Ravenwood- Chapter 1: The Newcomer

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Gregory’s walked the line steadily between dive and family restaurant. It was well kept with red wallpaper and split into a restaurant on the right hand side and the bar on the left. They were equal in size given that it was the largest bar in town as opposed to the true dive bar and the higher end bar up on the hill. The walls were a deep red and the floors were a dark brown. In the restaurant there were booths and tables and it served American bar food. That food could also be brought into the bar if you wanted to experience it standing up for the most part. Unsurprisingly the bar on the left hand side was far stickier than the right no matter how much they cleaned.

A young woman stepped into the room wearing a short dark blue dress and black heels. She had tanned skin and her hair was long, curly and blonde. She stopped at the hostess’ stand and then made a left into the bar. The reaction was one of wonder as the woman walked into the bar. She was stunning. People got a good look at her and if they were sensible went back to their drinks. Three men started talking about which one of them would approach her when she walked across the bar to man sitting in one of the booths. The man was looking at his phone.

“Hi,” she said to him and he looked up from his phone.

He was a handsome young man about her age of twenty-six with stubble dotting his face and his hair a light brown. He looked at her through a pair of thick glasses. He was dressed simply in a buttoned down shirt and jeans.

“Oh, hello,” he said.

“I was wondering if you wanted to share a drink?” she said.

The man looked at her and went to run his hand through his hair. He had been sitting with his right side facing her so when he brought up his left hand up, she saw the flash of a gold ring on his hand.

“Uh, I’m willing to have one platonically,” he said. “I’m married.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I’m just new in town and I thought you looked cute. I’ll leave you be.”

“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to. I’m more than willing to make a new friend.”

She slid into the booth opposite him. The waitress, a young white woman named Samantha walked up to her and the blonde woman ordered a Manhattan.

“So, what’s your name?” the man asked her.

“Bianca,” she replied. “Yours?”

“David,” he said and offered his hand for a friendly shake.

The two shook jovially and Bianca let out a sigh.

“Of course the first guy I hit on as a single lady would be married,” Bianca sighed.

“I want to say that I’m flattered but I’m so married and happy that nothing would ever happen,” David said.

“Is your wife at home?”

“Yeah, she’s getting off of work a bit later than me plus she’s pregnant so it takes a bit of time for her to get here.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your date night.”

“Well, it’s not interrupted yet, I wouldn’t even call it a date night. We don’t have kids yet, so it’s just us being social while we still can.”

“I wouldn’t want to impose.”

“We’re often joined by friends who happen to come to the bar. Let me just call her.”

David’s wife was getting changed when she got the call from him. She had been staring at her stomach in the mirror, running her hands over it. She smiled at the prospect of her future daughter. Her black hair was tied in a loose ponytail. She had started dressing even more so for comfort than before. She unabashedly stuck her feet into a pair dark blue crocs to finish getting ready.

She looked at her phone and saw the call coming in from her husband.

“Hey, honey, I’ll be there in a little bit, just gotta waddle my way down the street,” she said.

“Hey, Marissa,” David replied. “I made a new friend named Bianca. She just wants to make sure that she’s good to hang out with us.”

“Why would she worry about that?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ll be there in a bit. I’m looking forward to meeting her.”

She started her waddle and as she did, she got a text from her friend, Ajanta.

Ajanta Looks like David is stepping out on you.

She knew that Ajanta was half joking. She had always liked David but she had always been protective of Marissa. She had included a picture that it seemed like Ajanta had taken in secret. Marissa had to note that Bianca was hot as hell. She also knew her husband.

Marissa: Yeah, I know. He told me that they were having a drink together. Want to join us?

Ajanta: Sure, I’m already here and I want to see what her deal is.

Marissa shrugged and kept walking.

David saw Marissa come into the bar and him and Bianca stood up when they saw her. Ajanta joined up with her as she stepped in, giving her a quick hug and the two walked to the table. Ajanta was an Indian woman with long black hair and an athletic figure.

“Hello,” Marissa said to Bianca. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too, please sit down,” Bianca said. “Wait, I’m sorry, it makes more sense for me to get in first so that you can look at your husband.”

“Oh, I’d like that to do that.”

“Let me get in the booth and you can get off your feet. Those are cute crocs.”

“Thanks,” Marissa said noting that she sounded sincere when she said it.

Bianca pushed farther into the booth and Marissa slid in next to her. Ajanta followed on the opposite side before David sat next to her. They ordered their drinks and Marissa ordered food. Some mozzarella sticks and chicken wings.

“How far along are you?” Bianca asked.

