Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Lost somewhere

Here's to 2014. A new year.

So what happened to 2013? It's all kind of a blur.

I do remember gaining a new great-granddaughter with the birth of Tallulah Rosemarie (love that name) in mid-June. But if anything at all happened that was news or memory-worthy in 2013, I'm afraid it was lost on me.

Two reasons for this. They may not seem significant to you, but they have caused time to whiz by like lightening for me this year.

1. I got an iPad.
2. I got a streaming device for Netflix movies.

Okay, if you have either one of these yourself, I needn't say more.

But I have lost countless hours on my iPad by playing Words With Friends with no less than fifteen opponents at a time, checking Facebook and email updates as fast as they're posted, and discovering Magic Puzzles, a jigsaw puzzle game, when I have never put together a single jigsaw puzzle up to this point in my life. You can start with a 42-piece puzzle and work your way up to my current level of 288 pieces. The final level is 550 pieces and of course, I am aspiring to reach that level.

I've also discovered Facetime. Now, from Arizona, I can bug my kids in Minnesota by calling them on Facetime and seeing their faces and further disrupting their lives and spending their time. We watched Tallulah's bathtime via Facetime and saw her giggle with delight at Daddy pouring warm water over her head as Mommy held the iPhone camera. It was great fun.

But worse than the iPad are the Netflix serials. I'm telling you, I am not a television-watcher, A waste of time, I always said. But these series? Ooohhhhh, I am glued for hours totally captivated by the likes of Breaking Bad, Scandal, and Canada's Heartland, (love the horses).

A poor screen shot of so many choices!
There are BBC series as well which I'd never heard of before. World War II-era series such as Bomb Girls and The Land Girls; and the post-war series, Call the Midwife. If you thought Downton Abbey was riveting, you ought to see some of these.

It's hard to believe I couldn't stay awake for the 9:00 news before. Of course, I still don't see the news, but am up till all wee hours of the night. Putting that last puzzle piece in. Playing that last game of WWF. Checking to see if anyone left me an email message at midnight, as if anyone else is awake. And m-a-y-b-e watching one more episode of the current series.

So that's where 2013 went.

But now I learn there's no hope for 2014 as a friend just introduced me to the series, Lost.

Okay, everyone else has watched it already but I wasn't (formerly) a television-watcher so I missed it. It already shows great promise, so here goes...

Forty-eight people are stranded when their plane crashes on an island. They are a diverse group of people so I can imagine that besides just plain surviving, their differences cause all sorts of problems as they struggle to create a semblance of life together there.

I can hardly wait to start it.

And there goes 2014. If anything important happens, give me a call.