Dear Girls

   

I just finished Dear Girls by Ali Wong and it's f**king hilarious.  If my typing f**k bothers you, then don't read this book.  If you like reading books that make you laugh out loud and spit your drink down the front of you, then this book is for you.

Ali Wong is a stand up comedian, but also an actress and scriptwriter.  If you have Netflix, check out Always Be My Maybe.  It's really good.  She wrote it and stars in it.

When her father passes away, he leaves her a letter.  But there are so many things he doesn't tell her and now she'll never know.  So she writes this book to her two young daughters.  She writes that they can't read it until they are 21.  I'm not sure that will be old enough.  I'm also pretty sure they will read it way before then.

Don't think that this book is only the hilarious and slightly frightening parts of her rebellious youth.  She gives advice to her girls that you can actually let your kids read!

The Author is so honest about growing up in San Francisco and her wild child antics that she may have a hard time reprimanding her daughters in their own teenage years!  To be fair, she does anticipate their own rebellions.  She writes, " As long as you don't get maimed or contract life threatening STDs, I accept that some shit is going to go down."

As honest as she is about her past sexual experiences, and she is open and raunchy, she is touchingly honest about her love for her husband and the father of her two girls.  He writes an equally touching and honest afterword to the book.  He may not be as funny as his wife, but he respects her, seems wonderful and I would love to invite them both over for dinner.

We don't have kids living here anymore, so that should work.

Words With Friends

I had never heard of the game Words With Friends until Alec Baldwin got into aviation difficulties while playing it.  Then my friend from work told me it is just like Scrabble except you play on a wireless device.   She can let the game know she is ready to go and it hooks her up with random strangers.  She was a little concerned about being cyber stalked by serial killers so she invited me to play.

I didn't have a smart phone but I did have my trusty Nook!  I bought the app and we were off.

I don't know how smart phones work with this game, but my Nook has to be in a wi-fi location for me to play.  That shouldn't be a problem.  We have wi-fi!  But unless I constantly (and obsessively) wake it up and check, I don't know when my friend has taken a turn.  Now, unlike me, she works for a living.  She has to be at certain places at certain times.  She can't be playing around with her phone.  But she has lunch and maybe she played then.  So now I drag the Nook around with me and turn it on, check, and go about my business.  Off and on ALL day. 

If the wi-fi is too far from my Nook it won't upload her move, then I think she hasn't played.  Our wi-fi modem is upstairs in our office.  Our bedroom is at the other end of the house on the main floor.  Sometimes I have wi-fi there and sometimes I don't.   So periodically,  I hop up and walk to the hallway and stand there staring at the Nook to see if she has taken a turn or to send my latest word. 

Lee would ask, "Where are you going?"  "Here,"  I would reply.  Now he no longer asks. 

Sometimes I can get just enough of a signal if I hold the Nook towards the doorway.  Strangely I think I might "catch" more of the signal if I wave it around.  So I reach across Lee and wiggle it.  Lots of times he would think I was handing him something and reach for it.  Now he doesn't.  I wonder if he would take it and wave it at the door?  So far I haven't had the nerve to ask.

I am not sure why I am so anxious about losing games with friends.  I think it has something to do with playing games with my brother when we were kids.  He would have to win, even if he had to cheat.  Then he would laugh maniacally at my humiliation.  Gee, that was fun.

I am also a little concerned with playing random strangers assigned to me by a giant computer in the sky.  Remember Hal in 2001? "Open the door, Hal."   Or how about Matthew Broderick in WarGames.  "How about a game of Global Thermonuclear War?"

Yes, I realize I am dating myself.  No, wait, I saw them on Netflix.  That's it.  I just watched those ancient movies on my DVD player.    ;-)