Let the Confetti Fall!

I couldn't be any happier if I tried. Why? Well it all started on Saturday when Punxsutawney Phil gave me a belated Christmas gift with the prediction of an early spring. This had me jumping for joy because frankly last year winter hung around way too long. The Nor'ester that brought trees down all over our yard totaling one of our cars didn't really add any love to the season for me either.

Sunday started out doing my favorite thing in the world which is to sing, at a military event The four Chaplins WWII Memorial Service. It was also a milestone wedding anniversary with the love of my life and on this same day with a hot cup of magic a la Dunkins in my hand I got to watch Tom Brady and the Patriots deliver a fantastic gift to us and Pats fans everywhere by delivering another historic Super Bowl win! There was so much talk about him being too old, and people speculating if he still had what it took, or if he should retire, and on and on. As the confetti was falling down all around and the celebration began I couldn't help but think about my song "I Don't Even Care".  

It was written about stuffing your ears full of cotton balls when the naysayers of life tell you you're too this or too that to do something. When they say that something is impossible. First off they are forgetting what the word actually says, "I'm_Possible". 

Nothing is impossible to anyone period, end of story. It's all in your mind. If you think you can, you can and that is it. Well that is unless you're ninety nine years old and your dream is to be an Olympic skier, but even then who knows really? The power the mind has on the body is incredible. There really are no words to fully express it.

Anyway there are a lot of people with Tom Brady derangement syndrome out there and I think it is beyond silly. He is an athlete who has broken all kinds of records in the sport. There were so just many beautiful things about this Super Bowl anyone should be smiling watching it all unfold. Especially the twins from my little neck of the woods. First time ever twins played together in a Super Bowl. Twins Devin and Jason McCourty were born in Nyack, NY the area where I live in the beautiful historic Hudson Valley of NY.

People should celebrate others success and be happy when someone achieves a dream or a goal because if it happened to them it can happen to you. Anything is possible if you work hard and take the necessary steps to achieve your dream and goal. I listened to a pregame interview of Brady on Saturday night, and he was saying how he makes a daily choice to do the work necessary to do his job. There was a lot more to it, but it was really poignant. Many people today want things overnight, and feel entitled to have them without doing the things required to get them. Here is a guy who has worked practically every day of his life on one thing, and he is the best at it not only because of his talent, but because of his effort. He works hard, stays out of trouble, and has a beautiful wife and family. I think it is a great example and inspiration to people everywhere.

His interview actually reminded me of a great quote from President Ronald Reagan. It was made while he was Governor of California.

"Attitude, not aptitude, controls altitude. Along with a positive attitude, we must have a positive plan." 

Very true. Even more so the more you think about it. Another thing that made the Super Bowl so special this year was the National Anthem. I mean HELLO! Gladys Knight knocked it OUT OF THE PARK! Quite possibly the BEST National Anthem ever in my opinion (and to think she didn't need to write the lyrics on her hands and she was fully clothed)wow - what a concept. I will use my inside voice to describe what I thought about the half time show because my mom taught me if you don't have anything nice to say, sometimes it is best to not say anything at all.

Onto the third and final item in the what made it a Super Trifecta weekend for this greek girl. Well, it is not really the weekend still because it happens on Tuesday. However, Tuesday is the Super Bowl parade in Boston and the grand finale that same evening... if you guessed the State of the Union you are correct!

I have my popcorn ready (organic of course) and I'm all set to watch the President address the nation. I could go on about another major case of derangement syndrome some people have but I won't. I will however say that there are far too many people who show no respect for the office. Even when there have been people in that office I did not agree with in any way, shape, matter, or form, I showed respect for the office. The level of discourse out there is frightening. Where is the common decency? People should be able to disagree and not hate each other as people. Good grief Charlie Brown.

Anyway it's a happy day for me. So go download my song, tell the naysayers where they can go, and go out and make it a happy day!

Blessings, Love & Music ~
Ava xo
www.avaaston.com

HGTV Anonymous

Silence is Golden… I was shocked at first, I couldn’t believe that for the first time the entire award show season that there was going to be an award show without any nasty jokes made about Trump. That was until about three and a-half minutes into it when they started, and sadly it never ended.

To be honest, I did not watch the entire show. I did however flip back and fourth several times to see what was going on. Hey, I'm an actor and being that the Oscars used to be the equivalent of what the Superbowl is to football… it is only natural to want to see what films and performances take the top honors. (BTW Hacksaw Ridge was robbed!)

I say, “used to be” because over the past several years Hollywood or shall I say Hollyweird seems to have forgotten that they are supposed to be in the business of entertainment and not politics. 

It's just not as fun as it used to be to keep up with it all. Honestly the only things we watch in our house are HGTV, Animal Planet, and sometimes Fox News. Most of the time I have Classical or CCM Music on the Music Choice channel going on the TV in the background. Why? Because Classical Music makes you smart, and in my opinion it is just more fun to watch than a bunch of junk set to program my noggin with boatloads of gobbledygook.

