Your Girl Friday

Welcome, Friday!

Even though I don’t work anymore, there’s still something special about Friday and the weekend. It just brings the promise of FUN™! And happy Skull Friday, by the way (note the headband)!

However, any fun I have this weekend is going to be on my own. Ken is off to Omaha for a Monday meeting with some potential clients, and he went out early to spend a little time with our good friend Mark. Ken has been instructed to give Mark a big hug from me, and he promised to deliver! We’ve been friends with Mark for a long time (we met through blogging), and I know Ken is looking forward to seeing him. Have fun, you guys!

I’ll miss having my hubby here, but you guys know I can always manage to find things to keep myself occupied. Yes...be afraid...be very afraid. Haha! Nah, I just plan on hanging out, I’ll probably watch some Walking Dead, I’ll listen to lots of music, do some reading (still working on From Here To Eternity), and just kind of putter. To remind me of my hubby, I think I’ll drink those last two Pre-Flight Pilsners that he ordered for me a while back. Some women like flowers; some like jewelry; my husband gets me premium beers. He gets me! He totally gets me!

Speaking of beer, after a quick beer run this morning (I ran into our UPS driver, Mike, delivering packages at the store, and it was fun to see him somewhere other than our front deck!), I came back, did a quick workout, and got to spend some time in the sun. It wasn’t quite as hot today as it was earlier in the week, so it was good to get out there a little more. Possible rain tomorrow, so I’m glad I got some good deck time in.

The fan I’m holding up there came from my super cool Aunt June. We were all in Kentucky last Labor Day for a family outing, and it was beastly hot and humid. She’d gotten fans for all of us, and let me tell you, it was a lifesaver! I would never have thought of getting a fan, but I was happy to have it, and I still use it on occasion. In fact, I might take it to Florida with me. If I run into Norman Reedus in Georgia on the way back, I will definitely need it. I’ll be fanning myself so hard, I’ll probably take flight! Ha!

Speaking of “The Walking Dead” (I’m all about the segue today), I had another tweet from the Governor, guys. [click to embiggenate] Yes. David Morrissey, the actor who plays the Governor, posted that he had just finished The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Speaking of presents from Ken (YES! The segue trifecta!), he bought that book for me several years ago for Christmas, and I loved it. In fact, I was so fascinated by it that I bought several MORE books about the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the Columbian Exposition, in which Chicago became the “White City,” and in which the book’s story takes place. I tweeted back to David and recommended a couple of other of Larson’s books, including Thunderstruck and In the Garden of Beasts, and wrote that I think Larson is a great writer.

He tweeted back and wondered what the latter was about. I wrote back that it was about the U.S. Ambassador in Germany in the lead-up to WWII, the rise of the Nazis, and that it was FANTASTIC. I really hope he reads it, because I actually enjoyed it more than The Devil in the White City, and I didn’t think that was possible! It is a chilling book, chronicling the slow restriction of freedoms and the clampdown of the Nazis. I would recommend it to anyone, and I would love it if David Morrissey picked it up on my recommendation! I hope he enjoys it.

You know, he really is...charming. Great taste in books and music, great actor, seems like a really nice guy, and he’s really tall, and...[shaking my head] NO! Beth! Remember Andrea! And Milton! And all those Woodburians on the road! You can’t fool me, you charmer! Ha!

Although I’m still totally in Green Day mode, one of my favorite driving songs is this one, by The Rapture. Speaking of charm (Another segue! I’m on fi-yah!), “I'm fired up... the engine is running/All my charm and all my cunning girl...I wanna brake it with you.” In my-my-my-my Mustang Ford!

TURN IT UP!

The excitement builds…under the dome

What has two thumbs and is excited about the premiere of this show tomorrow? THIS GAL!

Doesn’t that picture just break your heart? Aww.

We still have good times ahead this evening with a couple of T-bones and a couple of episodes of “The Sopranos” (no sports on tonight!), but I am super psyched about this show Monday night. I loved the book, and I think there is a lot of potential there for a fun and creepy series. (So does Stephen King. He has said that he never got to cannibalism in the book, but if the show continues long enough...gahhhh!) King isn’t one of the writers, but he does have input, and that’s a good thing. I can see him steering it in a very dark direction.

