Friday Five done on Monday...and yes, I'm irritable.

1. If you were a girl in the 70’s in the U.S., you were expected to take Home Ec. in high school. Did you and what did you take from the class, if anything? If you are a guy, would you have liked to have had the option of taking it?

I was a girl in the 70s and 80s in the US - and Home Economics courses didn't exist in elementary, junior high or high school. They didn't exist in Pennsylvania or Kansas City. Are you sure you're not discussing the 1950s and 60s?? You may be older than you think you are?

2. How were your school lunches?

I didn't buy lunch. I brought it from home. And I barely ate that. I hated lunch - wasn't until years later that I figured it out. Gluten Intolerant.
I had Figurines - Diet Chocolate Energy Bars in high school.

3. Did you walk, take a bus, or have someone drive you to school?

Varied.

Elementary? In PA, I walked about thirty minutes to the bus stop with a friend, and took a half hour ride to school, which in the fifth grade became an hour. Then we moved in KS, and I walked or rode my bike to school.

Junior High? Walked. Or was driven on bad days, but that was rare.

High School? Bus (it stopped in front of our house) or walked, which was about an hour or forty-five minutes. I hated taking it, but I wasn't comfortable driving and didn't own a car. (My brother was three years younger.)

Stayed late for theater a lot - so mother picked me up or someone drove me home. Did a lot plays, stage crew, etc. Heavily involved in high school. Also track. I ran cross country and sprints in junior high and some of high school. In junior high - was involved with the school paper, and other extracurricular activities. I rode my bike a lot to school - but it was problematic - the tires were always low, and I could never remember the combination lock (switched the numbers around in my head).

4. Were there any classes there were off limits to you because of your sex?

No. It was the 1980s. And in the 70s, we didn't have electives until I hit high school. Everything was non-gender specific. We were only split up in junior high and high school for gym. But we played touch football.

Whomever wrote this must have been raised in the 50s and 60s, or something?

5. Looking back on it now, what was the biggest life lesson you took from high school?

To forget about it? That it doesn't matter - it was four years of my life.
To learn. Be creative. And ignore the bullies?

I don't know. It was over forty years ago, I barely remember it. And am happy about that. It's kind of sad that a lot of folks focus so much on high school - it's what? Four years of your life?

(no subject)

1.I'm beginning to think 2023 is the year of strikes. Every time I turn on the news, someone else is striking. So far, the Frieght Rails threatened to strike (it was resolved), the Airline Pilot's union (also resolved), the Airline Flight Attendants (resolved), the WGA (television/film Writers) and SAG/AFTRA ( Actors union) - not resolved as of yet, The Theater Stage Crews and Film Crews (resolved at the final hour), UAW (United Auto Workers).

My union has a contract which I think was up in either June or July, but we rarely strike. We came close only once - way back in 2011.

2. The weather makes me ache. Everything hurts today. I took tynenol. Felt better. I usually just ignore it - I've inherited my mother's and grandmother's high tolerance for pain.

3. Saw two people on the subway today that I had to draw and possibly water color this week. But maybe not water color tonight. I did draw them. The man irritated me - so I came home and drew him. The woman fascinated me, so ditto.

4. Making my way through Gabino Iglesias horror novel The Devil Takes You Home. It isn't highly rated on Good Reads, but it is Good Reads - ninety percent of the reviews and ratings on Good Reads are unreliable - it's why I gave up and stopped reading them.

It's a Southwestern Gothic Noir Horror Novel. Leans heavily towards noir. So if noir is not your thing, or horror for that matter, best avoid. I tend to like both for the most part. The style and story structure reminds me a lot of Stephen King. (I happen to like King's work but it isn't for everyone.) The story is about a man who loses everything that matters to him. His daughter dies of cancer - and it unravels from there. To pay off the medical bills, he takes a job as a hit man - killing off bad dudes. And he has a bit of a second sight - he can see things. The first man he kills - worms roll out of the corpse. It's fairly descriptive - not quite as descriptive as King, but close.

Iglesias is a good wordsmith - considering he is writing in two languages. Spanish pops up in various passages. This doesn't bother me - I can figure out what it means by context. It has a lot to do with my brand of dyslexia and how I figured out how to cope with it. It's why James Joyce's Ulysses wasn't an issue for me. For me? It's an easy enough read. The description takes me there - I can see it in my head, but not to the degree that it bugs me. I'd rather read a horror novel than watch a horror film or television series (if that makes any sense?)

I'm not finding it as unnerving or scary as Kingfisher's novels. Even though this too is in first person - close. First person often works best for horror (not so much for romance novels) but definitely for horror. You feel like you are going through it with the protagonist - and you have an unreliable narrator aspect. In that - you only see what the protagonist sees.

I think I know where this novel is going, and so far it feels formulaic to me, but I could be wrong. (I've read a lot of noir in my lifetime. It usually just goes downwards.)