Sound Off: I Just Want MY Cop Show

The other night, I walked by a TV that was turned to one of the many CHICAGO shows. I sat for a few minutes watching Chicago P.D. and was completely bored. I was looking for something to draw me in but none of the partner-centric banter or action drew me in. This is when something dawned on me: there is no one size fits all procedural drama.

If you're not interested in the characters from the get-go, you will be asleep faster than the first Law and Order victim is dead. These shows have to be character driven. I love the playful banter of McGarrett and Danno on Hawaii 5-0 and the love between Booth and Bones makes every investigation more enticing.

Sound-Off: I Can't Stand 'This is Us'

I'm sure this will be as popular as a denouncement of Hamilton on Broadway, but I am not a fan of This is Us. It's at best, emotional kryptonite, and at worst, an hour where you have to prepare to be massively depressed and disappointed.  It took me approximately six months to get through the last 4 episodes of the season. I've been on hiatus since Jack's post-Superbowl death episode. I think my main issue revolves around the Peterson children. I'm not a fan of all 3 of the younger kid or teen versions of the kids. Frankly, I kinda hate their adult selves too. I've had little sympathy for twins Kate and Kevin. They are so self-absorbed and co-dependent, it's sick. I've been over Kate's weight issues since episode 1 and Kevin is a borderline narcissist.  I find Randall and Beth's relationship nice, but sometimes his "I have to do everything" attitude tires me out. I know he's trying to save their adopted foster child, Dejia, but it seems to be at the expense of his other two kids. I like the young Rebecca and Jack courtship story. Maybe I can mash up all of those episodes together and watch that for season 3. Once they had kids, the Petersons got hella emotionally taxing. I find I have to be in a really crappy mood to watch the show, and then I'm find with being on the verge of crying for an hour. I'm not the only one. Social media has grown tired too per this Cosmopolitan article.

Ed Sheeran: One Man and One Guitar; Rocking A Football Stadium

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     Ed Sheeran brought the singing crowd at METLIFE Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. to their feet with only a guitar and a loop pedal. Sheeran played packed shows on both Friday and Saturday night, September 21^st and 22^nd, in the support of his 2017 release, ‘Divide.’ Tour openers included Anne-Marie and the band Snow Patrol, which Ed thanked for taking him out as the band’s opening act in 2012. Upon taking the stage Friday night, Sheeran thanked his fans of all ages, from kindergarteners to grandmothers. Sheeran confessed this is his first large outdoor stadium tour and the largest venue he’s played in the New York City area, citing previous concerts at more intimate indoor venues like The Cutting Room and Radio City Music Hall.

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Sheeran opened with ‘Eraser’ where he layered his vocals to create a rich harmony. The artist briefly explained how he could make music with one acoustic/electric guitar. The technology allows Sheeran to record as he plays or sings a few bars, then repeat the recorded piece while he adds concurrent tracks on top. While looping a cacophony of rhythms and harmonies in the bridge of ‘So in Love,’ Sheeran went from a single voice to a chorus of Sheerans in about a minute flat. 

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Sheeran, a self-professed “awkward concertgoer” brings a level of theatrics to the stage. He seamlessly transformed his demeanor between tender love songs like “Thinking Out Loud” and edgy Eminem-style raps like ‘Don’t.’ The songwriter’s true performance is in playing his guitar. Sheeran changed guitars multiple times during the show, although most of the guitars were small acoustic/electric Martin models.  Sheeran cemented his status as a prolific guitar player while tacking his 2014 hit, ‘Bloodstream.’ The stage, bathed in fuzzy red light, pulsated with his driving guitar beat. As the lights intensified and video footage of Sheeran became more erratic, Sheeran looped at least 5 separate rhythms that mashed up into a musical storm. His voice echoed and reverberated on the words “…Tell me when it kicks in” over and over as his chilling tri-tone repeat of “Ohs” looped in and out.  

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     It was through his cover of Nina Simone’s ‘Feeling Good’ that Sheeran introduced a third side to himself. With his guitar dangling from his neck, he sang the often covered jazz standard a capella, with the slightest hint of a guitar strike looped in to keep the beat. The artist showcased a side of himself that was completely different from his radio hits. His voice was soulful and free, similar to his control of the stage.

