Hi all! Let me start off by saying sorry to write this while everything is metaphorically on fire, but I set a deadline to do 12 somewhat fun things and write a blog post about each one before my 32nd birthday and we’re down to the wire. So consider this a quick mental break from the nonsense going on in the world right now.

So, as my dozen of long-time fans already know, I love Star Wars. Earlier this year, I went to Disney and got to pilot the Millenium freaking Falcon! After this great trip to Disney, my sister, who has never felt strongly about Star Wars decided to to finally watch all the movies! As her roomate, I took it upon myself to go through this endeavor with her.

We did all the live action movies in the order in which they came out (4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9) and then the side movies Rogue One and Solo. My sister enjoyed them all, so we have another convert. I was concerned she would miss half of the movie, especially Empire Strikes Back as I would regularly say lines about 10 seconds before the actor and would pause the movie for my Fun Facts! This was coupled with the fact that my Dad would watch the same movie at his home and we’d text each other GIFs of what was happening in the movie. It was a lot for a relaxing movie watching experience. Below are my thoughts on Star Wars.

Thinking about what is going on now, I think we have something to learn from Star Wars. The Rebels sometimes gave up hope, it sometimes felt like too much, but they always rallied and got it done in the end.

They also worked together despite their differences. It’s not uncommon knowledge that the Empire is supposed to be Naziesque (one of my many Fun Facts!), but also the Empire is also not diverse. I’ve never seen a non-human in the Empire and very few women. The Rebellion is a group of people working together despite their differences and that’s what we need to do now. The Naboo and the Gungans had a lot of issues, but they set them aside to defeat the Trade Federation and worked those issues out later. That’s what we need to be doing now.

Also, shoot it takes time to defeat evil! The movies take place over what, like 60 years? It took 60 years to freaking defeat Palpating (also how tf is he back in 9, not a complaint just curious). So it’s going to take some time to get the world to where we want it. Princess/General Leia Organa spent her entire life doing the work and we’re going to have too.

Onto some more random thoughts:

• Luke Skywalker is annoying. I said it. He’s hysterical in The Last Jedi, but other than that, he’s whiny and self-righteous.
• I don’t understand how George Lucas could create so many plot holes between the originals and prequels.
• Leia is a badass! Her entire planet gets destoryed and she just keeps fighting the fight.
• The Empire Strikes Back is hilarous.
• I will never not scream during the mynocks scene.
• Ewoks are amazing!
• Chewie may be the best of all of them!
• The prequels are cheesy, but not bad.
• Qui-gon was killed way too early. So much lost potential.
• Why does no one else have a purple lightsaber, besides Samuel L. Jackson wanted one?
• Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen are incredibly attractive.
• I’m glad they didn’t try to YA novel the prequels and turn it into a love triangle. I feel like if it same out 5 years later they would have tried to do that.
• There’s a scene in Attack of the Clones that I think exists soley to make you think Anakin is losing his arm. I still get anxious during it.
• Revenge of the Sith is so frustrating, because on numerous occasions, you watch characters make what you know are bad choices and you see decisions that could have been made but were not that would have had a different outcome.
• Han Solo’s death was such a great full circle moment for the character. His scene in Rise of Skywalker makes me tear up.
• The Last Jedi may be the funniest of the movies.
• The Kylo/Rey force connection sequences are beautifully made.
• Rey’s origin, while not well explained, was better than the fan theories.
• I think people need to lay off Solo. It’s not bad, it’s just that Han isn’t the Han we know and love yet. He hasn’t gone through all the stuff that make him Han yet so he’s not the same as the smuggler we know and love.

I have a theory I’d like to share. In The Phantom Menace, Obi-wan discusses being ready for the trials. I believe the trials are the confrontation with joining the Sith and having an easy way to save their friends or finding another way and not joining that Luke, Anakin, and Rey face in the 3rd installment of their movies. Anakin obviously fails, but the rest pass. It’s just a theory, and there’s probably a lot to disprove it, but those are my thoughts.

Speaking of theories, if you need a break from the world Google Jar Jar Binks is really a Sith Lord. I’m not saying it’s true, but I definitely don’t not agree with it.

Finally, there’s a lot of great memes, especially from the prequels. I recommending, Googling Hello There General Kenobi to see some great ones. Also, Ewn McGregor in staring in Christopher Robin gave the world Winnie the Pooh Star Wars crossover memes you didn’t know you needed. It may be the best thing on the internet. It’s over Christopher Robin, I have the high ground!

