Early 90's Teenage Angst vs. Mid 2020's Political Angst

It's really no contest. 

I'll take crazy fashion/crazy hair mixed with some rich kid teenage angst in the early 90's ANY DAY over present-day political angst.

So yes, I'm re-re-watching Beverly Hills 90210. 

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This photo is from the Spring Dance episode in Season 1 and it's so angsty. Both Kelly and Brenda like the same dress but once realizing that's the case, they both renounce it until... you guessed it, they each go back and buy it and then proceed to discover this only when they're getting ready to leave for the dance. Kelly says it's going to look like they planned on going as the Bobbsey Twins. Moments later, Jim Walsh (Brenda's father) comes in with his camera to take a photo and proclaims, "You look just like the Bobbsey Twins!"

This is only one moment of many Kelly/Brenda angsty exchanges. 

Yup, I still choose this over today's political lunacy.

Nothing to do with angst, but did you know that certain episodes of Beverly Hills 90210 aren't available for streaming? This in general is due to music rights. Take "Wildfire", Season 2, Episode 8 for example:

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Apparently, Neil Sedaka's "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" is a tightly guarded piece of music, as I had to watch a random YouTube recording of this episode. Honestly, it's one of my favorites. Kelly, Brenda, Donna & Emily Valentine (!) perform the song in the "Hello Day" talent show at West Beverly High. They were going to perform a spoof on Addicted to Love (Addicted to Clothes) but thought they'd do something more meaningful. 😏

Silly, but yes, I am still choosing this over the news/current events.

The best part of the show? Brenda and Dylan's relationship. SO MUCH teenage angst. SO MUCH drama. SO MUCH ooey gooey teenage love. SO MUCH heartbreak. The big audience drama was whose team were you on- Brenda and Dylan or Kelly and Dylan? Team Brenda and Dylan all the way. (You can imagine my chagrin when Dylan told Kelly they were soulmates. Pfft.)

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The Halloween party episode! Brenda and Dylan as Bonnie and Clyde. How fitting- they were trouble in their own way just like Bonnie and Clyde.

Still choosing early 90's fantasy land.

What are you doing to maintain your sanity in today's world?

Just the Facts Ma'am

Fact #1a- The accessible version of the White House website is no longer in existence.

Fact #1b- Just over 7 million people in the US have visual impairments and thus are candidates for using a screen reader, which only works on accessible websites. {credit: National Federation of the Blind}

Fact #1c- In college, I interned at a non-profit (Federation for Children with Special Needs) and eventually became full-time staff. During the almost four years I worked there, I learned about many disabilities and their related accommodations/assistive technology. I specifically remember creating large print materials for the conference I helped to manage and visiting another non-profit in our building to see how various assistive technology worked.

Fact #2a- American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters are no longer present at White House Press Briefings. See letter from National Association of the Deaf.

Fact #2b- About 11 million people in the US identify as deaf or hard of hearing. {credit: National Deaf Center}

Fact #2c- My stepdaughter Grace has Down syndrome and she has a hearing impairment. She's completely deaf in her right ear (NOTE: if you ever meet her, sit on her left!) and has partial loss in her left ear. When she was born, my husband and Grace's mom along with other family members learned ASL (and Grace learned, as well) in order to communicate with her until she could speak.

Fact #3- On February 25, 2025, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt gave a briefing. At approximately the 5 minute/40 second mark, in the context of the President being accessible, she said,

The president, and this entire White House, are committed to ensuring the American people continue to receive this same level of historic transparency, access and visibility. In fact, we want to double down and give even greater access to the American people. 

{credit: briefing transcript, briefing video}

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Searching for the Light

 

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I don't know L.R. Knost other than what the Google machine tells me, but based on this alone, she is a wise woman.

Some people thrive on chaos, but I am not one of them. 

I am trying to shut myself off from the news because inevitably every time I look at it, there's something new that causes upset, anger, and sadness. 

This is less about politics and more about humanity and morality. And empathy. 

This is circulating and I'd have to say it's pretty accurate, at least for me:

Are you able to avoid the chaos and achieve some semblance of peace? 

If so, do share your methods.

It's Me...Hi...I'm the Problem, It's Me

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I don't consider myself a Swiftie, but Taylor's lyric rings true for this blog. 

I'm the problem. It's Me. 

I wrote ONE stinking post last year. ONE. Was I so busy that I had absolutely zero time to write more? No. The answer is no.

I was "busy" being nosy on Instagram, getting a look into "celebrities" lives. Well, that problem is solved. I deleted my IG account. Buh bye.

