The ramblings of a somewhat bawdy, opinionated, pop-culture-loving thirty-some-year-old woman who feels like sharing her random thoughts with the world.
I went to my first old person physical a few weeks ago. You know, the kind where they try to figure out all the different ways you're dying faster than you should be and then prescribe 5 new pills for you to take everyday?
I'm overweight, I have heart disease on both sides of my family that stretches back generations, I don't eat kale and legumes and quinoa at every meal, and I like cheese. I was expecting to be lectured, put on a strict diet, and given at least cholesterol meds.
But I wasn't.
All of my tests came back just fine! That paired with the fact that I exercise at least 5 times a week, cut out alcohol, have never smoked, and drink lots of water, my new doctor a very happy camper! Sure, I need to lose weight, and I'm already working on that (down 10 lbs in the past month), but that's it. I couldn't believe it! I only have a 0.6% chance of having a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years. Other than the whole cancer thing, I'm a very healthy human being.
So now I just have to keep doing what I've been doing (thank goodness none of it was a New Year's resolution), and I should be immortal.
It's been over a year of no writing outlet thanks to lack of time, lack of privacy, lack of...material? Eh. But here I am with a free moment and some ambition, so I'll try to do a Reader's Digest version of the past year. No pressure.
2018 was a good year. (If you don't count politics)
I went to see Hamilton in Chicago. It was awesome!
My son finally made it through his required years of education and started college. That was awesome.
I went to a Foo Fighters concert at Wrigley Field. First time there, first concert in over 15 years. It was f*ing awesome.
Took graduated son to the Art Institute for the first time where he got to look at priceless works of art. He thought it was awesome.
Went to a smallish Comic Con - our first one - just to see what it was like. It was...interesting.
So...we have a theme. In the midst of it all, I visited my happy place a few times, saw some old friends, gained weight, quit drinking, lost weight, started doing more for myself, and have remained an all-around happy, healthy and (hopefully) wise person. I'll try to make more time for this lovely little escape in the coming year. I make no promises, but we shall see where this year takes me.
Well, 2018 has started off with a bang. Sub-zero wind chills, a middle-schooler disguised as President tweeting the most insane remarks, and to top it all off, I got the stomach flu.
I haven't had a stomach flu in 7 years (and I only remember that because of this post). I haven't missed it. Of course, now I have my Fitbit telling me just how lethargic I've been over the past 2 days. I guess it will come in handy if anyone at work gives me grief. Oh, and the hourly reminders that I should get up and walk were not appreciated.
A whopping total of 415 steps all day! I'm guessing most of them were taken between my bed and the bathroom.
You think I got enough sleep last night?
Let me add that I believe "stomach flu" should be added as an exercise. I haven't felt my ab muscles this tight in a loooong time.
So, today I'm on the mend but still a bit meh. I have to say, I'm enjoying those everyday activities such as:
Drinking more than a sip at a time in hopes it doesn't come back up
Eating foods other than dry toast and applesauce (neither of which I enjoy)
Showering and applying deodorant
Brushing my teeth
Coffee? We'll see.
Wearing something other than pajamas. (I've upgraded to leggings)
Opening the blinds
Being upright for more than 15 minutes at a time
Let's hope that this is some sort of purification for the beginning of a new year and things look up from here.
Another year down, another look back at what it was.
Let's take a quick look at the good,
The bad,
And the downright confusing.
The Good:
Our family +1 road trip to Colorado. Road trip! Snore through Iowa and Nebraska. Dodge the tumbleweed in eastern CO. Visit family who we haven't seen in what seems like forever. See the mountains. Climb the mountains. See mule deer and elk and moose. Visit Voodoo Donuts. Experience their museums. Partake in legal recreation. Tour The Stanley. CHECK! The only thing we weren't able to do was visit one of my best friends. Next time!
March for Science Chicago. When the going gets tough, the tough make a sign out of poster board and carry it down the streets of Chicago with 60,000 other people holding signs of their own. All those people and not a single incident of badness. Take that, Chicago badmouthers! You can read more about the day on an earlier blog post.
