I finished up Sha Na Na’s first season on YouTube this morning with three pretty good episodes. I do believe that some of the errors that the show did in the first half of their first season were addressed midway through and it did seem better.
Episode 22 kicked off with Blue Moon, which was strange because I am almost certain that that song has already been done on the show. I don’t think that it was just the pilot episode either. I didn’t go back through my reviews to see, but it felt very familiar. The last song of the season was sung by Dirty Dan, and it was Dream Lover, which, again, I thought I had already heard this season. I’m not sure it was a good sign if they were repeating songs just during their first season.
They continued with the musical acts as guest stars instead of comedians or actors. Dion, Marth Reeves and the Vandellas and Bobby Vee all were able to perform and added so much to each episode. The poor comedy was kept to a minimum and the show became more of a musical variety show.
Martha Reeves stuck around after her song and did some jokes with Bowzer and Lennie, both of which were funny. You can do that if it is written well.
Sha Na Na does a fantastic job of finding the right voices to blend together. They had the song Charlie Brown sung by Screamin’ Scott and Jocko, and they sounded great together. Then, they had their best singers< Johnny, Bowzer, Donny, Santini and Denny doing Remember Then, which is sensational.
In episode 23, they did one of the comedy bits where they all dress up and they called it Swine Lake. At first, I thought to myself, “What am I watching?” but as it went on, I started picturing it as an act on the Muppet Show. Had this been the pigs from the Muppets doing this “ballet” I wouldn’t have blinked at it. So, by making Sha Na Na human Muppets, I found much more enjoyment in the skit than I would have before.
Avery Schreiber, who has been a cabbie all season long, came into the diner and did a skit/song where he danced like a robot. It was a bizarre moment. It was another that kind of grew on me and I liked the effort of him doing something different than just drive his cab onto the set and bring the guest star. Apparently, the song was called Mechanical Man and it was a song Avery Schreiber wrote the song as a way to express his unhappiness over how he was being seen as an actor.
Dirty Dan had several songs in this block of three including Dream Lover, Da Do Run Run, and part of the Mexican skit in episode 22.
The comedy bit song in the 24th episode was Ahab the Arab, which was a song b Ray Stevens. I was surprised, since I thought this was too recent for Sha Na Na to do it. However, I did a quick Google search and it said that the song was released in 1962, meaning it fell right into Sha Na Na’s wheelhouse.
This brings to a close season one of the variety show. I am curious to see if there are any changes from season one to two or if the changes they made in the middle of season one will just continue.
For my 14th birthday I was surprised with going on a cruise with just my mom and I. I had to fly to Miami and stayed in a hotel right on the beach. When we got to the hotel we went and walked on the beach. The sand was so hot and the edge of the ocean was full of seaweed. After that we spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping because we had to be up really early in the morning.
Then the next day we boarded the ship early. Once we got on the ship we looked around to see what was on it. The things that were on it were a shopping area/ eating places, on the top deck was 4 pools and mini golf, there was an arcade, water slides, and a water wave pool. There was also a basketball court on the top deck.
We got lunch and we went swimming on the top deck of the ship. After a few hours our room was ready and we went to see what it looked like. In our room we had a balcony. After we saw our room and unpacked everything we watched from our balcony the ship took off. When the ship took off you could feel the vibration of the motor. When we took off you could see little fish swim away from underneath the ship. Once the ship took off we got ready for dinner and for every meal except breakfast I had chicken strips and fries. At our first dinner I watched from my chair Miami get smaller and smaller. It was so pretty because when we took off it was becoming night and the sunsets were so beautiful the whole week.
After eating and watching the ship take off my mom told me that people hide ducks around the ship so we spent the next hour after dinner finding rubber ducks and hiding them for others to find. I brought back so many and hid so many as well. After looking for the ducks and hiding them we went to look at all the shops. My mom also heard about how everyday you could collect charms and make a bracelet out of them.
The first day we got the actual bracelet part and 5 charms the next day and the day after we didn’t get them because we forgot about it, but the lady who was giving them out gave us the ones for those days and the day we went there.
The next morning we woke up in the Bahamas. There was also one other ship besides ours docked at the island. When we woke up we got ready for the day ahead and ate breakfast. By the time we got done eating breakfast we looked out the window and saw their private island CoCo Cay.
When we got to the island we looked at getting my hair braided but it was too hot and too expensive. We went to our room to put on swimsuits and wait for the announcement ordering us to get off the ship and explore the island. When we got off the ship we went to get our stuff to go snorkeling. While snorkeling I saw big conch shells, little cute fish, seaweed, and lots of other shells. The water was so blue and clear you wouldn’t believe it.
We went shopping around the island and when we got too hot we went to the pool on the lagoon. After we were cooled off we took a tram around the island and we talked to the driver and he was super nice. The driver told us that they would stay on the island for 3 months at a time. He also said that for hurricanes they would still stay on the island. There was also a level 5 hurricane coming our way. My mom was watching it the whole time and was going to get there 2 days after we were back home. Once we got back to the ship we went and laid down.
After we laid down for a while we went back out on the island and snorkeled again. We didn’t snorkel for long because it was high tied for the second round and was too deep for me and the waves kept hitting my face. After we got back on the ship my mom and I watched the ship take off from the private island. While we took off the sunset was so beautiful. We went and cleaned up for dinner and headed down to dinner. After dinner we went to the arcade and got ducks from the duck machine and hid them around the ship. We also looked for ducks and found new places for some while hiding our ducks.
