Lessons from Lauraland

by Jeff Darcy, Cleveland Plain Dealer ,  So I doubt it will come as a surprise to anyone who knows me that Santorum scares the crap out of me. He looks like a nice guy and then he opens his mouth and says thi ngs like  "CO2 is a pollutant? Tell that to the plants." and I just want to scream.  I like to think that the only reason someone goes into politics is because they really think they can make a change for the better in some way or another. I cannot imagine someone willingly putting their lives and the lives of their family up to the media  scrutiny of any political race, much less the presidential one, without them really, truly believing good could come of it. So I have to believe that as much as I disagree with nearly everything that comes out of his mouth, Rick Santorum honestly wants what he thinks is best for America. He does not deserve (and we, as Americans do not deserve) this. By Monte Wolverton  It is 2012 people. Do we really need to...

Do you believe it is 8:30 in the morning and I am already awake? I don't! I have actually been awake for a few hours. It's been a long weekend. After the Overnight on Friday, I went to bed at 8am Saturday, slept until 8pm that night, then stayed up all the way through 6:30 last night. I tried to make it longer, but I just couldn't. I slept until a little before 5 this morning and have been up since.  I read through a particularly lovely, romantic and in someways completely heartbreaking fanfiction called Seasons by Onesimus this morning. It's about the formation of a relationship between Elsie Hughes and Charles Carson, the housekeeper and butler of Downton Abbey. It's rated Mature for a reason, but also had some moments that brought tears to my eyes. I am actually still feeling melancholy even as I write this, hours later. Do you ever do that? Get so into a book or movie that you are feeling what the characters must have felt? I find that I carry it with me i...

I keep trying to write a new post here, but then I get all caught up in what I want it to look like and be like and I lose my nerve. So I am going to just keep writing and hit publish at the end and send it out into the world, for what it is worth. I have to restart somewhere, right? Like most of America at this point I think, I love Adele. I loved her even before Chasing Pavements became so huge here. I just love that you can feel her power as she  sings. It comes from such a true place inside of her. So much beauty. I was talking to one of my favorite Yutes last night and he was asking me about fanfiction. he didn't understand why people write it. It took me a couple beats to come up with an answer. I can't answer for all of the fanfic world, but I think I write it because I feel inclined to write and it is easier to write within a universe that has already been created for an audience that already knows the characters/situations well. He then asked why I don't wr...