This my friends is how it all started… My decision to tune out the junk, and tune into other things. I’m seriously starting to wonder if I need to check myself into “HGTV Anonymous”. You see I wanted a new bedroom suit. I had fallen in love with a set at Restoration Hardware called the St. James collection in antique white. The catch, I didn’t particularly care for the almost six thousand dollar price tag it came with. Ov vey!

So I did what any thrifty person in this situation would do. You guessed it, I hit Craigslist. After a few weeks I found a set just a few miles away from our house. It was perfect! Solid wood, unlike most of the furniture on the market today, which is, manufactured wood and pressed board. I made an appointment to see it, got the Mr. and boom we were off. It was just as perfect in person as in the ad. So we made arrangements to pick it up the following day.

Then, it was off to the Home Depot for Chalk Paint. What is chalk paint you might wonder? It is a fantastic way to make furniture look antique. It can be used to do so many crafts and it looks amazing! There are lots of colors to choose from as well. The best part you don’t have to strip the previous finish. Just paint right over it, then do the topcoat.

It took about three weeks to get two coats on everything, and then let it dry and do the top coat matte clear. I found amazing knobs on lowes.com and viola’ our new bedroom set was complete.

However, after getting it into the bedroom and set up was when I started to notice every little knick and scratch on every bit of paint it seems in the entire house. Could it have something to do with watching too much, Flip or Flop, Love it or List it, or House Hunters? Probably…

I then told the Mr. we needed to finally finish painting the ceiling that we never finished a few years ago. Then it was the hallway, it was too dark and too tan, that we needed to brighten it up. Then it was the entryway by the front door. Now it has moved onto the woodwork. Yes all the white woodwork in the entire main level of the house “needs” to be painted.

So after several trips to Home Depot, Lowes (and to Dunkins for fuel to do the job) we have the house upside down and covered under plastic. Blue tape everywhere and I’m thinking that I might think twice before I tune into HGTV again… because after all this is how it all starts (no wonder I’m behind on getting my new music out).

Add to the chaos the fact that not only are my own four dogs and one cat in the house while this is going on, we are currently pet sitting my moms two dogs as well. This makes for a whole barrel of monkeys or shall I say fur babies who want to see what their fur and paws look like with paint on them.

Here are some signs you might be watching too much HGTV:

- The employees at Home Depot know you by name.

- The employees at Lowes know you by name.

- The employees at both stores know what projects you are working on.

- The employees at both stores ask to see photos of the finished projects. 

If this sounds familiar, it may be a good idea to reduce ones HGTV viewing. Oh who am I kidding? I’ll never stop watching and why should I? There’s nothing wrong with Spring-cleaning any time of the year. Hey it’s a surefire way to keep oneself from ending up like another TV show that no one in the world ever wants to find themselves on… hoarders. ;o) Happy HGTV-ing!

Blessings, Love & Music!
Ava xo
www.avaaston.com

The Brady Bunch

Tom Brady and the Brady Bunch

It's 8pm and the coin toss is just minutes away.  With millions of Tebow fans around the world Tebowing in their living rooms I sit in the dark clutching my Vitamin Water Zero as I wait to watch what I know is inevitably about to occur: a debacle on the Denver Bronco's.  Yup, you guessed it, I am a Patriots fan.  Sorry.....  and even I love Tim Tebow, he is amazing.  However if it comes down to the two teams, I just have to stay tried and true to my boys in silver and blue.

Here we have football from the mind of a girl, (a Greek blonde Girl that is):

1st Quarter:

Tom Brady (aka Mr. Bunchen) strides out leading his team to the field.  Denver wins the coin toss.  Meanwhile I indulge in a healthy snack platter as I watch the Patriots chalk two touchdowns on the board faster than my manager Mr. Bricks can scarf down a McRib.

Commercial break.  OK time to check my Ebay app on my iPhone.  Low and behold I'm about to score a touchdown of my own as I pitch my bid on a bottle of my favorite Channel Parfum, Allure.  With only 1 minute to go I end up winning!  TOUCHDOWN!

2nd Quarter:

The Brady Bunch takes it to the Bronco's and I think I see Tebow underneath about a dozen Patriots, inside voice - "please God make them stop stomping on Tim Tebow".  I know this is so hard, I love my Pats, but I love Tim Tebow too.... rrhhrrh I almost think the Patriots started to feel bad too - as the Bronco's scored one touchdown.  Then only to answer them back Mr. Bunchen (Tom Brady) decides to toss in not 1 or 2 but 3 more touchdowns.  So I get bored for a minute.  I decide to prank Mr. Brick's by sending him a pic of me with my hair pulled back and tell him I cut it into a 'bob'.

Halftime -

Mr. Brick's texts me in a total frenzy.  He insists on Skyping me from across the globe to see my new "hairdo".  Ut Oh.... he does not sound amused.... yup he's pretty much flipping out. I text him and say I was only kidding.  Oops the Patriots are back on the field now.

