Award Season Begins

We went to see Spamalot yesterday afternoon.  It was a matinee so we were home in time to see all of the Golden Globe awards.

I love the Golden Globes because it's the firsts of the big award broadcasts, followed by the Emmys, the Oscars, the SAG awards, the Grammys (which I don't watch), and the People's Choice awards (which I always consider kind of hokey, since I notice that winners are usually in the audience and non-winners usually are not, so I suspect it's all staged, but still fun).  The other thing about the Golden Globes is that since it's  dinner with alcohol, people are generally more relaxed.

I liked this year's awards ceremony because there was kind of a tacit agreement that all the women would wear black in solidarity with the "Me too" movement.  There may have been women who did not wear black, but I only saw one, the president of the Foreign Press Association, who stood out in her bright red gown.  But everyone else was in black and what an elegant picture that presented.
 

The one thing about these awards is that each year I find out how much television I don'twatch!  There are so many shows I've never seen.  There was a lot of attention to Big Little Lies which, in anticipation, I'd binge watched ... and didn't like. But since it's about bullying and spousal abuse, it is timely.

One of the reason I didn't like Big Little Lies is that even with my hearing aids in, I missed most of the dialog.  BUT last night, after years of owning this TV, I finally figured out how to turn on closed captioning and I might just go back and watch some of it with the captioning on.

I knew Elizabeth Moss would win best actress in a drama, so there was no point in even hoping for a win for Caitriona Balfe (Outlander) or Chrissy Metz (This is Us) but it was nice they were honored with the nomination.  and I was not wrong--Elizabeth Moss won the award.  She's an actress I've never been fond of ever since she played First Daughter on The West Wing.  I knew The Handmaid's Tale would get lots of buzz, so I started watching it, but I first read the book and did not like the story and after the first episode I decided not to continue, since I knew how it ended.  Now I'm kind of sad that I didn't, but not sad enough to go back and watch it.

Oprah's speech following her acceptance of the Cecil B. DeMille award was, of course, the high point of the evening.  Such class that woman has, and such a stirring speech

"I want all of the girls watching here now to know, that a new day is on the horizon. And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say, 'me too' again."

There was lots of buzz after the speech about Oprah running for president in 2020 and I guess now that we have moved onto reality TV as being a qualifier for running for office...why not?  She certainly would be an improvement over what we have now and she might even be able to govern effectively.  Everybody loves Oprah.  I'll bet she could even charm Kim Jung Un. 

Long-time companion Steadman says that Oprah would love to run.  I'll bet she could beat what's his name.  She she certainly is a more stable genius than #45.  But what would Steadman be?  First Gentleman?  First Boyfriend?

And we'd have dogs back in the White House again

(I think my cough is affecting my brain....)

Sunday Stealing

1. What did you do last year that you had not done before?Got hearing aids. I had also never been in a book club lead by my 9 year old granddaughter

 2. Did you keep your New Year's Resolutions/goals for the year and will you make/set more for next year?  What are they? What are your new ones?
As a general rule, I don’t make resolutions because I rarely keep them, but I think I need to make a resolution to be more patient this year, as my mother’s Alzheimers worsens.

3. Did anyone you know give birth? Or become pregnant?  Or adopt?
Nope. I’m at the age where all my friend’s children (and my childreln’s friends) have all had their babies and until THOSE babies grow up, no more new babies.

4. Did anyone you know die? Or have a serious illness/injury?
Too many people we knew died. I’ve lost count, but that’s what happens when you are in your 70s. All of your friends start dying. Social gatherings usually begin with "organ recitals," where you learn who has been ill, had a body part replacled, etc.

5. What places have you visited?
I don’t think I"ve visited any place this year, except Santa Barbara, where our son and his family live. We go there a couple of times a year to visit the granddaughters.  

