Month: June 2020

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The Greatness That is Joss Whedon

I made a decision Thursday evening, nay, a commitment, I was watching the current episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and it made me want to watch the first Avengers movie. But I felt I had to earn it, so I started with Ironman and worked my way towards The Avengers, Earths Mightiest Heroes.

I still laugh in all of the appropriate places and get goosebumps when the team is shown altogether for the first time, suited up. It’s a magical time and place, almost like Tahiti.

What makes it so magical you ask, I’m so glad you did, it is Joss Whedon of course. He injects the right amount of humor, horror, fun, adventure and gives us heroes with flaws and it is all perfection.

They are all unapologetically human, even Thor, who is Asgardian, they all bicker and fight and are snarky and sarcastic and in the end have each others back. Just like family.

Joss writes amazing female characters, from Buffy to Willow, Cordelia, Fred, River, Kaylee, Inara, Zoe, Faith, Echo, Sierra, Whiskey and Adele. So from the beginning I knew he was going to do Black Widow justice, and he did, she was smart, funny, strong, intuitive and inventive. She can think on the fly and can make the bad guys hurt.

You can see Joss’s influence throughout the whole movie, one of my favorite lines is “he’s adopted.” Simple, but works and is funny, I still laugh.

If you have not watched this movie I suggest you bone up on Buffy, Angel, Firefly, The Dollhouse and yes, Agents of SHIELD, then watch all of the Marvel movies that come before The Avengers. It might take you a few weeks but I think you will enjoy it more.

You can also see Joss’s influences in Endgame and Infinity War. It’s the humor, it is trademark Whedon, you cannot have such heavy movies without the humor, otherwise you come out of the theater felling like you have been beaten down.

I think if I ever met Joss Whedon I would just pass out, it would be far worse than meeting Dean Cain or Scott Baio.

He is not a crush, he is an intellectual crush, which is much worse when it comes to meeting someone.

Speaking of crushes, I am in a Twitter war with someone over Luke Pasqualino, I shall win, of course. When I say Twitter war, I mean fun back and forth banter over an actor. I will win of course. Of course.

This next week will be a short one with the holiday, then next week I shall be spending it with Tessa.

I hope you all have a great day and enjoy some television! Go, learn about Joss and watch his greatness unfold in front of you! Oh and may I suggest his rendition of Much Ado About Nothing, that was awesome! I’m a big fan of Shakespeare as well and he did that play justice.

As usual any comments, questions or criticisms can be sent to me at angie@angieworld.com. Peace out peeps!

 

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The Fight Continues

Since my last post I have had several suggestions in my fight to regain my semblance of normalcy with the battle against menopause.

Such an ugly word, isn’t there a better one? I mean I feel like I am battle to keep who I am, to keep the enemy at bay. To keep my standing as Empress of the Universe! Or at least Angie World.

I asked a friend of mine, Amy, who is just genius at finding natural armor against any fight known in the human world. She had a few suggestions, I also received suggestions from another friend from what her mom had done in this battle. It is not something we need to fight alone, the word itself, due to it’s ugliness, confines us in an alone atmosphere. The word that cannot be said in polite company, the one that makes people cringe. No more I say, let’s normalize this! It happens to ever single woman on the face of the planet!

Which begs the next question, does it happen on other planets? I hope I live long enough to find out, I digress, here are some of the things I am trying. Mind you I just bought them yesterday as that was my normal store trip. I shall report again in one week, we shall take this one week at a time. Here goes:

Organic yams (not the first time I have heard this, great suggestion)

Pre-natal vitamins, this is a first I have not heard that before.

A combination of peppermint and clary sage essential oils in a roll bottle.

Phytoestrogen complex, this I had never heard of, I went to Whole Foods and was directed to the brand EstroPause. I bought that, will report back.

Maca powder, in smoothies. Not sure what this does, but I am willing to try it.

I also found, at Whole Foods something called Nighttime Comfort, it is supposed to help with the hot flashes at night.

I will take pictures of everything I bought, except the yams, I hope you all know what that looks like, and put them on this post. I have also put an order in for the Doterra LLV supplements.

