Author: D. Parker
Very me
I had too much to dream last night…again.
My 
People Forget #Kindness Is Free
Bees’ll buzz and I’ll afford their organic honey cuz…I’ll be doing whatever rich and famous folks do…Sportin’ a healthy bank account, not blown away by emergencies. Da da… Da doo…A bah bah ba baba boo!
Attention and money are both so intense
Put ’em together, it never, ever makes sense!
Rat dadat dadat dadat dadadadadoo
Anonymity’s the best time to stay in and cuddle, but put me in ‘attention’ and I’ll be a happily overexposed attention wh…oh, umm, writer/blogger! So when life gets rough, I persist by frantically grabbing my dreams of not just wallowing in obscurity…Oh the sky will be blue and you guys’ll be there too!!! When I ever do what obscure folks do with attention!
Choose love, hope, peace, kindness (people often forget it’s free), laughter, compassion, family, friends, helping others when you can…naps https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/02/01/theres-a-nap-for-that/ and cake (not necessarily in that order).
In a world seemingly ruled by attention, how do you keep up (and why)?
1. Be interesting.
2. Interesting not enough? Try shocking.
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/04/10/shock-and-awww/
3. Shocking still not getting enough clicks, likes, and shares in this attention economy? Try no-no-Notorious (sorry, Duran Duran apparently still holds some mysterious thrall over me).
4. Are you feeling like you should keep a single thought, event, or moment private? This is your dignity and self-respect rearing its ugly common sense head, don’t self-sabotage! Tell all! Show all! Don’t let fear of failure stop you from succeeding in your attention-seeking goals.
5. Toss aside burdensome personal and professional relationships – more will come along and if not, you still had your brief, precious moment in the spotlight.
6. Be committed! This isn’t a diet, gym membership, Netflix browsing (what day is it?), friendship, job, or relationship – this is serious! Getting attention isn’t for the faint of heart. 
7. Stop looking for the meaning of life, you found it: getting attention.
8. Helping people is nice, but what if you can get attention while doing it? Fire, flood, famine, family, friends, fawning, fatuous, fake fads – all the new attention-grabbing fabulous!
9. Your life is for sale, stick a sign on you that says ‘Sold’.
10. Over 4 years ago when I started blogging I wasn’t thinking about the attention, or was I?
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/04/10/im-hooked-on-a-feeling/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/08/27/message-in-a-bottle/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2017/06/02/nobody-puts-bloggers-in-a-corner/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/03/26/why-i-will-never-be-freshly-pressed/
So I’m going to take my own advice, There’s No Crying in Blogging (there is whining thought, right?) https://yadadarcyyada.com/2017/02/02/theres-no-crying-in-blogging/
People think they want attention and/or fame, money, etc., but maybe what they really want is connection.
I’m going to stop over-thinking, getting in my own way, getting frustrated (good luck, especially with WordPress around), and enjoy the moment.
I’ll try not to think about awful people, instead I’ll think of the awesome people I’ve virtually met (and adore!). 
Also, blogging is cheaper than therapy.
Slow blogging (Thanks Fibromyalgia!!! https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/11/23/f-is-for-fibromyalgia/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/08/31/fibromylagia-is-just-another-word-for-lazy/) isn’t getting me many clicks and likes, but I’m ok with obscurity and I give thanks for what I have https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/10/13/thankful-i-know-enough-to-be-thankful/ 
And I can still dream…and can still afford chocolate, for now https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/11/22/who-moved-my-chocolate/
My Big Fat Supernatural Life
I’m haunted.
Maybe haunted isn’t the right word, um, spooked, creeped out, ok, maybe just confused.
I’ve tried to lead a normal life, really I have, but I’m afraid my attempts have been astonishingly less than successful.
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Everywhere I turn, so-called supernatural forces invade my peace and quiet.
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Ghouls, goblins, trolls, clowns, demons, ghosts, poltergeist (Theeeeey’rrrre here!), killers (#JFKFiles, or a version of them are being ‘released’, but my conspiracy theory stands – it was aliens, so in love with Marilyn Monroe they took her to their planet and they also took John F. Kennedy because he was having her death investigated…and now you also know my theory on how Monroe ‘died’)…
Serial killers, serials killers who kill serial killers (Thank you?), vampires, zombies, dragons, zombie dragons, monsters, witches, warlocks, werewolves, wizards, whatchamacallits (why am I suddenly craving chocolate?)…I admit, I’m no Stephen King, but I’m not blameless in this, I’ve invited some of them in, even if metaphysically, er, unwittingly?
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How was I to know it would be an ongoing supernatural thing?
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Something wicked this way comes, really, kinda busy double double toiling and troubling here…
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Rapping, rapping, rapping at my door? Let me guess, the government wanting more, more, more.
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No, it’s not what goes bump in the night that terrifies me, but those in the light, pretending they want my thoughts to be free.
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It’s not a corpse risen from its grave, nor a black cat (look how cute they are, how could something that cute be bad luck, oh wait, just had a flashback of some past dates, cute can equal creepy)…
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What scares me the most doesn’t claw from the ground, nor fly down and drag me to its lair – no, it’s the lies, the lies, oh the lies, lies, lies! We’re spending our precious time on this planet…
listening, worse, accepting lies – from politicians, corporations, anyone – we want to believe (ok, lapsed into X-Files there, who am I kidding, it’s playing in my brain right now). How can we trust if we’ve become toilet paper, waiting to be used or always taking crap from folks?
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I feel like shouting, Beware! Beware! there and everywhere, Grim Reapers Heffalump or Woozle, I’m very confusel. And it isn’t honey they’re after, they’d have to let the bees live for that, no, Winnie the Pooh and all of us should know, it’s all been very sly-sly-sly…Power and money is what they covet and if they so love it, they’ll guzzle up and muzzle up everything you prize.
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Who needs horror movies anymore? https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/03/20/25-ways-to-stay-alive-in-a-horror-movie/ This is where the magic happens. Online. They put a spell on us and now we’re theirs. It’s all a bunch of hocus pocus. We need to cut through, maybe with a jigsaw…or break through, open our minds – Aparecium! Reveal the truth (yes, it’s still alive, just been badly wounded). I’m should drown my sorrows in Butterbeer, yup, you guessed it, I’m rereading the Harry Potter series for Halloween.
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The Nightmare Before Christmas? Holidays seem more like The Nightmare of Christmas and Black Friday, CyberMonday, Halloween (The Great Pumpkin will be here soon, right and David S. Pumpkins, please tell me it’s David Pumpkins – “Any Questions?”)
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/10/14/the-glorious-chaos/ Also, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day/Veterans Day https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/11/02/christmas-comes-after-remembrance-day/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/11/03/lest-we-forget-to-shop/ Sadly, people seem way more concerned about who’s saying ‘Merry Christmas’ versus ‘Happy Holidays’ than if anyone is either merry or happy…and of course all the important parts of the holidays: peace, love, kindness, hope, caring, compassion https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/02/20/compassion-never-goes-out-of-style/ – I’m kidding, I mean important things like: shopping, pumpkin spice, decorations, presents, phones, cars, vacations, clothes…
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This isn’t your Grinch’s consumerism, it’s so much worse.
I don’t even enjoy entertainment (as much), I’m getting (more?) grossed out: books, TV, music, phones, video games, apps, sports, fashion, movies – what we spend on entertainment could be feeding people, giving them healthcare, education, shelter, security – the budget of the new Star Wars movie alone could feed a nation or six (The Last Jedi? Nothing like spoilers – now release the fans!). -
We’re so afraid of being alone or being left out, we’re so desperate to be accepted, to get approval, we’re willing to believe just about anything – we believe gossip is real, innuendo is truth, and rumour is fact. Who says we don’t get enough exercise, have you been on the internet, we get plenty of exercise, jumping to conclusions.
Instead of feeling connected and informed, I’m feeling tortured (and not in a starving artist kind of way). Smoke and mirrors, why bother, just plop whatever BS on the internet and suddenly, for many people, it’s magically true. Getting news from Facebook and Twitter? Really? That drives me batty! Seriously, the internet, enter at your own risk https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/10/28/enter-at-your-own-risk/
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In a world of choices, we have less and less choice every single day. You think zombies, Negan, and The Saviors are scary in The Walking Dead?
Ple-eeease, that’s nothing, you want to get terrified, look up: child pornography, sexual harassment, rape culture (#MeToo isn’t just a hashtag, it’s past time – listen), child abuse, racism (clowns now emboldened to wash off their make-up and take their show on the road), poverty, net neutrality https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/06/02/net-neutrality-i-hardly-knew-you/, opioid epidemic (let me guess, this crisis will now be ‘fixed’, for profit, by those who caused the problems, for profit)…
cashless society (some folks must really love having their everything tracked), stock market manipulation, business amalgamation, human trafficking, scams, women’s (real) equality, chemicals (everywhere) in our environment, war profiteering, civil (and not so civil) rights, human (and not so human) rights, multi-level marketing, tax loopholes/evasion, sponsored reviews, wealth abyss, or want to get freaky, gasp, food waste.
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The real darkness seems to be oozing from deep inside us as we hyper-focus on the trivial and ignore anything of consequence – arguing, fussing, fighting, whining, name-calling, complaining – we’ve become mentally Pennywise and pound foolish. We wear wireless masks, hiding in costumes of anonymity and anger, our candy the pain we can inflict or watch or both. We all float down here in the internet sewer because here, everything you’re afraid of, every nightmare you ever had can be found with the click of a button, and I guess, we want more of Wi-Fi IT.
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It’s all so devilishly clever – we’re snapping selfies while they charge us hidden fees for digging our own graves.
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If only we could focus on kindness instead anger, helping instead of hurting, and sticking together instead of tearing each other apart. Wishful thinking, perhaps, but stranger things (2)… https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/10/14/the-glorious-chaos/
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Education, formal or otherwise is the answer, the more you learn the less you’ll be burned. Click on learn, not Clickbait. Who cares what celebrities are doing? Care about those who need, not those who greed. Seriously, what are we looking for anyway?
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Maybe this year for Halloween, Rick Ghastly can sing an updated version of ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’, because even if we find out cellphones are causing cancer or controlling our minds, they’ll have to pry these smartphones out of our cold, dead hands!!!
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I can’t think about this anymore, it’s all trick and no treat, I have too much crapathy https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/05/25/crapathy/ Or maybe I need yet another break https://yadadarcyyada.com/2017/09/28/we-were-on-a-break/
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Or maybe this can be helped by cake https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/09/16/you-had-me-at-cake/ – which, like the internet gives your brain a scrupulous high, but too much can leave you wondering why, why, why, why?
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So I’ll try to rise up above the noise and confusion, carry on to see past all illusions. I’ll lay my weary head to rest (only 3 days without sleep, I’m fine) and wait for Halloween candy to go sale…because, Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore...
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Even Dean and Sam Winchester boys couldn’t help us out of the hellish pit of petulance we’ve fallen into, but I’d love to see them try. The Fall of the House of Us…sure. Happy Halloween!
We Were On A Break!
Something has changed
within me.
Somehow I’m
not the same.
I’m tired of playing,
someone else’s game.
Too late for second-guessing. Too late to press stop (oops, I hit Publish!). Time to trust my instincts, close my eyes and leap!
Some things I cannot change, but till I try, I’ll never know!
I’m sick of denying gravity, now…I’m defying gravity!
Even by getting up in the morning…I’m defying gravity!
Yo, I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want. I wanna—, I wanna—, I wanna stop hearing ‘want’ instead of ‘need’…So I have a problem, something I have to face…To move ahead at a more novel pace.
We need to not believe everything we read and not only read everything we believe. My fondness wish? That we hit pause, stop fighting about who’s right and who’s wrong. Simple, the facts are right; what if we’re all wrong?
I want to read what I want…Not what’s fed to me by algorithms to feed greed, telling me what to read what to believe…
What’s the worst that can happen? I go to Over-Readers Anonymous meetings (Are those a thing?). I can find books for myself everywhere…
Mysterious buildings with ‘Library’ on the door. Bookstores, smartphones, laptops, tablets, family, friends, book sales…I’ll answer the siren call – pages whispering dreams, promising more and more.
I could say ‘no’, follow steps…Or stand up proud and say, “I’m a bookaholic, but baby, I wouldn’t have it any…other…way!!!” So I’m defying gravity! Carrying books, swaying, falling, spilling dreams…Onto me!
Don’t try to pull me down; come with me instead. Think of what we could do, together…Just by saying yes! (You better believe I’m twirling…right now!).
Yup, books are wicked. So is TV. Definitely Social Media – Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, etc. Fashion. Movies. Food. Video games. Blogging. Holidays (isn’t it Thanksgiving, oops everyday, then how about Halloween then?). Seductively luring us from reality, or are they reality? Whatever, to thine own self be true (note Shakespeare didn’t say to thine own selfish be true).
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I’ve been trying slow blogging, er, being semi-unplugged? Whatever you want to call it. I enjoyed the time off, but glad to be back to blogging https://yadadarcyyada.com/2017/02/02/theres-no-crying-in-blogging/ So, I know what I did this summer. I laughed, I cried. Got tired and inspired. Wondered and wired…all while we were on a break!
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I got cozy with a bunch of women who find murder victims then conveniently pin the mysterious crimes on others. Thank you Julia Buckley (My latest booky joy, but hey, I’ve exhausted the library’s supply of your books, hate to be presumptuous, I’m hungry for you to write more http://www.juliabuckley.com/blog), Laura Levine, Ellery Adams, Leslie Budewitz, Kym Roberts, Edith Maxwell, Lee Hollis, E.J. Copperman, and more! The worst killer ever? Doubt.
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What else? Cooking, games, philosophy, writing, yardsaling, Goodwill (bargain) hunting, weight loss, ghosts, organizing – even a guy claiming he’s so organized, he could move out in 20 minutes, hey buddy, slow down, are The Sopranos after you, I’ve had longer bowel movements (oops, TMI?).
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I’ve recalled that the grass is always greener, not only on the other side, but over the septic bed, and if you’re using copious amounts of fertilizer (yes, even verbally). Which somehow made me want to reread Pride and Prejudice, https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/09/28/these-foolish-things/ hard to do when being bombarded by pumpkin spice (is there such a thing as death by pumpkin spice?), but I prevailed and Darcy and Elizabeth (spoilers!) got together once again. Love rules, pumpkin spice drools (or does it make people drool?). https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/10/09/you-may-say-im-a-dreamer/
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I was once again reminded that life isn’t just unfair, it can be downright sadistic, so, as we weather the storms of life, change buffeting and sometimes battering us, try to remember, people are people, not toys to be played with, in person or online – if you wouldn’t like it done to you, don’t do it to anyone else.
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I boldly went where no Blob has gone before, on The Orville, in a ‘Discovery’ of just how much Fox will pay to let Seth MacFarlane make love onscreen to Star Trek and all other things sci-fi and fantasy (I’m looking at Star Trek mini-ships and ET in my work area, I get it). I only watch each episode two or five times because they’re hilarious and thought-provoking, not because I have a tiny (huge) crush on Ed Mercer and Justin.
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I remembered I’m a 100% unique…just like everyone else. It’s my own personal This Is Us, minus Justin Hartley (I miss Smallville, Passions, and Revenge) and Milo Ventimiglia (I miss Gilmore Girls and Heroes), sigh, shake it off, it’s 2017…
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I was prodded into remembering the world’s two most important words (sigh): fine print. What you don’t know is more important than what you know or think you know…
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I wondered how Moonstruck could be 30 years old, I just watched it yesterday. Cher and Nicholas Cage are still bizarrely mesmerizing and I want baked goods…and opera (I don’t suppose Hamilton and Wicked count?).
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I was most definitely distracted by bloggers…and bloggers who wrote books. For example, Teagan (https://teagansbooks.com) was kind enough, even though she was going through a rough time to consistently give us the gift of her posts and another stimulating escapade ebook, Murder at the Bijou: Three Ingredients I (adventure awaits, flying by the seat of your pants!).
But wait, there’s more! https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/10/03/sweet-dreams-are-made-of-this/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/12/15/the-cats-pajamas-birthday-party/ I’m not complaining, but where’s the sequel to Atonement, Tennessee (ok, I’m whining a little).
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At times, I found myself so excited I couldn’t eat. Who am I kidding, chocolate and I started the summer in a serious relationship and I’m happy to announce, we’re getting engaged (oops, I ate the ring). Isn’t it weird when some people say stuff like, I was so excited or so busy I forgot to eat. What?!? There’s a way to forget to eat? Tell me! Now! Frankly, I’m too busy #Sheetcaking (Tina Fey dropped by SNL to demonstrate our technique; I think it has all the hallmarks of an Olympic sport – talk about defying gravity!).
Nostaligia was always big and getting bigger as we struggle to return to simpler times, times when TV shows were discussed around the ‘watercooler’, when Sunday, Monday were Happy Days, when Tuesday, Wednesday were Happy Days, Thursday, Friday, well, you get the point. Times when all promises weren’t false, when lies weren’t the norm, where words and actions meant something…Where we didn’t forget the unforgettable.
I think we’ll see even more of a rush of gentler shows and revival ‘nostaligaporn’ shows like Will & Grace – glad you’re back, guess you were on a break too – I missed your silliness; shows people can talk about without fist fights ensuing. We need more things that bring us together instead of tearing us apart. Look at our skeletons (not the closet ones) – we’re all the same, deep down.
So no one told me it was gonna be this way (blogging and life).
Jobs are all a joke (and a 4-letter word).
Of course I’m broke, apparently my Donate button is mostly merely decorative…no eccentric billionaires want to adopt me and help save the endangered broke and obscure bloggers who once roamed the internet free…
My love life is not DOA, it’s just resting, pinin’ for the fjords…I’ll have you know my love life is not bereft of life, pushing up the daisies, or resting in peace! It hasn’t shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain, or joined the bleedin’ choir invisible! It’s not a ex-love life!
Looks like I’m always stuck in Park (or Neutral?).
Because it hasn’t been my day,
My week, my month, but it has been a lark!
(Thanks to my old ‘friends’, we got together this Summer and Fall for coffee at Central Perk, thought my wrists are a bit sore from holding those huge cups and my ears ringing from the creepy laugh track).
My time off has taught me, I’ll be there for you…I hope you’re there for me too!
Nobody Puts Bloggers in a Corner
Once upon a time, a woman began a blog; she had no idea what she was doing, but that had never stopped her before. Almost four years passed and she found blogging was just like life, only with fewer calories and even more emails.
1. Life and blogging are about choices. Good? Bad? Who knows, until you make them.
2. If you want chocolate, bacon, butter, donuts, cookies, cake https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/09/16/you-had-me-at-cake/ – go for it, but like in blogging, only so much before the clogging… https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/11/07/can-you-feel-the-blog-love-tonight/
3. The truth is always out there, whether it comes out or not, you’ll always know it can come out.
4. If you’re going to worry, make it worthwhile. On your deathbed I doubt you’ll be stressing out about if your toes look good in sandals, if you have the biggest house, fanciest car, most jewelry, and who you knew… https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/05/25/crapathy/
5. You’re not the only one. Find someone who also thinks they’re the only one – you might help each other.
6. Having a love affair with cake and cookies can be epic, like, movie epic. Then again, Titanic and Romeo and Juliet…Balance in all things.
7. Laundry is evil and like all evil it grows if you ignore it…even to blog.
8. Be selective how you’re giving your time, it’s the one thing you’ll never get back.
9. Let your imagination run away with you sometimes.
10. Be a superhero. You don’t need fancy gadgets like Batman, alien powers like Superman, Amazon (ish?) powers like Wonder Woman. No cool suits like Iron Man, Deadpool, or Spiderman…Nope. You just need to care. Be a friend. Be there. Help someone. In the blogworld, ‘Like’ their post. Share their post. Blogging is strange when you’re a stranger…get out there and show some #bloglove 
Saw Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (awesome, but I wasn’t as hooked on the soundtrack as the first one…I am Groot) – it made me want to run out and help the world. Had to rewatch Guardians of the Galaxy https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/04/10/im-hooked-on-a-feeling/ because, hey, Chris Pratt.
