Month: July 2013

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Friday Top 5: Teen Dramas

Through the years there have been television programs geared towards teenagers of the moment, whether it be teens of the ’70s (Welcome Back, Kotter), teens of the ’80s (Head of the Class), teens of the ’90s (Saved By the Bell), or teens of the ’00s (The O.C.). The lure of these shows is that teenagers definitely watched, either because they identified with the characters, or because they enjoyed making fun of the language they used. And they still watch. The problems arise when the shows move beyond the teen years. It becomes harder to keep the viewers they had, and most teen shows fade after three or four seasons because of it. Here is my ode to the teen dramas that have affected me the most.

There is but one.

5. Buffy the Vampire Slayer –

I’ve worked hard to make my peace with the lack of a comma in the title of this series, but otherwise the show was perfect. It had everything you could possibly look for in a teen drama: the romantic entanglements (remember Angel? Spike?), the constant issues, the friend conundrum, and the evil vampires that HAD TO GET SLAYED! What? You don’t remember the evil vampires in your high school? That was the true glory of the show, that it mixed the mundane and the supernatural, and while it was hokey at times, it filled that niche that had never been filled before. Or since. Continue reading “Friday Top 5: Teen Dramas”

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Growing Up Seventh-Day Adventist: The Aftermath

I left home at age twenty-one, at a time when most people would have recognized me as an adult, but I was in turmoil. My whole life I knew one way to be, and that was Seventh-Day Adventist. Even in my late teens when I might have been qualified as being a backslider, I still identified with being SDA. It was all I had ever known, and breaking away from it was one of the most difficult things I had ever done.

At the time I felt like I needed to make that break for several reasons. I had been introduced to several different types of religions and I was confused. How could one truly be THE religion of God, one religion to rule them all (to paraphrase Lord of the Rings)? I took a History of Western Religions course my first year in college, and one of the requirements was to visit several places of worship, so in the span of one semester I attended a mosque, a temple, a Baptist church, an Episcopal church, and a Catholic church. Each of those visits taught me more about the world, more about myself, and more about my own view of God, and that view showed me the many facets of a God I originally thought only had one. Continue reading “Growing Up Seventh-Day Adventist: The Aftermath”

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Open Mic

I was just on stage. Oh. Wait. It was just my fertile imagination, running away with me. I was really just on an old wooden floor with a microphone and a stand I never used. But that’s okay. And this man stood up after I sat down. He took my position behind that mic stand, … Continue reading Open Mic

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Momma’s Cookies

They look good, don’t they?

My sister and I would affectionately call them rocks as they came out of the oven, having not yet cooled. They would sit on the baking rack in neat little circles, looking for all the world like award-winning cookies that we would see in the Pathmark down the road when we went shopping. And the smell was intoxicating, no matter the type of cookie represented. Be they oatmeal raisin or chocolate chip — Momma made only the two types — they smelled like little pieces of heaven.

But try as she might, Momma couldn’t stop them from being solid as rocks in the end of the process. And because she was my Momma, I would always try one first. The trick was to eat it from the side, to nibble off a small piece of the corner and hope it didn’t chip my tooth. Then my sister would get empowered and try the same technique to often mixed results, but her teeth remained intact too. Score one for us. Continue reading “Momma’s Cookies”

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Among the Weeds

The fracture seems so small As it snakes its way into the rock Hard and strong Yet imperfect in context Love in extremis Like the bloom off a rose Fragile in its ecstasy Controlled by time Worn and precipitous Age old and melancholy Extending for miles Coming together at the end Cracked pieces of a … Continue reading Among the Weeds

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Dear E-mail

I love that Vincent guy

Dear E-mail;

I have been instructed that I need to use you more often for things that resemble letters that I must send out to my friends, far and wide. About fifteen years ago I used you in the form of AOL’s free month of service. I remember they had all these amazing chat rooms and things called groups that I could join. It made me feel like part of a community, and everyone had these really cute e-mail addresses that ended with @aol.com. Even cooler was if I sent another AOLer an e-mail I could leave off that last part and just send it to sensualkitty, or to newyork69. That made things tons easier.

And then in college I had that super-cool @temple.edu address that was pretty easy to remember too, even though that’s also when I started getting something called Spam. I didn’t know what it was at first. I mean, the people who sent it knew my name, and the sites I would visit most. It was almost like they were psychic. “Hey Sam!” they would start, but then there were things about erectile dysfunction and applying to distance learning programs instead of the personal e-mail message I thought I was getting from innocuous names like Cindy, Bill, and Jennifer. Continue reading “Dear E-mail”