Post-Christmas Greetings

 I hope everyone had a good Christmas. Maybe it wasn't as merry as past years, but I hope it was still restful and enjoyable. I slept a lot (since I took a week off from my day job), read a lot, and watched a lot of television. Good times. And, hey, any day we're still alive during Covid is a good day to me! Seriously. When people ask how I'm doing, I've been telling them, "I'm just glad to be alive!" 

Recently, I decided to do some research on the Jonestown massacre and I read a book this month about it and also a documentary about some of the women who were main figures in Jim Jones's life, but I'm still having a hard time understanding why so many people followed him, not just in the United States, but out of the country. It's one thing to join a cult in your home country (and that's bad enough), but to pick up and leave your country for a cult is an entirely different ball of wax. And these people didn't relocate to a country that was similar to the US. They went to a remote location in the middle of a jungle. This was the 1970s and there was no internet or anything, but these folks were cut off from pretty much anyone who wasn't also a cult member. Crazy and sad.

Thorns in My Side

 My new book, Thorns in My Side, is publishing next month. (It's about time, right?) Here's the blurb:

When Tim Whittaker’s best friend Jake Thorn announces that he’s getting married to his girlfriend Jenna Riley, Tim tells him he’s making a mistake. Tim, who’s been in love with Jake for years, wants his best friend to be with him instead.

While Tim and Jake deal with their issues, Jake’s older brother Caleb is dealing with issues of his own as he enters into a secret relationship with Jenna’s newly-divorced father, David, who wants to keep his homosexuality hidden from his daughter.

Thorns in My Side explores the secrets, lies, and love between brothers who grapple with friends, lovers, and each other while trying to keep their lives, and the lives of those around them, from spinning out of control.

Won't Someone Think of the Children???

I read an article in the NY Times last week about kids growing up during the Covid pandemic and how they're coping with it. The kids today have a hard row to hoe right now. Face masks, social distancing, remote learning...it's all sad. I saw a group of little kids leaving their daycare facility last week for a group outing and they all had their little face masks on as they lined up and headed out. This is, sadly, the world we live in now. I don't even have kids, but it makes me sad to see the kids with their masks on. According to the Times article, the physicians they spoke with seemed to think the small kids will get over this ordeal once the Covid pandemic is behind us. I certainly hope they're right. I hope kids are able to overcome the trauma they faced during Covid and live their lives with normality once things get back to normal. (Well, whatever "normal" will mean in the future.) The kids may actually do better transitioning back to normal life more than adults. We'll probably be the ones still freaking out once this thing is over.

What Was I Thinking?

 As I get older, I often look back on stuff I liked when I was younger but don't like now. For example, I remember really liking the music of the Counting Crows back in the 90s. But now? Not so much. Mr. Jones? Round Here? The Rain King? Ugh. Yuck. No bueno. I also used to eat Fig Newtons when I was a kid, but you couldn't get me to choke one down now. Campbell's tomato soup, vanilla wafers, sugary cereal like Honeycombs and Sugar Smacks: I ate it all and now I couldn't imagine eating any of that stuff. I also used to enjoy watching Sex and the City. I even had one or two seasons on DVD. But now? Not my bag, baby. I doubt I could get through one episode without rolling my eyes. It's just not something that appeals to me now. When I was younger, I enjoyed the show, but now it just seems ridiculous and tone-deaf. Having lived in New York for a few years, I know how hard it is to maintain a living there when you don't make a six-figure salary. It's not easy and it's certainly nothing like SATC. 

Things change. Views change. Tastes change. I still love many things I loved when I was younger (like 70s music, 80s music, and the New Zoo Revue), but there's a lot of stuff that I've moved on from.