11. There’s enough hard stuff in the world and the blogworld, don’t add to it.
12. The worst crime that I ever did, besides listening to rock’n’roll (paraphrasing The Stranglers, with a giggle), was telling myself I wasn’t good enough; if I didn’t believe it, why the Hell else would anyone else?
13. People always say “quit whining”…why? Sometimes, in the midst of a good whine sometimes comes a flash of insight, a bolt of wisdom, a bombshell of brilliant. Again, moderation.
14. If you’re good at something, learn how to be good at it for others too. Have the Time of Your Life. I watched the TV version of Dirty Dancing…made me miss Patrick Swayze…and Jennifer Grey’s nose. Nobody puts bloggers in a corner! https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/09/05/ive-had-the-time-of-my-life/
15. Life goes around and around. Watching Twin Peaks: The Return – just as weird, but sadly, less playful https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/08/02/never-tear-us-apart/ – I’m reminded, you always look back through different eyes. My blog has something to tell you – when you get there, you’ll already be there.
16. You can lead a good life without TV, you can also lead a good life with TV – life doesn’t have to be back and white (TV taught me that).
17. Despite what you may have heard, ‘Grease’ is not the word, but neither are: ‘low-rise’, ‘low-carb’, ‘SEO’, ‘dirt jeans’, ‘alternative facts’, ‘influencer’…
18. Don’t be a wrecking ball (also don’t swing on one naked, you don’t want to become a meme, right Miley Cyrus? https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/08/27/blurred-miley-lines/ ). Try to leave things as good or better than you found them.
19. Watched Girlboss on Netflix, different, in a good way. Britt Robertson (Under The Dome, Life Unexpected, A Dog’s Purpose, etc.), plays charmingly frenetic Sophia. Produced by Charlize Theron https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/06/06/1-2-a-million-ways-to-die-in-the-west/ – based on an autobiography of Sophia Amoruso, an American businesswoman, who at 23 started an eBay store, Nasty Girl Vintage, which became multi-million dollar Nasty Girl. 
Also, Dean Norris (Breaking Bad https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/09/25/faux-ode-to-breaking-bad/ Under The Dome, X-Files https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/08/20/the-truth-is-still-out-there/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/01/15/5-ways-im-not-under-pressure/ 24, Grey’s Anatomy https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/19/greys-anatomy/ The Big Bang Theory – everything, does this man sleep?), Norm McDonald (SNL)… Reminded me of an important life/blog lesson, a lot of things can go wrong before, during, and after they go right. I loved how the two friends always said, “Love you, in case I die” to each other, negating that terrible thought, the regret, that if you lost someone they might not know you love them.
20. Gratitude is often misunderstood, you can be poor, sick, longing, grieving, hurting, waiting, low blog stats, and still be grateful. Be grateful. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/11/17/10-ways-to-be-grateful-even-on-bad-days/
I probably won’t be blogging much this summer, so Happy Birthday Canada https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/07/01/happy-canada-day-eh/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2017/04/28/well-cream-you-with-our-tim-hortons-donuts-you-hosers/ and America https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/07/04/happy-4th-of-july/
I’ll be here and there, dear readers…and love you, in case I die.
The Mother Of All Blogs
My best motherhood move? Making my son understand I’m flawed… seriously flawed. As is everyone. I wanted him to understand…
1. Not being perfect isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
2. No good deed goes unpunished, but do good deeds anyway, it will feel good.
3. You can’t get rid of something or someone until you’ve learned what it or they need to teach you.
4. Motherhood isn’t a club. We’re not all the same. We shouldn’t care or compare how someone else is being a Mom, do what’s best for your child or children.
5. We don’t really need a day, or a week, or a month, we need all people to be treated equally and respectfully. A woman isn’t instantly better because she has a child. We need just don’t one day where we get: flowers, diamonds, cards, ecards, buckets of chicken with recorded messages in the lid, spa treatments, edible arrangements… 
What we need a world where children are taught to treat others with dignity; who don’t see lying as a way of life and cheating as a lifestyle choice; and who think perception is more important than reality.
6. I barely remember what I had for breakfast most days, but Jimmy Kimmel is right, that moment when doctors/nurses look concerned about your baby, that’s a moment frozen in time.
Despite reading What To Expect When You’re Expecting and other books on pregnancy and motherhood, I never expected to be in the ER when my son was a month old, never expected to see him quarantined, full of wires and tubes, having a machine breathe for him while he artificially slumbered.
Not being a doctor (although I play one at home), I didn’t know what was wrong. I’d never heard of RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus, while common, for infants it can be dangerous, even fatal). Approximately 11 days in hospital (5 on a respirator, isolated with 24-7 private nurse care). I lived there – slept, ate, read to my son: Dr. Seuss, E.B. White, Maurice Sendak, Star Wars, Star Trek (might explain a lot), and more while amazing nurses, doctors, and staff helped my beautiful, tiny, once-and-future-King-of-the-Wild-Things heal. These memories still bring tears, some of pain, some of joy.
Family and friends were there for us (I can never thank you enough).
People often say not much else matters if you don’t have your health, I say, not much else matters if you don’t have your healthcare.
7. The Handmaid’s Tale might represent motherhood best of all. Margaret Atwood wrote this (although I bet she never foresaw the SNL version) as a cautionary tale, but there’s a more subtle message often lost, having a baby shouldn’t be about power, also, a woman’s worth isn’t tied to her fertility, she shouldn’t be treated better or worse because of it. Women and men should be treated with compassion, empathy, dignity, and kindness no matter their gender, fertility, status, race, religion, marital status, wealth, etc. People shouldn’t be rewarded for bullying, lying, cheating, controlling, subjugating…This latest adaptation (Hulu or Bravo or CraveTV) is addictive, mesmerizing; the cast is stunning, the tale chilling, eerie…if this is how we save the human race, is it worth saving?
8. How could anyone have a child if they watched Twin Peaks (Dual Spires for Psych fans)…because, the world is just like this show: weird, wonderful, strange, stunning, fascinating, frightening, and full of moments that will haunt you, and full of moments as sweet as cherry pie or donuts https://yadadarcyyada.com/2017/04/28/well-cream-you-with-our-tim-hortons-donuts-you-hosers/
We hear the nostalgic, evocative themes of the Twin Peaks… 
and The X-Files… 
Hmmm, maybe James Comey could get a new job on these reunion FBI dramas, after all, he knows FBI drama. 
The truth is out there? Remember, life isn’t all about what’s under the plastic, it’s about what happens before, during, and after and it’s up to us to make it wonderful, not horrible (take note Trump).
So as I drop this,
er, ummm,
Mother of all Blogs?
Happy Mother’s Day
to everyone…
not just mothers,
but people,
enjoy this day
and everyday.
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/05/09/happy-mothers-day-i-just-ate-your-gift/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/05/06/nothings-gonna-stop-us-now/
I have millions of reasons why I love my son. Reason #82: he wakes up singing or humming every day. I was thinking, we should all be so lucky to wake up that way.
We’ll Cream You With Our Tim Hortons Donuts, You Hosers!
What is the deal, America?
I thought we had an agreement.
We Canadians have tried to be polite neighbours; we’re kinda known for it.
I feel kinda let down. Canada has kept our part of the bargain, regularly offering up sacrificial talent to the USA volcano: Michael J. Fox, Ryan Reynolds, Jim Carrey, Dan Akroyd, Mike Myers, William Shatner https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/20/shatners-world-we-just-live-in-it/
Tricia Helfer, Alex Trebek, Lorne Michaels, Michael Bublé, Mary Pickford (yes, American’s sweetheart was Canadian), James Doohan, Elizabeth Arden, Joni Mitchell, Arcade Fire, Sandra Oh, Monty Hall, Michael Cera, Tommy Chong, Nathan Fillion https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/24/firefly/
Dave Foley, Yannick Bisson, Cobi Smulders, Wayne Gretzky, The Tragically Hip, Leslie Neilsen https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/11/04/airplane/ Rick Moranis, Seth Rogen, Neil Young, Margaret Atwood, Martin Short, Justin Bieber, Avril Lavigne, Peter Jennings, Rich Little, Morley Safer, Barenaked Ladies, Fay Wray…
Eugene Levy, Carrie-Ann Moss, Frank Gehry, Drake, Ryan Gosling https://yadadarcyyada.com/2017/03/09/heres-to-the-ones-who-dream/ Shania Twain, Joshua Jackson, Eric McCormack, Neve Campbell, Kiefer Sutherland, Donald Sutherland, Brendan Fehr, Joe Shuster, Margot Kidder…
Celine Dion, Glenn Ford, Ellen Page, Andrea Martin, Pamela Anderson, Catherine O’Hara, Leonard Cohen https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/10/10/ive-told-the-truth-i-didnt-come-to-fool-you/ Lorne Greene, John Candy, Will Arnett, BTO, Trailer Park Boys, The Guess Who, James Cameron, Dave Thomas, Paul Gross, and more…
Now we’re going to war? Over wood and dairy? Really?
Canadians forced to don our uniforms of toques and parkas, eh, and hoard rations of maple syrup, poutine, butter tarts, and beer for the battles! Ski-Doo Fleets! Canoe Armadas! We’ll cream you with our Tim Hortons donuts, you hosers!
Speak truth to power, tell the Emperor he’s not wearing any clothes, Oh Lord, I feel like scrubbing my mind of that horrifying orange image. How can you trust a guy that says he’s gonna pull out then doesn’t? Obviously talking about Trump pulling out of NAFTA here. 
Fighting with both your neighbours, Canada and Mexico, America, who’s the problem child? https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/07/04/happy-4th-of-july/
Canada isn’t known as the 51st state for nothing. Canada and America are BFFs, I thought it would be easier…to stay friends, well, except throwing shade during that nasty little war over 200 years ago, but Canada wasn’t even a country then, we’re only turning 150 this July 1st – Happy Birthday Canada! https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/07/01/happy-canada-day-eh/
Maybe you’d like us more if we added yet another Canadian superhero, say, to The Avengers? https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/05/02/the-avengers-age-of-oldtron/
How about Captain Concussion, a hockey player caught in a Gamma radiation blast from an experimental Zamboni (a real word, say it a few times, it’s fun).
Captain Concussion could use his superpowers to fight Iced Z, the Zamboni driver who got turned into an arch-villain during the blast and bring awareness to concussions. Stan Lee could show up selling beer and snacks at the hockey games. And we’ve got some groovy 70’s music too, how about a StarCanuckLord in the next Guardians of the Galaxy movie?
Come on, we’re trying, we elected a moderate-yoga-posing-legalizing-marijuana- -nonorange-hot Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau (not perfect, but seems like he’s actually part of the human race).
But it’s not enough, is it, America, I know, Blame Canada, we’re not a real country anyway (thanks South Park).
And France, you too? I gave you a pass on escargot, but frog legs – please, I’m a Kermit fan https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/09/17/on-the-right-track-muppets-they-were-sewn-that-way/. 
French is one of Canada’s official languages, some facsimile of English is the other. We have a whole French province, we love French Toast, French Fries, French cheese, Lord knows we drink more than our share of French wine…
France, you have the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Johnny Depp drinking living there (is there really another Pirates of the Caribbean movie, talk about not pulling out in time). 
Please don’t let Russia/Putin control your election like it did with the #Election2016 and #Brexit – aren’t you kinda notorious for revolutions against tyrants?
The same goes for upcoming elections in other countries, ie. Britain – you’ve given us so much, where would I start? Music, Monty Python, Doctor Who, Jane Austen, Star Wars filming there (May the Fourth be with you https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/05/04/may-the-4th-be-with-you/)…
We still accept endless visits from Prince Charles/Camilla when you know some prefer Kate Middleton, Prince William, Princess Charlotte, Prince George, and Prince Harry. We still have the Queen on our money.
Germany – Albert Einstein https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/02/iq/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/04/05/overwhelmed/ beer, Bach, bratwurst, Christmas trees, U2’s unhealthy obsession with Berlin, Beethoven…
New Zealand – Lord of the Rings and Flight of the Conchords, say no more. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/10/flight-of-the-conchords/
This hating on Canada by The White House will have ramifications for many. In Canada, we already pay more for most stuff than Americans do; now our dollar shrank, meaning we’ll pay even more for books (noooo!), food, shelter, clothes, medicine, and even, gasp, chocolate.
Canadians are, er, unique…
But America, won’t you please, please won’t you be my good neighbour again? I miss you. A lot.
Dancing In The Dark
“Making your way
in the world today
takes everything you’ve got.
Taking a break from
all your worries,
sure would help a lot.
Wouldn’t you like
to get away?
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody
knows your name,
and they’re always
glad you came.
You wanna be
where you can see,
our troubles are all the same….
You wanna go where everybody knows your name.” (Cheers)
Yup, that’s blogging in a nutshell – bloggers from around the world gathering at a local establishment to share our joys, sorrows, fears, woes, hopes, wisdom, jokes, dreams, and hopes.
And I get it, blogging isn’t curing cancer.
Blogging won’t solve devastating problems: world hunger, disease, poverty, climate change, drought, unemployment/underemployment, etc.
Blogging probably won’t overcome the horrors of: war, terrorism, racism, prejudice, sexism, crime…
It’s still not ok for WordPress to use bloggers as lab rats (it’s also not ok to use rats, or any living things as lab rats). I’m already in their bad books https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/03/26/why-i-will-never-be-freshly-pressed/ WordPress, change your motto, “If it ain’t broke, break it” to “Let it be”.
Step right up! Come and see! Things your eyes and ears won’t believe! Welcome to the blogging/internet circus!
See the clowns (only some are scary)!
See the boy raised by wolves (Trump wasn’t raised by wolves? I’d just assumed…).
See the living skeleton (Oops, sorry, that’s a model).
See the Spineless Wonders (we can overcome the lies…and stop using the Hitler card!).
See the bearded lady (The joys of menopause?).
See the Strong Man/Woman (Anyone who believes facts, not alternative facts).
See the trolls (Hired and those that do it for kicks).
Welcome to blogging, like dancing in the dark, while eating cotton candy with your toes on a Ferris Wheel, in the rain, as someone shoots darts at you. Are you ready bloggers, start blogging…
1. Blogging works best if you have a blog, if not, start a blog.
2. Write ‘posts’ aka string together a bunch of words you hope (desperately) make sense. Maybe add some images. TADA!
3. Don’t forget to add tags. Not skin tags or sales tags; tags letting people know what is in your post.
4. Think you’re done? Press the button (Not the red button!!!), the publish button. A crucial step, otherwise you’ll think your blog is very unpopular.
5. Big, bright, and beautiful! Way too much food! Rip-off games! Tunnels of Love! Dicey ‘rides’! Mistreated animals (so wrong)! Chocolate-covered everything! Haunted Houses! Welcome to the Circus Internet Maximus!
6. You’re so vain, you probably think this post is about you. Don’t stress, readers won’t always get it or agree. You have choices: keep going, change, or stop.
7. Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Blogger’s Doors…Interact, comment, like, share on social media: Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, Reddit…
8. Forget all the advice you’ve heard, only you know what works for you.
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/04/10/im-hooked-on-a-feeling/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/08/27/message-in-a-bottle/
April is Autism Awareness month. I’m lucky to be the Mom of an amazing son (also happens to have Autism/Asperger’s). I sincerely believe most people are ‘aware’ of Autism by now.
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/03/20/take-your-time-hurry-up/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/04/02/15-things-im-aware-of-on-world-autism-awareness-day/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/08/18/neurodiversity-now/
Disagreements swirl and rip around Autism, causes and treatments, but what we need, for everyone in the world, is compassion, hope, and engagement.
In the blogworld as in the real world, our choices are many, let’s make good choices, not just on Earth Day, but everyday.
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/04/22/all-the-ways-im-told-im-stupid-everyday/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/09/23/every-breath-you-take/
So come have some happy times in these seemingly unhappy times, where everybody knows your name…Cheers to dancing in the dark!
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2017/01/06/im-not-inclined-to-resign-to-maturity/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/09/16/you-had-me-at-cake/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/06/10/cant-you-just-pretend-to-be-nice/
Sometimes, you just have to run away to the circus...or your local blog.
The Wonder of You
Sometimes, trying to write, or trying to blog, I think, it’s all been done. Is there anything new under this sun or any other? This world is old, ancient, instead of getting discouraged that it’s all been done, why not be inspired? What piece can we add to the puzzle of flesh and blood? Why not add to the delicious soup of humanity?
1. Imagine the caveman/cavewoman who invented the wheel, thinking, “Aggh, me done, no more wheel”. Our ancestors roasting a woolly mammoth s’more over the first fire, “Fire good. No more. Been done”.
2. Remember the first song you heard? Did you think, no need to hear any more music.
3. First joke? You laughed and thought, did that, no need to laugh anymore.
4. Can there ever be enough smiles? Enough laughter? Enough joy?
5. First kiss? Wow. Checked that off your list.
6. Watched the first episode of a series, enjoyed it, too bad you won’t watch the next episodes. Watched your first movie, no need for a second.
7. Tasted chocolate once and never again? The horror! The horror!
8. Imagine if the first blog post ever posted never lead to more? If the first blog post you read was the only?
9. What if no one wrote more books because, what else could they possibly add? No more books that make you: smile, cry, cringe, laugh, ponder, hope, fear, flinch, surrender, suffer, wallow, leap for joy, Breakfast Club fist pump, stay up late (just one more page, one more chapter…).
10. I wouldn’t have cracked the cover of Atonement, Tennessee https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/10/03/sweet-dreams-are-made-of-this/ by Teagan Ríordáin Geneviene https://teagansbooks.com 
What a loss, since I’ve read it again and again, then bought the ebook, taking the magic mobile (same goes for her The Three Things Serial Story: A Little 1920s Story https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/12/15/the-cats-pajamas-birthday-party/ ).
Teagan is a brilliant author/blogger – though I’ve never met her and she doesn’t pay me, I just feel like Anne of Green Gables, that we’re kindred souls, dear friends (another example, picture your first friend, did you think, no need to have more of those? The human heart is like the TARDIS, it’s bigger on the inside, infinite, and full of memories, twists and turns, but alive with wonder).
11. Never would’ve bothered to read D.G. Kaye’s ebooks – a writer who invites you in with a smile. Her style? Allegedly non-fiction/memoir, to me, it feels more heartmemoir; I, for one, am thankful she’s brave and generous enough to share. Is it wrong when I first read the title of D.G. Kaye’s book, Have Bags, Will Travel I thought about the bags under my eyes? Then tea bags? Clearly, I don’t travel much. 
Courage is needed to take about subjects like: menopause, aging, and abuse and skill to make them memorable. Words We Carry; Meno-What? A Memoir: Memorable Moments of Menopause; Conflicted Hearts: A Daughter’s Quest for Solace from Emotional Guilt; P.S. I Forgive You…Debby’s books, like her blog, are the opposite of fake, they’re straightforward, sincere – you’ll laugh, cry, nod in understanding, ponder, wonder, smile, and mostly, you will breathe – can you ask more from the books you read?
www.dgkayewriter.com
12. What, another book of short stories? If I thought that I wouldn’t have read Glimpses by Hugh W. Roberts; I’d have missed out on tales that transported me above, beyond, and beneath life as we think we know it. In the grand tradition of Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Outer Limits, Glimpses draws us into the shadows of life and makes us remember, what we know isn’t nearly as important as what we don’t know.
https://hughsviewsandnews.com/
13. I’d never have tagged along with:
#SundayBlogShare – Suzie https://suzie81speaks.com/
Or #MondayBlogs http://badredheadmedia.com/
Or #LinkYourLife http://honeyquill.com/ https://otvmagazine.com/
14. I’d never have stopped by linky parties: #BloggersPitSop https://www.kathleenaherne.com/the-blog/
or #FridayFrivolity
http://syncopatedmama.blogspot.ca/
http://www.babiafi.co.uk/
http://munofore.com/
or #TrafficJamWeekend http://beingawordsmith.com/
or other blogging treasures.