     Sheeran paid homage to his Irish background with two songs from the Divide album. Before launching into the bouncy ‘Galway Girl,’ Sheeran told the crowd. “Don’t be like me at a concert. Get up and dance. Encourage the person next to you to dance.” He took on the role of balladeer for ‘Nancy Mulligan,’ a song he wrote about his grandparents who met during World War II and fled their Irish hometowns to marry. Taking inspiration from his own life, Sheeran dedicated ‘Perfect’ to his fiancée, Cherry. He took the romantic ballad and sped it up to a mid-tempo ballad. The artist asked the crowd to bathe the stadium in cell phone light as Sheeran strummed and sang about dancing in the dark.

     Sheeran’s ability to talk/sing has led to some of his biggest hits, including 2014’s ‘Sing.’ The song was a crowd favorite, partly due to the easy to sing chorus. Sheeran announced ‘Sing’ and the crowd responded back with a syncopated soccer-like chant. For his encore, Sheeran performed two more songs where he sang/talked. He came out to sing ‘Shape of You’ in an NFL jersey split down the middle, half NY Giants and half NY Jets, to honor the teams that call Metlife Stadium home. His closing number was ‘You Need Me, I Don’t Need You’ from his first album, (+). This song went on nearly 10 minutes while Sheeran rapped about everything from using a loop pedal to proving his worth to his admiration for singer Damien Rice. Catch Sheeran on the Divide tour in the U.S. through November 10^th or join him in Europe and Africa in the spring of 2019.  ‘Divide’ is available on Atlantic Records.

One Paragraph Movie Review: Crazy Rich Asians

Crazy Rich Asians is the movie America needs right now. with romantic comedies only popping up on Netflix these days, its nice to see a love story on the big screen. As an audience, we can put aside all of the fighting an unite against two legendary movie villains, the mother in law and the mean ex-girlfriend. Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) is a completely relatable heroine;  an educated, average woman who wants to make a good impression on her boyfriend's family. Here's where the crazy rich part comes in: Nick (Henry Golding) forgot to mention he is living in America to avoid having to take over his family business; and they are one of the richest families in Thailand. While Rachel fights mean girls and wins the heart of Nick's grandmother, she is supported by her college roommate Piglin (Awkwafina), and her kooky family. It's a enjoyable escape filled with fabulous destinations, beautiful clothes, and the message that money can't buy happiness.  Plus, there's a chase to the airport. What more can a girl ask for?

Crazy Rich Asians was adapted from the novel by the same name, written by Kevin Kwan. 

I E-mailed Ryan Reynolds, and This is His Response

     Earlier this week, Ryan Reynolds appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to promote Deadpool 2's DVD release, and his new baby, a gin company. Reynolds is one of the owners of Aviation Gin, which sounds like the coolest liquor name I've heard of since college. I urge you to visit their website and sigh of over the background photo of Reynolds tipping back a glass of gin.

During the interview and hard-to-stomach game of Drinko, Fallon mentioned hearing that Reynolds's business associates have told him to tone down bis auto-reply E-mail message. Then Reynolds mentioned his e-mail on the broadcast, and I wrote it down (about two days later when I watched the episode), and dropped him a note. The below screenshot is from Reynolds's e-mail auto replay and includes his typical dry humor. This high level of communication basically means I'm being invited over for a gin sampling with Ryan and his wife Blake any day now... thus begins my 15 minutes of fame!

Sunburn Remedies: Final Day 7

DAY 7: REBIRTH
I've tolerated all kinds of pain in my life, but nothing prepared me for the day my stomach would start molting to a new layer of skin. I'm finally back to wearing pants and a normal seat belt, but my stomach is ready for new challenges as it brings a fresh layer to life.

Image from GIFER.

PAIN LEVEL (1-5 SCALE):
1. I wish I could say no pain, but peeling skin always causes some sort of discomfort.

REMEDY:
I had to start flaking this stuff off! I changed into a bathing suit for the first time in a week and saw a white layer of skin slowly separating. What did I do? Naturally, I let it flake off like crazy!

Sunburn Remedies: Day 4

Day 4: I FEEL HUMAN AGAIN

via GIPHY- Damon slips into his old vamp ways in The Vampire Diaries.

Today is the first day my stomach is not looking like the inside of an under-cooked chicken! I'm less pink and there is some sort of brown edging forming, almost like a bad tanning lotion application.

