Boy, I just noticed how long it's been since I've visited over here.  I guess it's been a long time in between Doctor Who specials. 
I am in a play myself out in Littleton, Ma called Rookery Nook.  It's a British farce and it's hysterical.  Anyone in the Area come on by.  www.artsboston.org/event/detail/50267

Doctor Who star David Tennant to reprise his role as Hamlet on BBC2

I got this from Earlgreytea68

I don't usually look back at my life that long ago, but I have been a bit lately, so here goes nothing.  

1. Did you date someone from your school? Yes, but no one very seriously.

2. Did you marry someone from your high school? Absolutely not.

3. Did you car pool to school? No.   I mostly walked.  Tucson High was less than 2 city blocks away from where I lived.  

4. What kind of car did you have? I didn't have a car; I relied on friends, my bike, and my mom. We had a huge green Ford LTD.  She refused to teach me how to drive.  My stepmother taught me how, she was appalled that I couldn't drive, didn't get my license until after I had graduated.   

5. What kind of car do you have now?  A minivan, a Jeep Wrangler, and a Volvo convertible.  Oh, and I just got back from taking my 16 yr old out driving.

6. It's Friday night...where are you? (then): I was either at a football game in the fall, the theater (school or community), a concert, or a party with friends.  Once I was back in Utah, if I wasn't at home, I was at Eric's, or sometimes a rehearsal; I did  two plays, and  I suppose there were a few concerts.  

7. It is Friday night...where are you? (now):  Mostly at home, sometimes at the mall.  I am so boring now.   

8. What kind of job did you have in high school? I only had one summer job, working in a bakery once I moved back to Utah.  Very bad for my hips, but Marie Osmond came in one day.

9. What kind of job do you do now? Not working at the moment, but if anyone needs some decorating,  or a Russian document translated,, I'm your woman..

10. Were you a party animal? Yes.

11. Were you considered a flirt? I doubt it.  

12. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?   I was in all three.  In Tucson if you wanted to be in the Orchestra, you had to march in the band. I played flute.  I was in choir and the small choral group that you had to audition for.  I was also in as many plays as the drama department would do.  When I got  back to Utah, the choir was out, they had held auditions the year before, and I was out of luck.  The same with the All -State music competition for flute.  So, Yael and I couldn't compete, even though we were two of the best damn flutists in the state that year, all because we had just moved to Utah, and they made no exceptions.  

13. Were you a nerd? I don't know how people saw me in High School.  I certainly wasn't one of the "popular" in crowd.   I was into choir, orchestra, and theater, so I hung out with those of like interests and didn't worry too much about my "image."   

14. Did you get suspended or expelled?  No. I good girl; I went to class and got good grades, except for Physics.   

15. Can you sing the fight song?  No, but I played it enough in the pep band and marching band.

16. Who was/were your favourite teacher? Mrs. Nott. 

17. Where did you sit during lunch? There was an outdoor area I sat at in Tucson or on the grass with friends.   

18. What was your school's full name?Tucson High,  is now Tucson Magnet  High
Logan Senior High School. 
19. When did you graduate? 1980

20. What was your school mascot? Grizzly

21. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Yes, but I would stay in Tucson if I could for my senior year..

22. Did you have fun at Prom?  I didn't go.  In Tucson, I had a boyfriend, but didn't go to Junior Prom.  When I moved back to Utah, I didn't date that year.   The guy that I thought might ask me never did.  

23. Do you still talk to the person you went to Prom with? Didn't go, so no.  

24. Are you planning on going to your next reunion?  No.  I still talk to the people I still want to talk to.   Although, there is one friend I'd like to find that I can't get in touch with. 

25. Do you still talk to people from school?  Some, mostly on Facebook.  I only really have one friend that I kept in good touch with from High School the entire time.  Most that I have run into when I have been visiting my home town I am friendly with, but we are not close.  Some I am finding on Facebook, and it's been great to reconnect, even when I didn't know them very well.   It's amazing what a difference in attitude  29 yrs can make. 
 

My big thing these days is reconnecting.  I have been grateful to find good friends I had lost track of, practically in my backyard.  It was so good to see them again, after far too long, and pick up where we left off.  