Until next time, wear your mask and fight the power!

Hi again everybody! If you’re anything like me you are exhausted right now. It’s been quite the year so far and we’re not even halfway through. An impeachment, an ongoing global pandemic, more instances of police brutality, and now riots and looting. To say it’s a lot is an understatement, but I feel like I don’t have the words.

Seriously, what is going on right now, particularly the death of George Floyd. This is the second time in 6 years an African American man died in the hands of police because the police cut off his supply of air. How is that even possible? Have we learned nothing? I find myself asking these questions and going through so many emotions anger, sadness, depression, frustration, confusion, and quite frankly frightened.

We, as America, need to do better. We should do better. We want to be the best country on the face of the Earth than we need to start acting like it. This is not it. The first we need to do is acknowledge that America is a racist country. Before people start coming at me, I’m using the sociological definition of racism (I have an M.S. in sociology so I know what I’m talking about when it comes to sociological definitions). Racism is the unequal distribution of power based on race. Prejudice, on the other hand, refers to preconceived beliefs about a particular group. If you are Black in America you are more likely to be arrested, die of Covid-19, have a whole host of medical conditions, have a lower income, be unemployed, and so many more things. So yes, America is racist.

So, since racism isn’t an individual thing, but a societal thing, you can’t really say, well I’m not a racist if you’re sitting this fight out. . You can say you don’t have prejudice, since that’s not a societal thing. You either support the racist structures of our society or you do not. You are either racist or anti-racist. You can’t be neutral, you can’t sit this one out, because doing nothing is allowing the racist structures of our society to continue.

Change needs to happen, large systemic change or these things will keep happening. In fact, on the news this morning, I saw a cop put his knee on the neck of a protester while arresting him. For real! So things are obviously not changing on their own. They never have and they never will.

The next question of course becomes how do we create large systemic change in an age of Covid-19 when protesting can put your health at risk and you may not have a job and can’t really afford to donate. Well, I’ve been thinking about that a lot these past few days. Here are a few things I have come up with.

• Sign petitions. Change.org has a lot of great petitions related to social justice causes. I’ve signed petitions on them for years. They sometimes work.
• Vote and vote for Democrats!
• Fight against voter suppression. Contact your congressperson, sign petitons.
• Get excited about Joe Biden! Get rid of this, we’ll I guess he’s better than Trump so I guess I have to vote for him, attitude. It’s not helping. It’s why Hills lost in 2016. If Barack Obama thinks he’s good enough for the Presidental Medal of Freedom, than he’s more than good enough for you to vote for!
• Do things to encourage others to vote. I volunteer with an organization called Vote Forward, where you send letters to potential voters who are, demographically speaking, unlikely to vote. You can do it from the safely of your own home, don’t give out your address, and it only costs you some stamps and you time.
• Educate yourself! Read books and articles, listen to podcasts, whatever you can to learn about racism, white privledge (for all my white people) and how to be anti-racist.

Nobody is going to do anything all that fun this summer, so you might as well spend the time trying to make the world a better place. To quote my Grandpa when I debated going to grad school “The time will pass either way, you might as well have something to show for it.” So you’ll catch me this summer (probably not physical though cause of the global pandemic) in my kiddie pool (that I bought in April cause I knew this pandemic wasn’t going anywhere. If you do not have one, everyone is out of stock. Sorry not sorry), cocktail in hand, reading How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi.

I, like everyone else, enjoy getting pampered, but don’t do it nearly enough. In my mind I do a facemask and exfoliate once a week, but in the real world it’s probably like once every 2ish weeks. I thought given the global pandemic, I’d be able to do all the self-care humanly possible, but that does not appear to be the case and while I have had weeks where I did way too much exfoliation, my beauty routine has not been as excessive as I thought it would at this point in the pandemic. However my skin is on fleek as the kids may or may not still say.

I recently had a few things happen where I definitely needed a day of relaxation:

• I’ve been getting physical therapy for my foot, which essentially means I do a 45+ minute lower body strengthening exercise routine every day.
• I moved back in with my parents. Besides the normal stress of moving, I had to make a very small child’s bedroom work for someone used to large master. It was not easy. It was not pretty. I literally and metaphorically had to clean out my closet.
• I got laid off (I’m also single, so I’m living the trifecta of every 30 something’s dream).

