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.

It's Their Fault!

I read that director Ridley Scott is blaming millennials for the failure of his latest movie The Last Duel, starring those hot millennial stars Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Millennials may be the ones to blame for some things, but I don't think it's their fault this movie failed. No one seemed to want to watch this movie: boomers, Gen X, millennials, Gen Z...no one and that's why it bombed. Ben and Matt playing Europeans? Get real. Plus, their schtick is tired. Who cares about these guys anymore? Neither one has had a box office hit in a while. The movie also featured a woman being raped on screen. Who wants to see that? The market has changed, Mr. Scott. Old guys like himself may enjoy watching a woman being attacked on screen, but I have to assume a lot of millennials (and others) don't want to watch someone being raped as a form of entertainment. Then you add Covid into the mix, and you've got a recipe for disaster. If someone is going to venture to a theater to see a movie these days, I have to assume they'd have to really want to see it. Otherwise, they'd just wait for it to show up for home viewing via On Demand.

Expensive!

I went grocery shopping this weekend and spent $50 at Target, $25 at Trader Joe's, $60 at Jewel-Osco. And I didn't buy much stuff (and hardly any meat), but everything is so expensive. When I was in Alabama last month, my father and I picked up a bag of Lay's at Walmart (shown below) and I couldn't believe the price was over $5....for a bag of chips. Crazy (which is why I took a picture of the price)! I'm grateful I have a job and money to buy groceries and that I only have myself to feed. I can only imagine what people with kids are spending weekly/monthly on food. And what if your kids are older kids who eat a lot? Oy vey! 

In addition to paying a lot for food and basic needs stuff like toilet paper (a whopping $9.99 for six rolls at Jewel for me), housing costs are out of control too. I just read an article in the NY Times today about how intense the bidding wars are now for homes in some areas. People are bidding $50K or more over the asking price and still being outbid on homes. I'm glad I don't have to deal with that. I couldn't compete with that kind of competition. It's brutal. I'm glad to live in my little co-op that I bought a few years ago and didn't have to get into a bidding war over (although I was outbid initially by an all-cash offer that fell through). The NY Times article showed a series of houses a couple lost out on in Austin, Texas and many of them looked like small homes that I found hard to believe anyone would bid $400K or more for. The market is insane and I feel for anyone who's out there now trying to buy a home. I know interest rates are low and people are saving more due to working from home and not having commuter and other work costs, but still. 

Only the Strong

I've been on a Journey kick over the past week and had to break out my Journey's Greatest Hits CD (shown below that I got for a whopping $6.99 from Street Corner Music many many years ago). Journey was such an 80's band, but I love them and their music still holds up for me (but I'm a 70's and 80s' kid, so I'm biased). Everyone loves to praise "Don't Stop Believin'" as the ultimate Journey song, but that one was seriously overplayed for me. (I also cringe whenever Steve Perry sings about the kid who was "born and raised in South Detroit" in that song. South Detroit doesn't exist, Steve! Southwest Detroit would be acceptable, but I digress.) Not that I don't like "Don't Stop," but I've heard it too many times throughout my life to want to hear it again. Instead, I'm a fan of songs like "Lights," "Send Her My Love," and "Only the Young." I love "Only the Young" and I just recently realized I've been singing the wrong lyrics for that song. I thought for sure Steve Perry was saying, "Brave carry on / Only the strong" and I found out, just this week, that he's saying "Brave carry on / Bold and the strong." Huh! I've been singing the wrong words for decades! You really do learn something every day, don't you? In addition to singing the wrong lyrics, I'd totally forgotten this song was featured in the 80's movie Vision Quest starring a young Matthew Modine. I'd forgotten about that movie and that this song was in it. I watched the video on You Tube earlier this week and now I feel like I'd like to see the movie again. It's available on Prime now. I might have to check it out. I remember Madonna being in the movie (in one of her first movie rolls) as a singer doing "Crazy for You", but I totally forgot "Only the Young" was on that soundtrack too. 

Journey's music is so quintessential American 80's music and I get nostalgic for that time period sometimes. Things certainly weren't perfect, but I like to think they were pretty darn good. Being a teenager in the 1980s, all things considered, wasn't a bad deal. There was a certain freedom in being a kid during that time that the kids today don't have. 

Netflix

Just some random thoughts on some Netflix stuff:

Midnight Mass: I watched all seven episodes of Midnight Mass on Netflix recently and after I watched the final episode last night, I wondered, What did I just watch? As with a lot of Netflix stuff, this series probably could have been cut down to 4-5 episodes and still been effective, but Netflix likes to stretch stuff out. I've got spoilers here, so read no further if you don't want to see these.  I kept wondering while watching Midnight Mass why there was so much blind trust in the priest, especially a new priest no one knew. Was everyone so charmed by him that they just ignored any warning signs? In the first episode when Father Paul showed up to take over, no one thought to check on the previous priest who was supposedly ill on the mainland? What kind of church folks are these? As the episodes went on and the whole vampire scenario was revealed, I thought about The Lost Boys movie. The vampires always need a gate-keeper, right? In The Lost Boys, that person was Max and in Midnight Mass, that person was Bev. The sixth episode was too "Jonestown-esque" for my taste. Who in this day and age who knows about Jonestown is going to willingly drink some concoction while locked in a church? Come on! Overall, the series was interesting. Some parts were slow and really talky, but I largely enjoyed the series. It was different, the acting was good, and Hamish Linklater was great as the priest. 

Passing: How are you going to have a movie about passing with two actresses who can't pass? Again, come on! I haven't watched this one yet (and I plan to), but I have real issues with the casting. 

Vacation Is Over!

I'm back home after taking a little vacation to see my father and stepmother in Alabama. I enjoyed the trip. I was scared to actually fly because I hadn't been on an airplane since February of 2020 (before COVID). My flights weren't long and everything went well. Still, I think it'll be a while before I get on another flight. Another issue was Alabama itself. Because the state has such a low vaccination rate, I was even more concerned about traveling there, but I hadn't seen my father in two years, so I wanted to see him. He and my stepmother are fully vaccinated (as am I) which helped alleviate some of my concerns. I just wore a mask when I went into any stores or anywhere else enclosed with other people. I did eat in restaurants, but that's about the most contact I had with non-family members. The weather was nice and I did get to spend some time at the beach on the gulf while I was there. Aside from seeing my family, I also went to Alabama to take over my father's time share since he and my stepmother decided they didn't want to deal with it. I plan to use it now that I own it.

Late to the Squid Game

I admit, I was late watching the Squid Game series on Netflix, but I binged all 9 episodes over a weekend about two weeks ago. I really enjoyed the series because it made me think about what I would do if faced with a situation where I had to possibly kill or be killed. When you have to put your life above anyone else's in order to save yourself, can you do it? 

On a lighter note, I loved the costumes (that I'm sure will dominate this Halloween) and the set designs. I really loved the Front Man character (and I thought his mask and ensemble looked great). 

I read that the creator of the series pitched it about 10 years ago, but no one would give him a deal. He said he believed he was able to get a deal for the series recently due to COVID. The situation of the world has changed a lot since 10 years ago and Squid Game came right on time. It's definitely the kind of must-see TV we can relate to now as we deal with and try to stay alive during the pandemic.

My only complaints (and these are minor) that I have with Squid Game were (SPOILERS) when the players attacked and killed each other. I understand why this happened. It was a way to eliminate a lot of people and get down to the core players to finish out the game. However, I thought this shouldn't have been allowed. Let the players get eliminated through the games! My second complaint was with the VIPs. These guys were so camp and a waste of space. Again, I understand why they were introduced (because the story of the undercover cop needed to move forward and they helped to do that), but their presence slowed the show down. 