Also a diet high in healthy fats and less carbs, which I do already.

Give me a week, we shall see if I am back to my feisty self, on another front I am getting my week with Tess.

I shall have her week after next, I am very excited, we will not have our normal adventures but I do have a few surprises to make our time memorable.

I found a Twinkie maker! How cool is that! It has recipes and we will shop for the ingredients and make them. Hopefully some family members can join us for the Twinkie making, that would be lovely.

I finished the last episode of Eureka this morning, I had forgotten how it ended, it was satisfying. Some series do not end on a satisfying note, but this one did.

I hope you all have a great weekend and a fantastic week.

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The Forbidden Topic

I’m going to do it, I’m going to talk about the thing that makes people so uncomfortable. When you say this word they squirm, fidget and change the subject.

Menopause, it is killing me, I have survived a lot in my lifetime and this is the thing that is going to do me in.

I seriously dread getting my electric bill this month, I am setting my thermostat to 66 degrees at night.

I still wake up with hot flashes, 4 to 5 a night, I can’t remember the last time I got a good nights sleep.

I have a few during the day, those are bearable, the ones at night are the killer ones.

Also, my left hip flexer hurts at night, burning pain, the only thing that makes it any better are my sleep pants. Which are compression pants, if I don’t wear them I wake up in sever, burning pain.

But when I wear them, the hot flashes are worse, so it is a horrible catch 22.

Let’s move on to the headaches, I am getting headaches now behind my right ear. It is a weird pain, that lasts about 30 seconds. Those thirty seconds are searing, it’s crazy, I don’t understand what is happening to me.

Let’s move on to the weight gain, I walk/run twice a day, I do lifts with a 25lb kettle bell in-between calls.

I gain weight if I eat, I gain weight if I don’t, I’m tired all of the time because I cannot get a good nights sleep.

I will tell you this, my hair is full and thick, thanks to all of the collagen I am consuming and the Fitish hair serum.

So there’s that positive, but everything else, it’s insane.

Thank God I am going through this alone, I don’t even know how I would survive if there were anyone else here.

How do women do it? I don’t even know because no one talks about it! It’s not like child birth where everyone is dying to tell you their story. This is such a taboo subject, I don’t know why.

I need other women to tell me how they did it, I really don’t want to do synthetic hormones but I am at my wits end and am ready to just tell the dr to patch me up.

On another note, I finished what is out of the series Our Girl, it is on Brit Box. It has Luke Pasqualino in it, one of my new friends on Twitter suggested it. She is brilliant, the show is brilliant, he really isn’t in that many of the episodes. It kept my attention even when he wasn’t in the episodes. It is that good, I highly recommend it, it is on Amazon Prime for part of the seasons, the others you have to get Brit Box for it.

Right now I am rewatching Eureka, I love that show, it is really fun. I highly recommend that as well.

I also got to see a picture of Dean Cain training to be a police officer. That is a good look on him, I am completely torn in my loyalties, let’s face it, Luke is way too young for me, but Dean seems out of reach as well.

This may be the menopause talking but I may have overreached in my goal of marriage. Nah.

It’s still doable, as I am not dead yet, I hope you all have a great week, I would love to hear any stories of how you survived menopause.

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Foyisms

Since it is Father’s Day I’d like to share what I call Foyisms, they are the things my dad would say. He was incredibly wise and very funny, everything came with a dose of humor. So sit back and enjoy a few Foyisms:

Its better to laugh than to cry. He lived this one, he would find the humor in almost everything.

This is not Thumper, for goodness sake stop yelling! This was after he brought a skinned rabbit in the house for my mother to cook.

Don’t let the sun set on your anger.

You can call me anything, just call me in time for dinner.

You can just get glad in the same britches you got mad in.

Don’t eat any worms! (as I was leaving the house mad, in case you are not familiar with this one, there was an old song: Nobody likes me, everybody hates me I’ll just go out and eat some worms).

Quit putting on war paint and get in the car, we’re going to be late for church. (war paint was makeup)

Speaking of:

All of that war paint is going to stain your face that color.