I decided to engage in this spa day on a weekday to make it feel even more luxurious (though what are days now and what really is time when you think about it). I utilized my parents 6 foot wide (not deep) whirl pool tub, did a hair mask and a face mask and indulged. Even though my unpacking was not done, I did no work, just whatever I wanted. I capped off the long day of doing nothing by painting my nails. It was great and definitely needed during these difficult times.

Hi again everyone! I hope you all are staying healthy and safe. Obviously this is a rough time for everyone, but I swore to write 12 blog posts about 12 smaller fun things I did at the age of 31 and as my birthday fast approaches, I need to get to it. I’d like to hope that these next few posts that will be done whilst social distancing will serve as a reminder that you can still do fun (and free) things even during this time. So this blog post is about rereading a book I liked, Emma.

My relationship with reading is an interesting one. My older sister loved reading and books. As a very young child, I decided I wanted to be exactly like my sister. Her favorite color was my favorite color, her plans when she grew up were my plans, I liked books cause she did, and so on. At the ripe old age of 5 or 6, I decided I needed to strike some independence and assert myself from her. I switched my favorite color and did not like to read because my sister did.

As she reads this blog and is now one of my roomates, I feel compelled to state that you should not blame my mom (or dad I guess) for this. She read to me regularly, encouraged my reading, and did all the things parents should do, but I would not have it. It’s not that I didn’t read or enjoy it, it just wasn’t something that I chose to do to occupy my time.

Throughout the years, I had a few stints of serious reading. I decided to get to the birth of Jesus by Christmas in my Children’s Bible and did so. I read each Harry Potter book voraciously. I’d stay up until 1am to finish each book. I even remember reading inbetween my turns of a computer game as I was so enthralled.

I thoroughly believe that high school English classes are wasted on high schoolers. I despised English class. I enjoy some books, but hated analyzing and discussing books. In college the trend continued, especially since I spent hours a day reading text books.

One of the first times I really sought out reading was the summer between my first and second years of grad school. I was going to be spending the summer doing the lit review for my thesis, which would eventually be entitled The Entry Into Adulthood for Young Adult Cancer Survivors, so a super light topic. I decided I would still need to read something outside of the lit and I wanted it to be light but still smart, cause, you know, I was a grad student. In the univeristy library I found the complete works of Jane Austen in one volume and as Pride and Prejudice was one of the few books I loved in high school, I decided to see how far I would get before the fall term started. I got through a few, including Emma.

After grad school, my relationship with reading changed. Having spent two years reading hours a day I missed it, but found myself in my mid-late 20s and not even knowing what books I liked. Luckily for me, my work had a book club and I joined and got to reading. As I am a woman between the ages of 25 and 40, I had multiple friends decide to start book clubs and make me a member (once without my consent), and at its peak was in 3 book clubs! This only lasted about a month and am now down on 1ish.

Let me take a moment to go on a tangent about book clubs and the patriarchy. Book club is great, but it’s really let’s drink wine on a Wednesday club. Men can just get together and drink during the week, but we women have to always feel as though we are accomplishing something. So, instead of just getting together once a month for the stake of socializing, we pick a book, may or may not read it, and attend a club where we discuss the book for 10 minutes, but spend 2 hours socializing up. Book club friends who may read this, this is not a compliant against my particular book clubs or our discussing to socializing ratio, but just a social commentary.

To return to my point, I found myself reading new books, but never having a chance to revisit the old. As someone who is perpetually watching re-runs of The Office, I missed the chance to do the book equivilent of a rerun.

Then the stars aligned, I (prior to the pandemic) saw a musical version of Jane Austen’s Emma and between that and the movie coming out (which I got to watch right before the pandemic) decided to reread (well listen to) the book. I put in my hold for the audiobook (as I was to listen during my long train commute to and from work… haha) and waited. I finally got the book in early March and really enjoyed rereading it. It’s nice to catch the foreshadowing when you know what will happen next. Also, it’s a great book to deal with social distancing. There’s a whole chapter dedicated to people discussing Miss Fairfax walking to the post office in the rain. Not her walk, the discussion of her walk. So humanity has been at this level of boredom before. Also to note, I, myself walked to the mailbox the next day when it was almost raining and got to enjoy a similarly unnecessarily lengthy commentary on the subject.

Until next time, stay safe and read books where people are just as bored as you are!

Alright folks, as I’ve said before, I have run out of pre-Corona fun stuff that I have done and have moved onto less exciting, but still fun social distancing activities. Today we’re going to talk about Bingo. There has always been a twice divorced 65 year old with a slight drinking problem inside of me, which is another way to say, I have always loved bingo.