6. Any new pets? Lost a pet?
Lizzie, our dog of 10+ years got very sick overnight and we were going to have her put to sleep, but she took matters into her own paws and died before the vet could tend to her. I miss her a lot.

7. What would you like to have next year that you lacked this year (doesn't have to be a physical thing i.e. love, job security, peace of mind...)? 
It’s not what I want MORE of, it’s what I want LESS of, and that’s depression over my mother’s condition. She’s physically healthy as a horse, but has zero short-term memory.

8. What date from last year will remain etched in your memory and why?
Since I can’t think of a specific date, I guess nothing etched itself in my memory, but I will never forget the deep, deep depression of watching Donald Trump become president. 

9. What was your biggest achievement last year?
I think getting my mother settled in the memory care unit was a huge achievement.  It is a better place for her and it has eased a lot of the pressure on me as well.

10. Did you get sick or injured?
Thankfully, no

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Hands down, my Instapot!  I expect we will have a long and happy life together. 

12. Where did most of your disposable income go (money leftover after you pay for food, medical care, basic clothing, transportation and shelter)? 
The basics of daily living come out of Walt’s retirement chek and as he pays the bills, I ever see how much that is. I spend about $300 a month on sponsorship of 11 children arund the world, and the rest of my disposable income goes either for little things for my mother, or books for me.

13. What song will always remind you of last year?  Doesn't have to be a song released last year.
I have been "learning Hamilton" by listening to the CD. I haven’t seen the show and probably won’t for 2 years. But "The Room Where it Happened" has been an earworm for some time now.

14. What do you wish you would have done more of?
Probably reading.

15. What do you wish you would have done less of?
Talking with my mother about how old she is for an hour every couple of days. 

16. What was your favorite new TV program? Movie? Album/Songs? Or if you didn't pick up any new ones, what are you still watching/listening to? Any recommendations?
I’m enjoying "Young Sheldon" since I’m such a "Big Bang Theory" fan. And I’m still loving "Outlander" and eager for Season 4 to start.

17. What was the best book you read this year?  How many did you read?
I’ve read 34 books this year (much fewer than last year) and of those my favorite was probably "Silent Footsteps," by Sally Henderson, about this woman’s time observing elephant families in Botswana. (I love elephants and reading about them)

18. What did you do on your birthday and how old were you? Did you feel differently?
I had lunch with a friend, listened to a depressing Trump speech, and reviewed a so-so show (about Lizzie Borden). The next night Walt took me out to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant and then the following day we had lunch at the facility where my mother lives. She had no clue that it was my birthday, nor did it seem to faze her when she was told that, but we enjoyed out lunch anyway. I didn’t feel differently. I think after 65, it’s all downhill anyway! 

19. What political or social issue stirred you the most? 
How much time do you have? This country is going to hell in a handbag, and being pushed by the man who never should have been president. Other than that, things are fine.

20. Who was the most interesting new person you met?
I can't think of that many new people I met, but Jen, the lady who runs the Memory Unit where my mother now lives is an interesting person.

21. Describe how a relationship changed. 
It's not significant, but I used to stay in close contact with my mother's step-son, who handles her finances.  As her memory has gotten worse, he visits less and less and now doesn't even answer my e-mails.

22. Do you think you are still the same person that you were at the beginning of the year?  How so?
Oh probably. Other than the continuing deterioration of my mother’s mental health and my deepening depression about it, not much else has changed in my life. I’m just more resigned about it.

23. Summarize the year in three words or less. Bonus points for doing it in one word. Explain.
Alzheimers. (Does that really need explanation?) 

24. How have people around you changed? 
Mostly my mother. My son also is much easier to get along with, now that he’s 50.  He has often been a godsend.

25. What have you learned throughout the year? (Other than crafts) Alzheimers sucks.

26. Did you learn any new crafts or techniques? What was your favorite thing you made? 
I can't think of any new crafts I learned, except beginning to learn how to get the most out of the new InstaPot.