If you put on that war paint no one will recognize you

And my ultimate favorite:

If you don’t behave I will throw away your war paint.

Stand up for those not able to stand up for themselves.

If you follow Jesus he will not lead you off of a cliff, the way your friends will. (Tammi he wasn’t referring to you, it was Pam.)

You’re the getting in trouble kind of pretty, so no, you cannot leave the house with that boy I don’t know.

And after I got my first job, if you don’t have anything to do, pick up a rag and clean, they are not paying you to look pretty. (They weren’t for the record, it was TG&Y)

Those are just a few, I miss my dad and his wisdom, I miss him a lot, some days more than most.

He didn’t have to be my dad, he chose to be my dad, and he was the best dad.

Happy Father’s day to all of the dads out there, may your children remember your witticisms long after you are gone.

 

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Dean Who?

The summer before 5th grade, when I was 10, I read The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas for the first time. I was convinced I was going to travel to France and become the first girl Musketeer. No one had the heart to tell me about the French Revolution, there was no king, hence no Musketeers. When I found out I was so mad, how dare they have a revolution before I could become a sword wielding  champion.

Since then I have loved every movie or show depicting the Musketeers. There is one I just discovered on Hulu, it is called simply The Musketeers. I must say it is well done, of course anything with Peter Capaldi as Cardinal Richelieu is nothing short of brilliant.

I met him, have I told you that? Peter Capaldi, he was super nice and didn’t make me feel dorky at all.

I digress, this particular show has an actor playing D’Artagnan is so amazingly pretty. I am telling you he has me saying Dean who? He has perfect hair, just enough scruffiness and plays D’Artagnan perfectly. Dean is the prettiest man in the universe (Superman duh) but this guy, he has earth.

He was always my favorite character, self-assured in his youthful exuberance, loyal to the king and so very pretty. Did I mention that? This is a BBC production, the actor is British, I am almost ready to go to England and find him.

Luke Pasqualino is his name, he is of Italian descent, I looked him up.

He was also in Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome, I thought I recognized him while I was watching the show.

Watching the show and remembering my time in training for becoming a Musketeer, yes, I learned to sword fight, made me think about everything I wanted to become and didn’t.

There were so many things I wanted to do, Musketeer, intrepid girl reporter, singer (that one was never going to happen), a Solid Gold dancer, dancing on American Bandstand and Soul Train. The last two were real possibilities if I had been born sooner, but alas it was not to be. None of my childhood career choices came to pass, trust me, I never dreamed of tech support.

As one does when they take stock of all of their failed dreams I began to become morose. Then I thought back to the one thing I had wanted to become since I was 5 years old. A mom, I always knew I wanted to be a mom, and I did that.

I am so proud of how my children turned out, I like to think I was an ok mom. Anyone who thinks they are a perfect parent, you’re not, we all make mistakes along the way. Except my mom, she was the total exception, I feel like we should all feel that way about our moms.

I hope my children think I did an ok job, I told them while they were growing up that if I messed up too badly I’d pay for their therapy when they were grown.

None have taken me up on that, yet, so far, so good.

In conclusion, watch The Musketeers, I need someone to talk to about the show!

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Fat Catstard

This morning I awoke to the most disturbing thing ever. Fat Catstard was casually lying on my chest, staring me in the eyes and softly meowed. Correction, it was more like mow, very soft, very low.

Much like the scene in Endgame, when Thor is on the Guardians of the Galaxy’s ship and Starlord says I’m in charge and looks at Thor. Thor says Of course. The looks Quill in the eyes and whispers of course. That is exactly the same look Fat Catstard had this morning. Letting me know he is in charge but allowing me to think I am.

So I gave Stormie and Ronald new babies that look like them, Storm loves hers, Ronald hisses at his. It’s very amusing to watch, could explain the menacing meow this morning.

I left my house Thursday evening to go to Costco and Target. Highly successful trips to both, Target of course got way more of my money than I had intended. Darn them and their terrific layout and tempting products.

Friday I had to have a technician come and move my RG, which is a residential gateway, modem, router, whatever you want to call it that is what it is.