PAIN LEVEL: (1-5 Scale)
Still hanging at a 2 today. More than anything, I feel a little dehydrated. I've been drinking tons of tea and water all week.

Remedy:
Aside from a daily application of aloe, I'm letting this day go by without any new pain relieving methods. My new method, aside from hydration, is to do nothing. I even managed to wear a skirt that loosely came near my stomach today!

Sunburn Remedies: Day 3

DAY 3: I Wear My Sunglasses at Night

Today, I woke up as a functioning sunburn victim! After two nights of pain, I was forgetting what normal looked like. To follow up on yesterday's methods of treatment, the oatmeal bath was  a disaster. The oatmeal was nice and calming, but I added what was left in the can, which was over a half a cup, and my tub was still draining oatmeal this morning.

Howie D in as a vampire in The Backstreet Boys'
"Backstreet's Back" video, from GIPHY.

PAIN LEVEL: (1-5 Scale)
A very normal 2.
I wore a loose-fitting cotton skirt today to keep my skin happy. I went to yoga class at night and was only in pain when I stretched my core and bent into cobra/upward dog, which require your stomach to be on the mat.

Remedy 1: Ice
In any pain relief treatment, the second thing to try (in the RICE) method) is rest. After being a bit restless in bed, I got a cold ice pack from the freezer and threw it on my stomach. I was instantly comforted into sleep.

Remedy 2: Tea Bags
I'm about to make some green tea, and the cooled tea bags will be gently placed on my red skin for anti-oxidants. I'll update on this tomorrow.

Sunburn Remedies: Day 2

Day 2: BURN BABY, BURN
Yesterday's sunburn has taken full control of my delicate stomach epidermis. Tonight, it's time to test some new remedies. Welcome to my first work day with a terrible stomach sunburn! Remember, just because I'm not sparkling like a vampire in the light on the outside doesn't mean I don't feel it on the inside. I generally feel like I have a new layer of aloe-smothered skin.

Edward in the Light- TWILIGHT - Tenor GIF

PAIN LEVEL: (1-5 Scale)
A solid 4. 
Wearing a dress helped keep anything from touching my skin, but I'm taking breaks to apply extra aloe to my red spot. Laying on my stomach at the chiropractor's office was a few steps above torture by soccer stadium vuvuzelas.

 Remedy 1: Keep all fabric off the burn

Today, I wore a loose fitting dress to work to keep my stomach as far from exposure as possible. I'm sure it fixed anything, but I felt a little more comfortable.

Remedy 2: Cool Bath with Oatmeal

I first took an oatmeal bath when I had the chicken pox. It's still  great option for any type of skin irritation. This is relaxing so regardless I'm having fun!

Sunburn Remedies: Day 1

Today, I went on a trip to the beach. It was great, except for a pesky sunburn on my stomach. I'll spare the photographic evidence and the story of my pink stomach, but just image sitting through a concert with a searing pain in your abdomen. I can't go back in time and re apply on my midriff, but I 'm sharing my diary of this week's sunburn remedies.

DAY 1: FEELING THE (SUN)BURN 
About four hours after the beach, the pain set in. What I first attributed to an irritation too-tight pants was eventually revealed to be sunburn.

ANGEL enjoying an alt. dimension where he can't 
be burned by the sun. Image from Mythcreants blog. 

PAIN LEVEL: (1-5 Scale)
This is a 5-alarm issue.
When the pain from a sunburn is so bad and you have to change your clothes, it's as severe as it can get. I even had to cushion my the lap part of my seat belt for the drive home.

Remedy 1: Drinking Water

-Sunburn usually makes me overly warm and sweaty (thanks to inflammation). I took a fresh bottle of ice cold H20 to help replenish foods in my body during the concert. This definitely prevented me from further hydration, so I consider it a win. 

Remedy 2: Loose Fitting Clothing

Once I ruled out stomach pain, I decided I had to get my stomach free of any restrictive fabric. This meant buying an oversized concert t-shirt so my pants could be open across my stomach. This helped a lot!

Remedy 3: Aloe

I grabbed some chilled aloe out of my fridge at home and slathered it on my stomach for an instant cooling sensation. The relief is temporary, but always appreciated. 

Remedy 4: Advil

Since sunburn is an inflammatory body response, I took an anti-inflammatory before bed. I think this helped take a little of the heat off my sensitive stomach because I fell asleep (on my back) almost instantly.