As a child, I would attend my Aunt’s company picnic. I loved the sno cones, the games, the clowns, the face painting, the balloon animals, but most importantly the bingo. I loved the excitement of it all, realizing that you were 2 away from bingo, than 1 away from bingo, than 1 away in two different places. I never won, but it was still thrilling! Then finally, one year, they had a children’s game and myself and another kid won at the same time. The prizes were either the first two Harry Potter movies on DVD, or Shrek and Ice Age on DVD. I was the older kid, so I did what was morally right, and let the little kid pick first and hoped against hope they thought Harry Potter was the work of the devil or they were too young. They chose Harry Potter. I was bummed, but happily collected my DVDs.

While my bingo success stories are less than dazzling, my Grandma was a bingo master. She played almost every day at her nursing home and won almost every day, many days multiple times! I always claimed she cheated, but she was probably the most with it person in the room, so she heard and marked every number. She won fake money that could be exchanged for prizes once a week. The woman had more prizes than she knew what to do with: holiday decorations, stuffed animals, beanie babies (that unfortunatley are not worth the thousands we were all led to believe), candy, chips, and was still rolling in fake money to spare.

In an effort to fight social distancing boredom, a friend suggested virtual bingo. My inner 65 year old leapt at the opportunity. I Venmoed my $2 and got ready to relive some picnic glory days and be entertained. It all came back to me, the thrill, the anticipation, without having to put on real pants! It was wonderful, and I won!

While this wasn’t the most exciting thing I could have done on a Wednesday night, it’s still a nice reminder that we can still all try to have fun, do something different, and stay connected while were apart.

Be safe everyone!

I realize that I am getting towards the end of my 31 a year for fun and I am waaaayyy behind on these, which really isn’t like me. I never pulled an all nighter in college or grad school. I could take a 40 page paper and 9 days before it was due say I need to write 5 pages a day for 8 days and take one day to review it and I’d just do it. But I’ll get through this last minute crunch. Obviously the entire world is essentially canceled right now, so my fun things may not be as fun as they were going to be, but I promise they’ll still be something worth writing about. Luckily here’s something I’ve done before and during quarantine.

I’ve done bar trivia a few times in my life before this year. The first time my team actually won, which was exciting not only because of competiton, but because we got a free shot with every round we won! The times after that, I did not so well. I consider myself to be a pretty smart (and humble) person with an excellent memory, so I enjoy being able to use my vast quantities of useless knowledge towards something. After a few years off I did trivia 3 times this year and I placed in the top 3 all 3 times!!

The first was Gilmore Girl’s themed trivia. I went with a few friends who knew the show far better than I. One friend has literally has used a Gilmore Girl’s calendar multiple years and wore some of her Gilmore Girl’s merch. I essentially sat there and brought our answers up to the host. We placed second or third and would have won if we knew the 4 ingredients in the omlette that Luke changes the special to. I don’t even know them all now, but I know for sure one was oregano.

The second trivia was Harry Potter themed and I prepped like crazy. I took multiple quizzes that were called the hardest Harry Potter quiz you’d ever take. My team tried to figure out wizarding currencies. We over prepped! The trivia host is apparently one of the few people in the world who knew nothing about Harry Potter. The first round was identify the character from the picture and Ron Weasley was one of them!The entire bar yelled at him multiple times that he was wrong. For example, he said Snape tried to mess up Harry’s first Quidditch mathc. We all know it was Quirrell! Anyway, it was like a 4 way tie and our team eventually won!

The last trivia was virtual during the time of Corona and Disney themed! We came in second, but I have no idea how anyone would have beat us. I know my Disney! At a very young age, I no longer could nap, but needed to just chill in the afternoon, so my parents would put on a Disney movie and I’d chill. Some quesions were easy, like the names of the Usula’s eels (Flotsam and Jetsam), others were harder like the name of the cars you ride in at the Haunted Mansion (Doombuggies) and he name of the bar in Tangled (Snuggly Duckling). I got the first 2 right. Again, I know my Disney.

I look forward to the days when I can do in person trivia again, but until then I hope there will be more virtual events, that we all can enjoy.

Hi All! I’ve been meaning to post about this for literally months, and due to the state of the world, now have the time to do it. Stay inside and enjoy!

