I am a people junkie, I want to know what makes them tick.
Why do they do the things they do? Why do they fall in and out of love? Now we
need to talk about Girls, the new HBO series. I love it but I will add a
warning here it may not be to everyone's taste because it is very graphic. Just
like the wonderful British series, Pulling, it is a tale about women in their
twenties, trying to find their place in the real world.
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| HBO GIRLS |
I don't know how they did it but the show manages to make
sex seem pretty unappealing. My husband says it's almost enough to put you off
porn, because we all know that sex with the wrong person sucks, whether you are
twenty or sixty. But it brought me back to that terrifying time when life is
full of possibilities and fraught with loose connections. I dated guys like
Adam, when I didn't know if he was my boyfriend or not, but I was too afraid to
ask. I also dated guys like Charlie, who I promptly dumped because they were
too nice. Sometimes a bad haircut was all it would take and once a guy gut
dumped for bringing me a single rose, a very nice gesture.
In my twenties I was teaching school, high school and though
I loved my students, why wouldn't I, we were about the same age!. But the thought
of staying in my hometown and teaching for the next forty years filled me with
torschlusskpanik, the German word for the fear of missing the boat. I left for California, got a job dealing in a casino and never looked back. My job was sorted out but
I still kept dating the bad boy, the elusive, uncommitted one I was going to
make fall in love with me.
It took me a long time to sort myself out get married and
live happily ever after, but I finally met my Mr. Right, while working on a
cruise ship. We decided to tell our story in Cruise Quarters - A Novel About
Casinos and Cruise Ships. Stand behind a blackjack table for years, deal to
thousands of couples and you learn a thing or two about people. Gamblers know
that to win at blackjack you have to play basic strategy. In our novel Sarah (my alter-ego) learns from her past mistakes to write her own basic strategy of
love. Maybe hers can help Girls take some
shortcuts, but probably not, we all have to suffer our own heart breaks. Girls need to throw away the self-help book they are reading and write their own. Below
is Sarah's, if you come up with a new one leave a comment
here or e-mail me at carabertoia@yahoo.com.
SARAH SELDON’S BASIC STRATEGY OF LOVE
1. It’s a sure bet that if someone
doesn’t introduce you to his family, he thinks there is something wrong with
you -- or his family.
2. It is a mistake to fall for a
strong silent type; you will get tired of doing all the talking, and he will
get tired of doing all the listening.
3. Don’t fall in love with someone
who is a challenge; if you want a challenge, go climb
Mt. Everest.
4. It is not important that you
share all the same interests, only that you are both open to new and different
things.
5. Some people think a
relationship has to include drama; without drama it can’t be love. Drama is
just drama, not love. If you want drama, go see a play.
6. The first time someone cheats
is never the last time someone cheats; it is just the first time someone
cheats.
7. Never get involved with someone
who blames all his problems on others; you will soon be one of the others.
8. Never go to bed with someone if
you aren’t sure he will be there in the morning, and you want him to be there.
9. If there is something wrong in
a relationship, you know it. He stops looking you in the eye, he doesn’t call
every day. People always have a tell. They always leave a clue, you just have
to look for it.
10. The golden rule of love is
this: always be with someone who likes you just the way you are, quirks and
all. Always love someone just the way they are. You can change sheets, not people.
About the author:
Cara Bertoia is the author of Cruise Quarters - A Novel
About Casinos and Cruise Ships. Her novel is really a travelogue, a narrative,
a romance, a self-help manual for gambling and cruising, and a real-life story
all rolled into one funny, obsessive, and entertaining story of two people
whose separate life journeys meet at a crossroads. Kindle
Fire Dept. says, "This novel is a gem that is nothing short of a vacation
in a book!"
Below is the links to Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships
Below is the links to Cruise Quarters - A Novel About Casinos and Cruise Ships
Click the link to find at
Amazon.com
Click here to find at Amazon Canada
Click the link to find at Amazon United Kingdom
Click the link to find at Amazon Germany
Click the link to find at Amazon BrazilClick here to find at Amazon Canada
Click the link to find at Amazon United Kingdom
Click the link to find at Amazon Germany
Click to find at Barnes and Noble
Ray and Cara have also produced the number one guide on walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain.
The Desert Woman calls it inspiring.
Click the link to find the DVD Camino de Santiago a Walkers Guide at Amazon