However, the most amazing reconnect I've found on Facebook, has been a woman I played flute with in High School.  I was a senior and she was junior.  I had to change schools and moved back to my home town my senior year and  needless to say, I was not happy about it.   She was from Israel, and I have no idea what her parents were doing at the University in that small  Utah town for a year.  We weren't really all that close, except in competition scores and seating in band and orchestra, but we had a mutual friend that we both clung to rather closely.  Anyway, 30 years later, I discover through mutual friends and the wonders of the internet,  that she is playing flute professionally and has relocated to NYC.  I have now bought her CD, am planning to go down to New York, and hopefully see her play.   Here is just a short clip of  Yael performing in New York. Oh yeah, she composes too.  Maybe I should dig out my flute again, I know where it is, but something tells me I couldn't hold my own around her anymore.  
It's not everyday someone you acted with or played in an orchestra with actually makes a career out of it.  I have worked and studied with some fine actors, some who went on to Yale Drama, and others who tried to make a go of it in New York, and out of all of them, only one, Lauren Marie Taylor, had a real professional career. She had the career first, then her agent sent her to acting school.  I liked her though, she was great.  Oh, my sister did summer stock with Kyle Machlachlan a couple of years before he did Dune, but I was in New York that summer going to acting school, and never met him.  He doesn't keep in touch.  

Now the next thing I have to do is read, "The Reckoning,"  a real live novel written by someone I knew when living in DC, who also happened to throw fabulous parties.  It's on Amazon for anyone out there in the ether who might be interested.  

 

I took a trip into town last Thursday.  It started out really well too. It was early, I was already out and about, and I thought, "why not go explore?" After all. I'd had a couple of really nice trips into Boston, where nothing bad happened.  I was already on Rte 30 near 95 (128) and I drove liesurely in and stopped at interesting stores along the way.  I practiced my Russian at "Berezka," but didn't find the Russian bookshop I'd been told about.  I stopped at "Urban Renewal," a thrift store like I hadn't seen in ages, and went a little mad.  I continued in along Newbury Street and down near Symphony Hall. That's went things disintegrated.  I found my bank, and a Whole Foods, I needed food and cash, and luckily enough or so I thought,  I found a metered space right in front of the store., but I had no change, only a dollar bill.   You see where this is going.  By the time I got out of the store to feed the meter, I had a ticket.  Disgusted and angry, I went back in to get food, then I got cash and tried to find my way back out of Boston the way I had come in.  I ended up going around in big circles, trying to get back to Commonwealth Ave, but now it's dark and rush hour.  I finally ask directions.  I get to Commonwealth but and I still can't find the store I wanted to go back to.  I stop,  ask directions, but  no one knows, so I call.  Iv'e been very close for half an hour, but they were on Brighton Ave, not Commomwealth.  How could I not have remembered this?  I thought I was on Commonwealth the entire way in.  I have now had my typical Boston day, I went in, got a parking ticket, and got lost.  At least I got home without hitting any of the packs of joggers running along Rte 30 in Newton, at 7:00pm on a Thursday night when it was 6 degrees out.  Are they nuts?  It's icy, and there are a lot of cars using that road.  They could at least have the sense to run single file, and not two or three abreast.  I know it's residential through there, but really, do they have a death wish?  That being said, I loved Urban Renewal.  Best Thrift store I have ever been in, and I have frequented a few in my day.  Maybe someday I'll find that Russian bookstore.   

I got tagged over on Facebook.
Here's how it works: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged, including the person who tagged you (me). If I tagged you, it's because you tagged me, I mentioned you (either implicitly or explicitly), I want to know more about you, I think you relate to or will be amused by something I've written here, or any combination these reasons. If you are reading this and I didn't tag you, I'm glad that you are. I would never intentionally dis you. Most likely, you've already been tagged by someone else. I've seen a few of these around.



1.  I took  Russian because I loved Anna Karenina (the book, not the movie), and Mikhail Baryshnikhov. Later on I found I could get a job with it, so I majored in it. I have no Russian ancestors, and I have never visited any Russian speaking country. 

2.  I have adored science fiction/ fantasy genre, both literature, TV and film, since I can remember.  I wanted to marry Captain Kirk when I was about ten,  I really am not sure how many times I have read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and the list goes on to this very day to include Farscape, Doctor Who, and Harry Potter, to name but a few.

3. I am appalled by the lingering stigma of mental illness, and the secrecy and shame that that engenders.  I wish we could all be more open and sharing with each other, especially the menfolk.  

