I suppose I could write one of those end of year lists. But I’m not together enough to list top ten movies or top ten books. Do you keep track? Maybe list-making is something to try first thing in the morning when more energy zips through my brain.

What can I even remember about this year?

Tea with the Queen! It’s a game where you go to a department store and try on as many fancy dresses as possible. I never wear dresses anymore, but I love a poofy skirt. I went with a couple of friends to Macy’s. We tried on a ridiculous number of prom dresses. I never went to prom even though I had wanted very much to go, so twirling about in a beautiful dress hits a soft spot.

I loved Everything Everywhere All at Once. What a wonderfully wild movie! With Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix, and whatever else, I feel like I’m drowning in content, but yet having very little that interests me. Or it interests me, but I don’t want to spare the energy. I have to teach, write, and make art. Emotional resource management is important! But something about this movie grabbed me back when I saw the first trailer. It didn’t disappoint. Did I understand all of it? Um, no. I love that!

And as far as stories we watch go, I’ve really been caught up in the recent Star Wars series, Andor. Yeah, you heard me. Andor has no Jedi and no Darth Vader. No one mentions the Force. But the characters are real and the story has something to say. When they first announced this series, my reaction was, “Why?” Years ago, I loved what Gregory McGuire did for the Wicked Witch of the West, (the book, y’all, the book), but by the time Disney insisted on giving us the story of Cruella De Vil, I was deeply skeptical about taking villains characters and giving them backstories. Granted, Andor isn’t a villain (though he’s no shiny saint). He was a character in a spin-off getting a spin-off. And certainly, Disney has thrown lots of Star Wars over the transom–enough to drown a Death Star. In any event, Andor is a good story-telling. Watch if that’s your thing.

The other thing I loved watching (again) was Over the Garden Wall. I may have mentioned this last year, but if you haven’t discovered it yet, hop to it! I’ve made it part of my October tradition. Re-read A Night in the Lonesome October and re-watch Over the Garden Wall. Which reminds me, you should be reading ghosts stories for Christmas! Seriously. It’s a tradition. Why else do you think Charles Dickens thought of ghosts for the holiday? I’ll be reading a selection of ghost stories from Biblioasis.

It’s not a fancy list, but it’s enough.

Thanks for reading.