Quick Trip

I took a quick trip to Detroit this weekend to see family and the weather was great. Lots of sunshine and warm temperatures (along with very little construction on I-94) made the drive really good. While I was in my hometown, I went to the Detroit Institute of Arts and saw the Star Wars costume exhibit. I am not a Star Wars fan by any means, but my sister thought it would be interesting so I followed her lead on this and the exhibit was interesting. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.

Snapped!

I snapped at a woman at my day job today because every time I see her, she asks me the same question (and it's not "how are you?" or something like that). Finally, today, I snapped on her and told her, "Every time I see you, you ask me the same question." It's already been asked and answered before, so why she feels the need to keep asking it is beyond me. She seemed taken aback when I responded the way I did today, but I'm hoping she'll stop asking her repeated question now. In fact, I wish she'd stop talking to me all together. That's anti-social behavior, I realize, but whatever. I told my sister I promise I'll be nicer on my next job because I just can't do it with my current one anymore. There seem to be a lot of what I call nervous housewives at my current day job location and the question repeater is a member of that group. I don't have much to say to them and they don't have much to say to me. I just assume (and maybe I'm wrong about this) that these women and I don't have anything in common and, therefore, won't have anything to talk about. They're also weird. They go to the bathroom together and can't seem to talk about anything other than their husbands, kids, dogs, or work. I also assume (and, again, maybe I'm wrong about this) that the bulk of them are Donny T. supporters. Hard pass for me.

You in Danger, Girl!

I was emailing with some of my NY coworkers today about tomorrow's royal wedding and I told them I felt bad that Meghan Markle didn't have a male relative or friend of the family who could walk her down the aisle in place of her father. So now the poor thing is stuck with Prince Charles to do the job. I truly do hope Meghan and Harry are happy and have a blissful marriage, but I just don't see how an American who's accustomed to living her own life could basically give up her life to live within the confines of the royal family. My advice to her would be, "Don't do it! You in danger, girl!" I don't get the appeal. There's not enough love in the world for me to give up the freedoms I enjoy, but that's just me. Everyone's different.

Summer Soft

I was listening to some music by Stevie Wonder on You Tube earlier this week and heard his song "Summer Soft" from the album Songs in the Key of Life. I have a CD collection of Stevie's music, but "Summer Soft" wasn't included. Grrr! It's such a great song and I know every "ultimate" collection from an artist like Stevie who has several decades of music can't include every single track, but I still think "Summer Soft" should have been included. I'm sure I've blogged before about Stevie, but he really is a visionary. The progression of his music from the early songs like "Uptight" and "Fingertips" to songs like "Golden Lady" and "Living for the City" is something to marvel. Even Stevie's schlocky songs like "I Just Called to Say I Love You" are better than a lot of the music out today.

I remember a while back some people on TMZ were joking about Stevie being able to see and faking his blindness. I believe Stevie became blind as a child, but he wasn't always blind. (I don't know if that's an urban legend, but that's what I heard.) So, if he was able to see early in life, I wouldn't be surprised if he's not 100% blind. Maybe he can see shadows or light or something, but is still legally blind. I highly doubt Stevie's been faking as a blind man for most of his life.

Movies

I saw two movies over the past few weeks that were both interesting in their own way.

First: A Quiet Place. The premise of A Quiet Place is intriguing. The remaining survivors on earth who are left after an alien attack must remain quiet in order to avoid detection by said aliens. While I had many questions after seeing this movie such as why the family couldn't wear soft-soled shoes or slippers or socks or something rather than just walking around barefoot which could (and did) cause problems. Wouldn't a soft-soled slipper be as quiet as a bare foot (and more sanitary)? Did the government just give up trying to defeat the aliens and just tell people to be quiet? Why have a baby when you know how loud babies are? If you're stealing medication from the abandoned pharmacy, why not pick up some birth control also? So many questions, but I was glad to see a movie that put some thought into the plot instead of just relying on the same old alien invasion story.

Second: Rogers Park. I saw this independent movie last night. It revolves around the lives of two interracial couples living in Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood. I enjoyed the movie because it focused on real problems people face on a daily basis: financial problems, relationship problems, family problems. I thought the screenwriter took the easy way out by totally avoiding any issues that dealt with race, but I was kind of glad the movie didn't let racial issues overtake the central themes of the movie. Rogers Park is such a quirky part of Chicago and I'm often in the area since I live very close to the area. If I had to pick a part of Chicago to live in, I'd seriously consider Rogers Park. I think it has a diversity of people and I was glad to see the film capitalize on that diversity. I also enjoyed seeing shots of the movie that were filmed in my hometown of Evanston.

Trying

I really am trying to get some writing done in between being killed by my day job. Normally, I write on the weekends, but I can't even do that lately because my day job has taken over my weekends. It's frustrating, but I see a light at the end of the tunnel and, hopefully, by June I'll be freed up to get back to my normal routine. I am working on a short story that I hope to submit for publication and it's almost done. (Really.) No, there shouldn't be any excuses for not writing, but I have excuses! Once I actually sit down and write, I feel good about it. The problem is just making the time to actually write without distractions (like the Internet and sleep). I've found that it's better for me to go to the library and write because I don't get on the WiFi there and I can just put my headphones on and type away. I used to be able to pound out a lot more stuff than I'm pounding out now. I've got to get back to that. I will get back to that...eventually.