Remedy 5: Modify My Seat Belt
This pain is so intense, I had to use my shoulder strap for my seat belt and wrap it around my lap to keep the belt off of my stomach!

Sometimes It's a Grammar Fail Day: Part 2

     It's been two years to the day since I last wrote about widely published grammar fails. It's time for the 2018 edition of glaring grammar errors. As a professional proofreader, it's my sworn duty to call these errors out. Most of these are simple usage errors or some choice spellings that don't appear in any dictionary I have at home.     

7. Social Media Fail                                                                     

It's easy to make a grammar error when you're typing condolences in 120 characters or less, and my fellow BSB fans are not shy about pointing it out. In any case, confusing two versions of a word, morning vs. mourning is a pretty tame and forgivable grammar fail. It was best put by fan @GraceJoy1328 that in a time of loss, word usage errors are not too bad. 

6. Tentative Weather
Normally weather forecasts are given in ranges. Sometimes those ranges get a little vague. More than once this year, the range has just been 'a lot of snow.' 
Check out this drastic difference of snow totals in a warning from The Weather Channel in February. 
It could be 6 to 12 inches, expect in the spot that's going to get 10 to 15 inches. When we're talking about a half a foot's difference of snowfall, this is the difference between one snow day and not leaving your house for the weekend.  


5. Cable News Scroll Grammar Error
FOX News (a.k.a. America's News HQ) wasted no time getting the story out. In their hast, the screen card spelled out "Admists" instead of "admit." This is not really appropriate grammar for anyone. Someone tried to make the verb "admit" both active and plural, which would need to be 'admits,'. They also used a totally creative and "fake news" way of spelling, which is incorrect.



4. Store Sign

On a winter trip to my favorite miscellaneous shopping experience, Ocean State Job Lot, I noticed a sign with a choice spelling for 'hoodie.' When last I checked, hoodie is the singular spelling, and when it goes plural, it's hoodies. A simple Google before printing the store signage can save a lot of face. 

3. Doctor's Office Spelling 
When making an appointment for an allergy shot on my ENT's app, I did a double take. I kept trying to figure out who the 'eshtablished' patients here. There is one letter added to the word that makes no sense, and I keep wondering if 'eshtablished' patients are better than established ones. Maybe they get all of the early morning and late night slots before they will become available? In any case, I'll be booking by location tonight. 



2. Newsletter Nightmare
It's easy to confuse two similar words when you type as fast as I do. It's quite embarrassing to have a link to a nutritional article about dairy (with a cow pictured) and to find out this piece is about "diary??" Clearly, these two common words can be swapped easily, but they have nothing in common. 





1. Headline Homicide
I did a double take last week when I read this latest development in the fragile relationship of comedian Pete Davidson and singer Ariana Grande. Not only are the pair shockingly engaged after one month of dating, but then Pete died??? What a tragedy...
Here is another classic version of using the wrong word drastically changing the meaning of the sentence, for the worst. When someone DYES something, they add color to it, but when they DIE, they are not living (or playing an elaborate casino game). 

Welcome to the Family, Eddie! - A Weird Engagement

Image from Gifer

A lot happened on the season finale of Blue Bloods. The only thing I remember and really care about is the storyline that ended up with Jamie and Eddie showing up to family dinner, as an engaged couple!!! I've been waiting for these two crazy kids to get together for almost 7 years. I CANNOT BELIEVE IT!! I'M SO HAPPY!

 After a shootout, Jamie (still a guy) and Eddie (still a girl) confessed their feelings, pledged to continue to be partners, and decided to get married to each other. I'm not the only one that is excited about the surprising news. Last year, I wrote a  lengthy post about the adorable pair. Many people are wishing good thoughts to for the couple. 

Are You Ready For It???

It's time to get back to blogging! Stay tuned soon for all the details on what I've been up to this spring, and of course, soem juicy details about the upcoming Taylor Swift Reputation tour!

via Gfycat

Another GIGSoup Concert Review: HAIM at Radio City

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Happy Cinco de Mayo! While some people were enjoying Mint Juleps and Margaritas, I was enjoying some live music from the exceptionally talented sisters of HAIM. Check out my GIGSoup Concert  review of HAIM at Radio City Music Hall! The trio of sisters play all of their own instruments and they take dance breaks. 