4. There were fairies in my garden in Scotland when I was five. I was sure of it, I could hear the music.  My sister TL says I used to talk about the fairies coming,  then I would shriek, and run off.   The "Torchwood" episode with the little girl and the faeries that were after her resonated with me on a visceral level.   I still love stories and artwork with fairies in them. 

5.  It's a very small world.   My Mom made me take ballet and piano growing up in Utah. I didn't stick with either, but my sister Kathy danced for a long time and her best friend was my piano teacher.  I now live in Massachusetts, and my childhood piano teacher lives one town away,  about ten minutes drive. 

6.    I do love my animals,  dogs, cats, and horses, but dogs are my favorite.  In fact, these days  I'm pretty sure I prefer dogs to the majority of the  people I meet, with the possible exception of some  snappy Chihuahuas.

7. I would never have started acting, if my mother hadn't needed "volunteers" for her productions she was doing in graduate school, both in Utah, and in Arizona.  My first bit was a ten minute scene of a family fight we improvised for some conference at Park City when I was nine.  I didn't want to do it, but I got some new clothes, and a day off from school.  More readers theater productions would follow, where I was "persuaded" to participate, but I didn't actually seek out the stage on my own, until Tucson High did "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and I've been addicted ever since.  These past five years are the longest I've ever gone without being in a show.  It's been dreadful.

8. I tend to mimic other people's accents without thinking about it.  This was especially a problem when we lived  in England, and I had to conscientiously stop doing when I realized people thought I was mocking them, when I really wasn't.  In the same vein, I realized how stupid it sounds when you tell someone they have a lovely accent, when people said it to me.

9. I need more light!  I have Seasonal Affective Disorder pretty bad,  I miss the south or the southwest, I'd take either.  On dark, dreary days I could easily spend all day in bed, if life would let me, preferably with hot tea or coffee and scones.

10.  I wake up slow.  I'm not good in the mornings, and it's best if I don't have to truly interact with anyone before nine, ten is even better.  Coffee helps.

11. I moved my Senior year and had to change High Schools.  It was traumatic, and I would have done almost anything to stay in Tucson for my Senior year.  Unfortunately, none of my friends families wanted me to live with them for a year.   The only good thing about moving back to Utah, was my friend Eric, with whom I'd played in the Wasatch Junior Youth Orchestra several years earlier.  That was about it.  Even though I desperately want to move someplace sunnier RIGHT NOW, I won't do that to my son who is a Junior this year.

12.  I have always wanted to live in a city, especially London or NYC, but I always end up living just outside them, DC, Baltimore, London, Atlanta, and now Boston.  Oh well.

13. I start projects that I never finish.  I am also easily distracted and have been know to have several half finished projects going simultaneously.  Unless you give me a deadline, then it will be done on time.  No deadline, possibly never done.  I have fabric for curtains, or pillows, or skirts I meant to make, and have never unfolded.  Yes, I have been diagnosed with adult ADD, and probably had it as a child as well.

14.  I often give the appearance of not caring about what  other people think of me, or of conforming to to some arbitrary social "norm."  While this is generally true,  I care a lot more, and my feelings get hurt more often than I let on. 

15.  I wield a mean wet saw.  A friend  taught me how to tile around 1990, and I have been tiling floors and walls in my houses ever since.

16.  I believe in God, but I don't go to church.  However, if you find one that works for you, go for it.

17.  I'm a frustrated musical theater star.  I've been known to break into show tunes, I love to sing along with records or the radio; I dance sometimes too.  I can carry a tune, but I'm not a great singer.  #1 son is greatly annoyed by this habit, and is always telling me to stop. As if.  No one in my house joins in with me on the show tunes, except for "Avenue Q."

18.  The 12 years I spent in the D.C. area left me thoroughly cynical. I mistrust all politicians, and feel that neither party has the high moral ground.  I think we should change our campaign system to be more like the British, and limit the campaign time to 4 or 6 months.  It's getting ridiculous here. 

19. I could probably live on breakfast cereal.

20.  I Lost on Jeopardy, in 1986.  Thanks for the Rice-a-Roni and the Turtle Wax.  It was fun, although I had to say I was a "Government Clerk" instead of " Russian Linguist," or "Spy."

21.  I have always had a hard time telling right from left when giving directions. I'll say right, and point left, and vice verse.  If you are ever in a car with me, follow the hand signals.

