Karen Shock was a girl I spent 12 years of school with and probably spoke to 10 times. 

I regret that.  And, as a class mate told me Saturday night, we were shallow.  It was about clothes, the mod look, dances, music, fun, football, basketball, and our close circle of friends.  There were 130 or so kids in my graduating class, and I have to admit, I didn’t know them all. 

But I should have.

At least I should have know Karen better.

Mrs. Almeda Shaw was a teacher at Valley View High School, and Karen was her student.  A few of the young men whom Mrs. Shaw taught were shipped off to Viet Nam.  She promised to write to them, but with a busy life, a family, a profession, she rarely kept UP with the demand.  She came UP with an idea.  She asked Karen to write to Charlie Martin, because Mrs. Shaw simply, didn’t have time.

Lucky Charlie.

When it came Karen’s turn to tell about her life Saturday night, she stood UP and said, “I’m Karen Shock Martin and this is my husband Charlie.  We’ve been married 40 years.”  Charlie was the lucky guy to whom Karen wrote while he was in Viet Nam.  They kept UP a two year correspondence, and when he came home from Nam, he took her out on a date. 

The rest is history.

They got engaged, married, had a family – one son, worked all their lives, and stayed in Germantown.

Nothing unusual about that.

But as Karen went through her little UPdate, I was more and more impressed, and more and more humbled.  She told us that she’s retired, and they volunteer at a homeless shelter, an animal shelter, a women’s shelter, and the 5 Rivers Park or Reserve.  That much volunteering is a full time job.  While she was telling her story, the smile never stopped.  She seemed filled with joy.

Who knew the quiet girl with the sweet smile would have an impact like that?

Karen, volunteering is a great look for you…keep it UP.

(Note from UP – Fashion Friday is a little different today, you were all expecting a “trash-a-thon” of my high school graduating class, but alas – I’m not that cruel, plus, we looked fabulous!   This is probably the most heart-warming story to come out of the reunion…I hope it touched you in print as much as it touched me at the event.  I’ll be catty again next week!)

• Stretch pants!
• Anything you wore in high school.
• Anything NASCAR!
• Maternity clothes – if you’re not pregnant, and at 58, let’s hope not Mrs. Dugger!
• Your Facebook photo may be your favorite, but leave that number at home, you don’t want everyone thinking you’ve only got one good get UP!
• Your Prom Dress, just because you can fit into it (and we all hate you for that alone), doesn’t mean you should wear it…even if it is retro enough to be “back in”.
• Anything too tight, too low, too small…we’re eating you know.
• A Burka.
• Leg warmers.
• Scrunchies.
• Leather.  Showing UP on a $35,000 Harley is one things, but seriously, leave the leather at home!
• Anything that says Valley View!  Please!
• A shirt with grandbaby drool or spit-UP on it!  We know you have grand kids, and we’ve all seen the pictures on Facebook!
• Anything from 5-7-9, Forever 21, or Just 4 Divas, because, you’re not, you’re not, and you’re not!

Can’t wait to see you all!

Paisley, velour, stretch pants, well, maybe not stretch pants!

But this – and I took this at the Mall – is just too Retro for me!

And even though the “Flintstones” remains a great cartoon series, and was ground-breaking in that Fred and Wilma were the first married couple to be shown in the same bed on Television, I’m just not sure we’re ready for the Stone Age again!

I’ll bet Wilma and Betty would be proud!

But, I still think it’s a bad look…just about a million years too retro!

Model Kristen McMenamy is featured in a new 24-page fashion spread in the September issue of Italian Vogue.  She wears oil-soaked black feathered outfits and looks as though she’s dying on the beach. Photographer Steven Meisel shot the controversial Gulf disaster-inspired images of McMenamy.  The photos show her caught in nets, flopping like a dying animal, and spitting UP oil.

Is good taste dead?

I thought fashion magazines were supposed to show women what they should look like.  And I’m sure someone will show UP at the Emmys wearing a BP inspired dress.  Fashion statements and political statements often pose as one. 

Hey Vogue, most women want to look pretty…that’s why they’re buying your magazine.  Powerful and disturbing images like the ones in September’s issue are designed to make consumers feel badly for consuming.  I find that a tad hypocritical coming from a magazine – after all, isn’t about 100% of the content aimed at consuming, and isn’t about 80% of magazine taken UP by advertisements?

Actually, Vogue, you’re on a par with BP!  Hey,  if you’re worried about the environment so much, save a tree yourself once in a while…skip issues like this

A Wendy’s employee told police she was walking UP to the drive-thru window from the inside just after 11 p.m. when a black man wearing a ski mask approached the drive-thru with a gun. She told police the man told her to put the cash drawer on the counter.

Atlanta police said the robber grabbed the cash drawer and took off on foot.