Before going to bed, we would stand on the balcony to look out onto the ocean. We did see other ships and we would try and guess what ones the ships were. At night you could still see how blue the water was. We would also sit out on the balcony and listen to the waves. We would watch on our tv how fast we were going. The first night we were going 5 knots. The second night we were going 7 knots. Finally last night we were going 25 knots. We would also go to the 5th level where all the shops and restaurants were and fill our cups with some kind of drink before bed or whenever we needed a drink unless we went to a restaurant or somewhere that had drinks. We had a drink package and we could get any drink we wanted. That also meant we could go to Starbucks and get any kind of drink we wanted any time of day.
Also every night there would be a band playing on the 5th level. When we went to get off and on the ship the people did not speak English they spoke Spanish. My mom tried to help this one family that could not speak or understand English.
The next day we arrived in Nassau, Bahamas and took a faerie to Blue Lagoon Island. On the island we had a pass to swim with dolphins. The dolphins were so well trained and so smart. I got to hug, kiss, dance, and was pushed across the lagoon by the dolphin. After we got to swim with the dolphins we went and looked at the shops on the lagoon. We went swimming in the ocean part of the lagoon. When I was swimming in the ocean I had goggles and I was looking for shells. I was also seeing if I could touch the deeper part of that area. Once we were done swimming we went to get back on the fairies and we saw a little crab while waiting to get on the faerie. On our way back the drivers of the faerie were playing music and people were dancing.
We got to see famous peoples houses along the ocean. One of the celebrity’s houses I saw was Beyonce’s house. When we arrived at the drop off station they said we need our ids or passports. When we got there my mom didn’t have hers and they were going to let me go through all by myself. But luckily my mom had a picture of her passport from when she went to Australia. When she found it she was so relieved because the security guard wouldn’t let my mom enter with me and was going to let me go to the ship alone then she remembered she had that picture.
After that all happened we went to our room and got all cleaned up to go to dinner and rest. After dinner we went to the top deck and played mini golf. We also went to a game show about finishing the lyrics. When they asked for contestants I pounded at my mom and said “ she wants to do it! ” When they heard me say it they said “ ok get up here! ” When we got done with the game show we went to get a milkshake and to go to the arcade. We also swam in the top deck pool a lot and watched movies in the pool. We also met these very nice ladies on our flight from Atlanta to Miami and we ran into them multiple times on the cruise.
The next day we were back in Miami and we had to be off the boat at 8 am. We got an uber and went to the airport early to try and get an earlier flight out. We spent the entire day in the delta sky lounge. We tried to get on 3 different flights other than our original flight. Our fight also got delayed 3 different times. When we got on our flight we sat next to this really nice lady and she was going to Argentina and was bringing caviar with her. Me and my mom got to sit first class on all 4 of our flights because of my moms delta points. In first class we got lots of yummy snacks and drinks. Our layover was in Atlanta and we got to our gate just as they were starting to board. The reason why we were getting there when they were starting to board was because the flight from Miami to Atlanta was on the other side of the airport. We got on the plane and my mom and I fell asleep the whole flight and woke up 30 minutes before landing. In the 30 minutes I was awake we went through a lightning storm and it looked so cool. There was a lot of turbulence but it wasn’t too bad. When we landed the lights were so bright and came on so quick and I wasn’t prepared at all. After we got off the plane we went to baggage claim and stood there for a long time. When we got our luggage we went to the bathroom and then we went to our car. By the time we got home it was 12 am and I was so tired that I went straight to bed. After waiting for a week we got all the pictures from all the tourers and other stuff we did on the cruise. Overall I would recommend going on a cruise with family and friends or just by yourself. Don’t hesitate to go if you ever get to go on one. It was the best thing ever and I would definitely go on one again. Don’t be scared of going on one. It isn’t that scary at all, in fact it was amazing. You get to see and do all these amazing opportunities. The staff is so nice and they kept the cruise very clean and not dirty at all. The food was also delicious. I think I would like to try more things than I did but it was still so fun. One thing that I didn’t like was that I couldn’t use my phone because there was no internet. The only thing you could do on your phone was text, call, and take pictures. I am also so grateful that I got to go and love my mom. She surprised me and I had so much fun.
My mom has always tried to do more experiences than presents. The reason she does this is because memories are more important than things. She has taken my sister on trips like this but she likes more sports than I do so she got to go to the sweet 16 in Seattle for her 14th birthday in 2023 as well and got to meet Monika Czinano. She also has been taking us on Christmas breaks for our presents since 2017. It has always been different places except we went to Daytona beach twice. We went to Galveston Texas which we had to leave a day early and drove from Galveston to Des Moines because our flight was cancelled because of an ice storm and my mom didn’t want to be stuck in Texas. We have also been to St. Pete Beach. We also went to Hilton Head Beach which is where I got to hold alligators. When we were in St. Pete we walked 2 miles down the beach from a restaurant to our hotel. In Daytona we got to see manatees and I got to hold a jellyfish. At night we would also walk along the beach and we saw little and big jelly fish along the water that were washed up on the beach. We would also look for shells and my sister and I would give them to friends, teachers, and family members. We would drive on the beach in Daytona. We also saw a lot of peers and they were cool.
Overall I would recommend going on a cruise with family and friends or just by yourself. Don’t hesitate to go if you ever get to go on one. It was the best thing ever and I would definitely go on one again. Don’t be scared of going on one. It isn’t that scary at all, in fact it was amazing. You get to see and do all these amazing opportunities. The staff is so nice and they kept the cruise very clean and not dirty at all. The food was also delicious. I think I would like to try more things than I did but it was still so fun. One thing that I didn’t like was that I couldn’t use my phone because there was no internet. The only thing you could do on your phone was text, call, and take pictures. I am also so grateful that I got to go and love my mom. She surprised me and I had so much fun. Thank you mom for all you do. I love you so so much.