I’ve performed a fair amount in my life. In elementary school, I took part in the yearly school plays and church Christmas pagents. As I got older, I joined band and performed in countless concerts. In high school, I continued with both band and theater and continued with band through college. After college, work, life, etc. got in the way and I stopped performing. I realized that I missed it. Last spring, my friend performed at a storytelling event and I loved it. The event was a group of regular people, telling stories from their lives. I laughed, I cried, I thought about things. I decided to sign up to perform one myself.

There’s apparently a huge wait list, because I didn’t perform until December. I forgot when I agreed to do December, just how stressful that month is. In addition to getting ready for the holidays, I was dealing with a very intense work deadline that we had to meet in order to get re-accredited, whilst being short staff. So it was more work than I thought to get a story together.

A week before the event, we had to meet to workshop our stories with the other performers. I was way more nervous than I thought I was going to be. I almost didn’t go, which is very unlike me. But I did and it was a super nice process and got some good constructive feedback, which I then incorporated despite the looming intense work deadline.

I need to give a huge shout-out to my sister/roommate, who listedn to me perform the story almost every day for a week and then went to the performance to see the finished product, without one compliant!

The day of the performance, I was once again incredibly nervous, again seriously considered not going, but again was glad I did it. Luckily, I was first. I always hated going first in school presentations (3rd was my sweetspot), but was actually thrilled to be going first, as I could enjoy the remaining performances and not stress about my own story. I think the performance went really well and once the world calms down a bit will be looking for more opportunities to do this.

There was no script, as I did it from memory. So below is a close approximation of what I remember performing. The overall moral of my story (in addition to just being a way to talk about the fact that I went to Nepal!) was that things will all work out if you just wait. I hope and pray that is true for our time now. Enjoy!

So I was standing on a cliff in Nepal waiting for my turn to paraglide and I was nervous. Waiting had kind of been the theme of the trip so far. The 125ish mile trip from Kathmandu to Pokhara, where we currently were, took about 8 hours where we had nothing to do but wait in the car. The paragliding trip was supposed to start at 9, so naturally, our instructors didn’t come until 11.

I’ve never really liked waiting and I found myself in a very waiting time in my life outside the trip. I hated my job and was waiting for the right job to hire me. My Grandma died recently and I was waiting emotionally as I worked through that grief. So all this waiting was a little tough for me.

When our instructors had finally arrived at the hotel, they piled the 5 of us and the 5 of them in an SUV. To fit us all in there, they moved the seats to face sideways. I was crammed in the back with our super cool instructors. They were all about 20 and used way more American slang than I had ever seen outside of a movie. They talked about how awesome it was going to be, and they’d be taking pictures of us with their GoPro cameras the whole time and we’d land by this awesome lake.

When we got to the mountain, they told us to leave everything in the van. I took my phone with me incase I wanted to take pictures while we waited, but left my purse with my wallet and passport in the van. As we walked up the mountain, one by one we went to our instructors launching area.

My instructor was not one of the super cool guys, which I was kind of greatful for. He was in his 30s or 40s, which gave me comfort, since he had lived long enough to hit that age, he must be good at his job. There were a lot of people on the mountain, so we had to wait a while. After I got harnessed, my instructor gave me the instructions for take off. He said, “I’ll say walk, and you walk, I’ll say run, and you run, the mountain will end, but you keep running, I’ll say sit, and then you sit back in the harness and don’t have to do anything until landing.” While we waitied, he pointed out whenever someone who was taking off before us did it wrong. This made me even more nervous as I would not only have to run off a mountain, but I could do it incorrectly.

While we waited, I watched all my friends take off. It was finally our turn, and I walked, ran, and sat correctly! Paragliding was not the extreme sport I thought it would be. It was very peaceful. I could one way and see the Annapurna Range of the Himalayas. If I looked another way, I could see a lake. If I looked down, I could see forest, and birds. If I looked straight ahead, I could see a rainbow of other parachutes in the sky.

My peace died down a bit as we got ready to land as we were no where near the lake, but rather in a field surrounded by cow pies. My landing was much less successful than the take off as I was confused, a little nauseaus from the final round of acrobatics we did, and quite frankly trying to keep my shoes clean. After we got unharnessed, my instructor told me to wait and my friends would be landing soon. I was confused, as I had seen all my friends take off before me, but there was nothing I could do but wait. At one point I was taking a picture of someone landing and was told that’s not your friend, that’s a Chinese guy.

