<a class="proll" href="https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/item_id/1051691-Gemini-Rising">Gemini Rising

🌻 pwheeler ~ love joy peace

Every February, you're invited to chronicle the music that has influenced your life!

#1970896 by Jeff

this was a very different type of challenge for me and I enjoyed revisiting the soundtrack of my life. The blog earned the following merit badge:

DECEMBER 2025:

I participated in:

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12 Poetic Days of Yuletide (E)

12 different Poetry styles beginning December 21st- January 1st.

#2329171 by Witchy Yule Woman

this was a great challenge and I would highly recommend it if comes up again for next year. The blog earned the following merit badge:

SEPTEMBER 2025:

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It's WDC- 25th Birthday (E)

7 day Challenge to celebrate 25 years of this successful writer's haven.

#2343390 by Witchy Yule Woman

Merit Badges collected and earned:

Awardicon earned: The blog earned the Green 50K Awardicon for 1st Place.

SEPTEMBER 2025:

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Earn the Badge - CLOSED (E)

You want it? Earn it. How? Complete these simple tasks and the badge is yours!

#2133333 by Purple Princess

Merit Badges collected and earned from "Earn the Badge 2025"

SUMMER 2025:

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BCoF 's Virtual 50 State Bucket List (18+)

We're going to explore one unique place in each of the 50 states in alphabetical order.

#2342653 by Witchy Yule Woman

Merit Badges Collected from Virtual Blogging &Virtual Blogging Friends:

SEPTEMBER 2024:

I participated in the

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Blog Week Birthday Bastion 2025 (E)

Blogging event from September 1-7, 2025. CLOSED

#2277665 by WakeUpAndLive~lifestyle change

which was a big challenge for me due to my schedule, but I hunkered down and got it done. There's some great entries for the contest and the blog earned the following:

Merit Badge in Nonfiction
[Click For More Info]

Congrats on your Honorable Mention in Blog Week Birthday Bastion 2024

Big thanks to WakeUpAndLive~lifestyle change

for hosting the contest!

OCTOBER 2024 & 2025 :

I participated in the

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13 Poetic Days of Halloween Contest 2025 (E)

Let your spooky poetry shine. Oct. 13th 12:01 am WDC time. - closes 11:59 pm WDC Oct 25th

#2328177 by Witchy Yule Woman

in 2024 which honestly was a big challenge for me considering my schedule, and again I hunkered down and did it! Update October 2025: I had so much participating in the challenge last year, I did it again for 2025 and successfully completed it. There's some great spooky poetry to be found in October and the blog earned the following merit badges:

Big Thanks to Witchy Yule Woman

for hosting the contest!

NOVEMBER 2025 :

from Tiggy

Find me at:

WEBSITE:
http://www.stephanieburkhart.com

FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/StephanieBurkhartAuthor

GOOD READS:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4031660.Stephanie_Burkhart

YOU TUBE CHANNEL:
http://www.youtube.com/user/botrina?feature=mhee

WARNING

I intend to be open, honest, and forthright. No topic is off limits from religion to you name it, I'm going there. If you think you might be offended...back up now - this blog isn't for you. For those who "dare" check out the "Gemini Rising..."

Another Signature

AI Disclaimer: I hate AI. Writing is creative. Be creative. Don't be a bot. Do not use my creative writing to teach an AI bot to read. Thank you.

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Comments ·

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

about 18 hours ago
In response to "Brain Dead and Books "

Hope you get some great sleep tonight... or next time you get to sleep.

Sandy's Scribblings

a day ago
In response to "Car Repairs and Urban Jungle (not for the faint of heart)"

The why or how stories behind incidents/accidents can be mind boggling.

Steph O'Bee

a day ago
In response to "Car Repairs and Urban Jungle (not for the faint of heart)"

Jeff

The newer cars are more expensive too because of all the fancy electronics. Heck, I got a scratch in my windshield and it cost me 600 bucks to replace because of the sensors and we have a 1000 deductible to help keep costs down! I have a cash envelope system where I put 20 dollars away a week, but that envelope is pretty much tapped out now.

The calls have changed over the years. Nowadays we get A LOT of mental illness, but when I was first hired, not as much - we used to get a lot of theft from stores but not so much.

I've been reading a lot of memoirs recently - Melissa Gilbert, Charlotte Stewart, Just finished Ann-Margret and some of then had some interesting stories. I'd be interested in hearing some of your crazy calls!

Kåre เลียม Enga

Ditto! I'm going to follow the call and see how they dispo which I rarely do. They canvased the area but not sure for what. There's another unit still to dispo. One dispo'd medical only, but that doesn't really tell me anything.

Kåre เลียม Enga

a day ago
In response to "Car Repairs and Urban Jungle (not for the faint of heart)"

My city had plenty of crime when I worked the emergency lines... but our first thought was never 'terrorist'. Stupid? Sure, lots of stupid then... and now.

