2012 so far

So how has 2012 been so far?
Not good.


My health has been dreadful. I started off 2012 with a stomach virus and I didn't even get drunk. I had one small glass of champagne at midnight. It took about a week to recover from that.


Then came pharyngitis which I'm still struggling to get rid of, a bad, bad cold with a chesty cough and sinus headaches.


That was followed by pink eye which I've never had in my life. 


Great start eh?


I'm still quite optimistic though about 2012.  There are some great things happening in 2012 - the London Olympics, the elections, and my 50th birthday.


I'm optimistic about finding a better job, maybe even a full-time job. I'm also hopeful that my husband will find some happiness in his job.


I'm looking forward to a real vacation this year. 


Let this year be a great one!

Even my cat, Malcolm, likes being on the computer 

Check for him on the Huffington Post.

Am I a cougar?

Cougars are all the rage now. I hate the term. I think it's derogatory.

I've been given grief because I'm 7 years older than my husband.

Does that make me a cougar? Not in my eyes.

I've always thought of a cougar as a 40+ single woman who is on the hunt for a much younger man. The guy is usually in his mid to late twenties.

When my husband and I met, he was 28 and I was 35.  We were 36 and 28(almost 29) when we got married.

I don't consider that being a cougar.  Yes, there is an age gap of 7 years but our differences are cultural (U.S. versus U.K.) rather than age.

I have no problem with cougars.  Sometimes age differences can work. It's certainly working for me.

Here is the "cougar" and her "cub" :)

More about me - Books

I haven't really said a lot about who I am now. I've talked a lot about who I was growing up but people change to some extent as they get older.

I'm a voracious reader. 

I was a reader as a kid. I still remember the first book I ever bought with my own money - The Mystery of Castle Rinaldi. 

Now, I read historical fiction, biographies, books about the Holocaust, and dystopian novels.  The latter came from a rather morbid fascination with the Holocaust.

Dystopian novels are, I think, an acquired taste. You either like them or you don't.

I love them.

Some favorites are:

• The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.
• The Shadow Children series by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• Fatherland by Robert Harris
• The Giver, Gathering Blue, and the Messenger by Lois Lowry
• Oryx and Crake and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
• The Cure by Sonia Levitin
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

I'm very excited to see the Hunger Games movie with Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta, and Liam Hemsworth as Gale.

As I said earlier, I said I like books about the Holocaust. I enjoy first hand accounts most.

• The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
• The Diary of Anne Frank
• The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
• The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss
• Terrible Things by Eve Bunting
• Hide and Seek by Ida Vos
• The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
• Behind the Bedroom Wall by Laura Williams
• Holocaust by Graham Greene
• Lisa's War, Kris' War, Jesper, and After the War by Carol Matas

I've never been good at staying within neat boundaries so like my musical tastes, my literary tastes run the gamut as well.

Here are a few offbeat selections:

• The Harry Potter Series
• The Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer
• Mrs 'Arris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico
• The entire Dear America series
• The entire Dear Canada series
• The entire My Story series (UK)
• The Hannah Swenson Mysteries by Joanne Fluke
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
• The Rats and Domain by James Herbert
• Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler

I have to say that I'm not a big fan of adult fiction. I hate romance novels. They're very unrealistic  and place women as the hapless maiden to be rescued by her lover/soon-to-be husband.
What also cracks me up is no matter what the era, the women in these books defy common knowledge of the day and brush their teeth, take a bath, eat a healthy diet, and get exercise.


I'm also not a big fan of the whole vampire genre. I absolutely hated the Twilight series. I found them dreary with a main character that does nothing but whine and moan about how miserable she is and hooks up with a vampire and later a werewolf.  

I just finished a book called Red Scarf Girl by Jiang Ji-li. It's about a girl growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution. What a tragic story. Ji-li was asked to speak out against her father so she can be be a part of the revolution.

So what do you read?

My cat Malcolm in one of his many strange sleeping places.

My how music has changed.

On the day I was born, the number one song was Ray Charles' I Can't Stop Lovin' You.

 

Now there's nothing wrong with this song but it's really not my taste.

In less than two years, the music world would be turned upside down by the Beatles and things would never be the same again.

The reality is that until about 1968, I only knew about Elvis and the Beatles.

The first song I really remember was Sugar, Sugar by the Archies. 

Ironically, this was the number one song in England the day my husband was born.

Thankfully, my tastes improved after that.

Thanks to my uncle, I developed a taste for Motown, The Carpenters, and oddball music like this one:

May There Always Be Sunshine, a Russian children's song that was on an album of international songs my mother gave me. I still remember the Russian words.