“Stacy, we’re going to be late for the party!!” I yelled. We were getting ready to go to Jaden’s party. Everyone was talking about it for weeks upon end!! We were so excited to go. We just went shopping for new dresses and outfits just for this!!
We were just about to Jordan’s house when a strange light in the distance appeared in the sky. Like a huge fireball, with a strange object falling from the sky.
“What was that??” Stacy yelled, “I Don’t know?? But That gave me the willys!!”
We drove over there to see what it was. As we got closer, we saw a bunch of people running like they were running for their lives. Stacy told me that we should turn around, but I was curious!!
The tension overwhelmed the vehicle.
“Hey!! I hear something. Do you hear that?” I said
“Ya, I hear that too, like people yelling for us to turn around, and hide!!” Stacy said
“But wait,” I said, I turned down this gravel road and saw these strange creatures falling from the sky. That’s when the thought came to my mind that they were aliens. But I didn’t really think they existed. We turned around and drove down to the police station. The streets were filled with crowds of people and those strange creatures. They looked like ginormous spiders, but with 6 legs and their faces seemed to crack open into 3 worm-like faces with rows and rows of blade-like razor sharp teeth.
“These creatures must have come from the enormous explosion.” Stacy cried.
“Y, y..ya, I, I guess you’re right.” I said.
“Cristal,” she said, “are you ok?”
“Ya, Ya, I, I, I’m fine.” I said
“We have to get out of here, we’re not going to make to the police station.” said Stacy
“I know, but there is no other place to go!!” I said
All of a shudden, there was a loud thump from above our vehicle. “There’s one on our car!! One of the creatures scraped and scratched our vehicle and broke our windshield. I put the car in reverse and ran into a light pole. The creature slid down the car and sliced Stacy across the left side of her face with its large knife-like claws. Stacy screamed. I put the car in drive and luckily we were moving!! I quickly pressed the brakes and flung the creature off the car. As soon as it flung off, I ran it over with the car, and kept on driving down the gravel road to my home. RRRRRRRRRRRR Pat, Pat!!
“No!! Come on, Come on. We’re almost home!! Why break down now??!!” I yelled
“Wait here!!” I yelled “Stay right there!!”
“What?” Stacy asked
“I’m not staying here all by myself!!”
“I know, but you’re hurt. I don’t want you to get hurt even more!!”
“What if another one of those creatures comes?? They would hurt me even more!!”
Stacy gave me a frightened face that I’ve only seen her make once before after she got the news that our parents got in a car wreck and didn’t make it. I knew I couldn’t leave her there, and I most certainly wouldn’t want her to go through that all over again if something were to happen to me too.
Come on, run as fast as you can to the house!! I yelled!!
Stacy swung her hands up, and I pulled her out of the car .
We ran as fast as we could, but then randomly Stacy fell to her knees and stopped moving. The cut on her face oozed this yellow hue and she all of a sudden she screamed and cried. She wouldn’t talk to me, but I knew something was wrong and we needed to move. The soft movement of the wing blowing the weeds through the field dramatically ceased as a roaring crash breaks the silence. There was one of those creatures again. They followed us.
“I hear it!!” Stacy exclaimed “The closer they are, the more clear it gets.”
We ran as far as we could thinking we could out run it, but we couldn’t.
“Stop!!” I yelled, “don’t move”
We kept hearing the noises, but nothing was chasing us any more. Stacy cried, and the creature heard her and started chasing us. I held her mouth as it stood right in front of us. It stood there as if it couldn’t hear us. A truck on the other side of the field went flying by, and caught the alien’s attention.That’s when we decided to make a run for it, but Stacy couldn’ t move. She acted as if she were paralyzed for a second. Then she got up like she’s never walked before. I didn’t have time to think, so I placed her on my back and ran. Every little noise I made caught the alien’s attention, but since the truck was much louder, it didn’t come after us.
We ran as far as we could and made it home.
The house was quiet, and eerie. Usually there would be loud music playing, or someone yelling at the other team on the tv. There might be someone making dinner, or taking a shower, or wrestling each other to see whose better, or practicing for a big ballet recital. There was always some sort of noise in our house. Even at night, Stacy always has the tv on for noise. But there was nothing. The house was empty. Not a peep. No one playing loud music or someone yelling at the other team on the tv, there was no one making dinner, or taking a shower, no one was wrestling, or practicing ballet. Nothing. Noone was there not even my parents. Was I expecting them? I don’t know. Was this all a dream. Would I just wake up and climb into my parent’s arms. Would they hug me like they used to, and would I hear their soft whispers telling me they love me??
I cried but Stacy held her cold deadlike hand over my mouth.
“Shrrrrrrrr.” She whispered as she pointed out the window. That creature was back. It climbed the side of our house, and onto the roof. I took Stacy to the bathroom, and we went into the closet. That is where we hid from the creature. We heard it crash through the window upstairs. The creature seemed to be crashing, and knocking things over to make us jump. Stacy fell into my arms as if there was nothing left in her. She was sick, and I really needed to get her to the hospital to get her some help.
“I felt her pulse just to make sure she was alive. What?” I thought to myself, I looked down at her and there was this strange look on her face. She looked at me as if she were saying I’m ok, don’t worry about me, but I was worried about her.