There are days I'm happy I don't have a car. The cost and stress would get to me.

Jeff

a day ago
In response to "Car Repairs and Urban Jungle (not for the faint of heart)"

Ugh, any car repair over a couple hundred bucks stresses me out!

And yeah, Los Angeles has some real weirdos. I can't imagine the kinds of calls you get as a 911 operator. Heck, the calls I get as a movie studio executive are crazy enough and there's rarely dynamite involved in those!

BIG BAD WOLF is Lucky

Mar 22, 2026 at 10:03pm
In response to "More Misc Thoughts.... "

Always something.

𝓦𝓮𝓫W𝓲𝓽𝓬𝓱

Mar 21, 2026 at 6:53pm
In response to "Misc Thoughts "

Tea at midnight is a lovely thing!

I don't eat meat on Friday during Lent, either. I made Chilean sea bass for dinner last night. That fish is so tasty!

Sounds like the oil wasn't hot enough when they threw the fish in. Thus a soggy, disappointing meal.

My niece did a lot of research on our family genealogy.

Steph O'Bee

Mar 21, 2026 at 6:16pm
In response to "Misc Thoughts "

With the unusually warm weather here in SoCal, the people are acting like it's summer so crime is up. We all have to work more - more calls coming in, more police activity. Having supportive co-workers really makes the time you're working rewarding.

Sandy's Scribblings

Mar 21, 2026 at 12:20pm
In response to "Misc Thoughts "

Supportive co-workers make working bearable. Genealogy can be fascinating.

TeeGateM

Mar 21, 2026 at 11:21am
In response to "Misc Thoughts "

I was up at midnight not having tea. I should have had tea. That sounds so delicious and relaxing.

1990's Sounds - Meredith Brooks

February 28, 2026 at 7:52pm

#1109501

Written for:

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Every February, you're invited to chronicle the music that has influenced your life!

#1970896 by Jeff

#28 - 1990's Sounds - Meredith Brooks

Before there was Meredith, there was Alanis Morisette and her gritty "Jagged little Pill" album. Jagged Little Pill offered everything - a little bit of alt rock, grunge, and pop rock. While I liked Alanis's album and thought it was wild for the times (who else could do angst so well?) there was something it lacked - hard to say what it was - trying to define it now - maybe heart? honesty? sincerity?

Meredith Brooks brought all of that (alt rock/grunge/pop) to her album, "Blurring the Edges." Her song, "Bitch," talked about about all the different things I was as a woman and which resonated with me.

I'm a bitch, I'm a lover
I'm a child, I'm a mother
I'm a sinner, I'm a saint
I do not feel ashamed

And when she sung those words, I found that heart and sincerity that Alanis was lacking. I bought "Blurring the Edges" and played it relentlessly. This album really spoke to me as a woman - the complexities of being of being feminine, and spoke to me of trying to find the balance of all the roles I struggled with. Meredith captured a vibe at the time that Gen X women were dealing with - trying to define and make those feminine roles fit and not being ashamed of it, but embracing it.

My favorite song on the album is "What Would Happen?" It asked the aged old question - what would happen if two people kissed? Where would that kiss take them? An affair? A marriage? Enjoyment in the heat of the heat of the moment? Was there courage in just walking away?

The whole album is a definition in the blurring lines of the expectations of women for a generation and I was there for it. I was a Bitch. I was a Sinner. I was a Saint. And I was nothing in between.

MEREDITH BROOKS
What Would Happen

1990's Sounds - Pearl Jam

February 28, 2026 at 7:19pm

#1109495

Written for:

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Every February, you're invited to chronicle the music that has influenced your life!

#1970896 by Jeff

#27 - 1990's Sounds - Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam is another key band in the grunge movement of the 90's, though for me, their song lyrics are darker and more haunting. Pearl Jam put Generation X under a microscope to reveal the pain of a generation, and while I liked the beat, the rhythm of their songs, their lyrics haunted even me.

The most poignant song for me was Daughter. Vender has said it was about about disabilities, but that song really spoke to the emotional core of what it was like to be a daughter of Generation X. Maybe I wasn't the best or the brightest, but I was a daughter and craved that love on an emotional level.

Pearl Jam is still together to this day and was inaugurated into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. According to their Wikipedia page, they were considered the most popular band of the 1990's.

Why?

Maybe because they weren't afraid about to talk about the darker things in life that Generation X had seen and locked away, and only now we decided to break the lock and were ready to talk about it. Jeremy was a heart breaking song of boy who "spoke in class today" inspired by a newspaper headline of a boy who had shot himself in front of his class.

Pearl Jam showed us a darker side of a generation. It hurt, but it was needed. Even today, Daughter and Jeremy give me chills.