22.  I played in Carnegie Hall in 1979 with "America's Youth in Concert."  After New York, we played in Rome, Florence, Venice, Geneva, Paris and London, where I met up with my Mom, who had been in Edinburgh writing her dissertation.   We saw three West End plays in three days.  I played flute in the orchestra.  Best trip ever, I was 17 and in Europe without my parents. 

23.  The only reason I ever wanted to be a boy, was because the boy scouts went to cooler camps.  No matter how good the Girl Scout camps might be, the Boy Scout camps my brother went to were even more adventurous, and nothing could beat the Jamboree in Montana he went to.  Otherwise, I'm pretty happy being female.

24. I don't love to sew, but I know how.  I have made window treatments, and decorative pillows in the three houses I've owned.  I gave up on clothes; I never finished them.
 
25.   I have a live and let live policy. I try to be reasonable, and take the attitude of "why can't we all just get along."  It doesn't always work.  I have a temper that often gets the better of me, but  I have been working to control it  most of my adult life. On the plus side, I don't hold grudges. 

There, whew, I'm finally finished.  I didn't tag 25 people, but I tagged most of the people I know that haven't already done this.

He isn't actually Welsh, but if I were in charge, I would have had him play the Doctor as a Welshman, basically a modified Jeff. In fact, this is probably a good reason for NOT letting me be in charge of casting, although, the new doctor will need a companion.
I'm just saying...I can see an odd Welshman in the TARDIS randomly blurting out "cleft...nipples...buttocks...gusset" when the subtext drive is activated.

 

I have finally found the emotional wherewithal to start going through my father's slide library, and transferring them to digital.  He passed away in 2005, at the age of 86, and left probably thousands of slides of the family dating back  to 1955 or so.  It is a monumental  task that I volunteered for, but have been unable to tackle until now.  

These pictures, and my father's notes to go with them, have been a revelation to me.  It's not that I didn't remember these things; the trips, the pets, the visits from cousins over the years,  I just couldn't remember when they happened, how old I was, stuff like that.   Some events, like my horsebackriding Girl Scout Camp,   I could place with a bit of deduction, old enough to go away to camp, not old enough to go on the 3-day pack trip.   I knew I had to be 12  or 13. Well, I found pictures of me at the camp; I was12.   The kittens we hand nursed, I was 9.  The trip to the midwest to visit my Mom's parents and her sister's family happened when I was 8.   So, as soon as I get the slides scanned, I will start getting them posted.  
 

Early on I posted about finding a picture of a house in Bearsden that looked liked the one we lived in when I was five.  This house was on our street and it looked awfully similar.  

So when I was in Phoenix for Christmas I asked my older sister and my Mom to take a look.   KK, my sister, who has the memory of a Cray computer, was sure it was Ellengowan, except that it was backward, a mirror image.  It turns out,  Ellengowan was a big Georgian duplex, and the one for sale was the other half of our house.  Even when we lived there, we didn't know there was another family living on the other side. The entrance was actually on Ledcameroch Crescent instead of Ledcameroch Rd.  KK was quite excited and started reminiscing.   
 

The first house was named Torburn.   My sisters did confirm that I believed in faeries.  According to my sister TL, I used to talk to myself about the faeries would come, then scream and run off.  KK didn't believe in the Faeries, she said the music was from an ice-cream truck, but she was sure the house was haunted.  So the consensus is that Scotland truly is a magical, mystical place, and not just for five year olds; KK was15, and TL was 12.  

 

No, pigs still can't fly, but today I went shooting willingly, nay eagerly, with my hubby and #2 son.  Let me explain my abrupt change of heart.  I am in Phoenix for the Holidays, visiting my mother, sister, brother and his family.   My husband, the gun nut, wanted to go shooting with my nephew the Marine, so we went out to the Scottsdale Gun Club. We couldn't get a lane that day, but my sister-in-law (s-i-l) joined the group in a dress and pumps.  I went because  it was a social occasion, and I had a revelation.  Scottsdale has the nicest gun club I could ever imagine.  If I had been introduced to shooting here, I might never have put up such a fight against it.  It is in the middle of a generic, but upscale, shopping center, not hidden away in a dingy old warehouse in the boonies.  There many women there, both shooting and on staff.  They looked like normal, ordinary  women; well dressed, and put together.   The club has tasteful decor,  the "Titanium Lounge", granite counters in the ladies room, a tactical training room, and a well supplied shop.  S-I-L and I found a couple of elegant little Berettas that we thought were just right.for us.  When I told my beloved gun nut that  I thought the S&W 1911 with the Rosewood grips were "pretty,"  he nearly swooned. 

