Rebecca Ward's Thoughts on Movies, Book & TV Shows

My interest in television and movies and even books has changed over the last five or six years. I tend to want to be entertained but I don’t want to have my emotional system activated beyond a certain level. I’ve never really liked to go to movies that I knew would have me so deeply affected I might not be able to pull out of whatever doldrums I’d  fallen into for a few days.

I still remember with clarity the night Ruthie and Susan and I saw "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing" and sniffled around in front of McCormick’s Department Store waiting for one of our mother’s to fetch us. We were so sad for poor Jennifer Jones and there just wasn’t any better looking guy then than William Holden. How would she survive without him? Such angst! Raised on post WWII movies we almost always knew the good handsome soldier would die so I seldom went to very many of those.

So really I guess I’ve always steered clear of movies I knew were sad like "Sophie’s Choice" and "Saving Private Ryan". My husband always repeats in my ear 'It’s a movie, just a movie.' But if a movie isn’t stimulating your limbic system in some way, why go? I’d just rather see great scenery, a sweet love story, an interesting mystery, etc. I don’t want to see incisions into the body cavity, vomitus, bathroom scenes, any form of torture involving body parts and people screaming. I want to escape for sure but not into blood and gore.

New TV shows I’m careful with. I don’t want to have to get to know a whole bunch of new people so I tend to watch what I’m already watching which is not a lot. I never watched "Breaking Bad" or "Downton Abbey" until it was too late to get involved. The train was too far out of the station for me to hop on. I’ve gotten involved with a PBS series I like and did enjoy "The Newsroom" and "House" which departed last year. In a way I was relieved. I had gotten invested in what happened to those characters but was getting tired of all their issues.

So I’m really careful about whom I choose to let into my home and into my brain. This TV season I think Robin Williams will make the cut for "The New Guys" this season.

While I read some serious books from time to time, I tend to like mysteries, courtroom dramas and police procedurals. I have a handful of authors of that genre that I read regularly. I spend so much of my time in my office dealing with real life, real people and real emotion that fictional stuff works just fine for me.

Rebecca Ward Says "Use It or Lose It"

Remember those commercials where some elderly person is lying prostrate on the floor howling “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”? I always wondered why they couldn’t get up unless something had been broken but most of them looked okay other than that they were flat on the floor like a turtle on its back.

Well, I have fallen and so far I’ve been able to get up but the older I get the more I hear about folks who cannot.  Researching this because it’s so easy with a magic machine that burbs out answers almost as fast as I can type them in, I’ve discovered some interesting information: as we age, we lose some ability to balance ourselves and if you don’t exercise them, muscles will just quit being themselves. They will gladly, easily turn into flab because it’s nature’s way, gravity and all.

The answers I found to help reverse these inevitable issues was to get myself to a gym about as fast as I could and find someone who would guide me in this endeavor to re-create muscle that had disappeared from gross negligence and build some that may have never been born. My “People” don’t really seem to be people of muscle. We may have been hunters and gathers in centuries gone by but I doubt we had to run very far or gather too much heavy-stuff. We actually were probably berry-hunters and pickers if the truth were told.

I found a wonderful trainer who I’m nearly certain looked at me and had to stifle himself to keep from laughing out loud and who must have nearly choked when I got on some of those muscle-building machines and could do no “reps” which is the word they use for an agonizing sequence of repetitive movements. The goal it seems is to be able to do  many of these “reps” at one time on many different painful areas of dilapidated tissue that was formerly, perhaps, muscle or maybe not but the aim is to turn this useless tissue into muscle by using them over and over with “reps”.  There were no sweeter words to be heard than when TM (Trainer Man) would say “Three more.” Usually he said that after I’d done one.

But that was then, almost a month ago, and now I’m doing 10 reps two times on most of those machines that look less and less threatening each time I go.  TM has me on the go from the minute I get there until I leave. I stand, I sit, I lift, twist, turn and  I squat, lift and drop small heavy balls . I pick up big ropes, hold them high, (well, higher than when they were on the floor) and slap them to the floor over and over. I am finding muscles that have laid dormant for many years and some that have been rudely awakened for my lifetime.  They are not amused.  

But when I leave now, I no longer feel like I’m going to throw-up or need to crawl to my car. Only pride and fear of public opinion kept me erect and moving those first few sessions. I had crackers and 7up in the car to help me through the aftermath of exertion the first week. Most of that first weekend I felt like I’d been in a car wreck and hobbled around on an insulted body that was indignant that at this stage of life I’d decided to demand something it had never been asked to do before. It kept saying to me “Please don’t do this. Have you lost your mind? I don’t do this sort of stuff. Repent.”