“I’m about six months,” Marissa answered.

“Entering the home stretch.”

“My stretch marks be stretching.”

“So, Bianca,” Ajanta intercut. “What brings you to town?”

“I just moved here,” Bianca responded. “I, uh, got divorced.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s fine. He was… he was cheating on me.”

“Sounds like a scumbag,” Marissa said.

“He was. He kept some pretty garbage opinions hidden for a long time. Along with his affairs.”

“Multiple?” Ajanta asked.

“Yeah,” Bianca sighed.

“Where did he find the time?”

“Oh, that was the other thing, he had quit his job and was pretending to work and taking money from his parents.”

“What a loser.”

“Yeah, I know how to pick ’em.”

“You can’t tell what a dude is going to be like after years,” David said. “You just try and hope for the best.”

“Thanks,” Bianca said.

“What’re you going to do while you’re here?” Ajanta asked.

“I’m a lawyer, I got a job at one of the local firms. But I’ve been talking about myself for a while. What about the rest of you?”

They started talking about their various professions for a long time and the drinks started flowing among them. Marissa kept to her water but chomped down on her food when it arrived. By the time she was done, everyone else was a little bit tipsy. David got up and left for the bathroom. The women watched him leave.

“I have to admit something to you,” Bianca slurred.

“What’s up?” Marissa asked.

“I have to admit that I talked to your husband because I wanted to hit on him.”

“I knew it!” Ajanta said pointing.

“I’m sorry. But he was like I’m so in love with my wife. I just wanted to be honest because you’ve been so nice to me. And now that I know he’s married, it’s hands off.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Marissa said. “I know he’s hot to trot.”

“Yeah,” Ajanta said. “I thought you were scummy too. I sent Marissa a text, being all like, look at this Jezabel with your husband. But you’re so sweet.”

“My name’s not Jezabel, it’s Bianca,” Bianca said.

“Sorry.”

“But you don’t have to worry about that. I get it. A lot of people think that I’m making moves on their men.”

“It’s probably because of how hot you are.”

“You are very beautiful,” Marissa said. “You’ve raised the average hotness of this town by several points.”

“You two are so pretty too,” Bianca said. “Like your tummy is the only fat part of you.”

“Thanks, I do yoga and go for runs. Well, I used to do those things but the little one gets in the way. When I’m healed up do you want to join me?”

“I can?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“We can be friends? Even though I hit on your husband?”

“Sure, you haven’t been weird and I feel like the fact your inhibitions are down and your main focus is telling me that you’re not going to hit on my man means a lot.”

“Yeah, let’s be friends,” Ajanta said.

“I’m so happy. Thank you,” Bianca said.

The three women tried to hug each other but the table got in the way. When David got back, he saw the strange tableau before him. He offered to take a picture of the girls and picked up his phone off the table. The girls smiled as he snapped several pics of them.

At that point, they decided to call it a night as it was getting late. Marissa and David walked their friends back to the house and then Marissa drove them home. She sang along to “Shiny, Happy People” on her way home.

A Tale of Two Mothers and Mental Health: Modern Family and The Simpsons

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I’m not a parent but I know that it’s a tough job. I remember seeing the movie Inside Out with a friend that had a kid and they started crying towards the end of the movie. I asked them what about the movie made them upset and they stated that they had realized that no matter what they did, their kid was destined to be unhappy. Not overall but there were going to be moments when their kid was going to be miserable and they had been responsible for that.

It was a tough conversation but the fact that they had had that thought made me think that they would be a good parent. Their child was fairly young at the time. But it got me thinking about the role that parents play in the mental health of their children.

While I know that’s a heavy and gigantic subject, I wanted to highlight two moments in media where I think that some parents could really learn. They particularly feature mothers and their daughters. The first involves Marge Simpson, the long suffering matriarch of the Simpsons family dealing with Lisa whose having a long running bout of depression that she can’t quite shake.

Marge trying her best to help, gives her the following advice:

It is horrific advice. Not acknowledging your own feelings and dealing with them in a responsible manner and also turning yourself into a smile and nothing more. The boys immediately start taking advantage of her and her trying to follow the advice is willing to go along with it. Finally, her teacher tells her he doesn’t want to another burst of “creativity” and Lisa replies with a respectful “no, sir”. Perhaps seeing her own trauma being enacted on her daughter and what it would mean for her spirit to be destroyed, Marge becomes enraged, throws her car in gear and grabs Lisa.