He was here within the appointment window and did his job and left within 10 minutes. It was a great appointment. That’s really all I have for now. I hope you all have a rest day, peace out peeps.

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And Now for Some Seriousness

So someone on twitter said they didn’t understand the Black Lives Matter thing, they said don’t all lives matter. Yes, all lives do matter, however, that is not what is being said, that black lives matter more than anyone else’s life.

A friend of mine, Anthony, posted a meme that explained it very simply and so elegantly that I asked if I could share it. He said yes, so I am going to post it here, but I wanted to expound on it as well.

Once again, I am not an expert, I am not black, I have never lived a black experience. I simply thought that the information I am going to give everyone was thought provoking.

Everyday we are learning about each other, even though we have all been on this earth for thousands of years we are still learning.

Ignorance is not bliss but ignorance can be corrected, I would rather speak with someone ignorant than an idiot. I recognize not everyone is as exposed as others as far as interacting on a daily basis with people of different cultures, skin colors, accents or whatever the difference is.

I am going to tell you a story my mom told me to maybe bring a little light to how we are all continually learning and evolving.

When she and my dad were traveling from Oklahoma to California during the depression looking for work their car broke down in New Mexico.

There they were, on the side of the road, darkness approaching, with two very young children. The only people that stopped didn’t speak english. They were Hispanic, they managed to make my parents understand that they should go home with them and they would take care of the car problem in the daylight hours.

So my very trusting parents went with the people they didn’t know, the people that were a different skin color, people that didn’t speak their language.

My mom said these people shared their food with them and made sure they got a good nights sleep. The next morning they drove them back to the car and helped them fix it, gave my parents food for lunch and sent them on their way.

My mother had never met anyone that was not like her, she grew up in very rural Oklahoma. She said that it taught her something, she said we are all alike, we all just want to really help each other and make sure our children have a better life.

Ignorance can be cured, stupidity cannot, we should all remember that. Love also is a big cure for ignorance, God bless those strangers and their generosity, they not only helped a young couple, they showed them that even in our differences we are the same.

Here is the meme, I hope you read the words as they are intended and I hope you all have your moment in the daylight, realizing we all just want better for our progeny.

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Happy Birthday Dad

Today is my dads’ birthday, when he was born he wasn’t expected to live. He was a twin and he was the smaller one, the midwife told his mother (my great grandmother) that it would be a mercy to let him die. She wasn’t about to allow that to happen. She was a midwife herself. She saved his life and he thrived. I’m awfully glad my great grandmother was so determined.

I’m so happy he was my dad, I know most people feel that way about their parents, but my dad didn’t have to be my dad. He chose to.

The other day I say something on my Facebook timeline that brought an incredibly strong memory of my dad so strongly that I feel the need to document it.

Back in the olden day, 1980 to be precise, there was a shoe craze that overtook the nation. Waffle stompers, I had to have them, I craved them. My mother said no, even back then I loved heels, I wore them all of them time. My mom said that I would never wear them and she was not spending good money on something I would only wear once.

My dad, seeing how sad I was at not getting the shoes, told my mom he would take me shopping for school clothes that year. Mom was relieved, if you have ever taken a teenage girl shopping you will feel her immense relief.

So my dad and I went to Tulsa to go shopping. We hit all of the sales and he let me get what I wanted. It was the best time.

Then we went to JC Penney, to the shoes, I spied the Waffle Stompers. I picked up a pair and looked at them longingly. My dad said try them on, I did and it was love at first step.

My dad bought me the shoes, he told my mom that he wanted me to have them. That was that, it turns out those would be the last shoes my dad ever bought me.

My parents bought me other shoes, but those, they were the ones my dad took me to get.

I kept those shoes until about 4 years ago, when they finally fell apart.

My dad was an amazing man, his laugh could fill your soul with joy and envelope you in warmth. He taught me what a real man is. Kind, generous, loving, funny, smart, God fearing and welcoming.

I’ll always treasure the time I had with my dad, I didn’t get to have him for as long as most people get to have their dads in their lives. I’m grateful for the time I had.

Happy Birthday dad, I hope mom makes you a coconut cake with marshmallow fluff icing.

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