DAUGHTER
Pearl Jam

1990's Sounds - Soundgarden

February 28, 2026 at 6:50pm

#1109491

Written for:

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Every February, you're invited to chronicle the music that has influenced your life!

#1970896 by Jeff

#26 - 1990's Sounds - Soundgarden

Soundgarden's "Superunknown" album blew me away. First off, the album captured the grunge sound well. There were 5 great songs on it - my favorite being "Spoonman." I just liked the rhythm of the song. This is another song where I didn't really pay attention to the lyrics. It was about the music, the beat of the song and how it moved me.

Superunknown is one of the best albums of the 1990s and is considered a quintessential grunge album.

Grunge, for me, is like being a rebel. There's a little bit of 'rebel' to the music. The hard driving beats, the noises, the lulls before going full noise again.

Superunknown gave me permission to embrace my inner rebel. It's another "let go and trust yourself" album in the soundtrack of my life.

SPOONMAN
Soundgarden

February 28, 2026 at 5:55pm

#1109488

1990's Sounds - Nirvana

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Every February, you're invited to chronicle the music that has influenced your life!

#1970896 by Jeff

#25 - 1990's Sounds - Nirvana

In 1991 I heard something I never heard before - Nirvana.

It's a cool word meaning an enlightened state of mind, but the band was something else. It was loud - filled with noise. The music blared. The lyrics almost defiant - and in some unexplainable way embodied an emotional undertone of a generation bubbling below the surface.

When I heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit," there was something in the song that said, this is all the dirty nasty that I try to hide which comes out from time to time. The "Hello, Hello, Hello" chorus was hard and driving, determined, like me. The noise? That was the noise around me. The quiet parts of the song was me regrouping.

Nirvana is one of the best selling bands worldwide with over 75 million albums sold. Hard to believe. Interestingly, their Wikipedia page says they are considered a figurehead band for Generation X. I hate to say it, but I'm probably the typical Generation X person. Latchkey kid, free range parenting. Work best on my own, MTV Generation, slightly cynical and disaffected and, given a second, I can think outside of the box.

Now, after going through the British 2nd invasion and my folk-rock years, I'm swinging the other way on the music pendulum and going from soft folk-rock to loud grunge rock noise. why?

Maybe it was the times? Maybe the rebel in me kicked in? Maybe it was a sound I wanted to explore? Nirvana's Nevermind album has always spoken to me in a ways I can't articulate, but it touched an emotional chord that resonated deep inside me.

Life was loud. It was noisy. It was messy. Oh whatever, Nevermind. Keep on living.

And I forget just why I taste
Oh, yeah, I guess it makes me smile
I found it hard, it's hard to find
Oh, well, whatever, never mind

NIRVANA
Smells Like Teen Spirit

February 28, 2026 at 5:25pm

#1109483

1900's Sounds - Divinyls

Written for:

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1990's Sounds - Michael Penn

Every February, you're invited to chronicle the music that has influenced your life!

#1970896 by Jeff

#24 - 1990's Sounds The Divinyls

In 1991, The Divinyls released their 4th album, simply called Divinyls. This album has the famous "I Touch Myself," song. Honestly, I didn't think about the lyrics that much at time. I just know I liked the music, thought Amphlett's was unique, and I liked the presentation - that the Divinyls weren't afraid to be themselves.

Once again, I had no idea the Divinyls were Australian. Those Australian bands sneak up on me!

At this point it's just Christine Amphlett and Mark McEntee who were the divinyls. They wrote some songs for this album in Paris and some in Los Angeles. For I Touch Myself - Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly pitched in. To this day, I Touch Myself is probably their biggest number.

At this time, I'm in Germany, on my 2nd tour and really coming into a phase of getting to know myself and embracing the journey. It was okay to be myself. Ah, yes, I had a boyfriend. We chuckled, boy is this song cool. It resonates with me because it was during an impressionable period of time in my life. Not only that, the whole album is GOOD. The other songs on the album are fun, rocky, daring, and singable. This was another car jam on the 4 hour trip to Berlin.

Years later I wondered what happened to them. They never really had another hits after this one. They released albums but it wasn't the same. And sadly, in 2013, Christine died due to breast cancer.

The Divinyls will always have a place on my soundtrack. They were wild, fun, and freeloving during a time I was coming to embrace that about myself as well.

THE DIVINYLS
Love School

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February 28, 2026 at 8:27am

#1109449

Written for:

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Every February, you're invited to chronicle the music that has influenced your life!

#1970896 by Jeff

#23 - 1990's Sounds - Michael Penn

Michael Penn released his first album, "March," in 1989. His biggest hit was "No Myth," which charted in late 1989 and then his next release was "This and That."

Well, I just loved No Myth, bought the March CD and played it to death. I fell in love with the music on the CD, especially the song, "This and That."

