Category: guest blogger

Brian,
YAY! Happy Birthday!!
I sincerely hope you are out partying and enjoying your vacation in Cancun!
Many happy returns!

-Athena

I almost went out with a stripper once. But she just wasn’t stripper-pretty.

And we didn’t have much to to talk about.

A guest post by Athena from The BlissQuest

I’m settling down with a glass of wine, St. Chapelle a Riesling and crawling in to bed to watch Big Trouble in Little China. Quite possibly one of my favorite Kurt Russell movies – ever. Well, that and Overboard.

When I saw the first time I was like 8 or 9 and I was sure when I got old enough – like 12ish Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) would come rescue me from Lo Pan because I had green eyes and obviously that meant I was doomed to be a victim of Lo Pan’s evil marriage plans. Until then I imagined I would hang around with Kim Cattrall and we’d talk about things like puppies and how much school sucked.

I was a child of the 80’s. I watched smurfs and wore jellies, I had sisters with bangs that scraped the ceiling and a brother who turned up the collar of his polo. I played dress up with blue eye shadow and danced around the house to Janet Jackson and what’s-her-name from American Idol. My siblings all wore parachute pants and knew the steps to Thriller while I mostly played sports and made up fantasy worlds.

I survived the eighties and Strawberry Shortcake and Rainbow Brite and swore I would never look back.

But over the last couple years the re-constitution of the 80’s hit – the looming 30’s of the 80’s children has brought to life a fond reminiscence of the most schizophrenic decade of the previous century- and all that was ungodly horrid in the fashion came back with burning pride.
I find myself missing Pappa Smurf, the Battle Cats and all the other movies and entertainment that was my nanny through the years.
I don’t know if it’s like a new phase of aging but I miss movies like Big Trouble in Little China like I miss being able to build blanket forts in the living room. I miss walking through mud puddles in my blue jellies as much as I miss Saturday morning cartoons and pouring too much cinnamon and sugar on my toast.

So, I’m coming to terms with the fact that I may be missing my childhood. I might actually be subconsciously longing for the “days of innocence” as I surf youtube for cartoon clips of Rainbow Brite and My Little Pony. I’ve been really excited about turning 30 next year, but maybe I’m also starting to worry. Maybe I’m just slow to realize how awesome the 80’s really were. Maybe I didn’t think they rocked at the time, and maybe I still wouldn’t be caught dead with mushroom bangs – but the longing is there and I can’t quite put my finger on it.

Therefore I will indulge it. I may just go build a blanket fort in the living room, have some cinnamon sugar toast and watch some cartoons.

But for now, I think a glass of wine and some Jack Burton fantasies will hold me over for awhile.

Is this what a pre-thirty crisis looks like?

It’s my turn for a guest post. Even though I wasn’t assigned a day, or even a specific subject (although, you can bet your sweet ass that I asked for one), I thought I’d post on Christmas Day. Although, Christmas is almost technically over…I’m hoping to get it done before the strike of midnight.

I’m not drunk, in fact, I haven’t had a drop of alcohol today. I haven’t seen live strippers in weeks, although I have thought about it several times. And, I make sure to not talk politics unless I’m forced into it by my friends. So, what’s left to talk about as a guest writer? The only thing that I can think of that Brian is passionate about besides the three previously mentioned topics, is his passion for relationships, and especially friendships.

What exactly is it about friendships that are so important? Is it honor? Is it respect? Is it knowing that the other person will be there for you if you ever really need them? How about a touch of tenderness and compassion…or maybe more than a touch? Yes, it’s all those things. As well as integrity….that’s a biggie. How do I know this? Because these things are important to me, as well.

Brian and I have become quite close over the past several years, and we have learned to trust one another…even through the tough times. A true friendship that I hope will last forever. It is a relationship of honor, of respect, of integrity, of dependency (mostly healthy, although sometimes we both wonder, I’m sure), of tenderness, and of compassion.

Merry Christmas to all, but especially to those that we call friends.

As a guest writer, there are a number of things I’ve thought of writing here. However the only words that are coming to my head, at the moment, are sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. Very cliché, eh? And yet, when one ponders it further, those three things are the very ideas Americans still revolve around: The lusts, addictions, and subjective feelings that consume us.

No matter the reasons which brought us to this point, we all have a mantra which helps get us through the day. Mine is, “Make ’em laugh!” Although there were few I love yous said aloud in my homestead, I grew up hearing the sweet sound of laughter as its replacement. This sound connects me to others. I refined it and was paid as a professional, for a number of years, to use it. I am addicted to the contagious human-made noise.

We ponder. We react. We desire and search. Subconsciously justifying it in our heads, and consciously acting due to the result. All of it making us rather unique, while still fitting perfecting in with the rest of society. Whether it’s right or wrong, it is what people do.

“Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, man!“

Think about it.

One glimpse’ll show you now, baby
What the music can do
One kiss’ll show you now, baby
It can happen to you