**Full script for Podcast**

I’m high risk. I’m getting ready to turn 50, I’m overweight, I have high blood pressure as well as well as mild asthma. I’m tired of being inside and isolated. I don’t mind the solitude because I get more video watching in and I’m into my video games.

Probably one of my most prized purchases this past pandemic has been my Ms. Pac-Man console.

I primarily use it as a desk because it’s right near the window and I do enjoy writing in the sunshine. Favorite games are in fact Solitaire Harvest, Animal Crossing, Spiritfarer as well as the Legends of Zelda Breath of the Wild.

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I am entertained and challenged by solitude. Isolation is a fuel for creativity. I am alone but never lonely. Yes I’m alone about 99% of the time and I avoid people like the plague, but I always have something to do. I’m always looking forward to entertaining myself in a positive way and sharing it with other people. Continuing to publish my podcast is very important to me.

The Beauty of Bridgerton

One of the things or one of the shows that I’ve watched and re-watched multiple times has been Bridgeton on Netflix.

I was hopeful and excited that the incomparable Shonda Rhimes was producing this masterpiece. I’m one of the people that has always been into the British monarchy for a while I spent my 40th birthday at the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. I’ve read the Romanoffs, Princesses, Victoria and anything I could actually get my hands on about great queens of England. I was interested in seeing how they were going to pull this off or if it was simply going to be a cheap knock off of the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice or even Downton Abbey. And of course it was not they had a great script. They cast fabulous actors. They had talented wardrobe designers and set designers. It was planned and executed with fabulousness! I started reading Julia Quinn’s series of books that the movie is based upon.

I finished the Duke and I and I started reading the Viscount that Loved Me.

I think the movie itself took Hollywood-esque liberties with the storyline but the addition of some of the characters or the prominence of some of the characters actually add it to the storyline. For example, Queen Charlotte is not in the original book, but I can’t imagine this character or those wigs not being in the series.

The chosen actors embodied their characters with an effect that was amazing. I was also intrigued insertion of the Baron Featherington and his families importance in the plot line as well as it being revealed at the end of the series that Penelope Featherington was actually Lady Whistledown which is not at all part of the story line in the books but works for the series. If you are going to deviate this much from a storyline but still support the original storyline this is how you create a movie from a book series. And if it’s throwing Shade to the debacle that was Stephen King’s the Stand so be it. I could not and would not watch all of that limited series because it was a waste of time. It was so far away from the original storyline that it was a waste of my time. But Bridgeton is allowing me to not only follow along with each individual book, but it also gives me a whole genre of books that I would’ve never considered reading until this series. All of these all of the series is available in one form or another or mail online bookstore, Chattabooks most of the hardcovers are back ordered but you can get the electronic version just have to download an app available immediately.

Food

As the Covid crisis has waged on, I’m getting really used to enjoying restaurants by Delivery DoorDash has become my savior. I am fortunate not to be in a food desert with ability to shop through Instacart, and then pick up groceries. I’ve gotten out of the habit of walking around and shopping for myself. I would love to be able to pick out my own produce to be able to cook all of the concoctions that I read in at home from the New York Times. 

Today was a chili kind of day.

I would like to tell you is if you are going to have a five alarm chili make sure you have Prevacid or some type of antacid to keep that heat down but a little bit of cheese and sour cream does goes a long way. I’ve gone from avoiding the At Home section of the New York Times like the plague but now I’m looking forward to it to turn into those pages just to get recipes for my upcoming week one of the things that I’m going to try today or sometime in the next couple of weeks is the sheet pan sausage

and mushroom concoction as well as the cod kimchi stew with white rice.

The pandemic has forced many restaurants to set up outdoor seating and I’m actually OK with that. But I won’t be returning anytime soon to the restaurant scene because I can basically get everything delivered to me as well as one of the things that I’m going to be canceling today is my subscriptions to both Daily Harvest as well as Blue Apron, because I can get everything delivered because now there is a local subscription service, Taste of Chatt

that is going to put local artisans and food artisans on the map. Why do I have to get crap from Blue Apron or even the vegan crap from Daily Harvest when I don’t need it? Just saying.

The whole thing about getting vaccinated and why my cousin is asking me I guess as a formally practicing pediatrician but still considered a doctor because I am board certified, I don’t know if people want to hear about hesitancy. My reasons for getting vaccinated are purely selfish in some respects. I want to get out and I want to feel confident that I’m not going to die in pursuit of entertainment on the outside. I’m one of those people that I want to lead by example. It is not an assault on my personal freedom to wear a mask if we all were to wear a mask or we just stay our butts at home we would’ve licked this. I’m tired of sitting in judgment when I when I see my neighbors or people that are not obviously from the county doing stupid things walking around without a mask. I just want to be free. I don’t see as a mask restricting my freedom but saving my life. Until we get this thing licked, it’s not safe to run around like there’s nothing going on. I’ve seen the numbers I’ve seen the helicopters we are not out of the woods. This virus is hunting us and with one goal to kill its host.

I am OK with staying within at the 6 to 7 hour perimeter of Chattanooga Tennessee because I can drive on one tank of gas and I only have to stop to gas up once I’m not going to Pee until I get to my destination on both sides. But I would like to be able to explore the East Coast or even do the Airbnb on the Virginia coast for my birthday and re-explore the RV parks again. I also want to visit DC and all of these places are locations you can’t get to them unless you fly.

I want to go back to DC more than ever than anything because of the riot that happened there. I want to visit the capital as well as the White House to see my tax dollars at work if I don’t go anywhere I want to go to those places. I’m settling for going to the gulf coast of Mississippi I’ll have an Airbnb

and I’m thinking about getting some seafood shipped to me and just enjoying the fresh air because I know I will not be going to any of the restaurants.

I do plan on visiting the George Ohr museum, the Mad Potter of Mississippi just because I recently saw some thing and I know I’m gonna be in the area but I’m also planning on hopefully getting a very being in a very either a single tour or being in there were there like an appointment for reduced Admission I’m OK with that..

I don’t know about you guys but I feel a sense of urgency to discover everything in the deep South because things are changing. These places that I thought I did not have the right to see and were kept as the greatest secrets ever. But now I have the disposable income and I have the time. if I can get down there I think I need to see it. I want to go where no black woman with a ‘Fro thought was possible. Who knows, the next big hurricane or freak tornado could whisk it all away. Or if it’s too associated with the backwardness of the Confederacy it may be all tore down.

So the why of it all of getting the vaccine is not just to give me an idea on how I’m going to script out my podcast going forward but it does do that but why wouldn’t I get vaccinated if I had the opportunity?

Science wins over lies. There is only one truth. There is not a variation of the facts. There are no alternate facts. It’s either fact or fiction. The data will show a decrease in how sick people are getting we still should see a decrease in the death rate, we still should see a decrease in hospitalization as more people get vaccinated.

Science has to win. There is no hesitancy over here anymore. Because I believe the science. No I didn’t believe anybody in the previous administration that spoke of it besides Dr. Fauci. The rest of these people are politicians and yes-man and I don’t trust them but I do trust the science. I am willing to take the steps necessary to get back to some normalcy well, in my life anyways. Northside in the shadows Lookout Mountain is beautiful but I will like it to go to being my hub on my way to somewhere else, the sooner the better. Until then I want to daydream, plan short trips, play video games, listen to vinyl records, read books as I look for the release of more PS5. Yeah I’m still an old video game nerd whose wants are very simple in a lot of respects. I want the second part of my life definitely to me more than the first part but I would prefer it to be drama free.