The Bee Gees

When I had free HBO last weekend, I watched a documentary about the Bee Gees that was interesting. I didn't really know much about the band other than that they were brothers from Australia. I had no idea that they'd had a career before the 1970s and the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. I also didn't realize their younger brother, Andy Gibb, had died so young due to drug use. Watching the documentary, prompted me to get back into the music of the brothers Gibb. They really had some good songs back in the day. "Love You Inside Out" is one of my favorite Bee Gees songs. Everyone focuses on the songs from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, and I love those too, but the band also made some great songs outside of that album. And I'd totally forgotten about Andy Gibb's songs. "I Just Want to Be Your Everything" and "Shadowdancing" are great. In the 1970s, the Bee Gees knew how to make funky music that people wanted to hear. Were they overplayed? Certainly, but that didn't mean their music wasn't good. It's unfortunate that there was such a backlash against them at the height of their career, but their music lives on because it was good. 

Must-See TV

I watched two interesting series over the past couple of weeks (because what else is there to do when there's a pandemic going on).

1. LuLa Rich: Whoa, boy. This one was a doozy. An MLM (aka a Ponzi) scheme that relies on primarily white stay-at-home moms who sell ugly leggings? Oh, and the company behind this is a family of Mormons? Sounds crazy, right? It is! I had never heard of the company or its leggings before I read about the documentary and finally watched it on Prime. But the again, why would I have? I'm not a white, suburban, stay-at-home mom, which is the demographic recruited for this scheme and the group who bought these leggings. I was shocked at the sheer amount of money the company made and the crazy bonuses they were giving out in bonuses to the women who recruited even more women to sell leggings. Fronting more than $5,000 to start your own "business" selling leggings out of your house? Yeah...no. A lot of women got sucked into this though under the guise of working part-time and bringing in full-time pay while being able to set your own hours. I totally see how so many stay-at-home moms got sucked into this and it's sad. But what's even sadder is that so many people are so gullible. As I watched this series, I kept thinking, This is why we had four years of Donny T. 

2. White Lotus: I know I'm late to the White Lotus series but, as I've said before, I don't have HBO. I saw the first episode for free and just binge watched the rest of the episodes over the last two days since I've got free HBO this weekend. Armond: I enjoyed watching Murray Bartlett self-destruct in each episode. He was great. He finally got some ass and it blew up in his face (no pun intended). I also thought the dynamics between some of the people were interesting. Tonya/Belinda: Belinda should have known that Tonya wasn't going to be the great white hope she initially claimed to be. Stevie Wonder could see Tonya was a hot mess and not reliable to go into any kind of business venture with. Paula/Olivia: What a couple of assholes. Paula found out the hard way that she would always be the outsider and Olivia played her like a fiddle. And who ended up getting the short end of the stick with these two silly broads? Kai. Shane/Rachel: Did Rachel not realize who she had married? Shane didn't become a totally different person after the wedding. He was the same asshole she met, went out with, and got engaged to. If she had wanted to run, she should have done that before she let him put a ring on it. Mark/Nicole: I didn't care enough about their relationship to pay a lot of attention to it, but if Nicole was such a tech bigshot, she should have been able to afford an extra room at the resort for her kids.

Messy people makes for good TV!

Driving the Bus

I made the mistake of going to my local Walmart yesterday and when I go to big box stores like this, especially on the weekend, I try to park at the far end of the lot for two reasons. 1. I prefer parking away from the majority of folks and COVID has made me even more likely to do this. 2. I figure no one will park close to me if I park really far away. Well, when I came out of Walmart yesterday, there was a huge SUV parked beside me and it was parked crooked. The driver didn't even try to straighten up his/her vehicle. It was so crooked that I had trouble backing our of my space. I did manage to get out and avoid hitting anyone (although I was tempted to leave a note on the offender's windshield that said "Learn how to park, asshole!"). I didn't leave any notes, but I drove away thinking that some people who buy/lease these huge SUVs don't seem to be able to park them and there's a reason for that: they're too big! Many SUVs on the roads now are huge. They're like little buses. The DMV should require a CDL to drive one. These huge SUVs don't fit comfortably into regular parking spaces either and many of the drivers can't be bothered to try and make the tight fit required to stay within the parking line. I understand why some drivers park in the hinterlands of the parking lot so they can space out with their minibuses. Then again, some folks just can't drive and they can't park regardless of what kind of vehicle they're operating. A lot of kids don't seem to learn how to drive as teenagers anymore, so the instruction happens later in life and that leads to less time behind the wheel. Chicago has been having a lot of car jackings since COVID and many of the carjackers are kids...kids who can't drive. Driver's training isn't offered in the public schools anymore and you have to pay for this kind of instruction here and it shows. 

The Struggle Is Real!

It's been a year and a half since I've been working from home and my body is proof of that. I've certainly put on extra weight during the pandemic and I'm trying to get rid of some of it, but it's hard. The struggle is real! Once I was fully vaccinated, I started going back to the gym, but then the Delta variant hit and that has stopped me from going to the gym as frequently as planned. I still go, but only one or two times a week. I've got to either pick up the pace or supplement my non-gym days with some other kind of physical exercise. I used to be a member of my local YMCA, but I had to drop that place because there are too many kids hanging around the gym. I didn't want to take the chance of being around a bunch of kids who are not and/or can not be vaccinated right now. I hate to say it, but I look at kids under 12 and think of them as COVID super-spreaders. (Sorry, not sorry!)

Another thing I'm doing to try and drop some pounds is eating dinner via a meal delivery service: Freshly. So far, so good with that. The meals are generally around 400-600 calories and that's good for me. If I cooked dinner myself, it's highly unlikely that I'd stay under that calorie threshold. And the meals taste pretty good. There were a few I didn't care for, but I like the bulk of them. 

The older I get, the harder it is to lose weight and then you add COVID on top of that and you've got a recipe for disaster. One of the main reasons I got vaccinated was because I figured I'd be one of those people who ended up in the hospital on a ventilator if I got COVID and I wanted to try and avoid that. Some people look at the pandemic and figure they'll be okay if they get it. I don't feel that way, so I'll do what I can to try and protect myself from being hospitalized. I often think of the worst case scenario when it comes to my health. Am I paranoid? Probably, but like a guy told me once (during a job interview, of all things): the paranoid have enemies too!

Sugar

My new short story, Sugar, is coming out October 6. Here's the long blurb:

Fourteen years ago, while Caleb Thorn was a junior at the University of Michigan, he had a relationship with a thirty-eight-year-old wealthy (and closeted) auto executive named Alex Hale. When Alex contacts Caleb fourteen years later to meet, Caleb finds himself experiencing a flood of memories about Alex.

At the start of their relationship, Caleb was enamored with Alex and enjoyed having a secret relationship with a sexy older man who bought him expensive gifts, but the college junior soon came to realize that those gifts came with a price. Alex controlled every aspect of their relationship and Caleb often found himself on the receiving end of Alex’s insults and hurtful behavior. Caleb quickly realized that having a sugar daddy can be both sweet and sour.

Food Apartheid

I was reading a thread on Datalounge (as I often do because the site is largely hilarious) and came across a thread about picky eaters. Someone posted about his/her brother who was a picky eater as a kid and how their household was forced into a food "apartheid" because of this. (The picky eater would get different meals from the rest of the family.) I found this funny mainly because I also grew up in a household where I was catered to because of my picky eating habits as a child. Because I didn't (and still don't) eat mayonnaise or any kind mayo-like product (Miracle Whip, etc.), when my mother made potato salad, she'd make me a side of mashed potatoes to deal with my eating habits. 

