Post-MLK Day Greetings

I enjoyed having a long weekend thanks to the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday this past Monday. The break from my day job was nice and I was able to get some writing done. I'm working on what I think will be a short story. I'm a slow writer these days, so I'm not churning out the number of pages I used to. But, since the work on my day job has eased up a lot, I'm hoping to have more time on the weekends and in the evenings for my own writing.

Earlier today, I got some bad news that one of my cousins had passed away from Covid. I'd heard from my father over the weekend that she was in the hospital and that she was, apparently, unvaccinated. I'm not the kind of person who tells grown folks what to do and how to live their lives but, if asked, I'll give you my opinion. I've posted about being vaccinated and I believe it's the best way to stay alive these days. Covid impacts different people in such different ways, but why roll the dice with your health and not use every available resource that's out there to help you stay alive? My cousin who passed away wasn't a close cousin. (Just as a side note, I have around 50 first cousins who live all over the country, so I'm closer with some more than others.) I don't know if my late cousin had underlying medical conditions or why she wasn't vaccinated, but I suspect she'd still be here with us if she'd simply gotten vaccinated. RIP, cuz.

Gen X Kids

The Illinois State Museum is working on an exhibit about Generation X and, as a Gen Xer, I'm happy to hear this. As the often forgotten generation sandwiched between the Boomers and the Millennials, we don't get the kudos we deserve. 

Although the 1970s and 1980s (when I was a kid and a teenager) had their own distinctive (and often terrible) issues, I wouldn't trade my childhood for anything. There was a lot of freedom in being a kid in the 1970s and 80s that kids who came of age later just didn't have. I do think Gen X kids were fed too much of a conservative world view, particularly in the 1980s when Reagan was president. I know I have conservative views of drugs (thanks Nancy Reagan), but I've also seen the effects of drug use for people in my own family and the effects on certain communities during the 1980s. 

In other news, so many celebrity deaths over the past few weeks. RIP Betty White, Sidney Poitier, Ronnie Spector, Bob Saget. Wow. 

New Year Greetings

Happy New Year? Yeah, okay. I am holding out hope that 2022 will be better than 2021 but I'm sure I hoped that 2021 would be better than 2020 also (and, I guess, it was in some ways: vaccines, no more Donny T as POTUS, etc.). 

I have to say I've been having some relaxing days off from my day job to read, write (yes, write), and watch more TV than I probably should be watching. I've watched a number of programs:

1. The Staircase: This series dragged on far too long, but it was interesting. I don't know if Michael Peterson killed his wife or not, but something is not right with that guy. My gut feeling is that maybe his wife did fall down the stairs (either on or her own or with assistance from him) and he either finished her off or let her bleed out before he called 911. I don't believe for a minute that he just came in and found her body at the base of the staircase and then called 911.

2. Filthy Rich: This series was, thankfully, short but the main thing I got from the whole Epstein series was that the rich and powerful are protected. It's sad, but that's the way the justice system works in far too many cases in this country. I fully understand why some victims don't want to come forward after an assault when they're going up against someone with more money and more power than they have. I hate to quote that blonde Kelly from Fox News, but she said something when she brought charges against her perv boss Ailes like "if you shoot the king, you'd better kill him." She was right. If you're going to take down someone that rich and powerful, you'd better take him out because if you don't, he's going to come back and do everything in his power to destroy you, your character, your family. What I found interesting about Epstein was that once he fell out of everyone's graces after the New York indictment, his so-called friends just distanced themselves from him. They loved him until they didn't. Jeffrey who?

3. Justified: I've been watching the first season of Justified mainly so I can see Timothy Olyphant. I doubt I'll watch the entire series (because it went in for many seasons), but I'm enjoying the first season. Tim is great. He's so good looking and underrated as an actor. 

In other news, I'm trying to do a no-junk January where I'm cutting cookies, cake, donuts, etc. from my diet this month. I'm snacking on too much junk! I also haven't been to the gym since early December because of Covid, but now that gyms in my area are going to start requiring proof of vaccination to get in, I might go back this month. 

Post-Christmas Greetings

As I enjoy a few more days of vacation from my day job this holiday, I hope everyone had a restful Christmas and not a stressful Christmas. I went to see the latest Matrix movie over the holiday weekend (mainly because my sister is a huge Keanu fan). What a long slog that was. I drifted off during the movie and others did too. Given that it was about 2.5 hours with a lot of lengthy talking scenes in the middle of the fighting scenes, I'm not surprised people fell asleep. This was the first movie I'd been to in over a year. The last movie I saw in the theater before The Matrix: Resurrections was The Invisible Man with Elizbeth Moss. Yeah...The Invisible Man. That must have been February of 2020. I'm not anxious to return to the movie theater either. It's just not worth it for me. I also went out for dinner on Christmas and a had a nice dinner that, unfortunately, jacked my stomach up the next day. Just like the movies, I think my in-dining days are over also for a while. I'll stick to takeout. 