15. Or never read An Insider’s Guide to Building a Successful Blog, from the creator of Mostly Blogging, Janice Wald http://www.mostlyblogging.com/ Familiar to me as an avid groupie follower of Janice’s informative and fun (go to her online parties, you’ll see) blog, but I found, altogether, in book form was even further enlightening.
16. I wouldn’t have discovered Danny’s determined desire to promote bloggers; when Danny says he Dreams Big, Dreams Often you can believe it. https://dreambigdreamoften.co/
17. I would’ve missed out on the heart and humour of Cher (not the hair flippy one, although she’s awesome too), a Canadian now living in Chicago. She’s been a constant companion. Check out her blog https://thechicagofiles.wordpress.com/ including her upcoming interview with Chris Murphy from Canada’s The Weather Network, like the weather, he’s funny and unpredictable (or is he? We’ll see). Update: here’s the post https://thechicagofiles.wordpress.com/2017/04/09/twns-chris-murphy-presenter-of-all-kinds-of-weather/ What if your first sunrise had been your last? Your first rainbow, your only? The first kiss of the sun, the gentle brush of the wind on your cheek, the moon rising full of promise, the tides tugging at your toes…no more.
18. I’d have missed zany Maine writing dynamos, Austin https://moviewriternyu.wordpress.com/ and David https://davidforbesbrown.wordpress.com/ (Stephen King hasn’t attacked them with: monsters, crazed townsfolk, murdery clowns, scalpel-wielding children, rabid dogs, or demented cars…yet, there is something supernatural and I’m their #1 fan); both write for The Nite Show with Danny Cashman and have extended their talents to other projects – they give good funny.
19. I never would have found:
– David, who puts a smile on my face and a song in my heart:
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/10/09/you-may-say-im-a-dreamer/
https://barsetshirediaries.wordpress.com/
– Chris the Story Reading Ape (who doesn’t monkey around) https://thestoryreadingapeblog.com/
– The Hook, one the blogging wonders of the world (ironically living near another wonder of the world, Niagara Falls). Get hooked https://youvebeenhooked.wordpress.com/
– Sally Cronin, a blogging goddess who tenaciously grows authors and bloggers in her blogging garden. https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/
– Susie – Come for the Adventure, stay for the ride – her tagline says it all. https://susielindau.com/
– Aquileana – giving us her grace and our Greek mythology fix https://aquileana.wordpress.com/
– Jonathan Caswell, chugging along in a diverse, delightful direction, never derailing. https://bythemightymumford.wordpress.com/
– Jason, an Opinionated Man, unyieldingly keeping WordPress on its virtual toes, entertaining, and helping bloggers find each other in this giant virtual haystack. https://aopinionatedman.com/
– Rob, whose art and courage makes me: well up, envy up, and inspire up. https://robertmgoldstein.com/
– Tess, reminding us that with words, less can be more (should have remembered that here, but hard to contain all this talent). https://letscutthecrap.wordpress.com/
20. This list could literally go on for days, don’t dare me…
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/12/08/dear-santa-i-can-explain/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/10/28/monster-meet-and-greet-mash/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/06/10/cant-you-just-pretend-to-be-nice/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/01/24/take-it-easy/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/03/22/walking-on-sunshine-blog-hop-will-there-be-sunny-bunnies/
All of me blog-loves all of you with your blog-curves and all your blog-edges with your perfect imperfections. This is my blog love letter to all my readers. I want you all, dear readers, to continue this with me. Show the world the wonder of you…start by sharing your wonder in the comment box below – leave info and/or links to your blog or posts, social media links, links to other bloggers you love. One link per comment, come back as often as you like, there’s no time limit on fun.
Get out there, don’t compare.
It’s all been done?
Not by you.
Wishing all an eggs-cellent Easter!
7 Ways To Survive Your Kitchen
The sun set; dusk fell on the shelf, and lights began to appear along the stove. That which blends, so held, in hand or all alone, such power, to mix, to mash, to merge, to fuse, once individual, now as one, together. The upper reaches, the place of monstrous leftovers, marked ominously with a date, huddle in the brooding gloom of fridge light, mocked by the enticing garish glare of magnet cradled take-out flyers.
“And this,” she noted suddenly, “has to be one of the dark places of the earth.”
In the static of their surroundings, the slightly scornful pots, pans, knives and other pointy things lurked, growled their promise, ready to play the food game.
She doggedly tried to follow the medically suggested diet; the worst that could be said of her was she wanted to believe.
Food is not for the faint of heart, it beckons, it bubbles, it boils, it brews, it even burns...Food, as perplexing as the definition of fake news. My food feelings? Let’s just say, my kitchen and me, we’re officially changing our relationship status to, “It’s complicated”.
Let’s Play – 7 Ways To Survive Your Kitchen!!!
1. Have your recipes, like blog posts and/or synopsis ready – in your head, online, or written down. Have all your ingredients out first, nothing worse than being halfway through and notice you’re not rising to the occasion.
2. Cooking is time-consuming, like blogging, like writing, like life itself, but if you clean up as you go, it’s easier. Try baking soda and vinegar – ecofriendly, frugal, and together they’re an explosive combination, seriously you can make a volcano while cleaning. Don’t forget to snap on your rubber gloves and clean that dirty, dirty oven. Maybe you’ll have naughty dreams about kitchens – hot, steamy dreams about someone else cooking/cleaning for you, oh yeees!!!
3. Tempted by takeaway/takeout, fast food, even processed foods? Remind yourself it’s bad for your waist and wallet. Same goes for blogging, fast and processed, you can get that anywhere, isn’t it better to go for the real thing.
4. Easter is an egg-cellent time to dye eggs, naturally, with family, friends (even imaginary ones), and furfriends. Then you can still eat them, the eggs, not family, friends, or furfriends. Is your egg a good egg? Fill a bowl with water. Gently place “suspicious” egg in the bowl. Does the egg stay on the bottom sideways – a good egg! Does it stand up, but lean drunkenly to the side – still good, but better really a pickled egg. Stands straight up, still ok, but use, like right now. Floating? A bad egg (cue the Veruca Salt song from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory). I am the maker of merriment, the dreamer of dreams (in case you were away https://yadadarcyyada.com/2017/03/09/heres-to-the-ones-who-dream/).
5. Beware The Pointies! It seems like kitchen gadgets, utensils, tools, gizmos, appliances, etc. are designed to somehow maim, mangle, or even murder those innocently trying to cook.
Kitchens are deathtraps. Be safe.
6. Lettuce us celebrate cooking! Like blogging, writing, social media, friendships, relationships, work, and life in general, it can be a time-eater. Orange you glad we didn’t make a big dill about this game? Romaine calm, even if you feel like you’re playing ketchup with all the relish you can mustard. Just beet it and spaghetti out of here.
7. Life is like a paper bag…You just never know when you need to cover, conceal, meltdown, carry, ripen (seriously easy way to ripen your avocados, bananas, apples, tomatoes, etc.), and you really never know when you’re going to need a puppet. Be ready.
Oh life, it’s bigger
It’s bigger than you (doesn’t feel like it on a bloat day)
And you are not me (not even on a bloat day)
The lengths that I will go to,
the chocolate that adds to my thighs
Oh no, I’ve ate too much
I didn’t eat enough?
That’s me in the corner
That’s me in the spotlight
Losing my willpower….
I thought that I heard you baking
I thought that I heard you grill
I think I thought I saw you fry
Consider this
Consider this, a hint of cake and cookies
Consider this, the stroganoff
That brought me to my knees
That was just a dream
Try, cry, why try
That was just a dream
Just a food dream
Just a food dream
Well, dear readers, do you want to keep playing? Awesome, then tell me your: food battles, food love affairs, diets, tips, advice, recipes.
I’d like to thank those who inspired the game: food, Joseph Conrad, Martin Sheen, R.E.M., Liam Neeson – I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for onions or garlic, I can’t have them. But I do have are a very peculiar set of skills, skills I have acquired over years of cooking…
Here’s to the Ones Who Dream
Now this is a story about how
My life flipped-turned upside down…
I’ll even tell the story without a crown.
In Ontario, Canada born and raised
On the internet spending too much of my days
Chillin’ out maxin’ relaxin’ all cool
In a writing/life slump, not cool, fool
I begged and pleaded with myself day after day
Still I packed my mental suitcase and sent me on my way.
I gave me a kiss and then gave me my ticket.
I put my Walkman on and said, “I might as well kick it.”
I pulled up to yet another chapter of my life
And yelled, “Yo world smell ya later.”
I understood completely, in La La Land, when Ryan Gosling/Sebastian explains he’s letting life hit him on the head, over and over, until life exhausts itself. How many of us feel beaten down by life, chasing a dream, and sometimes looking at our feet when we dance (physically and metaphorically)?
In all seriousness, as I watched La La Land I wanted to dance and I cried as Emma Stone/Mia sang, “Here’s to the ones who dream. Foolish, as they may seem. Here’s to the hearts that ache. Here’s to the mess we make….So bring on the rebels. The ripples from pebbles…” – I can’t help myself, I’m one of those who dream, foolish as it may seem – as the movie ended I wanted to watch it again and again.
But we can’t live our lives in theaters, on our phones, on vacation, online, pretending to be safe. Life can be terrifying; we’re not in control. How can we feel safe when we lose loved ones, when cancer viciously attacks, when money and power trump logic and reason, when affordable housing is scarce, when the ruling class lacks class and common sense, when people worship that ruling class and celebrities, when crime and terrorism are more lucrative that real jobs, when your own brain (cotton-headed ninnymuggin hypothalamus) turns on you…and so on and so on.
1. Some folks are upset that Disney’s live action version of Beauty and the Beast starring Emma Watson (Harry Potter), Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/11/20/i-want-a-round-home-or-the-staff-of-downton-abbey/), Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility, Nanny McPhee, Harry Potter, Love Actually), Luke Evans (The Hobbit), Josh Gad (Frozen https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/08/23/frozen-in-summer/), Ewan McGregor (Star Wars, Trainspotting, Big Fish https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/04/24/big-fish/) has an openly gay character, whatever that means, there’s way more stuff with openly heterosexual characters, are gay people upset by that? Whatever.
A) The candlestick, Lumière was on my gaydar, in the original, I mean, he was on fire.
B) Who cares/why do people care/it’s about time.
C) Is no one worried about the more disturbing aspects of Belle and The Beast’s relationship, you know, the enslavement, the furry love, etc.?
Personally I was more worried the remake of Beauty and The Beast would be Donald and Melania Trump story. Gross.
2. Mystified by the real world, I escaped into the fake.
Lovely to see Agatha Raisin join Miss Marple, Jessica Fletcher, Miss Fisher, Nancy Drew, Hannah Swensen and more onscreen https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/05/25/crapathy/ with hilarious results, ok, murder shouldn’t be funny, but it’s not real, right? On the page M.C. Beaton makes Agatha’s life sassy, silly, and killy , but onscreen Ashley Jensen really brings Agatha to life.
Finally saw The Accidental Husband, a kooky romcom starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Colin Firth, Uma Thurman, Isabella Rossellini, and Sam Shepard. Got to be honest, after watching Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan in Season 7 of The Walking Dead, I struggled to see him as a romantic leading man again, I keep expecting him to whip out his, er…Lucille. I got over it.
3. I get it, people lie.
House (Hugh Laurie) would tell you “Everybody lies”.
Maybe we all do, in a way.
People have been lying to me all my life:
“I’ll always be here.”
“You’ll use Trigonometry.”
“You can never have too many friends.”
“If the rich make money it will trickle down.”
“Everything will be ok.”
No.
Never.
Yes, you can, have you been in Facebook?
No, it won’t.
Depends what you mean by ok.
4. When someone begins a sentence:
“Let me be clear…”
“At the end of the day…”
“No offence…”
“Believe me….”
hmmm, that sentence will be about as realistic as Riverdale (teen angst Twin Peaks meets Archie comics complete with Josie and the Pussycats
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/06/10/cant-you-just-pretend-to-be-nice/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/08/09/i-miss-saturday-morning-cartoons/). I really do miss Saturday morning cartoons…
5. Finding Dory reminded me:
A) In this mixed-up world, kindness and compassion are still important
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2017/01/06/im-not-inclined-to-resign-to-maturity/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/02/20/compassion-never-goes-out-of-style/
B) People with disabilities can be vulnerable, be kind.
C) Disabilities aren’t the end of the world, you can still be happy, it’s just a matter of finding your way.
D) Always remember, home and family are wherever your heart is, really.
Sorry I’ve been gone so long, I’m trying to jump out of my slump, until then, I’m not the Fresh anything of anything, but here’s to the ones who dream (for St. Patrick’s Day https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/03/14/go-ahead-make-my-st-patricks-day/ here’s to the ones who dream in green)…it’s never as foolish as it may seem.
There’s No Crying In Blogging!
I’m just a girl. Standing in
front of her readers. Asking them to love me…well, love my blogging. Changing times, uncertain times, confusing times, trying times, for the world and even for blogging. Just as truth and facts are going “out of style”, so is blogging apparently. Reality seems to be a thing of the past – we don’t lie anymore, we tell alternative facts; we don’t blog anymore, we influence.
Sigh, not all change is good.
1. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful blog friendship.
Of all the blog joints, in all the towns, in all the world, you walked into my blog…Thank you.
2. In blogging no one can hear you scream.
Blog posts hit the blogosphere with a resounding splash or a deafening crash. Either way, if you did your best, move on to the next.
3. I see blog people.
I see blog people. How often do you see them? Every time I open my email! I love your posts, but there can be too much of a good thing and my inbox turns into a horror story (and I don’t have time to read them). Deep breaths – if I keep doing beginnings, the end will visit me eventually.
4. I’m big, it’s the blogs who got small!
Readers won’t always ‘get’ you, or agree, your jokes might fall flatter than a pancake on Pancake Tuesday https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/02/17/well-always-have-pancakes/ Offended, appalled, argumentative, mean, shocked, non-facty, and downright grumpy – welcome to the internet!
5. There’s no crying in blogging!
In blogging and life, you might sometimes feel like crying, but it just makes your eyes puffy and your keyboard drippy. On a side note, there will be crying if you go to experience Manchester By The Sea, pretty sure it was secretly sponsored by Kleenex. I’m not big on awards, but this movie and Casey Affleck, Lucas Hedges, and Michelle Williams should get a bunch anyway. One of the best movies I’ve ever seen, so real I forgot I was watching a movie, I felt like I was there; it hurt and healed, just as life hurts and heals. Just thinking about it, there is crying in blogging.
6. I’m going to make you a blog offer you can’t refuse.
Follow my blog. I dare you. I double dog dare you to ‘like’ my post. Share blog posts you enjoy so others can enjoy them as well. So shines a good deed in a weary blogging world.
7. That’ll do, bloggers. That’ll do.
Simplicity, honesty, heart-wrenching love, and singing mice, Babe https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/12/22/babe/ reminds us of those moments in friendships, relationships, blogging, work, loss, leisure, love, when you know, you just know, that’ll do, that’ll do.
8. You make me want to be a better blogger.
I hope people like my blogging as is, not as they want it to be, but I don’t want to bang out whatever, just to say I posted something, so, you make me want to be a better blogger. Thank you.
9. Frankly, my dears, I don’t give a blog.
Your life is a story – drama, comedy, romance, apocalyptic dystopian nightmare – it may not be a bestseller, but get out there and live it like tomorrow isn’t another day!
10. I wish I knew how to quit you, blogging.
Time, money, energy, lack of response, no one beating down my door to make me rich and famous (I’d settle for MCM – moderately comfortable monetarily), all reasons, after almost 4 years of blogging I think of quitting, often. Yet I keep coming back, why, days counted less in numbers, more in heartbeats of community, contact, and comfort.
11. You’re going to need a bigger blog.
One size never fit all. Whether you watch The Super Bowl, The Puppy Bowl, The Zombie Bowl, The Kitten Bowl, or just make yourself a bowl of soup (or no soup for you!), do what you think works for you, in life and blogging. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/02/01/lazy-super-bowl-sundae/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/09/08/dear-luke-we-need-to-talk-darth/ Blog advice can be so definite – what if you’re already doing what they say and it isn’t working, what then?
12. Dude, where’s my blog?
So many blogs, so little time. How do you get others to find your blog? Social media? Yes! Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Instagram, share and attend awesome blog parties and linky parties, a great way to meet and greet other bloggers.
13. The Blogging Game.
One word, one sentence, one post, one book, one show, one movie, one moment can change a life forever. Play at your own risk.
14. What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.
People may not have read the books you review or watched the TV shows or movies you watch; your readers may not share your political or lifestyle views; don’t travel or want to; don’t have any interest in your recipes, children, or pets…the list goes on. Get busy blogging, don’t over think it.
15. Blog On, Blog Off.
Even Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid would agree, there are different blogging styles, rhythms, and choices. First learn to blog, then learn to fly.
16. I love the smell of blogging in the morning.
The best thing about blogging? Other bloggers and readers. Take time to stop and smell the blogging.
17. Your golden blogging ticket
Blog like there’s nobody reading in your world of pure imagination.
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/04/10/im-hooked-on-a-feeling/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/08/27/message-in-a-bottle/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/09/26/the-phantom-of-the-blogging-tips/
18. If you blog it they will come.
Content, content analysis, stats, SEO and other blogging resources probably won’t magically get you a viral monster cult following. Even if it does, readers can be fickle…
19. Why don’t you come up and read me some time?
The number one rule of The Blog Club? Have a blog and never, never stop talking about it, be a shameless social media self-promoting bloghussy, like me!
Where I’m a complete twit: https://twitter.com/yadadarcyyada
Where I’m endlessly baffled by humanity: https://www.facebook.com/yadadarcyyada
The desert where I wander: http://www.pinterest.com/dpark2/
Where I google, not nearly as fun as it sounds: https://plus.google.com/112672588892199127381/posts
20. Today I consider myself to be luckiest blogger on the face of the earth…
I started blogging to relax, resurrect my love of writing, and to be rich/famous – close to 600 posts, 225,000 plus views, 12,000 ‘followers’ later, well, at least I’ve reignited my love of writing.
21. Tell ’em to go out there with all they got and win just one for the bloggers.
Blogging, like politics can be a popularity contest. If you lie to be popular, to get what you want, then what you want isn’t what you need, i.e., you need chocolate, but you shouldn’t lie to get it…begging is a different story.
22. We’ll always have blogging.
Life and blogging can feel like our own personal Groundhog Day https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/02/02/groundhog-day/ – whether we see our own shadow or not, whether it repeats until we learn something or not, I Got You, Bloggers and Readers…we’ll always have blogging.
Self-Diagnostic…Buffering
1. Support. From family, friends, groups, or bras – support is important. Why? We all have saggy moments, even the world. I admit to feeling shaken and stirred – maybe it’s just too much time in the shallow end, I feel surrounded by ‘s’ words…
2. Salt. People have been using it for like 10,000 years, slightly longer than I’ve been alive. As a baby I had a saltlick in my crib. I wander the streets following salt trucks. I envy cats, dogs, and giraffes – they can freely lick humans for salt. I know it’s bad for me…my precious. I’m slowly desalting.
3. Selling. Everything seems to be for and/or on sale now. The new genius? Stephen Hawking selling cars.
4. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. One word review: Why? Just move on – Wonder Woman, Aquaman…just move on.
5. Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart. I have so many questions about their Potluck Dinner Parties. Who’s their demographic? Who’s made most uncomfortable watching this?
6. Sorry. Never too late to say sorry, or is it, you decide. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/06/10/cant-you-just-pretend-to-be-nice/
7. Stupid. A lifestyle for some. We hate feeling stupid, it’s one of the top reasons we won’t admit to making mistakes. We can learn. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/08/28/is-the-dream-still-alive/
8. Self. With a silent ‘ish’? https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/03/04/dear-me-sitting-here-talking-to-me/
9. Sugar. We broke up by text last week then it sent me sugar roses and chocolates, so we’re still together, but seeing less of each other.
10. Stress. Yes. And plenty of it. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/11/11/social-media-can-be-flat-most-humans-are-3d/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/05/25/crapathy/
Squirrel! Sorry, what were we talking about?