As an adult, I do eat more things than I did as a child, but I still avoid many of the things I refused to eat growing up. For example, I don't like many condiments. Aside from mayo, mentioned earlier, I also don't eat ketchup or mustard. I also don't eat pickles or tomatoes (but I will eat salsa). I have to get plain burgers or burgers with barbeque sauce on them. I also don't like watermelon (or melons of any kind), cherries, strawberries, or peaches. Also on the no fly list are boiled eggs, corned beef, jelly in flavors other than grape or apple, Greek yogurt (it smells like spoiled milk: ugh), orange juice with pulp (the consistency is gross). 

I'm so grossed out by some foods that I don't even want to touch them or wash dishes that has remnants from them. If I got a burger with pickles on it, I couldn't just pick them off and keep eating (because the pickle juice would still be there). I could pick tomatoes off and keep eating, but not pickles. Also, the mere smell of mustard makes me gag. 

But there are many foods I do like also. I can go to a restaurant and order a meal that's not chicken tenders! I eat fish, beef, Mexican food, etc. (I was off Chinese food for many years but that was due to having a barfing episode after eating a bad batch of lo mein from my neighborhood place when I lived in Brooklyn, but I bounced back from that.)

Given my own food preferences, I can't really criticize anyone else's. I like what I like and I don't like what I don't like.

Amazon Is the Devil!

Yes, I said it. Amazon is the devil! I use Amazon just like many others and I generally love it. I have a Kindle that I love that also. However, I do hate many things about Amazon. For example, the pressure the company puts on employees to get items we order delivered to us. Case in point: an Amazon driver stopped traffic behind me on a two-lane street just so he could drop a package off at someone's house. There was no way to go around him because of on-coming traffic in the other lane, so everyone was forced to wait for him to get out of his truck, mosey on up to the house he was delivering to, and then mosey on back to his truck. Ridiculous! The house he delivered to even had a driveway, but did he pull in there? No. He chose to disrupt traffic instead. Yes, the driver was a jerk, but Bezos and Company are also jerks for pushing drivers to get deliveries made within certain deadlines at breakneck speed. Drivers can't even use the bathroom just so I can get my new hot pot or whatever else I choose to buy from Amazon. I considered complaining to Amazon about the driver because, even though I didn't have his license plate number, I had the exact location where he stopped and dropped and I know the company tracks their drivers, so I'm sure they could have figured out who he was. But I didn't go to the company to complain about the driver because I know he's under pressure and trying to make a living like the rest of us. 

When Bezos went on his little space trip, I was surprised to see the news stations providing full coverage of it. That's how sad the media has become right now. The networks show wall-to-wall coverage of a billionaire going into space. Really? Yes, really. I'm sure many of my Amazon purchases helped to contribute to Bezos's little journey. You're welcome, Jeff. 

Random Monday Thoughts

 As another week starts, I've been thinking about a few things:

1. I had no idea so many people cared about who the next Jeopardy host should be. Really, folks? Count me in the group who doesn't care. I don't even watch Jeopardy because it comes on at weird times in Chicago, either during the day when I'm working or really early in the morning when I'm sleeping. 

2. Can we all stop pretending that J Hud is a great singer and a talented actress? She isn't. I had to mute the sound over the weekend when a clip was shown of her singing at a concert in Central Park. Awful. I don't think she's the worst singer, but I don't think she's better than a number of women who grew up singing in local churches either. Her acting is no great shakes either. Sorry, not sorry.

3. If someone who is able to get vaccinated hasn't done so by now, nothing will probably convince that person to get vaccinated. Sometimes you just have to move on from folks and stop wasting your breath. 

4. The CDC needs to put out some hard data about "breakthrough" COVID infections. What are the real numbers? What are the demographics of those with breakthrough infections? What kind of vaccinations did these folks have? Were they fully or partially vaccinated? Did they share households with people who aren't vaccinated? Do they have any idea how they were infected? 

On that cranky note, it's time to start my day job. 

Finished (Finally)!

I'd been working on the same short story for months and I finally finished it over the weekend. Yea! I'll have more information about this later as the publication info is provided to me by JMS Books, but it's such a relief to have that over and done with. I often need a push (like a deadline) to get me to finish something. Now I need to work on the next thing and I don't really have a next thing lined up. I'm thinking about what's next, but I don't have any firm ideas yet. I always like to have something in the hopper and, right now, the hopper is empty. Unfortunately, my day job has been sucking up so much of my time (during the week and on the weekends) that it's interfered with my writing. I hope to correct that problem in the coming months. Speaking of my day job, we were told about a month or so ago that we'd be going back to the office in September, but now with the Delta variant of COVID running rampant, that date has been pushed back to 2022. Woo hoo! I have no desire to go back to the office. I'm fine working from home. I know working from home isn't the greatest setup for everyone and even I have issues with my home and work lives being so intertwined, but I'll deal with it to avoid having to commute and share bathrooms and kitchens with others. 

57 Channels and Nothing On

If you're old (like I am), you might remember a song by Bruce Springsteen back in the day called 57 Channels and Nothing On where he sings about how bad cable TV is. Well, it's been probably 20 years since that song came out, but the message still resonates today. I have more than 57 channels, but there's STILL nothing on. I flip endlessly through cable, On Demand options, Tubi, Roku, Pluto, whatever, and often find myself unable to find something to watch and end up watching "Forged in Fire" reruns. Maybe there are just too many choices today. I have actually watched a few interesting things over the past few weeks.

1. Hotel Hell: Why does Gordon Ramsey have to show his bare ass in every episode of Hotel Hell? Not that the guy has a terrible body or anything and he clearly keeps in shape, but there's no reason for his pasty behind to show up in every episode of the show. Watching these hotel failures is interesting to me. Every show goes by the same formula: Gordon shows up, criticizes the lodgings and the food, tells off the owner, has an intervention between the owner and staff, does some minor renovations (along with menu changes), and leaves on a high note, claiming victory. I just enjoy seeing hotels in different places. 

2. The White Lotus: I've only seen the first episode of this HBO show because that's al they're offering for free. (I don't have HBO and refuse to pay for it.) The first episode wasn't bad. If I get another free weekend of HBO, I'll binge watch the rest of the shows. I do like seeing Murray Bartlett with his porn stache and listening to him use his Australian accent for a change rather than doing an American accent. 

3. A Quiet Place 2: I saw the first Quiet Place movie back when I still went to actual movie theaters and I enjoyed it. The sequel was good also. I thought John Krasinski did a good job of picking up where the first movie left off while also adding some backstory. This one was worth the small fee I paid to rent it via On Demand.

No Taxation without Representation

I read an article about author and aspiring politician, J.D. Vance proposing that childless adults shouldn't have a vote and people who have kids should be allowed extra votes for each of their children because childless people aren't invested in the future of the company the way parents are. Okay, J.D. If I can't have a vote because I don't have kids, then you can't have my tax money. How about that??? No taxation without representation! The sheer ridiculousness that comes out of the mouths of people these days is astounding. Any idiot can run for office, I guess, even hillbilly ivy leaguers.  

Did No One See This Coming?

Try as I might to avoid the news, I can't help it these days. COVID rates are back on the rise across the country and my main question is did no one see this coming? Once the CDC told folks they could go without masks (well, fully vaccinated people anyway) and most states had 50% or less of their population fully vaccinated, COVID was bound to rebound! And, once you throw the Delta variant into the mix, it makes everything even worse. Did the CDC really think people who weren't vaccinated would continue to wear masks? Ridiculous. I really hope we're not heading for another shutdown. I also think that a lot of the decisions coming out now are based on economics and not science. Businesses want to fully reopen and corporations want people back in the office space they're paying to lease. Sure, many are willing to let employees continue working from home in the summer, but watch the tide change after Labor Day. 