FALLING: Haim at Radio City

(c) PipPepPop Alana and Danielle Haim

(c) PipPepPop Este Haim

LITTLE OF YOUR LOVE:
HAIM at Radio City

Paris, je t'aime!

I think the Gargoyles are up here!
(c) PipPepPop

As Blair and Serena once agreed in Gossip Girl's season 4 trip to Paris, any great duo must divide and conquer the city to make the most of it.

From the Gossip Girl episode 4.1 into to the 'Belles du Jour' episode:

"Serena's locked down the left bank 
and become a muse to us all. 

Meanwhile, Blair rules the right bank, 
storming the shops and consuming the 

classics and sampling sugary snacks like 
a modern Marie Antoniette."

-- Gossip Girl

I recently returned from a whirlwind 4 days in Paris with two of my best girlfriends from college. While I have yet to pick my favorite bank to rule, we packed a great deal into our brief travels before we traveled to Italy. It was pre-fashion week, it was cold, and it was like walking onto the set of a movie. Bons baisers, I'm in love! Here are some photo highlights and lessons learned from Paris.

1. Everything looks like it's part of a movie scene

The beauty of European cities cannot be described. Every small and charming cobblestone street looks like it was meticulously put together for Matt Damon to be chased down. Some of these buildings are 300-400 years old. They've withstood countless plagues and wars and they're still standing. despite the VERY cold temperatures of about 20 degrees F, I was excited to walk all over and uncover each new arrondissement. 

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2. The people of Paris are warm and delightful
Over the years, I've heard my share of stories from friends that Paris is not the friendliest city for Americans. I was happily proven wrong. We met kind locals everywhere, from the shopgirl who spent three hours patiently helping my friend and I decide on dresses to museum guides, taxi drivers, waiters, and the hotel staff.

Breakfast. (c) PipPepPop

I have to thank the kind man with the Addidas gym bag who kindly guided us to the opposite metro platform and narrowly saved us from heading toward the soccer stadium instead of our hotel. I also misplaced my camera for a day, and fearing the worst, resigned myself to never seeing it again. At the end of the day, I discovered it in the hotel breakfast room, right where I had left it when I snapped a photo pf my breakfast.




3. The food is amazing! Try it all!

Macaroons & tea at Nescafe
(c) PipPepPop

 As mentioned above, my breakfast was 100 times more exciting from the morning the plane landed in Paris. Gone were my usual oatmeal or cereal and milk combos. I welcomed fresh from the oven pain au chocolat, fruit, yogurt, fresh juice, and cafe au lait.

I had a variety of lunch and dinner dishes ranging from cheese plates (yes this was most of my dinner one night), beef burgundy, fresh salmon or shrimp sandwiches, croque monsieurs, chicken provencale, pate, salad with haircot verts, escargot.... and now I am starving. French food is amazing, as is all of the bread.  For dessert, there were chocolates, champagne, mousse, crepes, macaroons, and one night, we had a beautiful green absynthe cocktail.

4. The BEST view of the Eiffel Tower is from the Arc du triomphe!

The Champs
(c) PipPepPop

With French Glamour
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This happened completely by accident, but we ended up at the arch roundabout at the end of the
Champs Elysees at about 5 in the afternoon. We thought "What's another 600 or so steps (total, not each way) when we already can't feel our toes?"

It came down to choosing between the Eiffel Tower and the Arc in terms of what we could handle physically after doing some serious hiking through churches and museums earlier in the day. The walk was perilous, but we trudged upstairs (inside thankfully) and emerged at the top of the arch as the sun was tucking into the Seine.

5. Visit a new cafe every day, but return to old favorites!
We did some touristy things, like visit the cafe from the charming movie Amelie. It was a lot of fun. We also found some great places in our neighborhood and became locals there ASAP. I tried all 3 of the roses offered at one restaurant (not in one sitting; one each time I visited).

  

LEFT: Caf Amelie from the movie. CENTER: The street is THIS big!  RIGHT: The Sacre Coeur- aka the Castle on the Hill. I went on my only paid public bathroom trip here. I'm happy to report I've seen many worse bathrooms than this. All Photos (c) PipPepPop

6. Talk to Everyone, Shop Local
The most amazing moments from the trip were chats we had with the locals. We stopped in every bookstore, boutique, shoe store, haberdasher, etc.. and even a department store.

