Dogs? The Art of doing things alone? The placing of friends in categories unbeknownst to them, and how this is a new and icky concept to me? Beeswax candles? My new middle grade project that is sticking? Adult writing students who blow me out of the water with their raw honesty every Monday night?

These are all topics I’ve thought about for the March blog/letter. That giant ball of rock in the sky really made me wonky earlier this month. What a big, glorious, (yet harrowing) full moon it was! My little one and I were driving home from Girl Scouts on Wednesday (3/8/23) and could not get over its enormity in the sky. We immediately called my mom from the Blue Tooth and talked about it. My mom adores the moon. This one did all the things: kept me wide awake one night, fostered nutty dreams, and put me in a crank pot mood for a couple of days. I saw it in my oldest too. Yes, it’s tricky to discern the teenager from the moon-affected, but I could see it. I swear. 🙂

Okay, so back to choosing my topic for this newsletter. I landed on—-just write what comes! Lucky you! If you like any of those topics I mentioned in the opening paragraph and would like to see those written about in April, shoot me a simple email back, and I will get moving on it. 

Recently, I felt my I Love Lucy mood slide in, and so that means I was craving the episodes that I know inside-out and know to find on Hulu. I like to work with background noise, and it usually means a sitcom of choice. Sometimes silence is nice, like as I write this, but usually I like a familiar voice in my background. I go to Hulu, and lo and behold….THEY’RE GONE. No longer on HULU. I frantically check the other streaming services. You see, years ago, I donated my LUCY VHS tapes for obvious reasons. I had them all on VHS, and only a couple on DVD. We’re in the digital age, we don’t need DVDs. Right? Right??!?!?!?!

So here I am not being able to find these precious episodes. (I am kind of a self-proclaimed I Love Lucy expert) I’ve read all the books, watched the 181 episodes over and over through the years, written about some of them. You get the idea. Soon, I plan on enrolling in a MFA in American History so that I can be called an actual expert. That’s a blog for another time. 

I give up and sulk. No more I Love Lucy until a streaming service gets their act together and purchases the rights or whatever it entails. Until….

I have a spontaneous working coffee with my dear friend Aris last week. That’s what we do. We gather at a locally-owned indie coffee shop, bring our laptops, work, and talk. After an hour and a half, we wrapped it up and strolled to a few antique shops within walking distance. One topic led to another, and I know she’s a big Lucy fan too. “Aris, they’re gone.” 

“That’s why I own the whole collection on DVD. But them me look. They can’t be! They are somewhere.” Aris is a natural researcher. (A real-life PhD too, but that’s not relevant here, though it kind of is, because it’s her nature to look and look some more). “It’s on Paramount Plus, see.” 

“Ohhhhhhhhh. Paramount Plus.”

Thanks to Aris’s reminder about DVDs still being a thing, I await the entire I Love Lucy collection from e-Bay for only $37. She reminded me to have the Plan B. I cannot risk this loss again. Hubby will have to deal with my physical media! 🙂 I am also purchasing a small DVD player that I can plug into my laptop for when I take a solo trip to Boston this spring. Can’t risk no wi-fi on the train to stream. The best thing about Paramount’s service and collection of I Love Lucy—The episodes HULU didn’t include are back! I finally got to show my girls THE FASHION SHOW episode, and I was more excited than one might expect a 46-year-old Gen-Xer to be. 

Despite the usual comedic genius of the entire cast, there is a major problematic concern in this episode that I caught with this recent viewing. OOOOF. Lucy plans on getting a nice suntan for her big Don Loper designer dress debut—not red enough to burn to a crisp, but red enough, so that…gulp…”Ricky wouldn’t dare hit me.” That was followed by a discussion with my nine year old who was sitting next to me as I worked. Always discuss because children deserve that. They are very intelligent and understand more than we assume. Truly. 

Thanks for all of the Black Licorice love. Keep the momentum. Tell a friend! A teenager! Here is the LINK for the book. 

Heart and Salt releases next month. For the lovers of The Golden Girls and YA novels like To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. PREORDER HERE!

Lastly, enjoy two fantastic teenage writers featured in PEAR: a forum for teenage voices.


Book the Flight 
by Zachary J

About 3 o’clock, Jeff busted through the door in joy. I was interrupted whilecooking dinner by a newspaper announcing a reward for a free vacation. All we had to do was “Book the flight”. We went online to book it, only to find out it’s our wedding day!

Laughter

By Julianna W. 

Everyone is laughing

So we should laugh too

Even it’s hurtful,

It’s the normal thing to do.

I guess that fitting in

Means we’re all the same.

While perfectly different,

Must mean totally strange.

I didn’t know someone’s insecurities

Could bring others such delight

I guess because we can,

We should point it out with spite.

So scared to stand out,

Our facade is our defense

We will take enjoyment

At one another’s expense.

We must act so alike

Same hair and same clothes

No one wants to be the punch line

Of the same old funny jokes.

Sometimes I don’t remember

That we have separate, beating hearts

If you saw us from afar,

Could you tell us all apart?

‘Laughter is the best medicine’

That is what they say

But laughter is the worst weapon

When we use it in this way.