Speaking of workers, despite my disappointing visit to Milwaukee last weekend, I did enjoy going to the Grohmann Museum while I was there. The museum has works dedicated to workers. I took a few pictures on the rooftop in the sculpture garden. 

RIP, Biz Markie. "Damn it feels good to see people up on it." Yes, it does, Biz.

Underwhelmed

I went to Milwaukee this weekend for a quick visit because my sister suggested we visit the city since neither of us had ever been. I was up for it. Unfortunately, the city (at least the downtown part where we stayed) was underwhelming. It was like a ghost town. Very few stores and restaurants, deserted streets, blocks of empty store fronts. Oy! I wasn't sure if the city was so empty because of COVID or if it had been like that before the pandemic. The trip wasn't a total downer. I got to see the Bronze Fonz statue and the River Walk. I also did a ghost tour (that was a lot of fun) and visited the Grohmann Museum that was interesting. But I don't think I'd do a return visit to Milwaukee anytime soon. A coworker suggested I visit Madison and I may do that the next time I want a quick weekend getaway. Still, it was nice to get out of Chicago for a few days and not have to wake up to double-digit numbers of people getting shot overnight. 

Down Time

I have some time off this week from my day job (yea!) so I'm planning to do the following:

1. Read

2. Write

3. Watch TV

4. Sleep (daytime naps are great)

5. Go to the gym

I was reading four books at once, but now I'm down to three since I finished one last night. I read the every entertaining book Bath Haus by PJ Vernon in about two days. A good page-turner for the summer. 

I watched a documentary on Prime over the weekend called Tickled about some dude on Long Island who had fake online personas where he duped young guys into allowing themselves to be tickled on film. That was odd. I also watched a few episodes of a show called Bonding on Netflix about two college kids who are in the BDSM business. I took one look at these kids and found them totally unbelievable in the roles. The show is played for laughs and neither of the actors (the one playing the dominatrix nor the one playing her assistant) look like anything other than fresh-faced college kids. Totally unbelievable casting, totally unbelievable plot. I got through three episodes before bailing on that. Netflix really is throwing money at a lot of garbage trying to find something that sticks. I know they're trying to build up their library, but a lot of the shows and movies they're creating just aren't good.

 I'm planning to try and either resurrect the short story I've been working on for far too long or just make the decision to ditch it. I really want to get it together and not abandon it, but I need to make some decisions ASAP about that. It's time to move forward or move on to something else.

It will be nice to have a string of days where I'm not tethered to my computer for work. I want and need the down time. 

September and Earwigs!

I found out this week that my day job has given my office a September 20 return to work date. We've been working from home since last March and the WFH days will soon come to an end. I know many folks haven't had the luxury of being able to work from home and I know they probably won't have much sympathy for me, but I dread returning to the office. Getting back on public transit, using a community bathroom and kitchen...these things all depress me. Ugh. Well, I'd better try to enjoy the remaining weeks I have to work from home and take advantage of it.

In other depressing news, I've got earwigs in my place. They're somehow getting in from the outside and I don't like it. Ortho Home Defense to the rescue! I've never had earwigs in the nearly three years that I've lived here. I've been reading up on earwigs and they're probably moving indoors due to the dry weather we've been having lately. I see them around the back door of my building and they're clearly making their way inside. They need to pack it in and head back outdoors or face death by foot or Ortho. Ugh again and gross. When I was a kid, I would put on my gym shoes (yes, gym shoes, not sneakers--I'm from Michigan) and go outside to step on ants up and down the walkway of our house. As an adult, I don't seek out bugs to step on, but I do feel proper footwear is needed to squash bugs. I have to put on a shoe that will do the job. Not a flip flop or a house shoe. I need a good killing shoe and I make sure I have a pair handy to do the job.

Screenwriting? Nah.

I've been taking an online screenwriting class for the past few weeks through a local community college. I signed up for the course because I wanted to learn how to write a screenplay. I wanted to learn the format and what you need to know about the pacing, etc. I'm not planning to write a screenplay, but I wanted to know how to write one in case I decided one day to actually write one. Well, the class didn't go as planned. I'm actually still taking it, but almost done. It just didn't cover what I wanted to learn. Some of the lessons were helpful, but a lot of them involved the instructor posting messages about movies he liked that I hadn't seen (like Juno and MASH). The class just turned out to be kind of a disappointment, but it did convince me that I should probably just stick to writing books. I'm too old and too set in my ways to learn an entirely different format of writing. Maybe if I had been younger and took this up, I'd be more open to it. But now, nah. If someone ever wants to option one of my books for the screen, I'd be happy to sit back and let someone else write the script...probably.

Trying to Care

In my day job, I feel like people are constantly contacting me to do something, ask questions, give advice, solve problems, whatever and I'm often glad to provide assistance if I can. However, sometimes, I just feel like saying, "I don't give two fucks about this. Stop contacting me!" Of course I can't say that or I'd be out of a job (and I need my job), but I'm pretty burned out at the moment. I'll be taking some much-needed time off in a couple of weeks to decompress. 

It's hard to try and care about something that you don't care about. Right now, a lot of folks on my day job are wound up about returning to the office since we've been working from home since last March. Personally, I don't want to go back to the office for a variety of reasons. Yes, I'm fully vaccinated, but I don't want to sit in close quarters with folks all day with people who might not be vaccinated. And what about folks with young kids who can't be vaccinated? I also don't want to get back onto public transit. Ugh. I also don't really care for a lot of the people I had to share space with at the office. (Not folks I worked directly with, but another "team" on the other side of the floor. Ugh again.) I also like being able to use my own bathroom in my own home and eat from my own kitchen. The list goes on. However, if I'm forced to go back to being a commuter, then I'll do what I have to do or get another job that enables me to either work from home or work closer to home so I can drive and avoid public transit. But I said all of this to say that when someone complained to me recently about not wanting to go back to work and listed all the reasons why, I listened, but I didn't really care. I care about my own issues, but not so much about someone else's. Is that selfish? Sure, but Kim Davis is concerned about Kim Davis right now. Sorry...not sorry.

I'm also finding it hard to care about Lin Manuel-Miranda (overrated), In the Heights (not interested), Chrissy Teigan (irksome), the Royal Family (ugly inside and out), and many other things that seem to consuming the news cycle these days. 

What a Dick!

I just read an article on the Washington Post's site where a guy dumped 80,000 pennies at his ex-wife's house for his last child support payment. All I could think of after reading this story was, What a dick! Even if you've got issues with your ex (which this guy clearly has), why do that to your kids? The mother and kids donated the money to a women's shelter (and good for them for doing that), but it still doesn't dismiss the fact that the father here is a dick. Grow up already, man! You made kids. You got divorced. Support your kids (and not with pennies)!

I was talking with my sister recently about our father and how grateful I am that we have a decent father. Do I agree with my father on everything? Of course not, but he's a good guy overall and I'm glad to have him. I hear horror stories from people about their fathers being straight up dicks or people who don't know their father at all. One of my cousins found out through Ancestry.com that the man she thought was her father wasn't her father at all and now both of her parents are dead and she has no idea who her biological father is. How awful is that? Her parents never divorced and they both took this secret to the grave. Even if your dad is a jerk, in jail, dead, whatever, I think you still deserve to know who that man is.  

As another father's day rolls around in a few weeks, I will be making a call to my dad to tell him how much I appreciate him being there for me. Maybe I should also thank him for not being a dick and for paying the court-ordered child support he had to pay for me and my sister after he and my mother divorced. Thanks, Dad!