Eventually, my instructor got a phone call. My friends had landed somehwere else, but they would come to get us shortly. He said we’d go somewhere and wait for them. We literally went to what I think was someone’s house. There was a baby, an old lady, and chickens. I was starting to get worried. Right as we got there, this guy asked me what kind of phone I had and then I started panicking as my phone was my only connecting to the outside world. I told him I didn’t know, which obviously I know what kind phone I have, but I panicked. He took the phone out of my hand and plugged something in and said he was downloading pictures form the GoPro. I calmed down a little.

I sat there with the instrutor and the phone guy outside the house and they offered me some tea. Again panic set in as I was told not to drink the water unless it was boiled. I figured they must have boiled it to make the tea and I was hoping it would help my stomach, so I took it. It was very sweet and very delicous.

While we waited for the van to come we talked. I talked about how I was here for my friend’s wedding. My instructor was very happy she was marrying a Nepali guy and assumed it was an arranged marriage. I didn’t want to tell him, it was in fact not arranged, and that when I met this friend she was with an Abhisheik and was now marrying Abhinash, which was really an upgrade. We talked about America. The instructor said he always wanted to paraglide in America, but some areas were too sandy. I told him I didn’t think Chicago was too sandy, but it was flat. He seemed to not really see the point of paragliding then.

While this was going on, I was surprisingly calm. The whole 8 hour trip to Pokhara, I seen Nepali men sit outside houses and drink tea. So I figured this was probably the most authentic experience I could get.

Eventually, he told me he’d just drive me back to the hotel, which again made me nervous as I was traveling to a secondary location, but what could I do. In the van was myself, the instructor, and a bunch of other people who may have been paragliders or related to the baby. I will probably never know. They did drive me back to the hotel, and as I walked down the driveway, my friend’s husband Gary came out to meet me. Now, I like Gary, but I have never been more happy to see him in my entire life. I came into the hotel, and saw all my friends and more importantly, my purse with my wallet and passport.

After I got back from the trip, my life hadn’t changed. It would take months for me to find a new job and work through my grief, but I tried to remember the lesson I learned paragliding. If you just wait everything will work out.

Hi All! Hope you’re doing the best you can during the pandemic! I think we all know that these are scary times, so please practice social distancing. It will save lives!

Socially distancing is scary! I’m scared, you’re probably scared, and that’s ok, but we still need to do it.

About 12 years ago, I was diagnosed with a “decent sized” (my doctor’s words, not mine) benign, inoperable tumor. I got some chemo and radiation and am pretty much ok now. During those months of treatment I basically stayed at home. So, similar to what we’re all doing now. Here are tips for getting through it.

1. Don’t think too far in the future. Think about what you are doing today or tomorrow. Anything other than that is too much.

2. Don’t just watch TV, or do other screen activities. You will get bored quickly!

3. Find a hobby or craft. Something that will take a long time is preferable. Coloring is always a good option, if you can’t think of anything.

4. Read books. Long books. A series of book. Read more than just news stories about the Coronavirus.

5. Develop a daily routine. Honestly this helps a lot!

6. Do healthy things.

7. Get dressed every day. Shower, brush your teeth, wash your face, whatever you’d normally do. Do it.

8. Watch movies. They’re longer than TV shows and will therefore keep you interested longer.

9. Try to keep it light. Watch comedies! Read easy books. Now is not the time to read a novel about a dystopian future caused by a virus.

10. Try to relax. Listen to calming music, take a bath, get a meditation app.

11. Do things that give you comfort. I watched the Harry Potter movies more times during chemo than I think I have before or after, because they always put me in a good mood. Find something like that and do it.

12. It’s ok to regress a little. It’s normal during a crisis.

13. Make sure to stay in touch with loved ones. Do more than text. Call, FaceTime, etc.

14. Try to find something to look forward to each day. Even if it’s just cooking a dish I really love, find something.

15. Break up exciting things. Don’t call every friend on the same day. Split it up!

You will, for better or worse, get used to social distancing. I don’t know if that’s comforting or not, but it’s the truth.

So, the radiation really messed up my thymus, which really messed up my T-cells, which really messed up my immune system. It’s bounced back over time. Partially due to time, but partially do to a strong effort on my part to keep my immune system going strong. Outside of the normal protocols, here is my advice to get the best out of your immune system. I have no medical qualifications, so this obviously isn’t medical advice.

1. Get 8 hours of sleep a night! If you do nothing else do this! Your body repairs itself when you sleep. When you don’t sleep you don’t repair.

2. Try to do 1 day a week without an alarm clock, so you can sleep as much as your body wants. Obviously this is hard to do with little kids.

3. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables and a variety of them.