27. What changed about your physical appearance? (Hair? Wrinkles? New makeup style? Etc) I don't really change, from year to year.  Not even more wrinkles, since the fat moves in an smooths them over.

28. What are your hopes and dreams for the new year?  (Some suggestions-family, travel, work, lifestyle, hobbies, pets, appearance)I hope for improvement in Washington, I know there is no hope for improvement of my mother's Alzheimers, but I hope that she continues to be healthy.

I succumbed

It's the "in" thing to do and people all over the country are sitting at home reading.

I couldn't help myself.  I wanted to be one of the "in-crowd" and got a copy of "Fire and Fury," the expose book by Michael Wolf about the first year in the Trump White House.  Furious Trump was trying to get the publishers to refuse to release the book, so they upped the date by a week and I wanted to get a copy right away.  Wolf says that Trump's ire is the best marketing ploy he could think of:  "The book the president doesn't want you to read."

Every talking head in the country is discussing it and the consensus is that if you're a Trump fan you won't believe it, and if you are not, you'll be nodding in agreement, and be even more shocked than you have been up to now.  It is probably not a book that is going too change anyone, but should definitely line the pocketbook of the author.

I'm not that far into it yet, only up to the night our Glorious Leader won the election, but already it's an interesting read.....how nobody, including the candidate thought he was going to win and he had even promised Melania that he would lose (and as the vote started to go more and more in his direction those weren't tears of joy she was crying). 

In fact, apparently everyone involved in the campaign had post-election jobs lined up and the candidate himself felt that in losing he actually won because he had increased his profile and he was ripe for another reality TV show of some sort.

But he won.  All I could think of that night was that movie where Robert Redford was running for office as a pretty boy with lots of charisma and not too many smarts, whose campaign was run for him by his handlers and then when he won, there was this look of utter shock on his face as he asked .... "what do we do now?"  I somehow envision that happening with the Trump group too.

Anyway, he won and we've seen where that has gone in the last year and I will read more of it as I complete this book.

Ironically, last night I loaded up with a bunch of cold medications, stuck a bunch of throat lozenges in my purse, wore a shirt that I could easily lift up against my mouth to avoid spreading germs and to muffle my inevitable cough, and we went to review a play called "The White Rose."

It is the story of a group of university students in Munich in 1942-3 who are determined to denounce the Nazi regime.  They are arrested by the Gestapo in February 18, 1943 (a date I remember because it was the day after I was born) for distributing treasonous  literature.  Five days later they are executed by guillotine.  For practicing free speech.

It is a powerful play with so many things to consider when comparing their ideals with what is happening in this country today.  In fact, in the program was a sheet listing "early signs of Fascism and How to Combat it in Peaceful Ways" which I want to quote here;

1. Nationalism:  when flags are seen everywhere paired with the idea that your nation is flawless.

2. Destruction of Human Rights -- this could be turning a blind eye to police brutality or the militia being allowed more room to interpret laws.

3. Identification of "the enemy" -- this could be calling one group of people the enemy due to needing a scapegoat or a radical.

4. Controlled media - when the media is being regulated by people in power.

5. Corporate power being protected -- when rich or elite are voted into positions of power and then use the power granted to them to protect their assets.

Make you squirm a little uncomfortably thinking of this compared to #45's administration?  "To combat fascism is to stay informed, inform others, and to elect a diverse group of leaders."

So I came home after the show and went back to reading "Fire and Fury" and listening to the news, learning that #45 had interviewed the candidates to fill judgeships and that one of the candidates that was his choice for judge is a guy who had served on his campaign...to oversee the district that contains most of the Trump properties and all the banks in New York.  Corporate power being protected, anyone?

Most of my adult life I've wondered how the "good people of Germany" could let the 3rd Reich happen.  Now I'm seeing it happen here.