Excuse me, but it’s the drive thru!  Law-breaker! 

One witness told police he saw a man throw something into the bushes by the InTown Suites, which is close to the “Dining Establishment”.

The Atlanta Police sprung into action and found the cash drawer in said bushes and dusted it for prints.

No one said if TAOTW was wearing gloves…let’s hope not! 

Later on, while officers were STILL at the restaurant, Officer K.Y. Jones (no, I did not make that name UP) told a local television station reporter that , a man called the Wendy’s and said, “The next time, there better be more than $586.”

And then he called back.

Caller ID anyone?

So, congrats, Mr. Ski-maskWendy’sArmedRobber, you’re the first Fashion Friday Ass of the Week!

And for all you criminals out there…it’s August – Ski-Masks are “Winter Robbery Wear”…geez, get some fashion sense!

Since the phrase “See You In September” no longer applies, I thought I’d get an early start on Fall Fashions for school.

“What to buy?”, you ask.

More importantly, the question is, “What not to buy?”

Here’s a tip.  If there is any doubt, don’t buy it.  Or, don’t let her/him wear it to school.

What’s in?

Suede kicks.

Khaki always works and denim as well.  Make sure they A. fit, and B. have no holes, rips and tears that show underwear. For the girls, riding boots are in, scarves, hats (most schools do not allow head coverings other than for religious purposes),  chunky gold bracelets, and the color this fall – RED RED RED!

Guys, skinny jeans are OUT!  Comfort is back, the boys need to breathe.  Not too baggy, and sagging went out when President Obama came in.

Moms and Dads, here are some guide lines to follow. 

• Not too much skin showing.
• Not too tight.
• No profanity.  (None while shopping either!!)
• No liquor referneces - sorry, this excludes most NASCAR.
• No double entendre.
• Not too short.
• Not to Abbertrampy and Skank!

Here’s another tip, that tee-shirt that has Aces on it and says “Nice Pair” is not a good idea!

Funny, yes, appropriate, NO!

Mom,

and especially Dad,

when the school calls you to bring appropriate clothing for your child who’s been “dress coded”,  don’t show UP in a halter dress or shorts with the pockets hanging out!  You may get sent home too!

UP is a big fan of Sirius/XM radio.  Specifically, 60s on Six, Classic Vinyl, and Classic Rewind. I listen to it all the time in the car, and it brings back memories.

Johnny Carson said while introducing Genya Ravan one night, that the top three female voices in early Rock and Roll were Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, and Genya Ravan. 

Very few people know who Genya Ravan is, and that’s a shame.  And, he left one out.

Ronnie Spector – Born Veronica Yvette Bennett in 1943, she started singing early.  Her family encouraged it.  She was part of the Ronnetts, a multiracial group, which was very rare for the  1960s.  She said in her autobiography, “I never knew if I was black or white.”  Her mother was African-American and Cherokee and her father was Irish.  She married crazy man Phil Spector who is famous for his Wall of Sound music, and his recent murder conviction.  You know, “the gun just went off” and all that.

She’s most famous for “Be MyBaby” which we all danced to at sock hops at Germantown and Valley View.  She’s been covered by everyone from Bette Midler to John Lennon and Linda Ronstadt.  And produced by every one from Phil Spector to Genya Ravan.

Click here to hear Be My Baby.

Speaking of Genya Ravan, she’s one of the greatest voices in rock and roll.  I’m often amazed that so many people have never heard of her.  Born Genyusha Zelkowitz in 1940 in Lodz, Poland, Genya’s family came to the US when she was an early teen.   She was a member of the first successful all-girl band, Goldie and the Gingerbreads.  By that time, her mother had changed her name to Goldie.  Her real career started in the Lollipop Lounge in NY in 1962.  She joined a band called the Escorts, and moved on from there.  She has her own website, an autobiography, several recordings with Ten Wheel Drive, and hosts two Radio Shows on you guessed it, Sirius/XM – the Underground Garage channel. 

Her song, The Whipping Post, a cover of an Allman Brothers hit, is a wonder.  Check it out, here. It was during her “real name” phase, identiy crisis and all that.  And Stay With Me, which was recorded with Ten Wheel Drive has been covered by Bette Midler and just about every one else.

Then there’s Grace Slick.  Born on Beggar’s Night, 1930 to a well-to-do upper middle class family in Illinois.  She is a a direct descendant of passengers of the Mayflower.  Her father was promoted and transferred a lot, and they wound UP in Southern California where Grace attended a private all girls high school.  She went to Finch College and the University of Miami in Florida.  Truly a wild child and 1960’s ICON, she claims she never did drugs, and says her addiction was Dom Perignon Champagne.  She said, and I quote, “talk about a drug problem!”.

