November Words of Wisdom

I live by the ocean. I find that whenever I need something more than what I have inside, that the ocean gives it to me. I walk to the stairs that lead down to the beach. I don't eve have to put my toes in the sand...I can just stand on the cliff..watch the waves lapping at the shore...the sunlight hitting the top of the crests...and there is something very energizing about it, something very calming...It renews my sense of wonder and renews my sense of spirit, and my sense of myself. --Jill Alman-Bernstein

Dance with the waves, move with the sea. Let the rhythm of the water set your soul free. --Christy Ann Martine

The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul. --Robert Wyland

There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life. --John Lennon

It has been said, "time heals all wounds". I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue, and the pain lessens. But it is never gone. --Rose Kennedy

Growth is painful. Change is painful, but nothing is as painful as staying the same. --Dr. Sebi

Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul. --Alice Walker

Screenwriting is the most prized of all the cinematic arts. Actually, it isn't, but is should be. --Hugh Laurie

To escape and sit quietly on the beach - that's my idea of paradise. --Emilia Wickstead

To sit in silence at the shore, watch the waves and hear the surf, is to appreciate the very breath and heartbeat of the earth. --Doe Zantamata

Just because everything is crazy around you , doesn't mean it has to be crazy within you. --Courtney Carver

Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life. Tiptoe if you must, but take the step. --Unknown

How to begin rebuilding life from within? Love yourself, unconditionally. Release your bottled up emotions. Make time for long walks, alone. Avoid living beyond your means. Nurture your inner strength. Stop apologizing for being you.Surround yourself with positive people. --Melissa Zoske

Not all girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice. Some girls are made of the beach and wine and everything fine. --Unknown

Sometimes we need fantasy to survive the reality. --Unknown

Sometimes I get frustrated when I'm trying to write and my mind keeps flying off on tangents. Then I realize if my mind didn't fly off on tangents, I probably wouldn't be a writer. --Rick Riordan

It's fireplace weather!

But alas, no more fireplace. Because I am the queen of bad decisions.

Sorry, Sophie.

The latest addition to the salt & pepper shakers collection

Got these a few weeks ago, can't believe I forgot to post them. DONUTS!!!

Thank you, Cost Plus World Market!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We are now in the food coma phase of Turkey Day.

Hope yours was happy and yummy too!

'Tis the season...

Can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving already, but it is! And you know what that means...

Actually, I think we've been well into Pumpkin Spice Everything season for a while now. It's become like Black Friday and Christmas stuff out in stores - it's coming earlier and earlier every year. No joke, I saw a commercial recently for a retailer whose Black Friday in-store sale starts Thursday at 2pm. Thursday. Thanksgiving Day. They're not even waiting for people to finish their dinner these days. As much as I don't approve of overreaching government control, I almost wish stores were required to hold off on starting Black Friday until, you know, Friday.

Anyhoo, hope everyone has a wonderful turkey day! And if you're actually going to wade out into a store or mall this weekend:

Revenge is the best...revenge

I'd love to hear about someone actually pulling this off:

H/T to I'm not right in the head on FB.

Spaaaaaaammm!!!

So, I got this "email" from "Amazon" this morning warning me that my Amazon account was being suspended and that I needed to click on the provided link and update my account information.

Riiiiiiight.

Oh look! An email from "amzoun". I must get right on this.

My "informations".

When I hover over the link, this is the actual address it directs to.

I can't believe people actually fall for this stuff, but I went ahead and reported it to Amazon anyway. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday looming, it would be easy for someone planning to do some major shopping to panic and give their information to the scammer.

If you receive something like this and want to report it to Amazon, instructions can be found here.

Be careful shopping out there, people!

"Quack" at the Kirk Douglas Theatre

It's been a while since I went to a live theatre performance, and gotta admit, I missed it. Luckily, Sunday I headed to Culver City to see Eliza Clark's "Quack" at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, and I highly recommend it.

"Quack" is the story of a popular, long-time medical talk show host whose world falls apart after a fledgling writer publishes a massive hit piece on him.

Dan Bucatinsky seamlessly inhabits the egotistical Dr. Irving Baer, whose reluctance to commit to the importance of vaccines for children one way or the other has been misinterpreted as his being anti-vaccine. This has led some of his devoted viewers to refuse to vaccinate their children, a couple of whom have recently died in a measles outbreak. River Thumbolt (yes, it's her real name) has used that unfortunate event as the basis for a magazine "expose" of Dr. Baer, putting his lucrative empire at risk, and setting off an increasingly vindictive battle between doctor/TV star and ambitious journalist.

Also involved is Dr. Baer's seemingly spineless assistant/sometimes co-star Nurse Kelly (Jackie Chung), his human bulldozer wife Meredith (Jessica Gilsig) and Brock (Nicholas D'Agosto), an ardent online anti-feminist who becomes an unlikely secret ally. The cast is terrific, especially Gilsig, who elevates Meredith beyond more than just a stereotypical high-maintenance trophy wife. I thought that Shoniqua Shandai, who played River, was distractingly wooden in her first scene where Baer confronts her about the article (she seemed to be reciting her lines), but it may have been her way of playing River as smugly confident of having the upper hand over her subject. She warmed up later in the play as River got a taste of her own medicine when her own dirty little secret and emotional baggage were revealed.

The play takes aim at modern-day yellow journalism, social media, the wellness industry, the weight loss industry, feminism, anti-feminism, daytime television, and fame (both the acquisition and the loss thereof), and it does so with a pleasantly surprising even hand. Brock could easily have been a right-wing nut job caricature, but he's probably - at least outwardly - the sanest of the bunch. When Baer learns that River's article has earned her an interview on CNN, Kelly tries to calm him by noting that, "Nobody watches CNN." A lot of potshots that could have been taken were not, which was a refreshing change compared to a lot of entertainment these days, and it was much appreciated by this audience member, as that kind of stuff takes me out of the story when it gets too heavy-handed.

I also absolutely loved the set, which is Dr. Baer's office in various forms as his career deteriorates and his mania to salvage it while also digging up dirt on River progresses. As a career assistant, it reminded me of every office of a high-ranking executive that I've ever been in. I was so taken with it that I asked for (and received) permission to take a picture of it.

Degrees, sports memorabilia, artwork, golf clubs, African masks, citations, whiteboard,
post-its...they didn't miss a thing. And how about my seat - dead center!

"Quack" runs through November 18, so you still have time to check it out.

Great news - Writer's Police Academy lives!

My suspicion that this year's Writer's Police Academy - which I attended in August in Green Bay - would be the last, has fortunately turned out to be completely wrong. Today it was announced that next year's WPA will take place August 1-4, 2019.

And that's not all - the conference is returning to North Carolina. Instead of Greensboro/Jamestown, where it was located before moving to Wisconsin a few years ago, it's been relocated to Raleigh. So long, cheeseheads!

I don't know the exact location in Raleigh, but whatever it is, it's got a tough act to follow in Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. The peeps at NWTC were so damn organized, it couldn't have been easier to navigate. I almost feel kind of bad we're not going back there. They were just great. Beautiful city, too.