Aside from seeing long movies and going to restaurants, I also have been reading a lot and watching a lot of TV. I watched a docu-series called Don't Fuck with Cats on Netflix over the weekend about some internet sleuths who tracked a psycho who killed cats and then a person (and filmed his exploits and posted them online). It was a fascinating series, but I was surprised at the time effort so many people put into tracking this guy online. Don't these people have day jobs? One woman in the series clearly did have a day job because she talked about it! I don't know where people find the time or the will to analyze online videos, create JPGs of each frame, do reverse searches of people online, etc. Aside from having jobs, don't these folks have family? Friends? Errands to run? 

The Ringer

I got my Covid booster shot last week and felt like I was run over by a truck the next day. I'm tired of shots. I know they're necessary, but I've had enough. Is this going to be a yearly thing now? God, I hope not.

In an effort to take my mind off of Covid, Omicron, Delta, and everything else going on in the world right now, I've been watching a lot of Project Runway (the current season on Bravo and past seasons on Tubi). I used to watch Project Runway when it first started, but I slacked off after a few seasons. But I'm back now and loving it again. (Fun fact: I saw Christian Siraino walking down 8th Avenue in New York one time when I was living/working there. I had gone out for lunch and my office was near Penn Station and he was walking by, right near Penn Station at the post office.) But I digress. 

One thing I've noticed from watching the current season and past seasons is that the show sometimes has a ringer. On the current season, there was a woman who made straight-up clown clothes. All she needed for her models was a red nose and floppy shoes. As someone who loves clowns and feel they've been given a terrible reputation due to John Wayne Gacy and horror movies like It, I'm usually on board with clown-related stuff...but not for women to wear daily a la Project Runway. The clown-wear woman from the current season of Project Runway shouldn't have even been on the show from the jump. I kept looking at her clothes and wondering who DIDN'T make the cut so this woman could be on the show as the season's ringer. How many designers, who were actually talented at making real clothes for real people, were turned down so the clown woman could get a shot? 

On a past season I'm watching now on Tubi, a woman who couldn't sew and made crazy outfits has just been kicked off and I wondered the same thing. Which talented designers didn't get a shot so the crazy, non-sewing woman who tried on her own clothes to judge their sizing and didn't fit her models, could be on TV with her wacky looks? Again, the season ringer. I understand the purpose of the ringer. That person is there to drive the ratings and have viewers like me look at them and think, That designer is terrible! But it's a shame that really talented people were pushed aside for these folks.

Great...and Not Great

Great: Seeing Leslie Odom, Jr. in concert Saturday night at the CIBC Theater. What a great show. Leslie sang a lot of Christmas songs (and a few Hamilton and Sam Cooke tunes). No Nationwide jingle though! Leslie could sing a lit of random words and I'd be there for it. His voice is so soothing and he puts on a great show. My seat was in the nosebleed section (as you can see from my photo below), but I didn't care. I was glad to be able to see Leslie perform. 

Not Great: Chicago last Saturday night. First, my sister and I had to jump off the Red Line on our way to the show because the train stopped at a station two stops away from where we were getting off because of "police activity." Then we hopped on a bus for a slow ride down Michigan Avenue. We were lucky to make it to the show on time. Then, after the show let out, the Loop is like a police state because hordes of kids descended on the Loop and some of them beat up a bus driver. This is the kind of stuff that makes me NOT want to go into the city. I was emailing a coworker about Saturday night's shenanigans and the bad-assed kids downtown causing trouble and I told her if you've got 10-20 kids coming at you, there's nothing you can do but take the beatdown/get robbed/whatever. No one should have to deal with that kind of mess. Chicago...do better. Ugh.

Post-Thanksgiving Greetings

I know Thanksgiving has bee over and done with for more than a week now, but I hope you and yours enjoyed the holiday. Normally my sister and I would travel to Michigan for the holiday, but because of COVID, we've been staying stateside for Turkey Day. The last time we went to Michigan for Thanksgiving was in 2019! Maybe next year...

During the holiday weekend and in the week that followed, I did manage to get a lot of TV time in. My cable provider gave me a bunch of free channels so I was able to catch up on the latest season of Curb Your Enthusiasm (that, unfortunately, isn't that good), the third Conjuring movie (also not great), and an odd movie called Long Weekend (that I only watched because Finn Wittrock was in it). 

Since I finished reading The Power of the Dog, I was ready to watch the movie version when it debuted on Netflix a few days ago. The movie was pretty faithful to the book and, like the book, it's kind of a long slog. I stick by my initial opinion that Cumberbatch was miscast. I did, however, like his interactions with the actor who played Dunst's son. There's one scene with the two of them in a barn and they're sharing a cigarette that is really great. No spoilers, but that pivotal scene really tied the story together. I did wonder if people who hadn't read the book understood what was going on there.