I grabbed Stacy and wrists and looked at her and I told her that “I was going to get her some help, and that I loved her. She smiled at me silently and cried in pain. That’s when the alien-like creature crashed through the door of the bathroom. I really started to freak out. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t leave here without getting caught. The shadows of the creature seemed to creep under the slight crack below the door frame. Something must have happened that caught its attention and it turned around and went outside.
I cracked open the door just enough to see if anything was there. Luckily there wasn’t, so I slipped out the door leaving Stacy behind, and I grabbed a first aid kit out of the bathroom cabinet. As soon as I grabbed it, the toothpaste fell out of the cabinet. I swung my arm and somehow I caught it in between my pinky and ring finger. I gently sat the toothpaste back and I tiptoed back to grab Stacy. I pulled her out of the bathroom and into my bedroom, where there was a walk-in closet with locks on the doors(as if that was going to do anything). I laid Stacy down and we stayed as quiet as we could.
Later on that night, we both tried to stay awake. I looked down at Stacy to see if she was asleep, but she was so sick that she couldn’t even really talk much. We both eventually fell asleep, but I got spooked or something and woke up. I looked at Stacy, who was squeezing my arm as tight as she could. She was so weak and her eyes looked around desperately. I tried to scream but my throat felt like it was in my stomach. I knew it was only a matter of time before… It was too harsh to think of. I held Stacy tight and hugged her. That gash on the side of her face started to ooze again. Just like last time, that yellow gue oozed out of it. I grabbed the first aid kit, and poured peroxide on her gash. As I poured it on her face, I covered her mouth with a sweater that was hanging up. She screamed in pain as I poured it. I rinsed it off with a bottle of water from my nightstand in my room. I covered it up with some gauze and tape, along with some pain reliever cream.
Just then, a loud bang came from the left!
“we’ve got to go!!” Stacy whispered.
I told her that we can’t leave or they will get us both.
“It’s locked!!” I told her “Don’t worry!!
“What if they find us!! She whispered
“They can’t find us if we don’t talk, or make any noises.”
“Do you think they’re looking for us?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know what they are even here for.”
All of a sudden one of the creatures busted into my room. It must have heard us talking. We couldn’t move, we were like frozen in our place. 2 figures came out from the shadows, and creeped over to the door. Stacy was shaking uncontrollably, so I held her tighter and tighter to comfort her. I knew that the moment they left I had to get her out of here.
I found my box of nail polish and threw it at the window to distract them. They went outside and as soon as they did, I picked up Stacy, grabbed my stuff and ran. Ran without thinking about making a noise, I had only one thing on my mind. And that was getting Stacy help. I knew we were being chased, but I still ran. My legs felt like jello but I pushed onward, and hid behind this car in the empty parking lot. I closed my eyes and wished this was all a dream. When I opened my eyes Stacy was laying in my arms. She looked around, She looked as if she couldn’t remember what happened. I looked at and at Stacy, then behind the car. I could see now 3 creatures flipping cars, and another crawling in from behind the others. I could see tears in Stacy’s eyes. I couldn’t believe how hard it must be for her. I mean, we both lost our parents, but she is only 14 years old. I mean, Ya, I am 18, but still. She is heartbroken. I scooted over closer to her and gave her a big hug. “Did you hear that? It’s getting louder!!” she cried
A low humming noise came from behind the car. All of a sudden the car flipped on top of us. I leaped over top of Stacy. The sun roof window crashed on top of us, and somehow we made it in the car. The creatures piled up stacks high on top of the car, compressing all of the air out of the vehicle. The windows were breaking , glass flying everywhere. Every little move is a new pain. Stacy was unconscious and not moving. I held her tighter and tighter?
I knew that only one of us could escape. Stacy sort of nudged and shook, then went cold. I knew she was gone. My eyes filled with tears as I hugged her one last time, wishing this were all a bad dream. An arm grabs Stacy by the leg. I grabbed a large shard of glass and cut the arm off of the creature. A loud screech from the creature, and all of the creatures piled on top of it.
I squeezed through the small hole of the car window, grabbed Stacy’s arm and dragged her out. I picked her up and ran towards the police station. I pulled at the doors, but they were locked and evacuated. Then all of a sudden out of the shadows, and into the light came one of those creatures. It crashed through the windows and came after me. I ran and hid behind a bush. I heard me and jumped into the bush. I ran but it grabbed me by the arm and its razor sharp claws sliced into my arm. I cried in agony and ran away. I saw a light in the distance. Hoping this wasn’t the end, I followed it. I started to see red lights along with other bright lights. I could faintly read the words “HOESTPITALE”
AKA– “HOSPITAL” My vision was very blurry. As I dragged stacy, I crawled quietly through a meadow and got onto the cement were someone grabbed me and pulled me into a room and worked on me. I wouldn’t let go of stacy.
I woke up in the recovering room. I was alive!! But how?? I guess the hospital realized what had happened, so they bordered the doors and windows, staying quiet. They saw what had happened and dragged us in. Stacy sadly died. They said that her face got infected. They also told me that the main reason was from the cut from one of the aliens claws. They inject poison into you when touched. My cut on my arm was very deep. They injected cleanser into my arm, along with anti-fungal, muscle relaxer, and anti-poison. Hoping they didn’t have to amputate the arm, they kept injecting me with new things.
Today I live with a nasty black and purple scar, with bumps all over it on my arm. I am now 20 years old, and am getting married in April. But even though my life seems to be going better, I will never forget the day I lost my sister because of the aliens.
