanging out with our friend Annie, and we decided to go in search of some Mexican food here in Charlotte because 1) we value tradition and 2) we really wanted some chips and salsa. We didn’t know what Mexican restaurants were in our area since, you know, we don’t live here, so we relied on Annie’s GPS to direct us to the nearest restaurante.

The first two places we found were closed. Not closed because it was after business hours. Closed FOREVER. And just for the record, I believe that’s what you might call FORESHADOWING.

Fifteen minutes and several miles of unfamiliar roads later, we found another Mexican restaurant. There was an illustration of a small-ish rat with a tire on the sign, so we knew that it must be just the place for us.

(A quick FYI: unless you’re opening a restaurant that’s geared toward small children and features people dancing in animal costumes while distributing platters of mediocre pizza, I’m not so sure that I’d go with a RAT as my eating establishment’s mascot.)

(But what do I know? DIsney made a fortune off of a movie about a rat who happened to be a deeply gifted chef. So just scratch everything I said in the previous paragraph and feel free to launch as many rat-themed culinary ventures as you like.)

Anyway, after we sat down at the restaurant our sweet waitress brought us some chips and three (THREE!) different kinds of salsa. I was immediately beside myself with excitement because one of the salsas was green, and for just a moment I thought maybe it was going to be something along the lines of the green sauce from Ninfa’s, which is one of my favorite things in the whole wide world.

Case in point: if I had to choose between green sauce and cream cheese, I would choose green sauce.

I KNOW. Those are some strong words, aren’t they?

Anyway, I got all excited about the maybe-green sauce, so I scooped up a whole bunch of it with a chip, popped the chip in my mouth, and y’all, I cannot explain what happened next in complete sentences because it was far too traumatic for me to think in anything other than short bursts, so here is what ran through my head over the course of the next four to five minutes while my taste buds got the smackdown of my life:

– hot
– oh, really hot
– suuuuuuuuuper hot
– thousand fiery suns
– thousand fiery suns in my mouth
– thousand fiery suns just exploded
– need water
– not enough water
– would speak but tongue would fall off
– tongue perhaps on fire
– more water
– definitely not green sauce
– possibly hottest food on planet earth
– entire mouth ablaze
– forget water need ice block

Apparently it was jalapeno sauce, not green sauce. And I can say without hesitation that if I ever eat jalapeno sauce again, I will not scoop it up enthusiastically. Oh no ma’am. Instead, I will apply it to a chip with an eye dropper. And then I will eat that chip very slowly over the span of approximately two to two and a half months, just as the good Lord intended.

Lesson learned, mis amigas.

– Y’all provided SUCH great feedback on yesterday’s post. You’ve given me all sorts of helpful info to use in my little presentation thingy with Lysa, and I am so grateful. I would give every single one of you a big bag of sweet potatoes, a pound of thick-sliced bacon and a carton of Land O Lakes butter if I could. THANK YOU.

– Several of y’all have emailed and commented to ask why I quit writing about The Bachelorette. There’s definitely a long-version answer, but here’s the short version: it was just too much. Y’all know I love me some reality television, but writing about The Bachelorette was increasingly problematic because there were some ongoing situations on the show that were really uncomfortable for me to address here on the blawg. And the bottom line is that I just got really convicted that I needed to stop blogging about it.

I haven’t LIKED not blogging about it – after all, it’s one of the most fun things to write about ever in the history of all topics in the entire universe. I’ve really MISSED blogging about it, in fact. But this season totally fed my snarky, judge-y side, and it totally fed a discussion of topics that weren’t entirely appropriate for my little family-friendly interweb netsite, and I was feeling so conflicted every single time I posted a recap that I would regret the post for the next couple of days.

I don’t know what I’ll do down the road because I can tell you right now that it will require supernatural restraint to keep my hands off the keyboard if Reid is the next bachelor. But I think not writing about the last half of Jillian’s season was the right thing to do. It wasn’t what I wanted to do, but it was what I needed to do. If that makes any sense at all.

(Don’t you love how my “short version” explanation was three paragraphs long?)

(I am nothing if not wordy.)

– Are any of y’all going to Deeper Still in Greensboro this weekend? I’m driving over from Charlotte with a couple of friends Friday night – then driving back to Charlotte afterwards (and by the way, Beth Moore has written a great post about DS over at AllAccess). I’d love to meet some bloggy friends who are there!

– All righty. My flight to Charlotte is finally here (this post was the product of an hour-long flight delay). Hope y’all have a great Thursday!