Char is visiting the Holocaust museum in D.C. today and sent a note saying that one of the films she saw there said that "Germans were sure they could control Hitler."  And we saw where that went.  I suspect that #45's handlers felt they could handle him too and now we are seeing where that is going.

If you want me, I'll be in my recliner, coughing and reading.....

Creeping Crud

I cough.  I cough all the time.  I've been coughing all the time since I was a kid and probably the only two people in the world who aren't worried about it are Walt and my mother (before she lost her ability to notice such things).  It's just me.  Probably something to do with allergies, which my father and sister both had but my doctor is not concerned and I'm so used to it that I don't even think about it.

Except in Creeping Crud season.  It seems that once a year, around this time, my normal cough decides to join up with the Mucinex guy...

While I do have an increase in fluids from various orifices, the main problem is that the cough goes from being a mild non-productive cough to being an annoying productive cough which keeps me from sleeping.  It leaves me with a raspy throat and I go from being an alto to being a bass.  In fact it was kind of a shock when I talked to Polly yesterday morning.  I had been awake for an hour, but hadn't uttered any words and had no idea that I had almost no voice.  I didn't know who said "Do you want breakfast?"

The Creeping Crud hangs on for a few weeks, but this is the most intense week of it.  In another week, people will be avoiding me because they think I have a communicable disease and then gradually it will revert to my usual daily cough.  As I said, this has been a pattern for pretty much all of my life.

I did go out yesterday, to get sugar for the marmalade and to pick up toiletries for my mother but I decided that I probably should not be around old people, so I just dropped everything off at Atria's front desk and came on home.  I felt guilty about not seeing my mother, but I couldn't take these germs into Memory Care and it would do no good to call her because she wouldn't remember (if she even knew who I was, since my voice was so altered by the sore throat!)

I came home and took a nap yesterday, got a fairly good night of sleep, and kind of took it easy today.  I was supposed to review a show, but I decided at the last minute to put it off until tomorrow, which means I have three shows to review in three days (in addition to the one I saw on Tuesday!)

I didn't do any Instapot experimenting today, but I did boil a couple of eggs for Walt and me for lunch, mostly so he could see how easy it is and how wonderfully the eggs peeled.

I am easily entertained.

By dinner time, I was very glad I had postponed tonight's show because Mr. Mucinex was having a party in my chest and it would have been difficult to pay attention to a show.  I just hope I can douse this thing with enough Robitussin and lozenges to keep the  coughs under control for two hours.

I also cooked a tasty Home Chef dinner of steak and "smothered potatoes" (smothered with cheese and mushrooms), but my throat was too rough from coughing to be able to swallow comfortably, so I just had my nightly ice cream and called that "dinner."

Tomorrow I think I may make another pot of that oatmeal for breakfast.  It was so warm, so soft, so soothing to my throat.....

Trying Pot

I wrote the other day about how pot is now legal, recreationally, in California (medicinal marijuana has been legal for several years).

I decided it was finally time for me to try pot.  A special kind of pot.

I've been seeing ads for the Instapot and reading glowing reviews about it and thinking about buying one after Christmas with some of the money I had to withdraw from my IRA account.

I finally bit the bullet and clicked on the purchase button.  That's when I learned that if I finally signed up for the Amazon credit card which they have been bugging me about for years,  would get an instant gift certificate which would bring the cost of my Instapot to $9.  Heck, that was an offer I definitely couldn't refuse!

It was delivered today and I attempted to familiarize myself with the very lengthy introduction to my new gadget.  I decided to do a test run on it, as instructed in the book.

First, I had to find a spot for it on my already cluttered counter.  It's too tall to fit into any of the cupboards and I figured I would use it frequently anyway so it deserved a space front and center, right next to the Cuisinart.

This replaces a number of electronic gadgets, so I was able to clear room by moving 2 crock pots and a rice cooker into a pile to be donated to the SPCA.