This is the show that many people made an account to Apple TV + for. Ted Lasso had three seasons on the streamer and was some of the best TV you were going to find.
Ted Lasso was a American football coach who was hired to move to England and coach football (aka soccer to us Americans), despite the fact that he had never coached the sport before.
There has never been a character like Ted Lasso on TV before. I binged the first couple of seasons because I was catching up with all the hype, and I can remember multiple times thinking to myself, “I wish I was more like Ted Lasso.” The constant positives and the humor that he faced every situation was inspiring.
Ted Lasso was played by Jason Sudeikis with such a perfect balance of zeal and down-home-charm. The rest of the cast around Ted was great as well. This included Hannah Waddingham, as team owner Rebecca Welton. Her story arc as the evil owner felt right out of “Major League,” except it took an entirely different path, completely unexpectedly. Bret Goldstein was Roy Kent, aging superstar player who had to come to terms with his skills slipping way. The relationship with Roy and Keeley Jones, played by Juno Temple, was one of the best storylines on the show.
Others on the show included Phil Dunster, Nick Mohammad, Brendan Hunt, Jeremy Swift, James Lance, Andrea Anders, Sam Richardson, Anthony Head, Cristo Fernandez, Annette Badland, Billy Harris, and Keeley Hazell.
Much like the Tick, Ted Lasso became known for his quotes, dubbed Ted Lasso-isms. Here are some of my personal favorites:
“Taking on a challenge is a lot like riding a horse, isn’t it? If you’re comfortable while you’re doing it, you’re probably doing it wrong.”
“If that’s a joke, I love it. If not, can’t wait to unpack that with you later.”
“I always thought tea was going to taste like hot brown water. And do you know what? I was right.”
“You know what the happiest animal on earth is? It’s a goldfish. You know why? It’s got a 10-second memory.”
“This woman is strong, confident, and powerful. Boss, I tell you, I’d hate to see you and Michelle Obama arm wrestle, but I wouldn’t be able take my eyes off of it either.”
“Sam was more open than the jar of peanut butter on my counter.”
“You beating yourself up is like Woody Allen playing the clarinet. I don’t want to hear it.”
“It’s just a group of people who care, Roy. Not unlike folks at a hip-hop concert whose hands are not in the air.”
“Your body is like day-old rice. If it ain’t warmed up properly, something real bad could happen.”
“I promise you there is something worse out there than being sad, and that’s being alone and being sad.”
“There’s two buttons I never like to hit: that’s panic and snooze.”
“I shouldn’t bring an umbrella to a brainstorm.”
“Don’t fight back. Fight Forward”
“He thinks he’s mad now, wait till we win him over. He’ll be furious.”
“I’m like an incomplete list of Madeline Kahn’s best films. I ain’t got no clue.”
“Well, fellas, if you’re looking for a pep talk from me, you’re in trouble. ‘Cause I’m like Michael Flatley at 11:59 p.m. on St. Patrick’s Day, I’m tapped out.”
“I’ve had more psychotic episodes than Twin Peaks.”
“I do love a locker room. It smells like potential.”
“I’ve never been embarrassed about having streaks in my drawers. You know, it’s all part of growing up.”
“If the internet has taught us anything, it’s that sometimes it’s easier to speak our minds anonymously.”
“You two knuckleheads have split our locker room in half. And when it comes to locker rooms, I like ’em just like my mother’s bathing suits. I only wanna see ’em in one piece, you hear?”
“Here’s an idea that’s gonna help a little or hurt a whole lot. Who needs a drink?”
“Well, as my doctor told me when I got addicted to fettuccine Alfredo, that’s a little rich for my blood.”
“Guys have underestimated me my entire life. And for years, I never understood why. It used to really bother me. But then one day, I was driving my little boy to school, and I saw this quote by Walt Whitman, and it was painted on the wall there. It said, ‘Be curious, not judgmental.’ I like that.”
One day a group of 4 high school boys were sitting at lunch alone like always.
When they heard the cool kids talk about some clown park and how cool it was.
So after school they immediately met up with each other and decided to go there. The park was out of town. When they arrived at the park they were surprised to see the park was abandoned. 3 of the 4 boys wanted to head back home but Josh, who drove, said he didn’t drive all the way to the park just to turn around. The boys went in and they saw what looked to be blood on the front entrance wall but Josh said it was paint.
They were hesitant but they kept going in until they made it to this room that turned the water slides on. They thought they found something cool but really they would see it wasn’t. They ran up the stairs but Josh decided to wait and rest. All three of the boys agreed and went down the slide. When they got down the slide they were met with Josh laying in a pool of blood with a stab wound in his neck. Jake immediately ran to help but he slipped in the blood, fell forward and fell head first into a sharp wooden stick. The other two yelled lets leave right now. They started running. When the 2 kids got to the car they started calling 911 and driving home thinking they were safe. The dispatcher started talking but the two boys didn’t reply.
The two boys didn’t respond because after the clown ended the first two boys he got in the back seat of the car with two knives and ended the boys there. The boy’s bodies were never found.
We were on our way to a firework show near the 4th of July. I was so excited because my cousin was going to be there. When I got there my cousin was super excited to see me. We hung out for a while until she saw someone she wanted me to meet. So I said okay, and went with the flow. Little did I know it was this really cute guy. My cousin introduced me to him. “Hi, my name is JJ. What is yours?” I told him that my name was Katie. We hung out together and really got to know each other.