Today I shot a SIG P232, .380,   and a CZ 1911, .45.     This is only my 3rd time at the range.  I liked rifles "okay", and pistols almost not at all.   I wanted to see if there were any pistols I liked at all.  I liked the AR with the laser sight, and hated the .38 special revolver.  Once we got a lane, the staff gave me helpful pointers. I surprised myself and others around me with my results.  Even with the "scary".45 caliber, I was amazed at how accurate I was, especially since I couldn't see.   Actually, I think my bad eyesight was largely responsible for my sharpshooting success.  It forced me to focus on the front sight.  It was all I could focus on, since, with no lenses in, my target at 15 feet (not yds, sorry) was mostly a blur. 
PH33R M3 (with the .45)
(Not bad - I think he's dead.)

Even though I was nearly as accurate with 1911 as with the P232,  the .45 tired me out sooner, my hands shook more, and I did only two turns with it, as opposed to three turns with the smaller gun.  I also did my last round with the SIG at 20 ft (not yds.)  Oh, and the  SGC has an electronic system to punch in the distance you want, and it takes the target out automatically and retrieves it; very high tech, compared to where we usually go shooting.  Anyway, I had the most fun today that I have ever had shooting. 

Now, my husband and son do not mind the more downscale, bare bones, and undeniably macho atmosphere, in fact I think they even like it.  However, but if they want me to accompany them more frequently, or the gun world wants to attract more women shooters, it would help if  we had a nice place like to go like the one in Scottsdale. That's a place I could envision going with a group of my friends, and then out for a bite to eat or shopping.  So, the atmosphere was pleasant, I found a couple of pistols I like, and I shot really well.   So, today I had fun and felt empowered.

You can check out my beloved Gun Nut's take on the day here.
borepatch.blogspot.com/

Well, we spent most of the day watching movies, then took my Mom and sister out to dinner.   My brother and nephew went to church, then my husband and sons joined them watching football.

I almost made it back to Boston yesterday without incident. We were on our final approach, almost on time and everything, when they put us into a holding pattern. There were a few planes ahead of us, not to worry. Then we were cleared to land and were almost on the ground when they called us off; it was too slick or windy or both. In their greater wisdom we were diverted to JFK, and the Kafka nightmare began. Water was dripping down walls and through ceilings. The lines didn't move. Flights were canceled and no one knew anything, or worse, gave conflicting information. After a couple of hours of rather grim news, I called my fearless Knight in Shining Armour (KISA),  AKA Mr. Borepatch.  After discussing the 3rd world refugee camp that was JFK on the 21st, he got in the Jeep with #1 son and drove down through the blizzard to rescue me.


http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v1421/125/121/1067245258/t1067245258_197324_5195.jpg

I officially have the bravest, most gallant, man in the world.  I also offered a ride up to Boston to a fellow downtrodden traveler, with whom I had stood in several long lines, and argued with unsympathetic Delta agents. He kept hoping he would actually get on a standby flight before KISA showed up, there were no tickets to be had until at least Tuesday, but he ended up accepting the lift. It was quite the drive back up. The roads were slick and snowy, but we all made it safe and sound even though it was 12 hrs after I was supposed to have landed. I retrieved the car I drove to the airport this afternoon. Again, my chivalrous knight drove me to Logan airport. My very own Prince Charming, and he didn't need a glass shoe to find me, just a cell phone. So, all my love to Ted, who is not only charming, but sincere, and brave, and mine. Here's looking at you kid.

So I am here in Atlanta for what was supposed to be coaching the actors and directors in the 24 hour play 
project, but not enough kids signed up for the program to go.  We were short 4 kids. Instead we had a lively impromptu
dessert and performance evening at MFA's house.  Hilarity ensued.  My favorite was, of course, my friend's original
"princess intervention" song.  Think somewhere between "Enchanted" and "Into the Woods." meets the Indigo Girls.
Really, haven't y'all ever wondered why Prince Charming needed the silly glass shoe to recognize Cinderella?


I am just thankful for the great company and friendship here, so I dedicated this Sonnet to my lovely hosts, who
have helped me forget my daily woes, and fore-bemoaned moans.