Got the pot set up, plugged in, and filled with 3 cups of water.  Then, with the instructions at hand, I set it to "cook" for 2 minutes.  (I learned that it takes a long time to warm up before it starts "cooking."  When I opened the pot, there was my nicely boiled water (see?  I can boil water!), which I emptied and then put the lid back on the pot.  Only I couldn't get it to lock.  And in fact, it locked in one spot but nowhere else.  I could neither open nor shut it.

I was getting increasingly frustrated and since my way of "fixing" things is to kick them, I decided it would be better if I asked engineer Walt to look at it.  He, too, was frustrated until he examined it more closely and discovered where I went wrong, and voila!  No more problem.  Now I know how to open and close the pot.  This was a great step forward.

We had a show to review (Something's Rotten, one of the funniest shows I've seen since Book of Mormon) so I couldn't do anything more with the pot, but I fear that trying to figure out what I was going to cook first kept me awake until the wee small hours of the morning.  I wanted to make lemon-orange marmalade, since I have all the ingredients except enough sugar, so that required a trip to the store.  However, since I just bought some steel cut oats and still have a couple of Apple Hill apples in the fridge, apple-cinnamon oatmeal seemed like a good place to start.

But I wasn't going to make oatmeal at 4 a.m., which is why I was sitting up watching YouTube videos on Instapots.  It finally got sorta light and I was hungry, so I made the oatmeal.  Oh my was it delicious!

Around lunch time, I decided to try hard boiled eggs, since everyone raves about how easy and un-screw-up-able they were.  I stuck two eggs in the pot and then went away and came back about 15 minutes later (3 minutes to cook, 10 minutes to release the pressure, 2 minutes of forgetting to check them) and the eggs were perfect. peeled flawlessly and were great, for hard boiled eggs.

My third recipe was the one I most wanted to make -- lemon/orange marmalade.  I had Meyer lemons from Ned and lots of oranges.  I had to buy sugar because the recipe called for three pounds.  I used my wonderful mandolin to cut each of the citrus into 1/8" slices and got it all in the pot.  Then I screwed it up by using the wrong settings and in trying to "fix" it, I ended up with a burned mess on my hands.  I continued on and finished the process, but the end result was a watery, darker than it should be pot of stuff.  I put it in jars, as directed and when it cooled, I had the consistency of black tar -- stiff, sticky and unable to be "spread" on anything.  I was so disappointed.

Plus I was just sick because my sparkling, shiny new pot was thickly stuck with black goo.  However, Walt is my hero.  It took him two days of working on it, but he restored it to like new.

Then  got the idea of taking spoonfuls of marmalade and thinning it with hot water and it worked beautifully and, wonder of wonder, it tasted good.  Too sweet for me and if I ever do this again, I'll cut the sugar, but it's definitely enjoyable.

Now I'm trying to figure out what I can make today, but since I have caught the creeping crud I really don't feel like doing anything, and I may just sit and find Instapot blogs and watch Instapot videos.

So my father was right all those years ago when he warned me about drugs and their addictive properties.  I only tried "pot" once and already I'm hooked.  I'm a pothead.

2017 in Books

When I look over my database for books read in this past year, I am disappointed that it was so many fewer (34) than last year (43).  By page count I read 10,566 pages in 2017 compared to 11,788 in 2016.  I will never equal my all-time high books read, 78 in 2012.  In 2013 I read less than half that number (34).  The reason for that is crystal clear...in 2013, my mother moved to Davis and while I used to be able to listen to a whole audio book in a couple of weeks, due to all those trips to San Rafael, now I may go as long as a week and other than driving to Atria, which takes 5 minutes, I may never drive anywhere, so don't listen to an audio book for weeks at a time.

I set aside an hour or so each day to put everything down and just read otherwise, I might not have finished as many books as I did.