But I’m committed so I’m going to just have to get over my belief that rest is the best thing one can do as one ages: rest, relax, and read. Now my mantra is “Use it or lose it” and I’m doing curls with 6 lb weights most every morning…..exercise curls, not hair curls. To be honest I’m not seeing my bat-wing arms showing any definition yet but I’m only a month into this.

I’ll tell you more soon. I am recommending that each of you start walking, carry heavy grocery bags to your car that you have parked as far away from the store entrance, and practice getting up from a chair without using your arms. When TM asked me to rise from a sitting position while looking at the ceiling without using my arms, I said “I can’t”. But I almost can after only a month!! 

Rebecca Ward's Thoughts on Back To School

Thanks to Rebecca Ward for sharing her thoughts on Back to School.

Though it's been many years since school bells ringing meant much change in the routines of my life, I still have some nostalgic feelings at this time of year. There is something about the shift in the shadows of the trees and the subtle difference in the hum of early morning that signals the lazy, restful days of summer are ending and the busy days of autumn are beginning.

My newspaper has been heavy with Back to School advertising, another signal that summer is winding down and autumn is beginning its appearance.  While at winter's end I think I can never wish for dark days again, the long, hot days of July and August make me yearn again for the cool shorter days slowly coming in September to arrive in earnest by mid October. Football talk has begun and tonight the Dallas Cowboys play Miami in a pre-season game that starts weekend football until the first of February. Football practice is beginning across from my office, another signal that school is about to commence and with it, structured time and activities. No more sleeping in, staying up late, catching lightening bugs, swimming by moonlight, and wearing flip-flops and easy cotton clothes. "Summertime, when the living is easy...." I've always loved that song.

Summers generally are easy, don't you think?  Our humidity and heat encourages easy cool

dressing, not so much to coordinate and put on. People seem healthier in the summer months and look healthier too with no indoor pallor and some slight color from the frequent sun. Flu doesn't thrive in the heat and not being cooped up together in warm houses seems to discourage viruses from spreading too. Yep, summertime is just easier...if your air conditioning functions well.

As I said before, my routines won't change much. Morning traffic will get a little hectic with school buses running and parents getting kids delivered but that's about it. However, when school starts, it does mean the seasons are about to shift and pumpkins and candy canes will

start appearing meaning after Labor Day we've got the Holidays!

 Ah, THAT'S how school bells get to me.....School starts and then it's Christmas....with brief stops at Halloween and Thanksgiving!

Rebecca's Thoughts On Vacations

Is taking a trip and taking a vacation the same thing? I don’t think so. Going on a trip means you’re leaving but you may be leaving on a business trip or to tend to family matters so not every trip is for the pursuit of pleasure. A vacation to me means you are “vacating” the premises for rest, relaxation, fun, all pleasurable activities. And when you return home, you are rested and relaxed and while you might be thrilled to be home with your own bed and kitchen availability, you are not tired. You are RESTED from the vacating of everyday worries and concerns!

Since this is my party and I can cry if I want to, I’m going to tell you I’ve had some fabulous vacations over the years. But one of the best was a trip to Nova Scotia just a couple of years ago with two of our best friends and A-Plus travel companions. Now there was a glitch or two in the beginning (The upgrade we paid for was for naught. We got bigger seats but they were out of wine and the meal as I recall was cheese crackers and an apple.) We were not amused.

Landed on-time in Halifax on time, the rental car was ready, the hotel on the harbor comfortable and we took off leisurely the next morning to drive 3 hours to a remote resort we had researched. Drive was fun, scenery nice, weather very comfortable as we left 90 degree weather for 50-70 degree weather. But as we continued the scenery became a bit more rustic, a lot more rural, and we began checking the map. We were on target and just about to give up, Oz appeared. We turned down a road and everything was green and lush and there were flowers everywhere and an ornamental fence surrounded most of it. We had arrived. (Mr. Oz was there, his huge jet parked on the small airport right in front of our condos. He visited with us at dinner one evening. Music swell!)

We were on the Northumberland Sound right on the Atlantic and the view was spectacular. Our accommodations were all and more that had been promoted and the hotel, golf course, spa, and dining was great. It was lovely and we all rested and ate and slept in and toured near-by quaint villages and towns. The guys golfed on such scenic fairways and greens they didn’t seem to mind a bogey or two. It was hard to leave.

The vacation ceased when we were late into Detroit, missed our connection in Memphis though we were there in time to see our plane shut its doors. A woman who looks like every nasty guard you’ve ever seen in a prison movie had her arms crossed saying “Not going to happen.” There was not another plane until morning.

No rental car was available to hold all our luggage so our enterprising husbands hired an Ethiopian mini-van cab driver and he loaded us up and we were home about two hours late. It was a grand finale, don’t you think? The perfect ending.

Rebecca Ward