Taping The Daily Show: Chicago. Speaking of Chicago, when you just happen to notice that free tickets are available for The Daily Show that's only taping 2 hours away from where you live, and you visit that site and tickets are still actually available...you get the damn tickets. It was a truly unique experience. It was fun to laugh and boo and want to throw things at the screen with others who feel the same way we do about many things. And it was also inspiring to see and meet people who are trying to do some good in the world - from neighborhood do-gooders to celebrities. You can see us (sitting amongst the people with business connections whose area we infiltrated) in row 5 in the clip below:
Swear Trek on Twitter. Okay, this one came out of left field, didn't it? With everything going on in the world in the past year, nothing quite expressed exactly what was going on in my mind the way this account did. I'm not even that big of a Trek fan, but this feed just gets me. If you have the twitter (or even tumblr), and don't mind a whole hell of a lot of curse words, check them out @swear_trek
Aaron Rodgers liked my Instagram comment. Okay, it's not really one of the best things that happened this year, but I just thought I'd throw in there.
The Bad:
Government. I guess I can just leave it at that, huh? I can't think of one single good thing that happened politically. I mean, I'm sure there had to be something, but there was just so much bad and so many insane people getting so much airtime. I had to take breaks from the news just to regain my sanity...and keep from becoming an alcoholic.
Real world companies not reacting the way other well-known industries did to harassment issues. I'm not going to say too much here, but it's terribly disappointing to do the right thing and put yourself out there when the powers that be don't do what they can to make things right. Some places are still stuck in the 1960's and just don't get it. Where'd that wine go?
Getting older. I don't think I need to say any more than that. Granted, I'm still thankful to be here, I just wish my body acted the way it did 20 years ago. Where's the magic pill for that shit?
The Confusing:
Twin Peaks: The Return. The first time I watched it, I was completely lost and disappointed that it didn't go the way I wanted it to, though I still enjoyed it. The second time I watched it, I was still completely lost, but had no expectations to be disappointed by. Even after reading the book that helped fill in the blanks between series and gave a little more insight in storylines, I still have so many questions. So. Many. Questions.
And that sums it up. Quickly. I'm gonna go crawl into a cave for the next 36 hours or so and come out on the other side of the holiday. I have a few things I'm greatly looking forward to in the coming year. I'm not going to give anything away though. You'll have to keep an eye on my Facebook page or Twitter account or something to see what's going on.
I wish you all time spent with the best of friends, love, laughter, and all good things.
I'm a liberal-leaning person. I don't think that's any surprise to people who know me. This does not mean, however, that I am a "professional" protester. That's not how the Rebecca do.
I attended my first protest when I was in college. Isn't that what college students are supposed to do? The cause? Ummm...I don't really remember. It had something to do with the fact that our apartment-style dorm rooms and hallways weren't being kept up, while the floor that the head of housing lived on was immaculate. I know - major cause, huh? It was a sit-in in the commons area of our housing. Pretty peaceful. Not a ton of people, not very loud or anything, but somehow the Chicago Police were called and someone ended up getting arrested. Drama! The news media was alerted and the next day I somehow ended up showing a TV reporter around our building. (I wish I could remember his name. He ended up in a movie a couple of years later and I was like - "Hey! That guy was in my bedroom!") I was even interviewed for the news (with one of my roommates watching the whole thing because she was too in awe of the reporter's good looks to speak in coherent sentences) which was kind of fun. Unfortunately, the whole story got bumped for most likely two reasons: 1 - It was a pretty lame protest and 2 - It was the same day that John Wayne Gacy was executed. Priorities. Whatever.
Aaanyway, time has gone on and causes have come and gone. Protests have been pretty frequent over the past few years - especially so in the past few months. Some I've agreed with, others I haven't. The ones I did agree with, I didn't participate in for one reason or another. Could have been that there wasn't a protest near me or their mission statement was jumbled and lost or just too vague, or I just couldn't see what a bunch of people holding signs would get accomplished.
So, flash forward to the March for Science. I've been a bit frightened of the number of people in high ranking positions who choose to ignore scientific facts. It's one thing for someone to not believe - I'm sure they've been around the whole time, but the fact that funding is being cut left and right makes me a wee bit nervous. I mean, science saved my life. Research is really important. If we cut funding, how will we ever advance? But, that's enough time on my soapbox, back to the narrative...