I tell Bricks not to worry and I will skype him after the game.  The phone rings.  It's him.  Oh geeze.  Can't a girl watch a game without being interrupted.  It's okay because at this point I feel so bad for the Bronco's I can't take it.  So I answer the Skype call.  Mr. Bricks who is visiting his ailing Aunt in east-yu-peepee is nearly freaking out before I show him I would never cut my locks off.  He lets out a gasp, and it's a good thing I told him or it could have landed him into a McRib induced coma.

- Now back to the game.

Tom tosses yet another TD pass.  In goes the Patriots into a 42 to 7 lead.  Oh and the Bronco's score a 3 point field goal.  What's that?  Someone tagged me in a political photo on Facebook?  Okay, gotta login now and delete the tag... grrr.  Meanwhile I stop to see Laura Kaeppeler from Wisconsin was just crowned Miss America, (love the dress btw).

Back at the game.

Here we see Tebow tebowing yet again but this time its because he's getting up from being sacked his 6th time of the game.  What in the world?  I just can't wrap my noggin around this.  I have to have a hot beverage.  So I pour myself a k-cup cup-o-coffee/hot chocolate and top it off with whip cream.  My Brady Bunch is destroying the Bronco's & I feel so bad I can't even enjoy it! 

4th Quarter:

I text Mr. Bricks to see if he's watching the game.  He say's "no. I don't like soccer."  This leads me to believe he's kidding.  But then a few texts later I get to the bottom of it and realize Mr. Bricks failed in gym class.  He's not a sports fan.  That is unless you consider Nascar a sport.  He's got a thing for Danica Patrick apparently.  I am starting to think he spends more time watching her car go round the racetrack more than he is trying to get me my record deal....

Then before you know it, it looks like the Patriots have just about wrapped up what is by far one of the greatest games I have ever seen.  45-10 in a blowout game that set all kinds of records, now if we can just have a repeat next week.  Don't get me wrong, I am all for Tim Tebow.  He is an amazing athlete and most importantly a class act.  It was really hard to watch my favorite team beat the Broncos so badly.  However, in sports just like in life sometimes we're up and sometimes we're down.  The most important thing to remember is to always be who you are no matter what is happening on the field.  Just like the sports casters said, "Tim Tebow" will be back next year with a vengeance.  In the meantime it's on to the playoffs and God willing, onto the Superbowl for my Brady Bunch!         

Blessings, Love & Music ~
Ava xox :D
www.avaaston.com 

The Super Bowl.



So what is all of the fuss about this Super Bowl?



So why all of the fuss over a super bowl? OK, I am going to humor you all for a second and pretend I just crawled out from under a rock and I don't really know what all of the Super Bowl hype is about. In fact, I have some questions rolling around in my little Greek noggin as to about what the game of football is really all about anyway.

From what I see, it just seems like a bunch of high-priced athletes fighting over money. At the beginning of the game they get the biggest guy from each team to go to the center of the court, track, diamond, field or whatever this sport calls it. Then they flip a quarter. And for the next (what seems like) 8 hours they fight over that twenty-five cents. I know that is true because I can hear them yell, "Get the quarter back, get the quarter back!"

I hope you like that, I'm using my best "A" material.

I really didn't discover the game of football until I was in high school...and then I really didn't learn much about the rules of the game of football. What I did learn was that all of the cute boys in school were on the football team. So I tried out for cheerleading as an excuse to be near them, and as a way to harness my inner Greekness. And I wasn't just a cheerleader, I was named captain of the cheerleading squad. Yep this big Greek yapper has its advantages I tell you. They said since I was always talking, I might as well be in charge. Ok, so I know a little bit about football, so bring it on!

The part of the Super Bowl hype that upsets me the most is that a football game seems to have more importance than a major religious holiday. Furniture stores, car dealerships, the grocery stores and even Subway are all having Super Bowl specials. I am sure there are more than one confused little kid who wakes up on Sunday morning, runs down stairs and is disappointed that there are no Super Bowl presents waiting for them. Don't we always give kids present on holidays like Christmas, Halloween, Easter and their birthdays?

In reality I think the Super Bowl gets far more media attention than Easter, more stores and companies advertise for the Super Bowl than for Easter. Just think how easy it would be for a company like Subway to advertise during Easter?

Jesus took five loaves of bread two fish and fed 5,000 people. We take one loaf of bread and throw on some sliced process meat and a crap load of veggies on it for only $5.00. The $5.00 foot long now at Subway! Happy Easter.

But alas, like Bieber Fever swept over a nation of pre-teenaged girls, so has the Superbowl fever swept over an entire nation. I will be on my couch on Sunday watching the commercials and laughing, watching and wondering out loud why they would get the Black Eyed Peas to be the half-time entertainment, and not get a real band like Journey or Foreigner to perform. I will also be watching The Pittsburgh Steelers kick the butts of the Green Bay Packers -Just sayin.

Blessings,

Ava

xox