In high school, I was into disco. You had to choose a side: disco or rock.  My brother was in the Kiss Army and I was an ABBA queen.

 

With the advent of MTV, I was seriously hooked on music. Duran Duran, The Human League, The Police, basically anything out of Europe like these:

Berlin- The Metro

The Lightning Seeds- Life of Riley

By the 1990's, I had was still into European pop and a newly found love of classical music.

Enigma - Sadeness I

Tommaso Albinoni - Adagio in G (in Gallipoli)

Theme from Schindler's List - John Williams/Itzak Perlman

Ace of Base - Beautiful Life

But I was discovering an edgier side; an angrier side

Gangsta's Paradise- Coolio

Alanis Morrisette- You Oughta Know

The end of the 90s brought a whole new world of music into my life: real English pop and rock that didn't make it across the pond thanks to a certain Englishman

Robbie Williams - Millennium

Now, in my forties, my musical taste is all over the place from the songs I grew up with to rap, hip hop, pop, rock, country, classical, and more.

Timbaland - Carryout

I'll end this musical memory walk with two of my absolute favorites

John Lennon's Imagine and Green Day's cover of John's Lennon's Working Class Hero

A New Year, A New Age

Well, it's 2012. In just under 6 months, I'll be fifty years old.
I was surprised that I was a bit emotional last night when I rang in the new year with my husband.
I was teary-eyed as the ball dropped in Times Square and I'm not quite sure why.
I'm not sure if it was simply because it was a new year or because it is the year that I turn 50.
I do know that I get emotional because there were two times in my life when I cheated death so there is a feeling of being happy just to be here.


Here's looking forward to a better, healthier, happier year.
Happy 2012!

Christmas Now and Then

As Christmas draws near, I can't help but reflect on how Christmas has changed over the years.
The first Christmas I really remember was when I was four.  I got a copper-colored kitchen set from my parents for Christmas.  There is a picture of me playing with this kitchen set. I still have my pajamas on and my hair is in rollers.


One memorable Christmas was the year I really wanted the pink ballerina doll

She came with her own pink record and she spun around if you pushed the middle of her crown.

I was thrilled to death when I opened her up on Christmas day. I played with her for hours.

Suzy Homemaker toys weren't far behind.

Suzy Homemaker Toys

I think my mother was trying to turn me into the perfect little homemaker. I had the oven, dishwasher, and clothes washer/dryer.  That oven was the best. Making mini cakes was just great.

Malibu Barbie became my obsession. Like every other little girl of the early 70s, the suntanned goddess that is Malibu Barbie was our dream girl. She lived the good life: surfing, playing on the beach, driving around in her convertible, and living in California, the place we all dreamed of living.

The Barbie camper came along a few years later. Although not as cool as my brother's action figure camper, it was nonetheless cool.  Barbie was a serious camper on the sunny beaches and cool forests of the California coast aka my bed.

Probably one of most unusual gifts I received was a massive New England saltbox dollhouse.  It was one of those dollhouses meant for decorating not playing with. My mother and I painted it blue-grey on the outside and spent the next few years purchased miniature furniture for this house.  It was massive but quite beautiful.

Christmas seemed like such a magical time back then even after I learned that Santa wasn't a real person.

As an adult, Christmas is still magical but not in the same way that it was as a child.  Now, I look forward to spending time with my husband and enjoying the peace and serenity of a day off with no errands and no housecleaning duties.

I look forward to this Christmas, the last one before I turn 50.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

Do you remember your crushes?

This morning, I was watching television and saw a Michael Jackson video which made me think about my crushes.


Like every other girl in the early 1970's, I was head over heels in love with David Cassidy.
I faithfully watched the Partridge Family every week just to sigh over David.

Sure, I know he was a pretty boy but when you're 10, this is what hot looks like.

Around the same time, I was watching the Rookies, a police drama.

One of the new cops became crush # 2 - Michael Ontkean

I would rush home from Brownies to have my hour with him...sigh.

Then, I went through my "jock" period.

Dwight Stones

I actually hijacked a copy of this magazine from the library for quite a long time.

Eric Heiden

What girl watching the 1980 Winter Olympics didn't have a crush on him?

And of course, Jim Craig from the 1980 Olympic Hockey Team

Actually I had a crush on almost the entire team lol

Then came Patrik Sundstrom, who was probably my most serious crush.

And there you have them.  My crushes up to age 19.

Of course, I have crushes now. I still love athletes more than actors and singers.

Do you remember yours?