Why I Am Team Steve

Beverly Hills 90210 fans, represent!  (I'm talking the OG, not that ridiculous reboot.)  I got to thinking about the show after attending a talk and book signing with Randy Spelling and Tori Spelling this past weekend and Tweeting that Steve was always my favorite character.  (To which Ian Ziering, the actor who portrayed Steve, not only favorited my Tweet but Retweeted!  Yes!  Week made!)

While it's true that I was not exactly Fox's target demographic when the show aired (I was either at the tail end of college or just post-college but not Andrea Zuckerman territory), I quickly became addicted to the Walsh clan and their new circle of SoCal friends.  Yes, I did name my cat Dylan after Dylan McKay -- although I would tell people he was named after Bob Dylan or Dylan Thomas.  Hey, 90210 wasn't huge at first and then it became somewhat cheesy.   Brandon was supposed to be the All-American boy (played by Canadian Jason Priestley, he he) to identify with and sure, he was cute if you could look past the ever-present honking watches he wore, the never-moving-even-in-a-tsunami shelfy hair and the pocket pool he was always playing.

Steve Sanders was the man.  Why Steve when Brandon was preaching righteousness when not flipping burgers at the Peach Pit and exposing something with The Blaze and/or The Condor and Dylan was moodily driving around in his James Dean-esque Porsche and, we assume, shopping for many, many white t-shirts?

Despite a few fashion fuckeries (Steve, I forgive you for the blindingly loud shirt you wore in the opening credits for years and the cutoff shirt you wore while playing volleyball and we just won't even dwell on the post-mullet situation), Steve would be the guy you'd want to hang out with.  He was fun.  He wasn't going to get all judgy on you like Brandon, who might spout off the statistics on teen drinking if you chose to have a glass (or two) of celebratory champagne or Hunch Punch.  (Two words, Brandon:  Emily. Valentine.) 

He also wasn't moody, if you look past the episode where he told the rest of the crew that he was adopted.  Take that, Dylan McKay.  Steve wouldn't disappear for days because the surf was up or go on a bender because he was pissed at his dad. 

Other than a pre-series romance that happened with Kelly (while she was still trampy, vapid Kelly and not Saint Kelly) and Valerie Malone, which I will overlook, Steve actually dated outside the little circle of Hill-sters.  Amazing, right?  He also had friends, albeit frat house keg-loving boneheads for the most part but he branched out.

He was not just fun but funny and not at the expense of his intelligence (looking at you, Donna Martin.)  Speaking of Donna, and not to digress too far from Steve, I loved Tori Spelling's comedy and thought she did it very well but at times the dialogue she had to repeat made her seem like a downgraded Lucille Ball.  On crack.  After a weekend with Dylan McKay off the wagon.

Steve and his 'Vette (notice the I8A4RE custom plate) -
living the dream!

While he did stupid things like stealing the high school key (and getting caught), cheating and plagarizing (and getting caught), I think Steve as a character grew the most through the series.  In 1990, he was a somewhat frivilous rich kid whose biggest worry seemed to be dating and his 'Vette.  By 2000, he had married Janet - - a woman who challenged him - - traded in his 'Vette for a minivan (okay, so I still cry about that) and was a devoted dad to their daughter Maddie. 

In short, Steve was the most real, fully formed and best character on 90210 in my humble opinion.  I would much rather have hung out with him, where we would be certain to ride around town in a classy 'Vette (screw you, Darla Diller for telling Steve you don't do Corvettes! - - I'll go to the dance with you, Steve.) or watch back to back episodes of The Hartley House.  Steve would never judge me for poor choices in partners or having a little too much fun at the party.  Steve is the party.

Ian Ziering today - - hubba hubba!

And let's just be honest.  It helps that Ian Ziering portrayed Steve.  Raaaawwwwrrr.  I flove Ian Ziering.  He's smart (as evidenced on Celebrity Apprentice), he's fit (Chippendales, ya'll!) and he knows that Sharknado is campy goodness and is down with that.

Hit me back.  Are you Team Steve? 

Defining Success

I received an email this morning with an article about how to be the happiest you possible (for me, that might be Robert Downey, Jr. in my home) and one of the points was defining success for yourself (see above with RDJ.)

