When the dog bites,
-I am not going to cite this for you.
When the bee stings,
When I’m feeling sad,
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad.
Books:
I love books. I love bookstores. I love libraries. I’ve been reading since I was a young child. During the summer months my mom would take me to the library on Wednesdays and I would stock up on reading material. I have always prefered darker reading material. Complex characters. Detailed novels, the kind where you really get to know the characters and miss them when they are gone.
- “The Stand” Steven King
I’ve read quite a lot of Stephen King’s works. There is a common theme in his stories, good always triumphs over evil, but at great cost. This is one of his classic works, often given top billing from his fans (at leat the ones I’ve had this discussion with.) A government engineered pandemic wipes out 99.7% of the population. Those that remain are drawn to either Denver (good) or Las Vegas (evil) and an epic throwdown between these two groups ensues.
2. Gillian Flynn Trilogy
The reason people who don’t like Gillian Flynn’s books are the reason I do like them. There are no likeable characters. There are sympathetic characters, to be sure. No innocents, though. Gone Girl, the story of a man who’s wife suddenly disappears and all that is uncovered in the search for her. Sharp Objects, a hard drinking woman with a cutting compulsion is assigned to cover the story of serial killings in the small town she grew up in. Dark Places, the lone survivor of a family masacre meets up with a murder “fanclub” where evidence of her family’s deaths is being re-discussed.
3. “11/22/63” Stephen King
Can the past be changed? Should it? A young man becomes compelled to try and stop the assassination of JFK. He is shown a doorway that opens from the present to 1958. The person who shows this to him has done enormous research and has tried severa times to stop the assassignation unsuccessfully. This person now has terminal cancer and cannot complete this mission. So this guy gives it a go. Several times. The message of this book – the past pushes back when you try to change it. (I had the most surreal moment ever reading this book on an airplane and looking down to see the 3 X’s that mark the Kennedy assassination site in Dallas, TX. )
4. “The Time Travelers Wife” – Audrey Niffenegger
The premise of this book is so out there that I have no idea how this book was ever written. A man has a genetic disorder that causes him to skip back and forth in time. He can’t control it, it just happens, he finds himself in whatever time and whatever place in his life. He’s used to seeing himself all the time because older and younger versions of himself will show up at his apartment for clothes and shelter. Everyone else in his life lives a normal life that does not skip all over. This creates a lot of confusion. He meets his wife for the first time when she is 8 and he is in his 30’s. Because he’s tied to her he shows up at her house a lot. At different ages. So he’s been part of her life since she was 8, but she’s only been part of his life since he was 23. Yeah I cannot begin to explain this plot. I will warn you it has a very tragic end and I have cried every time I’ve read it (I’m not a huge crier.)
5. “Mara, Daughter of the Nile” – Eloise Jarvis McGraw
This was my favorite book in Elementary School. I checked it out of the library so often my name took up the majority of the card. Historical fiction about a slave girl who ends up saving Egypt and falling in love with a Prince. I’ve always been fascinated with ancient Egypt. A few years ago I was able to locate a hard cover copy of this book that had been a library book and I still like to pick it up and read it.
Dance:
I love dance, I love almost every kind of dance. This true love of my life didn’t start till I was around 14, when my mother got me tickets to see The Nutcracker as performed by the Kansas City Ballet. I fell in love hard and fast. This has been both fortunate and unfortunate for me. I have a bleeding disorder similar to hemophilia. It is not uncommon for a person with this disorder to have several “target joints”, joints that become permanently damaged over time by numerous bleeds into them. My ankles have been target joints since I was a young child. I’ve had surgeries on both, both cause me chronic issues. I have spent a large portion of time on crutches. The cartilage had been eaten away by the chronic bleeds, I have been bone on bone for most of my life. I cannot even flex my ankles to 90 degrees. 87 degrees is the best I can do. I can only walk barefoot because my body weight will force 90 degrees out of them. I walk very duck-footed to compensate. Having said all that, I have been very fortunate that I have still be able to do the things I want to do, including most forms of dance. I get by and was given some natural ability here to feel music and memorize choreography pretty easily. These are my favorite dance clips to watch.
- “The Resaturant Dance Scene” – Step Up Revolution
2. “Dark Vulture” – So You Think You Can Dance
3. “Take Me To Church” (Hozier) – Sergei Polunin
4. “Memoirs of a Geisha” – Snow Dance
5. “Pleasure Principle” – Janet Jackson
6. “Moulin Rouge” – Hindi Sad Diamond
7. “World of Dance” – Briar Nolet ‘You Should See Me In A Crown’
TV Series
- LOST
4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42
I’ve been watching this series again in Lockdown and it’s been like spending time with an old friend. Similar to the books I prefer, I also prefer complicated dramas. I don’t usually do Sci-Fi but this one got me hooked. This was before the On Demand world so missing an episode was a Big Deal. I rushed home with my children many weeks to get home in time to watch it when it was on. I still have no idea how it all ended, not because I didn’t watch the ending but because a lot was left for interpretation. Kudos to any show that called it quits before it jumped the shark. This was one.
2. Sex And The City
This series was a big fluffy dessert topped with whipped cream in the days my youngest was a newborn. Each episode just 30 min, perfect for all those late night feedings. Coincidentally, 9/11 happened when my youngest was just 3 weeks old. We all remember how the world felt after that. The fact this series was set in the Big Apple made it even more perfect for that time. Through all the seasons of this, no outfit was ever worn twice. I watched this via old school Netflix where you got the DVD in the mail and had to hope it wasn’t too scratched up to watch.
3. Schitts Creek
Eugene Levy and Cathrine O’Hara have been acting together for a long time, they have their comic timing perfected. Eugene Levy’s son plays their son in this comedy about a privilaged family who loses everything and end up living in a motel of a town they purchased as a joke. Character development is great and meaningful over the seasons. Was sad to see it recently come to an end!
4. Fantasy Island
This is probably one of those series that wouldn’t seem that great watching it as an adult. I loved this as a kid, though. I loved all the different plots and how people’s fantasies ended up showing them to be careful what they wished for in most cases. The format of this show was pretty genius because there were not a lot of continuing story lines to have to develop.
5. Wonder Woman
Last but certainly not least! I loved this show so much that my mom made me a tin foil head and wrist bands and I had a pink rope that was my lariat of truth. This was circa the 1970’s, me showing my displeasure with the patriarchy as a 1st Grader. May you live forever, Diana Prince.