A year passed, and we became really great friends. My 9th grade year, I was at home getting ready for bead, brushing my hair, brushing my teeth, the usual. I heard a knock on the door. I answered the door to see JJ standing in the doorway. In the yard was a bunch of candles shaped as a heart with the word HOCO? I was speechless. I gave him a big hug, and that was our first so-called date. The years came and when, and seemed to really fly by. This was it, this was our big day, OUR WEDDING DAY!! And yes, I was still with JJ. We got married and had 2 kids. A boy and a girl. Their names were Ashley and Samuel. Sammy for short. We lived a great life and never had any problems whatsoever!! The end.
“Beep, beep, beep.” I woke up from my alarm clock on July 28th. It was my 15th birthday. I am so happy to finally be 15! Even though every bone in my body was excited for my birthday, I was also full of hope that my birthday wish would come true. Every year for my birthday, I have wished to go to the big city of New York. I have never been anywhere besides my small hometown of Sippera, Nebraska. My family and I have never been able to travel due to my Dads condition Multiple sclerosis. It is really hard for my mom to get my dad around places, especially with my 6 siblings. I just really hope my dream comes true.
I spent the whole morning hanging out with my family. “Happy birthday Olivia!” Screamed my best friend Sarah. She was so excited to spend the day with me. Later that night, it was finally time to have a birthday cake. As my dad lit the candles, everyone sang happy birthday to me. It made me feel so special considering I normally don’t get any attention with having so many younger siblings who need my parents attention more than me. I blew out my candles and made my wish. After everyone was done eating cake Sarah and I went to the shed to work on our huge painting of New york city.
My passion was art. I love to draw and paint. Sarah loves art also and wants to get out of this town too. However she wasn’t as passionate about it as me. She is an only child and everyone loves her. Some days I think my parents like her more than they like me. She was what people consider “the golden child.” I got used to it though. One of the things that has helped me get by, is my grandma. Her and I are really close and it feels like she is the only one who understands me. That night we finally finished our painting that took 2 months. My grandma called me that night and we talked for an hour. I went to sleep after that with a smile on my face.
I woke up the next morning from Sarah calling my phone. “I have huge news! I am coming to your house right now!” Sarah says. A few minutes later Sarah comes running up to my room. She informed me that she submitted our painting to a huge art school in New York, and we got into the program! She knew how much I wanted to go to New York and also how much I love art so she thought this would be perfect. She asked, “should I tell them we are coming?” I said “Yes of course!” Sarah left to go tell her parents and suddenly a feeling of guilt went through my stomach. How could I leave my mom here alone to take care of my dad and siblings. That would be so selfish of me. It took me 2 whole days to build up enough courage to even bring up the idea to my mom.
I told my mom about my situation. I heard her sigh and I got scared. Even though I thought she was angry or disappointed, I found her words very comforting. “Olivia, I know you feel like you have an obligation to stay here and help me, but that isn’t your job. You need to go out into the world and find yourself. I would never say you couldn’t follow your passion when you are the most selfless person I know.” Hearing these words gave me the courage to leave my family and pursue my dream.
It was the next week that I left to go and get settled in before my first term started at the end of August. I got on the plane with Sarah, and our flight took off. Hours later, we landed in the big apple. I was so eager to get off the plane and go to our dorm. However, when we got in the taxi together, New York was nothing like we imagined. People were mean, it was a rainy day, and everyone was honking their horns. Considering all of this, I saw right through the negative with my excitement. Sarah on the other hand, was a tad unsure about the whole experience.
One week has passed and we have settled. I think Sarah is a little homesick already though. Classes start this morning and I am very nervous, yet am also happy to start improving my art. My first class was about painting. I enjoyed it so much because for once people around me understood me. I met Sarah after lunch and she told me her day has been rough. I gave her some encouragement to keep an open mind. We didn’t have any classes together and while I am used to being on my own, she is not.
A few weeks have passed and after school one day, Sarah came to me in tears saying, “Olivia, I can’t do this anymore! I miss my family and house and I just really want to go back home!” I was a tad heartbroken but accepted her decision. The next day, she went home. She really didn’t love art as much as me. Even though Sarah had left, I was still happy that I got to do art.
One month has passed and I got a call. My mom called me in tears saying Grandma was sick and didn’t have much time left. My heart dropped, tears streamed down my face. I told my mom I would be on the next flight home. I couldn’t help but think this was my fault. I left Grandma there and she wanted to help my family but her body just couldn’t handle it.
As soon as I got home I went to the hospital to see her. I sobbed at her bed side for hours before I could get any words out. My parents left me alone with her to talk. I finally choked up some words and told her I could never go back to art school. Not after this. Grandma got a certain look in her eyes and said,“Olivia, you cannot give up on your dream because of me. I would never forgive myself if you did. This is not your fault. You have a huge future ahead of you filled with joy, sadness, excitement, and fun memories. But you need to go after your dream, go back to art school and remember I will always be in your heart.” She then gave me her bracelet that she had never taken off before and told me to keep it.
I had an entire week off of art school and spent every minute I could at her bed side. 3 days before I went back she passed away. I went to her funeral and barely made it through. I spent the rest of the time I was home with my family. It was time to go back and it has been one of the hardest things I have ever done. It helped knowing it is what my grandma wanted. I got on a flight back and once I arrived back, I have never felt so alone. With Sarah leaving and my grandma being gone, it was really hard. I got through art school though and just like that it was the next summer and time to go home.