Her music and her career are legendary.  First with the Great Society, then Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, she’s recorded 30 albums, including four solo products. 

White Rabbit is what most of us know her for.  Yes, it’s a drug song, and yes, it’s strange, but it was the 60s.  Sorry about the crappy recording, and please ignore the Smothers Brothers, it was their show. 

And of course, the list would not be complete with out the one, the only, the best, the top of the line, Janis Joplin.

Janis Lyn Joplin, died way too soon.  It was her fault, and she deprived us of a muscial legacy that could have been much deeper than what it was.  I was, and remain, crazy about her.

Born in Port Arthur, Texas in 1943 to an engineer for Texaco and registrar at a business college, Janis was an emotionally needy child.  Her mother said, She was unhappy and unsatisfied without getting a lot of attention. The normal rapport wasn’t adequate.”  I identified with that early.

She was an outcast,  Other kids at high school would routinely taunt her and call her names like “pig,” “freak” or “creep.  She was rebellious, cultivated an outre personality, and wore “crazy clothes” and a bee-hive hair-do.  Didn’t everyone back then?

Her voice was noticed by the acid rock group Big Brother and The Holding Company with whom she recoreded several albums.  The attention Janis got overshadowed the band, resentments grew, and she announced in 1968 that she was leaving.  She started her short-lived solo career by forming Kozmic Blues Band.  Her drug and alcohol abuse escalated and the Kozmic Blues got the blues and quit. 

Janis actually got “clean” for a while in Rio.  She’d met a man, they were in love, and things looked UP.  Once back in the states her drug abuse and addiction to alcohol came back, he couldn’t take it, and they split UP.  She started singing again, formed Full Tilt Boogie Band and recorded her most famous album, though not her best, Pearl. 

Her most famous songs are Me and Bobby McGee, Piece of My Heart, Cry Baby (my favorite), and Mercedes-Benz.

Her drugs of choice were Heroin and Southern Comfort.  She drank it from the bottle while on stage and their sales skyrocketed.  Her addictions finally caught UP with her, she died of an overdose and complications from alcohol sometime the night of Saturday October 3rd or Sunday AM October 4th.  It was a total waste of life.  I miss what she could have been.

Who’s your favorite Rock and Roll Woman?

Well, it might be making you all mushy outside as well!

Skipping the gym time to spend time with the honey might make him/her start looking around!

Because it might add a few extra pounds.

Lauren Conrad of The Hills calls it the “boyfriend layer”.  You know, that roll of fat that hangs around your tummy or thighs or arms, yeah, that’s the one.

Amy Gorin, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut, says “When we get comfortable in a relationship, we establish new habits together that aren’t always the best for our weight.”

Well duh! 

There are a few things people do after falling “in love” – whatever that is – that change things dramatically.

DINING OUT DATES:  Guys like to take girls out to dinner, you know…to impress them.  A Men’s Health analysis of 24 national chains revealed that the average entree at a sit-down restaurant contains 867 calories.  That doesn’t take appetizers, drinks, desserts and the like into account. 

Single people usually eat less.  Often salads and other “healthy” meals.   Dating people usually want to get their money’s worth from an expensive dinner.

For some amazing reason, studies show that single guys eat healthier than single women.  I’m not sure I buy that one, but as they say, “the data doesn’t lie”.

An alternative is cooking together.  As I’ve said before on Jen and Em’s blog, Mommin it UP!, making a memory in the kitchen can be awesome.  And it can keep the pounds away.  So stay home, cook lite, get cozy, stay slim.

TOO MUCH TIME IN BED:    We’re not talkin’ woopie time, we’re talkin’ lazy time.  Couples who live together for two years or longer tend to laze around more.  Skip the gym, and generally be less active.  Less activity impacts women more than men.  Everybody, excuse me, everyone needs to get busy!  Doing something together makes it easier.

Either get out of bed, or get busy in it!  Getting comfortable and changing your routine can kill you or cure you.  Don’t be lazy.

Oh yes, there’s always the Better Sex Diet.

EQUAL PORTIONS:  Just because he (or in some cases she) can shovel in a ton of food and make it work, doesn’ t mean everyone can.  You don’t have to match each other.  Get the petite filet, if he wants the jumbo – not your problem!  You don’t have to match him plateful for plateful.  Generally men have more muscle mass, so more calories are required…hey, I know it’s not fair ladies, but you’re the ones who ate the apple and started all this fruit stuff anyway!

SHARING SNACKS:  No two people are alike, and his snacks may not be the snacks for you.  You might like them, but they may not like you!  Know what you know, and eat what’s good for you in the “in-between” times.  Eventually it’s gonna’ catch UP with him, but it’s gonna’ hit you sooner.  He can eat ice-cream, you might wanna try yougurt.  Some studies show that snacking is a way of connecting with your mate – date – baby daddy, but it’s not always a good one.

