Auld Lang Syne with American Express Commercial… the locations, the music, and more!

Usually credit card companies just make us cry when the bill comes but this time American Express has outdone themselves with a “Shop Local” ad featuring a song we all know, “Auld Lang Syne.” Here’s the heartwarming and charming ad…

The version of the song in this commercial is performed by India Carney, who just couldn’t help but take in the moment on Instagram. Adorable! India was propelled to fame in 2015 in season 8 of “The Voice” on NBC. Scroll down for a longer version of India’s take on “Auld Lang Syne.”

The minute-long ad features a handful of local shops, which I will now list for you. In order of appearance, locations in this ad are:

Reid’s BBQ… Derby, CT

Wilton Hardware… Wilton, CT

Vesta Chocolate… Upper Montclair, NJ

Bianca Rossa… Wilton, CT

Coffee and Cornbread… Upper Montclair, NJ

Lis-A-Lis Salon… Guilford, CT

Just Kidding Around Toys… Montclair, NJ

Good Plans Coffee… Montclair, NJ

Breakwater Books… Guilford, CT

Here is the full version India singing this song…

Thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness

Our Best Days Are Always Ahead

I’ve asked myself in the past few months, “Are my best days already behind me?” Sure, this is a pessimistic question and I’ll be totally transparent as I always try to be… sometimes I wonder about the future as my life hasn’t really gone the way an American’s life is supposed to. The formula is this:

  1. You’re born
  2. You go to school
  3. Graduate college
  4. Get married
  5. Find a real job
  6. Have kids
  7. Become grandparents
  8. Retire
  9. Travel
  10. Die

From that list I’ve done about half. I’m not married, I don’t have a 9 to 5 job, no kids, and therefore becoming a grandparent is out of the question. By this standard, I’ve failed. I’m failing the expectations set forth in the unwritten American dream. When I feel the weight of these expectations, that’s when I wonder if somewhere along the line I got off the right path and now I’m wandering around the wilderness with no map.

I’m just being real. Some days are hard because of these thoughts. But then I think:

I might be single, but I’m not alone.

I may not have a real job (whatever that is?), but I love my life.

I don’t have kids, but I have dogs.

I believe in God. Like, the Spirit in the Sky, Big Man Upstairs, Cloud by day and fire by night Old Testament God, the God who is FOR me, and for ME… He has blessed me with, well, to keep it very simple, He has blessed me with life each morning when I wake up. Then there are the details and circumstances and He blesses me in those, too. But even knowing this, I still get dragged down by what I’m “supposed to be doing” or believing my best days are behind me. It’s not true. With God in my life, the best days are ALWAYS in front of me. On this planet, I’ll get to see the next generation in my family grow up. They may or may not have families of their own. I’m so happy I can show them that they, too, can take a different route in life and be happy and fulfilled. They don’t have to live by the American formula. No college? That’s OK. No career? Fine. Want be single till your 50 or 100? Go for it.

If they DO find those things, great. If they go another route, great.

And when I’m 99 years old and one of my great grand-nieces are taking care of me, my best days are STILL ahead of me. Because one day, I’ll be in Heaven with God. That’s sure something to look forward to. Mysterious, sure, but it gives me comfort knowing I have a future that will outshine my past. And in the present, I’ll keep shining as best I can… even on the cloudy days.

-Out of the Wilderness

Break-up Songs for 2021

I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to put together a list of break-up songs! What have I been doing with my time? Wasting it, that’s what! There are a million lists of this type out there, so I’m not going to copy all the common break-up songs. I’ll just stick with songs that I like, or that are currently on any of my Spotify playlists. Let me know what you think about these songs in the comments below 🙂

Christina Perri “Jar of Hearts” with a memorable line, “…who do you think you are?”

This next one isn’t exactly a break-up song but I love the line, “The sun still rises, even through the rain.”

The Head and the Heart “Another Story”

One of my favorite songs during my middle school years, here’s “The King of Wishful Thinking” Go West. “I refuse to give into my blues.”

“Karma Police” Radiohead …haunting, memorable, and simply great. “This is what you get when you mess with us.”

