Styling...

In honor of National Crafts Month (March), I've decided to stop blogging for a while and start crafting more. (Oh, and I need to focus on publicizing my new ebook Just What the Doctor Ordered: An Insider's Guide to Medical Writing, which will be available in mid April.)

So, my last post for a while...

I've been thinking a lot about taste and style lately. Where does it come from? How do we judge it? How can one person's taste be good and another's bad? How can we say one woman has style and another doesn't? That one dresses badly (Ugly Betty comes to mind) and the other well?

My conclusion is that we can't judge it.

You like what you like...the colors, the patterns, the textures, the forms, the fit. You're born with certain proclivities, just like you're born with certain personality traits, and then they're polished by the impressions laid over you by your family, your culture, your school, your job, the time you're at in your life, the place you live. It's not something you have a lot of control over.

It just is.

What's more, style trends are arbitrary. They're just someone's opinion. For instance, although millions of women emulate the Sex and the City girls, I think most of Sarah Jessica Parker's outfits are outrageously...well, stupid. And what woman can handle tromping all over Manhattan in 4-inch stilettos?

It's not a competition: Whoever has the most style wins. We're just different. Let's embrace it!

Middle-Aged Movie Maven's Oscar Picks!

The Oscars doth approach. This Sunday in fact.

I can proudly boast to having seen all TEN, YES TEN, of the movies nominated for best picture this year. (Though it's no thanks to Netflix. I've had to rent elsewhere to catch all of the flicks, while my top requests sit in my queue week after week because they don't have enough copies. I've written three letters to the CEO Reed Hastings, called customer service twice, and downgraded my account all to no avail. They could care less about their customers. Their business model SUCKS! But I digress.)

Why am I such a cinephile? I guess because since I was a little girl movies have fed my imagination in a way nothing else could. They definitely spark my own creativity, too. And there's nothing more relaxing and, paradoxically, exciting to me than sitting in a darkened theatre watching a film on the big screen. If joy is what we're all looking for, for me it comes neatly packaged by the local cineplex!

Anyway, I know you're all waiting with baited breath for my Oscar picks (as trivial as all this movie stuff is in the scheme of things), so here you go:


Best Picture: Avatar--in 3D, an incredible ride, an incredible achievement.


Best Actor: Jeff Bridges--it's his turn for a career of great acting jobs (sorry Colin Firth).


Best Actress: Sandra Bullock--this character could have been a carictature and she made her real. I think it's her turn, too, cause everyone just likes her. (Meryl Streep could, and should on merit, edge Bullock out for her incredible portrayal of Julia Child, but I don't think she will.)


Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique in Precious. No question there. She was awesome.


Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds. He was scary hilarious.


Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow--girl power!



Best Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air--great comedy and very human drama.

Best Screenplay: Hurt Locker--tense.


Best Animated Film: Up--touching.

So? What do you think?!