PHOTO CAPTION: I fell in love with the vibe of this Gatsby-inspired cocktail 
bar and restaurant down the street from our hotel. (c) PipPepPop

7. Be Silly! Selfie it! Goof Around for Pictures!
Some of my favorite trip pictures were making silly faces at Notre Dame or posing in front of the Eiffel tower. If helps if you have a selfie stick, which I received as a present from a friend. It served us well on the trip because we never needed to ask a stranger to take out pictures!

Eiffel Tower
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Group selfie outside Shakespeare and Company. (c) PipPepPop

8. Sleep when you're home! Make every minute count

Me and the Mona Lisa
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'Single Ladies' dance.
(c)PipPepPop

While I am the first to admit jet lag can hit me hard, I trudged through my first day in Paris to fall asleep for a reasonable 6 to 7 hours. The next morning, we hit the Louvre hard, and it was worth the early rise. We climbed out of a cab at 8 am and got in line outside the glass dome to wait like it was a red carpet premiere or Disney World. We headed right for the big ticket exhibits, the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo statue. After, we perused paintings from various centuries and took in one of the best things, the royals jewels dating back to King Louis!

Photo captions below: (LEFT) The Louvre before opening. (RIGHT) Gems from Napoleon's family. 

 

Scandal: The Line of Succession for Press Secretary

Tonight while watching Scandal, I realized there have been entirely too many people in the role of press secretary. People with this position end up dead or blackmailed. There have been more press secretaries than seasons of the show.  Here is the master list of mentioned White House Press Secretaries:

 1. Britta Kagan
This poor gal was the first press secretary of the Grant administration. As a loyal staffer,  Ms. Kagan was shot along alongside  President Grant when they arrived at his birthday dinner (season 2). President Grant recovered and Kagan died.

2. Olivia Pope
In the wake of the Grant shooting, Olivia Pope came back to the White House (season She guided the administration  through a challenging media storm. She also helped the staff make it appear President Grant was ready to resusme power from VP Sally Langston way before he was ready.

3. Jeannine Locke
Although never offically named on the show,  Jeannine became the de facto press secretary. She took on the press in season 3 after Olivia retired and went back to professional fixing. Locke was forced to leave the White House after a very public declatation as the president's mistress. She sacrificed herself (and recieved a nice payout) to protect Olivia and President Grant's secret relationship.

4.  James Novak
Novak was was a journalist who bargained with his husband, Chief of Staff Cyrus Beene, to get a baby. As an out of work stay-at-home dad, Novak leveraged his husband again to get the open Press secrstary job.  This time, the stakes were much higher. James was tricked by bis husband into having an affair with VP Langston's closeted husband, all in the name of outing the man and ruining the VP's presidential campaign. Then James discovered his husband covered up VP Langston's murder of her sinner husband (season 3). There were a lot of complicated emotions involved there. When James began leaking details of the murder to the attorney general (under an alias),  he was killed by Jake, the leader of a super secret US-based CIA organization, B-613.

5. Olivia Pope (again)
In the season 5 finale, Olivia held a press conference announcing the death of President Fitzgarald's son, Jerry.

6. Abby Wheelan
Abby begins season 4 as the new press secretary for President Grant's second term. Olivia goes awol at the end of season 4 and shuts down Pope and Associates, leaving abby to find a new job. 'Red' became President Fitz's work wife and was promoted to Chief of Staff, which she remained into season 5. She left the White House in a scandal as well.

7. Marcus Walker
I have no idea if there was a press awcratarybin between Abby and Marcus, be he was defibtely press secrstary5 in season 6. Walker fell in love with Mrs. Grant during her run for office (season 5-6) and left with her ex-husband to start a foundation at the beginning of season 7.

8. Audrey Campo
Audrey was seen on screen as the press secretary for President Mellie Grant in tonight's episode when Olivia falsely promised to resign as chief of staff.

Fashion or Foe: Keeping an Arm's Length

I'm addressing this message to anyone who is in charge of making shirts. What is going on with sleeve lengths? I bought one long sleeve shirt this year (at deep discount) that had decently sized sleeves. This shirt pictured is not it! I tried on many shirts and tossed them aside because they fell halfway to my fingers. Length isn't the only problem. I'm also seeing a lot of sleeves that have weird shapes, bell, pouf and my favorite, any variety of cold shoulder. I cannot stand for this anymore. Where can I buy a sleeved shirt for the winter that ends somewhere at my wrist and goes straight down?