Yes I know celery sucks, but learn to love it.  Adding peanut butter helps – seriously, it does.  

YOU’RE JUST PLAIN HAPPY!:   People in love generally tend to gain a little weight – thus giving rise to the term “skinny bitch” !

A recent study shows that happy people are usually less successful losing weight, and that people with a “slightly negative and cautious outlook” tend to weigh less.  Ok, here’s where I run into trouble.  If this is true, I should look like I just walked out of Buchenwald, and I don’t! 

But, again, the data doesn’t lie.  Happy people are usually heavier people.  You know, Santa, Old King Cole, Budda, Aretha, Kirstie…you get my drift.

The cure here isn’t to get unhappy, but to get focused.  Weigh in – when you see the scales move a tad more than usual, pay attention to what your doing.

So tonight when he comes home – have candles everywhere, soft music playing, romantic lighting – then drag his ass into the kitchen and say, “hey baby, fire UP the grill, mama’s hungry!”

I saw a couple of frightening things.

Some I wish I’d missed.

I’m sure she was working on the tan with the sun-roof open, but my eyes!  Oh My Cow, my eyes! 

Note to ALL: put a shirt on when you get out of the car!

Roads, schools, bridges, buildings, highways; he was an icon in  West Virginia, a champion, and a true public servant.

One may not agree with his politics, but he did do what a good public servant does;  he brought home the bacon.

When Robert C. Byrd was elected to congress by the good people of West Virginia, I was five months old.  Truman was President, Ike had just been elected, and there were four miles of paved four lane road in the state of West Virginia.

Now, 58 years later, the state is covered UP with concrete, and that’s a good thing.  He brought jobs and cash to the poorest State in America.  With no coastline, WVA even had a Coast Guard Station!

Congressman Byrd served three terms, then moved on over to the Senate, where he stayed until Monday of this week.

He was 92 when he died, “suddenly and unexpectedly” as one news report said.  Seriously, he was 92, unexpectedly?

Called a “fiery orator” by some, a liberal by others, Senator Byrd was a power broker in DC with whom everyone in The House and the Senate had to work for the last 58 years.

He was the longest sitting Senator in the history of the US.

Not bad for an adopted kid, born in North Carolina.  His mother died when he was a baby and he was sent to live with an aunt and uncle in WVA.  He never knew he was adopted until he was 16, and did not know his real birthday until he was 54.

He was revered, loved, hated, and feared in WVA.  But he was year after year, re-elected and sent back to Washington because he did what was best for WVA.  And most of the people loved him.

“Bob is a living encyclopedia, and legislative graveyards are filled with the bones of those who underestimated him,” former House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, once said in remarks Byrd later displayed in his office.  Yes, he had an ego.

His style and demeanor reminded me of a time when people in politics at least pretended to be civil!  Byrd often seemed a Senate throwback to the 19th century. He could recite poetry, quote the Bible and use the verses correctly, discuss the Constitutional Convention and detail historic events such as the Peloponnesian Wars, and often on the Senate Floor he did just that.  He, like my Aunt Diddie, was both a Democrat and a Devout Baptist.

 He was a ruthless politican at times and knew the house and senate rules front and back.  He used them to his advantage – often.  As the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, he controlled nearly a third of the US budget.  He wasn’t above using the cash to reward and punish his friends and enemies. 

Back in the 70’s he knocked Ted Kennedy out of his post as second in command, was elected majority leader, and hung onto that position until the Democrats lost the majority in the Reagan Revolution.  He was still the party leader for the six years they were the minority, and revelled in another two years as the majority leader.

He loved his job, politics, the game, the US, and especailly West Virginia.

He carried a copy of the US Constitution in his suit pocket, and would whip it out on occassion to make a point.

And they loved him.

He was not only the longest sitting senator, he has more 18,500 roll call votes - another record.

He loved the Senate traditions, and they inspired him to write it’s four-volume history. His traditional values caused him to oppose laptops on the Senate floor and to object when a blind aide tried bringing a seeing-eye dog into the chamber.

In 2004, Byrd managed to get Congress to require schools and colleges to teach about the Constitution every Sept. 17, the day the document was adopted in 1787.

He was a man of his time who changed with the times as well.  A Klansman in his youth, and totally opposed to the 1964 Civil Rights act, Byrd joined with other Southern Democrats when they unsuccessfully tried to filibuster the bill.   Later in life, he appoligized for both, and had no trouble supporting his Party’s candidate, Barack Obama.

A true American Success Story, Robert Carlyle Byrd rose from the deepest poverty of West Virginia to become one of the most revered and respected politicians of my lifetime.

Public Service is a Very Classy Look!