Downton Abbey

I have fallen in love with a new British series.  PBS Materpiece Theater Downton Abbey.


It is a wonderful British drama set in the early 1920's about an aristocrat family right after the Titanic sank and before and during and after World War I.  


The show takes you between the classes, from the family that owns the house and their servants below stairs.  


The cast is rich and diverse and the focus isn't just on one or two people, but the struggle each family member and staff member goes through on a daily basis.


While I don't like Mary Crawly very much, she does grow on you a bit, but it is the way the family treats their servants and their people that make me love the show.  To the family, the servants aren't just there to do a job, but a part of them, and they recognize this fact throughout the entire series.


The first season has us seeing different things like trying to figure out how to live with an heir to the estate who isn't a son of the family and trying to marry him off to the eldest, only to have things change and attitudes.  You can see a love grow between the future Earl of Grantham-Matthew Crawly and Mary Crawly the daughter of the present Earl.


You see below stairs the same thing that has been going on since the beginning of time...people of the lower classes working hard to better themselves and elevate their positions in life by either stabbing others in the back on their climb up or working diligently to work honestly.


You also see something that delights me very much...Anna Smith, a maid for the ladies of the house and the new valet-Mr. Bates (played by my very favorite Brendan Coyle) begin a budding romance of sorts...he is an older man, but he is still very handsome, and Anna loves him very much as does he.


The second season takes us through World War I and makes you think of many things as the household staff has to adjust to the changes of the times and the young men going off to war.  It is a sad time as loss comes constantly to the family and the staff, but they all pull through and become involved, turning Downton into a hospital,


In this season, you see more substance from the younger two daughters of the family-Edith and Cybil!  The two start out struggling to find a way to be useful along with their mother, and in the course of time, they find it in the soldiers in different ways-Cybil becoming a nurse, and Edith just being there and doing odd bits and things for them.


In this season, changes to the Mary/Matthew relationship change even more as they become engaged to different people, but they still love one another and worry constantly about each other.  The only person in this is Mary's fiancee whom we instantly dislike, but Matthew's is one that even Mary cannot help but like and they become kindred spirits of sorts.  I loved that very much about this series! 


Dame Maggie Smith has always been one of my favorite actresses!!  She is beautiful and even now, I cannot help but hope that when I become and elder myself, I can only be as beautiful and refined as she is.  She plays the Dowager Duchess and she is very funny and lovable even in her cantakorous and classic ways.  You cannot help but love this character, even if she can be a pain in the bottom!


Hugh Bonneville plays the Earl of Grantham and I am so delighted with this since I adore him and the actress who plays his wife, Elizabeth McGovern.  They both make this so much more fun and interesting...especially since he finds himself the object of a slight crush from a maid in the second season...


What is fun about this series is that romance IS NOT limited to the younger set or the upper class.  It is centered around different couples and it is unique in each one!  I love that the older men do not get slighted in the least here!


I cannot wait for the PBS airing of the show beginning in September!  I am hoping that by then my finances with be smooth so that I can afford to get Cable television again and be able to watch the show rather than wait to buy the next season or borrow it from Netflix to see it.


I can honestly say that I am a huge fan of this show now!!

Warchild - No Way Home

Sherrilynn Kenyon's brother singing a new Dark Hunter song for Sundown!

Been Busy And Tired

I am so tired!  My job is crazy these days!  I can't believe how little regard management and her cohort has for others around them.


I barely get home, and lay down on the couch before I either pass out or turn on the tv and watch movies all day long!


I haven't even had the heart to be on Facebook, but then again, the drama there with certain friends is enough to drive me insane!  I am so tired of some of the attitudes and actions of people there.


I spend most of my time relaxing when I am home and thinking of how I want to live a better way than this.  I can't go on like this!  My apartment is an unholy mess and I can't even muster up the desire to clean it!!  It is horrible.


I spend as much time reading Jane Austen as watching movies!!  I don't know, I guess that Amanda Price in Lost In Austen is right, you take it on the chin and patch yourself up with Pride & Prejudice!  Only, I won't get the chance to step into the pages of Jane's world like Amanda did!  Though that would be absolutely fun, wouldn't it?


Either way, I am in need of something MORE here and not just scraping by financially and mentally!  I need something to help me remain true to myself!

New Work Hells

Well, it is official!  They fired one of the women I work with..this means I get to work six days a week and am expected to bust my own ass and stress out over dumb things.

The good news in this is that while I am working more, my paychecks are getting better and better! I will be able to get myself back on track in the next months or so, and I cannot wait to be in a better place.

I have decided that going Vegan, while a great idea, is not completely for me.  Instead, I shall cut my meat intake back even more than I do-which is 3 servings a week, and switch out less healthy things for  healthier.

I have also decided to cut off my eating out as much as I  possibly can and just relax about my eating habits.

I am still struggling with my writing.  It is sad, since I love to write, but it is getting harder and harder for me to do so!  I think it does have a lot to do with working too much.

I am struggling in other areas of my life that I need to work through.  

I have failed in my resolutions to change certain things this year, but I have decided on that score that it doesn't matter and to do things as they come, slowly integrating new patterns and things into my daily life rather than just shoving myself into them.

I will eventually get there, I just need to have patience!!

Feeling Antsy

I am feeling antsy lately, like I need to do something but I don't know what.

I am staying away from the resolutions I was making because they seem to be crazy!

Right now, I am consentrating on things I love to read like Diana Gabaldon and Jane Austen.  I just need that sense of normalcy for the moment!!

I may do a blog about Diana, but I am not sure.  It is an open thing at the moment.  The only problem is many people do these things.

I guess my problem is that I am desperately trying to find my thing like everyone else in the world.

I am considering going Vegan.  I am doing research, and to be honest it seems like things I can do since I have a food allergy to poultry too.  Though the fish thing may need to be looked into more thoroughly.

If I start a new diet, I will have to slowly integrate it into my life, like everything else so I don't feel like I am purposely depriving myself of anything!  There are many substitutes for the things I eat that are just as good.

I am also working on trying to figure out my personal calling in this life.  I don't know why, but I am feeling a bit alone in the world and in need of something more.  I used to feel these often, but I have a feeling I need to try harder.

Saying Hello, Updating

It has been a while since I have written, but I have been busy recently trying to make ends meet.


I work with idiots and I cannot even begin to describe how beneath me they truly are.  I don't say this with arrogance, but with a sense of knowledge that I know more in this world and have an even more open mind than they do and I am sick of their attitudes towards others.


I am struggling to make things work financially, and it is taking a toll on me personally!


I will write again soon!  I have ideas and thoughts!

Happy Birthday Raven

I love my birthday!  

There is so much to be happy about and so much to look forward to.

I am 42 this year, and I am going to walk my path to my best ability!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!