Going home was hard because everywhere I turned, there were memories of Grandma. My mom knew how close her and I were and helped me through it. Every day that summer I worked on a painting of grandma and I. I never have shown anyone it because it was very personal. I knew it was my best painting so far though.
3 years have passed and I still miss Grandma everyday. I have a new dream though, the University of CalArts. Since I went to art school, they were very impressed with my resume. However I needed a full ride scholarship to afford it. The only way to do that is to submit my art work to them. I need to submit the best ones and my painting of Grandma is the best.
After much thought, Grandma always told me to chase my dreams at any cost and remembering that, I knew this is what she would want. I looked down at my bracelet from grandma, and wrote my college application about him and submitted my painting of her with it. 0890
After 3 weeks of eagerly waiting, I got a letter. I was so scared to open it. My mom helped open it and read it to me, and I got in! My whole family jumped with excitement and gave me the biggest hug. The day came when it was time to leave and my family sat me down and told me how proud they were of me and how much they loved me. I took a deep breath, and walked out the door excited and nervous to start my new life. I guess I am not so alone after all.
After a short respite on a Friday morning last week, we are back on Sunday morning, BABY!
I went to SiouxperCon last week in South Dakota, which meant that I had to miss a Sunday morning. Instead, I did the Sunday Morning Sidewalk #35 on a Friday morning.
Back on Sunday, I watched the penultimate episode of Lovecraft Country, “Rewind 1921.”
Time travel is always tough, but this trip back to the Tulsa race massacre of 1921 was impeccably done. It brought us back around to a scene from the first episode that featured Jackie Robinson and made it make sense with what our current story is.
Atticus, Leti and Montrose travel through the portal to 1921, thanks to the returning Hippolyta, in search of the Book of Names, in order to save Diana. What they find is horror and loss in a brutal manner as the Tulsa race massacre was in full nightmare.
Montrose, especially, had to go through his own personal anguish, as they witnessed his father beating him with a switch. Montrose went to see the death of a boy that he had had feelings for and, all the while, Montrose knew that he could not do anything to change what happened.
To find out that it was Atticus all along who showed up and saved Montrose and George (aka Jackie Robinson) was one of those wild time travel things that brings everything full circle.
It was an emotional, powerful, painful episode looking back at how these characters were affected by this tragic event in American history.
Leti went through it as well, as she found the Book of Names as the house burned down around her, including Dora’s grandmother, who had given her the book just before horrifically burning to death in front of her.
The episode ended with our heroes clearly affected, but back in their own timeline.
I have a feeling that next week’s finale is not going to provide the satisfactory conclusion I hope as I had heard the show left off on a cliffhanger and it has never been renewed. I hope it is a cliffhanger that is designed to create something new and not one to continue this story moving forward.
Yes, I know it is not Sunday. I am going to the SiouxperCon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota this weekend and I will not have access to HBO Max Sunday morning. I did not know what I wanted to do about that. I considered skipping a week and just resuming next Sunday, but instead, I decided to make this one time exception and make it a Friday Morning Sidewalk instead. So this Friday Morning Sidewalk is episode 8 of Lovecraft Country.
In “Jig-A-Bobo”, Lovecraft Country tackled the grief and loss brought about by the real world murder of Emmet Till, lovingly nicknamed Bobo. The show had revealed that Till was best friends with Diana, and his brutal murder struck her hard.
However, in Lovecraft Country style, the grief takes on a whole different manner, supernaturally speaking.
Diana is pursued by some demons that looked like Topsys, the character from Uncle Tom’s Cabin… and they were spooky as hell. Jada Harris does a remarkable job showing Diana’s grief and her fear, both transgressing through.
Then, the ending sequence where the police get their comeuppance is so awesome. The protection spell Atticus and Montrose cast came into being in a different way than any of them anticipated. That monster that just ripped through the cops was utterly crazy. When that one cop went flying through the air, it was damn satisfying.
I’m not sure what the scene where Christina hires someone to attack her just like Emmet Till was meant to show. It really felt like a major weak spot in an otherwise strong episode.
I do like Ruby’s development through this episode. Her face off with Leti, who has her own little interaction with Christina this episode that made her invulnerable, felt like it was way overdue.
The arrival of Ji-ah seemed to be unimportant too. Not sure why she arrived and I am not sure why that was important. Leti’s anger felt misplaced.
Only two more episodes remaining. I hope everyone has a great Sunday morning on a Friday day!
Welcome to the brand new feature entitled EYG Daily Countdown. This is going to be a bit of a challenge. I am going to compile Top 100 lists of certain topics and then count them down with a daily post for the following 100 days.
I have some rules I will be following.
First of all, I will choose a topic and as soon as I compile the list, the topic is closed. If something new and awesome comes out while I am making the list, it will not be added and it will have to wait for a future list for its flowers.
Second of all, clearly this is going to be my own personal choices. That means there will be items from the topics that I will not have on my list. I’m not setting this up as a debate. It’s my list. You can make your own.
I will have had to see or hear or experience it to be on the list. If something is considered the greatest of all time, but I have not seen it, it will not be on my list.
This is going to be building toward something that has scared me forever… a list of the Top 100 of my favorite movies of all time. I am not ready to dip my toe into that list because of how monumental that feels. I am going to work my way to that impossible list with some less impossible lists.
Any kind of list is fluid. It changes constantly. Maybe a rewatch leads me to move something up or down. Just because I finish a list, does not mean that it could not change. Perhaps down the road I could revisit the lists as we move along to see how time has changed my opinions.
I plan on starting this some time over the next week. I do have a topic, which I will announce below, and I have started to compile possible entries for the list. I will tell you that I have currently 132 potential choices for my Top 100 list so I will need to narrow it down.