11. Sherlock. Enjoying the twisting labyrinth of Sherlock’s mind, the villainous machinations of his enemies, the long-suffering humour of Watson, then, it’s over again. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/03/13/sherlock/
12. Sense and Sensibility (and Seamonsters?). I think it’s about time to Jane Austen myself silly. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/02/14/20-movies-to-avoid-on-a-first-date/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/08/02/never-tear-us-apart/
13. Sarcasm. An oft misunderstood art form.
14. Superheroes. Supernatural. My Spidey senses tell me we can all be heroes, even superheroes. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/04/15/well-be-counting-scars/
15. Self-publishing. Haven’t tried this yet, but want to. Been writing and reading – I see a book review post in the future, until then https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/12/15/the-cats-pajamas-birthday-party/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2017/01/06/im-not-inclined-to-resign-to-maturity/
16. Scared. Silly. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/09/16/you-had-me-at-cake/
17. Sad. Nothing wrong with being sad sometimes. Being happy or acting like it all the time doesn’t make everything ok. Today is Blue Monday, apparently the most depressing day of the year (I think Friday will ‘trump’ Monday a million times over). https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/01/19/blue-monday-being-depressed-on-schedule/ Lots of cool blue things, lalalalalala Smurf a happy song…
18. A Series of Unfortunate Events. First, staggeringly stunning books by Lemony Snicket (sounds like a real name)…Then a cool movie – I bet Meryl Streep can think of way more unfortunate events nowadays…Presently, a quirky, impertinent series starring Neil Patrick Harris and Patrick Warburton. I’m so desperately happy it’s so desperately sad?
19. Saturday. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/08/09/i-miss-saturday-morning-cartoons/ Sunday. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/02/01/lazy-super-bowl-sundae/ Smonday. All superb days of any week.
20. Simplicity. Striving to live simply, in the here and now – with all manner of stuff https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/02/14/who-loves-ya-baby/
While my self-diagnostic is buffering and it continues…What are your favourite ‘s’ words and why?
I’m Not Inclined To Resign To Maturity
How do I stay positive in a negative world? I’m positive I’ve had brushes with cynicism, brief flings with pessimism, but lately I’ve been feeling less, I don’t know, less confident in the positive aspects of life. In days past, I thought being positive and honest was doing the right thing.
I somehow believed being positive and honest would help me have a ‘good life’, it would make me ‘happy’, maybe even help others have a ‘good life’, but society keeps screaming at me that I’ve got it all wrong. And the screams are getting louder every day.
Dishonest people get what they want.
Greedy people get what they want.
Narcissistic people get what they want.
At least it seems that way.
Maybe I’m over thinking this, being too adult, too mature, maybe Steve Franks got it right in the Psych (best TV series ever or pretty close) theme song, “I’m not inclined to resign to maturity”. If what I saw in the past few years is adulting, then I see why: video games, smartphones, fast food, onesies, drones, vacations, etc. are so popular – they make us feel like children again.
Speaking of feeling like a child, while I still have Netflix for free and returned to Stars Hollow to catch up on Gilmore girls Resurrected (isn’t that the title, it should be).
When I started watching Gg, in 2000, the world was a really different place.
It hadn’t been completely invaded by smartphones, fake news, and lattes – people still talked to each other, only had semi-fake news, and drank basic legal stimulants, er, coffee…
Seven seasons of Gg…still going? Thanks, charming-fast-talkers-narcissistical-wholesome-spend-the-GDP-of-a-small-country-on-food-emotion-stringtuggers who make me feel hungry and slightly brain hurty.
Brain hurt aside, I don’t want to drink the Objectivism koolaid https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/08/29/the-pursuit-of-happiness-cult/
It revived the ghosts of TV past and present (dare I hope, future?): Smallville, Roswell, Buffy, Charmed, Jared Padalecki – portrayed Dean in Gilmore Girls, later plays Sam in Supernatural, with his brother, Dean played by Jensen Ackles, hmmm, I’m confused https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/08/26/supernatural-impala/
So, oops, I watched it again…
Apocalyptic/fantasy/historical books, movies, and TV shows are sooo popular: Hunger Games; DoctorWho; Colony; The Matrix; Vikings; Westworld; Grimm; Sleepy Hollow; Game Of Thrones; The Walking Dead; Terminator; Supernatural; Revolution; The Last Man on Earth; Z Nation; Aftermath (you get the point).
Worlds in these books, movies, and TV shows are full of horrible things, really horrible things, but…less consumerism, fewer people arguing over everything and not seeing other people’s points of view, less obvious fakeness, no smart phone dependency, and pimped out coffee – I can learn to handle a crossbow or find someone else who can handle one.
My New Year’s resolutions just begging to be broken…
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Avoid foods that make me feel sluggish, ill, regretful, sigh, oops I ate it again.
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Stop celebrating birthdays. This birthday made me feel my mortality – or was it watching long lists of celebrities who died in 2016, hmmm, I’m far from a celebrity, so I’m probably ok, for now.
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Less watching shows like Van Helsing (the series); it’s good, if you like apocalyptic world orders where life is drained out of people – since Trump was elected POTUS and hacking in general (Russia in particular) is a cool thing now, I’m guessing the answer is a big fat juicy ‘yes’!
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Don’t smirk when I hear stupid or bizarre things, ie. birthday platitudes like, “Your best years are ahead of you”. Really? Saying I’m in midlife wasn’t unrealistic enough? Unless I win a super-duper lottery, and/or get a 50 book publishing deal, https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/06/21/how-to-get-your-book-published/ and/or start dating David Tennant or James Roday (at the same time?), my best years are years I can only remember (what I can remember). And when people tempt fate at New Year when they say next year couldn’t be any worse (especially this year). Really?
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Live my life with more passion, don’t give in to FOMO https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/11/08/is-everyone-hanging-out-without-me/ and never run out of Windex, wait, that might all have to do with watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.
I know, you know…
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I doubt my purpose in life depends on being happy all the time https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/09/20/if-i-had-a-million-dollars/
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I doubt I’d be filled with bliss if #FreshlyPressed (certainly not after the post I wrote, oops, how bridge burny of me) https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/03/26/why-i-will-never-be-freshly-pressed/
How could you not Freshly Press this face? -
I doubt I’ll be hopped up on unmitigated glee at being the best paid blogger in the world (like to try). https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/08/27/message-in-a-bottle/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/04/10/im-hooked-on-a-feeling/
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Positive or not, I’m going to ignore aches/pains, lack of millions (coupons and sales rule!), lack of sleep https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/11/17/follow-your-dreams-go-to-bed/ and other icky life problems. I resolve to give and receive kindness, unabashedly; grab that imaginary oxygen mask on that imaginary plane, breathe in, breathe out, and be as happy as I want to be.
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I’m going to enjoy giving and receiving laughter.
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Enjoy the pineapple.
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Enjoy the music.
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Enjoy the books.
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Enjoy time with family and friends (in person or online).
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Enjoy the cake and cookies.
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Enjoy movies and TV shows.
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Enjoy snow or sun or rain.
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Enjoy smiles.
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Who knows what I’ll gain (Friends, followers? Followers who become friends?).
Welcome to 2017, go out and be!
The Cat’s Pajamas Birthday Party
Resistance can suck. It’s draining to be straining, pulling this way and that, feeling like you’re going nowhere, fast…I’m trying to think of it as a chance to build emotional muscles. Note the word ‘trying’. I guess I could also think of it as The Facts of Life or Growing Pains (RIP Alan Thicke, I’ll never get the TV themes you wrote out of my head).
I’m trying to resist the siren call of Netflix (note the word ‘trying’ again). Christmas movies/specials (even I can OD on those) and politics dominate the tube (don’t even get me started); most shows are taking a holiday break – Z Nation, Westworld, The Walking Dead…
…so I’m reading.
It’s a busy time of year and if you’re still looking for Christmas gifts I can help https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/12/18/these-arent-the-gifts-youre-looking-for/
With an emphasis on the gift of reading. New, almost new, new to you, gently used, regifted – books bought from wherever, or a gift certificate or e-certificate for books or ebooks. While it might be difficult to resist the bestseller list, why not try some indie authors, they’re the cat’s pajamas, remember, best-selling doesn’t mean it’s the best book. Shop local and/or shop within your blogging community. Buy from the author or go on Amazon (dot whatever your country) and look up some of these authors – ebooks download in a flash.
Many indie authors are also bloggers, like Teagan Riordain Geneviene, https://teagansbooks.com a skillful storyteller who’ll keep you chained to your book/ereader/smartphone/tablet/laptop for hours with her brilliant books, Atonement, Tennessee (https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/10/03/sweet-dreams-are-made-of-this/ – my copy is so well-read it looks ancient) and The Three Things Serial Story: A Little 1920s Story which began as an interactive serial, readers/bloggers gave suggestions, three things each which were woven into the story. I just finished re-reading it and it’s the cat’s meow, as swanky and entertaining as I remember.
Make sure you drop by Teagan’s blog, I’ve heard rumours of a 1920s blog party https://teagansbooks.com/2016/12/16/1920s-party-three-things-serial-story/ – Silks and Bathtub gin will be flowing…
In keeping with the Roaring 20s, I saw Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, from the J.K. Rowling book. I shared part of my about-to-expire-gift-certificate-for-two, since I went alone,with an older couple – see how easy it is to spread more Christmas cheer? I loved the Hidden Figures, Wonder Woman, and King Arthur previews and the movie itself brought back the wonder, the magic of early Harry Potter books/movies.
There are bloggers who never fail put a smile on the face of those who visit his blogs, like David, an author and a Lord:
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/10/09/you-may-say-im-a-dreamer/
https://barsetshirediaries.wordpress.com/
And so many more:
Tess https://letscutthecrap.wordpress.com/
John http://www.johnhowell.com
Mary https://maryjdresselbooks.com/
Debby http://dgkayewriter.com/
Sally https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/
Olga http://authortranslatorolga.com/
Ned https://nedhickson.com/
Mary http://www.marysmith.co.uk/
Arthur https://pouringmyartout.com/
Janice http://www.mostlyblogging.com
Cynthia https://cynthiasreyes.com/
Luccia https://lucciagray.com/
Hugh https://hughsviewsandnews.com/
And bloggers helping authors and bloggers, like the delight ladies of #BloggersPitStop:
https://www.kathleenaherne.com/the-blog/
http://www.mostlyblogging.com/
http://coachdebbieruns.com/
http://www.pkjulesworld.com/
Everyone over at #FridayFrivolity blog party:
http://www.devastateboredom.com/
http://syncopatedmama.blogspot.ca/
http://www.babiafi.co.uk/
http://www.stayathomeyogi.com/
http://www.thatrecipe.com/blog/
http://munofore.com/
#FridayFrolics linky party: http://lifeloveanddirtydishes.com/friday-frolics/
Throwback fun at #TrafficJamWeekend linky party:
http://beingawordsmith.com/
http://www.lainaturner.com/
http://frugalcouponcrazy.us/
http://epicmommyadventures.com/
http://www.eclecticevelyn.com/
https://livingmommywood.blogspot.ca/
http://www.marriage-reset.com/
Danny https://dreambigdreamoften.co/
Opinionated Man https://aopinionatedman.com/
Chris the Story Reading Ape https://thestoryreadingapeblog.com/
Christine http://cerobinsonauthor.com
And so many more! If I missed anyone, leave your links below at my birthday party or over at my ongoing blog party https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/12/08/dear-santa-i-can-explain/ Go indie, they’re the cat’s meow!
I love books from Random House, Simon and Schuster, etc., but I also love smaller publishing houses – Open Court, Jessica Kinsley Publishing, Page Street Publishing, BenBella Books, Agate, Sasquatch and the list goes on; bigger doesn’t always mean better. If you’re not only a gifter, or a reader, but a writer and want to be an author, go out there and get published, one way or another https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/06/21/how-to-get-your-book-published/
I’ve given up resisting the lure of Christmas baking,
and once again I will be checking into Clementine rehab in January,
but I’m strangely trying to resist some forms of giving, ie when people tell you to give a 100%, that’s ridiculous, what if I gave 100% of my blood, or lent someone a 100% of my money, or gave them 100% of my time? The holidays are a time of giving, but one of the best gifts, remembering not everyone has someone https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/11/22/how-to-get-away-with-christmas/ Please give your time, ideas, blood, items, whatever, not just in the holiday season, but all year round. 
Speaking of giving, don’t forget to drop by (or drop by again and again, give the gift of up to 12 links, they don’t need to be Christmas related) my ongoing blog party, my Christmas card to my blogging family/friends https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/12/08/dear-santa-i-can-explain/
Christmas is almost here and my birthday,
then 2016 ends. Who know what 2017 will bring? Be open to all the possibilities, don’t pine for what might have been, it might never have been what you really wanted, or needed. All the best to you and yours in this the holiday season and all the year through and to a Happy New Year!
Dear Santa, I Can Explain…12 Links of Christmas Blog Party
With the Christmas lights on, it’s less dangerous. Here we are now, entertain us. I feel dazed, not contagious. Here we are now, entertain us…I’m worse at what I do best And for this gift, I feel blessed… Our little blogging group has always been. And always will until the end. HoHo, HoHo, HoHo, HoHo, HoHo, HoHo. Ummm, Smells like Christmas spirit?
In a kind of Welcome-to-the-Christmas-Jungle-type way, it’s been a strange few weeks, so Dear Santa, I Can Explain….
1. I’ve fought a prolonged battle with a vicious cold, it almost won, until I released my dragons, ok, it was chicken soup, but it was epic.
2. I overindulged in great gently used ‘finds’, tea with seniors, and raffles – if loving Christmas Bazaars is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.
3. I fell out of bed (and not in a fun way), luckily no serious injuries, but it sure knocked the stuffing out of me.
4. I was baking for Christmas and I had to taste, right? I couldn’t serve it or give it away without tasting, right?
5. Got the results of my colonoscopy, turns out my colon is a trophy wife, looks beautiful but doesn’t work.
I love Christmas, always have, but things have changed, become confusing. I feel like I’m being visited by the ghosts of rampant, raging, unrestrained consumerism – past, present, and future. The wraiths of oblivious conspicuous consumption, the specters of overt displays of wealth swirling around, I feel chilled, haunted, saddened – what could all that money be used for, who could be saved, cured, comforted, how much joy could be spread to so many instead of so few? This time of year isn’t about gifts, lights, food, carols, it’s about people, everywhere, whether they celebrate the holiday or not. How can anyone admire, emulate, and/or trust those who consume without a care?
Having lost so many of those I love in the past few years, the holiday season has more and more become a time of remembrance. Most of the memories are wonderful, but some are tinged with regret and loss; I listen to the carols, the songs sing, yet part of my heart wishes for more as it swells with remembers.
Here’s my Christmas card to you, dear readers. Let’s share some tidings of comfort and joy. Please join my 12 Links of Christmas Blog Party. It’s ongoing (why put a time limit on fun?), so keep on coming back right up to and after Christmas! The posts you link to don’t have to be Christmas-related and I’m not going to ask you visit other bloggers, comment, or share, but please, if you feel so inclined, give to others: press Like, reblog, share on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, etc. No badges (we don’t need no stinking badges).
If this is your first time joining a blog party, I’ll be gentle. Cut and paste your link. Then in the comment box below, paste that link and tell the readers and other bloggers a bit about your blog and/or yourself (if you wish, not necessary). Leave up to 12 links (one per box please). Here are my 12 Links of Christmas…
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/12/11/the-christmas-carol-awakens/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/12/18/these-arent-the-gifts-youre-looking-for/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/12/18/go-home-christmas-youre-drunk/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/12/07/slightly-less-stupid/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/12/07/do-you-wanna-build-a-snowman/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/12/05/we-are-santas-elves/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/12/09/a-charlie-brown-christmas/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/11/22/how-to-get-away-with-christmas/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/12/19/love-actually/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/12/22/babe/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/12/14/enhanced-christmas-infusion-techniques/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/11/30/hello-its-me/
I’d also like you to tell us what brings you comfort and joy at Christmas or anytime. Here’s an example, I get comfort and joy from doing nice things for people, little things, they’re not truly selfless acts (anyone remember that Friends episode?), because I enjoy them. I also love Christmas movies, the one place in the world where I’m pretty sure everything is going to work out well. Reading, walking, baking, board games, and I find my joy of writing has returned, creeping in. Of course, I find comfort and joy in wonderful son, family and friends, including my amazing blogging family.
I know everyone is busy, but please, join my holly jolly Christmas Blogging Party!
Nog nog. Who’s there? Virtual eggnog or hot cocoa (with mini marshmallows), take a sip, dip a biscotti or cookie.
Happy Holidays and take time to enjoy what really counts.
Follow Your Dreams. Go To Bed.
I’m tired of being told to sleep. Even more tired of being told to sleep more. You’d think I sleep in a crib with bunny sheets, stuffies, and a Nightmare Before Christmas mobile for the amount I’m told to go to sleep. Everyone is telling me to sleep, wishing me a good night’s sleep, telling me all about the importance of sleep. Magazines and blog posts tell me to sleep. Books tell me to sleep. Family and friends tell me to sleep. TV tells me to sleep, even provides programs that attempt to bore me to sleep, nice try TV, still awake.
I’m mocked by the benefits of sleep. I know that sleep is connected to the brain and it’s the most important organ, then again, look what’s telling me that, my left brain barely knows what my right brain is doing.
Sleep promotes creativity, attention, apparently it helps heal, restore, keeps anxiety, depression, colds and other ailments at bay, and improves memory….Hmm, what were we talking about? Oh yes, sleep. It helps you lose weight, build muscle, stop inflammation. Doesn’t sleep sound amazing?
I crave sleep, like it’s a plump juicy strawberry covered in rich chocolate nestled on fluffy clouds of whipped cream. I dream of sleep. I covet it. Sometimes sleep envy eats at me like a rat gnawing on cotton candy at a country fair.
I worship sleep, who needs celebrities, I only want to imitate sleep, I want to be sleep. Hi sleep – I’m your #1 fan (and those aren’t pillows).
I even snuggle with my bed, swaddling it with a decent thread count, soft blue sheets decorated with sheep, each with their own number, jumping over fences. My room is almost as dark as the bottom of the Mariana Trench, perhaps darker than the Batcave when Batman can’t find the light-switch.
I slept during the first trimester of pregnancy, I’d do just about anything for sleep, but, ummm, well…
Like many with Fibromyalgia https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/08/31/fibromylagia-is-just-another-word-for-lazy/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/08/08/fibromyalgia-is-a-four-letter-word/ I’ve tried: melatonin, serotonin, valerian, chamomile, progressive muscle relaxation, sleeping pills, tryptophan, alcohol, Tai Chi, yoga, meditation, alien cuddle exercises…
sleep masks, abdominal breathing, cognitive behaviour therapy, kava, but no, my alpha waves are trouble makers. Is it any wonder I love the band R.E.M.? I’ve even thought of building a wall between my alpha waves and my delta waves and make the alpha waves pay for the wall. And now as an added bonus I’m playing that hot new game: blankets on, blankets off, blankets on, blankets off…what was the prize again?
Insomnia has some benefits. I get exercise walking and I experience the, er, inspiration of public transit because I won’t drive when tired. I’ve also been organizing my home on the theory if I’m extremely organized I’ll sleep better. So far, no luck, but maybe obsessively organized people are just be too lazy to search for stuff. I wouldn’t want to be seen as lazy.
I wish I could use the time to write or do something else productive, but alas, after a certain hour my mind is more or less mush.
You can’t always get what you want, like sleep, but that doesn’t mean you just give up. You keep going, keep trying, keep reaching, whether it’s for a forty winks, a job, losing weight, climbing Mount Everest, seeking to right wrongs, swimming the English Channel, help others, being an author, scientist, artist, astronaut, singer, teacher, leader…
I do have ambiguous feelings about a creepy Sandman sneaking into my room, or some strange Greek god invading my dreams, shudder, what form would he take on these days, no thanks, Morpheus. It’s not like I’m asking to be Rip Van Winkle or Sleeping Beauty, just less tired.
