Hi all,
Sorry to have kept you waiting for this post. You probably didn’t notice its absence, but leave it to me to feel bad about it anyway. I’m not going to lie to you, I had a pretty cool weekend. On Friday, I woke up with the realization that my new Libra friend and I had different priorities. I realized that pursuing a relationship with him wasn’t going to work. He’s a cool dude, and I don’t mean any disrespect; but, back to the drawing board I go.
Saturday was a pretty good time. My lovely nanny family invited me to celebrate the baby’s first birthday with them. It was the funnest first birthday party I’ve ever been to. Their sweet friends and family made me feel like part of their own, and I spent the evening internally gushing over how spectacular it is to have a family in Chicago. The celebration was akin to the celebrations I have with my extended family for Christmas or the Fourth of July. All of this to say, it made me really happy. Shout out to my friend Madeline for the opportunity to meet and third wheel with her and her husband throughout the night. That’s right– not only has this incredible job brought me love, stability, freedom, and an income; but, I also found a pretty awesome friend in the family. Thank you, Gwen, for connecting us!
What’d I’d like to write about most, though, is what I watched on TV last night. Yeah, I do talk about TV a lot. There’s no shame in my game.
Last night I was watching the Olympics. If you were watching them too, you might be able to predict where I’m going with this. I caught the last four performances of the male figure skaters in the team competition. While the first two were good, there was a ton of falling out of tricks, and an overall lack of performance quality. The third man I watched was Adam Rippon. Obviously I was rooting for him because he’s on the American team, but as soon as his routine started it was clear that his performance was about to be on another level.
First of all, the man is beautiful. Yes, I know he’s gay, ya’ll, but I’m not and that guy is pretty. His routine was choreographed to two songs. The first being “Arrival of the Birds” which is an insanely gorgeous piece of music. I recognized it from the movie, The Theory of Everything. I was loving every bit of watching his talent, and then the commentator said that Adam was skating to Coldplay, and I was like, “hold up, this ain’t Chris.” When she didn’t correct herself, I started to suspect a CP song was coming.
Well guys, it wasn’t just any Coldplay song, it was the final song of the album, Ghost Stories. The song is called, “O” and now is the time where you need to hunker down while I tell you why this is everything.
Ghost Stories is the album that came out in the wake of Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow’s divorce. 
This was also right before my England trip; so, this is what I listened to throughout my time there. While the album is devastatingly sad, listening to it puts me back in England, which makes me happy. This is the album I listen to most, partially because of the memories, but also because the composition of the album collaborates so seamlessly with every sound. For this reason, I prefer to listen to this album in whole rather than its songs individually. However, in terms of individuality, “O” is one to notice. Being the final song, by this point in the album, you’ve felt all the feels and you’ve just been dropped off at the ultra-enlightened perspective of setting a loved-one free. Chris Martin has said that this is one of the hardest songs for him to perform because it is so honestly raw. It’s haunting, and it’s beautiful.
What’s more, this is my dad’s favorite song. After a really great night, we’ll close out the evening by listening to this song loudly. It’s a thing. What’s more than that, while the song is called, “O” the “O” is actually supposed to be a circle representing life and its tendency to come full circle. Chris Martin has this tattooed on his hand… I also have this tattooed on my hand. I think it’s pretty cool.
Back to the Olympics:
I’m listening to beautiful music, watching a beautiful person dance a beautiful piece of choreography just as beautifully. Want me to say beautiful again? This thing was a dance on ice skates– that’s why I liked it so much. I spent 15 years of my life dancing and typically when I watch figure skating, I’m bothered by the tension in their hands and shoulders. I also never understand why they don’t use their faces when they perform. But, I can only ice skate when someone is pulling me along; so, what do I know. My point being, Adam had dancer hands and he performed a piece of art. This is probably why dance isn’t an Olympic sport because despite how moved and impressed everyone watching him was, his routine was not as technically challenging as all the dudes who fell down, so he came in third.
This morning, as I saw Coldplay’s name all over the news, I wanted to watch the performance again. While I searched for this, I put together that Adam Rippon is the same man who refused to meet with Mike Pence when the Olympics began. For those of you who don’t know, Mike Pence has played a big role in funding conversion therapy. Conversion therapy is basically an attempt at torturing the gay out of people by forcing them to engage in sex acts and an insane amount of psychological abuse. Don’t believe me? Look it up. It’s horrendous. On a lighter note, during my searching, I also learned that Benji Schwimmer, who won So You Think You Can Dance in 2006, choreographed Adam’s piece. So, that was neat.
Now you know a bunch of stuff you didn’t ask to know; so, you’re welcome. I’ll try to write fewer words on Wednesday– hope you made it all the way through. And, thank you!
-M
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