I enjoy science. Always have. Well, until high school chemistry defeated me and made me feel like I had no place in the scientific world whatsoever. Now I enjoy reading about science and learning things via internet and museums. I still have curiosity, I just don't have enough left-brain power to be a "scientist". As a supporter of science, and museums, and life, I decided to join the March for Science in Chicago.
Well, something like that...
When the time came, I knew the schedule, the location, but one important thing was missing - My Sign. I knew a sign was very important in the whole protesting thing. I just wasn't sure what direction I wanted to go with it. After doing a little searching, I was still at a loss. I knew what my focus wasn't, but what did I really want to say? After some thought, I came up with "Science saved me, now it's time for me to return the favor." I threw a sign together quickly - very quickly - but it just wasn't working for me. I didn't want a pity party on poster board. So, it was back to the literal drawing board. I had a direction that I wanted to go, but a big blank needed to be filled in. After talking with the hubster, we came up with this one:
Whad'ya think?
As you can tell, I'm not a professional sign maker.
Now, the train station that I go to is the last stop out of Chicago. It's an extremely rural area right next to the WI/IL border, so imagine my pleasant surprise when I saw other people there with signs. As we got closer to the city, more and more people boarded the train with signs of their own. This was a good sign (and it helped me fell less self-conscious about being on a train with a big piece of poster board). As I got off of the train and made my way to the rally point, the number of people with signs and science-related clothing grew and grew. I knew they were expecting thousands of people, but I didn't know they'd all be getting there late like me! Or so I thought.
Once I got about three blocks away from the rally point, the movement of people was basically at a stand still. I had no idea just how many people were in front of me, so I'd put my phone above my head, snap a photo and take a look at it to try to guage what was going on ahead of me, but even that didn't help.
What's going on up there?
Fortunately being there alone had its advantages, one of which was the fact that I could snake my way in between people and get up toward the front a little faster. I still never got that close. I could just barely hear the "kick off" of the march, but we certainly weren't moving anywhere. While we stood there, I took a look around at the other people around me. Their signs were now being held over their heads. That's when I knew that these were my people and I was happy to be supporting them.
Then we started moving. Yay! Slowly, but we were moving. There was definitely forward progress. We finally got to the main road of the march and people spread out a bit. We could finally see everyone around us. There were news helicopters hovering above getting footage, police helicopters in case of anarchy. People of all ethnicities, ages, genders, abilities were there - some were there for the social aspect, checking in on Facebook and Snapchat more than anything, but most people were passionate about why they were there. Another thing that struck me - everyone was kind, polite, said "excuse me" and complimented a sign if they saw fit.
I pulled off to the side for a moment to grab a quick video of the moment:
I moved around the masses, taking in the enormity of it all.
We made our way down the route. What would have normally taken me a half hour to walk ended up taking 2 hours. The ending point was the Field Museum where they were holding a science expo. As we walked under Lake Shore Drive and came out on the other side of the tunnel, I was amazed at the number of people who were still there, sitting on the campus lawn.
And when I made it to the expo on the other side of the museum, there was still another crowd over there.
Since there were so many people, I really only saw those in my section. I had no idea how far people were spread out in front of me or behind me. Only those who lingered afterwards. I figured maybe a few thousand people maybe 10,000 tops. On my train ride home, I checked social media and saw that they had estimated 50,000 people! Fifty. Thousand. (The next day they upped that figure to 60,000!) And there were no incidents. It was like a beautiful river of colorful nerds slowly meandering down the streets of Chicago.
Peaceful protest IS possible, and it was a beautiful thing to see.
No, it wasn't the worst year of my life. (That distinction is awarded to 2014.) But like many people in my age range, it felt like we just had one major loss after another. Throw on top of that a painfully excruciating election year, a highly divided country - including friends and family, and a few personal things, and this year has become an annus horribilis that I (and I believe most of us) can't wait to get past. Here's my look back at the year from my point of view...