These are tough things to do, so my expectations are that I will be missing some along the way. Again, that is tough, but there will be nothing I can do about it. I will do my best to make the list as comprehensive as I can.
Each day, I will make a post with one entry on the list. I will start with #100, the following day will be #99, then #98… and so on. One a day, every day.
I may yet compile a running list on the site to keep track of the list as we go.
With that out of the way, the first topic for the EYG Daily Countdown will be:
Top 100 Favorite TV Shows of All-Time.
This is quite an undertaking, but it is not as wild as movies would be, so I thought I would kick it off with this. Good luck and here’s hoping the new challenge will be a lot of fun.
Once upon a time there was a girl named Razzy with brown hair, long lashes and rosey cheeks who loved to make new friends and loved to play volleyball. It was her everyday thing to practice in her backyard and go to her games because she was on a travel team so she loved to practice a lot. Traveling teams are fun because you get to travel and see new things and meet new people and maybe go out to eat after, and also get cool colorful jerseys.
One day she was at her volleyball game and her and her whole team was so happy because they won their game and her mom offered to take the whole team out to eat. Razzy and her volleyball team went out to eat at Chuck ‘E’ Cheese and were sitting down and eating pizza in a hurry so they could all go play some games and get a lot of tickets so they could get cool toys with them when the lights went out. Everyone was in shock and couldn’t see anything and then the lights went back on. Everyone was confused why the lights went out for 20 sec and then went back on, but they ignored it and continued to eat their pizza so they could go play some fun games to get a lot of tickets.
Later that day when it got dark and they were done eating and playing games, they were all getting their prizes and saying ‘bye’ and ‘thank you’ on their way out to the people who worked there, Razzy’s mom, and Chucky the mascot, and while Razzy’s mom was paying and then they were walking out the door, Chucky yelled, “Wait let me walk you guys out.” Jen thought he was just trying to be nice and said “okay”. As they walked out the door Chucky said “ I hope everyone had fun,”
Razzy smiled and walked to the car. When they got to the car they were walking to the other side to get in and, as they opened the car door, Chucky quickly kicked a rock by the tire and grabbed a needle out of his pocket and popped the tire and it made a big *BOOM* and everyone jumped, even Chucky, as he went down to look at the tire. Jen went over to the other side of the car to look at it and she said “Oh no, the rock popped my tire.” She looked stressed.
Chucky said, “I can call someone for you if you would like?”
Jen nodded and said “ that would be nice thank you”
“ Of course,” Chucky said and walked inside and called someone to help her with her tire.
After the tire was done Chuck came to tell them bye while he waved and went back inside to close up. Razzy and her mom waved bye back and went home
The next day Razzy woke up to her mom making pancakes,eggs, and bacon for breakfast so she hurried to her room to get ready really quick so she could go and eat breakfast. After getting ready, she sat down at the table ready to eat. After she was done eating she went into her room to watch Tiktok on her phone for a little but videos of Chucky kept coming up. She ignored it and was making a Tiktok video, and after she was going for a walk the all the sudden this random girl she didn’t know with long blond curly hair ,green eyes, and jeans on with a pretty white shirt that was whiter than milk, says, “ You’re the girl people are talking about aren’t you? Is your name Rozzy?”
Rozzy was in shock because she didn’t know her.
“Uhhh yeah? What do you mean? What are people talking about? And also do I know you? “
“Oh yeah, sorry about that. My name is Sally and it was about just how you took your whole volleyball team after the accident there.”
“What accident?” Razzy looked at her confused.
“Well this girl our age and her mom were kidnaped by him and they found them in his basement. They weren’t hurt or anything but if they hadn’t gotten them out soon they didn’t know what would’ve happened. I don’t know if he would always try to keep them there for longer by doing stuff like hiding their car keys under the car or something like that when he saw them. And he just got out of jail” she is in shock while Sally said “Well gotta go bye,”
Rozzy was thinking about how their tire popped that one time and ran home to tell her mom and her mom called the cops to tell them just to keep a lookout, and their life went back to normal after that and never went there again. The end.
Dexter: Original Sin came back with some new episodes on Prime, but they seem to be inconsistent. There are some solid scenes with good tension while there are too many scenes that felt in was in the wrong show. The tone just does not work throughout.
Dexter figured out that Captain Spencer was the kid killer and had kidnapped his own son. He did a classic “Batman Leap” to figure it out, too. A “Batman Leap” was something that my friends and I dubbed when you make a leap in logic that comes out of nowhere, like Batman would do on the old TV show (Glu Glutton’s Glue Factory…). There is no real logical way Dexter would think the Captain was the culprit.
Of course, he was right and I assume that the Captain is going to end up on Dexter’s table before the end of the season.
Deb’s storyline is one of those that do not seem to work very well for me. They took Deb’s boyfriend Gio and made him a total jerk after seeing nothing of this from him during the entire time. They just decided to make this guy an ass for reasons.
The flashbacks are another part of this show that does not work for me either. They put Dexter, his brother and mother in jeopardy in a ridiculous situation that, I supposed, is meant to show you where the Dark Passenger came from.
Harry and LaGuerta went to Tampa looking for leads for their serial killer, and Harry found something in a file. I am not sure what it was, but the character’s name was Brian. I wondered if that is going to be Dexter’s brother.
Episode eight was a little better and more consistent than seven, but so much of the show is questionable that I think it could be so much better with some better writing.
THE END!! 
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 