Again, Michael captures that folk-rock feel with many of the songs on March. There's a little bit of everything. The music is crisp. His wife - Aimee Mann (from Til Tuesday) will tell you he's a little beatles-que. Perhaps.

For me, the best song on the album that makes me stop and sing it in the car is - This and That. My husband and I just started dating and I just fell in love with the romanticism of the song. There's nothing more longing than the line:

"I'll be burning canyons for you..."

Sigh...

For me, This and That is about falling in love - what falling in love does to you.

Well you cut me to the quick
With some kind of abandon
And I'm poring over every word in my mind
And it isn't making sense
'cause it's coming back at random
And I already forgot what I expected to find

Isn't that love does to you? It totally disconbobbles you. I've never been so cut to quick and nothing made sense.

This and That resonates with me because it's one of those songs about falling in love and I discovered it when I was falling in love. I will always remember Michael Penn, the March album, and This and That for the rest of my life.

As for the video, this was the best version I could find.

THIS AND THAT
Michael Penn

1990's Sounds - Fleetwood Mac

February 28, 2026 at 7:11am

#1109445

Written for:

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1990's Sounds - Suzanne Vega

Every February, you're invited to chronicle the music that has influenced your life!

#1970896 by Jeff

#22 - 1990's Sounds - Fleetwood Mac

Waitaminute, Steph - Wasn't Fleetwood Mac in the 1970's? Yeah, they were but the line up of Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Christine McVie is CLASSIC. And like the Beatles, their music is classic and stands the test of time.

I discovered Fleetwood Mac in the late 1980's and their music began to grow with me. I actually went and saw them in concert in 1988 in Dortmund, Germany, though Lindsay was gone and there were 2 guys there - Billy Burnette and Rick Vito. I think I went with Johnny Seybalt from Commo. I'm telling you, those Commo guys were cool. They were laid back and never uptight.

In early 1990, my Aunt came over to visit me and brought 3 of her friends. I met them in Paris and we piled into my Toyota Corolla went on a road trip - Paris - Brussels, Amsterdam, Munster, and then - Berlin. One of my Aunt's friends, Laura, had a brother stationed in Berlin. His name was Terry and his wife was Rhonda, and we became good friends. Exploring Berlin during this time was the experience of a lifetime. The Fall of the Berlin Wall had just happened and Berlin had just opened up as a city. Over the course of the next couple of years, I would go back and visit Rhonda and Terry with my future husband, Brent. Oh, we were young and we had Dreams.

Fleetwood Mac's music and songs speak to the emotional content of life regardless of the decade. Everyone has dreams for their life - dreams for their future, dreams at night. Dreams filled with hope and longing and of a promising future. That was this time of my life. I could see Berlin embracing those dreams, too. The Soviet block countries were falling. The early 1990 was a time of change in the world and in my life personally. It was a time of Dreams.

DREAMS
Fleetwood Mac

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February 28, 2026 at 6:01am

#1109443

Written for:

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Late 1980's Sounds - The B-52's

Every February, you're invited to chronicle the music that has influenced your life!

#1970896 by Jeff

#21 - 1990's Sounds - Suzanne Vega

By the late 1980's early 90's my ear was turning more to the folk-rock sound. Tracy Chapman and Melissa Etheridge were some of the sounds I was listening to.

I'd first heard of Suzanne Vega when she performed "Left of Center" for the Pretty in Pink soundtrack. (Personally, I loved pretty much all the music on that soundtrack) and I knew she released an album in 1987 (Solitude Standing) but at the time, I hadn't caught up with it.

To hear Suzanne tell it, "Tom's Diner" was sung acapella on Solitude Standing and honestly, it's probably one of the BEST acapella songs I've ever heard. Unfortunately, about this time, 1990 her career was stalling and her next moves weren't clear.

Enter DNA. They remixed music and put it next to Vega's vocals (without asking mind you) - but what they did made that song magic. Vega's lawyer reached out to her and said, "Hey, DNA did this to your song without your permission. Do you want us to sue?" Vega listened to what they did, called DNA and BAM! Collaboration. The song took off as well Vega's music. She's had other hits - Luka is one you might recognize.

I liked Suzanne's music for the folk-rock vibe, the vocals, and the searing honestly. Tom's Diner resonated with me. (Inspired by her people watching at Tom's Restaurant in NYC, she changed restaurant to diner) Why?

It's about every day life - just watching people and connecting with listener on that raw, human level. Tom's Diner tells a story about everyday life - it isn't perfect, just like mine.

Oh, and the actor she never heard of?
William Holden.

Even now when I hear Tom's Diner on the radio, I stop and listen and people watch right there next to Suzanne sipping my coffee.

TOM'S DINER
Suzanne Vega w/DNA

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February 27, 2026 at 5:30am

#1109357

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