Halston (the Documentary and the Netflix Series)

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I watched both the Halston documentary and the Halston Netflix series. Both were interesting (although I liked the documentary more than the series). Halston really did recreate himself. It was sad to watch him self-destruct, as so many creative people tend to do. Also, a lot of creative folks often need someone to reign them in because, while they're very talented, they often lack the ability to run a business (as was the case with Halston). He just kept spending money and no one was watching the bottom line for years. So much excess! After a while, he went into business ventures that brought him a lot of money, but he sold his name away in the process. He couldn't even use his own name on anything when he died. How sad is that? The documentary allowed you to see the real Halston and hear his voice. The Netflix series gave you the Ryan Murphy-version of Halston: the debauchery, the glamour, the ugliness. I've been critical of Murphy's stuff in the past (because a lot of the Netflix stuff has been no bueno), but this one wasn't bad. I wasn't crazy about Ewan McGregor being cast in the lead role simply because I didn't think he had the right look for Halston, but he's a good actor. 

I really didn't know anything about Halston (the man or his business) until I watched these shows. I don't even remember him creating a line of clothing for JC Penney (that helped to lead to his downfall, unfortunately). Now there are so many high-end designers who do deals with lower-priced stores that it's not unusual. Look at Michael Kors. You can buy his bags at TJ Maxx! Vera Wang sells stuff at Kohl's! Gloria Vanderbilt sold her name and never got it back before she died. Her jeans used to be high-end and now you can find her stuff at discount stores. But that's what happens when you make that kind of big-money deal.

Stuff I've Been Watching

Even though things are slowly reopening around the country, I'm still largely spending my days at home (working and watching TV) because the percentage of fully vaccinated folks (like myself) needs to be higher in order for me to feel more comfortable being out and about. (I'm also still wearing a mask except if I'm outside walking and there aren't a lot of people around.)

During my time at home, I've been watching a lot of stuff on television, some good, some bad. (Mostly bad.)

One movie I watched recently on Netflix was Pihu, recommended by someone I work with. It's about a 2-year-old little girl who's left home alone and has to fend for herself. (I won't spoil the reason why she's home alone.) This kid has to find a way to feed herself and survive because there's no parent or guardian there to look after her. Chaos, naturally, ensues. This movie enraged me because the kid's parents were so irresponsible and they allowed their kid to live in filth. The house the child was in was nasty. The parents had given a party the day before, but no one had done anything to clean up afterward and it looked like the house wasn't just dirty from the party. If you want to life in filth as an adult, go for it, but if you live in filth and allow your young children to live in filth also, you're a terrible parent. No kid should have to live in that kind of environment. 

I've also been watching a lot of episodes of Forged in Fire lately. My sister got me turned on to this show where guys (and a few women) make knives and compete to be the "Forged in Fire Champion" and win $10,000. I never would have thought watching people make knives and swords would be interesting, but it is. When your knife "does not make the cut," you're promptly booted from the show. 

I also finally finished the third season of Cobra Kai. While I largely enjoyed the series, by the third season, I felt this puppy needed to be put down. Enough already. How many teenaged brawls can we have? The first one at the school was great, but it's been done to death now. Come up with someone else, folks! 

Chicago (the City, Not the Musical)

I recently exchanged messages with a guy I used to work with in Philadelphia and I asked about Philly and told my former co-worker that I missed the city. He responded that "Philly is Philly" (or something like that) and compared it to Chicago (and not in a positive way). I responded that Chicago is a mess and added that I was making this comment as someone who's from Detroit. I said what I meant, and I meant what I said. When you wake up Monday morning in the Chicagoland area and read online or see on the news that 30-40+ people were shot over the weekend, you know that there's a problem in this city. What I don't understand is why the various mayors here keep hiring new police commissioners who come here and don't seem to make the kind of sweeping changes that are needed to get the gun situation under control. If you keep doing the same things or even try something different but don't see any changes in the results, then wouldn't you change your approach? You can't keep doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome.

I told my former Philly co-worker that Chicago is my home for now, but I don't want to die here. (Seriously.) I long to live in a place where double-digit shootings aren't the first thing I hear or read about on a Monday morning. Maybe I'll retire to that kind of place.

Maskless?

The CDC says now vaccinated folks can go without masks outdoors and indoors. Huh. Even though I'm fully vaccinated now and past the two-week period from my last shot, I'm still wary of going without my mask. I think I'll keep it on for a while outside. Plus, I suspect many local businesses will still require a mask because they don't know who's vaccinated and who isn't. Are they going to request to see your vaccination card at the door before you can enter? I don't think so. It'll take a while for me to lose my mask. I want to go without it, believe me. I hate wearing it, but I'm too cautious to just let it go right now. Maybe if the vaccination rate was over 70% in the US I'd be more willing to ditch it. But our vaccination rate is nowhere near that percentage. I am planning to fly later this year for the first time in more than a year and I'm still weird about that, but I'm doing it. I haven't seen my father since 2019, so I'm going to visit him. We're all vaccinated and, hopefully, everything will go as planned for that trip. Fingers crossed! 

Is This News?

As glad as I am NOT to have to hear about Donny T's tweets or random garbage from his minions now that he's no longer POTUS, I feel like our media hasn't truly detached from him yet. Probably because they're missing the huge ratings he brought during his reign of terror. But now they've got something else to latch onto with his Facebook ban being upheld. My question is who cares? It's a private company and it makes the rules you can choose to abide by if you use the service it provides. Why is Donny's continued ban from Facebook a huge news story? It's like the bad old days all over again. The media just can't quit this guy. This is not news. You know what else isn't news? That Liz Cheney is about to get kicked to the curb by her own party. Whatever, Liz. You misread the room, hon. As for her and the GOP, there are no winners here. They can both self-destruct. 

Hitting the Wall

I got my second vaccination shot yesterday (yea!) and, about 8-9 hours later, I hit the wall physically. The pain started. The fatigue set in. The general feeling of being unwell overtook me. I had a rough night where I could only sleep for about two hours at a time before waking up in pain. I've spent most of the day today feeling crapped out also. No appetite, malaise, nausea. The second shot really hit me hard compared to the first one. Still, I'm grateful to be among the fully vaccinated now. It's a relief and I look forward to trying to get some aspects of my former life back on track: air travel, going to the gym, eating in a freaking restaurant. The things I took for granted before COVID came on the scene. But, for now, I'm taking it easy, keeping the Tylenol coming, and trying to work on feeling better.

Euphoria/Euforia

The title of this post is not in reference to the Chauvin verdict that came down yesterday (although I am happy to see the justice system working. No one should be above the law! Lock him up! But, I digress.

Euphoria/Euforia refers to a really good movie I saw earlier this week on Netflix about two Italian brothers and how their already strained relationship is strained even further when the older brother is diagnosed with a brain tumor. What a great movie! So much stuff on Netflix these days is sheer garbage. (Sorry...not sorry. It's true!) Euphoria (or Euforia, the Euro spelling) rises above the sea of sludge on Netflix and I'm glad I sought it out. Too bad it's leaving the streaming service at the end of April, but catch it if you can. The acting was excellent, the shots of Italy were wonderful, and the story felt very real. Yes, it's sad, but it's good too!

My Old School

One of the comedians I enjoy watching is John Mulaney. I’ve watched all of his Netflix specials and I think he’s entertaining. (I hope he’s able to recover from his recent stint in rehab also.) However, I was thinking about a bit he does on one of his specials about his disdain for the college he attended. He equated his alma mater to a hooker who had performed a service and been paid for that service, yet kept coming back to him for more money (via the alumni association). I watched this skit and thought it was typical BS that an upper-middle-class jerk would say. His attitude was so flippant and shrill and came from someone who never doubted that he would (a) not go to college and (b) not go to an expensive, top-ranked college (in Mulaney’s case, Georgetown).

