As most of you probably already know, February is Black History Month here in the U.S. The murder of George Floyd back in 2020 was a real turning point in my life in regard to race. As a white person, I had become quite a bit more aware of racism over the years even before that horrific incident, but afterward it became something I truly couldn’t ignore any longer. The way some of my friends & family reacted to that situation showed me that despite the vast amount of progress we have made in this country over the past few decades, we still have a ways to go. Anyway, this year I thought it ..read more

Evolve or die. Adapt or get left behind. Those two lines have swirling around in my mind for months now. I haven’t been quite sure how to broach this subject properly, but I’ve unexpectedly gotten the day off of work (over-staffed instead of under-staffed for once) so I’m going to try to tackle it today. The subject? Aging. Or rather how our society handles it. Let me preface this by saying that I may be an odd person to write this post seeing as I have been “old at heart” basically my entire life. Even as a child/teen, I was often taken for being older than I was. I was often taken for being ..read more

Yes, it’s that time of year again, time for my annual albums of the year post! If you haven’t already seen it, check out my previous post for my choices for songs of the year. Since so many bands/artists no longer release actual albums (or even EPs), I felt the need to create a separate post to highlight some of my favorite songs that either aren’t part of an album or that really touched me even if the rest of the album didn’t (or in some cases I never got around to listening to the rest of the album because I’m not a professional music reviewer & definitely don’t have unlimited time for t ..read more

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that I do an annual albums of the year post. Well, this year I decided that I need to make two posts- one for full length albums/EPs & one for singles/covers. So many bands/artists are no longer releasing albums & it feels unfair to exclude them when sometimes they make some of my favorite songs. Do I miss the days of CDs & actually going to a store to buy a physical album? Absolutely. But I also realize that we have two choices in life- evolve or die. I still refuse to use Spotify other than for podcasts because it pays arti ..read more

Yes, I intentionally chose a potentially controversial title for this week’s post. This subject is something that’s been on my mind a lot lately, & there is probably no way to discuss it that won’t be controversial, so I figured why not just dive in whole-heartedly rather than tip toeing around the issue? So, with that out of the way, yes, I’m going to discuss the elephant in the room: the glorification of mental illness. Now this post would be incomplete- & in fact quite tone deaf- if I didn’t acknowledge that we’ve come a long way when it comes to the subject of mental illness. We’re ..read more

“I’m weird & I love it.” Now sing that to the tune of LMFAO’s Sexy & I Know It which was all the rage back in 2011. It works, right? Right. Ok, onto more serious stuff… If you know me, you know I love rock music. Well, a week ago today a band called Beartooth released their latest album The Surface. One of the more recent singles off the album is entitled Might Love Myself (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83rcK9Xne5A) & it perfectly encapsulates the positive self-love anthem of the record. If you know anything about Beartooth, you know this is a MASSIVE change for them. Frontman &a ..read more

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post entitled Dear John about one of my favorite rock stars who I found out had done something truly terrible. At the time, he & the band had not yet addressed it, so I hadn’t heard his side of the story, but the facts of the case were pretty damning nonetheless. But because I hadn’t heard his side & because he hadn’t publicly addressed it at the time, I didn’t name him or his band. However, now he HAS addressed the issue, as has his band, & thus I now feel like I need to either revise my original post or write a new one, because this “case” has now ..read more

Jason Aldean’s latest song Try That in a Small Town is causing a bit of a ruckus these days (see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1_RKu-ESCY). Now I have very mixed feelings about country music- as you may know if you’ve been following this blog for a while. On the one hand I think it’s one of the best art forms in the world, but on the other hand I think it is often full of terrible cliches & too often makes excuses for backward, closed-minded thinking. But there are far too many great country songs for me to close the door on the genre altogether. That would actually be quite close ..read more

I think everyone knows what a “Dear John” letter is. Well, this post will be my version of one. But it’s very different from the usual definition of such a letter. In fact it’s not really that sort of letter at all. And yet, it’s a fitting title just the same… You see, this Sunday I found a post on social media that totally rocked my world. I found out that one of my favorite singers, whose music has meant so much to me over the years, has been accused of serious violence. No official statements have been released from him, the band, or the record label. It’s all “he said, she said” at this po ..read more

I’m not sure exactly when I started meal prepping regularly (i.e. every weekend) but I think it was about 2 years ago now, maybe longer. I never imagined I’d be one of those “boring” women who enjoys cooking & shares recipes regularly, but here we are. Ha! Actually, it’s important to me to note that what I’ve discovered is something that perhaps should have been obvious- just because you love cooking doesn’t mean you have to turn into your stereotypical grandmother. You can still enjoy all of your previous, more “exotic” interests- in my case rock/metal. Which I frequently listen to while ..read more