“So Cruel” U2 …perhaps my favorite song of 2020, and maybe in my top 5 all time. This one stopped me in my tracks, and I haven’t actually started up again yet from it. “…To stay with you, I’d be a fool.”

“Guiding Light” Muse …I feel such remorse in this song. “I can’t hurt you anymore…” plus the guitar solo is more to me than the lyrics of so many other songs.

“Stars” Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. “I can’t look at the stars. They make me wonder where you are.”

Thanks for stopping by…

-Out of the Wilderness

Face mask covering your face tats?

According to this blog post, around 3,000,000 people have face tattoos. That’s quite a bit more than I would’ve guessed, for sure! I was watching an episode of the Bachelorette and it was the hometown dates. I promise this connects to face tattoos, just hang on. 🙂 The Bachelorette Tayshia is at the point in her “righteous endeavor” that she’s doing the hometown dates. It looks a little different this year because, well, it’s 2020, so the families of the remaining men actually came to the Bachelorette compound and they all sort of pretended they were in their real hometown. Anyway, one of the families included the brother of Ivan, a guy hoping to end up with Tayshia. This brother was full of tattoos, including all over his face and neck.

Then, in a very random way, I found out for the first time ever who Lil Xan is. I regret ever finding out about this young man (no offense, Lil Xan). This rocked me enough to write up another post just about him. I won’t even ruin your day by including a picture.

But then I went down a rabbit hole wondering about how all these face tattoo people feel about wearing masks for coronavirus. It’s like they’re covering up someone’s masterpiece. Well, “masterpiece” might be a stretch, but the tattoos these people probably love are often covered by the masks. For those of you who work in sales, it would be like winning a big account but you’re not allowed to tell anyone. Or a football player scoring a touchdown that gets called back by a holding penalty. Seeing your dog walk upright but forgetting to hit record on your camera.

They’ve GOT to be disappointed with all these mask mandates, right? Of course, the two examples above (Ivan’s brother and Lil Xan) have tattoos near their eyes, too, so the masks don’t completely cover up all the ink.

Anyway, if you’re one of the three million that have a face tattoo and feel like sharing, comment below with your thoughts. I’ll be waiting curiously.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Out of the Wilderness

That time my supervisor asked me to work over the holiday

The original title of this post was going to be, “Valuing people over jobs,” but that’s so boring, right? So I went with a tidbit from an experience I had awhile back when a boss asked if I was willing to work through the Thanksgiving holiday. I’ll share the details a little further into this.

So this idea that people are always to be valued over jobs is a tough topic. In this Thanksgiving scenario I’ll share with you, I believed I was deciding between my job and my family. Perhaps this wasn’t how the supervisor saw it, and maybe I was being selfish because I enjoy being with family. I also know it’s not as black and white as it may seem because sometimes the job has to be top priority. There are times I choose work over people, for various reasons, but for the last few years I’ve tried to keep in mind the following rank of priorities:

God

Family

Friends

Work

Me

…in that order. When it comes down to it, what’s my motivation? Is it to help people? Is it money? Is it something I think God would have me do? Having an income is important, and “money makes the world go ’round,” as they say, but now let’s get into the Thanksgiving story.

In a previous life I worked a 9 to 5 job, actually it was 9 to 6, Dolly! Thanksgiving was approaching and something came up that brought about the possibility that I would have to work over the holiday. I was called into my supervisor’s office and after I sat down, was asked about working that week and weekend. My plans had been to go to Florida to see my parents and siblings. SO my response was, “I’ll do it, but I won’t be happy about it.” There was no hesitation on whether I’d want to work or be with family, family I didn’t get to see often.

This did NOT go over well with the supervisor.

As it turns out, the something that might have come up didn’t, so I was able to go home for Thanksgiving anyway. I didn’t and won’t apologize for what I said. Of course, I wasn’t super happy at my work either, so that definitely played a role in my honest response.

How do you handle, or balance, work life and family life? Do you have any sort of mantra or guide you use in making work-related decisions? Chime in below, let’s chat! 🙂

-Out of the Wilderness