 As someone who was glad just to be able to go to college, I’m glad to contribute to my alma maters. I appreciate the education I received as an undergraduate and a graduate student and I certainly don’t call the universities that I attended “hookers” for asking me to contribute to scholarship funds for underprivileged students or funds for campus facilities. (I draw the line at contributing for any kind of sports things. Those organizations can and often do get money from someone else.) I remember reading an article where Mike Bloomberg talked about how he could only afford to give his alma mater, Johns Hopkins, some small amount of money after he graduated, like $10, but he felt it was important to give what he could because he appreciated everything the school had done for him. (He certainly has come a long way from those meager donations because Johns Hopkins named their School of Public Health after Bloomberg.) I agree with Mikey B’s philosophy on this. Give what you can, but give and I do. No, I’m not giving enough to my alma maters to have a school named after me, but I think it’s important to support a school that supported you.

Some Good News

It seems harder and harder these days to find some good news, but here are a few of my own items to share:

1. Because I've been interested in learning how to write a screenplay, I've signed up for a course to teach me just how to do that. I'm looking forward taking the online course in a few weeks and I hope it turns out to be helpful.

2. Spring finally seems to have arrived in Chicago area. Does this mean I can put my winter coats, hats, and gloves away until next fall/winter? I certainly hope so. Just seeing flowering trees, the return of greenery, and feeling warmer temperatures around here are all welcome changes. Not that our winter was terrible (because it really wasn't), but it's nice to go outside and not have to bundle up in a huge coat, hat, boots, etc. just to take a walk.

We have to find positivity where we can these days. Small victories still count.

No More Vaccine Envy

I can stop being jealous of those who have gotten their COVID vaccinations now since I'm one of those folks. One shot down, one to go and my arm is still hurting! It's a fluke that I found out about getting the vaccine on Sunday thanks to someone who posted a message (with a link to sign up for shots) on Next Door in my community Sunday. Thanks to that person, I was able to get a spot yesterday and get my first shot taken care of. It's a relief to be partly-vaccinated. I hope the full vaccination makes me feel comfortable enough to try and go back to the gym and actually fly somewhere later in the year. A year ago, I would have said "no" to getting a vaccine, but what a difference a year makes. After seeing so many people get vaccinated with no problems, I got on board with it myself. People have to decide what's best for them and I decided getting vaccinated was best for me if I wanted to try and get back to some sense of normalcy and not freak out every time I leave my house. Nothing is a sure thing, but having some protection is better than none.

Vaccine Envy

I didn't realize COVID vaccine envy was a thing until my sister used the expression and then I realized I have vaccine envy myself. Where's my vaccine? I'm envious of those who have gotten one or two shots already. I haven't been vaccinated yet because I don't qualify...yet in my state. I'm old, but not old enough to get my shots. Things are supposed to open up next month for people over the age of 16, so maybe I'll get an appointment then. I heard a doctor on WGN here in the Chicago area say that states that have lowered the vaccination age ahead of Illinois (states like neighboring Indiana) have done so because they had fewer people come forward to get shots. I don't know if I buy that. I just think Illinois is falling behind and those other states have their shit together. Even the city where I live is slow to get the seniors here vaccinated. Because we have our own health department, our city citizens hadn't been able to get shots elsewhere in the state. (I think that restriction is changing.) Our mayor keeps saying we're not getting our fair share of vaccines. Okay. Then he should be on the news weekly complaining to the powers that be about our lack of vaccines. Yet, he isn't. Maybe because he won't be the mayor in another couple of months, so he doesn't feel the need to try harder to get our citizens what we need. I guess he'll leave the complaining to the next mayor to handle. 

The Keepers

In keeping (no pun intended) with my steady stream of documentary-watching, I just finished the series The Keepers on Netflix last night. It was fascinating and frustrating at the same time. I was fascinated with the stories told by the women and men in the Baltimore community. Some of the students of Keough High School were truly dealing with awful levels of physical and mental abuse. The abuse that Maskell and his cohorts put on these girls by was mind-boggling. As someone who's not Catholic (and has serious issues with Catholicism and the Catholic Church), I was annoyed with the level of power that Church members wielded over so many people in government, law enforcement, and society as a whole in the past in that area. The Catholic Church works people from the inside, meaning people get worked over psychologically by the Church. (Other religions do this also, so I'm not just singling out Catholics here.) The mental hit job that was done on the abuse victims here was awful. 

What frustrated me about the series (aside from Netflix dragging it out for seven episodes when, really, four or five would have sufficed) was that nothing was really resolved in the end. I doubt the ladies who were investigating Catherine Cesnik's death will ever find out what happened to her. When the series ended, I found myself with more questions than answers. But I commend the women for banding together to try and solve the case of who murdered their beloved teacher. 

Made You Look

I've been watching a lot of documentaries lately and I watched Made You Look last night on Netflix. Wow! The story of wealthy folks buying phony artwork was fascinating. At the end of the documentary, I thought, There are no winners here. Everyone was awful: the supposedly unsuspecting art gallery manager, the woman the manager purchased art from, the ultra wealthy folks who bought the art. No one, in my mind, had clean hands here. The art buyers wanted to have exclusive Pollock and Rothko pieces in their homes to showcase their wealth and brag to friends, the art dealer wanted these huge deals to boost her reputation and boost funds for the failing gallery she managed, and the con artist seller and her boyfriend wanted to make money. I didn't walk away from the documentary feeling like anyone had clean hands here. They were all grimy, some more than others. And the so-called art "experts" who were supposed to verify the authenticity of the works fell down on the job also. Excuses, excuses for why they made bad calls on the art. 

Made You Look reminded me of another documentary I saw called Sour Grapes about a guy who duped wine collectors and claimed to have vintage bottles of wine that sold for a lot of money when, actually, the guy was making the wine in his house and doctoring the bottles, corks, and labels to make them look aged. The same thing was going on with the artwork in Made You Look. The con artists got a Chinese painter to recreate works by artists like Pollock and Rothko and doctor them so they'd look aged. There were so many red flags about this artwork that came out of nowhere, yet everyone seemed to either blissfully overlook those flags or knew the con was afoot and just let the scam play itself out. Crazy, but entertaining. And Armie Hammer's father owned the gallery where this nonsense was taking place. That was an interesting twist. He never actually appears in the documentary himself (he sends his attorney to speak on his behalf, and that was probably a wise decision), but pictures of him are shown throughout. What a hot mess that guy is. Is it any surprise his kid is now in a hot mess himself? Not really. Not that I believe parents are to blame for their grown children's behavior, but sometimes the apple just doesn't fall far from the tree. 

Tell Me Something I Don't Know

So much media attention is out there about Harry and Meghan's interview with Oprah. My sister emailed me this morning and asked if I had watched it. I told her no, I had not...and that was a hard "no" for me. I can't care enough about the British Royal Family (BRF) to spend a few hours hearing about their escapades, but I read about the interview online. I will say that nothing I heard really surprised me. I am surprised that a lot of people are focusing on how someone in the BRF expressed concern about Archie's skin color. Is this really a surprise to people? Apparently. Of course that kid's skin color was going to cause a lot of hand-wringing. That's exactly the kind of thing the BRF would get hung up. These folks are so concerned about how things look. These same folks, many of whom are truly awful, had no problem denigrating the mixed American woman who dared to marry into their family. Please. One of Queen's kids was hanging out with a known molester and another one told a woman he wanted to be her tampon, yet these folks are supposed to be looked up to as members of the British monarchy? Yeah, whatever. I'm glad I'm an American.