Maybe I could think of my insomnia as a fascinating quirk, but all things considered, I’d rather be sleeping.
Happy Thanksgiving to all those who celebrate (it should be every single day!) and remember, shopping is not the true meaning of being thankful…really.
“Did you sleep well?”
“No, I made a couple of mistakes.”
~Steven Wright
Social media can be flat, most humans are 3D
I know this might be a stressful time for some, but I hope this finds you in good stead. Every choice has consequences.
In the course of human events it
becomes necessary to distract ourselves at times, I don’t know about you, but there’s no limits to what I can accomplish when I’m avoiding doing something else, yet we hold these truths to be self-evident, some choices must still be made, hopefully informed choices.
Some choices are easy. Some hard. Some seem like a joy or a joke. Some involve danger, some choices even have underestimated peril, ie. household chores – germs, cleaning tools, boredom, hiring strangers, using pets (who hasn’t wondered if pets could help with household chores?) and imagine trying to really ‘clean house’?
Then there’s the danger of choosing ice cream or chocolate and/or chocolate ice cream as a remedy for the common cold, it may not lessen the tyranny of the infirmity, yet if you add whining, comfy clothes, and sniffling, the choice is clear. Sniffle.
Admittedly, choices would be easier if everything was simply spelled out for us, without: lies, manipulation, false promises, hidden agendas, threats, deceit, complex small print, and if we weren’t at the mercy of drama ‘monsters’.
Life is a leap, we’re always jumping into the unknown – every second, minute, hour, day. Life changes, there are peaks and valleys, but as long as you breathe, there’s hope.
Remember, even if…
1. You did something, said something that embarrassed or cost you, and/or offended, disturbed others. Learn from it. Social media can be flat, most humans are 3D. Keeping your dimensions, they’re important.
2. You stayed too long and gave too much, trying to save a toxic relationship with: a partner, friend, family member, group, organization, political party, etc. That doesn’t mean you’re trapped, mentally chew off that leg and get away.
3. You got caught up in the hype machine, most have at one time or another (even if they won’t admit it). Simple answer – accept responsibility, and change, start again.
4. You fell head over heels, with stuff, especially during the holidays. We instinctively hunt and gather, now for stuff. You felt momentarily joyful but less than triumphant. Don’t feed addictions, accept them to overcome them.
5. You found out the hard way talk is cheap – words, words everywhere but not a lot of truth, common sense, or depth.
6. You gave your trust, your love, your dreams to people who sometimes didn’t deserve or care about those gifts; that’s about them, not you.
7. You forgot, while you’re responsible to many in this life, in the end, you’re only responsible for yourself and your words/actions.
8. You took things for granted, got comfortable and forgot everything can change, end or disappear. It can, they can, it does, they do…so don’t.
9. You gave up, settled, but it’s never too late, at least to have a modified version of your dreams.
10. You’ve worried, fretted, brooded, hoped, believed, over thought, agonized and still things didn’t go your way, the other shoe still dropped. You fell and it looks like you’re down for the count. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, get up, dust off, there’s no time limit on getting back up.
Halloween has come and gone, election buzz drones on and on, even if it seemed more like The Hateful Eight and clickbait than democracy. We lived through this horror for 9 years in Canada until we were,er, ‘saved’ by sunny ways.
Thanksgiving – we should be thankful every day, but maybe we shouldn’t eat that way.
Even before we take a day to remember and honour our soldiers,
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/11/03/lest-we-forget-to-shop/
Black Friday and CyberMonday deals send cash registers pinging, Christmas bells start ringing, everywhere there’s singing. What will it be like this year? Still holiday cheer? More chances to learn and grow, to stop seeing each other as us or them.
Love is all around, going backwards wastes it. You can never tell what’s next so just keep going. You’re gonna make it after all.
Enter At Your Own Risk
With any luck this time, next year, I’ll be blogging more and a published author (gee, maybe I should finish writing a book first, but I want to believe). But for now, let me say, without hope or agenda, just because it’s Halloween (and at Halloween you tell the truth), to me, dear readers, you are perfect and my wasted heart will love you until you look like this (no, not Andrew Lincoln, the one below)…
Is reality just a figment of someone’s wild imagination? What if none of this is real, what if we’re all characters in some bizarre game, er, maybe I should cut down on Westworld watching, but am I really supposed to believe this is real? What if I’m in a coma and dreaming all this? Or in a TV show, snowglobe, in a virtual reality machine…Maybe living in words between words. So if you’re waiting for another page to be written, why not write it ourselves?
Hot Patootie – Bless My Soul, this is a topsy-turvy world, onlineness takes its toll, but read closely, not for very much longer…
– Since children now watch/play more ‘adult’ TV, movies, and games, I assume holiday specials will soon catch up: You’re A Zombie, Charlie Brown; It’s A Wonderful Murder; Frosty The Hitman; Rudolph the Red-Nosed Drunk; The 12 Armed Conflicts of Christmas; A Christmas Sex Tape; and Twas The Fight Before Christmas.
– Nervous about your colonoscopy cause it’s your first time? Hopefully you get an intern who kindly explains, no worries, it’s his first time too (don’t know if he was kidding, thankfully my doctor was also there).
– Books in any form are still one of life’s absolute pleasures – I’m a happy bookoholic, I bought 144 books for $30 at my city’s library sale! Oh why can’t I just read all day everyday?
– Tim Curry (saucy minx), now The Narrator/Criminologist, he’ll always be Frank-N-Furter to me – lovely to see him working after his stroke.
– Doctor Who returned, well, at least The Doctor, only briefly in the spin-off, Class – Correctamundo, but without David Tennant.
– The Walking Dead can still make me feel wobbly, as the Season 7 opener taught me, no spoilers, if you watch it, you know what happened; if you’re going to watch it at some point, you’ll watch it; and if you don’t, you don’t care. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/04/11/why-zombies-will-rule/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/04/11/why-zombies-wont-rule/
– And crawling on the planet’s face, some insects called the human race, too often worshiping at the altar of celebrity, lost in time, lost in space and I’m hoping for more meaning, maybe when the election’s over. Please!!!
Just in time for Halloween, 
I happily watched the less campy, less raunchy, but extremely entertaining TV reboot of The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do The Time Warp Again – Reeve Carney aka rock star Dorian Gray (sigh, I miss Penny Dreadful https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/05/19/penny-dreadful/), Ivy Levan, and Laverne Cox (Orange Is The New Black https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/09/12/orange-is-the-new-black-except-for-pumpkins/) killed it in this reboot. But it made me wonder, hmmm, is this actually like blogging?
1. You see others doing something and get engaged in the process. You want to share your blogging bliss, but break down in a blog storm, then have to get ‘help’. Enter at your own risk…
2. Then you experience things in a whole different way. I remember doing the Blog Warp. Drinking those moments when, the blogness would hit me and the blogvoid keeps calling. Let’s do the Blog Warp again! With a bit of a mind flip, you’re into the blog slip and nothing can ever be the same…
3. You find yourself doing things you’ve never done before, meeting people that might be from a different planet when you only wanted to blog. It was great when it all began, I was a regular blogging fan…Now I finally understand, loss and pain carve a great big hole for the joy to land.
4. Blogging, not as wild as Rocky Horror, but you feel exposed, like you’re standing around in your undergarments in the social media castle. Now, blogbabies, don’t you panic. So come up to the blog-lab, see what’s on the blog-slab, I see you shiver in antici…blog…pation! Don’t dream it, blog it.
5. If you question how or why you’re blogging, if you’re doing it ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, close your eyes, smile and know – the darkness must go down the river of night’s dreaming. Flow morphia slow. Let the sun and light (aka other bloggers and readers) come streaming into your bloglife, into your bloglife…
I like to have fun, dance, and sing, I’m bored with angry people blaming everyone for their problems and thinking there are magical solutions.
So thank you, Richard O’Brien, after all these years you still block the angry noise and make me remember throwing toast, yelling borrr-ring, a newspaper over my head, lighter in hand, dressed as Riff Raff (I looked for pictures, but in those days we were too busy being it). Mmmm, meatloaf for supper tonight?
Just a jump to left and a step to the right, thanks for dropping by – Happy Halloween and have a safe and yummy night!
The Glorious Chaos
Clickety-clack, clickety-clack, the wheels of the train mocked me as I tried to play Risk on a mobile device – is it just me or are mobile devices a conspiracy by a secret order of Masonic Ophthamologists trying to destroy the vision of everyone, making them need eyeglasses, contacts and even eye surgery? Time will tell. Leaving Toronto aka The Glorious Chaos as my brother aptly named it, I paused to think of the large, cosmopolitan city – wild, weird, at times, woolly, but wonderful as well. The Glorious Chaos is actually a suitable description of life. Sadly, those with Autism, like my son, experience Toronto and life itself differently. To him, it’s loud, smelly, bright, and crowded. To him, it’s overwhelming, scary, just generally creepy. But he has to live in the real world – whatever that means these days, so when my son is in a ‘good place’ (not The Good Place, a new comedy with Ted Danson and Kristen Bell, funny but hardly seems sustainable), I try to do things with him, a kind of sensory diet.
After a lovely visit with my brilliant and funny family (I’m biased, but they’re actually as I describe), we headed home, watching Summer’s bright promise fade, the quilt of Autumn cover the land, nestling under our chins as we snuggle into Winter. At no time of the year is chaos more clear than Fall, Thanksgiving, and Halloween https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/10/28/monster-meet-and-greet-mash/ – especially Halloween, the most confusing holiday of all.
Children dress up, ignore their parents’ warnings (with encouragement) not to talk to strangers and instead go out in the dark to the homes of hundreds of strangers, begging for food. Adults also get in on the action, partying hard, many even wearing sexy costumes – angel, devil, nurse, vampire, ninja, cat, ninja cat, Frozen, Harley Quinn, Kylo Ren, Ken Bone, really, any ol’ Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter (oh yes, I borrowed and read J.K. Rowling/Jack Thorne/John Tiffany’s Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, no spoilers, but it had Harry Potter and a cursed child, shhh, you didn’t hear it from me; they did manage to slide Robert Pattinson from Twilight fame in there too – how convenient) and Hunger Games https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/10/16/you-cant-handle-the-blogging-truth/ I guess they’re hoping for one night of the year, Cialis Doesn’t Live Here Anymore?
And nothing says Halloween (other than mini chocolate bars begging to be eaten) more than strange, spooky viewing, what should it be this year? The Addams Family https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/10/20/hide-and-shriek-with-the-addams-family/
It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/29/stuff-i-learned-from-its-the-great-pumpkin-charlie-brown/ and https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/10/19/religion-politics-and-the-great-pumpkin/
Twilight Zone, Z Nation, The X-Files https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/08/20/the-truth-is-still-out-there-2/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/02/26/exs-and-ohs/ The Rocky Horror Picture Show https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/25/the-rocky-horror-picture-show/
The Walking Dead (can you keep your eyes open for ‘it’?), Pet Sematary, The Munsters https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/10/21/my-fair-munster/
Practical Magic (the true magic is family and friends), Bewitched, Army of Darkness, Goosebumps, The Nightmare Before Christmas https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/19/the-nightmare-before-christmas/
Dracula, Young Frankenstein https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/04/28/young-frankenstein-2/, Halloweentown (was there any need to make more than one?), Simpsons Treehouse of Horror
Arsenic and Old Lace https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/25/arsenic-and-old-lace/, Friday the 13th https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/03/13/its-friday-the-13th-do-you-know-where-your-serial-killer-is/, The Shining…
Scooby Doo https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/31/the-mysterious-world-of-scooby-doo/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/04/22/all-the-ways-im-told-im-stupid-everyday/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/08/09/i-miss-saturday-morning-cartoons/
Beetlejuice https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/25/beetlejuice/, Casper, Edward Scissorhands https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/31/edward-scissorhands/
Buffy the Vampire Slayer https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/29/buffy-the-vampire-slayer/, Lost https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/25/lost/, Halloween – sigh, quit looking back, he’s still there – run! https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/03/20/25-ways-to-stay-alive-in-a-horror-movie/
Aaaah, Thanksgiving (No turkey soup for you!!!), food coma aside (I even tried to avoid those little pushers at the mall – sure, they call themselves Girl Guides or Girl Scouts, they’re cute, but we know what they really are – you try to say no to cookies!), Thanksgiving should be everyday, a time to remember to be thankful – hopefully we know to be thankful for the right things. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/10/13/thankful-i-know-enough-to-be-thankful/
Still, there are some things I know for certain:
1. Always throw spilt salt over your left shoulder…if you want salt on your floor and shoulder.
2. With everyone texting and driving, for my part I welcome self-driving, computer cars – at least they won’t give me the finger (or will they?).
3. You don’t have the right to touch anyone without their permission…ever, did I mention ever?
4. Crossing paths with a black cat is dangerous…unless they’re doing something adorable, which is likely.
5. Pumpkin Spice it if you got it.
6. Make friends with the truth – it might be your best friend when no one else is.
7. Make decisions about people on their words and actions not their race, religion, country, political affiliations, sexual orientation, size, etc.
8. Comfortable shoes and chocolate are human rights, right?
9. Non-orange pumpkins used to seem weird, but lately orange things are scaring me.
10. Adam Lindsay Gordon got it right: “Life is mostly froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone. Kindness in another’s trouble, courage in your own.”
11. Kiss my grits is making more sense to me every single day…
12. Fear is more contagious than any disease and stronger than any army.
13. Remembering, looking back, glamorizing the past – it seems better, more fun, easier, but maybe, just maybe, complicated and different doesn’t have to mean bad – exercise your brain, it’ll look better in yoga pants.
Oh and of course, show love whenever you can. Enjoy The Glorious Chaos.
You Had Me At Cake…
Humans are capable of greatness, but too often it’s just us saying we’re great. With all reverence, I’ll paraphrase the magnificent R.E.M.: In the eye of a hurricane, feeling your insides churning as you hear the pain. Bored of people only mis-serving, wanting to believe, can’t perceive their own needs.
Change the world, stop being fed up, instead follow through and follow-up.
Shriek after shriek, holler after holler, anyone will do anything to worship at the dollar, Bumbling, stumbling, perfectly baffled, trumped…
Tethered, biased on all sides, “winning” in a tournament of lies; chopped, cropped, plopped in front of another scream, another screen…
Another moment too obscene. Vitriolic, patriotic, slam fight, bright light. Feel like turning it all off and only watching Psych (you know that’s right)
It’s the end of the world as we know it (had some time alone). It’s the end of the world as we know it (in a media cone). It’s once again the end of the world as we know it…and I feel behind.
It’s been a stuffy, screeching, spooky, sweltering summer abundant with the bafflings of humanity and nature alike. Here I am, an oldening woman who blogs alone in a skiff in the Blog Stream trying to find the ‘best words’ and had gone sixty odd days now without blogging a post. Whether I shall turn out to be the heroine of my own life, or whether that prodigious station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a blogger, despite being in a break, cannot in good conscience ignore her blog birthday, a wonderful opportunity to thank her dear readers, who stick with her through ups and downs and even the not hanging around. Some years ago – never mind how long precisely (ok, Summer 2013) – having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on TV, I thought to blog about a little and see the bloggery part of the world.
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. At any given time it can seem like the worst of times, but is it? There’s no world war. No Inquisition. No Ice Age. No plague. No killer bees. No asteroids hurdling toward the Earth (no worries, Bruce Willis will save us anyway).
No hoards, Attila the Hun, saber tooth tigers, or Genghis Khan. No cannibal galaxies hungering for galactic flesh (not to be confused with cannabis galaxies hungering for galactic munchies). No cat overlords, er, well, maybe a few cat overlords. No alien invaders (although there is that signal from HD164595, no worries, Will Smith will save us).
Last I checked, no zombie apocalypse, unless you count the overabundance of movies/TV shows about zombies and of course, smartphone users.
That’s not to say everything is wonderful. How could we not have problems? Over seven billion humans trying to coexist with each other, as well as animals, insects, fish, birds, and of course, Bigfoot, The Loch Ness Monster (Hi Nessie!), Yeti, elves, golems, El Chupacabra, dragons, Kala Bandar, vampires, werewolves, and all manner of magical beasts.
I don’t know about you, dear readers, but I struggle with first impressions. My instincts, often right, are second, third and fiftieth guessed. As I get older, I’m trying to listen to those first instincts; Maya Angelou was so right, “When someone shows you who they are believe them; the first time.”
It’s sooooo easy to sit around a kitchen, coffee shop, newsroom, living-room, bar, boardroom, online and fix all the world’s problems, but as Edward R. Murrow warned us: “Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn’t mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.”
Cooking competitions, game shows, reality shows, sports – all answers are easy unless you’re actually doing it.
Lies are seductive, there’s no need to prove them, they just float out there in our new Fact-Free World. WTF (What The Fact).
Options? Just believe what we want to believe because we like who says it or how they say it. Forget the facts, it’s all about the feels. We feel like something is true, so now it is. I feel like I’m watching The Blair Witch Project instead of an election and as we know, what we feel is more important than the facts.
The biggest feels, fear…but if Star Wars and Yoda have taught us anything, it’s this, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
And it’s been announced Trump is going to write, direct, and star in the next Star Wars film, Star Wars VIII: Make The Empire Great Again.
Oh la la Politics and the Public, seems like a Bad Romance. Elections, like watching children scuffle over a toy in a sandbox, caring less about the toy itself, but the prize of winning it. Divisive politics, like passing gas, it sure feels good, a relief to get it out there. Then what? The stench, the disgust of others…Passing gas is a necessity of life, although the reasons for more gas can be avoided.
I don’t like gossip, rumour, innuendo, speculation, tittle-tattle, lies, hyberbole. I like facts. I miss when the news was news, actual facts and events, not just guesses, conjecture, speculation, and supposition. Taglines, soundbites, and slogans – more important than substance, service, and civility; mocking has become an acceptable form of communication…
Blindly following anyone or anything, without questioning, doubting, challenging, like it or not, no matter what you call it, you’re in a cult…or a mob…or a joke.
When I paused my blogging I felt so far behind I didn’t even know who shot J.R…yes, that far behind!
Now I feel a little better, more caught up.
I’ve been writing a book, well, an outline and a chapter.
I’ve been reading. Resting. Visiting. Appointmenting. Decompressing. Researching. Regenerating.
Sadly, I was viciously attacked by migraines, but some downtime hooked up to an IV gave me time for deep thought…just kidding, I was thinking the doctor, McDreamy might fall in love with me, Grey’s Anatomy style (preferably with less whining). Also thinking a hospital would be a bad place to be during a zombie outbreak, but with a lot of potential weapons. I also wrote this post in my head, so it might be a bit scatty. Revisiting aspects of my life, including my wardrobe, still going for comfortable, but maybe hobochic. What do you think, dear readers?
What else have I been up to? Planning. Playing. Re-watching a few things, the newer Battlestar Galactica (So Say We All) and Warehouse 13 – thank you dear Teagan https://teagansbooks.com/ for making me want to revisit The Warehouse; I’m always happy there. It reminds me that the biggest adventure, is life itself, and that the spirit of The Warehouse is inside us all, the spirit of endless wonder.
I even know who Gossip Girl is (I’ll never tell xo xo). Caught up on John Oliver back despite popular demand, funny and truth, can’t get enough of that. Almost lapsed into a cheesy made-for-TV movie coma with never-to-be classics such as but not limited to: TV adaptations of Joanne Fluke’s Hannah Swensen murder mysteries https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/05/25/crapathy/ Murder, She Baked (where ex-soap stars drop by for a cookie break; Cookie Monster should make a guest appearance!).
It seems the reports of my blogdeath have been greatly exaggerated https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/07/08/so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-fish/ but despite all these words, I still don’t know if I have the best words. What do I know? I know I was sad to hear about the passing of Gene Wilder. The first thing I thought was, “Put… the…candle…back!” https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/04/28/young-frankenstein-2/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/07/20/charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory-turns-50/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/06/03/happy-40th-anniversary-blazing-saddles/ Thank you, Mr. Wilder, for the joy, you’ll keep us laughing for years to come.
