Brain Vacation

"I abhor the dull routine of existence." - Arthur Conan Doyle via Sherlock Holmes. Or vice versa. I can't figure out the right way to quote this.

Okay let's be blunt here. We live in trying times, We live in tumultuous times. We live in pretty damn tough times. I guess what I'm trying to say is......

These times suck.

Boy do they suck. They suck so bad they even suck at being sucky. It's just one big ball of suck and then when you get to the chewy center there's a bigger burst of suck. But what can you do? You can march, you can scream, you can tweet in frustration but you also need to practice self-care. The ideal way would be meditation, yoga or a nice vacation. But sometimes you can't afford or get to those things immediately, so do what I do.
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Take a mental vacation.

You see there are times when I hate everything in the world and everyone in the world (except you dear reader, you're perfection) and I just need to get away and do something different. It's in the times of the most stress (which is pretty much every day) where I need to go elsewhere and so I daydream. I call these my "brain vacations".

I'm a big proponent of daydreams. I consider them necessary, like food, shelter, water and reruns of Absolutely Fabulous. And I have some AWESOME ones. I do things in my daydreams that you  wouldn't be able to do on a real vacation. Unless of course you're going to a place where they specialize in that sort of thing...

Oh Ricardo Montalban - what I would give to hear your awesomely sexy voice talk about car leather once more. Sadly though, that won't happen. Even more sad is the fact that Fantasy Island doesn't exist. Luckily though, I have one hell of an imagination.

Here are some of the things that I have done during these mental vacations:

• Solved a mystery with Sherlock Holmes
• Solved a mystery with Sam Spade
• Hunted vampires in London (a personal favorite of mine)
• Beat up The Punisher
• Flew on the airship from Final Fantasy 3/6 (also petted a moogle)
• Had the de rigueur rock star fantasy - except I suddenly no longer sound like Mary Poppins 
• Became a pirate captain (who ironically never stole or killed anybody)
• Had perfect eyebrows

And if you make fun of that last one, shut up, I'm a girl. It will always be my dream.

Do I think they're stupid? Yes. Will they every happen? No - unless a certain Mr. Roarke (ahem) decides to suddenly come into existence and return my calls. But the thing is they help me cope. In a time when all the news is bad, and you wake up, go to work, come home just to do it all over again, it's nice to have a little adventure. Even if it is imaginary.

So where do you want to go on your next  brain vacation? I hear there's open bookings...

Geeks Like Us

A couple of years ago a friend of mine called me and asked what I was doing. I replied (quite honestly) "painting my toe nails pink and watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

"That's so...you," she replied. "Yeah," I laughed. "I'm such a geek."

Now before you ask, I was watching the original Chainsaw and not that travesty of a remake. Also I have since discovered the beauty of professional pedicures and all that entails, including not splattering nail polish all over light beige carpeting, and trained experts who craftily use tools of destruction against annoying callouses. Sexy.

That phone exchange always stuck out in my mind for some reason. First of all, because my friend knew me all too well, but second, because I thought what I was doing made me a geek. You care about toe nail polish AND Leatherface? It doesn't sound plausible, until you realize that Leatherface occasionally wears a hell of a lot of make-up. I mean, he probably smeared it on using somebody's dismembered hand as a make-up brush, but still....

I wonder if Leatherface ever subscribed to Ipsy? Just a thought.

The thing is, it's easy all too easy to put down yourself for being well, yourself. During our conversation I realized how I sounded. watching Texas Chainsaw instead of some light-hearted rom-com. I felt like the biggest nerd in the world. But what does that even mean? Those who describe themselves as "nerds" will say it's because they like Harry Potter, or comic books, or video games. But that doesn't mean they're the stereotypical nerd with pocket protectors and snorty laughs, it just means they like things.

I, for example, work in marketing and function day to day as a seemingly normal, albeit slightly quirky, type of person. But underneath it all, I'm the biggest horror movie nerd you've ever seen. My DVD collection consists of almost all horror and it's proudly displayed for all to see. Wanna watch Pretty Woman? Sorry I don't have that. But I do have my prized copy of Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things. Let's watch that one.

So, yes in this respect I do consider myself a nerd. Well, I'm also a Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan (and helloooo to all my MSTies out there), plus there's my love of weird pop culture. But again, that doesn't mean I'm a stereotypical nerd straight out of an 80s film. It just means there's stuff I like.

The truth is, we're ALL nerds, including you people who think you're not. You don't read comics but live for ESPN and can drop football stats like nobody's business? Congrats you're a sports nerd. Do you go crazy for the latest styles and know 15 exciting ways to dress up palazzo pants? Fashion nerd. There are car nerds and cat nerds and dog nerds and "dogs and cats living together" nerds (also known as Ghostbuster nerds). Let's face it, people geek out over a lot of different things.

My point is this. You shouldn't have to hide the things you love, simply because you feel that it might set you apart or have you branded with the dreaded "nerd" word. Because EVERYBODY has things they love. It's part of what makes you "you". And true, we usually gravitate towards people who like the same things we do, but that doesn't mean you have to call yourself a geek because somebody else doesn't share those interests.

Because we're ALL nerds.

So tell me, what kind of nerd are you?