Mixed Metaphors

Jan 19 2020

Posts

A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films of 2019

“Certain things leave you in your life and certain things stay with you. And that’s why we’re all interested in movies — those ones that make you feel, you still think about. Because it gave you such an emotional response, it’s actually part of your emotional make-up, in a way.” — Tim Burton

“A good movie can take you out of your dull funk and the hopelessness that so often goes with slipping into a theatre; a good movie can make you feel alive again, in contact, not just lost in another city. Good movies make you care, make you believe in possibilities again.” — Pauline Kael

As in other years, first, before I share A Filmgoer’s Guide to the Best Films of 2019, this is a reminder that I’m a cinephile and not a critic. I offer my thoughts and impressions on the films I saw this past year and comment on what worked for me, what didn’t, and what transported me. Movie-going is, for the most part, a solitary experience. Like other forms of art immersion, we respond intimately with the medium, emotionally, viscerally, and intellectually. Continue reading →

Tagged 2020 WFF, A Filmgoer's Guide, Academy Awards, Best Documentaries of 2019, Best Narrative Films of 2019, Cinephile, Dream Double Features, FFilmgoing Friends & Family, Films, Movies, Netflix, Streaming Content, The Bechdel Test, The Best Films of 2019, Wisconsin Film Festival

Dec 31 2019

Posts

Memories Are Made of This: Grief & Gratitude

“Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.” — Oscar Wilde

“Sometimes it only takes one song to bring back a thousand memories.” — Unknown

It’s in fact a song that inspired the title of this essay and reminiscence. I don’t consider it a favorite in my playlist, however, the title captures the spirit of this blog post. It was a popular song about nostalgia. It’s been performed by country western singers like Jim Reeves, The Everly Brothers, and Johnny Cash, and covered by crooners like Dean Martin and Bing Crosby. Full disclosure, for me, it’s the title that captures the essence of the song’s meaning. Our lived experiences create our memories. Continue reading →

Tagged ERA, Family, Gratitude, Grief, Holidays, Intentions, Looking Backward, Looking Forward, Lysistrata, Megan Campbell, Memoir, Memories, New Decade, New Year, Nostalgia, NYE, Relationships, Reminiscence, Romantic Friendships

Dec 15 2019

Posts

Confessions of a Blogger: Conversations with Myself

“My blog musings are conversations with myself to which you’re invited to listen.” — Mixed Metaphors, Oh My!

I’ve lived alone now for almost a dozen years. It changes a person, or in the very least, it changed me. As someone with a history of codependency, I’ve been other or outward-oriented. In the past, I often looked outside of myself to gauge how I was feeling or what I was thinking. Gratefully, recovery and therapy put the focus back on me. Now I ask, “What am I feeling? What are my thoughts?”

The tradeoff is at home — and sometimes in my office at work or in public — I talk to myself out loud. When I first started living alone and talking aloud, I worried about this behavior. I soon reminded myself of a couple of characteristics that I possess, I’m an auditory person, and for the most part, socially extroverted, though the longer I’ve lived alone, the more introverted I’ve become. I now consider myself an ambivert. Continue reading →

Tagged Activism, Blogging, Family, Friends, Journaling, Journalism, Journey, Legacy, Lysistrata, Memoir, Personal Narratives, Politics, Publishing, Recovery, Reminiscence, Stories, Talking to Myself, Writing

Dec 06 2019

1 Comment

Posts

70 Is NOT the New 60, It’s 70!

(Or, the Third Act before the curtain closes)

“There’s a moment when people know — whatever their skills are at denial — that they have passed from what they can delude themselves into thinking is middle age to something that you could call the third act.”— Nora Ephron

“Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been.” — David Bowie

First, let me say at the outset that I’m grateful that I’m above ground and not dust in the wind. When I was nearing my 65^th birthday five years ago, I found this factoid reassuring. If one lives to the age of 65, they have an 80% chance to live twenty more years to 85 years old. Hallelujah! Continue reading →

Tagged 70-Years-Old, Acceptance, Aging, Baby Boomers, Boomer, Death & Dying, Family, Fathers, Friends, Holidays, Home, Life & Living, Longevity, Mortality, Mother, OK

Nov 03 2019

1 Comment

Posts

Comfort Food: Winter Blues, Holidays, & Weight Gain

“Food is a lot of people’s therapy — when we say comfort food, we really mean that. It’s releasing dopamine and serotonin in your brain that makes you feel good.” — Brett Hoebel

“Comfort food is the food that makes us feel good — satisfied, calm, cared for and carefree. It’s food that fills us up both mentally and physically. Finding comfort in food is a basic human experience.” — Ellie Krieger

Last night, I turned the clocks back an hour. This morning the sun rose earlier and tonight it will set sooner. Daylight Savings Time is over and regardless of your views on its merits — or not — for me it’s the onset of Living the Mole Life, a season characterized by comfort foods, winter blues, the holidays, and weight gain. I isolate, sleep, and eat more than I do the rest of the year. I basically hibernate and retreat to my hideout. Continue reading →

Tagged Autumn, Comfort Foods, Family, Friends, Hibernate, Holiday Parties, Holidays, Home, Mother, Potlucks, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Seasons, Weight Gain, Winter, Winter Blues

Oct 12 2019

2 Comments

Posts

Unpresidented

“Is it just me, or is it getting crazier out there?” — Arthur Fleck, Joker

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” — Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

As President Trump’s lies have tallied over 12,000, media outlets introduce every story as ‘Breaking News,’ and the adjective ‘unprecedented’ describes the latest Tweet, leak, defense, or revelation, we know we now inhabit a dystopian world.

