i just watched the first season of “stranger things”… i KNOW i am about eight years late to this show and now all of those kids are grown up and don’t look the same at all. i never watched it before because it has lots of things i don’t like: it’s dark (literally dark - lots of scenes in the woods so it’s hard for me to see), it’s scary - there are slimy monsters and slimy vines and bloody things, children disappear, it’s confusing, like “lost” which i find frustrating, lots of the houses are dirty and some of the characters are really mean. but there are also things i really LOVE: winona - amazing, the music is epic and so is the styling. i love seeing all the old telephones and lamps that are specific to my childhood. and i am beside myself about eleven - she is so fierce i almost want to shave my head and start wearing a dirty smocked dress with striped tube socks and high tops.

(winona and her yellow telephone)

(eleven on a tear)

it was not easy for me to get through the whole season. i made theo watch the first episode with me and as soon as winona’s son disappeared into the wall i was a wreck. i don’t mind “spoilers” so i told theo he had to let me know if winona was getting her boy back as she was REALLY losing it… not sleeping or eating, just staying up all night with an axe in her lap and chain smoking. he didn’t want to tell me because he says it’s one of the best shows ever made and he couldn’t ruin it, but i threatened not to drive him to camp if he didn’t share at least that much so he finally relented. (she DOES get him out of the wall!) PRAISE JESUS theo had a friend over that evening who was much more generous with her information because i had A LOT of questions: is there more than one monster? can the vines eat you too? is eleven human? is “papa” really her father? is the tree trunk always a portal to the other world or does it move around? are there lots of portals? does eleven ever grow her hair out?

(winona with her axe)

and then i had an epiphany… maybe our whole world has somehow slipped into “the upside down” and that is why we’ve had nearly THREE years of pandemic and wild fires and tsunamis and droughts and flooding and shootings and me too and BLM and home schooling and insurrections and we lost kamala (has ANYONE seen her?) and RBG and betty white (maybe they are all in the wall?) and roe was overturned and ukraine was invaded and we’ve all gained coronas but lost our minds. maybe we just need to get back to the right side up. maybe eleven will come round and make those six justices pee their pants like she did to the bully in the gym and throw the russian tanks out of ukraine like she threw the van full of “bad men” and teach us how to be a good friend (“friends don’t lie”) so all the politicians will have to be honest and kind and reorder things nicely and we’ll all be okay. maybe we all have to be our own version of eleven.