However, I don't think Meghan and Harry are innocent victims here either. When she married him, I remember telling people that there wasn't enough love in the world to make me give up my life like that. Meghan was in her mid-30s when she married Harry. How do you go from living your own life as an independent woman to being told by others how to dress, what to say, how to be? But she knew that going in and now she and her husband want to complain about it. I also feel like Meghan was incredibly naïve about how she would be treated by the British people and the British press. I think she had lived her life largely as a white (or white-adjacent) woman and got a rude awakening when she was treated was treated like a common Negro overseas. She had to learn the hard way just what kind of folks she was dealing with. I do hope she and Harry are happy and able to live their lives and raise their kids as they see fit.

Endless Loop

I feel like I'm caught in an endless loop of life. The days all seem to run into each other, the hours drag by, very little changes each day. It's Groundhog Day every day. At least spring is coming and the days are getting longer. We're even getting a few days of sunshine here in the Chicago area. Still, the loop of bad news, not enough COVID vaccines, and general angst continues. It's hard to try and feign enthusiasm sometimes. But what's the alternative? To just climb back into bed and pull the covers over your head. (Yes!) No. We have to keep on keeping on and try to keep our collective sanity. 

Random Thoughts

I just read a story on NPR's website about a guy who recently passed away from COVID-19 and his daughter, who wrote the story, said that her late father loved the song "Songbird" by Barbra Streisand. Dad had good taste in music! Say what you want about Barbra, but she can sing her voice is absolutely lovely on "Songbird." I need to break out my Steisand CDs again.

In other news, my attention span has been sufficiently shot and I blame being in lockdown mode due to COVID-19. I can barely sit through anything on TV that lasts for more than an hour and, even then, I often find myself doing other things while I watch TV, like checking my phone or being on my computer. The only time I can kind of pay full attention is when I'm watching something that requires me to read subtitles. I did manage to get through the first season of the Netflix series Dark before I threw in the towel. I signed up for Amazon Prime recently and started watching the series The Americans. I was into it for about three episodes before I lost interest. I just couldn't commit to multiple seasons of this show or even to finish out the first season. I watched the entire first season of Downton Abbey before I bailed on it, but at least I got through one season. I've been forcing myself to turn the TV off and read each night for at least a half hour or an hour just because I know it will take me forever to finish a book if I don't. Back when I used to be a commuter, I could read on the train, but not now. 

When I work from home, I can't have the television on because I can't concentrate on my work and listen to the TV or even a podcast at the same time. I'm fine having music on when I work, preferably something soothing. But television? Forget it. 

I recently watched a movie called The Assistant and I'm still thinking about it. The movie was about a young woman who worked for some bigwig in the movie industry and it just focused on a day in her life at the office and how poorly she was treated at the office. But the part that really annoyed me was when she went to the male HR rep to complain about perceived mistreatment of another female employee, after the HR guy basically dismissed her and her complaint, by the time she got back to her desk her male coworkers and her male boss already knew she had been to HR and everything she had said to the HR rep and berated her for going to HR in the first place. Ugh. So much awfulness all around. 

Curb Your Dog!

I don't know if it's a result of being locked down for nearly a year now due to Covid restrictions or what, but the latest bee in my bonnet is that people (mainly residents from the condo building next to my co-op) keep bringing their dogs over to relieve themselves on the small patch of lawn behind my building. Because my back rooms face this area, I see the parade of pooches daily while I'm working from home. This is recent occurrence. We didn't used to get a revolving rounds of dogs, but we've got them now. Most of the residents pick up behind their pets, but some don't. I even watched some kid bring his small dog out, he picked up behind the dog, then dropped his doggy shit bag in our recycling can. I've watched this kid do this twice. I can't figure out if he's unable to read (these kids have been out of school for a while) or if he's just a jerk. Maybe he's illiterate AND a jerk. 

I'm tired of seeing these dogs and their lazy owners using my background as a toliet. Get off my lawn and curb your dog! I've been taking pictures all week to help build my case with the local government via 311. My co-op doesn't seem to care. I suggested they at least put a sign up to deter the people from bringing their pets around and the co-op secretary said they'd consider doing that. 

My co-op must be one of the most useless groups around. I had no idea how poor they were in doing anything, including passing along any relevant information to shareholders, until after I bought my place. When I was renting a condo, I knew more about what was going on in my building than I do now as a freaking owner. 

But I digress. I actually entertained the idea of getting a dog last year. I'd gone on Petfinder and checked out a small dog that I thought would be great to have, especially since I'm home all day now. I've always said I'll get a dog after I retire when I have time to devote to my pet. I think I'll stick with the retirement plan because, eventually, I'm going to have to physically go back to work. And what would happen to my dog then? Would I be forced to race home each day to let the dog out? Would I end up utilizing doggy day care? That gets expensive! But now, as I watch the parade of pet owners out in the snow and cold as their dogs come to shit and pee outside of my window, I feel I'm better off observing dogs from afar rather than having one of my own...at least for the time being.

Corporate Stooge

Do all companies expect you to become a corporate stooge just because you work there? Are you supposed to sell your soul just to have a job these days? We all make concessions on the job and do things we don't want to do, take shit from people we don't want to take shit from, etc. But are we supposed to be lobotomized also by our corporate overlords? Just sit and nod and drool in agreement even when we really don't agree? Are we not allowed to have our own thoughts and disagree when the corporation's views don't align with our own? I'm dealing with a situation like this now. I'm not corporate mouthpiece. If I disagree with something, I'll state my disagreement. Now I'm not naive enough to think that my views will overrule the company's, but I do expect a truce where we "agree to disagree." I don't feel any corporate entity should try and force me to adhere to a narrative that I don't agree with. I do my work and earn a paycheck for that work. Mind control shouldn't be a part of the job too.

WFH? WTF?

I consider myself very lucky to be able to work from home through the Covid pandemic. I know many workers don't have this luxury. However, I sometimes feel I'm being taken advantage of by my employer. I certainly more hours than I did when I went into the office each week. I often find myself working on the weekends in addition to working longer hours during the week. My workload has increased significantly due to staffing cuts and shortages. The company is definitely doing more with less. I have to buy my own office supplies and the company refuses to reimburse anyone for these items. (Hey, printer cartridges aren't cheap!) And there haven't been any raises since the pandemic started. These may sound like minor complaints, and they are, but they're still valid. My home is also my workplace now which is great in some ways. I can use my own bathroom, I can eat from my own kitchen, I don't have to share space with others, or see people I dislike during the workday. But where's the separation between work and home? My spare room has been turned into an office, filled with stuff from my day job. Every time I go there, I see stuff from work even when I'm not working. It's depressing because it's a constant reminder of the work I have to do. I often feel like I'm on a hamster wheel and I can't get off of it.

Again, I'm grateful for having a job in this pandemic when so many people are out of work. I'm grateful to be able to work from home when so many others are forced to go out, ride public transit, and deal with catching Covid just in order to earn a paycheck. But I also feel that some of these companies (my own included) have an attitude that workers should take what they can get and shut up. In fact, the HR woman at my company pretty much told me that. It's annoying because if you complain, you're viewed as a whiner.  

The Page Has Been Turned

It's been nice for the past week to hear about the Biden Administration or POTUS Biden and not about Donny's tweets or whatever foolishness he imposed upon the world. What a delight it has been. The page has indeed turned and I'm glad it has. Are things perfect? No. We're still dealing with Covid and everything else that's awful, but at least everything's a little less-awful since Donny's not at the helm anymore. 

My father called me last night and, during our conversation, he asked if I was planning to get the Covid vaccine. I told him I believe so. I've been on the fence, but I think I'm ready to jump that fence and commit to getting the vaccine when it's available to me (whenever that time comes). Like a lot of people, I have reservations about it, but I ultimately think it will do more good than harm. I also feel my father should get the vaccine when available and, at his age, he is eligible to receive it now in his state. However, he's choosing to wait until the summer. That's his prerogative, but I really think he needs to rethink his plan and get the vaccine earlier. I'm no spring chicken myself and I have to wait to get vaccinated. My father can move close to the front of the line, yet he's choosing not to? Oh well. Baby steps.

