♪Watch out J. Lo, K. Vo in da house!

Before there was J. Lo and academy award winners/ nominess Jamie Foxx and Jim Carrey, there was a show on a little network called In Living Color. This show was awesome!

Some of my favorite skits were Homey the Clown ("Homey don't play that!") and Men on Film - "Hated IT!" I also loved the fly girls.

I have always loved dancing and although I have never been any good at it, it never stopped me from trying.

Lately, my inner fly girl has been coming out after I started taking classes at Rhythm Dance & Fitness with Tamarr. I'm not gonna lie... this class is hard. In every 8 counts there are at least 5-6 "ands" and he just keeps adding on to the routine and speeding up the tempo. Even though I'm counting every move, I'm getting about 70% of the moves (up from 50% on my first class!). Recently I've been taping myself doing the dances, so I can practice them. If you want a sample of what I'm attempting, here you go. =)

Sorry, none of my personal attempts will be posted. Not now, but I can't say never. All I can say is that I promise you that I will not quit my day job to pursue this! But my inner fly girl is having one heck of a time!

P.S. There is talk of a new In Living Color. That will be interesting...

Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book. ~Author Unknown

Back in the day when I was young I’m not a kid anymore…


I remember when I was really, really young, I loved those Read Along books, you know, the ones that started off like this: “you will know when it’s time to turn the page when you hear the chimes ring like this… ♪ ♫ring ♪ ♫” (Ok, this may be before your time...)

I had the best memory. After a dozen or so times of “reading along” with the cassette tape, I began to recite the book. One time, my aunt was staying over with us and she thought I was already reading at 3 years old!

Luckily, my love of reading never died. In my early years, I read a lot of Beverly Cleary books, wanting to keep up with Ramona’s angst and Judy Blume’s Superfudge’s shenanigans. Then later on, I moved onto Christopher Pike as I approached the “tween” stage. Keeping with the drama/ horror genre, I began reading Dean Koontz and Stephen King.

As an adult, I ran out of “favorite” authors. Since I’ve never had a favorite book, I didn’t even have a “go to” response when someone asked me about it a few weeks ago. Now, I at least have realized I like stories. Whether they are non-fiction or fiction, they must move at a steady pace and have good character development.

Since finishing school and settling back down in the “real world”, I’ve been able to do a much better job of finding time to enjoy a good book. Part of this stemmed from not having a TV (much less cable) and taking my time getting the internet up and running. There are a few independent book stores around here, and being Santa Barbara, there is no Barnes & Noble within 30 miles.

Santa Barbara Public Library

Truth be told, as much as I love books, all the moving back and forth across the country has discouraged me from buying too many. After all, those are the heaviest boxes to lift! Thus, I have been a frequent visitor of the Santa Barbara Public Library. This system is ridiculous in that it covers over 60 miles. Luckily there are 3 branches relatively close to where I live and work.

I feel like libraries are considered old relics in these e-reader days and even more so after Borders closed its doors. Admittedly, I rarely went to the public library when I lived in San Diego, but it was one of the first places I became acquainted with when I moved to Boston (and subsequently Santa Barbara).

To my delight/ surprise, I found out you could also borrow DVDs in addition to books. They may not have the latest season, but they have the earlier ones, so if there was a time to catch up on a show you were meaning to watch, they have a somewhat decent selection to choose from. And on top of that, they are slowly but surely adopting to the e-reader craze and have offerings for them too! (I still haven’t decided which one I want, so I still go for the old school version with paper and ink.)

In any case, I'll be kickin' it old school at the libraries for as long as there is one around. Hmm.... perhaps I fit in to this retiree neighborhood better than I thought. (shudder!)