She then does two of the best things that a parent can do for their child. She at first, acknowledges that she was wrong. She’s willing to say I messed up and I’m not always perfect. That’s a big thing to admit to anyone but especially your child who might have put you on a pedestal of some kind. For you to come down to their level and to see that you make mistakes too is good. It makes them more able to make mistakes.

Secondly, she tells Lisa that not only that her feelings are valid and that she is allowed to have them but that she her family will be there the entire time. They’ll ride it out with her. This cheers Lisa immensely and she starts legitimately smiling.

It’s one of the best scenes of the early Simpsons. Right up there with “DO IT FOR HER”

So, we got some great parenting right there. Let’s talk about another mom and her daughter, Claire and Alex.

Alex much like Lisa is the most intelligent member of her family and that makes her feel like an outsider when she doesn’t feel able to get involved in their antics. She pushes herself to the breaking point academically and professionally, which results in all of this:

We see a child in crisis and her parents are concerned but she knows how to take care of herself and schedules a therapy appointment and how to get there on her own. Her mother goes to her school’s open house and sees the workload that she has on her shoulders including the six hours of homework that she has to do every night.

When Claire and her daughter meet up, Claire says that being her for two hours was exhausting and she didn’t know how she has a breakdown every day. Alex begins weeping and hugs her mother. What we see in this moment is the acknowledgement of a burden and her mother seeing her for who she is and what she has to go through. It’s a big thing. Everyone has their own burdens and much like with Marge and Lisa, saying that you’ll be there with someone and help to carry it, it means a world of difference.

With Lisa and Marge we saw the pain of generational trauma coming to bear on the next generation. Alex and Claire don’t have that as Claire never had the same expectations put on her as a child. But still, they’re both helping their children find the tools and support that they need to get through their troubles. They’re good episodes that I think are worth watching.

The Best Thing That Spider-Man: Brand New Day Did

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So according to the box office, everyone in the world has seen Spider-Man: Brand New Day. I think that it’s a very good movie, we did it for the podcast and in general, I’m looking forward to watching it again. I saw it twice in theaters.

Still I’m going to throw up the spoiler warning here. Stop reading if you haven’t seen it and you don’t want to see plot details.

Last chance.

With the introduction of Sadie Sink’s Jean Grey, we see the payoff from the end of Ms. Marvel where it’s revealed that she might have just been a mutant and they give a little sting with the X-men music. That didn’t really matter for a long time.

Ms. Marvel’s powers were still on the street level. She could still be contained. Jean Grey showcases what will most likely be the main thoroughfare for the mutant storyline.

This is what happened with just one of them.

Sure, we know that she’s an omega level mutant but the world doesn’t know that. As far as they know, this is just the baseline of mutant power. She killed people. She stopped people in their tracks for over several kilometers. She’s just one more terrible thing to befall New York City.

It becomes easy to be okay with mutants when they’re trying their best to help people and their powers aren’t that dangerous. It becomes much worse when they can and do these things. Was it an accident or purposeful? Which one is truly more terrifying?

I hope that they continue with this for a great long time. Maybe the next thing that we’re going to end up with is Avengers vs X-men and the phoenix force.

And the other great thing, is that Spider-man developed a technology to stop their powers. The mutant collars are now his fault. Can’t wait to see how guilty he’s going to feel when that comes back to bite him in his arachnid ass.

Maybe that’s why this movie has revitalized Marvel. It’s just good storytelling.

Now they just have to keep it up.

Ravenwood Prologue: Welcome to Ravenwood

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The history of Ravenwood was long, it had been been founded by Charles Smythe back when him and a group of colonizers had arrived in some territory and had decided that this was as good a place as any to try and figure out living in early America. They had started with the usual colonizer bullshit and didn’t often talk about their travesties. It had been out of the way to the point that they completely missed the early witch hunts. They sent boys to fight in the various wars and remembered what few they could.

The town was located on the ocean but had never quite made it to the point of massive tourist spot. They still got some visitors but they were less than what the shops wanted. The town was large about eight square miles and was about three miles from any other town in the north, south and western directions. There was a great deal of forest and national parks around the town.

It had its usual share of rumors and ghost stories but they never attracted any ghost hunting shows or even a bored Youtuber who might want to make a name for themselves. There was little crime and the police were mostly bored and didn’t do much else besides write speeding tickets and hassle skateboarders.

The kids went to the elementary school until sixth grade and then moved up to the high that was seventh through twelfth grade. There was a main street that had several shops on it. What few speciality restaurants that could keep up with the local fast food joints. There was a eight screen movie theater, an arcade and a few other shops that provided entertainment. There was a smoke shop and diner that shared the same characteristic of continually changing ownership but never changed anything else really. Except for the one set of smoke shop owners that sold overly powerful weed and they eventually left town to find their success in a larger location. The local stoners held a candlelight vigil when that dank kush left.