****
David Bowie
The year started off with the loss of a true legend. And so shockingly unexpected. I had really only come to appreciate his music as an adult. When I was a kid, I of course knew his Nile Rodgers era of pop, but it wasn't music that I bought. In my world, he was Jareth the Goblin King from Labyrinth. One of the most awesome characters of my childhood. Of course I had a crush on him; that's the way the character was written - as an idol dreamt up by a teenage girl.
Once I got older and started expanding my musical horizons, I really started getting into music from many different incarnations of his career. No one certain phase, older songs, newer songs, I was into it. He was one of those people you just assumed would always be around in one form or another. Immortal. 2016 and cancer proved us wrong and a bit of my heart went along with him.
****
Alan Rickman
So soon after we lost Bowie, we lost Rickman. I know many people think of him as Snape from the Harry Potter movies, but in all honesty *whispers* I'm not a big Harry Potter fan. I think I liked just about everything I saw him in. He was one of my top 5 favorite actors because he was just so good. He morphed into so many different characters and even when he was despicable, you still liked him. He was one of the good ones and suddenly he was gone.
****
Prince
This one hurt. It really, really hurt. In the holy trinity of 80's pop stars (Madonna, Michael & Prince), he was the one who I was a fan of the longest. Sure, I didn't show it as much as I did the other two, but his music was always in my library. Michael was my crush in grade school, but he went kind of...well, you know, and I grew out of it quickly. Madonna was my idol in high school, but I grew out of dance music in college. Prince was another artist who transformed his music, his image, and it always seemed to fit the time. I had the Purple Rain soundtrack on cassette, the Batman soundtrack was one of the first CD's I ever bought. He was one of the first to embrace (and then reject) the use of the internet for music. The man was a genius, he had so much f-ing talent, and he was pretty dang sexy.
I saw the news break on Twitter while I was at work. First that an ambulance was called out to Paisley Park. All I could think of was "No, no, no...lots of people are there. It might not be him." Then the news broke that it was, in fact him, and I found myself saying "No, no, no" out loud. Nobody else seemed to care as much. I had to hold it in. Just that morning I had told my husband I needed more Prince songs on my phone after hearing I Would Die 4 U on the radio. "Pills and thrills and daffodils will kill. Hang tough children."
I had to make a pilgrimage to see this while I was in Minneapolis this year.
****
Gene Wilder
By this point, we knew what kind of fresh fuckery 2016 had turned out to be. This time it was fellow Wisconsinite, Gene Wilder. Yes, when he died it was like a fantastical part of our childhood went with him like he had shot off the globe in a great glass Wonkavator, but then you remembered all of the other great roles he played. One of my favorites was actually the Fox in the live action version of The Little Prince. Ugh, my heart.
His acting, his comedic timing, his charity work. Gilda's Place is an amazing thing and I wish there had been one closer to me a couple of years ago. It was sad to hear that he had suffered from Alzheimer's, but at the same time, I was thankful to know that he was free from that suffering.
****
George Michael
This one is still fresh. I have told some George Michael stories on here in the past, like my grandmother's hatred of him. I remember sitting outside on our front steps with my boom box in grade school, playing Wham! Make it Big and singing along at the top of my lungs. I'm sure the neighbors appreciated it. I remember being alone in the middle school art room after school, putting in my cassette of Faith and singing along at the top of my lungs. I remember putting in the CD of Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 in the 5 disk changer my college loft when I had a moment alone and singing along at the top of my lungs. Do you see a pattern here?
That man could SING! I had just been telling my son a few days earlier that I never heard him sing off key while performing live. It was just amazing! Have you ever heard him sing "Brother Can You Spare A Dime" live? You need to. Let me find it.
I've heard this so many times and watching it now made me completely tear up. My god, what a talent!
****
Carrie Fisher
Talk about being fresh in your mind. This loss might be the hardest of the year. I guess that's pretty obvious coming from me. She played one of my two childhood idols - Princess Leia (the other being Wonder Woman). Leia was strong, put people in their place, lead a rebellion, had a wicked sense of humor, and nabbed a hot scoundrel. I wanted to be her! As the years went by, I learned that she was many of these things in real life as well. Wickedly funny, an amazing writer, an advocate for mental illness and didn't give a hoot what others thought. Well, I take that back. Once she finally came back to her role as General Leia Organa, the media and internet were their hurtful selves and she spoke up about it on her favorite outlet - Twitter.