God, I love this man

It got me to thinking about a Jennifer Aniston interview I read portions of last year.  I'm not a fan of hers nor would I say I dislike her; I guess I'm relatively indifferent but I was offended on her behalf over the assumption that she (and others like her) has failed as a woman because she hasn't given birth to any children. 

As a woman who is child-free partly because of choice and partly because of circumstances, I am disgusted and irate that a woman's level of success can still be determined in this day and age by passing another human being through your vagina.

As I am over forty and divorced for the second time, I don't have nearly as many inquiring minds wanting to know why I'm not married and when I'm going to have kids, thank God.  When I was younger and most particularly after my first divorce I did.  I wanted to answer 1) because I married an emotional fuckwit and 2) it's none of your business what my eggs and I are going to do. 

Jennifer  Aniston says women should get respect
for more than their bodies

Why do people feel others' reproductive systems are their business?  We don't ask people when they are going to pay off their debt or buy a house or how much money they brought home with their last paycheck or the last time they had sex because that's considered rude but apparently asking when the egg and sperm are going to meet up to create morning sickness, stretch marks, labor pains and an eventual need for a college fund is perfectly okay.

Can you imagine if someone was to suggest to George Clooney that he was somehow failing as a man because he hasn't fathered any children?  No, you probably can't because it would never happen.  There are still double standards today and it's ridiculous.

Can't a woman - - or anyone - - define their success without children (or marriage) being part of the equation?   Can't we say that we're happy with who we are and where we are (whether that includes children or not) and that equals success? 

I haven't been successful at everything I have endeavored in but they have been learning experiences.  Not all happy, of course, I do have regrets and have wondered if I struck my head prior to making some of my more ill-advised decisions but I have excelled in other areas and with some things I never knew I could.  And I have survived with my relative sanity and sense of humor intact and haven't given up.

That should be considered success.  Or maybe some form of insanity. 

Let me know what you think.  Do you think women are still judged unfairly?  What do you consider success? 

Welcome Aboard!

Welcome to my blog!  (Anyone over forty recognizes the band above.  Guns 'N Roses, baby!  How could you possibly forget Axl Rose and his combo Jim Morrison-The Snake dance moves?  Classic.)

If you're not my mother and don't owe me a favor, I'm hoping you're here because you too are over forty (looking at the big 5-0 looming in the horizon) and maybe forty isn't quite what you thought.  Maybe you're perfectly happy with forty and think I'm crazy.  Maybe you think I'm funny.  Or maybe you stumbled across the page by accident and will decide to stay.

Why did I decide to do this?  I operate a book review site (Psychotic State Book Reviews) and while my reviews have been spotty as of late, I do enjoy writing them.  However, that's the more serious side of me (as serious as I find I can get) and my true, authentic voice belongs to that special genre of smartassery (yes, I just made up a word.)  As most smartass and sarcastic people, I have an opinion on everything.  Because I love to write and really want to write on a daily (or near daily) basis, I found myself debating over what I could do.  I can't read fast enough to write a review every single day.  I hope to be a published author but sometimes my brain is too taxed after being in the office all day (living the dream, people) to sit down and let loose creatively in the way I would like to.  Sharing my opinions, however . . . now that comes easily and naturally no matter how tired I may be.

Okay, so I guess I can be judgmental and critical.  I'm not a mean person but come on.  We all judge.  So let's judge together.  Not to be cruel, of course.  Unless we are talking about Tom Cruise or a Kardashian.  And rest assured, that will come.

So about me, as briefly as possible.  I have been reading my entire life - - I can't remember a time when I wasn't reading.  I have been writing in some form since I was eight.  I was a teen in the 80s (greatest music ever), completely obsessed with Duran Duran and quite possibly may have set up an Aqua Net executive with retirement based on the mile-high hair I was sporting then.  I dreamt of living in California (check!) and making my living as a writer (ummmmm . . . )  I have been divorced twice (definitely not something I dreamt of) and continue to try and find the humor of marrying two people so ill-suited for me.  I wish my breasts were bigger and my hips were smaller.  I love Jane Austen, hate The Time Traveler's Wife and watch far too much Bravo TV for anyone's good.  My current life's motto is that I'm looking for a dare to be great situation (thank you, Lloyd Dobler - - more on him later.)

If you've read this far and are still interested in what I have to say, I commend you.  I hope you will find this blog funny and, at times, insightful and will enjoy spending time with me.