I was "busy" scrolling Facebook- reading restaurant reviews, monitoring my small town's FB page for drama over trash & recycling, and so, yeah. Really "busy." 

I was "busy" watching cult/real-life drama documentaries- from The Program to The Vow. Extremely uplifting topics (NOT).

Will I do better this year? I hope so. I seem to have run out of depressing documentaries to watch. My IG account is disabled. It's Facebook that's the main time suck, although based on the crap they're surfacing in my feed, they might be pushing me out the door.

In the words of Aerosmith, "Same old story, same old song & dance"...

Now that we have that out of the way... 

• We're expecting a "big" snowstorm here in New England- 6-10". I hope everyone has their bread, milk, and eggs! I've agreed to get a lesson on the snowblower, so at the ripe old age of (almost) 53, I could run it if I had to. (But only if I really had to.)

• I cleaned out the spare bedroom closet. I may have a blanket/duvet/quilt addiction. I'd completely forgotten about some of the bed linens that were in there. I'm satisfied with blanket and cover on my bed, so I'm hoping I can put a stop to any near-term purchases in that realm.

• We did make some good recipes over the past year or so (I say "we" but really, I was the idea person and John executed). Here are a few:
• Goat Cheese Prosciutto Quiche
  
• Pepper Jelly Chicken Wings
  
• Easy Cherry Crisp
  
• Fancy Nancy Chicken Salad (Chicken Salad Chick Copycat)

• I went on a fabulous trip with my Mom- a river cruise on the Danube! Loved Budapest. Loved the people we met on the cruise. Had good food, good drink, and got to see parts of the world that I might not have otherwise had the opportunity to.

• We (again with the "we" 😉) re-did our main bathroom! It was a HUGE project and John orchestrated it all- doing some himself, working with contractors, and then dealing with my obsessing over which of the three shower curtains I bought would work. We make a good team! That deserves its own post- stay tuned!

Have a great long weekend!

We Interrupt This Lull in Blogging to Say, "Happy New Year!"

 

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Happy 2024! (A Mary Engelbreit illustration ☝always makes an occasion happy!)

Our New Year's Eve was fairly laid back, as John's been sick. We did appetizers- fancy cheese & fancy crackers, French bread, veggies and dill dip, Mongolian meatballs, and crab & artichoke dip. The last two recipes were "new to us," and they were honestly very good!

We normally eat on the coffee table, but with a four-legged nudge in the mix, we had to cobble together some end tables that were a bit higher and sort of out of his reach. 

A co-worker mentioned the TV series Six Feet Under as being good, so we started that over the weekend and watched a few episodes yesterday afternoon. It's been a while since we've found a show that makes us both laugh out loud!

I wasn't sure I could make it to midnight, but we both did and per our usual tradition, we toasted the new year with the flutes from our wedding. 

Murray was very confused as to why we were up so late, but he made it, too.

And then today we had the pleasure of going to urgent care- turns out John has strep throat. What a way to start the new year! (But, as we've learned, it could be much worse and the old adage applies, i.e., this too shall pass.)

Cheers to 2024! 🍷

London & Paris: Where We Stayed

This is the second of my posts about our trip of a lifetime. You can read the first post here!

Where did we stay? Well, for those that don't know me that well, let me tell you that I am a researcher. (It's the librarian in me. 😏). So, we considered many sources when determining where to stay- advice from family/friends, TripAdvisor ratings, and recommendations from Fodor's & Frommer's travel guides. I may be the only person left that takes hard copy travel guides out of the library & reads them pretty much front to back! 

At one point I sent this photo to my stepson (for the sole purpose of sharing the Two Chicks drink) and his response? "How many travel books did you get?" 😂

London:

• Thistle Trafalgar Square- For the first two nights in London (before we left for Paris), we stayed here. It was very convenient- maybe a three-five-minute walk from the Trafalgar Square Underground station. (I found that most hotels were close to Underground stops- there are so many.) It was on a side street (almost an alley) off of Trafalgar Square itself and because of this, I found it to be quiet. If we headed out of our door and took a right, we'd be headed toward Piccadilly Circus. If we headed out of our door and took a left, we'd be in Trafalgar Square. Another small perk was being directly across from a convenience store where we could grab bottled water and snacks. The hotel and the room itself were not fancy by any means but were clean, in a good location, and the staff was pleasant. If you're looking for a "no frills" place that's reasonable, I'd recommend it!

