Now I Remember

I remember being 13, sitting in my room and listening to CDs at all hours of the night -- kind of like tonight.

I learned every word, sang every note, learned it on guitar and then would start this whole process over again. Although, it wasn't really a process. It was my favorite part of my life -- music. Learning it. Playing it. Performing it. Writing it. Talking about it. Why do I get in ruts now? Why don't I do my vocal warm-ups every day like Laura told me to? Because I need to be energized again. I want to sink my teach into our new rock stuff. I also want it to be very Nicole. Very do-able.

Tonight Ali, my friend Taylor and I had one of those moments that don't come often enough -- talking about an upcoming concert we're attending and we're pumped about.

I know I'm not alone in this band obsession thing. I'm reading this book by Miss Pamela (ha ha), "I'm With the Band." So yes, even back in the '60s chicks went wild over hot musicians. Drugs probably also played a factor. ha ha.

Who was the first band you fell in love with?
The band that you felt like you knew?
The band that you memorized all the words?
And purchased every magazine?
The band that made you feel like someone else goes through everything you're going through?
The band that made you cry but was the only cure for your tears?

I remember. It's sort of funny. The world would suck without music. My world would die. "You can't say, we didn't give it."

Alive and well -- damn well bored

Hello friends,

Yes, it is true. On Sunday evening while shopping at Border's (a favorite!!!) I started to feel a little under the weather. No big deal. This sort of thing happens to me all the time. Maybe it's an artistic thing. Kurt Cobain always had stomach issues and no internal specialist has ever been able to determine what's wrong with me so I decided to end my shopping trip a bit early and head straight for my couch.

Brilliant idea. A little TV time. Make some tea. No harm done. Hell, I saved money by not nabbing the special of the week.

Wrong. Very wrong. Fast forward a few hours. My comfy idea of a cozy hour in the fetal position on my couch turned into 10 hours of waiting... waiting for what? Waiting for something.

My boyfriend played nurse (watching "27 Dresses" with me -- eh, predictable movie) while my sister hid in her room (she had the stomach flu two weeks prior and wanted nothing to do with it again). I curled up in blankets and told her I felt like Claire Danes in "Little Women." ... "Didn't she have Polio or something?" my sister said. Very funny. We've all seen the movie. Maybe that wasn't the best comparison.

At 3 a.m. when I still couldn't sleep from feeling so nauseous I ventured back downstairs to my couch and discovered Tori Spelling's reality show with her husband. A great find. What was happening on this particular episode??? Tori was trapped on a boat in the high seas while her husband went scuba diving, leaving her sea sick on the boat.

All the talk about Tori feeling sick made me SICK! That was it! I finally threw up... for the first time in more than a decade! In the middle of the night. Alone. By myself. Watching some mom from 90210. How strange. After such a great weekend -- fourth of July with Michelle and Travis on the lake, visiting with Bart and Ali, lunch with Travis, writing a new song, working out... and it ended up like this???? I ran to tell my boyfriend of how wonderful I was FINALLY feeling when he was SOUND ASLEEP.

Needless to say I felt better, but not healed. Was this the stomach flu? Food poisening? My appendix? Who knew. I visited the doctor the next morning to see what was up (the flu) and got the appropriate meds to hold my topsy-turvy stomach over. Instead the medicines put me in a coma. No joke. My house could have burned down or been carried away by a flash flud and I'd still be peacefully in la-la land with my silky comforter.

In the middle of my dream I hear this... "Nick! Nick! Nikki!" from somewhere. It sounded so real. Like when I was a kid and my mom would wake me up for school or something. Still I slept. So peaceful. So numb from being sick. So OUT OF IT! I finally awoke to find that my MOTHER had been downstairs for an hour throwing things at my window. "I thought you were dead!" she said when I finally opened the front door. "No, I'm fine. Just tired. These med's are insane," I said.

And so we cut them in half -- because some say I am half the size of a normal person -- and off to sleep I went again, mother happy that I'm alive and my friends and other family members happy that she's done calling them wondering how to pry open my front door to find, "her daughter laying on the floor with an appendicitis."

Long story stort -- jinx! -- I am alive. And thank you to everyone who called me to check on me. =)

I feel much better and have since watched two other episodes of Tori Spelling's reality show, which I think depicts her as a great wife and mother. Maybe someday she'll be standing outside her son Liam's room -- throwing things at the window and wonering if her sickling is OK. And in some crazy parallel world, Liam would be recovering from a long night of no sleep, feeling sick and watching the Nicole reality show on TV.

Oh, that would be the sickest!!! =)

Unleash Pandora

Pandora is a Godsend.

What is Pandora?

It’s like spreading all your favorite CDs out on the floor of Costco. Then spinning around in a circle with closed eyes, pointing to the covers at random.

To make it more fun, then picture the live band at the check-out counter. If you hate the song they’re playing you can give them a “thumbs down” and they’ll leave quietly. Love em? Thumbs up!

The Web site Pandora.com allows visitors to create radio stations based around their favorite artists. Then – without commercials and payment – it plays song after song after song with artist, song and CD information.

It’ s basically an Internet radio station customized just for you. The more thumbs up you give it, the more songs they play like that. The more thumbs down, the more the course veers.

Enter a song you like and The Music Genome Project will pick other songs by the artist and artists in the same genre. It’s like having your boss buy you a jukebox – glittered with your name and illuminated disc’s that unleash memories.

I suggest checking it out. All the best songs in your world are waiting for you!!!

Enroll me in West Beverly High

Cue the big hair, high pants and red lipstick.

Go back in time to when it didn’t matter if you were pale and lived in southern California. A time when the best bands of the 90s were yet to come. And when it was customary to learn dating, sex and fashion lessons from Kelly, Brenda and Donna.

I have a new obsession – Beverly Hills 90210.

Being only 7 when the TV show began had me out of the glossy goodness for years, until now. It’s only been a week but I’ve already viewed all of season one and part of season two. Thank God for DVD box sets!

I feel like I’ve become friends with the characters – my favorite being Brandon Walsh. I don’t know why I wasted so many teenage love notes on Jonathan Taylor Thomas when Jason Priestley was in his prime.

Once you get past the eyes – the blue blue blue blue eyes! – it isn’t difficult to recognize his acting talent. He’s incredible. I see a lot of myself in his character, however that can be taken. He’s always concerned with everyone’s feelings on the show and only a dozen episodes in I’ve seen him swoon a handful of teenage girls. Love it.

I know that most of the world has seen the whole series so don’t give anything away (I know, I know Donna and David get married. I peeked on Youtube). For now, I’m content watching the high school juniors spend awkward moments in Palm Springs.

Surrounded by so many friends who are now married, the show reminds me that it’s OK to still be a kid at heart. I can grow up in good time.

As I finish listening to this insane guitar riff on “No One Like You” by The Scorpions I feel out of my element in 2008 – texting my friend Michelle and clicking on my laptop. Kelly, Brenda and Donna would have died.