Dolly Parton once said,
“Find out who you are. And do it on purpose.”
Do you ever get inspired by listening to a song or watching a movie? I had an aha moment recently after watching the movie Dumplin’. If I’m honest, I was a fan the first night it was released on Netflix. Three times later which included having the husband join in on the fun, I still found myself enamored in the story. Something about that movie reminded me of myself growing up. I have been told a time or two, ok hundreds of times, that I’m overly sensitive. One of the worst things you can tell an overly sensitive person is that they are overly sensitive because all that does is makes them even more sensitive. I try to pinch myself in my hand to stop the tears from flowing but it usually doesn’t work. Try going through menopause on top of that and it is a cause for disaster! This movie hit a nerve. I decided that 2019 was the year that I was going to figure out who the heck I was. I was going to do it on purpose.
BunnyLou is not my actual name however Bunny is a nickname I was given at a country music festival (We Fest) back in 1997 and it kind of stuck. I remember other nicknames growing up but I don’t think the name my dad used to call me was cool enough. I mean would you want to be called Dinky Do at the age of 48 almost 49 years old? LOL He used to sing this song when I’d sit on the end of his knees and bounce me up and down. “Dinky Dinky Dinky Do. Do Do Do Do Do Do Do. Dinky Do. Do Do Do. Do Do Do Do Do Do Do.” Then we’d laugh and laugh. My sister and I came up with the names of Starla and BunnyLou after going on an adventure together that we wanted to document and remain a bit incognito. I mean who doesn’t like to have a travel alias like in the movie Notting Hill. No one questioned Anna Scott using a Disney Princess name. #StarlaAndBunnylousAdventures was born. I continue to lead a pretty busy life doing a lot of “fun things” so eventually it turned into #BunnyLousadventures. Starla and BunnyLou will have more adventures together this year to look forward to.
Just for the record, I’m not a writer. This won’t be a traditional blog. I am not quite sure what it is going to end up being to be perfectly honest. I’m married no kids so some would classify us as DINKS (double income no kids) I guess that sounds better than being an OINK (one income no kids). Next year I will turn the BIG 5-0. Granted I am not even 49 yet and won’t be until August of this year. There is something with the reality of 50 being on the horizon that is driving me a bit bonkers. I have two very spoiled rotten wiener dog children named Lady “BoBo” Fu Schnickens or BoBo for short and Madison Noelle Labelle. BoBo was named after a Petsmart commercial https://youtu.be/aICfxTljLqY My love for wiener dogs stems from my childhood when my Grandma Schultz had Barney Google with the google berry eyes. He was a brown wiener dog, and I LOVED him. When my grandpa passed grandma wanted me to have Barney but my mom said NO! She didn’t want a little yapping dog so he went to live with a family in a house on a golf course. I used to go golfing with my parents on that course and can remember yelling out Barney Google ‘s name hoping he’d come find me, but he never did. Funny how I can remember something like that but sometimes can’t remember why I walked into the next room. It still brings a tear to my eye. I guess that’s the over sensitivity in me! You want realness. Here I am! Sometimes you may not like what I have to say, but I will always tell you the truth from my perspective anyway.
Last June I started eating a whole food plant based diet which means I stopped eating meat and dairy. No, I do not miss it. Yes, I feel better. No, it isn’t hard if you plan your meals. I am a DVT/PE Survivor after traveling to see Tears For Fears in Phoenix in October of 2016. (That means I had a big a$$ blood clot in my right calf that went up into my groin, broke off and traveled into each of my lungs, so I am VERY LUCKY to be here) So I’m a wife, no kids, a bit of a smartass, love music, can sing/have sung in front of large crowds (National Anthem), am afraid of turning 50, survived a life threatening experience and still lived to tell about it, am a wiener dog mom of two and I have the gift of gab. Would some call that a gift? I do ❤️ traveling and had a short stint as a flight attendant pre-911 but quit due to an incident with a snake in a beverage cart. True story! I may be somewhat over my snake fear now or at least I’m getting much better thanks to Taylor Swift. I will get into that in more detail at another time. I go to numerous concerts throughout the year and will travel out of state or country to see my all time favorites. I recently returned from Ireland where I saw Tears For Fears open their European Tour in Killarney and their rescheduled show in Dublin that I had been waiting to attend since I received clearance to fly again after my blood clots. I love many different genres of music. As Donny and Marie would say, “I’m a little bit country, and I’m a little bit rock n roll.” I LOVE Tears For Fears but have had some trials and tribulations trying to get to their concerts since my first one in 2009. Another story… I also love many other 80’s groups, mainly British. My sister and I will be heading back to Nashville in October to celebrate Dolly Parton’s anniversary at the Grand Old Opry. I started making a list of all of the artists I have seen in my lifetime. So far as of today the ones I could remember off the top of my head; I came up with 79 but that was not all of them. I need to do a Marie Kondo through my things and take inventory. Music has helped me get through some of those moments when I didn’t always know how I would be able to. Since my return from Ireland and seeing two Tears For Fears shows back to back I have been suffering from something called Superfanitis. I have been told it takes at least 3 weeks per show to get over so I still have a few weeks to go before these feelings start to subside. I also like to refer to it as TFFWS (Tears For Fears Withdrawal Syndrome). It’s nice to know I’m not alone even at times when I feel like I am. Music is my therapy. Everybody loves a happy ending.
MY LIFE IS MY MESSAGE.
-MAHATMA GANDHI
Tales of TFF, Taylor, Dolly and Happenstance 