My Room with a View

room1 During November my world revolved around lugging boxes from my old home to my new one. In December that shifted to unpacking boxes in one room and then another.

For over a decade I’ve used a laptop and written where-ever when-ever but in our new home we designated the “extra” room for me; yet while the kitchen came together fast, my writing room was last on the list. There were files and papers, books and electronics, odd pieces of furniture and far more non-essentials piling up before I had the time to sort through them all. This was a first for me, having a window with a view, a solid door to close, and a vaulted ceiling high enough to let my dreams float before landing on the page: a room of my own.

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A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

“The Wolf of Wall Street” ironically opened on Christmas, a day of giving with love, and has, ever since, stirred up much controversy over its glorification of an unrepentant thief, Jordan Belfort. an ex-stockbroker “convicted of fraud crimes related to stock market manipulation and running a penny stock boiler room for which he spent 22 months in prison” (Wikipedia). While I am happy to close the door towolf-of-wall-street04 this Scorsese film, I find myself struggling that others are declaring the 180 minutes as brilliance. Award season hoopla aside, let me ask you, how did you feel when you left the theater? Did you reach back for your coat to brave the outdoors with  sensations akin to the flu? Did you find being a voyeur to the unsexy-sex, drug-abuse and blow-out-debauchery an excellent use of time? I will admit right here, in my introduction, that this film left me angry, and even now, a week later, I’d classify it as dangerous. Shall we disrobe the wolf?

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Fast Food

dockJanuary is pounding. Grueling. The Polar Vortex swirling its icy breeze clear across the continent. What else is there to do but think of food. Fast. Hot. My advice for what to cook? Hearty food: White Bean Stew with Chicken Sausage. From start to finish in 30 minutes. Sound like a dream come true? Well yes, it is, and luckily, you can make it yourself quite easily.

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