I know my heart was heavy and uplifted as The Tragically Hip sang a very public goodbye, a final gift of music to everyone they love: fans, band members, family, friends, hometown of Kingston, Ontario and Canada…I alternated between singing and crying, sometimes both at the same time.
I know I’m thankful to everyone who continues to support my blog – my wonderful readers, fellow bloggers, also, the lovely ladies at #BloggersPitStop for all the support. I know I’m grateful you could stop by for my belated blog birthday bash. Enjoy the party games – watch out, you don’t know what will be pinned where these days!!! Enjoy the virtual cake (as always, you have me at cake) – even chocolate has no calories!
Feel free to visit, we’ll pretend we’re under the sea in an octopus’s garden – that’s where I’d like to be, under the sea, in an octopus’s garden in the shade.
So maybe the best words are…please, be kind, what the hell do you have to lose?
So Long And Thanks For All The Fish
It’s never easy to say goodbye. Ok, that’s not true, sometimes it’s super easy to say goodbye, in fact, you wished could’ve said goodbye much, much earlier. You’re with someone, they’re annoying you, but it’s impolite to leave, or you feel you should or have to stay. Or when you’re at a party, function, event, etc. and some guests are driving you up a wall. There are times when you’re screaming goodbye in your head, measuring how many steps it would take to get to the door, or wondering if anyone will notice if you were to dive out of the window, full-on Die Hard – hmm, was that what Shakespeare was picturing when he said, ‘Parting is such sweet sorrow, wait to jump out that window till the morrow’? Something like that.
We love to tell stories, we’re natural born storytellers. Over 7 billion of us on the planet, telling our stories. So many stories. While we’re telling those stories, or hearing those stories, we’re not going to agree on everything all the time or be pleased all the time, but could we put all the hate, bullying, vitriol, name-calling, hyperbole, lies, persecution, injustice on the shelf? Maybe we could strive to disagree respectfully. There are many ways to tell stories, from many perspectives.
A long-awaited specialist appointment (now waiting for more, er, stuff and trying new, er, stuff) opened and reopened my eyes. No worries, it’s not fatal, to the best of my knowledge, it just feels like it’s killing me…
1) I need to take a break and focus on my health.
2) I need to write, not just blog posts, but my book, and maybe try to make more money to pay for my dirty habit…to clarify, it’s my chocolate habit, but it can be dirty; dark chocolate especially leaves terrible stains and smears everywhere.
3) It’s with a heavy heart that I write This Is Where I Leave You…actually, I didn’t write that, Jonathan Tropper did and it was delightfully flawed, if a little clever-clever, but I appreciate the exertion. Plots and characters somewhat transparent yet quite engaging. His authentically muddled and intriguingly idiosyncratic style keeps me reading. Hollywood made a valiant attempt to adequately adapt it to the screen with: Tina Fey (SNL, Mean Girls, 30 Rock, Spongebob Squarepants, Simpsons, Sisters, Muppets, etc.), Jason Bateman (Arrested Development, Zootopia, Juno, Paul, Little House on the Prairie, Knight Rider, etc.),
Adam Driver (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Girls, J. Edgar, Lincoln, The Unusuals, etc. ), Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood, Justified, Catch and Release, Live Free or Die Hard, The Mindy Project, The Office, Hitman, Call of Duty), Dax Shepard (Robot Chicken, Idiocracy, Parenthood, and endless odd Samsung commercials with wife, Kristen Bell who will always be Veronica Mars to me, also great in Deadwood), Jane Fonda (The Newsroom, Barbarella, On Golden Pond, Sunday in New York, Cat Ballou, Barefoot in the Park, The Butler, Georgia Rule, They Shoot Horses Don’t They, Klute, Coming Home, The China Syndrome, The Morning After, and you may know her from her activism and/or groovy exercise videos).
4) I might need to cut back on TV, way too many shows are just ads in disguise. ie. Ride with Norman Reedus should actually be titled: American Tourism, Ducati, BMW, Harley-Davidson, Honda, Indian, Kawasaki, KTM, Suzuki, Triumph, and Yamaha Pay For Ride with Norman Reedus. And it’s weird how he wanders around never opening his wallet, it’s like he’s still on The Walking Dead, I guess there’s no need for money during the zombie apocalypse – the Daryl Dixon Discount.
Gorgeous bikes, scenery, people (well, mostly), but obviously one long commercial. Don’t know if I’m now more or less inclined to be sad if Negan chooses Daryl. Just sayin’. 
I’ll forgive AMC, after all, they also gave us: Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Talking Dead, Hell On Wheels, Mad Men, Fear The Walking Dead, Turn: Washington’s Spies, The American West, Into The Badlands, and now, Preacher, a gruesomely heartening supernatural tale of good vs evil, or more like good vs itself.
5) I need to find new ways to de-stress. Stress is everywhere these days. Even dogs and cats are under pressure to perform, and not just in endless and often demeaning internet videos, gifs, memes, etc. (see above, but how cute is that?); just look at their food – it has to be high in fiber, promote lean muscle, keep them at a healthy weight, all so they can be adorably frisky and playful, for our amusement. Amusement seems more important now than ever. We need to be constantly amused, entertained, busy. Is it a latent, twisted version of hunting and gathering, we now hunt and gather entertainment?
We even amuse ourselves with foodporn, I mean, food now…
6) I’m crushing on teacup pigs, some call them pocket pigs, or micro pigs, but I worry about their popularity, they could get bought up by someone like Bill Gates and we’ll have to buy endless crappy versions of them – Microsoft pigs.
7) I need to catch up on my reading. Numerous library books await my attention, with due dates, apparently some others have the nerve to want to use my the public library. 
Life is all about the journey, not the destination, and sometimes that journey takes you not where you meant to go but where you’re meant to be. Reading takes you anywhere you want to go and while some books may not change the world, they could change your world.
My books to review basket is also overflowing. I almost missed out on a great murder mystery, These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly in the bookflood https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1415718938 And I’ve enjoyed indie works – hidden treasures, like the ones previously mentioned here https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/01/29/always-on-my-mind-blog-party/ and so many more. Luckily I can’t physically see the Netgalley books unless I log on, so I’m pretending I forgot my password (psssh, I know you remember your password). Books have many purposes: entertainment, distraction, learning, companionship, dreaming, but really, like pop culture they’re a way of examining life, a form of philosophy. Long time readers of this blog know I have an ongoing love affair with books, including Open Court’s …and Philosophy series, but there are so many of them, how can I read and review them all? I can’t, but I sure can try. If not on here, then on Goodreads. ie. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1677400824
8) I wish The Newsroom (stunning cast of: Jeff Daniels, Sam Waterston, Emily Mortimer, Jane Fonda, Alison Pill, John Gallagher, Jr., Thomas Sadoski, Dev Patel, Olivia Munn, Marcia Gay Harden, Chris Messina, Kat Dennings, David Harbour, Hope Davis, Kelen Coleman, Grace Gummer, Constance Zimmer, B. J. Novak, etc.) was still on and that more people watched it.
Aaron Sorkin is a master at presenting all sides of, well, everything, logically, rationally, especially politics. We need more of that. Smart, well-balanced writing. To me, Sorkin is the ultimate optimist, an anti-cynic, after all, who else would keep monologuing, writing epic, inspiring speeches and broadcasting them in the hopes he’s actually reaching people, not just cleverly preaching to the converted.
9) So…Politics…That happened. I feel all Alice Through The Looking Glass, what if it’s all a dream? Maybe I went through a mirror, fell down a rabbit hole, opened a door, magically traveled through a wall to Platform 9 3/4, opened a portal, a Stargate, a paratime machine, a window, a crack? I keep hoping I’m in some alternate reality, some parallel Universe and I’ll wake up. Are we BrainDead (funny show, but making me a tad paranoid of the ants that keep invading my place)? Have aliens taken over politicians? Naah, too obvious. As Alexander Hamilton said: “If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.”? Hmmm, how about stand for something with even a hint of logic, intelligence, integrity, or sanity?
Donald Trump, #Brexit, bogus indignation, lies, corruption, murder, abuse, war, poverty, disease, starvation, terrorism (of course, we’ve always got a new foe, it’s important to keep us scared, worried, after all, we buy more that way). Imagine what we could accomplish if we focused on what mattered and would help all people, not just a select few.
It’s too easy to long for a simpler times. Watching Brooklyn (https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/01/08/stand-by-me/) it seems like life was simpler, less complex, less contentious, and it’s true in many ways. But we can’t live in the past. Can’t go back. Can’t unring bells that have been rung. With technology ruling our lives, we have to find ways to somehow enjoy the benefits of here and now without being consumed and overwhelmed by the here and now.
As for Brooklyn the film? It’s a nicely unpretentious offering about the choices we make and those that are made for us. Saoirse Ronan (Atonement, Hanna, City of Ember, The Host, The Lovely Bones, The Grand Budapest Hotel https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/09/20/if-i-had-a-million-dollars/) is, as always, astonishing, With the depth of her performance you’d think she was 102 instead of 22; she expresses so much, so perfectly, sort of an anti-Kristen Stewart. Rounded out by the talented: Jim Broadbent (Harry Potter, Paddington, Bridget Jones’s Diary https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/12/19/bridget-joness-diary/ and a million others), Julie Walters (Calendar Girls, Harry Potter, Mama Mia!, Brave, and at least a million others), Emily Bett Rickards (Felicity Smoake in Arrow), Domhnall Gleeson (Star Wars: The Force Awakens https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/11/05/go-home-star-wars-youre-drunk/ Harry Potter, The Revenant, etc.
10) I’ve thought a lot about why the world more closely resembles the last days of Roman Empire and that line Gena Rowlands uses to chide/teach her moviedaughter, Sandra Bullock in the romcom Hope Floats, “It’s the worst kind of extravagance the way you spend your chances”. What if this applies to the whole world now? We need to stop spending our chances.
We need to stop settling. Stop lowering our expectations. Go out there, spend your chances wisely. We may live in a world supercharged by social media, where we dramatize each problem, instead of looking for solutions. Where gossip, blame, fighting, arguing, cool cynicism, magical thinking, phony outrage, lowest common denominator pandering, digital degrees of The Butter Battle Book, The Lorax, and The Cat in the Hat combined (Dr. Seuss would be so proud) rule the day. Where intelligence is mocked, sensationalism screams loudest, bits and soundbites of information, right or wrong, reign supreme. In fact, it would be really funny, if it wasn’t such a sad mess…
It doesn’t mean we have to buy into it. We can be more. Rise above. Care. Have character, loyalty, integrity, even if it’s not cool to do so. Choose courage. Choose love. Choose hope. Caveat emptor, lest we drown in the muck. You’ll find true power in being kind.
I write this with tears in my eyes and the words to Green Day’s Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) playing over and over in my head: “It’s something unpredictable, but in the end it’s right. I hope you had the time of your life.” I do, I hope you had the time of your life, I certainly did.
I can’t thank those of you who have supported me enough! Thanks for following, sharing, reblogging, commenting, visiting. I’m not ruling out coming back at some point, I’m just not well enough to continue now.
I’ll still visit my blogging family and friends regularly. Still take part in some parties, social media stuff, etc. Blogging is addictive. When you first do it, you feel like you’re standing naked (sorry for the visual), exposed, and then you start to love it. You have to silence your inner critic (she’s just jealous).
My posts stay here, so please, visit my vaults whenever you’d like, comment, share, I’ll still be here, after all, almost 3 years of blogging later there’s close to 600 posts, like these:
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https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/02/20/compassion-never-goes-out-of-style/
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https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/08/31/fibromylagia-is-just-another-word-for-lazy/
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https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/08/27/message-in-a-bottle/
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https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/01/04/so-youve-ruined-your-lifenow-what/
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https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/06/21/how-to-get-your-book-published/
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https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/03/26/why-i-will-never-be-freshly-pressed/
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https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/03/20/25-ways-to-stay-alive-in-a-horror-movie/
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https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/04/10/im-hooked-on-a-feeling/
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https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/04/22/all-the-ways-im-told-im-stupid-everyday/
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https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/08/25/rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock/
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https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/04/07/you-know-youre-obsessed-with-game-of-thrones-when/
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https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/10/16/you-cant-handle-the-blogging-truth/
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https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/05/25/crapathy/
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https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/04/19/50-things-to-get-busy-doing-before-50/
I’m not ruling out returning to this blog or another blog, or bookstores near you (she wrote wistfully). Some time away might recharge my batteries and I will regenerate (I could be the new Doctor in Doctor Who, I think it’s time for a female Doctor). Until then, so long and thanks for all the fish…come on, you think I’d leave without something to do with Douglas Adams, he’s at least partially responsible for my brain. I might be down now, but there’s no time limit on getting back up. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, I’ll get up, dust off, and be back, one way or another!
Can’t You Just Pretend To Be Nice?
Life is choosing. Choosing to be happy or sad. Nice or mean. Hopeful or hopeless. Among the mass of expectations, concepts, beliefs, abstractions, and stereotypes swirls millions and millions of choices. We’re not always going to make the right choices. Sometimes we’re mean and feel sorry, sometimes we’re sorry we’re not more mean.
I recently rewatched Josie and the Pussycats, the movie, although I loved the cartoon also – https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/08/09/i-miss-saturday-morning-cartoons/ – it reminded me:
1) It’s hilarious, even 15 years later, maybe more so;
2) It’s wise and relevant, especially about how we’re brandwashed, er, brainwashed;
3) The words to the song keep echoing through my head, “Can’t you just pretend to be nice, can you at least pretend to be nice, if you could just pretend to be nice, then everything in my life would be alright.”
For me, people who pretend to be nice are pretty much as annoying as meanies. “A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.”- Dave Barry Yet there are still tons of genuinely nice people…but we’re designed to notice danger, it’s for survival. We notice loud stuff, outrageous stuff, bad stuff – it was meant to help us notice danger, pay attention to danger, to keep us safe and to keep our loved ones safe, but now, sigh, there’s the internet, you know the internet, like your neighbourhood gossip on steroids, virally, digitally frothing at the mouth.
Texts, tweets, memes, video, posts, gifs, statuses, chats, comments, updates, etc., blaming, blaming, blaming – basically blaming everyone – immigrants, women, social assistance recipients, minorities, religions, etc., well, that won’t get you a job, or make the rich stop screwing you (without consent or foreplay). Just as spewing vitriol won’t change your economic or socioeconomic status, or get you something you want, or bring back those you love. Sorry Grandma and Grandpa, sorry Mom and Dad, your famous, “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” is stone cold dead. We’re all quickly learning you’re entitled to your own opinion and your own facts – just ask The Incredible Trump.
Maybe it’s easier to lash out than look in. Is it easier to yell at a clerk? Or scream at a receptionist (by the way, no one was paying any attention to your information until you screamed)? Or sharpen your claws: ‘You’re so brave to wear that shirt.’ Brave, really, I’m not running into a burning building to save babies and puppies, oh I see, you’re being catty. Than to just be nice?
When I asked an ex (note the word ‘ex’, for many, many reasons) why he couldn’t just be nice, his answer was, ‘it’s too much work’. Really? Could that possibly be it? Is it just easier to snark, snarl, sneer? Easier to mock, mimic, moan? Is meanness, ridicule, viciousness, derision a form of laziness?
Bad guys, bad boys, charismatic anti-heroes are cool on TV, in movies and books https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/03/06/charming-savage-events/ but in real life, not so much.
Then again, if you’re not: molesting, abusing, being racist, getting all mass murdery, killing serially or non-sequentially, making human skin coats, terrorizing, stealing, lying, raping (yes, creepy, horrible Stanford rapist and any other rapists, no still means no and to clarify, unconscious also means no; not difficult to understand), you probably still qualify as ‘nice’, but hopefully we can try to raise the bar way, way higher.
Speaking of nice, I’m thrilled (thank you kindly) to be one of the winners of the Blogger’s Pit Stop and The Pinterest Game – please drop by, visit, share, it’s a great way to connect with other bloggers and lots of fun.
Julie http://juleskalpauli.com/bloggers-pit-stop-27/ featuring: https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/08/27/message-in-a-bottle/ and https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/01/04/so-youve-ruined-your-lifenow-what/
Kathleen https://www.kathleenaherne.com/the-blog/
Janice http://mostlyblogging.com/
Debbie http://coachdebbieruns.com/
https://www.kathleenaherne.com/pinterest-game-47a/ and
https://www.kathleenaherne.com/pinterest-game-47b/
Get out there, be a shameless social media self-promoting bloghussy (like me), most of all, enjoy!
Where I’m a complete twit: https://twitter.com/yadadarcyyada
Endlessly baffled by humanity: https://www.facebook.com/yadadarcyyada
The desert where I wander: http://www.pinterest.com/dpark2/
Where I google, not nearly as fun as it sounds: https://plus.google.com/112672588892199127381/posts
To the best of my knowledge, there’s no standardized testing for ignorance, intolerance, meanness, or unhappiness yet, but I’d buy stocks in that future booming business. Be nice, you don’t know what people have been through or are going through.
Is it too late to say sorry? ‘Cause I’m missing more than just your bloggy. Yeah, I know-oh-oh, I want to be a good neighbour bloggy (ok, perhaps I’m not going to be rapper anytime soon). I know it’s a busy time of year, but drop by whenever, dears, my blogdoor is always open. Please leave links in the comment box. Drop by often. Enjoy the virtual cake, chocolate, cupcakes, tarts, pies, cookies, and er, liquid refreshments. Meet and greet other bloggers. Introduce yourself. Be kind. Be nice. Have fun. Obvious now I’m from Canada, eh? Sorry.
Crapathy
Stressed. Stressed out. Every day we hear how people are stressed out, exhausted, scattered, distracted, besieged, anxious, under pressure, just generally overwhelmed. Times haven’t changed, just magnified, still going in circles; instead of Keeping Up With The Joneses, we’re trying to Keep Up With The Kardashians.
Our Amygdala’s primary job is the processing of memory, emotional reactions, and decision-making, that’s a lot to handle, so she can get a little overstimulated. Her nanny, the Prefrontal Cortex is all like, whoa, slow down, Amy, you need a time out. But what if chronic stress has hacked PreCor, making it too weak to calm Amy down, stop her from some unrestrained Brains Gone Wild moments? As my fav song by The Tragically Hip says, we Blow At High Dough, that’s us, going too fast, burning up, burning out.
My growing, life-changing magic of apathy toward crap, a sort of crapathy, has me bored, yes, but also ashamed, ashamed of our frivolity, and at myself for being any part of it. I can’t change my hyper-awareness of all the crap, but I can change my perception, actions, and reactions.
Many experts, including renowned time researcher and sociologist, Professor John P. Robinson, known as Father Time, agree that not having enough time is actually an illusion, self-imposed, many people have more leisure time than ever before. https://socy.umd.edu/facultyprofile/Robinson/John%20P. Then why do we feel so overwhelmed? Maybe it’s all the things we’ve been sold to improve and simplify our lives. Really, why, when complicated means more money.
Growing up I wanted to be Nancy Drew…instead I was Donna Parker. Both outrageously ignored repeated and dire warnings while being fiercely loyal, generous, and independent. Both wore, gasp, dungarees.
My dungarees and detective cap on, I find my courage and follow the clues, to investigate what’s working in my life and what isn’t; I join the ranks of those who couldn’t resist the siren call of a mystery:
Nancy Drew, Miss Marple, Monk, The Scooby Gang https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/31/the-mysterious-world-of-scooby-doo/ The Hardy Boys https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/01/american-gothic/ Sherlock and Watson https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/03/13/sherlock/ Sookie Stackhouse, Donna Parker, McCloud, Shawn Spencer and Burton Guster https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/01/10/having-the-last-laugh/
Mulder and Scully https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/08/20/the-truth-is-still-out-there-2/ Sam Spade, Veronica Mars, Honey West, Hannah Swensen https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/09/05/ive-had-the-time-of-my-life/ The Bobbsey Twins, Father Brown, Phryne Fisher https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/09/06/miss-fishers-murder-mysteries/ Temperance Brennan (Bones), Alex Cross, Ellery Queen, Mannix, Elvis Cole, Murdoch, Quincy https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/11/08/quincy-m-e/ Patrick Jane, Mike Hammer, Cadfael, Cherry Ames, Cagney and Lacey, MacMillan and Wife (she had a name, Sally), Stephanie Plum, Kay Scarpetta, Columbo https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/11/09/just-one-more-thing-columbo/
Jane Tennison, Lord Peter Wimsey, Audrey Parker https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/08/02/never-tear-us-apart/ Clarice Starling, Daisy Dalrymple, Phillip Marlowe, Peter Gunn, Nick & Nora Charles, Frost, Dexter https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/09/24/goodbye-dexter/ Magnum, The Harts, Nero Wolfe, Jessica Fletcher https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/06/30/glory-days/ Foyle, Poirot, Jim Rockford, Perry Mason, Jessica Jones, Houdini and Doyle?