4. Exercise, but not too rigorously. Exercising too intensely can hurt your immune system.

5. Try to be calm. Easier said than done.

6. Don’t get too cold. I know that viruses cause illness and not being cold, but if your body is spending all this energy getting warm it’s got less energy to spend on staying healthy.

7. Similarly, don’t sit around with wet hair.

8. Stay hydrated.

9. Don’t drink too much alcohol.

Good luck everyone. And if you need anything, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Longtime fans, will remember that I started watching Game of Thornes (GoT) back when the last season was airing. This was due to 2 things 1. the only reason I didn’t watch was due to a lack of access to HBO and a friend gave me access 2. the “Who Will Get Killed Next Board” was literally 5 feet away from my desk at work and therefore I heard people discussing the show all day. So I watched the show knowing how it would end and knowing that everyone was disappointed. Here are my thoughts.

First of all, y’all need to calm down, the ending was not that bad. In fact I would say it wasn’t even bad at all. Was the whole Dany killing a bunch of innocent people surprising? Yes. Was it emotionally a lot? Yes. Did a take a couple week break after that episode to chill? Yes. Would I have preferred a few more killing the Tarly’s moments? Yes. Was it out of character for her? Absolutely not! The woman crucified 163 potentially innocent people in Meereen because of their social class. She basically did the same thing she did to Kings Landing to Astapor. So while it was surpring, it was not out of character. Obviously there were some differences (in both cases she was murdering slave owners, whereas there were no slave owners in Kings Landing), but she’s still capable for mass murder. I liken this to Anakin Skywalker in prequels. If we didn’t know who he was going to turn into, I think the events of Revenge of the Sith would shock us all (goes form arrogant young man who murders a whole village to avenge his mom to evil Sith Lord who murders small children and helps kill democracy), but we knew so we didn’t think it was as large of a jump. Nobody knows the exact moment before someone goes from hero to villian. One minute someone seems great with a few issues and the next they’re a villian. If we knew when, we would stop them before hand. I also think, she worked her whole life for this moment of taking back Westeros with fire and blood and they just surrender. It must have been such a let down for her.

I’m ok with Bran being King. Is he the most exciting choice? No, but you can’t hate him. No one is going to start a war cause Bran is King and that is what Westeros needs.

However, I don’t get how does Sansa get away will leaving Westeros. She’s just like, listen, the Northerners will only serve Northerners, so we’re leaving, even though my brother (also a Norrtherner) is King, we can’t serve him. And everyone is like, sounds logical to me Sansa?

Also Arya’s going to see what was West of Westeros felt pretty random, but I get that after all she’s been through she just can’t chill in Winterfell.

I literally LOL’d when they sent Jon Snow back to the Night’s Watch! I don’t get why people were upset about that. Jon is just a guy who wanted to join the Night’s Watch and have fun adventures North of the Wall. He accidentally winds up being the only guy who can unite everyone to save humanity. Now that he’s done, I’m glad he gets a second chance to have those adventures. Also, he doesn’t have to leave his dog and his buddy Tormund behind. The only other time I LOL’d was when Dany and John are introduced. I think how long her titles are and how short his are, says all you need about the two of them.

Yes, it’s sad that the Stark kids don’t wind up together, but I’m happy for each of them individually.

I was happy with everyone on the Small Council. Good for Brienne! Good for Podrick! Good for Ser Davos! Good for Ser Bronn! The man took an opportunity to fight for Tyrion and ran with it all the way to be the richest man in Westeros! What an amazing rags to riches story! I’m happy for Sam, but I don’t understand how he is still a Maester. He so boldly breaks his celibacy vows and everybody’s cool with it.

Did Lena Headley will all the awards for playing Cersei, cause she should? I literally felt bad for her when she died. Also, I don’t get why people thought her death was too random. She murdered a bunch of people in a terrorist attack and dies in another. That’s actually pretty good poetic justice.

Some Thoughts Unrelated to the Finale

The most unnecessary deaths are: 1. Walder Frey’s wife. There was no need for Catlyn Stark to do that. 2. Lady Lyanna Mormont. It was a cool death, but unnecessary for the plot. 3. The Hound. You tell Arya to give up on revenge, but you don’t? Also, thanks for getting Arya to snap out of it.

Stannis Baratheon deserved a much worse death. I was happy Brienne got to kill him, but he burned his daughter alive. I needed him to suffer. To me he’s actually one of the worst villians on the show. My thoughts about the Boltons are, if your family Sigil is torturing someone you just never had a shot of being mentally stable. Stannis did have a shot, and he chose evil.