They were close enough to a train station that people could go to larger cities when they wanted.

The seasons came through in their endless cycles. There was almost always snow at Christmas and the leaves satisfyingly crunched underfoot during autumn. The kids spent their summers at the beach and everyone sneezed their way through spring.

It was a good town. Things worked there. There were people with stories there.

Here they are.

(This is a project I’m going to have going on for when I can’t think of anything to write for fiction Fridays or just in general if the muse takes me.)

Yoga and Dancing

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I went to yoga for the second time in my life this weekend. The first time wasn’t miserable but I think I was in worse shape then than I was now. It was still difficult, at certain points the yogi said that I should stretch as far as my body would allow. Usually, I think she means when it comes to how your arms and legs feel. Instead with some of the back stretches it came down to how much my tum-tum would allow.

I chose the wrong time to get started on this as the classes are going to be cancelled because of renovations in the building that it’s a part of. I plan to go back though when it’s available. The yogi also said that I had young hips considering how easily I could get into the lotus position. I mostly sit cross-legged throughout my life even in office chairs. I think that helps it.

That was in the morning and I was admittedly exhausted. I tried to take a nap but was unable to really get into it because I had a delightful backyard wedding to go to. I dressed in my Sunday best and headed out. The wedding had a dance floor, which I wasn’t fully expecting.

After a beautiful ceremony, a wonderful meal, it was time for the dancing. I hadn’t been dancing in a long time and I had to admit that I was a bit nervous about it. Not that I would be bad at it, I’m not a great dancer, I’m an enthusiastic dancer. I think I’m the best kind of dancer to have at your wedding. Not good enough to make people not want to be on the dance floor and bad enough to think that people can dance without feeling self conscious.

The nervousness came from my anxiety based heart worries. I have never had a heart episode or attack or anything like that but since that became a possibility in my mind, I’ve worried about pushing myself too hard. But I thought to myself, I’ve been getting pretty good readings on my heart and cholesterol. Why not go for it? There were a lot of intelligent people there. At least one of them could be a doctor.

And I danced and it was glorious. The couple picked some great songs. Hell, the bride went down the aisle to an orchestral version of “Welcome to the Black Parade” by My Chemical Romance. I had an early day the next day, so I left somewhat early.

I expected to be wracked with pain the next day. I was a little bit sore and tired but other than that, I was able to move pretty well. I’m writing this on a Monday which I’ve also used as a rest day. I think that I’ll be good to get back into the water tomorrow and go for a swim. I know that it’ll make me feel better. I think I’m grumpier when I don’t exercise. Thanks dopamine.

I want to write more of these posts about what’s going on in my life. I guess I’ll find out if people like them.

I’m Sorry, Childhood Classic is Now Scary is just unoriginal

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Look at Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse, they’re coming to kill you! They have knives and axes! They’re going to kill people. What a twist! So interesting.

No, it’s not. It’s fucking lazy. You saw that something was now public domain and are hoping to score points for name recommendation and notoriety. Boring.

You might say though, Frank!

To which I would reply, yeah, what’s up?

You liked the Five Nights a Freddy’s games and movies? Isn’t that the same thing?

No, it’s not.

I don’t agree with Scott Cawthon’s politics but he put in the work and created an entire backstory and history for his characters. They’re original at the very least. To the point that people started hiring Nicolas Cage in movies as tribute or to cash in on that success.

I might be missing something by not watching these movies and just judging them by their concepts. They could be phenomenal. The problem is that I’ve seen movies come out with amazing ideas like Obsession and The Other Mommy. That they can sell me just by showing how weird and original they’re going to be. When I have that on my plate, why would I waste my time on something that just looks like a big old gimmick?

I don’t want to victim blame a Pokemon but…

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So, there’s this pokemon called Farfetch’d. There he is:

You might notice that he’s carrying a leek. That was one of the reasons that they were hunted nearly to extinction. And then to add insult to injury, they were usually cooked with the leek they carried. It’s like if I was constant carrying around mozzarella sticks and then they ate them over my corpse. You would think that eventually they would evolve and I don’t mean in the usual Pokemon sense, but like a normal evolution sense. Those that aren’t carrying the leek would most likely be safe.

Now, maybe you don’t get that with its evolution Sirfetch’d where that leek has been sharpened into a sword. I wonder if that hurts more getting stabbed with a leek and because of the onion’s oils. Just imagine coming at it to eat it and you get shanked by an onion.