Inspector Clouseau, Castle https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/05/06/nothings-gonna-stop-us-now/ Trixie Beldon, Rizzoli & Isles, Dupin, Sally Lockhart, The Girl Who…well, you know what she did.
My Cases So Far:
1. The Clue in the Diary (decoded, started a blog).
2. The Secret of the Old Biological Clock (unraveled, acceptance).
3. The Haunted What Ifs (the voices of my past fade into the void, including but not limited to: family, friends, Prince, Bowie, The Tragically Hip aka The Hip, Spirit of the West, The Ramones, etc. Yet I have to smile, because they happened).
4. The Sign of the Twisted Scandals (solved, don’t care).
5. The Mystery of the Dating Dilemma (more probing needed).
6. The Secret in the Old Attic (aka my head, ongoing).
7. The Password Puzzle (deciphered, but it’s a secret).
8. The Aging Writer Mystery (further review).
9. The Ghost of Broken Dreams (phantom case).
10. The Clue of the Missing Keys (found, Marie Kondo organized my life https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/02/14/who-loves-ya-baby/).
Broke, obscure, and chronically ill, I have probable cause to get discouraged and depressed. 
It’s easy to believe the voices that bludgeon me, sticking a knife into my self-confidence, slamming an axe into my feelings of worth, poisoning my pride, shooting holes in my dignity. The suspects are many, with means, motive, and opportunity, so I have to solve the mystery, before it’s too late!
You probably didn’t think you had time to read this whole post, so like me, maybe you need to Go Nancy Drew Yourself!
Through The Blog Storm
Through the blog storm,
we reach the shore
We give it all
but they want more
And we wait for views
With or without you
Can’t blog with
or without views
And you blog yourself all day
And you blog, and you blog
And you blog yourself away.
If this had audio you’d know I sang it just like Bono of U2, it’s like we’re twins, ok, maybe closer to the Swedish Chef from The Muppets, but it’s all good.
Blogging is a lot like cooking. Some people do it instinctively. A pinch of this. A dash of that. Somehow they know just the right blend. Others follow a precise recipe.
1. First thing you need to decide, what kind of cooking, I mean, blogging do you enjoy? Home-cooked, formal, informal, sugar-free, spicy, sweet, sour, no artificial flavours or colours, grilling, gourmet, fusion? Do you want to indulge your readers with moist, sweet chocolate brownies (my secret, melt the butter, let it cool then slowly add it to the mixture) or spicy chipolte chicken taco with guacamole (drooling)…
2. With blogging, like cooking you need an appreciative audience. Those who don’t just eat to live, but live to eat. Those who don’t just like blogs, but love them.
3. Posts can fill up our email like a meal can fill up our stomachs, but too much of a good thing can be overwhelming, sometimes a snack is the way to go.
4. Processed food, junk food, fast food, sure, they call themselves food, but really, food by any other name is not always food…same goes for blogging.
5. The blogging community is family style dining, so just dig in, reach over, around, share, like, join in, engage! Don’t just invite others to your table, sit at theirs too! Eat up! Even indulge in blog parties…
Jason – https://aopinionatedman.com/
Elena – http://blogsharelearn.com/blogsharelearn-linky-party-may-1316/
Niki – https://therichnessofasimplelife.wordpress.com/
Shawna and Shareen #LinkYourLife – http://honeyquill.com/
Danny – http://dreambigdreamoften.co/
Carolina – https://yesterdayafter.com/
Vicky – http://www.singlemotherahoy.com/
Pop Down Under – https://amommasview.wordpress.com/
Janice and all the lovely ladies that give us
Friday Blogger’s Pit Stop and Inspire Me Monday –
http://mostlyblogging.com/
6. Don’t think if people will: Like it, share it, reblog it, tweet it, agree, disagree, hate you, be a troll under your blogging bridge, or if you’ll end up looking like Mr. Bean with a turkey on your head. Just do what you want to do…that turkey looks good on you.
7. When you don’t have time to prepare a meal, aka a post, or you need some comfort food or a comfort blogging advice post…
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/04/10/im-hooked-on-a-feeling/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/08/27/message-in-a-bottle/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/03/26/why-i-will-never-be-freshly-pressed/
8. Sometimes you slave over a hot stove aka computer, plate your hopefully tasty content, and serve it up….you wait for readers to gobble it up, but sometimes they never come to the table, even when called repeatedly. Maybe they’re busy, after all, when they open their email, it’s like a giant buffet has been served up, how much can they possibly eat? Maybe they’ve already eaten or are dining elsewhere. It happens. Try again.
9. Get out there, be a shameless social media self-promoting bloghussy (like me), most of all, enjoy!
Where I’m a complete twit: https://twitter.com/yadadarcyyada
Endlessly baffled by humanity: https://www.facebook.com/yadadarcyyada
The desert where I wander: http://www.pinterest.com/dpark2/
Where I google, not nearly as fun as it sounds: https://plus.google.com/112672588892199127381/posts
10. You can tell someone how to cook or blog, but that doesn’t mean they can do it, or do it like you. Or should. Cook what you want, blog what you want, eat what you want. Taste life.
My best advice about blogging and cooking? Don’t miss the donut by looking through the hole. Dear readers, any favourite blogging tips or recipes you can’t live with or without? Bon Appetit!
Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now
May dances in,
dances with dreadfully
stunning promises,
dances ribbons of hope,
twisting pretty, pure,
gurgling, whispering
about what once was,
what will be,
and never be again.
In the moonlit
rattling bones of night
I, awake pondered,
what if those
five stages of grief:
denial, anger,
bargaining, depression
and acceptance,
are a stale simplification?
Is life ever that simple
or that linear?
My 5 Stages of Belief, Relief, oh Good Grief!
1. I can’t deny I was kind of missing my old tagline, Vague Meanderings of the Broke and Obscure. Trying to decide, what do you think, dear readers, I’ve believed a lot of things…
2. Some days I feel I should scrub my eyes after reading some comments sections and news. I’m a walking paper cut as I read about people, even leaders and wannabes rage, lie, attack, hyperbole flying, anger roaring, name-calling like schoolyard bullies. People lap it up like reality cream. We might be sliding down a slobbery, slatternly nowhere-to-clutch-on-and-save-ourselves slippery slope. Mike Judge should re-release Idiocracy, exaggerated for effect, but maybe not as much as we’d like. It reminds me of RKO 281, based on Orson Welles’ struggle to make and release Citizen Trump, I mean, Kane. Why reward and encourage those who spread hate? Why feed the beast?
3. Some days even doing errands isn’t what you bargained for. I heard a woman trying to return a bathing suit she’d ironed. A dog dressed as Darth Vader (probably not by choice). Felt accosted by an overenthusiastic greeter when I just wanted to look at some books. Even the book covers were more than I bargained for – various states of half-dress; invisible force fields between people as they try to kiss; murdering someone or thinking about murdering someone; symbolism runs amok; people with words as clothes; moodiness; weird eyes; people with half faces; hot demons, aliens, wizards, vikings, pirates – all looking epic; folks gazing off into the distance looking pensive or constipated. And don’t even get me started on titles….
4. Remember my Happiness Project? I figured out fairly quickly (well, quickly for me, it’s all relative, right?) that happiness doesn’t come in a project, happiness has to come from doing, being, happiness has to flow naturally, happiness cannot be forced. But I had some fun, hope you do too.
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/06/03/dont-worry-be-happy/
5. Not ashamed to have belted out the lyrics to cheesy 80’s Starship classic,
Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now with Bill Hader in The Skeleton Twins.
I accept and embrace my cheesy side, it helps me write,
helps me keep smiling, laughing, despite,
well, so much, including Fibromyalgia: https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/08/08/fibromyalgia-is-a-four-letter-word/
SNL, Trainwreck, etc., my comcrush it still growing. Still not sure about Angry Birds though, Hitchcock flashbacks and all.
Waitress is certainly a fitting, quirky little Mother’s Day film. It reminded me of many things, such as but not limited to: Nathan Fillion – Castle, One Life To Life, Halo, Buffy https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/29/buffy-the-vampire-slayer/ Firefly https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/24/firefly
is as adoradorkable as the movie itself.
Also, Keri Russell – The Americans, Felicity, Austenland https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/12/29/austenland/ is an under-rated actress. I’m having a craving for Quiche (that counts as pie, right?). Watching Andy Griffith I wish he’d been on The Walking Dead as like, Rick Grimes’ Grandpa – he could’ve just charmed the zombies, talked some Matlock sense into them. I’d now settle for The Christopher Walken Dead.
Life is pie (or pi, if you’re mathematically inclined). You don’t have to like every variety, you don’t even have to know every variety, in fact, new varieties are being made all the time…but some of it is so awesome, light, and flaky, it makes you want to take bite after bite, searching for hidden delights.
This Mother’s Day maybe I’ll plant a tree, even if I’ll never sit in the shade of that tree, someone, someday will.
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/05/09/happy-mothers-day-i-just-ate-your-gift/
So if this world runs out of Mothers (noooo!), or bloggers (unlikely), we’ll still have each other, nothing’s gonna stop us, nothing’s gonna stop us now, although we might get distracted, by chocolate…or something.
Wish You Were Here
I walked
a path
I hadn’t
walked
in years.
The sounds of the city
sang their strange song.
The sights pilfered
my attention.
A Grecian effigy with no arms, but a whimsical flowered spring bonnet.
A tank incongruously set among the budding flowers with a background of lawyers and pizza; lots of cheese and hot grease –
oh, and on the pizza too.
I past my old doctor’s office, now a frat house. I smiled, remembering Dr. Shearer who raised sheep and around the corner lived members of the band, Sheep Look Up (ewe can’t make this stuff up, sorry, that was baaad)
I wish to go back, for a visit, in a time machine (preferably with David Tennant as The Doctor; come on, Doctor Who fans, who would you travel with?). I’d tell myself how little I knew. Be nicer to some. Apologize to others. Tell others to go to h-e-double hockey sticks (it’s Canada, eh, and they deserved it). Maybe see Prince in concert singing Purple Rain, Darling Nikki, When Doves Cry, 1999, The Ballad of Dorothy Parker, etc. once more. #RIPPrince
I smiled as a big RV chugged by, making me think of the latest installment of the Vacation movie series. Campy? Maybe even glampy! Cheesy? More than the aforementioned lawyers and pizza. Tacky? I expect nothing less. Might’ve watched it sooner if I’d known it had Chris Hemsworth (Thor, The Avengers, The Huntsman stuff) and Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon, The Walking Dead). Small parts (bet no one says that often), but memorable, if creepy. I may never look at them the same again. Oh, who am I kidding?
I glimpsed a bank turned into a restaurant and vice versa, hmmm, wonder which saw more money? Shuddering, I thought of The Big Short. Awesome cast (Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Melissa Leo, Selena Gomez)…
Snappy writing, but an altogether terrifying horror film. Versions of Eve of Destruction – Barry McGuire, The Turtles (not ninja), Johnny Thunders, The Pogues, D.O.A, The Dickies, and Public Enemy blared in my brain as the obvious soundtrack for this film. Why worry about nuclear threats, terrorists, natural disasters, and disease when assuredly the scourge of greed and corruption will wipe us out first?
I’d left plenty of time for myself, better early than late. Cars whizzed past, buildings blurred, making me curious, how many were Turo and Airbnb? Would you, dear readers, rent your car and/or home?
Finally there, I folded myself into the 3 foldy gown…I had better luck than the full moony older gentleman, thankfully an attendant helped him; laughing at old or infirm people isn’t good sport. With two Donnas there, I got ‘Donna P’ (say it out loud…there you go). Tests done, I started back. I waved at a tabby cat reclining regally on a window ledge who obviously didn’t feel I was worthy of his time. Correct, the bird swooping past, more fascinating by far.
Home again, I happily listened to my son’s monologues. I knew what my doctor would say – not urgent (doctor code for: it’s not cancer), but I need to see you soon; kind man, he’s happy when he can actually help me. I was spot on.
Nora Ephron’s words drifted into my mind, “everything is copy” (check out the documentary of the same name). Inspired me to write this and think, wow, my blog was on the edge of 200,000 views (now over). Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined so much blog love. Thank you all.
And thanks for taking this walk with me, you made it easier. Also, Happy Earth Day!!!
Some of you, dear readers, may have noticed I changed my tagline, “Vague Meanderings of the Broke and Obscure”. Why? I’m trying it out, after all, I feel not quite as obscure, my meanderings a tad less vague, ok, this post wasn’t the best example of that…although I’m still broke, despite the unused donate button, lol.
I thought, “Wish you were here” worked better because, well, I do.
Shock and Awww
“Somewhere,
something
incredible
is waiting
to be known.”
~Carl Sagan
People use the word ‘shock’ a lot. The news keeps telling us how shocked we should be. Politicians are always shocked. Most things they use the word shock for, are not, in fact, shocking.
Shockingly, we’re still cavepeople. We just happen to be living in a modern world. The modern trend is toward being positive, but there is a reason humans tend to be negative. It kept us alive. It was important to caution your family, friends, even strangers about: the wolves in the forest, the cliff behind the bush, the saber tooth tiger about to jump on their head, the rabid bats in the cave, the poison berries, and so on. We spoke of, then later, wrote about negative things not always to dwell on them, but to often to help others, protect others. And sometimes, other times, it’s just mean.
Now we warn people about bad restaurants on Yelp, about faulty products, bad apps, terrible service, overcharging, scams, hoaxes, crimes, we even warn people are triggers and spoilers…Constant weather talk, a throwback to warning people about possible dangers. Gossip. Complaining. Oversharing on social media. Maybe it all throws back to this instinct to warn people. And when we feel people aren’t heeding the warnings, more aggressive, provocative, shocking language and images are used.
Things people are shocked by…but why?
1. It’s not shocking when someone dies. Poor, rich, old, young, famous, unknown…it can be sad, sudden, heartbreaking, but not shocking. To the best of my knowledge, everyone dies, unless there’s something I don’t know.
2. People make stuff up to get attention, money, power, and all kinds of stuff. People lie for all kinds of reason and sometimes, for no reason. Stupid, but not shocking.
3. TV, movies, even most books aren’t supposed to be your moral compass. Shockingly many of them contain questionable moral content. They’re entertainment.
4. Adultery and cheating. Why call them shocking? Wouldn’t have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too-cowards be more accurate?
5. News about money, sports, politics that you hear will make no sense whatsoever, sometimes in the same sentence, definitely 5 minutes from now, an hour, day, month, year. Too often confabulation, time-fillers, ratings-getters. When there’s blood in the water, in the race to tell us something, anything there’s little time for facts. Pathetic, pandering, and vacuous, not shocking.
6. Business is meant to be confusing, so don’t be shocked that Guerrilla Marketing doesn’t involve putting guerillas in adorable outfits while using the latest iPhone apps, and The Fatal 2% Rule has to do with market share, not 2% of main characters on TV shows being killed off, cough, cough, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, cough, cough.
7. It’s not shocking when fictional characters do bad things, things you don’t agree with, and even when they die (see #6)…it actually makes them less fictional and more realistic.
8. Relationships are uber complicated, ok, sometimes shockingly so…
9. Celebrities do weird stuff, say weird stuff, and/or wear weird stuff to get attention, you know, publicity. Shocker.
10. People do horrible things to each other, and for each other. You don’t have to like it, but it’s not shocking.
11. Don’t be shocked when people show their true colours and/or let you down, just try not to put yourself in the position where they can do it again.
12. It’s not shocking kittens and puppies are cute. Ok, maybe shock and awww.
We want to warn people of bad things, but it’s also human nature to spread joy, beauty, kindness, happiness and hope…the good. Blogs, books, art, music, poetry, tweets, updates, texts, email, TV, movies – information wants to be shared, given, known, to be free. Don’t be shocked when it does. Be grateful.
Thinking Out Loud
I was never particularly a girlie-girl, despite my mother’s valiant attempts.
You know the drill, cute, bright dresses and outfits (my Mom sewed), sometimes sleeping with curlers or rags in my long chestnut hair, and of course, hair decorations and thingamabobs (bows, ribbons, and remember that yarn in our pigtails?).
It didn’t take.
I wasn’t exactly a tomboy either.
Just a girl, who grew, slowly, into a woman.
My favourite colour now is black (yes, I’m aware it’s not actually a colour; black objects absorb all the colours of the visible spectrum and reflect none of them to the eyes, but humour me). My hair is a sexy (sure, ok) bob, though enduring the awkward process of growing out decades of hair dye. Not a ribbon or bow in sight.
My friends were an intriguing mixture of girlie and not-so-girlie, but we all had one thing in common, we were obsessed with one thing: numbers. Bra size. When we got our first period. How long each period was. How many days between periods. Weight. Height. Phone numbers. How many boys you’d kissed, or wanted to kiss, or who wanted to kiss you.
Oh yes, and occasionally grades in school slipped into that all important number cluster. It was all a numbers game.
From this angle, at this age, those numbers now seem adorable.
Reaching numbers in the 40s or 50s? You might as well have said I’d be driving a flying car, or getting my supper from a food replicator.
Those numbers were Sci-Fi.
Now they’re Non-Fiction.
For decades I’ve ridden the roller-coaster of confidence.
High up, I throw my hands in the air, tasting the ripe plum of thrills; believing I’d made the right choice…knowing I could do anything I put my mind to.
Then racing down, down, down to uncertain, overwhelmed, unsure.
My brain screaming, even if it never reaches my lips.
The sense that I could achieve being mercilessly pummeled by doubt.
Fear whipping cruelly at my hair.
Procrastination punching relentlessly at my gut.
The bar that should be protecting me from falling instead holds me in.
I chase challenges, but crash, tumble, fail to engage. The risks are too big. Too scary.
What if I disappoint?
What if I impress and can’t do it again?
Does everyone ride this roller-coaster, or do they ride the Ferris wheel, a perfect circle of confidence, around and around? Maybe they’re just better at faking it.
I don’t want to be the heroine or the victim in my story, just the writer. The writer who has snacks. Tasty snacks. Maybe a comfy chair or couch. And the ability to share her story.
The internet has helped spread that story. I love the internet, it connects people in ways never, ever imagined. And if you don’t have anyone to argue with, just express an opinion then…wait. And watch some cat videos.
A feeling of lassitude, tedium, ennui grips me. The usual stuff isn’t doing it for me. I have battled the demons of depression and anxiety, unashamed; their claws rake at me, their teeth snap at me, bloody, but not broken, I go on.
This seems like something else, could it be boredom? I hope not. Not my best state. It’s destructive. Causing zoning out, not caring, not engaging, or looking for routes to relieve that boredom, usually with negative consequences.
Boredom doesn’t have to always be bad. It can cause ignition. Spark. My boredom doesn’t feel like a visit from apathy, or its twin, indifference.
I’m not feeling particularly restrained or confined, no more than usual.
I feel thoughts wandering to ways to ease this blanket of boredom. So could this be the searching type of boredom? Looking for something. Open to new possibilities, positive changes? Could anticipation, expectation be masquerading as boredom?
My Grandma would’ve said I should pull up my bootstraps. But what if those straps are so worn, so frayed…just about to snap? She’d probably tell me to dig deeper and pull harder. I’m trying, Grandma.
