"Stress Relievers" and 'Time Served'

Alton Brown (Food Network) says that the only unitasker in your kitchen should be a fire extinguisher. All other gadgets in your kitchen can have more than one function. I live in Ladue (St. Louis), MO.  Almost every home in this area has a grand piano.  Rather than to serve only as a status quo, that piano in your house can actually serve to relax and center you, AND keep your brain sharp, rather than just be a heavy weight to hold the house down when the next tornado comes through!

If an acoustic piano is unfeasible  buy a digital PIANO (different from a digital KEYBOARD, a digital piano should have 88 weighted keys.)

I come from a family of legally confirmed thieves (they are in my IMMEDIATE family), and prison time has been served for armed robbery. My mother's first cousin is Donald Leroy Evans, a serial killer that served time in prison in Mississippi before a fellow inmate cut his throat and killed him in prison in 1999. He was SENTENCED for the killings of 3 people, but charged with the killings of 12 people. In every murder case, the authorities don't leak out ALL the information to the public. They keep a few major details to themselves. In that manner, when a suspect talks about these details, the interrogator KNOW that this suspect most likely committed the crime, because these particular details were not released to the public. Donald knew enough facts about other serial murders - 58 other cases! - that even though he wasn't tried for a total of 70 murders, he most likely committed those, too. (Look up "Donald Leroy Evans" anywhere on the internet. He has his own Wikipedia page, and several other webpages.)

My Ex once told my mother "When I can't keep up with Michael's brain, he gets upset with me!" My mother responded to him by saying the only thing that was the truth in her LIFE, "You'd better be glad that Michael uses that brain for GOOD instead of for BAD, like the rest of us, because if he didn't you would be gone, and nobody would know where to find you!" The buggy look in his eyes, and the agape mouth on his face that ensued was camera-worthy, and priceless!

Music, my friend. Music. Not just listening to it, but playing it yourself on an instrument.

Music has kept some big, bald guy named "Bubba" from making me his permanent Bitch in prison, making me bring him his meals, light his cigarettes, and satisfy his nasty needs while the others look on. (Said activity might be fun OUTSIDE the institutional walls, and on equal turf, but in this environment - where HE has all the control - NOT SO MUCH!) he he he

Caution: (Insert announcer during drug commercials on TV):

"Using music may increase your rate of nightly dreams, it WILL improve your memory and brain, in general, music will calm and center you, and - Mark can vouch for this one - it will make you scream impromptu - out-loud in public!"

(Don't give me that crap about 'I don't have time to do that." Ask my mother - my GRANDMOTHER - my UNCLE - and my cousin Donald Leroy Evans about 'time' (served). Their perception of 'time' will most likely be different than mine, because I used my 'time' wisely to center and improve myself. Those folk that I just mentioned. Not so much! :)

Click your heels together 3 times, sweetie. The answer to your problem is closer than you think. It is already within you, and it could already be within your house, too!

(You could also try a SLOW walk through the Missouri Botanical Gardens, especially the Climatron during this time of the season.)

- Michael