Perhaps the most memorable book(s) read this year involve C.S. Lewis' Narnia Series.  I was pleased when Laurel said Brianna wanted to start a book club and that we would all read the Narnia books (which I had never read).  I  didn't expect all that much in "leadership" from my 9 year old granddaughter, but at our first meeting there were four adults in the room, and Jeri on Face Time and Brianna led a very adult discussion.  Since then, Walt's brother has dropped out and Ned's wife, who was eager to join, never has, but the core group of Laurel, Alice Nan, Jeri, and I are faithful and have read six of the seven books.  I will admit that I will be glad to finish the 7 and move on to our next book, reportedly "The Hobbit".  But this is one of the best things I've done with Brianna since she was born...and Lacie is learning to read so well, she will be joining us as an active participant very soon.

Not surprisingly, of the other books, I read more what I call "blood and guts" books, crime dramas.  Ten of them.  It seems that when I get inundated with serious novels, I need the escapism of a Michael Connelly, Harlan Coben or Tess Gerritsen.

A close second category is novels that aren't crime-related.  Seven of them. I'm not sure if Dan Brown's latest book, "Origin" fits in novel or blood and gore, so I was wishy washy on which category to put it in.  I keep hoping to find a book of the caliber of "DaVinci Code," but it seems each new one is a disappointment and this one was so bloated with irrelevant information it was a struggle to finish. 

No such problem with "Wonder," which everyone was reading when the movie came out.  I didn't realize until I was half finished that it is actually a young people's book, but the story of young Auggie, who has a disfiguring facial abnormality which has kept him home schooled trying to transition to regular school; is a beautiful uplifting story.

"A Man Called Ove" was also a popular read and we did it as an audio book and it was wonderful.  I recommend it.

I put Bill Bryson's "Road to Little Dribbling" in the "travel" category, but it could also be classified as humor.  I love anything Bryson writes and this was no disappointment

In the non fiction category, there were a couple of elephant study books, which I love.  I am endlessly fascinated by elephant societies and each time I read a book, I learn something new.  But I also learned a lot new reading Katie Tur's book about the year she spent covering the Trump campaign.  Makes you want to shake your head at the way his base was played and how he has them so mesmerized that they can't see that he has gone back on every single promise he made to them.  They are just starry eyed and see him as the savior of  this country, not that he is destroying all of things which have made this country great. (And now he is taunting not one but three countries with nuclear threats.)

Since I was dabbling about in kids' books with the Narnia books, and to get away with such heavy material as Tur's book, I decided to re-read my favorite kids' book, "The Black Stallion," an easy read but I decided it probably would not appeal to Brianna, so I didn't give it to her, as I had hoped to do.

I read a few autobiographies.  I chose Jeffrey Tambour's book, not because I am a fan but because he grew up on San Francisco and I found an error in the sample I read on Amazon. I enjoyed history and was crushed to find him on the bad boys list with the likes of Matt Lauer and others.  "A Long Road Home" was more fulfilling, the story on which the movie Lion was based, about a 5 year old getting lost in Calcutta and how he happens to be adopted by an Australian couple...and more amazingly, as an adult managing to find his mother in the small town in India where he lived for five years.

In the humor category was Jon Stewart's "Naked Pictures of Famous People" (which has no photographs in it), a totally insane number of essays.  I also read one of my old favorites, Erma Bombeck, who is always fun.

Two books were written by people I know, one a friend, one an acquaintance.  Both were good, though one got tedious and the other created a main character that I grew to hate.  Writing Amazon reviews was tricky because both books had received rave reviews and I didn't want to be overly critical.

All things considered it was a fair year book-wise, though I hope to be more faithful to books in 2018.  I have SO many on my "I want to read this!" list that I can't seem to read fast enough to devour them the way I want.  Fortunately Diana Gabaldon isn't scheduled to publish her 9th book this year....that will be a >1000 page book that I will have to read immediately.  But not this year.

2017 in Review

I've done this the last few years, though I don't think I did it last year.  It's kind of depressing, the similarity from year to year! 

