Get Real!

I enjoy reality t.v. as much as anyone, but come on! I can't believe the things they will base a television show on these days. It seems to me the '09 season has stooped to a new low.

Surely the "peeping tom" has become extinct, since at any given time of the day, all one has to do in order to satisfy their voyeuristic cravings is turn on the television and start flipping channels. Soon enough, you are bound to stumble upon a show about something that, not too many years ago would have been considered mundane details of another family's life.

Haven't thrown anything in your house away for 15 years and, are therefore unable to invite company over because you can't find the sofa? (Yet for some reason you're willing to have a camera crew come in and video the mess so it can be broadcast to the world?)

Perfect! Let's make a t.v. show about it!

By any chance, do you give birth to your babies in litters? I'm sure everyone in America would love to watch you change diapers assembly line style for the next two years. (It definitely tops my list of things I want to see!)

Looking for a wife (or husband) and want some panel of strangers to narrow down your choices to a dozen or so, so you can date them all, then decide which one to humiliate nationwide each week, until you figure out which girl/guy is "the one"?

Oh brother!

Or I know ... dress your six year old daughter up like a hooker and parade her around in hopes of winning prizes that don't even add up to the cost of the dress she's wearing to the pageant!

That's a real winner right there.

Here's one ladies! Get all the housewives in your neighborhood together and video yourselves having coffee, gossiping or taking the kids to school ... throw in some "cat-fights" for good measure! That idea also seems to be selling big these days.

The list goes on and on and on, to the point of ridiculous.

Addictions?

Fetishes?

Unusual diseases?

I saw an advertisement the other day about a show that will air this fall titled, "Your Kid Swallowed WHAT?"

What in the world possessed someone to spend money on a series about kids who have been taken to the Emergency Room because they swallowed a matchbox car, or some equally indigestible object!

I will admit, I've fallen prey once or twice to a couple of the very shows I've critically mentioned above. Some of them do have a way of sucking a person right in, in a manner that can only be compared to the sick state of astonishment one might derive from witnessing a bad auto accident.

Maybe I should volunteer for a new reality show about people who sit around and actually watch the silly stuff they put on t.v. these days.

Shoot! Come to think of it, with a little creative editing, my own family might qualify for our own reality show! Over the last year, we've certainly done our part toward proving that truth indeed is, "stranger than fiction".

I just don't know that it could be considered interesting or relative to anyone outside our little family circle.

I suppose that is where I'm missing the point. For all I know, I might be allowing logic and reasoning to stand between us and infamy!

No thank you.

Our home life will likely never merit a spot in the limelight, but it's a pretty cool life none-the-less. We are normal people and we like it that way. Let everyone else air their dirty laundry on t.v. in return for a few dollars in the bank. We'll just sit back and watch, and thank God that no one is making a video of us while we're doing it!

Becky Taylor
09/09/09

Victoriana Makes Me Happy

A lot has happened during the many moons that have passed since I last blogged. The biggest event would be that I turned forty nine years old, which means I am now officially on the downhill side of pushing fifty. Does it also imply that I am gaining momentum and therefore the year will go by faster? I've heard that's how it works .. the older you get the faster time goes by. I can only pray that isn't the case.

But enough of that. I wanted to write about something different today, simply because I cannot recall ever bringing up the subject of how much I like Victorian things.

It's true! "Victoriana" makes me happy.

(I apologize if by chance I have already told you about the aforementioned subject! Blame it on my age. You know how prone to forgetting (or repeating) things, us old people can be.)

Anyway, I use to love to decorate and was constantly moving things around my home. I would be lounging around on the sofa doing nothing in particular when an object across the room would catch my attention, and suddenly I'd realize it belonged somewhere else. Knowing from previous experience that I'd be unable to find peace until it was in it's proper place, I would get up and move it to another location.

Oddly enough, I've been less likely to succumb to such behavior since I moved to Georgia and stopped living in Victorian houses. I have to wonder if the fact I use to be surrounded by Victorian things made some kind of difference.

When I left Ohio, I also left most of my old stuff behind. To try and turn the first house I lived in, here in Georgia, into anything remotely Victorian would have undoubtedly been futile anyway. That, added to the fact that I was beginning a new era of my life made it easy enough for me to walk away and not look back.

Until the last couple weeks, when suddenly I've become unhappy with the appearance of our entry hall and main living room. Something just isn't right about those areas and I've once again felt that familiar urge to fix the problem.

Unlike the first house I lived in here, our new home has more of a Victorian lean to it. The dining room has always been Victorian. (I like the dining room, it makes me happy) The entry hall and main living room, however appear more rustic and masculine. Those rooms are decorated primarily in an African theme, with all our African masks, photographs and statues. It's nice enough but still ...

The other day I was browsing through a candle shop, when lo and behold, I found a beautiful Victorian oil warmer on sale. It didn't matter that in reality it's more of a Christmas item. I knew in an instant I had to have it! I carried it carefully to the checkout counter and had the sales lady ring it up for me.

After arriving home with it I realized ... as much as I loved the oil warmer, I couldn't figure out where it should "live" in my house. Unable to bear the thought of stashing it away somewhere, I parked it on the sofa table in the main living room and waited for it to tell me where it wanted to sit.

And yesterday, it finally spoke up! As of today the new Victorian/Christmas oil warmer is perched on the table just inside the front door. I pulled a candelabra out of the dining room and placed it to one side of the oil warmer, beneath the somewhat Victorian looking mirror that's been hanging there all along. Backing off and assessing my new table arrangement, I thought it still seemed to be lacking something, but what?

Color! It needed more color! It needed some RED!

Quickly, I went to the china cabinet drawer and pulled out a red table cloth to place under the candelabra and oil warmer, bunching it up around the objects to make it look more plush and well .. Victorian.

I've since added a decorative box I've always been fond of, to the mix but I'm not sure it's going to stay there permanently. It is more primitive than Victorian and I'm not sure the items can live harmoniously together. Time will tell. Sooner or later one of them will call out to me, begging me to rearrange them once more.

But for now, it shall remain. I like it. I smile when I look at it.

"Victoriana" makes me happy!