Beauty Tuesday: Vitamins on My Face?

I am a fan of vitamin c. The singer,  known as Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick, had some great songs in the late 90's. For the purposes of this blog, I'm taking about the actual vitamin. I've been taking a supplement every day for over a month since my family got the flu. It tastes a bit metallic, but it can be an amazing immune booster. Last month,  I read about seems for the face that have concentrated vitamin c. I picked up one a few weeks ago to see what all the fuss was about. Overall, I'm not sure I get it.

After some research,  I picked up Clinique's fresh pressed vitamin c daily booster at my local Ulta Beauty. For my first try at
a serum, I was willing to pay less than $20.00. With an attractive price of $19.50  at any location with a Clinique counter, it seemed perfect. At the store, there were two packages, one with a vial and a package with 4 vials ($75.00). The idea of the multi-pack is to use one each a week. I'm not a "vial each week" committed to my face. after three weeks of using vitamin c mixed with moisturizer at night, I'm not impressed. My skin seems a little softer than an average January day, but I can't see or feel a difference in my face.

Yoga Week! - Let's Twist Again

The Pose: Seated Spinal Twist

How Its Done:
You begin crossing one leg flat (left) out in front of you. The next step is bend the opposite leg (right) at the knee and cross over the flat leg. The bent knee should reach toward your opposite hip. The arms will then support and tighten your form. Now the right knee is bent and you rest your left elbow on the outer side of the knee at a 90 degree angle. The right hand goes on the floor, on your right side and behind your body. You turn your torso and head toward the right also. It resembles what I like to call a "reclined Cleopatra."

What I Learned:
Sometimes when I do twists, I feel my body caving in to get more of a twist. This is the exact opposite of what you are supposed to do to make a twist work! The key to making this pose work is to keep youe body open. Your shoulders  need to be open (think shoulder blades touching). In order to keep the form and strong stomach,  I realized I need to keep my flutes (butt cheeks) flat against the floor. This will establish a stronger base and help you twist much further.

Yoga Week! - The Squat Problem

The Pose: Goddess Squat

What I Learned:
I am good at many poses, but I squat like a hippo. I will never be successful at "getting low" as the great Flo Rida would say. I can get into a  hovering position, but my body can't commit fully because I have tight hips. I tragically have come to terms that I will never be a sumo wrestler. The pose reminds me of a sumo pose because you stand with legs squatted to each side and arms turned up like balancing the scales of justice.

Self-Reflection: In all seriousness, I'm now going to talk about what I learned in doing the pose. I've learned a lot about myself. One of the tenants of yoga is not to compare what you're doing to what anyone else is doing. I firmly believe that. I also know that my hips are extremely tight and a little observation (of my fellow yogis) helps me greatly. I am a visual learner and adapt well to and something about modeling my movement after someone else's is very helpful. This comes from my background in theater. Any actor worth their movement class has learned from sitting on a bench and watched others.

In the Pose: What have I learned from squatting? I learned first that my calves are pretty strong. For someone with 5 feet of total length, my calves take up decent real estate on my body. They also get easily knotted up. My solution for this has become to foam roll my entire legs after class. The foam roller helps to break up little cranky muscles. In essence, the more I squat, the more my muscles will build strength.

Yoga Week! -Making Triangles

The Pose: Triangle (Trikonasana)

What I Learned:
Triangle pose is a great stretch for the back, legs and when done properly, the arms.  With legs wide open, you bend from the waist to one side (the right, then left). Your right arm reaches for your ankle and your left arm extends into the air. I always thought my lower arm supported my body. A recent adjustment by my instructor changed my view of this pose.

The teacher told me to release my ankle-grabbing hand to see if I was still in the form. I began to cave slightly. She tapped on my abdominal muscle, indicating that should be used to keep the form. This is really a core workout! For the last few weeks, I go into triangle and immediately dangle my lower arm to make sure my stomach is supporting my weight.

Yoga Week!- Pose and Learn

Hello and Happy New Year! I'm kicking off 2018 with posts about yoga poses. It's time for a new focus in my practice. Please note, these are not just my favorite poses, but they are definitely ones that have taught me a lot.