Thorns in My Side - Now Available!

My new book, Thorns in My Side, is out now!

 

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.

 

Turn the Page

This is the last night we'll have Donny T. as POTUS. (It certainly had better be the last night!) Finally, the page is going to turn on this jerk, his awful family, and his stupid minions. It's been a long four years. Even before Covid came into our lives, a significant amount of mental and emotional damage had been done to us. Just having to hear about Donny's tweets, his temper tantrums, and whatever stupid/foolish/insulting thing he said about some other person or nation was enough to make me want to stop watching the news and reading anything on the internet. I long for the days when I don't have to hear about something the POTUS tweeted or read about the White House press secretary refusing to do his/her job. I'm tired of having everything coming from the government dialed up to a 10. I need lower noise levels, like around 2 or 3. 

With so many people dealing with Covid, unemployment, depression, it will be nice not to have to deal with a POTUS and administration who lack basic empathy. No government can be all things to all people, but can we at least get back to having one that at least tries to serve the needs of its people and makes an effort to care about their well-being?

Saved...or Not

Back when I was a regular church-goer, I believed that all people could be saved. I no longer believe that. And I don't just mean saved in the Christian sense, I mean saved/redeemed/whatever as a person. Some folks can't be saved. I came to this realization years ago and seeing stuff like the Chaos at the Capitol last week just reaffirms my stance. Some folks are beyond saving. They're just gone spiritually, mentally, ethically and they can't be helped and I don't believe in wasting time trying to change someone who doesn't want to change him/herself. Some people are just evil. They may not have always been evil, but they're evil now and see nothing wrong with their behavior when they abuse others or commit crimes. And I'm not just talking about Donny's Band of Idiots who wreaked havoc last week, I'm also talking about people like the guy who went on a killing spree in Chicago and Evanston last weekend. I'm talking about the guys who carjacked and killed a retired firefighter who had just gone out to buy some popcorn in the Chicago area last month. Shooting and killing innocent people and having no remorse whatsoever about your actions shows you're not worth saving in my book.

Some time ago, my stepsister's son was considering a move to Chicago to work in a position where he'd be a counselor to young inner-city kids (or something like that). I remember telling my father that this kid would probably end up crushed by the job mainly because he didn't grow up like a lot of the kids he'd be counseling. He grew up in a nice, middle-class Southern home with two working parents. He didn't come from the streets. I doubt he could even understand the mentality of a kid from the South Side who had no role models, little (if any) parental guidance, a poor education, and no hope. Thankfully, my stepsister's kid didn't get called for an interview. He probably dodged a bullet on that one. 

I'm all about helping those who want to help themselves, but I won't waste my time, money, or mental health on people whose goal in life is to harm others.

Cockles and Mussels

In a more light-hearted post (because I've said what I had to say about the Chaos at the Capitol this week), I was watching an episode of the 60s show "Wild Wild West" earlier this week and Artemis was singing the song "Cockles and Mussels" at one point. I learned (or was forced to sing) "Cockles and Mussels" while in elementary school, which raises a question for me. Why were Detroit Public School kids, like myself, in the 1970s forced to sing songs like "Cockles and Mussels" (alive, alive oh)? Who thought it would be a good idea to have these kids, the majority of whom were black, sing a song about an Irish woman (Molly Malone) selling her wares on the streets? Strangely, I recall the song being a huge crowd-pleaser in school. Everyone seemed to enjoy singing it, particularly the chorus, so maybe the school system powers that be were right in making "Cockles and Mussels" part of the music curriculum. 

We sang other songs in school that I now consider odd such as "Little Houses" (made of ticky-tacky), "Nana Kru" (jump into my canoe / Nana, I paid my dowry for you), "Eleanor Rigby" (lyrics not necessary). I was talking with someone I work with a few years ago who's a year older than I am and we were discussing songs we had to sing in school and he told me he was forced to sing John Lennon's "Woman" in elementary school. Huh? That takes the cake. This guy grew up in Boston. Wow. And I'm complaining about "Cockles and Mussels." 

The 1970s were a strange time to be a kid, for a variety of reasons.

This Is NOT What Democracy Looks Like!

WTF is going on in Washington, DC??? Donny's minions have taken over the Capitol! I didn't even know this mess was going on because I was out at the bank and didn't hear about the drama until I was back and someone from my day job emailed me. (I don't normally have the television on while working from home because it's distracting.) When I saw these yahoos and thugs and some rando guy sitting in the speaker's chair in the Senate chamber, I wondered, Am I living in a banana republic? Is this Venezuela? But what really annoyed me was how ill-prepared DC was for this. Did they not think these nutjobs were going to show up today when the election votes were certified? They've been talking about it for weeks! DC should have been on lockdown. 

Many years ago, I went to the Capitol and did the tour, walked through the Rotunda, and sat in the gallery during sessions of the House and Senate. (I had a cousin who was a Congressman at the time, so that's why I was able to get a pass for all of this. He's no longer in Congress, so those days are over!) After the tour and everything, I went to see my cousin and security was no joke throughout the entire visit. It amazes me that Donny's thugs just overpowered the security forces and stormed into the building. Whose ass needs to be kicked for allowing security to be so lax today? Who needs to be fired for this? Seriously. 

I was watching some of the news coverage and the reporters were talking about how Donny should come out and make a statement to condemn this violence. Yeah, right. He doesn't care. He finally did come out and make some weak-assed statement that was too little too late. 

This is what happens when you elect an idiot. This is what happens when that idiot acts like a pseudo-dictator. This is what happens when conspiracy theorists go off the cliff. This is NOT what democracy looks like. This is what chaos looks like. 

Happy New Year?? (Also, Some Movie Reviews)

 As we walk into 2021, I am trying to enter the new year with hope and optimism that it will be better than the dumpster fire that was 2020. While I realize the problems of last year will certainly follow us into the new year, my approach is to appreciate improvements in the new year, no matter how small they may be. Baby steps may be small, but they still enable that baby to move forward. No, Covid won't disappear overnight and we'll all still have obstacles and hurdles to jump, but we have to appreciate the small victories in life.

In other news, given the kind of fiction that I write, I like to watch gay-themed movies and I've watched a few over this holiday weekend:

Eating Out: Watching this movie caused me to lose 1.5 hours of my life that I'll never get back. I can't believe they actually made a number of sequels either. The story was ridiculous, the guys weren't cute, and pretty much everyone involved was awful. 

C.O.G.: What a depress-fest. Jonathan Groff did the best he could here, but this movie was just one bad situation after another.  I can't believe it was based on a David Sedaris short story (that I'm sure I read back when I used to read Sedaris's stuff before I realized about 70% of it was bullshit). 

You and I: A German movie about two friends (one gay, one straight) who go on a roadtrip and then pick up a hitchhiker who gets in the middle of things. This one wasn't bad. The last 15 minutes were particularly good when the simmering pot of emotions just boils over.

Say Yes: A woman dying from cancer wants her husband to hook up with her twin (fraternal, not identical) bisexual brother after she dies. And they do. Interesting, but I didn't buy it and the actors didn't have any chemistry (male and female). Also, the actors playing the brother and sister didn't even look related to each other. I know siblings don't all look alike, but the casting could have been better on this one to at least get two Latinos who resembled each other a little more closely. 

This list has a lot of duds, but I have seen some really great gay-themed movies also. For example: Four Moons, 1:54, Mario, Shelter, Giant Little Ones. There's good stuff out there, but you have to get through a lot of crap to find it.

Happy New Year!