1. Was 2017 a good year for you?
On the whole good.  Some very nice things, but everything is always overshadowed by my other's worsening dementia...and this year, the shenanigans in Washington, DC.

2. What was your favorite moment(s) of the year?
I think it was the first book club meeting in Santa Barbara, where we gathered to review the first two Narnia books.  It was so much fun, all of us adults sitting there at a meeting led by 9 year old Brianna.  We've now had three meetings and she is totally professional each time...and soon Lacie will be reading well enough to join the discussion too.

3. What was your least favorite moment of the year?
Trump's inauguration.  Things went downhill from there.

4. Where were you when 2017 began?
At the same party thrown by The Psychiatrist and his wife that we went to last night.  This year there were fewer people we knew and more that we didn't know, but it was still fun..  

5. Who were you with?
Walt and lots and lots of other Davis people.

6. Where were you when 2017 ended?
As I said, at the same party

7. Who were with when 2017 ended?
A lot of people we have known longest in this town.

8. Who did you miss?
My sister Karen, who was murdered in 1971.  We were never close growing up, but boy do I wish she were here now to share the worries and decisions about our mother.

9. How many different states did you travel to in 2017?
I don't think we have been out of California this year.  Our only trips, I think, were to Santa Barbara.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No, but I did finally get hearing aids.

11. Where did most of your money go?
About 1/3 of my small income (my personal income, from theater reviews and Social Security) pays for my sponsorship of the children I sponsor through Compassion, Int'l.  The rest goes to books! Occasionally I have a bit left over to put into savings.

12. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Hmmm....I guess moving my mother to memory care, where they watch her more closely and, best of all, they do her laundry too.

13. Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2017?
I drink almost no alcohol.  I can't remember the last alcohol I drank, other than a shot glass full of raspberry liqueur when I was making cheese fondue.

14. Did you do a lot of drugs in 2017?
Only prescription ones.

15. Did you treat somebody badly in 2017?
I hope not.  I have been irritated with some people regarding my mother's care, but I hold my tongue because I'm so grateful that they are taking care of her.

16. Did somebody treat you badly in 2017?
Nope

17. How many stage shows did you see in 2017?
About 60 that I reviewed on Bitter Hack and a few that I reviewed for the News and Review and didn't post on the blog or shows, like Lamplighter shows, which I don't review at all.

18. Did you have a favorite stage show in 2017?
I wasn't wildly enthusiastic about any one show, especially not Beauty and the Beast, which I saw three times and reviewed twice!  But there were a few that I liked more than others.  Hand to God was a weird, but hilariously funny comedy about a puppet possessed by the devil. Concussed: Four Days in the Dark was a one-man show by the wonderful Jack Gallagher, open, raw and yet funny about the results of his biking accident which resulting in traumatic brain injury.  He had to remain in a darkened room with zero stimulus--not even radio.

19. What was your favorite film of this year?
We saw 3 movies this year -- Beauty and the Beast because our guest Caroline wanted to see it, Star Wars with the family, and Jane about Jane Goodall.  Of the three, Jane was my favorite.  There were lots that came through town that I wanted to see, but somehow we never got to them.

20. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 74.  On my actual birthday, I had a show about Lizzie Borden to review...not my favorite show!  The next night Walt took me to an Italian restaurant here in town and on the next day, we met my mother for lunch at Atria.  She actually wished me a happy birthday, but I'm not sure she knew what that meant.

21. What did you want and get?
Nothing specifically for my birthday, but I did finally get a ceiling light in the kitchen for Christmas.

22. What did you want and not get?
World peace.  A different president.

23. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2017?
Thick fuzzy sox and sweat pants.

24. What kept you sane?
Writing Funny the World, I guess.  NCIS marathons are good too.

25. Which celebrity/public figure(s) did you fancy the most?
I don't usually "fancy" celebrities, but I have to admit that Sam Heughan and Caitriana Balf, of Outlander have really been fun to watch.