• Resident Hotel Soho- When we came back to London after Paris, we stayed here. We were slated to spend four nights until we departed, but due to stupid COVID, ended up staying another four nights. This hotel was also centrally located near Soho and Chinatown. It was down a small side street, as well, although I'd call it an alley. The room we had for the first four nights was very spacious with a king bed. The hotel also offered a free glass of wine in the evening to residents (although we didn't end up taking advantage as we were out and about.) I really liked this hotel- I felt like it had a similar vibe to the Thistle but was a step up in terms of frills.

They were also VERY gracious and accommodating when we realized we'd be there for a second stay and need to quarantine. We did have to change rooms, however, and let's just say that this one was a tiny bit (tiny the operative word) smaller.

 

 

Yup- that's the shoebox with the FULL-sized bed that we spent four long nights in. They dropped off towels and sheets outside of our door and would ask how we were doing regularly. 

• Hilton Garden Inn Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3- This was an unexpected stay! We decided that it was going to be a nightmare getting up super early and getting to Heathrow for our plane home considering we still weren't feeling great. John suggested we stay at the airport so we could easily get to our terminal. Luckily, we could walk to our terminal from this hotel. (BEWARE- there is more than one Hilton Garden Inn at Heathrow, however, and we went to the wrong one first...) The hotel was clean, staff was pleasant, and compare to the shoebox above, our room was a palace! If you need to stay at the airport, highly recommend this hotel.

Paris:

• Hotel Bradford Elysees- This was a GEM! This was highly rated on TripAdvisor AND in Fodor's Paris guide, so I felt that this was a good choice and boy was it! It's in the 8th Arrondissement (neighborhood), a quick walk from the Champs d'Elysees (aka the Rodeo Drive of Paris). It had very funky common rooms on the main level - a sitting room, a breakfast room, and a lounge. This is the lounge:

It seems as though Lady Bradford, the hotel's namesake, was a big fan of birds, as you can see the birdcage light covers. There were fake birds/birdcages throughout the hotel. One might think it was tacky, but I felt like it fit right in. We were supposed to have a regular old room but ended up getting upgraded to a room with a terrace. It was really lovely. They even put rose petals on the bed and left us macarons.

Here's a panoramic shot from the terrace. It was such a cute neighborhood.

And then...the piece de la resistance. The hotel clerk took us up to our room (in the elevator from 1800 something, which he assured us was inspected regularly!) and was proud to tell us we'd been upgraded and wasn't this a lovely room? But, wait...there's more. He said, "How do you say in America? The show must go on!" He then proceeded to open the door to the terrace/balcony and proudly pointed out the "view" of the Eiffel Tower. John and I both looked at each other and thought, "Really?" We stepped out onto the terrace and we could see a teeny tiny point far off in the distance. 😆 We both said "merci" multiple times and said how grateful we were for the upgrade and the view. Once the clerk left we both smirked at each other. View of the Eiffel Tower? Sure! (It was SUCH a great view that I took zero pictures of it. John recreated the view:)

Honestly, though, if you're looking for a quaint, boutique-type hotel in a quiet area, I'd recommend it. It wasn't right next door to a Metro station, but a quick walk in multiple directions brought us to one. I didn't want something that screamed "American hotel chain" but rather something that quietly said, "You're in Paris." Hotel Bradford definitely did that.

Next up- what we ate in London & Paris!

London & Paris: Planes, Trains, Automobiles & Feet!

This will be the first of four planned blog posts on our trip to London & Paris. This one will cover the modes of transportation we used. The second will cover the places we stayed. The third and fourth will go over what we did in each city.

NOTE: This post turned out to be longer than I thought...

Planes:

• We flew on Delta, direct from Boston to London. We had enough points on American Express for basically one ticket free, so that was the driving factor in choosing that airline. We sat in the main cabin, which was OK on the way there, but on the way back, it seemed a lot smaller (could've been the fact that we were coming out of COVID and just wanted to get home!) John is over 6 feet tall, so if we could afford it, next time I'd look into the next class up/more space.