The title of this essay is intentionally misspelled; it best illustrates our current state of affairs, the potential outcome of the impeachment inquiry and yes, the unprecedented series of investigations of corruption, abuse of power, and obstruction of justice by Trump, his cabinet, members of the Republican Party, and his family. More disturbing and a potential Article of Impeachment, Trump’s blatant invitations to foreign governments to meddle in our elections, again, to further his own personal political gain. Continue reading →

Tagged 2020 Election, Deflection., Disinformation, Doublespeak, Dystopian future, Impeachment, Pandering, Politics, Profiteering, Projection, Rudy Giuliani, Trump, Trump's Tweets, Ukraine, Unprecedented, Whistleblower, Words Matter

Sep 12 2019

1 Comment

Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: Premature Hibernation

“In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.” ― Albert Camus

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” ― C.G. Jung

Though it’s not officially autumn yet, I feel the urge to go underground, to hibernate prematurely. Like caterpillars who cocoon in a chrysalis and emerge in a new form as a butterfly, it’s my desire to find a safe place to enable transformation.

The world seems like it’s becoming more threatening, whether it’s our natural world and the consequences of climate change, or our political environment and the actions and policies by those currently in power. On a personal level, things sometime happen to us — and for me — how I respond makes a difference in my emotional and spiritual health and serenity. While there are storms happening outside of me, there’s also turmoil and uncertainty stirring within. Continue reading →

Tagged AA, Ambivert, Autumn, Changing of the Seasons, Couples Therapy, Death, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Home, Isolate, Legacy, Mental Health, Premature Hibernation, Recovery, Relationships, Therapy, Underground, Winter

Aug 30 2019

Posts

Random Topics IV

Niksen, Situationship, and Neuralink

From the introduction of the first in the series of Random Topics:

“As a blogger, I mine my daily life for topics to write about. I set out to find something timely and meaningful, something that my readers can relate to, a universal message or lesson to discover in my lived experience. Another option is to choose a subject from the news of the day to comment on, however sometimes current events are tragically overwhelming.”

In the past week, and longer, there was ample craziness in the news to comment on including Trump’s frivolous and dangerous claims. First, he declared he was “the chosen one” — increasing tariffs and escalating the trade war with China, causing a downturn in the stock market threatening a recession — next, the real-estate mogul’s “absurd” attempt to purchase Greenland from the Danes. All of this happened before his departure for the G7 Summit and proclamation to reinstate Putin, making it the G8 again. Trump participated at the summit as an outlier to the world‘s democracies. As the G7 Summit concluded, he promoted his Trump National Doral Miami Resort as the location of next year’s summit when the U.S. hosts. Oh, My! Continue reading →

Tagged Computer Chip, Dating, Doing Nothing, Dystopian future, Elon Musk, Friends with Benefits, Human Being, Human Doing, Neuralink, Niksen, Relationships, Serial Monogamy, Situationship, SolarCity, SpaceX, Tesla

Aug 11 2019

Posts

2020 Vision: Cataracts, Candidates & Critical Choices

“Your mind is working at its best when you’re being paranoid. You explore every avenue and possibility of your situation at high speed with total clarity.” ― Banksy

Morning in America

On the morning of Saturday, August 3^rd, a young white male, an alleged domestic terrorist, by his own admission and confession, targeted Mexicans in El Paso, Texas at a Walmart near the border of Juárez, killing 22, including U.S. citizens and Mexican nationals and injuring many others after posting a screed on 8chan, an online megaphone for hate groups and gunmen. Continue reading →

Tagged 2020 Election, 2020 Vision, Cataracts, Democratic Presidential Candidates, Domestic Terrorism, Elections, Gun Violence, Morning in America, Presidential Politics, The Toilet Zone, Trump, Vote, White Supremacy

Jul 05 2019

1 Comment

Posts

To-Do List Confessions, Or How I’m a Little Bit OCD

“The only thing more important than your to-do list is your to-be list. The only thing more important than your to-be list is to be.” ― Alan Cohen

“Sometimes our stop-doing list needs to be bigger than our to-do list.” ― Patti Digh

Today as I write, it’s the Fourth of July Holiday, which for my part-time work schedule means it’s the beginning of a four-day weekend ― and an opportunity to power-load my weekly to-do list to capacity. I’m not an electrical engineer, yet it sounds like I run the risk of blowing a circuit, and some days it feels that way. Continue reading →

Tagged Confession, Datebook, Human Becoming, Human Being, Human Doing, Journaling, Journals, List-Making, Mundane Life, OCD, Post-It Notes, Procrastination, Recovery, To-Do Lists

Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! – A place where words, this writer, and readers play together.