Each person that crosses your path, friend or foe or otherwise, teaches you something. But what? That you should meet fewer people? Or the person that crossed your path, the person that taught you the most, should have been you. Maybe it was. Is. Should be.
Hungry For More
Easter is here again. It means different things to different people. For some, it’s religious. For some, family, and/or the Easter bunny or all. But like so many things, it revolves around food, and plenty of it – ham, fish, roast beef, yams, hot-cross buns, cakes and cupcakes decorated like bunnies, jellybeans, Cadbury creme eggs, marshmallows peeps, chocolate bunnies, rice krispies treats shaped like bunnies and eggs, bunny bread…
I’ve been binging, this time reading, including, the Popular Culture and Philosophy series from Open Court. Pop culture and philosophy, for me, that’s book heroin. I started with Homeland and Philosophy: For Your Minds Only, edited by Robert Arp. On some level I like this show, https://yadadarcyyada.com/2014/04/03/homeland/ I keep watching it; one thing about it really stuck with me, Brody (Damian Lewis) is compared to a cockroach, surviving no matter what, but bringing misery to others. It describes so many people, oh my, does it describe the whole human race, crawling across the planet’s face?
My next bite was The Ultimate Walking Dead and Philosophy: Hungry For More, edited by Wayne Yuen. I nibbled on each page, snacking on deep thoughts about a deep show; delicious, but a lot to digest (chocolate-covered Daryl Dixon?).
Then I finally gave in, read some of Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook) and her Lean In self-help stuff. Same old, same old, but still good advice and catchy. It’s certainly what we want to hear, that we can succeed by embracing challenge and risk, but is it realistic? We want to believe women are moving ahead, but are they?
We also want to think diets, shifting our body weight to the thinner side will make us happy. It’s important to keep in mind, at all times, correlation is not causation, even strong correlation. I watched the documentary, Fed Up, like Ms. Sandberg’s work, it’s catchy, but with gaping holes and I don’t just mean the to-be-counted-as-sexy-these-days-thigh-gap which I think used to be called bow-legged and wasn’t that medically uncool? I guess having your thighs catch on fire while wearing corduroy isn’t considered ‘sexy’ anymore.
We already know the truth, we don’t need all these books, documentaries, etc. We don’t need a magic pill, that won’t fill our emptiness. We need moderation, in all things. And to stop worrying about what everyone else thinks. I’ve had a long, complicated relationship with food, now I just want to be friends.
I wonder if our aversion to moderation comes from childhoods dominated by promises of dire consequences intermingled with lies. You know:
– Don’t swallow your gum, it’ll stay in your stomach for 7 years.
– Don’t pee in the pool – a dye will show you did it.
– Cracking your knuckles will give you arthritis. Toads will give you warts.
– Don’t go swimming for 30 minutes after you eat.
– I’m leaving without you. We’re almost there.
– It won’t hurt. We’ll see. I don’t know.
– Maybe later. I always know when you’re lying.
– Your pet (insert fav pet name here) went to live on a farm.
– Coffee will stunt your growth. Milk will make you grow.
– Just a minute. Give me a minute (a parent minute is a lot longer than the average minute).
– And the obsession with preserving your eyesight. Carrots improve your eyesight. Reading in the dark damages your eyesight. If you cross your eyes they’ll stay that way. If you sit too close to the TV it will ruin your eyes. I wonder what we’re supposed to think Google glasses, smartphones, laptops, computers, etc. will do to our eyesight?
What about you, dear readers, any gems from childhood? I still feel guilty about stepping on cracks as a child. Sorry Mom. Walking in the rain, dodging worms, I tried to remember did we ever get told, Step on a worm, make your Mother squirm?
I wish you all a wonder-filled Easter. No matter how you celebrate, whether you lean in, lean out, lean up, or just enjoy, I hope you have enough.
This Is Not A Toy
Remember that label?
This is not a toy?
As a child I used to think, really, or is it a toy? As an adult I think, really, or is it a toy?
Labels continue to amuse me. Remove plastic from pizza before placing in the oven. Are we just stopping natural selection with all these labels? Then again, with the taste of some frozen pizzas, who’d notice? It’s also amazing how many “Do not eat” labels on things you wouldn’t possible even think of eating.
One of my all-time favourites is: if you can’t read the label, don’t use this. Huh? So basically, don’t spray deodorant in your eyes, sit on an oven door, don’t use a curling iron internally, don’t drink toner, pepper spray can irritate your eyes, hot beverages are indeed hot, and the list goes on. What’s your top weird label, dear readers?
1. Then again, observing people, I suppose these labels aren’t as weird as you’d think. Like those people who stand uber close to you in line. Do they think it’ll make the line move faster, or I’ll leave, either way, slow down, I’d appreciate dinner before you get that close.
2. What is with eating while driving? Really, is life that busy that people can’t stop and have a sandwich? Try the ‘o’ word: organization. And those poor little Stop signs, they’re getting a complex from being ignored…
3. Who writes these TV shows (“Do you have a swab?, “Did you get the swab?” “Are you out of swabs, how can you be out of swabs, we need swabs!”, what you need to get is a Thesaurus and out of Johnson & Johnson’s, ummm, anyway, I digress), books, and/or movies where all characters race around to keep, like, one main character alive? Does this person secretly have the cure for cancer? Other people drop like flies around them. or because of them, or to save them, but as long as they stay alive (more or less), it’s all good.
4. Money can’t buy happiness, sure, but it can buy food, shelter, security, I’d be way more comfortable crying in a nice house with a pool and not worrying about money all the time. Just sayin’.
5. No wonder young girls are so confused about body image. Women in music videos wearing clothes that could double as napkins gyrating against, well, anything. Men don’t feel the need to dress or act that way. Imagine the time we’d have for equal rights if we had never been told what shape to be, what to wear…who to be.
6. If you find politicians horrifying, pretend they’re children (not a big stretch), stop giving them so much attention.
7. The news keeps taking about how bad the economy is, not news to me, my economy has always been bad.
8. People who complain that you shouldn’t eat non-traditional foods for breakfast clearly haven’t figured out doughnuts are cake which is just like pancakes and you eat those for breakfast, right?
9. People who say they don’t do mornings are doing morning as they say it.
10. There’s nothing better we can do in this world, no greater kindness than making people feel safe, with food, shelter, comfort, love, and compassion, not fear, hunger, prejudice, poverty, and hatred.
My last post https://yadadarcyyada.com/2016/03/09/take-on-me/ had all that talk of adulting, this week I put adulting on hold, went to a March Break matinée (yes, alone and isn’t it a weird reflection on society that if I were a man, I would be seen as creepy doing so; a few rotten apples do spoil so much, still got some looks I was there without a child). I thoroughly enjoyed The Peanuts Movie for $3; $1 went to Kids Help Phone and I got coupons (free popcorn and movies) – charity, coupons, childhood, and reclining seats – you can’t see me right now, but I’m The Breakfast Club fist-pumping in the air.
My point? Labels are just labels (lawsuits aside), common sense is the best label. Hope your weekend (and the First Day of Spring/Spring Equinox) is a warm hug.
Take On Me
Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide,
No escape from reality.
Open your eyes,
Look up to the skies and see…
I’m just a poor girl, I need no sympathy,
Because I’m easy come, easy go,
Little high, little low,
Anyway the wind blows, does kinda matter to me…
If you didn’t headbang to that (preferably in a car with friends), I got nothing…
I’m back, it’s been a rough week or so, including, unfortunately, me being back to my usual sleeping issues – I see why they use lack of sleep as a torture method. Life, you spin me round (like a record). On the bright side, no bail money needed, no visiting the hardware store for: lye, tarps, a shovel, and I discovered I can still discover stuff about myself and others.
I recently got new eyeglasses, progressive ones, a nice word for you’re old, deal with it. Getting old doesn’t bother me, it’s like watching time-lapse photos of myself decaying. Who doesn’t love arthritis, wrinkles, age spots, forgetfulness – what was I talking about? It could be an adjustment thing, but I find myself spending less time online, more in the real world…whatever that means.
Also channeling my inner Popeye, yup, I am what I am with a spinach binge (even spinach tea), which in turn caused St. Patrick’s Day to come early, if you know what I mean…and no one was after those lucky charms, no pot of gold at the end of that rainbow. Enough said.
I see The Bachelor is back, can someone explain this twisted take on Dunbar’s Number? To me, the concept is flawed, if I wanted to date a guy who was dating like 25 other women I would have just stayed in the music scene. And yes, I had to use the Blake Shelton parody (Farm Hunk) from SNL…you’re welcome.
Speaking of reality shows, what’s with that new one, Pumpkin For Prez? Why do we want to watch a caustic, racist, sexist, grandiloquent pumpkin trying to become POTUS? Though funny, it’s on way too often.
I could have done without the white Bronco flashback, do we really have to relive the O.J. Simpson trial? Couldn’t we just assume the LAPD still have evidence impotence? Perhaps Disney and Pixar could cash in on this O.J. stuff to promote Finding Dory. I can picture the trailer now: “Knife? I saw a knife!”. Or the chance for Paul Hogan to revive the nostalgia of his Crocodile Dundee films: “That’s not a knife…this is a knife!”.
The older I get the more I feel like a charlatan, a flim-flam artist, fraud, poser, pretending to be an adult when all I really want is to run through a field with a kite, only stopping long enough to blow bubbles and count how long it takes them to burst. I’m sick of paperwork. Up to here with paying bills, errands, taxes, phone calls, being on hold, decisions, balancing budgets…
I’m queasy from being bombarded, sold stuff, even during TV, movies, books, etc. Product placement I understand, but I watch TV/movies, and read books to be distracted, entertained, having actors ad-roofie me to push it, push it real good for: Segway, cereal, Coke (not the real anything), Apple, Microsoft, fast food, junk food, candy, a car that parallel parks itself (would love that car, by the way), well, takes me out of my enjoyment zone. Instead, I want to tear off my adult costume and spend hours watching tadpoles in a stream. Go barefoot. No matter our age, whether you’re online or not, Adam Lindsay Gordon got it right: “Life is mostly froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone. Kindness in another’s trouble, Courage in your own”…I guess I’ll bravely, kindly continue adulting.
I think I have a slow learning curve, who knows, but I find I don’t mind, I actually like the learning part. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results isn’t insanity, it’s living. So life, take on me, take me on, I’ll be yours if…
How is your week so far, dear readers?
Ex’s and Oh’s
Dear Readers, how are you today? Happy, I hope.
Lately I’ve been in a shall we say, reflective mood, thinking of the highs and lows, cons and pros of being human.
I know, like so many things, it’s complicated.
Let’s start with the Pros:
1. We’re amusing.
I never understand why people go to the zoo when they can watch people instead, such as, on public transit. In one ride I saw: a guy with a bag full of copper wires sucking down a giant blue slurpee who collected paper transfers from the bus floor, tore two apart, licked them, put them together then showed ‘it’ to the driver; another guy was reading a scientific magazine, upside down; a photoshopped woman talking loudly and graphically about her knotty/naughty love life via cellphone; an older gentleman wearing PJs, cool, I did that too, in high school, the top one day, bottoms another, but as I get older I just think, sure, that looks comfy, you could get off the bus and right into bed. Who needs The Oscars? Hop on a bus, be awarded.
2. We’re ingenious.
Really, we came up with all kinds of stuff, like: flying, fire, medicine, books, family, duct tape, technology, chocolate, the internet, music, blogging, swimming inside in the winter, batteries, politicians, money, cake, saunas, friendships, trains, Johnny Depp as a pirate, pool noodle under fitted sheet so a child doesn’t roll out of bed (wish I’d known this when my son was young), driving, driving with dogs on our laps, wait, someone needs to explain this one to me, does the dog think he’s driving, does he even comprehend what driving is, I doubt he passed a driving test, I mean, how did he fill out all the forms, reach the pedals with his paws, not bite the instructor?
3. We’re endlessly curious.
We ask questions such as, but not limited to: “How bad can it be?” (very bad); “Could it get any worse?” (yes); “How stupid can you be?” (have you heard some politicians?).
4. We’re brave.
We live on a planet where the earth shakes, volcanoes spew lava, mountains of snow grow, and storms make us remember there’s no place like home…and then invite tourists, cause it’s that awesome.
5. We fall in love and out of love.
Love can go from oh’s to ex’s…ex’s to oh’s or so I’ve heard…at least, in song. Our hearts can stay, stray, delay, relay, live to love another day. Don’t think my ex’s or oh’s haunt me, but I’d like to think someday my Prince Charming will ride in on his baggage cart and sweep me into his manly arms, yes, apparently in my flight of fancy I’m dainty and light as a feather, his bronzed flesh glowing, huh, glowing? Too much of the X-Files reboot? But I digress…he’ll have room on his baggage cart for my baggage too and we’ll be off, into the sunset (Risky Business-style sunglasses firmly in place), hopefully not ending up like Thelma and Louise, Romeo and Juliet, or Butch and Sundance…
6. We yearn.
For more, for other worlds and explore them through books, movies, TV…finally saw Star Wars The Force Awakens aka A-New-Hope-revisited when I took my son to a movie marathon for his birthday. It was great, but I have to wonder, what is it with people dropping children off on desert planets? Do they think it’s desert daycare? Do they think the children might go all Home Alone on the scum of these wretched hives of villainy? At what point should we just admit they’re bad parents?
7. We all want to be heroes or funny anti-heroes.
Yeah, I saw Deadpool and laughed so hard my sides hurt. I’m having a bit of a Ryan Reynolds week (how often can you say that?), saw Woman In Gold too, how does Helen Mirren do it? But we don’t have to wear a cape, or a mask, have mutant powers, or fancy gadgets…just be good to one another. But if you get a chance to be be Batman and drive the Batmobile, do that too. Kindness is true heroics.
The Cons? Maybe another time, or…all of the above? Anything you want to add?
Blog Your Way
Seeing is believing,
or is it believing is seeing?
Or not seeing is believing?
I’m confused.
There are things we can’t see that we believe in, and things we can’t see we don’t believe in. How do we choose? I can’t see atoms, air, sunshine, germs, Wi-Fi, magic, ghosts, hope, despair, Santa, love, hate, vampires, cancer, pain, mental illness, God, aliens, pain, good, evil, a cat’s purr, microwaves, pollution, carbon monoxide, autism, a baby’s breath…
Should we assume none of these are real?
I can feel the sunshine on my skin, hear a cat’s purr, use the internet, witness the horror of cancer…Geez, at this point, I’m held together with the duct tape of atoms and hope.
If those things are real without being seen, why not the others?
It’s not the same in blogging, we have to be seen. But how?
1. You know those little bubbles in carbonated drinks, all fizzy, tickling the nose, and expanding the stomach? That’s blogging. It can be effervescent, pleasing, irritating, confounding, overwhelming, addictive. And while most of us don’t want to expand our stomachs, we do want to expand our readership. If you’re just doing it for yourself, that’s great, but then why do it online, why not in a journal or diary?
2. Don’t fixate on number of views. Blog as often as you and your readers enjoy. Do it for the fun of it, for money (stupid question, money is a necessary evil), fame, a book deal, movie deal (I just had an image of who might portray me in the movie of my life, Helena Bonham Carter? No, probably Mindy Cohn).
3. The internet is a giant virtual haystack and yes, in this analogy, you are the needle, I am the needle, more specifically, our blogs are the needles. Shift around the haystack – you can’t expect to just ‘be found’, or find others.
Look for blog parties/linky parties/blog shares…
Jason – https://aopinionatedman.com/
Janice – http://mostlyblogging.com/
Danny – http://dreambigdreamoften.co/
Elena – http://www.livingwithbatman.com/
Vicky – http://www.singlemotherahoy.com/
April – https://diapersandtutus.wordpress.com/
And more.
Read, share, like, comment. And blog engagement groups/boards are rampant on Facebook and Pinterest. Twitter is overflowing with hashtag days (Suzie https://suzie81speaks.com/ gets us trending every Sunday with #SundayBlogShare – the lovely ladies at http://honeyquill.com/ give us #LinkYourLife – there’s also #MondayBlogs #TuesdayShares #wwwblogs #BeWoW #bluskyfriday #ArchiveDay #WeekendBlogShare).
Don’t just attend, participate.
4. Spread your blogging wings! Search out other bloggers, not just on their blogs, but follow them into the depths of the social media catacombs…
Where I’m a complete twit: https://twitter.com/yadadarcyyada
Where I’m baffled by humanity: https://www.facebook.com/yadadarcyyada
The dark hole where I lose hours of my life: http://www.pinterest.com/dpark2/
Where I google (seriously, not nearly as fun as it sounds): https://plus.google.com/112672588892199127381/posts
Yet another place to bloglove: https://www.bloglovin.com/people/donnaparker10-6312637
5. Your readers won’t always ‘get’ what you’re blogging about or agree. Some will be disinterested, some downright rude…Keep wandering through the blogging desert (or dessert) and you’ll find the awesome ones, astounding ones, generous ones, hopeful ones, ones that inspire, ignite, and make you overjoyed you ever heard the term, blogging.
6. Blogging is about being part of something, otherwise you’d just sit alone typing…and we’ve seen the movies – that can either lead to a bestseller…or murder.
7. Pay no attention to all blogging advice behind the curtain…Blog your way today. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/04/10/im-hooked-on-a-feeling/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/03/26/why-i-will-never-be-freshly-pressed/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/06/09/to-blog-or-not-to-blog/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/08/27/message-in-a-bottle/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/10/16/you-cant-handle-the-blogging-truth/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/05/12/i-cant-make-you-love-me/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/09/26/the-phantom-of-the-blogging-tips/
As a young child I believed many things, if I watched a movie again the ending might change, or the money I put in the bank would be the exact same money I’d get out…my Mom, who worked at the credit union at the time had the delightful task of teaching me this life lesson when I wanted my ‘lucky’ quarter from my account. Oops.
Now, older, wiser, I may not believe what I used to believe, or have to see to believe; I may not always know what to believe, but I still want to believe. What about you?
Who Loves Ya Baby?
How many times
can you fall off
the planet before
you start to think,
hmmm, maybe I
need better
gravity boots.
My strange week began with me frenetically organizing and cleaning my house.
At first, I thought it was simply having finally read Marie Kondo’s book, the life-changing magic of tidying up: the Japanese art of decluttering and tidying. Though commonsense, it’s all been said and done, in various ways. It’s easy to declutter, you have less stuff that’s more organized. I should write a book. My house looks like a poor woman’s Martha Stewart, with fewer prison ponchos (it’s a good thing).
Then came the gut punch, the calendar explained my sudden need to keep busy – a year ago my 30 year friendship stopped, just as my best friend’s heart had stopped https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/02/06/goodbye-dearest-friend/ I wanted to do anything but think about my losses, all of them, before and after this one. I wanted to drown my sorrows in the bottom of a neatly folded and lined-up sock drawer. To gamble I could keep the traveling elastic bands and pens all in one place, just one more time.
Even after everything was organized, sorted, recycled, and donated, my feelings of pain, loss, and fear still cluttered my house, heart, and mind. So I purged some of those feelings blocking me from respecting joy, hope, and love. I folded my memories into my life; if I keep hanging them, they’ll take up too much space in my emotional closet.
We’re told we need to be smart, work smart, have smart things, but where is smart really getting us?
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For example, if credit cards are so smart, why can’t they pay off their outstanding balances, huh?
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If TVs are so smart, why do we have to spend so much time looking for something good to watch?
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Maybe we need smart pets that feed, groom, and even walk themselves.
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I have a feeling if I got a smart fridge, I’d hear things like: “Are you here again, girl, get yourself a life!” or “What are you doing, Donna, this is highly irregular!”
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Why stop there? Smart coffee machines, ha, amateurs, how about smart coffee that changes itself from espresso to latte to whatever passes as coffee, depending on your mood.
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Someday your smart car will hold you in contempt without a valid high IQ score.
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Smart wine that critiques itself so you can sound like a wine connoisseur, although then everyone will sound the same, so it will be just the wine talking.
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Smart couches that tell us the best spot to park our caboose.
yadadarcyyada 