We’re both so interested in watching this that we agreed that we will watch it instead of the end of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals. We’ll get to watch a couple of hours of the game, but then we’ll switch over to “Under the Dome.” (No, we don’t have a DVR, and have no plans to get one. Shut up.) This is going to be a summer series, and if it gets picked up for a second season, my concern is that it will be going up against “Bates Motel” on A&E, another of our favorites. But things can change, and “Bates Motel” usually plays the episode again immediately afterwards, so that might be a work-around. Fangirl will find a way! We did that with “The Walking Dead” for a while, but we got so hooked on the show that there was no way we were waiting till the later showing, especially once “The Talking Dead” expanded to an hour. I love it that cable shows are often willing to do a same-night repeat showing of the episode!

Anyway, I think this could be very good. Post-apocalypse stories are hot right now, because there is much depravity and creepiness to be mined there. The reason I love “The Walking Dead” so much is because it asks the question “How will YOU react in the post-apocalypse world? How will you keep it together?” Some go the dictator route (The Governor), some go the badass survivor route (Daryl Dixon), and some are a combination of the two (Rick Grimes). It is a fascinating study of the human psyche.

And you know...zombie heads goin’ all splodey! YEAH!

No zombies in “Under the Dome,” but there will be lots of shit goin’ down all the same. Power struggles, idiot politicians, jerks, liars, and ineffectual lollygaggers.

Hey! Kinda like far too many in our Congress!

So there you go. “Under the Dome” is a metaphor for our dysfunctional Congress. You heard it here first.

Fangirl unleashed

This week in the Twitterverse, I had two fun things happen.

First, on the night of the horrible tornado in Oklahoma, I was feeling pretty bleak and angry and just generally mad at the world. I know my limits and broke away from the news reports to get myself together. I follow several of the actors and crew from “The Walking Dead,” and David Morrissey, who plays the Governor, tweeted a video of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash singing “Jackson.” It was such a welcome diversion, so I responded to it. And he responded back!

Dudes! The Governor tweeted back at me! I did my best to be cool, but decided to tweet back once more. When I got up the next morning, I had another response from him and I was like “WHOA!”

I loved it that he was “soooo” jealous! Well, I mean I never intend to make anyone jealous...it was just so cool to me that here I am a fan and follower of his, and he’s got people that he is also a fan of. Know what I mean? Of course, who doesn’t love Johnny Cash? If you don’t, show yourself so I can punch you in the face! haha Not really. But I will lecture you on why he is one of the greatest artists EVER. Anyway, it was so cool that he responded and in such a nice way. He seems like a very cool and fun guy, the polar opposite of his psychotic character.

My niece Jen commented almost exactly what I was thinking...that sure, he’s all charming on the surface, but don’t fall for it because he’s crazy on the inside, and did I learn NOTHING from Andrea?? (Fans of the show know what we’re talking about!) The Twitter exchange itself made me happy, and then Jen’s comment made me even happier. Great minds, I’m tellin’ ya!”

The second fun thing happened when Ron Wood, the Rolling Stones guitarist, posted a picture of himself in a suit he’d just gotten. Black cashmere. Sharp. I thought, “Why not?” and responded.

And he favorited it! AGH! Ronnie Wood, man! Not quite as exciting as a tweet back, but damn, if it didn’t totally send this fangirl trippin’.

I suppose some would say, “Aren’t you getting a little too old to be acting like this?” Screw that. I’ll never get too old to be a fangirl. I’ve never gotten as involved in a show as I have “The Walking Dead,” and I’ve loved the Stones for years. Those who know me know how much music has meant to me for almost my entire life. When Ron Freakin’ Wood favorites one of your tweets, it is a BIG DEAL.

These are some of the things that make life fun and exciting for me, and I will always be an unapologetic fangirl. Thanks, David and Ronnie, for making me smile!