When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear Time's waste.
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since canceled woe,
And moan th' expense of many a vanished sight;
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The  sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
  But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
  All losses are restored and sorrows end.

Okay, Mr. Borepatch wants me to post more, so he's tagged me with this meme. 

Pass it on to five other bloggers, and tell them to open the nearest book to page 56.
Write out the fifth sentence on that page, and also the next two to five sentences.
The CLOSEST BOOK, NOT YOUR FAVORITE, OR MOST INTELLECTUAL!
I am supposed to pick up the nearest book, open it to page 56 and post line five. 

He refers to me in this post as the lovely and literate Mrs Borepatch, and I was sure I was going to disappoint,
but as I looked down by the side of my bed, on the floor, next to the bookcase, two or three books were stacked.
This makes them equidistant in my opinion.   As it would happen they are,
"Hamlet"  
"The Heritage Of Russian Verse."
"T.S. Eliot: the Complete Poems and Plays"

The Folger Shakespeare Library edition of Hamlet has, disappointingly enough, on page 56, notes for Act I Scene V.  
Line 5 reads: 16. For: during

We fare better in the Heritage of Russian Verse, with a poem I had never read,
by a poet I had never heard of, Aleksandr Sumarokov. It's really good though,
full of angst and unacknowledged  love.
Page 56 line 5 reads (Don't worry, the English translation is given below.)
"In this bitter struggle my reason is clouded,"
The entire stanza
"Shame tries to drive out passion from my heart,
and passion tries to drive out shame.
In this bitter struggle my reason is clouded,
my heart is torn, it suffers and burns."

The T.S. Eliot Collection on Page 56 is the poem the Hollow Men
line 5 reads "A penny for the Old Guy"

It's right before the start of the  poem.

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw.  Alas!

This poem is the reason I have the book from the library in the first place.
Here comes the obligatory Doctor Who connection.  Dr. Lazarus
and The Doctor quote this poem in the episode, "The Lazarus Experiment"
and I not only felt bad that I didn't know my Eliot as well as I should, but I wanted to introduce my son
to it as well.  See, silly science fiction programs can promote interest in the arts and literature.
My copy of "Hamlet" was out because I love Shakespeare, both David Tennant  and Patrick Stewart
are currently appearing  in this play in the UK, and I CAN"T GO!  I am a little upset.
There is no Doctor Who, or other science fiction connection with the Russian Verse.


Now to tag five other poor souls. So I am tagging some of my favorite fiction authors here on LJ.  I hope you all don't mind.
earlgreytea68
jlrpuck
Helygen
azriona.livejournal.com/
Sonic_tea

I had to update this entry from last year since I have started going through my Dad's slides.  I have photographic evidence of me as a cowgirl, boots and all. Since I featured prominently in Mr. Borepatch's post, Princesses, Cowgirls, and Sarah Palin .  I may be a Cowgirl, but I love princesses, and other girlie things, especially as I get older.  I love to dress up, have other people do my hair, mani-pedis, make up, and  spa days.  I am indeed the only female in a houseful of boys, so I buy pink things even though my favorite color is blue.  I love the movies like Enchanted, and Ella Enchanted, but I invite my friend and her 10 year old daughter over to watch them.  I still like to play with dolls.  The  Barbie holding hands with my Doctor Who doll is dressed as close to Madame de Pompadour as I could manage.  There are more dresses upstairs.






However, my other Barbies are dressed in desert camouflage, and ready for the range, escorted by a couple of handsome GI Joes.  Yes, the brunette is supposed to be Governor Palin in Iraq.
.

My husband is correct, when I was a young girl, I was horse obsessed and my Barbies were NOT dressed in princess dresses. They were out riding my model horses through water and mud.  I did have to break the ice on the trough, and ride her in the snow.  In the summer, I rode my bike to the pasture with my halter and bridle and rode her bareback to my house to groom and saddle her up.  For a few months she was stabled at the University farm and I got a semi-reprieve, but I went out every week for lessons, and mucked her stall. I went to a horseback riding Girl Scout camp, and was devastated that I wasn't old enough to go on the  3-day pack trip.  I was 12 years old.
.

Me as a cowgirl, notice the boots.  