How did Arya learn how to become an assassin and an amazing flirt in such a short amount of time? You can’t tell me the Faceless Men had time to teach her that. But girl has got game! Side note, I hated the Faceless Men. Too much for me.

My thougths on the battle with the Night King Why didn’t Jaime bring Wildfire to the battle with the Night King? Why can the Knight King ride a dragon? Is he a Targaryen? Why hide children, the elderly, and other non-fighters in the crypts when your enemy brings the dead back to life?!?! Why did no one give Bran dragonglass if you knew the Night King was coming for him?

Why doesn’t Jon realize he’s a Targaryen when he rides a dragon? He truly does know nothing!

When Theon was doing his Stark Family Apology Tour, I felt like all the Stark kids forgave him way too quickly! The man betrayed your family, which is basically his family. Let me get through his whole speech and leave him hanging for a minute before you forgive him.

Brienne should have gotten with Tormund. The man could not flirt to save his life, but he was way better to her than Jaime. Jaime may have knighted her, but Tormund was all like screw the patriarchy, which is a highly desireable quality in a man. Also, he wanted her around on every mission because he knew how powerful she was. You want a man who doesn’t fear your power. Jaime liked her in spite of what made her unique, Tormund liked her for it.

What exactly is the Three Eyed Raven? He obviously doesn’t know everything, if he didn’t know Jon was the true King. I feel like Bran just never explains it to anyone. My reaction to Bran being all Three Eyed Raven would be a cross between Sam (saying he doesn’t know what that is) and Tyrion (wanting Bran to tell me exactly what happened to him). Also, I think a somewhat omniscient king makes sense.

Why was the last Three Eyed Raven hanging out inside a tree for centuries? Life would have been easier for Bran if he hung out in Westeros. 1. People would know what a Three Eyed Raven is 2. Bran wouldn’t have had to travel so far. 3. They’d actually be safer from the Night King and Hodor might still be alive! Also, how does one get stuck in the roots of a tree. Move around a bit and they won’t grow into you. Side note, how do trees grow into people?

I’m actually mad with Ned Stark! He makes a big deal about how Joffrey can’t be King cause everyone is lying about his parentage, when he spent his whole life lying about Jon. First of all, tell you wife who Jon really is. She probably would have been nicer to Jon. Second, tell Jon before he vows to have no titles, that he should have The Title. Third, how could he still be friends with Robert, and name his son Robb, knowing the whole rebellion was built on a lie. Knowing that his sister never loved him. Knowing Robert started this whole rebellion because he wouldn’t take no for an answer. So awful. He’s not as honorable as we all thought.

Finally, I think Robert knew the kids weren’t his. I mean, how hard is it to figure out that if every Baratheon has brown hair and your kids don’t have brown hair, and your wife and her brother are “close” that something’s up. I think he knew, but didn’t care, and Ned should have talked to Robert before he messed everything up.

A Few Alternate TV Shows/Movies I’d Love to See

1. A sitcom about the Hound hanging out at the commune with those Hippies.

2. A romcom a la Bridgette Jones of Brienne, Tormund, and Jaime.

3. Gendry learns to be a lord a la The Princess Diaries.

I’ve talked a few times here about how I love holidays, but one of my favorite days of the year is the first day you realize spring is actually coming. That first day where its over 50 degrees, the sun is shining, and everyone is outside and happy. There are a few days before this when you realize winter is ending; the first time you hear birds singing in the morning, the first day you start your commute home from work and the sun is still out, and of course the first day you end your commute home from work and sun is still out. But still with all those days, spring is far away, too distant to really comprehend. This day is the first day you really realize spring is upon us.

Winters in the Midwest are long and hard and while I’m learning to enjoy the cold, get a sort of satisfaction out of surviving it, and get a morbid satisfaction texting warmer weathered friends exactly how cold it is, it’s not my favorite. But this day makes it all worth it. It’s a day of hope. A day where you realize that the dark and the cold will not last. Even though it will probably be snowing in 48 hours, it’s ok, because the snow will not last.

Another thing I like about this day is the juxtoposition. The first 50 degree day of fall is so miserable whereas the first 50 degree day of spring is so happy. You turn your heat on versus finally opening the windows to get some fresh air. You go outside as much as you can versus staying in. It highlights how perspective changes everything.

So enjoy the warm weather friends, because it will probably snow later this week!