• Funny story- I had been saying for a few days before leaving that I was going to have wine on the plane (to me this is a luxury!). Even if I had to pay for it, I was getting it! The flight attendant came by and I boldly said, "I'll have a Chardonnay." She jokingly said, "We have white and red. Oh, and it's your lucky day, the white is Chardonnay!" She then asked if I wanted small, medium or large. I'm so naive. I thought she was serious! I said, "How about medium?" She said, "How about large?" 😉

So, I accepted my large wine and was happily enjoying it. As was bound to happen, John had to go to the bathroom. I got up, juggling my glasses, my Kindle, my wine, my fleece. I'm guessing you see where this is going. Yup. Wino in row 47. Spilled it on my shirt and pants. ::sigh:: So, I headed back to the bathroom to try to mop it up. After my sorry effort, I came out of the bathroom and saw the flight attendant that had served me the wine. I said, "Thanks for the large wine!" She said, "Oh, we have a fix for that." She grabbed a pad (I don't mean paper, I mean a sanitary napkin), peeled the label off the sticky part, stuck it on my hand, dipped it in soda water and said "Blot away!" Hilarious! (It worked to some degree but I still was damp.)

Trains (we took lots of them!):

• The first train we took was the Heathrow Express, which took us directly from the airport (Heathrow) to central London (Paddington Station). While it wasn't the cheapest option, it was the quickest. There were ticket sellers walking around, so one can easily purchase the tickets. I'd say if you don't want to deal with your suitcases and the Underground (see subsequent bullet point...lol), this is the next best option. 

• After getting off the Heathrow Express in Paddington, we had to make our way to our hotel using the London Underground (or Tube). We found the Tube easy to use- the lines and stops are clear and if you have Apple Pay on your phone, you can simply tap it on the readers at the turnstiles. What was not easy about the Tube? Accessibility. Very few stations have elevators or even escalators. We got to Trafalgar Square (where our hotel was) and realized we had to take our (large) suitcases up two (long) flights of stairs. I could only get mine up a few steps before having to stop. So, John ended up carrying his suitcase up to the top, I'd walk up and stand guard by it and he'd then carry mine up. Not sustainable. It really shocked us that most of the stations we were at during our time in London didn't have elevators. How do wheelchair users get around? The other issue- "minding the gap." John had heard the phrase multiple times when listening Ricky Gervais, but he didn't know the true meaning of it until we actually got onto our first subway train at Paddington. Not only is there an actual gap between the train and the platform, but in many cases, the train is higher than the platform. I thought for sure I'd be the first to trip. Nope- while trying to pull a suitcase onto the train at Paddington, John fell straight into the subway car. Ugh! Lesson learned- mind the gap (both ways!)

• To get from London to Paris, we took a Eurostar train. This was super easy! Arrive at St. Pancras Station (which we got to by taxi after learning our lesson with the suitcases at Trafalgar Square) 90 minutes early, go through Customs (which was fairly smooth), board the train and a few hours later, you're in Paris! I would highly recommend this. I think it's a lot less hassle than dealing with the airport. 
• SIDE NOTE: We were concerned about our luggage and thinking we'd have to stow it above our seats on the train, we knew we couldn't lift them that high. So, at the last minute, I found Left Luggage where we were able to store one suitcase and only bring one large one to Paris. Using Left Luggage was easy. I booked it online. We went to the counter, checked it and then picked it up on our way back.

• The equivalent of the Tube in Paris is the Metro. We found this system more complicated than the Tube. Even buying tickets was complicated! No tapping our phones to use Apple Pay. We stood at the ticket machine and were thoroughly confused. We ended up going to the counter and buying 10 round trip tickets each. A theme we saw play out in Paris was no air conditioning and the Metro trains were no difference. They had windows open in the train cars, but it was HOT. 

Automobiles:

• As noted, we ended up taking a taxi to St. Pancras Station in London for the Eurostar after struggling with our suitcases. We took one coming back from Paris, from St. Pancras to our hotel and from our hotel to Heathrow (that story will follow in the next post.) London taxis were clean, efficient, and had machines to use Apple Pay or credit card. I'd recommend if you're not up to taking the Tube.

• Not knowing how accessible the Metro would be in Paris, we ended up taking a taxi from Gare du Nord (train station where Eurostar goes) to our hotel. While we were in the queue waiting for one, we were chatting with two couples behind us. I asked if they knew if Parisian taxis took cards. One of the gentleman said, "I'm sure they do." Huh. We got into the taxi and the first thing we said was "Do you take cards?" Drive said, "Cash?" We said we only had cards (which we did) and he just asked us for the address and drove. I was thinking- is he going to drive us to an ATM machine? Turned out he took cards but preferred cash. So, don't be fooled into thinking you can't use a card in a Parisian taxi!

Feet:

• We walked A LOT. Anywhere between 20-30K steps per day. Both London & Paris are great walking cities. Wear comfortable shoes/sneakers and just be prepared to blow up the step counter on your phone...lol.