I'm not twelve anymore.  However, I still liked playing dress up.  I wanted to dress up as Glinda the Good, for Halloween.  I got the acting bug at an early age and I have never lost my love of costumes, makeup, and playing pretend.  I have, however, lost my taste for mucking out stalls, and breaking ice on water troughs in the winter.  At heart I was, and probably remain a Cowgirl, but these days,  if I have to choose, I'd go for a luxury weekend at a great hotel and a Broadway show, over the three day horse trip in the mountains, that I dreamed of going on as a Girl Scout.   Really, Sara Palin is a great example, a former beauty queen (that's a princess in my book) , who goes out and hunts big game, and successfully runs for political office, who has also found a very handsome prince of guy, by all accounts.  Fairy tale happily ever after?  Not quite, but not bad, either.

In general, I hope everyone remembers that playing dress up in Princess dresses is fun, and that when you're in preschool a Princess can be whatever you want it to be, reality plays a minute role.  When you are that young, boy or girl, you can be a Jedi Knight, or Glinda, or anything else you can imagine.  Deep Glamour's post asks the question what is  The Pre-School Glamour of Playing Princess. Let's face it, it has to be the clothes and the accessories, Disney didn't invent the lure, they are just really good at marketing it.  There is plenty of time for reality later.  If your daughter is still seriously looking for ways to meet eligible royal batchelors by the time she's an adult, then you can worry.  I know I can't  really fly to the land of OZ,  or marry Captain Kirk, or time travel in the TARDIS, but we can imagine and make believe.  It's called acting, or fiction.  It's an escape from the drudgery that is our every day lives. 

Most people have seen Mike Myers' take on Princesses in Shrek, but everyone should have to see Stephen Sondheim's  musical "Into the Woods" where Happily Ever After is only the end of Act I.  The Princes are Charming, but not sincere, and seek new conquests as soon as the thrill of winning their Princess has worn off.  Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel do not come through their ordeals unscathed, the Wicked Witch regains her beauty, but loses her power and Rapunzel in the tower.  Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.  Real life is like that, real Princesses rarely lived happily ever after with their true love, they were married off like brood mares to men they didn't know.    If my boys do choose princesses over Cowgirls,  I hope they choose a plucky, eccentric Princess like Cinderella, who talks to the mice and makes her own clothes, or Belle, who isn't born princess at all, but sees the real man behind the outer shell,  and parties with the cutlery.         

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While walking past the International Poster Gallery today, I saw a poster in the window that made me laugh. It turns out motivational posters have been around a lot longer than I thought. No Room for Gloom was part of a series of poster sold to companies in the 1920's by Charles Mather, by various artist. Not all of them are this funny. However,I like horses and jumping, so this one gave me little giggle.




So remember, since tomorrow is Monday, Hoping Beats Moping. Have a nice week.

I have a love hate relationship with the Boston. I want to like it, really I do, but it has often treated me with almost open hostility. Impossible street signs, no parking, confusing parking signs that have resulted in very expensive tickets and generally getting lost a lot. Today,was the opposite of that, not only was it a perfect fall day, but both the traffic and the parking Gods were smiling on us. I don't think we have ever gotten into and out of town with as little fanfare or anxiety as we did today. Oh, and the leaves along the Charles were pretty too.

Number 1 Son wanted to go in to town to Army Barracks, an Army/Navy surplus store and to Newbury Comics, not places I would usually choose to go, but they are on or near Newbury St. and it doesn't take much to get me to go there. It also happens to be one of the few places I can get to with ease, and I seem to have good parking Karma on a couple of streets near there. I take this as a sign that God wants me to go to Newbury St, and not the North End, because I can NEVER find parking in the North End, and I always get lost. It's been six years already. The North End hates me.

One of my husbands and my favorite places is the International Poster Gallery, between Exeter and Fairfield Streets. http://www.internationalposter.com/
This place has amazing old posters from many countries and many era's, from the Belle Epoque, and art nouveau, to Ipod posters, and even if you can't afford really huge, famous ones, they always have fascinating displays and these poster look incredible up close.

One of the more surprising things to me, was that I enjoyed Newbury Comics way more than I probably should have. I got all excited when I found some Serenity models, and a couple of books, but no action figures of Mal or Zoe, or River. This year they finally have come out with Master Chief Costumes from HALO, so I know what my #2 son wants to be for Halloween. It's a good thing I'll be working in my friend's Halloween Costume Mega-store next week, cause they are pricey. I also found myself wondering if I could use a Vala figure from SG-1 to fake an Aeryn Sun stand in for my John Crichton, as I don't like the available mutant Aeryn figure, but we left without purchase.

