Category: Creative Musings
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“You can’t spell ‘families’ without ‘lies.’” 🎁 The Art of the Exit Strategy Every Christmas, I watch Four Christmases. It’s one of those movies that gets funnier—and truer—the more you’ve lived it. The hopping from house to house, the polite smiles through exhaustion, the endless chorus of “you’re not staying for dessert?” I’ve been doing…
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🕯️ Thanksgiving at the Edge of Sanity Addams Family Values is the rare sequel that outshines the original—wickedly sharper, unapologetically stranger, and dressed head-to-toe in black humor. It’s a movie about family dysfunction served with cranberry sauce and arsenic. Released in 1993, it gave us one of the most iconic Thanksgiving scenes in cinematic history—Wednesday…
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“As you wish.” 💍 A Safe Bet in an Unsafe World Whenever someone asks my favorite movie, I usually say The Princess Bride. It’s a safe bet—classic enough to earn respect, whimsical enough to avoid debate. The truth is, I don’t actually know what my favorite movie is. It changes with the weather, the mood,…
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Bayou Bound: Beignets, Ghosts, and a Little Lagniappe When my job at the State encouraged everyone to attend an annual seminar or conference to “broaden our professional horizons,” I saw an opportunity—not just for education, but for adventure. The Enterprise Risk Management seminar in New Orleans sounded like the perfect excuse to earn a few…
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“My mama always said life was like a box of chocolates…” 🌦️ The Ordinary Prophet Every so often, a film reminds us that wisdom doesn’t always come wrapped in eloquence. Forrest Gump is a story about a man who moves through history with no agenda—just an open heart—and somehow leaves everyone he touches changed. It’s…
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The Pretty Reckless, Christmas Edition 🌟 Once Upon a Time in Who-ville Before the raccoon eyeliner and thigh-high boots, Taylor Momsen was the sweet little Cindy Lou Who singing “Where Are You Christmas?” in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. She was seven years old, her voice as pure as the snow in Whoville, and America…
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“Don’t dream it, be it.” 🎧 Origins of a Cult Classic I was first introduced to The Rocky Horror Picture Show in late elementary or early middle school—on a school bus, of all places. We were on a field trip, and one of my classmates had a portable DVD player (the true relic of early-2000s…
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The Magic That Stays Behind Some houses just feel enchanted. Not because of ghosts or spells or cursed dolls in the attic (though that would make a killer blog), but because of what lingers long after the owners move out—love, memory, and a touch of theatrics. There’s one house here in Charlotte that’s earned the…
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Prelude: Chaos Before the Coven At the time, I was living in Traverse City, and we decided to fly out of Grand Rapids for a few reasons: it was closer, it was cheaper, and there just so happened to be an In This Moment concert at 20 Monroe Live the night before our flight. Because…
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Disclaimer: I know this dynamic can go both ways. There are women who expect men to fix them, too. But as a woman who’s loved two fully grown men who behaved like children, I’m writing this from my side of the story—the one where empathy gets mistaken for servitude, and emotional labor gets repackaged as…