I still wish to be like Leia, but now I also wish to be like Carrie Fisher.
****
Oh, that was just the celebrity deaths that affected me. I was going to go on about the other stuff that happened like my dad's medical emergencies and the crappy election that we went through and the way people have been acting like children and the fact that I let myself go during all of this and now am the heaviest I've ever been, but I think you guys have probably read enough already.
All I have left to say is Good riddance, 2016. May 2017 be a year of joy whether it takes an ass-kicking to do it or not.
We had a little storm come through last week. It was just enough to blow a transformer in the neighborhood, leaving us without power for three hours. No wi-fi, no air conditioner, no street lights. We finally got sick of sitting in upstairs apartment that was just getting warmer and warmer, so we decided to make the most of it and go out to get ice cream. We pulled out of the darkened garage onto the extremely dark road and noticed that the road seemed to be strewn with leaves. This was somewhat odd because the leaves around here are perfectly green and are hanging on to the trees quite heartily. They're not going anywhere.
That's when we noticed...well...they weren't leaves. It went something like this:
Pardon my lack of ink drawing skills.
Yeah. Frogs.
You see, there's a retaining pond across the street from us, where the frogs serenade us with a lovely tune every night. When the weather gets wet (which doesn't happen much these days), they venture out and about the neighborhood. It's not usually in these numbers though...
My son and I were screaming and there was nothing we could do about it.We drive forward - we run over frogs. We drive backwards to go back where we came from - we run over frogs. We stop in the middle of the road, we'd still have to move when another car came along to run over even more frogs. There were too many to try to dodge. It was horrible. I did the only thing I could do - put my foot on the gas and get it over with, while saying mantras for and apologizing to the poor little froggies that were about to meet their demise. We finally got past the block of hopping amphibians and made our way to McDonalds, but we had no appetite. How many frogs had we possibly killed? It was like the world's worst game of Frogger.
When we went home, still in the dark as the power hadn't been restored yet, we made the decision to bypass that road and go in the back way, but once we got to the driveway, the frogs appeared again. I stopped dead in my tracks. The kid got out and started herding the cute little guys off the asphalt. When all was clear, I finally pulled into the frog-free safety of the garage.
I won't even mention the horror of the sight of many, many frog corpses strewn all over the road the next morning when I went out for my run.
A moment of silence for our green friends, please.
Oh, this election cycle has the country so divided and angry that it's truly sad to watch. I'm not terribly happy with the choices we have in November, so I'm making a wish list of fictional Presidents I'd rather have sitting in the Oval Office come January.
Abraham Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies
Sure, I could have gone with his incarnation in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but this movie was so much better because it didn't try to be what it wasn't. And this Lincoln was intelligent, well spoken, and full of zombie ass-kicking skills. We'll need that come the zombie apocalypse.
President James Dale:Mars Attacks!
He wasn't perfect, but he tried. He listened to others and did what he thought was best, even if it backfired terribly. Can you blame a guy for wanting everyone to "just get along"?
Dave Kovic: Dave
A look-alike replaces the actual President in an emergency and becomes the President we would all hope for. Can this happen? Please?
President Beck: Deep Impact
I know we all feel like the end of the world is coming soon sometimes. Who else would you want to hear calmly telling you about your impending doom other than Morgan Freeman?
President James Marshall: Air Force One
Harrison Ford and this line. Need I say more?
President Thomas J. Whitmore: Independence Day
He stayed in the White House to make people feel safe. He found out all about Area 51. He flew a fighter jet to try to shoot down the aliens. And he gave one of the most inspiring speeches ever. I'd take him over a couple of serial tweeters.
President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet: The West Wing
I'm so sorry that I was late to the West Wing party. I've been watching it lately and dream of a President the likes of Jed Bartlet. We can only hope that come 2020, the stars will align, the Super PACs will dissolve, and a worthy presidential candidate will appear.