#1 son got his Halloween costume at the Army Barracks on Mass Ave. Then my boys, husband included, had a picnic at the Christian Science Plaza with Beef Ravioli and BBQ pork rib MRE's.
I, however, opted for a something a little more civilized from a local take away.

On the walk back to the car, my fashion unconscious teenager, asked me what the Ralph Lauren "Rugby" store was. I looked up and started to explain about Mr. Lauren's different clothing lines, when I was nearly struck dumb by the display. There in the window, I kid not, was a mannequin in a skinny, dark, pinstripe suit, and beige, converse trainers. I half expected to see David Tennant's head on it, or a Sonic screwdriver in it's hand. The only thing wrong was the shirt, which was a green Rugby shirt instead of shirt and tie, but my younger boy and I both stopped in our tracks. I said, "Look the suit! It looks just like the Doctor." My son said, "Even the sneakers are the the same!" My husband and older son rolled their eyes and tried to pretend they didn't know us. I didn't think my 16 year old had any room to complain though, as he had been walking down Mass Ave with a gas mask on his face for about a block. (Part of his Halloween Costume) Unfortunately, I did not have my phone and did not get a picture.

Anyway, I have not felt this charitable toward Boston, or New England in general, for a long time. Now if we could just have beautiful Autumn days like this until, Thanksgiving, or later. Oh, wait, then I'd be back in Georgia.

So this summer my friend from Atlanta (MFFA), who is also a Who fan, steered me toward "Life on Mars" the BBC version because of the lovely John Simm AKA "The Master." from season 3. She also alerted me to the upcoming American version. Always a bit leery about American versions of British shows, I was curious and a bit apprehensive. After all, for every success like "The Office," there are two disasters, such as "Coupling" and "Men Behaving Badly".

So, LOM has had three episodes, about as many as "Coupling" had before it was pulled, and I thought I should weigh in. Yes, I know, I spend way too much time thinking about this kind of thing, but I can't stand talking about politics and much of the rest of my life is too depressing.
So far so good. The transfer to Brooklyn is not so bad, although, I would have preferred a grimier second city like Detroit or Chicago, as the original was set in Manchester, not London. The casting is good, glad they cast a not terribly well known guy as Sam Tyler, the cop who finds himself inexplicably back in 1973 after a car accident. Jason O'Mara is a pretty likable actor and is doing well as Sam. Harvey Keitel is a brilliant actor and well cast as Gene Hunt, the neanderthal of a police captain. The rest of the supporting cast has also been pulling their weight making up the colorful squad. My only problem is with Gretchen Moll as Annie. Nothing against Gretchen per Se, but she does not have the youthful innocence that Liz White had, but all in all she's a good actress. I guess they were not going for that.

I'm usually glad when an American version doesn't stick slavishly to it's original script. After all, somethings just don't translate; bloody team rivalries that flare up around Football Cup finals, mills closing down in Manchester, but overall the American version has caught the atmosphere, kept most of the plots intact, and made changes where they had to. I even really like the flaky hippy chick that calls him 2B. (or not 2B) Something was still bothering me that I couldn't put my finger on, other than his apartment is way nicer than the appalling room he's given in the UK.

So I went back to the first three episodes to figure out what was bothering me. There are a couple of things that jumped out at me, first, the American writers have left out several spots where Sam hears the beeps of life support machines and voices from doctors and others in his hospital room. In fact, every time he gets to thinking he might accept 1973, he usually hears voices through a radio or telephone. In particular, was the creepy scene where the lights go out in the hallway and he's trapped in June's hospital room as he hears that his life support has malfunctioned. I guess they want to keep their options open, but I miss the creepy factor.

The second major problem is his relationship with Gene Hunt, which is not great, but they are not beating each other up enough, verbally, or physically. They are getting the drama between the two men, but missing some good comedic bits. This show should really be focusing on these two opposing personalities. I hope they don't waste Harvey Keitel.

However, given that they scrapped almost the entire first cast, fired David Kelly, and thank God they didn't leave it in LA, I guess I should just be grateful it's any good at all. I was secretly hoping they would keep Colm Meaney as Gene, but you can't win them all.


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